Charter school founder Ref Rodriguez is running for the Los Angeles school board, seeking to beat incumbent Bennett Kayser. Kayser is known for his insistence that charter schools be financially transparent and accountable for their use of public funds.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the charter school chain co-founded by Rodriguez (who is its treasurer) is embroiled in financial scandal.
“A Los Angeles-based charter group awarded food-service contracts worth millions of dollars to a company partially owned by one of the schools’ high-ranking employees, a state investigation has found.
“The probe involved Jacqueline Duvivier Castillo, who is the director of business and development for PUC Schools and a part-owner in Better 4 You Meals, a company that has provided food to the charter group for the last five years. Investigators said the charter failed to demonstrate that the contract was “awarded properly despite the apparent conflict of interest.”
“Late Saturday, the charter organization said in an email to The Times that Duvivier Castillo would no longer be an employee of PUC….
“Duvivier Castillo failed to properly report her financial interests in the company. The company was ineligible for the food contracts because it lacked a health permit and relied on a subcontractor to prepare meals. PUC Schools did not select the lowest-priced bidder as required.
One of the area’s largest charter groups, PUC serves about 4,800 students in 15 schools, including in the east San Fernando Valley and north of downtown. PUC’s test scores typically compare well with nearby traditional neighborhood schools. It recently started a national organization that opened a campus in Rochester, N.Y….”
Charter officials said they were unaware of the conflict of interest but official documents showed otherwise.
“Tax documents for 2010 list the company as a vendor in filings signed by Rodriguez or Elliot. PUC, the documents said, was “party to a business transaction” with a “key employee.”
“The charter’s tax returns for 2012, however, no longer listed the company as a vendor.
“Company documents provided by the state show that Duvivier Castillo’s husband, Fernando Castillo, is a top official with the company, which provides meals for students at more than 100 charter and private schools.
“He could not be reached for comment.
“Annual audits paid for by PUC and released by the state indicated charter officials knew of the alleged conflict of interest.
“Additionally … PUC has signed a contract with a company that is one hundred percent owned by PUC’s director of business and development,” the PUC audit said. “PUC’s management believes that all transactions, including the bidding process, were done in arm’s length.”
“According to these audits from PUC, the charter group paid Better 4 You Meals more than $339,000 in 2011, more than $947,000 in 2012 and about $970,000 in 2013. No figures were available for other years.
“Charter officials reported to the state that Duvivier Castillo had a controlling interest in the company until 2014. She and her husband now have 19% stock ownership, charter officials said.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sad to read this.
If you want to keep a money-motivated privatizer like Ref Rodriguez out of power, donate to his opponent, Bennett Kayser—a 30-year teacher and administrator.
Here’s where you can donate on-line to Bennett Kayser’s campaign:
http://www.bennett2015.com/donate-online.html
Here’s his website in general:
http://www.bennett2015.com/
One more thing, Ref portrays himself as a poor Chicano from the barrio who cares about the education well-being of poor Chicanos in the barrio.
Well, let’s see… because charters are unregulated, he can pay himself whatever he wants, and his works as little as he wants.
So what does he do?
Rodriguez pays himself $350,000 (a third of a million dollars) annually, while he pays his custodial and cafeteria workers—all low-income Latinos—$8/hour instead of the living wage that their counterparts in the traditional public schools get paid… while principals in traditional public schools earn around $100,000 annually.
Try to live in L.A. on $8/hour.
Indeed
Unsurprising. The list continues to grow and children suffer more and more.
After a close reading it would seem that Jacqueline Elliot and Ref Rodriguez haven’t just exposed themselves to criminal liability, there may be grounds for several civil causes of action as well. An Intentional Misrepresentation suit based on the Fraudulent Concealment theory might be worth considering. Let’s remember Ref Rodriguez is PUC’s treasurer. Now all of the things exposed in their Lakeview Audit ( https://www.scribd.com/doc/263583262/CCSA-s-Ref-Rodriguez-s-PUC-Lakeview-Charter-Academy-Audit ) make perfect sense in the light of this latest scandal.
How can anyone believe that this man would be able to oversee California’s largest school district, with a budget of $7 billion?
First, an audit by the Inspector General gets quashed that shows one of his schools was in the red for years. Now his company awards a $2.25 million (at least) contract to an employee and he refuses to answer questions about it? He’s the treasurer.
Bennett Kayser is hands down the best choice. I hope the voters in that district show up at the polls and cast their ballots for Bennett Kayser.
And yet, The Times endorsed….Ref Rodriguez. I swear the editorial board never reads its own paper.
Melissa Walsh: I am amazed and astounded by the things I read on this blog.
Are you telling me that members of the LATIMES editorial board should be reading the information contained in the newspaper for which they set policy?
And all this time I thought the editorials were reprints from, I don’t know, ALEC newsletters or Gates Foundation in-house circulars or charter ads.
Reading. Sounds like a subversive activity to me…
What if you read something that proved your most deeply held opinions were wrong?
What would happen to rheephorm if that became the norm?
😎
They surely do read their own paper
Toilet paper, that is.
Why else would everything they say be crap?
Here’s another LA Times story on the subject:
Sorry–the link got lost: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-school-board-politics-20150130-column.html.
Will these frauds end up in court and eventually join those teachers who were sent to prison for changing answers on meaninglessness tests that are only meant to rank and fire teachers?
In addition to other information on how unfit Refugio Rodriguez is to be elected to the LAUSD BoE, he claims in his blanketing of costly, almost daily, mailers throughout the district, that the Governor of California endorsed him. This is a flat out lie. All Democratic organizations have endorsed his opponent, the incumbent, Bennett Kayser.
This charter school millionaire without scruples, Rodriguez, with photos of his wistful baby faced smile, is also complicit in the attempted bribery by the Latino SouthWest Voters project to get many uninformed and first time voters of the Chicano/Latino community to come out and vote on May 19 by paying them for their votes through a $25,000 lottery, and by extension, to vote for the Latino surnamed candidate for School Board. This scandal is reminiscent of Tea Pot Dome.
Anyone who votes for this charlatan seems either out of touch, or biased.
Karin Klein, you still have time to change your ill-advised LA Times endorsements.
Remember that BoE member Monica Garcia tried in desperation to get all sources not to publish Rodriguez’s PUC audit last week showing all his potential malfeasance over many years as the Director/Treasurer of PUC charter schools (see the complete audit in the comments link above by Robert Skeels.)
And also, Karin, While you are changing the Times endorsement to the Honorable Bennett Kayser, please change your endorsement also to Scott Schmerelson, and away from Tamar Galatzan (the cookie cutter clone and close BoE partner of Monica Garcia), who, though a Democrat, has not received Democratic endorsements. As a lawyer, Tamar must be sweating bullets as all this information about her partners, Rodriguez and Garcia is emerging.
You will all remember that Galatzan and Garcia were the two sure votes on the LAUSD BoE for all Deasy projects. John Deasy, the former LAUSD Superintendent is now under inverstigation by both the FBI and the SEC. He is now a full time employee of Eli Broad.
Vote for Bennett Kayser and for Scott Schmerelson for LAUSD BoE. Let’s clean up LAUSD starting with a focused Board who actually welcomes input from the public which votes for them, and pays them.
The same thing is going on in the East Bay near San Francisco. We have a special election for the State Senate and the reformer supported candidate (who claims to be a democrat) is spamming our mail boxes with poster sized flyers accusing the candidate who has the support of the democratic party and labor unions of all kinds of horrible things that crumble on closer investigation. The lies and smear tactics are a tsunami, and the defending candidate doesn’t seem to be fighting back and I think that is a big mistake.
I’ve been writing about it here:
http://lloydlofthouse.org/2015/04/12/evidence-of-a-corporate-reformer-pretending-to-be-something-he-isnt/
It’s obvious that the corporate reformers and one California oligarch want to take over California’s state government at every level. The money they are pouring into these smaller elections is grotesque.
The California Charter School Association(CCSA) is behind all the major expenditures on behalf of Rodriguez, Galatzan and Vladovic. You would like to think that at least Vladovic would denounce the false attacks on fellow administrator Scott Schmerelson. CCSA’s PAC will do and say anything to try to misrepresent opponents such as calling Schmerelson a “lobbyist” while he instead is a non-voting member of an administrators’ organization that supports such “outrageous” things like early education and adult ed. Schmerelson should be highly commended for putting his free time into efforts to improve education at all levels, not have his name and reputation falsely attacked. This is where the public needs to ask why CCSA is so desperate to take down anyone who does not accept their money.
UTLA, the Los Angeles teachers’ union, instead states the facts. It’s great that the dirty dealings in PUC schools finally is in print and this all happened without any outside political influence. The schools and Ref Rodriguez did it to themselves. I imagine they just hoped that this information would be kept under wraps until after the election.
If almost anyone but the Tea Party girl Gutierrez was running against Vlad, I would probably be cheering for them….but as weak as he has been on this BoE, he is better than she is. Damning with faint praise!
I wish that UTLA teachers or any other educator would show some integrity and stop saying I am the — girl. I am not a member of any organization that you have named. I have been on the executive board for the NAACP and a member of LULAC, and participated with the Latino Congresso but never of this one. What I have done, I have been respectful of every organization that has asked me to speak about Common Core State Standards because I do not support them. When I ran for State Superintendent, I spoke at many gatherings and received endorsements because of my stance against CCSS. I do not denigrate and ridicule parents and grand parents of my students for their beliefs. It is shameful of those in the educational profession that do.
Lydia…you are right about my slurs…and I apologize. Your background in education deserves respect even if we disagree about various things.
My favorite part of this whole thing is that the charter school organization’s initials are PUC (with a long U), which is what I want to do when I read about this corruption.
Ref Rodriguez’ backers DON’T EVEN BELIEVE IN THE EXISTENCE OF DEMOCRATIC SCHOOL BOARDS LIKE THE ONE FOR WHICH RODRIGUEZ IS RUNNING. The California Charter School Association’s true and openly-expressed (BELOW) end game is to abolish the LAUSD Board that meets down at 3rd and Beaudry (and abolish all schoolboards everywhere, by the way).
Their goal is to eliminate any voting or input from the public, and have unelected charter school boards—made up of businessmen, profiteers, and non-educators—free to whatever they want, whenever they want to maximize profits, and with no one to stop them.
In short, Rodriguez is cynically running for an elected position, and to serve on an elected body—per his masters’ marching orders—whose functioning he will endeavor to undermine and hopefully eliminate… or, failing to do that while in office, Ref will do his corporate masters’ bidding and do as much damage to the board’s functioning, and lessen the number schools under its oversight, and make as much progress towards the board’s elimination as he can while serving on it.
His whole campaign is an affront to the citizens and taxpayers in his district. Tell them a bunch of lies to trick them into voting for someone—funded by out-of-state billionaires—who will endeavor to… END THOSE SAME CITIZENS’ POWER TO VOTE FOR, AND ULTIMATELY TO CONTROL PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings just dumped $1.2 million dollars into the PAC that is backing the slate of Rodriguez, Lydia Guttierez, and Tamar Galatzan.
In his keynote address at the California Charter School Association’s annual dinner last year, Netflix CEO and corporate ed. reformer Reed Hastings stated the CCSA’s goal should be to abolish all democratically elected school boards, and end any input and participations of citizen-taxpayers in how their tax money in spent in education, and in which people are chosen to decide how money is spent. (CCSA is Rodriguez primary financial backer… he serves on its board)
REED HASTINGS (March 3, 2004): “The importance of the charter school movement is to evolve America from a system where governance is constantly changing… (i.e. democratically elected school boards, where the citizen-taxpayers have decision-making power.) to an all-charter school system, with no traditional public schools under the governance of an elected school board.
Hastings further says charter school chains are superior because “they don’t have an elected school board.” He celebrates New Orleans system where every school is a privately-run charter with ZERO accountability to the public, and where the public has ZERO power to influence their governance.
“Now if we go to the general public and we say, ‘Here’s an argument for why we should get rid of school boards,’ of course, no one’s going to go for that. School boards have been and iconic part of America for 200 years.”
Since in most cities, corporate reformers cannot do a New Orleans-style wiping out of democratically controlled school boards—as there’s no Katrina-like catastrophe to exploit—Hastings instead recommends a slow, deceptive, stealth strategy. He instructs the charter schools and their advocates to “work with districts” quietly and “grow steadily”. This means that the charter industry will falsely profess that they wish to co-exist with the traditional public schools, and complement the public school system, while the truth is that they are merely putting on that façade with the ultimate goal being the total elimination of public schools via this “slow growth” strategy.
The other prong of this strategy—one that Ref will be engaging in—is to sabotage the traditional public schools through starving of them of funds, jacking up class size, cutting the arts, libraries, etc. … all to trigger low performance… and use that low performance that they initially and actually caused, as justification for closing public schools and replacing them with private charter management.
Eventually, as the percentage of traditional LAUSD public schools shrinks, and the percentage of charter schools within LAUSD grows, they cost of maintaining the salary, health benefits, retirement, etc. will cause the district to collapse from within. The end game is a small pseudo-“board” whose sole function is to rubber stamp charter school authorizing… and no control actual over charter schools’ functions after doing so… no transparency to the public, no accountability to the public, and that can and will refuse to educate all of the public—i.,e. those who are expensive to educate, and who will not produce high scores on tests… special ed., English language learners, recent immigrants, homeless, foster care.
That’s why out-of-state billionaires, Wall Street hedge fund charter proponents, etc. are pumping millions into his campaign. Even though Ref has more money, this fact can be used against him—ju jitsu stye—as it was successfully used in the Zimmer, Ratliff, and McKenna campaigns (and in Bennett’s first race for the board.)
If the public knows all this, there’s no way they will want to to vote for Ref Rodriguez (or for Tamar Galatzan, or for Lydia Guttierez, for that matter.
And right after Hastings’ speech at the same CCSA celebration, guess who gets an award from the CCSA—the “2014 Hart Vision Elected Official of the Year”?
Why it’s the privatizers’ and corporate reform’s bought-and-paid-for LAUSD School Board Member Monica Garcia:
The best part of her speech is when Garcia courageously uses this opportunity of her acceptance speech to respectfully contradict Hastings’ fervent dream—expressed moments earlier to a rapturous standing ovation—that school boards like the one on which she serves should not be wiped off the face of the earth, as Hastings so desires… as, you know, Hastings’ goal would end two centuries of democratic control of schools in the United States… and how not responding and contradicting Hastings would be a total betrayal of the voters who voted for her to serve on the LAUSD Board, not destroy it through a Smarick-ian, Hastings-ish slow stealth charterization / privatization.
Just kidding 😉 she never says anything of the kind.
Seriously, when Garcia asks the charter honchos in the audience, “Do you believe that all kids can learn?” and they chant “Yes”, keep in mind that included in those charter leaders chanting are folks who have unashamedly kicked out… errr… counseled out up to 70% of their students before graduation. (see Caroline Grannan’s investigation on charter school attrition)
“to evolve America from a system where governance is constantly changing…”
The arrogance of the ed reform billionaires is absolutely amazing.
Can you imagine standing up and announcing that “America” requires your personal preference for “governance”?
I love how no one in The Movement reins this stuff in, either. None of them ever contradict or even politely disagree with the billionaires who RUN THE SHOW. Their political donors issue these ridiculous pronouncements on “America” and the choir sings right along.
REED HASTINGS, 2014:
“And so the fundamental problem with school districts is not their fault; the fundamental problem is that they don’t get to control their boards. And the importance of the charter school movement is to evolve America from a system where governance is constantly changing and you can’t do long-term planning… (via democratic elections from citizens)
“So if we go the general public and say, ‘Here’s an argument for why we should get rid of school boards,’ no one’s going to go for it. School boards have been an iconic part of America for 200 years.”
———————–
Hmmm… that sounds familiar.
Where has we heard this before?
http://www.mattbrundage.com/publications/hitler-and-democracy/
==========================================
“Hitler found no appeal in Western democracy partially because of its slow pace. Likewise, he found great appeal in his National Socialist State and the swift pace of its legislative process: ”
=========
HITLER “The essence of leadership as conceived by the National Socialist State is the capacity to form rapid decisions…
“… (when governing) one works best when alone (i.e. without the annoyance of citizens voting and demanding the right for democratic input, JACK) ”
=================
“This adage, commonly attributed to Hitler, perfectly sums up his views of democracy and parliamentary-style government. He believed that individuals operating in a democracy are not brought to their fullest potential due to the ultimatums and compromises (both in principle and practice) that commonly occur:
=====================
HITLER: “…democracy will in practice lead to the destruction of a people’s true values. And this also serves to explain how it is that people with a great past from the time when they surrender themselves to the unlimited, democratic rule of the masses slowly lose their former position; for the outstanding achievements of individuals…are now rendered practically ineffective through the oppression of mere numbers. (i.e. “mere numbers” of votes from regular citizens interfering with the rulers’ attempt to govern, JACK.)”
Also, the charter spokesman called this a “perception of a conflict of interest.”
Hey, there’s no “perception” here. It’s a blatant “conflict of interest.” PERIOD. THE END.
1) Jacqueline Duvivier Castillo, PUC’s Director of Business and Development, is in charge of procuring a multi-million-dollar food contract for the charter chain PUC, and Ref Rodriguez, as the charter chain’s founder, CEO, and—perhaps most importantly—the charter chain’s treasurer, is also involved in and ultimately approves the procurement;
2) Instead of having multiple bids and—per LAUSD directive—choosing the lowest bidder, Duvivier Castillo gives the contract to a company that audit report claims “is one hundred percent owned by Ms. Duvivier Castillo”, and also a company where her husband Fernando is a top (and presumably high-paid) official…
There are all facts that Board Candidate Ref Rodriguez surely was aware of… he hired her to work at PUC, for God’s sake… how could he possibly not know her previous / simultaneous employment and/or business ownership or interests?
Furthermore, they announce that she’s leaving PUC, while claiming she and Rodriguez did nothing wrong. Well, if she did nothing wrong, why are you canning her? (or why is she “voluntarily” leaving?)
On top of all that, this food company had a well-known, prior track record of doing a sucky job at food service, and then, consistent with that record, proceeded to do a sucky job servicing the PUC charter chain—i.e. no required government health permits.
Read on—
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-charter-food-contracts-20150503-story.html#page=1
L.A. TIMES:
“The company (‘Better 4 You’) received several contracts from the (PUC) charter organization, frequently failing to receive the highest score from panels reviewing the bids, according to a state analysis. Elliot said that other companies also received food contracts and that PUC hired ‘Better 4 You’ because it had the best ideas and most complete understanding of how to run a breakfast program. The decision was not based on a track record; she said she was not aware of any work the company had done elsewhere and that it may have been a start-up.
“The company did not make meals or have its own health permit until last year, instead partnering with another business that was responsible for food storage, handling and delivery. But Elliot said she was assured that the other company’s health permit would cover legal requirements.
“L.A. Unified released an unrelated audit of a PUC school last week. The district’s inspector general found fault with financial operations and record-keeping at Lakeview Charter Academy.”
“Padding the Resumé”
Charter fraud?
Well, what to say?
Another laud
For resumé
Too ironic to have charter-friendly media painting him as Mr. Fraudriguez.