Talk about bad timing!
The Los Angeles Unified School Board voted 6-0 to adopt a policy to shred most internal emails after one year. The iPad scandal came to light only after reporters gained access to two-year-old internal emails.
As Annie Gilbertson of public radio station KPCC wrote:
The decision comes less than three weeks after KPCC published two-year-old internal emails that raised questions about whether Superintendent John Deasy’s meetings and discussions with Apple and textbook publisher Pearson influenced the school district’s historic $500 million technology contract.
Under the new system, L.A. Unified will be able to deny California Public Records Act requests for emails more than one year old, according to school district general counsel David Holmquist. KPCC had obtained the emails through the public records act.
The measure passed 6-0, with new school board member George McKenna abstaining from the vote.
There was something like a public uproar over the decision, and a day later, the LAUSD board voted to reconsider its decision. No emails will be deleted pending a final decision by the Board.
School board member Monica Ratliff called for changes to the school district’s policy for retaining those records.
“I believe the District should preserve any emails of Board members, the Superintendent, senior officers and their respective staffs,” Ratliff said in a written statement Wednesday.
“Often, older emails may have historical importance that cannot always be assessed until later,” she said. “The Board and District must come up with a timeline for email retention that makes sense and clearly serves the public’s interest.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is there no end to the reprehensible conduct of Deasey and the LAUSD? Okay, that was a rhetorical question. What is true that this Supt and his ‘crew on the school board are slime buckets. Can anyone deny that statement. No, of curse, you can’t.
Just to be clear: the Board has not reconsidered. One board member, Monica Ratliff, has said she wants the issue reconsidered at the next meeting. Not to be overly technical, but if this school district has made anything clear, it is that it requires vigilant oversight by the public. So we need to make sure that the issue is reconsidered, and hold our board members accountable for doing the right thing.
Pray tell, how do you – really does ne – intend to hold the board accountable. Please excuse my sarcasm, it is not directed at you, per se, but, rather, at the apparent helplessness of the LA citizenry in the face of such continuing anti democratic and possibly illegal behavior. What a slime bag pair: Cuomo and Deasey.. They are running ragged over the state and the city.
John, you ask a fair question. All we can do is plead with our elected officials to act with integrity and put KIDS before CONTRACTS. The school district has become the laughing stock of the nation and they need to change course. All of this nonsense is a distraction from the real work in our schools.
Karen, I wish that I was not cynical about the LAUSD board; it has proven that corruption can stand “the light of day”. The objective conditions are dire. There is no apparent source of oversight, be it municipal or state, that can be harnessed. Under these conditions the only source of oversight is direct confrontation at every opportunity by community members.
My god, what is th enumerical population of the LAUSD? Has the entire population been put to sleep? I can’t believe that there a cadre of dedicated folks who are willing to confront the board? Are there not local and/or state legislators who have some degree of sympathy or who ally with those who oppose the board? AIs three no person or group in the legal community who are willing to take on the board?) I ask these questions because I remain aghast at the continued state of educational affairs in the LAUSD.
Any struggle will be long and hard; power will not be yield peacefully. I think you know your enemies – yes enemies – and how they operate. The struggle begins when one person resists and says “No”.
John
John…you deserve to be cynical. No, most voters in this district do not get out of their comfort zone and protest these egregious actions of Deasy and the BoE. And no, it is almost impossible to find pro bono lawyers who are willing to donate some time to this.
The group known as Public Counsel, Inc., is comprised of Deasy/Broad supporters (young lawyers looking to move up and into the major law firms) and they were the main actors (working hand in hand with Parent Revolution and United Way) in the Oct. 29, 2013, street theater put on for the benefit of the media, with their carefully orchestrated charade to get the BoE to renew the Deasy contract. Broad has such a wide reach (and only money talks it would seem) that those few of us who you know from our comments here, are always fighting an uphill battle. We have been at this for over two years.
This collusion with the Board members on Oct. 29, when only the bussed in inner city folks with yellow daisies behind their ears were allowed to speak at the BoE meeting in support of renewing the Deasy contract, but not one person was allowed to speak against Deasy, shows the serious corruption of this BoE. I was there. I tried to get a speakers form but was told by the monitor that only the yellow flowered herd would be allowed to speak.
Democracy in this district is not dying. It is DEAD!
It does appear that the ‘deformers’ are in complete control. If you can’t speak meetings, what about demos outside of meetings? Are there no people of ‘means’ who would provide financial support to hire your own attorney? I read the postings, and legal terms are thrown around like frisbees. If any of what is written might be actionable, that is there is adequate evidence to support filing legal action, then someone has to step forward and speak with federal or state officials. Barring taking actual legal action, throwing around meaningless legalism is a waste of time, even if it makes one feel better ( which I would absolutely understand).
The way to hold board members responsible is to either not vote for them again, for any public office and encourage others to do the same or recall them. These are elected positions, the emails that they do in their capacity as board members are public records that should not be destroyed just because they say so. We pay their salary and we dictate to them,not the other way around. It’s clear that some or all of these board members must be replaced. They agree with the way Deasy is running LAUSd or they wouldn’t have given him an extension with increased pay, they would have called for an independent public investigation of the iPad fiasco, they wouldn’t let him deprive teachers of due process.This board of education is Deasy. They should be replaced ASAP before we go bankrupt.
Hopefully Deasy’s days are numbered. On a different note Cami Anderson was on Brian Lehrer’s NPR show espousing her nonsense in response to criticisms/demonstrations against her leadership and “Newark One” plan. Too bad Diane wasn’t on to rebut her endless bloviation.
As much as we may wish for it, Diane can’t be cut into parts to provide responses on all fronts. But, why not assemble an ‘instant response’ team, who would provide, to that extent possible, a response to the lies put out by the deformer crowd?
Like that idea but how to accomplish?
Honestly, I can’t suggest a mechanism. Perhaps., some of the ‘heavy hitters’ on this form could make suggestions then, along with Diane formalize and coordinate the response mechanism. All I know is that we must confront the mainstream media lies, distortions. and one dimensional presentations; they have gone way to far in generating the dominant narrative. The analog is the instant response team in the ‘old’ Clinton White House.
I tried to reach Diane Ravitch but there was no way to contact her hoping to get her to communicate with the Lehrer show while Anderson was on. Even if I could’ve reached her there is no doubt she would have been too busy to respond on a moment’s notice. If it’s possible to find schedules of upcoming education segments that will feature some of those bloviating “reformers” then maybe a plan could be in place to allow an effective response.
All kinds of things grow in the dark. Storage is cheap. Data, including emails, can be easily kept for several years.
In the middle of a $1.3 Billion software contract scandal that was discovered by sifting through old emails, the LA school board signs a $300,000 software contract to DELETE old emails? I guess they felt bad that the old emails seemed to show the fix was in for Apple and Pearson, and decided to share some of the wealth with Microsoft.
LAUSD Job 1: Restoring public confidence. Here is a petition to remind them to get back to work http://bit.ly/1n0PAcQ. Please help us urge them.
Forget this board, they are in it with Deasy. That’s why he’s so confident they won’t take any type of action, and they won’t. WE need to get them out. Voting to destroy public records should be a crime, they are trying to cover their butts also.
Yes, Paula, by voting to destroy evidence, they now have made themselves Deasy’s co-conspirators. If he is found guilty of any misdemeanors or felonies, they are part of the crimes.
As we speak, they are voting to shred the minutes of the meeting where they voted to shred the minutes of the meeting where they voted to shred the … minutes of the meeting where they voted to shred the emails..
Thanks Diane for posting this rapidly.
We keep thinking the LAUSD BoE cannot make even worse decisions, but somehow they dig deep into the Holmquist snakepit and show the community that there is NO floor to their continual descent into the muck.
We shall see what comes next…but thanks to Ratliff for understanding the jeopardy this current insanity put them. They put themselves into the position of seeming to be co-conspirators with Deasy by rushing to shred/erase emails and other documents after only one year. These internal documents should be preserved in perpetuity.
This Board and the community must call for an immediate external independent audit of the entire financial position that Deasy has manipulated the taxpayers into, for it is We, the People, who are his bosses and who fund LAUSD. And there must be a Grand Jury investigation of his vast mismanagement as superintendent.
This community deserves a valid and well respected educator to run LAUSD, and not just one more Broad Academy flack who is trained to be a CEO following a free market business model.
Annie Gilbertson of KPCC deserves many gold stars for her astute reporting.
It remains to be a reasonable question to ask why none of the board members didn’t scream bloody murder when this contract was discussed. Maybe, before the release of the offending emails to the press, this would have passed easily. But, it’s beyond comprehension that the district should be allowed to delete emails after only one year. The bulletin itself was issued in July 2012, just as talks between Deasy, Aquino, Apple and Pearson were heating up. A coincidence???????
Both Ratliff and McKenna did ask operant questions before the vote was taken. But only McKenna had the sense to not worry about being collegial, or bullied by Deasy, and he abstained. Ratliff today is saying the things that should have been said on Tuesday.
This Board is so controlled by Deasy and Broad that it is not an independent representative of the People who elected the members. The members, for whatever opaque reasons, continually let Deasy rule, and they forget their role is to oversee him, not to rubber stamp him.
Carl Peterson who is a candidate for the BoE offers a petition to
FIRE DEASY NOW. Seems like a good suggestion.
Ellen, I think we are directing our anger at the wrong body. Its the board that refuses to do its job. They hired, extended and increased pay to Deasy to take the flack from the public but don’t get it twisted. They like and support everything Deasy is doing. Getting rid of older, veteran teachers, giving away our public schools to charters, indenting the district. Deasy’s corporate sponsors will one day be their’s. The actions Deasy is taking are similar to ones he did in other districts. The BOE brought him here to do the same things to LAUSd. Most of the BOE don’t even hide how in step they are with Deasy. Its not Deasy we need to get, its them.
I completely agree with you Paula. It was a put up job from day one.
The last Board, with some holdovers, colluded with Broad and Villaraigosa to impose Deasy in the position, and this plan was in place long ago. The new Board all went along with the plan. They have rubber stamped every glaringly questionable thing that Deasy has done, from firing teachers, putting them in teacher jail, opening charters, making sweetheart deals, failing to supervise the hugely costly tech mistakes like iPad and MiSiS, and so many others.
The BoE seems to be the core of the corruption. They go along with all the Deasy misadventures and give him the go ahead. It is getting to look like the Mafia at Beaudry. Strong arm bullying, lies, retribution, and how much else that is hidden from the view of the public. The new erased email dealing was not listed on their agenda, all is decided in “closed session”…the open session is always a sham.
When you watch the members during public comment, they could not be more bored and distracted. They do not even try to hide their disdain for most speakers. They read, play with their phones, chat with others. And they turn off the streaming video. This is not what should be happening.
I will have another article about much of it on City Watch Today…and I suggest perhaps it is time to look into impeaching Board members. My article last week garnered over 683,000 hits and endless comments supporting our perspectives…so maybe the public is waking up.
Most of the LAUSD board members are reasonable people who are not beholden to the corporate reform movement. Unfortunately, Deasy was foisted on LAUSD by Eli Broad and former mayor Villaraigosa. We saw how the resistance to Deasy’s fake resignation played out in the media, with bus loads of supporters brought in by various organizations. It’s hard for the board members to operate independently when they are under constant pressure from Deasy and his minions to tow the corporate line or face public humiliation.
However, with the revelations of inside dealing with the Apple/Pearson contract, the board now has a duty to hold Deasy accountable. Sadly, the board has to face the fact that they let Deasy run the dog and pony show and failed miserably to demand answers to how the iPad project was developed and how it was planned and implemented. Sometimes, you just have to be honest and tell the truth. That’s the only way you can hope to win back the public trust. If they were to take that path, they could quickly distance themselves from Deasy and his top officials who continue to deflect responsibility and even, in the case of the MiSiS computer system fiasco, just lie and hope no one is paying attention.
Sounds good but it’s baloney. The fact that they would support destroying public records as soon as their boss got caught from emails obtained through public record requests is very telling. In my opinion, instead of the truth, they opted for concealment. We have to move on to another board, and soon.
I disagree dear colleague that most of the members of this BoE are reasonable, etc.
They not only have free will to vote against him, but they all took an oath to protect and serve as public servants elected by the voters. They surely look like co-conspirators when they vote in favor of things like doing away with evidence as they did Tuesday, and even when they renewed his contract last Oct. 29 in light of their collusion with his reformer/supporters that day. They voted against the LAUSD teachers who gave him a 91% vote of NO CONFIDENCE and against the opinion of the voters. .Please remember Deasy’s phony resignation published in the LA Times, and then 12 hours later, his blackmailing the BoE for more money and power.
If they collude with Broad and Villaraigosa and Deasy and others, then they are as culpable and deceitful as Deasy et al.
The Dallas board members are just as awful.
They are the men and women who have sold our kids out for personal gain.
If there were only some way to punish them.
Dallas ISD board members show us very clearly how Nazi Germany grew and thrived–it was through the willing actions of corrupt, evil people.
One student told adults that Miguel Solis, the TFAer with 2 years of teaching who is now the Board President, told the kids he wanted to be the first Hispanic president.
That’s what we’re up against.
I thought at least a couple of board members had been elected who would not follow Deasy in lockstep. A vote of 6-0 would indicate that they have sold out as well. One begins to wonder what kind of coercion they have faced. Like Bill deBlasio. One has to wonder ….
uh, delete emails? and pay MICROSOFT to do it. are they completely insane?
In my state, emails created on school computers are part of public record. I believe they must be kept for 7 years.
“Shoulda Coulda Wooda”
Shredding emails?
Erasing tape?
Rose Mary Woods
Woulda found that great
Tricky Dick Redux?
That would sux
unless to wit
a Deasy demit.
corruption can’t stand the light of day. So let’s hide what we do from everyone. They are just admitting their own corruption and underhandedness by this action. It’s like a huge red flag, look at us, we want to work in the dark so you can’t see what we are doing behind the scenes cause we don’t play by the rules. Really board, your arrogance is showing. This is a democratic process and whether you like it or not, you are accountable.
IF we follow this chain of thought, why are teacher records from as far back as when they we hired kept and reviewed but the BOE wants to destroy public records of their performance after a year. Looks like disparate treatment to me. If they can use old teacher performance records without them being destroyed, why would we destroy BOE performance records?
Good point, Paula, to bring up with Alex Caputo-Pearl and UTLA.
Here istge petitiom to stop BOE from erasing the emails . It also asks for a more Democratic policy concernng the removal of these documents.,http://www.hemlockontherocks.com/2014/09/petition-stop-lausd-from-erasing.html