Borenstein: Pay-to-play concerns ​

EDUCATION

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Link to Forensic Audit: www.wccusd.net/audit

MONEY IN POLITICS
Money has been involved in our school board elections for many years even before West Contra Costa USD was created. Since at least 1999 school board candidates elections have been heavily financed by vendors and building trades that may materially benefit from the ongoing construction bond program.   
    WCC is a low academically performing school district. Many of us believe this is in large part do to the undue influence of the construction money that has poured into our district campaigns selecting candidates that will push through projects with unlimited budgets. This has turned the focus of this district to construction instead of how to improve the quality of education for our kids and to better support our teachers.
    With our low academic performance more charter schools are coming into the district. The charter schools within WCC serve a high percentage of disadvantaged youth. To stop the flow of families leaving for charters, privates schools or transferring out of district, we need to improve educational outcomes for all. 
   The school board needs to adopt real adopt campaign reforms.   

Editorial: The four best to lead struggling 

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Elect Estela DePaz, Audra Golddie Williams, Y’anad Burrell

MONEY IN WCC

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PublicCore.ORG is not affiliated with PublicCore.net, a selectively opinionated perspective to distract from objectively reading about ALL the monied interests that have historically poured into WCCUSD.

Contra Costa County Education Topics 

in school bond program?

By Daniel Borenstein | Oct. 7, 2016 | www.bayareanewsgroup.com

EXCERPT: An audit of West Contra Costa’s $1.6 billion school construction program indicates vendors felt pressured to contribute to two board trustees’ pet causes in order to receive district contracts.
     Former trustee Charles Ramsey, current trustee Madeline Kronenberg and political ally and current school board candidate Don Gosney solicited money from vendors and subcontractors, according to the audit.  During fiscal years 2009-15, $2.1 million was donated by 26 vendors and subcontractors including architects, financial consultants, contractors, engineers and the bond program’s construction management firm. ...   If vendors were required to make contributions to obtain public contracts or continue their business relationships with the district, that would violate state and federal criminal bribery and extortion statues, said attorney Michael Martello, a government ethics expert. ...
     The audit, released last month, warned of problems with the bond program budgeting practices, poor internal controls to ensure compliance with legal requirements and school board policies, and inadequate safeguards against conflicts of interest.  The contribution solicitations arose as part of the conflict-of-interest section of the investigation. The auditors offered no opinion on the legality of the practices.
On Sept. 21, the school board voted unanimously to send the audit to law enforcement.
     The audit was launched after whistle-blower Dennis Clay, a program analyst for the district’s school bond program, last year alleged that he had uncovered evidence of mismanagement and criminal conduct.
     It was well known that Ramsey and Kronenberg had received contributions from the vendors for their personal political campaigns. That’s a common practice. But the audit documented the magnitude, that far bigger sums went to their pet causes and that they actively solicited contributions.  The solicitations were by letters, emails and personal phone calls, according to the audit. The vendors reported that they were also contacted by district employees.  One vendor recalled delivering a contribution check to the “superintendent who just retired last week.” Former Superintendent Bruce Harter retired June 30.
      The vendors who gave $2.1 million received district payments of $239.6 million. If the contributions were a cost of doing business, the return on investment was impressive.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/10/07/borenstein-pay-to-play-concerns-in-school-bond-program

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and ​Tom Panas to board of troubled district?

By Daniel Borenstein | Oct. 13, 2020 | www.EastBayTimes.com

EXCERPT: ...District Superintendent Matthew Duffy’s job is on the line after mediocre performance reviews. He championed a 2018 labor deal that increased district teacher salaries from some of the lowest in the county to the top. Then, he kept the board in the dark for months about what turned out to be a resulting $48 million budget shortfall for the 2019-20 fiscal year.​   Before the pandemic, enrollment had been flat, district test scores had been static and scores for Black students had been declining. Meanwhile, teaching time during the pandemic is all over the map in large part because the district agreement with teachers has no minimum requirement for live academic online instruction.
     The new board will also have to manage the district’s massively expensive school construction program, one of the most pricey in the state.  The program has lacked cost controls and was plagued by pay-to-play complaints from vendors. It will soon cost the average homeowner in the district more than $1,000 a year to help cover the bond debt....
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2020/10/13/editorial-the-four-best-to-lead-struggling-west-contra-costa-schools

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