Blog note: this article references
a grand jury report.
If students seeking a
master’s degree in San Diego State University’s public management program want
to see what a government management disaster looks like in real time, they
should pay attention to the San Diego Unified School District – both to school
board President Marne Foster and her enablers, Superintendent Cindy Marten and
board members John Lee Evans, Richard Barrera, Kevin Beiser and Michael
McQuary.
Earlier this month, we
expressed bewilderment at how district officials had no objections to Foster
having a personal fundraiser in July to help cover college debt and expenses
for two of her sons. Foster publicized the event with a brochure that featured
a San Diego Unified logo and via a Facebook page for her school board district.
Many of those who paid to attend the event do business with the school
district. It was held at Neighborhood House, a local facility that has a
contract with San Diego Unified to provide services – one that Foster voted to
approve.
Since then, three things have
happened – all of which make San Diego Unified look even worse.
On Aug. 10, the state
Attorney General’s Office wrote a letter to Neighborhood House that questioned
whether a raffle-type drawing held at the event followed any of a significant
list of state legal requirements.
On Aug. 19, the district released
its formal response to a county grand jury report that called for the district
to adopt tougher ethics and conduct rules after incidents in the 2013-2014
school year in which Foster interfered with staff members at the School of
Creative and Performing Arts over their treatment of her son. Marten rejected
the grand jury’s recommendations and dismissed testimony about Foster’s
behavior as too vague to act upon.
On Aug. 24, the Voice of San
Diego published an article with the most specific allegations yet about what
happened at the School of Creative and Performing Arts, provided by Mitzi
Lizarraga, the principal from 2007-2014. It’s previously been reported that
Foster forced school officials to write a more positive college reference
letter for her son. But Lizarraga said Foster also pressured teachers to change
grades and attendance records and demanded the right to choose her son’s
counselor. When her son broke rules and was assessed the standard penalty of
being denied the right to go to the prom, Lizarraga said she had a meeting with
district administrator Lamont Jackson – who informed her that Foster’s son was
indeed going to the prom, and that she wouldn’t be returning as principal in
the 2014-15 school year. Lizarraga is no longer with San Diego Unified, and she
says Foster is “100 percent” the reason she’s no longer principal at the school
she loved.
Astonishingly, Foster not
only thinks she’s done nothing wrong; she somehow appears to think she’s being
victimized by her critics. But if Marten, Evans, Barrera, Beiser and McQuary
care about their district, they must no longer look the other way. The
president of the board of California’s second-largest school district must
behave ethically and professionally.
August
30, 2015
The
San Diego Union-Tribune
By
Editorial Board
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