As noted on this blog, the leader of the El Camino Real Charter High School in Los Angeles used the school’s credit card to charge exorbitant personal expenses while moonlighting as a scout for a professional basketball team. First class air tickets, luxury hotels, fabulous meals.
He repaid $6,000, which must have been a fraction of what he spent. And he agreed to resign, reluctantly. He leaves with a payout of $215,000 (apparently a one-year salary minus $6,000). Not exactly a golden parachute but surprising because he might well have been prosecuted for misappropriating school funds.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Actually, it was described as an “early termination without cause” according to the Daily News article. CEO Fehte had initially refused to resign, but LAUSD forced the school’s hand and made it clear that he had to go if the charter were to remain open. It appears that if he had indeed resigned, he would not have been eligible for the year’s salary. Is there any doubt that this was well known in advance. I just wonder if just a “termination” clause is typical or not.
Why is it that a person who steals a loaf of bread and is caught will go to jail. Yet this kind of behavior is tolerated by any parent or teacher at El Camino.
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Yes..why is this tolerated by the BoE and LAUSD? Every ‘perp’ who leaves LAUSD under cloud, leaves with a big payout…how come?
Deasy left and is still being investigated two years later by both the FBI and the SEC…but they had to buy him off to get him to go, and they had to agree not to prosecute him.
What is wrong with this district that they continue to pay for the illegal and egregious behaviors of their administrators? Why wasn’t Fehte indicted for embezzling school funds?
Just this week they paid multi millions of dollars to continue settlements to parents of students who were in the school Deasy shut down due to one teacher’s sexual misbehavior…with notice that they will still pay additional multi millions. Deasy’s bad and possibly illegal decisions cost the taxpayers close to one billion dollars, leaving the district in the RED.
And then of course there is an old Supt. whose embarrassing sexual harassment lawsuit was paid off by the BoE and the District to keep the case quiet, to the tune of $250K. Wonder how many other cases We the Public Taxpayers don’t even know about?
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Stealing would be more appropriate.
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It should be noted that El Camino’s Governing Board has still not released the report that it commissioned by Oracle Investigations. I wonder if that report shows that the termination should have been for cause. Unless the LAUSD demands its release as the authorizer, we may never know. http://www.changethelausd.com/a_letter_to_the_lausd_charter_school_division
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Under the Freedom of Information Act, this should be a public document released for taxpayers to know who did what to whom.
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El Camino is covered under California’s Public Records Act. They are claiming this document is exempt as they say it was commissioned through their law firm and, therefore, protected under attorney-client privilege. The agenda and minutes of the meeting where it was approved say otherwise.
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Thanks Carl for expanding on this miscarriage of justice and manipulation by the BoE to keep facts from the public which pays all the bills.
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UPDATE: Crime Does Pay 💰
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The charter company is probably reluctant to prosecute because they wouldn’t want the scandalous publicity. As far as the money goes, the company loses some of its profit. The real loss belongs to the public as this is public money. The public schools should be able to prosecute the offender, or sue the management company for failure to oversee the finances of the school.
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It seems the U.S. stopped persecuting upper management in the private sector late in the 20th century or early in the 21st century. Instead, at most, they just pay a fine well below what they took, and then move on to the next high paying position.
Money Magazine ran a piece about this and Elizabeth Warren is mentioned: “Why Prosecutors Don’t Target Thieving CEOs”
http://time.com/money/4200133/elizabeth-warren-thieving-ceos-jail/
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LAUSD is the public sector.
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One might contend that the non-prosecution of top execs, whether private or public started when Ford pardoned Tricky Dick Nixon.
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That makes sense.
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El Camino was an outstanding LAUSD school. There was absolutely no reason to privatize it in the first place. This whole, criminal affair should never have happened in the first place. The only way to fix the problem of corruption, with California’s Wild West of Charter Scams laws, is to turn back over the school to our duly elected LAUSD Board. The way things stand now, though, the Eli Broadsters, Reed Hastings, Nazis Bill and Melinda Gates, the Walmart-ons and Betsy Devos are real, real happy. Donald J Trump is happy.
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OMG …
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This is SICK! Teachers are berated for earning a pension and made out to be greedy for taking a pension from their own hard-earned money (considered a chunk of their salary goes into paying for the pension)! And here a man who is charged with heading a charter school STEALS money for his greedy extravagant self… is caught… and instead of going to jail actually receives a payout that equals at least 3 years of pay for the average teacher! Really? How disgusting. The nonsense just never ends. This is just the beginning if what I am hearing and reading about DeVos as Secretary of Education is true. Never even heard of her before Trump – ughh!
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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