The Los Angeles school board removed architect Stuart Magruder from its Bond Oversight Committee. Magruder was outspoken and critical of Superintendent John Deasy’s decision to use money from a 25-year construction bond to buy iPads for every student and staff member of the district for Common Core testing. Voters approved the bond issue for construction and repair of facilities of schools. But Deasy used it to pay nearly $1 billion for the iPads. Magruder was the nominee of the American Istitute of Architects to the committee.
This outrage was reported by Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times.
Blume writes:
“The Los Angeles Board of Education this week acted against a critic of its controversial iPad program by refusing to reappoint him to a key review panel, the latest of several actions that could limit scrutiny of the project.
On Tuesday, a board majority removed Stuart Magruder as a nominee for a second, two-year term on the Bond Oversight Committee, which analyzes and votes on spending from school-construction bonds. The L.A. Unified School District is using more than $1 billion from these bonds to pay for providing a computer to every student, teacher and school administrator.
Board member Tamar Galatzan said she opposed Magruder because he overstepped his role.
He’s an architect and . . . has made many forays into telling the instructional people how to do instruction. I think it’s inappropriate.
– Tamar Galatzan, LAUSD board member
“He’s an architect and … has made many forays into telling the instructional people how to do instruction,” Galatzan said at the Tuesday meeting. “I think it’s inappropriate. I don’t think that’s what his expertise is.”
Galatzan confirmed later that she was referring to some of Magruder’s challenges of the iPad project.
Nearly a year go, the board approved an iPad contract that was expected to expand districtwide. But the fall rollout at 47 schools was plagued by difficulties, such as inadequate wireless Internet and inconsistent policies on who was responsible for the costly devices. Early on, students at three high schools deleted security filters so they could browse the Web freely. Officials also have come under fire for misstating costs and terms of the contract with Apple, which makes the iPad.
In an interview, Magruder, 47, defended his inquiries, saying officials needed to justify the huge expenditure.
“They claim there’s good pedagogical support for having iPads everywhere for all grades but they haven’t been able to provide any support for that,” he said.”
Scott Folsom’s blog—4LAKids—offers another commentary. Folsom is also a member of the Bond Oversight Committee.
4LAKids: Sunday 25•May•2014 Memorial Day Weekend
Folsom writes:
The “receive+file” confirmation of the appointment of a parent volunteer to a District committee gone horribly wrong: The board overreaching/overreacting – the upstart volunteer publicly excoriated for daring to question the superintendent’s policy and the board’s infinite wisdom.
A bit of Machiavellian politics and just plain Schoolyard Bullying from the Boardroom played out by six boardmembers and their superintendent that proves Mark Twain’s edict: “First God created idiots; that was for practice. Then He created school boards.”
How dare he? He’s only an architect …he’s only a parent!
It’s a pattern played out before. Picking+choosing the ‘right’ volunteers to serve on advisory committees – compliant folk who take-rather-than-provide-advice, dispensing with the troublemakers+questioners – sometimes ignoring and/or dissolving the committees themselves. Does the Title I District Advisory Committee ring a bell? The Parent Collaborative? The late lamented Focus on Student Achievement Council? It’s going on now with the Local Control Funding Formula Parent Advisory Committee. “Thank you for your service, your three minutes of parent engagement are up.”
HENRY II: “What sluggards, what cowards have I brought up in my court, who care nothing for their allegiance to their lord? Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
Henry created a martyr; his attempt at reform was crushed – his place in history is stained with Becket’s blood.
THE BOARD MEETING STARTED AT 9AM. I was in Sacramento minding everybody else’s business at a PTA legislative confab. By 9:20 my phone was vibrating, the tweets were tweeting and text messages and emails abounded.
In quick succession:
1. After being moved by Ms. Garcia and seconded by Mr. Zimmer the board votes to reconfirm two Bond Oversight Committee members, as recommended by the superintendent. And moves to the next item, which is public comment. (The students who eventually get to address the board on hydration stations do a great job!)
2. Wait a minute! …what just happened? Ms. Galatzan changes her mind and changes her vote on the previous item – blaming the agenda paperwork – and proceeds to attack one of the BOC members she just voted to confirm – the architect – although she doesn’t know/remember his name.
3. Ms. Garcia agrees with Ms. Galatzan …she too was confused by the agenda, even though she moved the item:
_________
RESOLUTIONS REQUESTED BY THE SUPERINTENDENT
Item #7. Reappointment of Members to the School Construction Bond Oversight Committee (Sup Res4)
(Postponed from May 13, 2014 Board Meeting)
Resolved, That the Governing Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District ratifies the reappointment of Mr. Stuart Magruder, representing the American Institute of Architects, and Mr. Barry Waite, representing the California Tax Reform Association, as Members to the School Construction Bond Oversight Committee for two-year terms commencing on May 8, 2014. The Board determines that Mr. Magruder and Mr. Waite are not employees, officials, vendors, contractors, or consultants of the District
_
_______
(cont.)
4. Dr. Deasy helps Ms. Galatzan in identifying the name of the meddlesome architect: Stuart Magruder. Galatzan continues to complain about Magruder, alleging that he will only vote for projects that have “architectural services” attached to them – and further he questions issues of educational content upon which he is unqualified to opine. “We can find other people in our vast community who will be more open minded.”
5. Board president Vladovic leaves the chair and Mr. Zimmer takes over.
6. Mr. Zimmer attempts to clarify what is becoming a murky quagmire. Secretary Crain establishes that it is now a divided vote and the motion on the floor is to approve the second appointee, Barry Waite, only.
7. Mr. Kayser asks for more detail on the process of nomination and appointment.
8. Dr. Deasy begins to distance himself from the action – his recommendation was not an endorsement of the candidates.
9. Mr. Zimmer states that it is his belief that proposed the board action is a ratification of another agency’s appointment, not an approval.
10. Dr. Deasy is unsure of who the appointing authority is, echoing Ms. Galatzan’s language of “Architectural Services”.
11. Dr. V returns to chair and says he doesn’t know what the issue is – but thanks Ms. Galatzan for ‘doing her homework’ – admits he hasn’t done his – sides with Galatzan and Garcia …and enthusiastically endorses Mr. Waite.
12. The vote is taken: Galatzan, Garcia, Vladovic and Kayser vote Yes. Mr. Zimmer votes No – apparently in opposition to the divide+conquer. Ms Ratliff abstains – presumabaly reacting to the confusion. Mr. Waite is confirmed.
13. Mr. Crain says that Bond Oversight staff might be available at the end of the closed session to revisit the Magruder nomination. When the board returns from closed session BOC staff, their attorney and Stuart Magruder are present. They are not allowed to be heard.
14. A vote up or down on Mr. Magruder is never taken, his reappointment quashed – his term on the BOC ended.
• One can say that Ms. Galatzan and Dr. Deasy won on Tuesday. The most vocal critic of the ill-conceived Common Core Technology Project/iPad program has been effectively removed from the Oversight Committee. (Until this mischief played out I probably would have used the adjective “poorly-conceived” in the previous sentence; I now find myself inclined towards the metaphorical “bastard-stepchild”.
• One can also say that the concept of Independent Oversight lost on Tuesday. One can certainly say that the voters and taxpayers lost.
• Dr. Deasy told the press he is not taking sides.
The Bond Oversight Committee and the L.A. chapter of the American Institute of Architects are not going to accept this turn of events lying down; the Board of Ed has exceeded its authority under the law. This will not stand. The AIA/LA wrote in re-nominating Magruder: “When the passage of Proposition 39 in 2000 led to the provision of the Education Code that required that the Board of Education appoint all BOC members, we and the other stakeholders agreed to the Memorandum of Understanding between the District and the BOC that, while the formal appointment would be done by the Board as a receive and file, the Board would faithfully appoint the nominee of each stakeholder group. We trust that the Board of Education intends to execute its duties in a transparent and equitable manner.”
The vocabulary of conflict is unfortunately in play. Lines in the sand have been drawn. A battle between the Board of Education and the superintendent and the Bond Oversight Committee has been joined; unless cooler heads prevail this could escalate to war. If fought it will be over the future of the LAUSD building and modernization program and over the $7+ billion in school bonds remaining unspent. It will not be pretty.
IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a member of the Bond Oversight Committee.
I am the longest serving and most senior member. I have been an appointee of Los Angeles Tenth District PTA on-and-off – serving for over a dozen years. I was there when the Memorandum of Understanding – the operative agreement establishing the BOC and governing the relationship between the BOC, the District and the Board of Education – was negotiated with LAUSD and the Board of Education. The MOU clearly states that the appointing authority is the appointing authority – and that the Board of Education shall accept the appointment if the appointee is qualified – and those qualifications are that the appointee is not an employee, official, contractor, vendor or consultant of the District.
The vote of the Board is to confirm the qualifications, not approve the appointment.
“3.1.8. The Board shall appoint one member nominated by the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles Chapter.”
Much is ambiguous in contract law and in legal definition. But the meaning of “shall” is unchanged since Exodus. ‘Shall’ means you have to do it!
The independent appointing authorities are: The Mayor of Los Angeles, The City Controller, The County Auditor, PTA, a senior citizens group (AARP), a representative of a charter school group, a taxpayers organization, the Early Childhood Ed Coalition, the Chamber of Commerce, a representative from the general contractors, a representative from the building trade unions and a representative from the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Additionally the Board of Education gets to select and appoint two parents of LAUSD students. Some of these appointing authorities – like PTA and the taxpayers group – are stipulated in the State Law that governs school bonds. Others were established by the Board of Ed when they passed the first BB Bond and created the first Bond Oversight Committee in 1997. The make-up of the committee has changed slightly over the years by mutual consent of the board and the committee.
The issue is that of Independent Oversight – and independence cannot/will not be maintained if the Board can approve or disapprove its overseers.
Independent Oversight was and continues to be the promise made to the voters and taxpayers and all the stakeholders from community members, teachers, district employees, parents and past, present and future students of the District – when we passed all the school facilities bonds from BB to K, R, Y and Q.
Ms. Galatzan says Stuart goes too far in opining on instructional issues – and in other times and circumstances I might agree. But in the Deasy administration bond funds are being used to purchase instructional materials and therefore Stuart’s and the Bond Oversight Committee’s opinions are entirely relevant.
I do not agree with Stuart Magruder on some issues; I don’t have to. He is the appointee of the AIA/LA and as long as he has their faith and confidence he is their representative.
THERE IS A LAY PREACHER WHO REGULARLY MAKES PUBLIC COMMENT AT BOC AND BOARD MEETINGS and preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ as he believes it – he forecasts everlasting damnation if we don’t change our ways. If he’s right, we’re toast. I’ve spoken with him, he’s a nice guy and he is genuinely concerned about my soul and Tamar’s and Dr Deasy’s and Stuart’s and all of us. We may not be listening and we may not be saved – but the National Cemeteries are filled – and battlefields around the globe are stained with the blood of those who gave their lives and/or sacrificed their youth so that he could say those things and the rest of us could ignore him.
“IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE CRITICISM, FIRE THE CRITIC!”
►SCHOOL BOARD BLOCKS APPOINTEE CRITICAL OF iPADS
Posted on LA School Report by Vanessa Romo | http://bit.ly/1sU4iVd
May 20, 2014 4:00 pm :: What is normally a routine, no-questions-asked formality for the LA Unified School Board hit a snag today.
Board Member Tamar Galatzan opposed the reappointment of Stuart Magruder, an outspoken critic of the use of bond money for iPads, from the School Construction Bond Oversight Committee (BOC).
The board effectively blocked Magruder’s reappointment by removing him from a resolution. That will leave the 15 member BOC, an independent body formed to oversee bond money used to build and repair schools, with an empty seat.
“It’s not unprecedented but this doesn’t usually happen,” Jefferson Crain, LA Unified Board Secretariat, said of the board’s move.
[●● smf: It IS unprecedented!]
An architect, Magruder has served one term as an appointee nominated by the American Institute of Architects Association. Throughout his tenure, he has strongly opposed the use of bond funds for buying instructional materials including the district’s controversial and expensive iPad program.
Speaking out against Magruder, Galatzan said, “I just don’t think he’s the right person for that role. I think he’s overstepped his bounds…I think he’s overstepped his expertise on the Bond Oversight Committee.”
She told the board, who had just minutes earlier approved the reappointment, that Magruder often used his time during BOC meetings to expound on curriculum and instruction matters, and she urged her colleagues to rescind their support.
“I’m not going to be supporting him and I think we can find other people in our vast community who are a little more open-minded,” Galatzan said.
At a BOC meeting in March Magruder said, “We are spending roughly a $100 million on software for the iPads, which I guess is supposed to be a text book, which is actually not really being used very much as far as I can tell with my daughter’s experience at Palms Middle School.”
“That to me is really problematic,” he continued. “We’re throwing away $100 million on something that is not being used and is certainly not something we’re supposed to be paying for with construction bond funds.” (see video here)
Magruder’s term expired on May 8. However, a lawyer for the group suggested they are seeking alternatives for resubmitting Magruder for consideration.
In a 4-1 vote, the board agreed to reappoint Barry Waite, of the California Tax Reform Association to the BOC. Board member Monica Ratliff abstained while Board member Steve Zimmer was the only dissenting vote.
The board did not take any other actions during the board meeting.
_____________
►OUSTED OPPONENT OF LA SCHOOLS iPAD FIGHTS TO REGAIN SEAT ON OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
By Annie Gilbertson | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC HTTP://BIT.LY/1JBGMXU
May 21st, 2014, 5:38pm :: The architect tossed off a Los Angeles Unified School District oversight committee Tuesday is fighting to be reinstated.
The school board voted to remove Stuart Magruder, an outspoken critic of the district’s iPad program, from a list of renewal appointments on the committee that oversees how bond funds are spent. Those voter-approved bonds have been the principal funding source for Superintendent John Deasy’s $1 billion one-to-one tablet initiative.
School officials have said bond funds can be spent on technology upgrades.
But Magruder said voters clearly meant for the $19 billion loans to be used to maintain and build schools, not to buy “the modern equivalent of pencils and paper.” He said his ouster was political retribution.
“It drastically calls into question the independence of the committee,” he said in an interview.
On Wednesday, the American Institute of Architects asked the school board — nicely — to reconsider his reappointment, given that the committee’s founding documents give the institute to a guaranteed seat on the committee.
“According to the charter memorandum of understanding, the school board shall appointment one member nominated by the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles chapter and our nominee is Stuart Magruder,” said Nicci Solomons, the Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles chapter.
The lawyer for the Bond Oversight Committee said the school board has violated the contract. The Memorandum of understanding states the school board “shall” appointment the the institute’s nominee after confirming the person has no conflicts of interest.
L.A. Unified officials said Margruder does not benefit financially from school building projects.
At a mostly closed school board meeting Tuesday, member Tamar Galatzan moved to have Magruder name removed from the reappointment list, voicing concerns about his employment as an architect. Board member Steve Zimmer was the only dissenting vote, and Monica Ratliff abstained.
“I believe Stuart Magruder has overstepped his role as the American Institute of Architects representative to the BOC, and I cannot vote for his reappointment,” Galatzan said in a written statement emailed to KPCC Wednesday.
Zimmer did not return calls for comment.
In addition to his criticism of the iPad program, Magruder has called into question Galatzan’s discretionary use bond funds.
He raised issue with her request for $290,000 for computers at specific schools in her district. Since 2011, school board members have spent about $4.5 million of discretionary bond funds on computers not related to the iPad program. Tw0-thirds of that money went to Galatzan’s district, which represents the middle- and upper-class West San Fernando Valley.
Magruder argued the money would be better spent on building repairs, which officials estimate will cost $13 billion over the next fifteen years, much more than the remaining bond funds.
Magruder’s position won him some fans, including teachers who formed a Facebook group called “Repairs, not iPads.” They have protested the district’s spending choices when schools still have to deal with broken toilets and leaky facets.
Matthew Kogan, the L.A. Unified teacher who heads the group, called Magruder’s removal an exercise of “unchecked powers.”
“I think it shows a disregard for our democratic institutions,” Kogan said.
The group has taken to twitter to protest, posting a video documenting Magruder’s critique of the iPad program made earlier this year.
_____________
“WE TRUST THAT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION INTENDS TO EXECUTE ITS DUTIES IN A TRANSPARENT AND EQUITABLE MANNER” Letter of reappointment of Stuart Magruder
Opinion: L.A. UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT DOESN’T NEED MORE IPAD YES MEN
• THE L.A. SCHOOL BOARD SHOULD BE GRATEFUL FOR THE PEOPLE WHO ASK TOUGH QUESTIONS
• DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO USE LONG-TERM BONDS TO BUY EQUIPMENT THAT LASTS A FEW YEARS?
By Karin Klein, L.A. Times Editorialist in Opinion LA | http://lat.ms/1kAvp79
May 23, 2014, 1:02 PM :: The Los Angeles Unified School District needs more independent-minded people who question its initiatives, not fewer. The school board made a mistake with its refusal to reappoint a member of the Bond Oversight Committee who had opposed the use of bond funds to pay for iPads for every student.
There should be more people raising concerns about this sort of bond expenditure, though other school districts in the state have gotten away with doing the same thing. It’s completely justifiable to use bond money to upgrade schools for wi-fi capacity, which is where $500 million of the money would go. But there should be serious doubts in the public’s mind about using bonds to purchase computing devices that last a few years. Voters agreed to tax themselves on the understanding that the billions of dollars were to be used to build and repair schools, or make other capital expenditures that would last for at least a couple of decades, which is how long it takes to pay off the bonds.
Of course, as we all know now, the iPad program was so rushed, with too few of the important questions asked or answered, that it immediately ran into trouble. Some of those early problems have been fixed, or at least addressed. Among them was the higher-than-average price, and the district’s use of bond money to buy curriculum with its iPads, curriculum that hadn’t even been fully written when it was purchased. Bond funding is not supposed to be used for curriculum purchase. The price of the devices has since been reduced, with the curriculum no longer part of the package deal.
And the iPad purchase has been slowed, with a smaller buy-in at the start and a more purposeful build-up. That might involve a mix of devices instead of the original approach of an iPad for every student and teacher. High school students did not find the tablets as useful as laptops, for example.
These were the kinds of questions that Stuart Magruder, an architect on the Bond Oversight Committee, was raising when too many others were just going along. The board should have been glad to have a member of the committee doing exactly what the panel is supposed to do: carefully vet the use of bond money to ensure that it is properly and prudently spent.
Instead, the board refused a second term for Magruder, the first time it has refused to confirm a candidate from one of the outside groups that have been designated to nominate an oversight member. Magruder was the choice of the American Institute of Architects. In fact, it’s not entirely certain that the board was within its rights on the vote; some experts argue that the district signed a legally binding agreement to ratify these outside nominees. The district’s legal people say no.
But even if it wasn’t a legal mistake, it was a tactical one. Tamar Galatzan, who initiated the move to reject Magruder, has been the iPad program’s most enthusiastic supporter and has never asked the important questions about this planned expenditure of more than $1 billion. She and other board members should be glad that someone is asking. That’s not to say Magruder is always right, or that he has framed his concerns in the most politic ways. The important point is that the district doesn’t need more yes men. It should be grateful for the people who raise doubts; only by allaying those doubts with satisfying answers will it know that it’s on the right path.
Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen’s Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 “WHO” Gold Award for his support of education and public schools – an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
On the LAUSD logo it proclaims Board of Education
http://www.examiner.com/article/on-the-lausd-logo-it-proclaims-board-of-education?cid=db_articles
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Ms. Galatzan is a part time board member. She has a full time job as a Los Angeles neighborhood prosecutor. As such, she should have known just how far she could go in her public drubbing on Mr. Magruder. Whether or not her words can be considered libelous or not, she most certainly crossed the line of ethical behavior, setting a horrible example for the students of LAUSD.
She has always been against the creation of any Ad Hoc or regular committee that would put a crimp on her time. She was assigned last summer to join newly elected Monica Ratliff on the CCTP(Common Core Technology Project) Ad Hoc committee but refused to attend even one, instead sending an aide.
I find it amazing that she somehow had the time to research Mr. Magruder’s voting record, although she offered NO evidence and quoted NO numbers. Even the minutes of the Bond Oversight Committee only refer to totals, not how each individual member voted.
The whole concept of the BOC is to include a wide range of individuals with a wide range of expertise. Mr. Magruder only represents one vote. Our political system is based on checks and balances, to hopefully avoid biased decisions. Apparently, Ms. Galatzan is not in favor of that concept and wants more of the BOC members to reflect her and Deasy’s agenda.
In the court of public opinion in Los Angeles, the iPad project is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars. Our schools are in horrible disrepair and LAUSD has drastically cut the budget for Maintenance and Operations. As a result, minor repairs are ignored and eventually turn into major ones that require bond funding. LAUSD is heading for a fiscal cliff if these issues are not addressed. All the while, Deasy, Garcia and Galatzan are singing the praises of iPads for all, while refusing to address how this will affect the future financial viability of the district.
Years ago, just after being elected to the LAUSD Board of Ed, she decided to use her new found notoriety to run for city council. She lost. I think Ms. Galatzan can say goodbye to any future “foray” into the political arena. Why? She was put into office by former mayor, Villaraigosa, and continued to side with his and Deasy’s education agenda. But, she failed to take notice that the public went against that agenda when they re-elected Steve Zimmer and voted in Monica Ratliff a year ago. She may take notice now, but the train has already left the station.
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The blocking of the re-appointment of Stuart Magruder—the one person on the LAUSD Bond Committee opposing the use of voter-passed construction bond (building & builidng repair) money for I-pads and accompanying software that deliver Common Core testing and nothing else—was engineered by this corporate-funded, and Pearson-funded LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan.
(If not the only person on the Bond Committee who objects to the use of bond money going to pay for I-pads / software, Magruder is the one Bond Committee Member who’s most vocal opposed to Common Core… so vocal, in fact, that his being vocal just got him canned.):
http://laschoolreport.com/school-board-blocks-appointee-critical-of-ipads-lausd/
Magruder is also a parent of a LAUSD public school student, and is underwhelmed, to say the least, by what the insanely expensive ($ 1 billion TOTAL ???!!!) I-pads are actually delivering… apart from the idea that money raised by a voter bond to build new schools /repair repair existing schools was misused to pay for I-pads and software.
Note that the Pearson-funded Galatzan’s rationale for blocking and silencing Magruder is that he’s not “open-minded” about I-pads / software being purchased with bond money, and that the LAUSD Board needs to get someone else to serve on the committee who’s more “open-minded.” The fact is that, in silencing him, the Pearson-funded Galatzan is carrying out the marching orders of her “corporate reform” masters.
“Open-minded” is the Pearson-funded Galatzan’s euphemism for someone who just shuts the-Hell up and doesn’t make waves, or who does not dare attempt to block the corporate agenda pushed by the Pearson-funded Galatzan and her masters. The Pearson-funded Galatzan did this to shut up anyone else on the Committee who dared object the way Magruder
BELOW is the testimony that cost Magruder his job / position on the Bond Oversight Committee: :
(after he’s done, stick with this video to hear LAUSD teacher Julie Carson speak after Magruder about the same issue)
There’s a great comment, critical of Galatzan, in the article about Pearson-backed Board Member Galatzan’s canning of Stuart Magruder.
http://laschoolreport.com/school-board-blocks-appointee-critical-of-ipads-lausd/
It’s written by one Rene Diedrich:
RENE DIETRICH:
“It is frightening to me that (Galatzan)’s bullying is permitted to derail Socratic discourse. The fact that Ms. Galatzan is a prosecutor unwilling to hear other opinions is one thing but to be a member of the BOE is by definition a Democratic concession to the people . Mr. Magruder is one of ‘them’ as a citizen, a politically active father and a righteous member of that committee.
“Why shouldn’t someone be allowed to criticize the iPad roll out? That is the freaking point. Looking at things from many angles is what makes ‘community’ and collaboration viable. Moreover, a lot what Magruder says is accurate.
“Btw, It is encouraging to see this reported so clearly and objectively, thanks.”
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Between my respected colleagues, Educator, Julie Tran, Rene, and redqueen, and Zorro, plus a few others caught up in the LAUSD multiple frauds and firings, there is little to add.
Yes, Galatzan was the instigator of the sexual allegations investigation last October into Vladovic’s behaviors, to deflect the attention of the Board and the public as to the renewal of Deasy’s contract. She got away with it and Vlad folded…so now she and Garcia mirror Deasy and feel they can get away with anything. And sadly, Kayser whom we all once respected, goes along with it.
And this highly suspect BoE permitted/encouraged the additional fraud of the orchestrated street theater on Oct. 29, the day they already had decided that Deasy would stay around for three more years, with a greater salary and added perks… but at the Board meeting they let only inner city ‘actors’ bussed in by United Way and Parent Revolution using the billionaires money, to testify as to how “wonderful Deasy is”…but no one was permitted to speak against his contract renewal.
He obviously had them under his control long before the vote. Old history, but not to be forgotten. Broad pays too many salaries…now he is about to pay for the new Arts leader whom he imported and who is a charter supporter.
But here is more that we have seen since that day of infamy in October, that reeks of ‘under the rug behavior’ (only the tip of this iceberg whereby this school district operates with NO transparency) :
1. Miramonte panel quietly disbanded…says LA Times on May 7.
2. The Finance Committee oversight group headed by Monica Ratliff was shut down quietly by Vlad just as they were ferretting out the potential collusions, frauds, or sheer mismanagement at LAUSD.
3. The Vergara trial, clearly the billionaires attack on teacher’s unions, came along and was advertised by Deasy and his puppet masters as a civil rights trial. How will it end? No jury there…only the judge will decide.
4. The NY Times finally writes about LAUSD Teacher Jail…and lo and behold, now that the world stage knows about this attack on teachers, innocent or gulity, suddenly LAUSD is all heart and announces in the last few days that teachers can be jailed at home.
5. Karin Klein of the LA Times writes about her child’s horror of test taking, and some here think she is now on the side of educators. Then on May 26 she writes of the need to overhaul No Child Left Behind….but she ends her editorial telling the US government to get out of the business of micromanaging schools, so maybe she is seeing a crack of light.
6. Latest true atrocity is the Bond Oversight Committee. Where were they when the last BoE allowed Deasy to use taxpayer bond funding for school repairs to make the Billion Dollar iPad purchase for which he should have been run out of town on a rail…maybe tarred and feathered, instead of given three more years to decimate LAUSD? Why didn’t English and Rice go to the media and shout out about this defrauding the public by buying quickly obscelete iPads at over retail cost, using bond money which will carry the interest for decades…long after these iPads hit the trash bins?
Don’t forget that Villaraigosa and his cousin Perez, who is now running for State Controller, loved this deal, and the rapid expansion of charters…remember this on Tuesday when you vote. Great woman running against Perez deserves our votes.
7. And now, at Deasy’s command (surely mandated by his boss Eli Broad) this impotent group of Board members fires the only Bond group member who asks the tough questions. Where are English and Rice? Why are they not making front page news about this violation of public trust?
8. And where is the mayor’s girl, Melendez (she of the major salary manipulation scam who no one followed up on)? I read a snippet that she is now full time at LAUSD. How much of this new, probably illegal, firing of a Bond board member, is she behind? Where is the mayor in all of this egregious behavior, done with no transparency?
It all stinks to high heaven.
Some of you ask why the public is not up in arms? I ask if it is just too hard to fight all these battles with neither a vocal public, nor a vocal teacher and parent group. The only voices seen and heard at BoA meetings are generally the small imported claque that Deasy allows to speak…yes, Deasy, not Vlad, seems to run this elected Board of Education.
Democracy in LA is dead.
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Lord Acton:” Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Is there no citizen recourse?
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Recall.
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Ok. There is actionable recourse. Where are the activists? the teachers union? progressive groups? politicians who do not toe the line? This is one damn sad phenomenon of passivity. The victims are being herded into the stockyards and there is no hue and outcry. This dictator and his gang – ‘Deasy and his craven board – are running roughshod over kids, families and their schools, His actions border on the illegal, and are certainly unconscionable and should evoke a storm outrage..
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I was just looking at Carl Peterson’s website — he lists it above.
What we are saying here reverberates in an echo chamber and does not get out and beyond. We need for folks to hear. I know a half dozen parents who have been posting this to their parent email loops. Please help to get the petition out there, beyond — with all due respect — this website, Dr. Ravitch.
I agree with you that this flagrant endrun around democracy is concerning. It should concern one and all, parents and non-parents alike. If you pay — or have an interest in paid — taxes, this issue is for you.
Someone call Howard Jarvis (shudder).
And note that Galatzan is not the only one coming up for reelection. Vladovic is too. Garcia? I don’t know … I think it says on the website — she’s termed out, right?. The LAUSD board is not working for we the people, they our children. They are our construct and we can reconfigure it.
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Some of the activists are right here. But we don’t have access to the high tone legal firms and PR firms that are running the show for the billionaires involved, starting with Eli Broad. We do not have access to mainstream media which is owned by Murdoch and others of his ilk.
So we are limited to generally preaching to the choir on this and other blog sites and KPFK which only is only listened to by other liberals who listen, but do not act. We cannot seem to drum up a real parade of those who complain loudly to each other, but tend not to show up at real events where protest should be vocal, loud, determined, and visible.
Only a handful of us are in this all the way. You are reading their comments on this page. It is why the bad guys are winning.
If there were even 100 people at the next BoE meeting carrying signs to fire the whole Board and Deasy, it might get the attention of the media…or not. In this community it seems only big money is listened to. Our legislators kiss the rumps of the billionaires so they get campaign funding, and the liberal film community is in that mix, and most all of these movers and shakers want charter schools, and parrot the lies of the privatizers that ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE FAILURES.
It is very discouraging. Yes, indeed, the corruption is absolute.
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Board member Tamar Galatzan, the non-educator lawyer, should heed her own comments about who is qualified to give instructionl advice.
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She’s an embarrassment and so is Garcia.
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At Redqueen
VLAD HAS TO GO. He is useless and has no integrity. Garcia was just in an election not too long ago. How she prevailed is anyone’s guess because on Feb 14 2012 I stood in a sea of latinos who were demanding her resignation . Dr. Skeels led an impressive recall movement as well, but even when she forbid middle school students from graduation because they opposed cuts in the budgt and protested, she somehow was supported by big money and enough votes to darken our doorstep again. Galatzan is an embarassment to the district she hails from and I see her beng usurped by Petersen or another contender. Even she must realize she has worn out her welcome. In the last year, Garcia has faded into the bakground, no easy task for this gesticulating, often vociferous woman. It may be because of the dustup in the her oast election and that new job she has. Why is Ratliff so ambivilant about everything ? She and Zimmer seem to lack confidence in their instincts , which are good, but then they over think things . Or listen to the wrong people. All i know is they are building clinics in some schools when few schools have a nurse on staff. They built housing for teachers that teachers will be unqualified for and unlikely to want , but they have two more in the works and they are moving forward YET they only wabt to guve upna 2% rause to teachers , they have purged a huge percentage of veteran teachers with some illegal antics that should lead some some BOE and iPad Johnny straight to prison in his orange ensemble. At least HE will get due process. LAUSD has Taj Mahal schools near Hq but the schools in Watts, South Central Athens,mWilmington etc are in crumbling states with asbestos, lead pipes, unsafe structures and vermin that will not be attended to because the bond money is going to fund ipads and Persaon …..thisbis what what counts to these reformers. It is not students, education or even the future of LAuSd. They want to profit from the education industrial complex.
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Given the perverted state of affairs in LAUSD (see ‘educators’s post, above), is it not reasonable to expect that at least one citizen’s’ group is sufficiently outraged and has the courage to take on Deasy and his gang? Is this a community of ‘good’
Germans? When is enough, enough?
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Sadly, there is not one citizen’s group that I know of that is willing to put in the time, effort, pro bono work, and cash, to do anything about this.
My small group of academic volunteers living on small pensions, Joining Forces for Education, is struggling with educating the community about all the forces at work to privatize all public education. Our retired teachers are ridiculed and called conspiracy theorists when we give facts about the Gulen Movement, and the danger of so many others who are milking American taxpayers for profit, while inculcating students with false information, from Sharia law to Hip Hop to Creationism to Entrepreneurship, all from kindergarten through high school. And most for profit.
We have been shouting about this for years, to little avail. The ACLU is focused mainly on gay rights as are many of our good local sources, but they are not seeing the dangers of losing public education for all time. Who is willing to join in and lobby them for public schools? In California, it is all about money…and the seemingly well intended follow the green.
Those who even listen to us point to the good charters, all city run, such as Pali HS. But they avert their glances from all the rest. Human nature, it seems, is no damn good.
You can see that the rest of the country has not even waded in here today on this topic as they do when the subject has something to do with eg. Chicago teachers, Karen Lewis, TFA. and Rahm Emanuel. And these are generally really good insightful people. We in LA desperately need all the help we can get as Bloomberg, Gates, Waltons, Murdoch, Broad pour in huge money to influence our school board elections. We are the most fertile field for the privatizers as the second largest school district in the nation, and with more charters than any other city/state.
So your analogy about “good Germans” might be very apt. When you look at the recent French election with the win of Le Pen, the NazI sympathizer, and all the reactionary elections in Europe, and now with so many Tea Party legislators here, maybe we have past the point of no return and we are in a truly fascist state….due to a lazy, greedy, uniformed citizenry.
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You -we – have no other option than to look at the objective situation clearly coldly and ‘call it’ for what it is: LAUSD is in a state of fascist control, with, seemingly, little resistance in the offing.. The job of what remains of a progressive core is to continue to actually confront Deasy at every public meeting. He must begin to get a message that he can’t blithely continue to show his face in public without confronting a loud and if necessary, ill-mannered opposition. The LAUSD community is oppressed by its educational ‘leaders’. Kids are being hurt and public schools are being destroyed. ‘You’ can’t run away from this depressing reality. So, the first question is what will YOU do and what are the first steps necessary to begin to outreach to other like-minded people and groups. Doing nothing is tantamount to tacit acceptance of the status quo. Times like these, I wish I lived on the ‘Left Coast’.
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I would go even further than Folsom. I’d like to see the Bond Oversight Committee removed from the purview of LAUSD Board, and no longer advisory only. If the BoC and District disagree,there should be an independent appeal panel (maybe in State Treasury, Comptroller) not linked to LAUSD or LA City politics.
A lot of taxpayer money is on the line. And the future of the 2nd largest public school district is at risk.
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Interestingly enough……the LAUSD Bond Oversight Committee website accessible on the district website, has been down since at least Saturday. All other links are operating as usual. Is this a coincidence or does Deasy NOT want anyone to visit the site and read minutes of the BOC meetings? The minutes are very detailed and show that BOC members are in major agreement that the iPad project was poorly crafted and has been shown to have major flaws. Mr. Magruder may have been the first to warn the others and bring attention to potential problems, but, if anything, he has been vindicated over and over. Issues brought up at the CCTP meetings and by the press have confirmed his and now the public’s worst fears.
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This happens too often to be coincidence. The BoE streaming video disappears whenever something controversial happens. Happened on Oct. 29, and a weeks back with the confrontation between a parent/speaker and Crain, when she said he pushed her down and would not let her speak…but we never heard a word of what happened thereafter….and now, again, we cannot see nor hear the actual controversy over Magruder’s shocking firing.
I do wish all readers would bombard the LA Times with letters demanding some transparency by this publicly elected BoE. Broad and his buddies keep showing the world that ‘might (and money) makes right’.
Bloggers here from other states can help us by writing the NY Times, Washington Post, etc. and letting all of America know how you feel about what is happening in Los Angeles.
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I said it before and I’ll say it now, this superintendent and his board needs to go. They do not believe in collaborAtion and bully anyone who disagrees with them. Their way is the only way and they will punish anyone who sees it differently, ask the 300 plus teachers In teacher jail in Lausd.
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Unfortunately for Los Angeles, the front-running, big-money candidates for the open District 1 Board seat are full-on privatizers, showing every sign that they would rubber-stamp corporate charters and Deasy. The election is June 3rd.
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SIGN THIS PETITION TO GENERATE PUBLIC SUPPORT to bolster negotiations undergirding Magruder’s BoE ratification:
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https://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/reappoint-lausd-bond-oversight-committee-citizen-member-stewart-magruder-as-a-watchdog
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Simply as a precedent that trashes independent oversight this is all unacceptable …. but of course there is much, much more. Please read Folsom’s smart observations and Blume’s excellent pulling together of lots and disparate information. This is a very dangerous situation politically and it needs an upwelling of public outcry. Please help us to get this petition to take off. It will be very important.
More to come…. and PLEASE urge everyone you know to sign this …. PLEASE!!! 🙂
TIA
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I don’t know which is more revolting, that board member Galatzan offered no tangible, hard evidence in support of her allegations about Magruder or that her colleagues failed to press her to offer that evidence.
Board president Vladovic’s deference to Galatzan would be amusing if it weren’t so pathetic. It’s as if he were a juror in a libel suit and said, well, my fellow juror on the left did her homework on this matter and thinks the defendant is guilty, so I’m going to vote guilty too.
Have we reached that point where a not insignificant number of our elected officials not only place their own interests before those of the public which they are sworn to represent but are also just simply mediocre and incompetent? Is this dysfunctional group anywhere near the best LA school board possible?
If I had taught my high school English classes with their lack of preparation, scholarship and integrity, how long do you think any good administrator would’ve put up with me? How long before my students saw straight through me?
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Tamar said, “He’s an architect and … has made many forays into telling the instructional people how to do instruction,” Galatzan said at the Tuesday meeting. “I think it’s inappropriate. I don’t think that’s what his expertise is.”
Well, Tamar, you are a lawyer with not a single day of public classroom experience. Where does that put your credibility?
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The hypocrisy in LAUSD is piled so high that you need wings just to stay above it.
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That’s a rather beautiful image, Zorro! 😉
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Lisa, that woman has a very limited grasp of the law. Nepotists.
The BOE is remiss in its dutues six ways to Tuesday and whats more it is highly imprudent . For example, the BOE, by several members own admission ignore protocol when approving dismissals. They are supposed to review the reasons for the terminations to assure they meet the education codes that define the linited causes for firing teachers. The BOE minites bear out that the board always votes in rote agreement to fire without looking st a single file. These induviduals essentially derail due process. It is possubie they cab become prrsomally liable..i watched Vlad tell a teacher and students it wasnt his job to intervne at a school that sounded dangerously out of control there was no schedule days afrter school started . Kids were herded around without their assignments but they had no work or guidance . It was disturbing . Vlad waved them away and I now wonder whose RESPONSIBILITY is it? What is more important? The BOE members cannot hope to survive in higher office. Too many enemies lay in wait for that chance to put them on blast. We have enough punch and judy as it is in politucs.
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Zorro: indeed.
Recall that it was Galatzan who submitted a partisan, personal and acrimonious resolution to censure (censor?) Vladovic for behaviour alleged committed and investigated a dozen years previously, against … Deasy’s now-personal-secretary. This performance art occurred on the very day the BoE voted on the future of Deasy’s contract.
So that motion did not receive a second, Vladovic was not censured and … Deasy’s contract was renewed and upped in salary massively, all in the face of an overwhelming vote of no-confidence by his employees, the teachers. [Wistful glances toward Ghandi’s leadership style that exhorts to follow your people if you’re their leader?]
It’s pretty darned inconceivable that any of us could ever survive such overwhelming incompetence and displays of disapproval under ordinary circumstances. The culture of protectionism and favoritism and quid pro quos and backscratching is mind-boggling.
This can all only carry on if and only if we the public, the vast plurality of voters and taxpayers, just pay no attention. There is *zero* reason any of all of this nonsense should be going on. It is going because … it can.
Whether the board likes, agrees with or despises Magruder is irrelevant to the situation. The BoE’s role is to make sure he is not prohibited from serving due to disqualifying reasons, say, conflicts of interest or social malfeasance. Shy of that, their opinion on the matter of a watchdog organization’s components just has no standing.
Thus Vladovic’s conscientiousness in doing his “homework” is also irrelevant — his opinion does not matter. Nor does Galatzan’s. What matters is the superintendent’s staff’s finding of no reason to disqualify. period. The homework Vladovic was not only negligent in performing but possibly worse, flagrant in ignoring, was the word of his council’s, that this is not a matter for the BoE to adjudicate.
Vladovic is the BoE’s chair, it is on him to conduct their business appropriately. When his counsel points out a procedural matter is in violation, that it is not for his council to assert opinion in ratification of the interest groups’ nominees, that his council is in jeopardy of the law to do so — that is completely on him to make sure they do the right thing. Instead, under Vladovic’s leadership, this BoE has put themselves in huge jeopardy of lawsuit. And who would pay for such legalities and who would ultimately pay the consequences of it? We taxpayers would pay $$$ for the malfeasance of his council, but it is all of our students, our future society, that would suffer in terms of lost resources available to them. All to pay for Vladovic’s shenanigans.
Failing to do one’s homework is not just a cute matter of oopsiedaisy (no pun intended). It is a serious negligence of duty.
This action of the board sets dangerous precedent and puts our public school system in legal jeopardy. It is time this incompetence is held accountable. Call Vladovic’s office and assert your prerogative as a taxpayer to express disapproval of his stewardship of our public dollars. Assert your disapproval of his leadership for our precious children’s education. This is why they make SAT words like “opprobrium”. Assert it.
LAUSD7(Vladovic): 213-241-6385
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Lovely rant, Girly, but ypu can call that number every day on the hour and there will be no response unless some one accuses you of stalking and does the LAUSDeasy dip, deflect and project by accusung YOU of acts that are untoward. That is the distict harpies’ signiture move, and it concerns me that these folks keep acting out in a conspicuously fascist spirit and it remains unchecked. Like Deasy and Garcia, Galatzan unilatrarally inflicts her will on our schools . Her mistreatment of the boe visitors is an open affront to her fiducuary duties. I think a recall is in order. When she runs again , remember she is petty, punitive, and from what has been posted here, pretty stupid . Carl Peterson seems like a great choice as a dad who is interested in collaboration rather than contentious excess.
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Sorry, replied in the wrong place, under john a (above) accidentally…
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Stuart Magruder will be interviewed in LA by Doug McIntyre live on KABC Talkradio 790 AM starting at 7:34 am tomorrow, Wednesday the 28th.
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How can an oversight committee be appointed and voted on by the people it is oversigting? Yes I know that’s not a word. And why on earth would you spend money on instructional materials when the bond was specifically for building and repair. And as a teacher at LAUSD that had the ceiling fall in on me every time it rained, with water rushing out of the light fixture(electrocution anyone) I know that they need to spend a lot more money on repairs. The man who eventually fixed my floor said I was inches from falling in on top of the classroom below. But if you don’t fix rotting floorboards over 3 years of leaks that does happen. So I and all teachers in similar positions are flummoxed to learn that the money we need to keep our students healthy and safe is being sucked up by Deasy and the board to buy i pads for all, I pads that will have to be rebought in 3 years if there are any left by then at all in good repair. All to make him look forward thinking and reform savvy. The problem is of course his reform savvy is being done on the backs of students in classrooms that are not safe, clean or conducive to learning.
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My name is Carl Petersen and as Rene Diedrich has mentioned above, I am running against Tamar Galazan in next year’s election. I am a father of five, including two daughters in special education programs. I have personally experienced the barriers that the board puts in front of parents who just want what is best for their children. I am running to change this mindset and put the needs of children above the profits of corporations. Unlike the Deasy and the board, I want suggestions from the community and encourage anyone who has a question or suggestion to contact me at ChangeTheLAUSD@gmail.com. My website is http://www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com.
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Carl Petersen,
Be sure to contact the Network for Public Education to seek endorsement.
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Thank you, I will.
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