by Rebecca Wu
On Tuesday May 14 the Joint Legislative Audit Committee will have a hearing at 1:30pm and may continue into the 15th will decide yes or no to agree to an investigation into Twin Rivers Unified School District and its oversight of Highlands Community Charter School but it is just a bubbling surface of murky waters.
Turbulent waters are flowing from the California Department of Education (CDE) that in violation of the law doesn’t take responsibility for jurisdiction to oversee charters nor many serious violations by school districts in all counties of California. One surface on the river appears clean and calm but the other river under it is murky, rocky, and wild with blood in it. Now it’s bubbling up to the surface.
With years of complaints on Highlands Community Charter School, its online school, and Twin Rivers Unified School District, TRUSD, it took a news channel to do documentary mini series and a year of investigation to bubble up corruption to the point legislature members take action to request a JLAC.
PRETTY ON PAPER
For almost a decade TRUSD, district and its board, nor the County Office of Education would request an audit from auditing agencies even when faced with accusations of improper actions. The fiscal reports and School Accountability Report Cards had fraudulent information and some of it was similar to Highlands all under the leadership of the Superintendent Steve Martienz, head of Human Resources Gina Carreon, and Bill Mcguire the master of disguise who was the Deputy of Superintendent. It was always Pretty on Paper but how TRUSD ran its own district but it does not make it pretty if the bucks end on accountability with its own district and Oversight in a charter with nowhere to turn for those who complain.
IF JLAC APPROVES THE AUDIT OF THE DISTRICT AND HIGHLANDS THEN THE LEGISLATIVE AUDIT NEEDS TO GO DEEP ENOUGH TO UNCOVER THE SIMILARITIES AND THE INTENT OF NOT DOING A PROPER OVERSEEING JOB.
The Abc10 Documentary series Wild Wild West of Education exposed CDE claims a district, county office of education or COE and charter are the ultimate end for overseeing complaints on a charter., but they CDE have no jurisdiction or right to oversee. Yet the series came out in January and the media covered new and old claims of corruption then in April members of the California legislature finally requested an investigation through the Joint Legislative Administrative Committee or JLAC and that will come to a yes or no vote on Tuesday to do the review or not. That document series is abc10 and at the center of it is Andie Judson and the people of California owe much to their brave endeavor. You can find their series on abc10.
Complaints about HCCS and its online school have been long and ongoing for 
years but it takes a news agency to finally get a JLAC request and many in the community are very grateful.
Various complaints or accusation by abc10 and whistleblowers are are fraudulent reports like School Accountability Report Cards (SARC) and reporting of attendance which is how they make their money, not having teachers teach with a license, Retaliation, attempts at Whistleblower silencing, overcrowding and not reporting of students and improper attendance claims in ADA which is how a school gets its money, money mismanagement and spendings with no board approvals, approving projects of millions to lobbying groups, not approving or allowing schools to be created outside its jurisdiction or town when a Charter knows it must have a local public school districts approval that gets attached as an Independent Charter which is different than the districts charters in case some are confused on that. Abc10 sheds light on the companies owned by the board member of TRUSD, and a board member Linda Fowler threats of intimidation and has conflicts of interest by working for them while voting on issues relating to the charter which she stopped doing but got fined for it.
Not really covered in the Abc10 documentary series is that there are Vacancies of Teachers when there is this intentional overcrowding and paraeducators teach. IF they have up to 50 or 90 students assigned to one teacher that is a vacancy. Under the California Williams Act in the public schools they must post a flier in EVERY classroom that the class is not taught by substitutes and where to make a complaint. The Vacancies must be reported to CDE. Charter schools are required to report under EC Section 1240 monitoring which is under the Williams Act and civil rights and the right to equal education for students.
From my years of research, investigation into TRUSD, they are fine experts in circumventing the Williams Act and Vacancy reporting so it becomes clear they have been helping the Highlands in skirting the law not negligently failing at their oversight. The Sacramento COE, an auditor, possibly like many counties, was in-cahoots like other districts I investigated for years.
It is in all the details that matter. It is the ingredients of the sauce that exposes the sinister collaborative intention of the ties between TRUSD and Highlands.
One of their big bubbles comes up is the sinister, similar but different ways of not reporting the vacancies that are required to be reported to CDE from what I am seeing on the abc10 coverage. Abc10 exposes the complaints of Overcrowding and inaccurate reporting of the number of students in attendance. Keep reading about the SARC reports. The reports do not report the Vacancies when they exist or this would show students not getting their civil rights. They do not claim all these vacancies when the students sign up.
At TRUSD the local union TRUE had asked, unknown to the teachers, for Reclassification of Substitutes who were teachers at Keema High School its Independent Studies. But they also asked for Reclassification of teachers at another school in the Subpoena documents I got. That school was for students 18-22. I do not know the details of it but something was wrong for it to be included in the letter given to Gina Carreon in fall 2015 from my September complaint.
How were the False SARC REPORTS in Highlands and TRUSD Independent Studies in KHS (Keema High School)?
False SARC REPORTS were done. It is claimed that 18 students were assigned in class according to ABC10. 5-10-2024 ABC claims the SARC does not require reporting of ELL English Language Students but they do and no such law is claimed. This is a little inaccurate but supports the ABC10 investigation of corruption.
The state gears the SARC for traditional high schools who don’t have many English language students, but at Highlands they make up the majority of the student population. Even so, the report doesn’t require Highlands to include them – and they didn’t.
AT KEEMA HIGH SCHOOL IT LOOKS PRETTY ON PAPER BUT IT’S UGLY
I have been reporting False SARC reports in TRUSD IS at KHS for about a decade to agencies and the school board with no investigation. They claimed 700 students with 5 teachers as they did in the Annual Fiscal Reports to CDE.
Because the PERSONAL ACTION FORMS PAF did not have a position control then they did not end up in the data system. The required internal procedures of a Position were reviewed under video and oath in depositions of HR techs in late 2017. These would then be entered into the Database to go to CCTC and CDE but they were not so they were TOTAL GHOSTS.
Layle Bojanski, Human Resource Manager, claimed not only that they knew the teachers were misclassified and that is why at the they reclassified them for the 2016-2017 school year but I guess they forgot me when I was negotiating on behalf of everyone. They said my job ended as the hourly paid position and there was no contract so they claim they did not think they had to give me notice of any kind. She also said under oath that Chris Arnold who is the liaison to CDE but works under TRUSD at the time informed her in 2013 that the students had teachers but they were not in the teacher database as teachers and she knew then that they were substitutes but working as teachers. She is directly under Carreon.
She said that Chris Arnold informed her the teachers were not in the teacher database as teachers in 2013 for all the teachers at Keema High School [with a few exceptions] and I personally heard her say it and the CTA attorney was there.
Because of these Ghosts positions then they had to stay GHOSTS in the SARC REPORTS. They did. In the SARC reports they show 5 teachers to 700 students on average from at least 2010-2016 then the 2016-2017 SARC report card changes and has less than 700 students and 32 and I as well as most teachers for those years can tell you we generally had most our students all year with some who graduate and drop out. The SARC report cards also show many years with no misassignments and no vacancies.
Then, the School ANNUAL FISCAL REPORTS for many years prior to 2016 show that there were only 5-8 teachers and 700 students as well but it claims the pay was under a Million or so depending on the year. Those one page reports with 5-8 teachers show 1.5 million and also varying but that was for Additional School Funds in an Excel on the Report of the school.
YET in the 2016-2017 ANNUAL FISCAL REPORTS it claims 30 something teachers and less students and is more reflective after they Reclassified everyone on August 5, 2016, but posted it on the Board meeting September. This Annual Report claims at its Beginning of the report for the All schools not just on the school that Due to Keema High School having “variable” pay salary or positions the budget has a big change. The Additional funds are now like all the other schools which is the Extra Duty or overtime and its very small. Now the report looks similar but again, they were GHOST teachers that did not exist so they fraudulently reported them as some additional funds the kids or students somehow get and they did not. IT looks Pretty but it’s Ugly.
BUT THERE WERE NO FUNDS for kiddos. No bus passes to come two days in a row. No lunch. Barely no supplies. No substitutes and no Additional funds.
Yet, although this may be a deep look into the corruption in HCCS, this JLAC investigation, if approved, will only review Twin Rivers Unified School District’s incompetence to oversee HCCS. It is not enough.
However, that incompetence is limited to its charter overview when to really look at its responsibilities it needs to go deep into TRUSD’s intentions and fraud in much darker realm where it has orchestrated its own connections and similar actions they have done for over a decade with Linda Fowler at the helm even when she no longer was president of the Board of Education of TRUSD. It is time for clear, transparent water.
On May 9th, and 10th, the TV 10 aired another documentary in its saga on the corruption of a local Charter school and its connection to Twin Rivers Unified School District. In January it aired its documentary series, “Wild Wild West of Education.” In April 2024 a Legislative request was made to review corruption of the Charter and district because of ABC10 news coverage in its Documentary series Wild Wild West. Members of the California Legislature can make requests. On Tuesday the 14th and the public can comment although they don’t clarify that on the agency but buried in the FAQ frequently asked questions it claims it can be done in person and the website claims one can make a written comment but the site only allows that on bills.
The request is on Highlands Community Charter School, The online school Highlands Community Charter Technical School, and Twin Rivers Unified School District for its claim of not doing its job of oversight. Interestingly, it did not include the County Office of Education which is also given the job of oversight.
The water is flowing murky in local school board member, and past president LInda Fowler and TRUSD tangled web of deceit, lies, control and corruption. What is clear is it won’t stop unless a deeper review is done on LInda Fowler and TRUSD and see the corruption has similarities under her control which will show the oversight of the Charter was no accident. Linda Fowler has received money for consultation with the Charter as reviewed by a Grand Jury in 2016 and then asked in another one for the Board to do the Right Thing and vote her out as not even the Governor can remove her. It is likely she has or will take money from TRUSD when she leaves as a sitting member of the TRUSD and be a undocumented consultant making unknown amounts.
Secrecy, hiding, and inaccurate fiscal reports are common themes in TRUSD and it is very possible Highlands learned how to skirt the laws and policies from Bill McGuire, Linda Fowler and TRUSD.
On a good spring day in 2020 I rolled up with a wheeled cooler filled with documents and evidence of all kinds of fraudulent activity in TRUSD and met Sean Loloee in a local non chain cafe in Del Paso Heights for two hours to discuss TRUSD. He enthusiastically informed me that as soon as he is elected as a city councilmember in Sacramento he would ask for an audit of the district. Del Paso Heights is where he has his business and is a vibrant lively Artsy community but also one of our poorest neighborhoods with mostly minority residents that strive to create an amazing neighborhood and where Keema High School is located. I was so happy with hope. He learned that day he was a contender for a run off for the seat and was happy about that.
While we talked he said he had serious concerns already about TRUSD and had been asking them for details about the SIX MILLION dollar pool that was claimed in the fiscal reports. He told me he was looking into that for a while and had personally called Eureka High School in Eureka, California where they have a similar pool as the one at Grant High School but it was state of the art olympic pool in Eureka. He told me, sitting at our local cafe table, that Eureka spent TWO MILLION on their pool and I assume it was around the same time period as he insisted that the fiscal reports not just on the Pool are intentionally fraudulent but the district was corrupt of some sort on their fiscal reporting. He told me there are No details of the money spent in reports on this and he has been asking for a long time for details. He wants to know where FOUR MILLION dollars really went.
He said he had other stories and information and intended to post it on his media platforms soon and was being quiet about it for now and said not until he wins will he come forward. He won and he never came forward or answered me back. He is no longer a city council member but that is another story. Ath that point, I had for half a decade been bringing issues to the board and district and other agencies with no action of a real audit. The time is now and it must come. McGuire, Superintendent Martienz, and Chief of HR Gina Carreon have a web of deceit in their reporting and no clear specific details are given.
Bill Mcguire, Deputy Superintendent of TRUSD knew how to finagle reports, he is skilled at this. When public outcry came in December 2019 he resigned in January 2020 with a pay increase of ridiculous amounts covered by Fox News. He then created his consulting firm starting up in January 2020 and who knows exactly what or if he is getting money from TRUSD as consultant. With a small circle of loyal wrongdoers Gina Carreon, head of HR became the part time Business person in late spring, right after she whistleblower retaliated against Mohammed Bashammak at TRUSD independent Studies Keema High School as reviewed in the News and Review.
I can and did prove to the board,there were false reports in the Annual Fiscal Reports and SARC. CDE claims if a district chooses to inform them of inaccuracies they can make those changes but they wont audit or ask for one based on complaints, and I had concrete evidence!
There are similar but slightly different Teacher vacancies and or unethical actions hidden in corruption of Highlands Community Charter School in comparison to TRUSD hidden vacancies; they were both planned and executed to get away with fraud and far more clearly in TRUSD Independent Studies.
Throughout this whole article are some dirty secrets and horrific actions of TRUSD and its top officials and the board’s oversight indifference and knowledge.
A Chief Business Official or the one overseeing the business, finance aspect of the school district or charter would know the details. This year in 2024 Highlands Charter just approved a hundred plus thousand to Bill Mcguire’s consulting services. Bill was previously at TRUSD. Bill, under LInda Fowler, at TRUSD knows how to hide things and create fake reports from what I have seen, researched and investigated for years and attempted for years to get California Department of Education CDE, CCTC, Office of Controller, and other agencies to intervene with the evidence, SARC reports and yet they do not claim jurisdiction but only an agency that reports are given not enforced for accuracy. All while Bill Mcguire was at TRUSD he was working as well for FCMAT which is a state auditing agency.
He is also the trainer for Human Resources training in FCMAT, FISCAL CRISIS AND MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE TEAM which can do reviews and assistance at the request of the county Superintendent or a Board of a district or charter. Yet, to oversee any HR, he has to have an Administrative credential but because he does not CTC cannot take a complaint on him. Carreon had claimed he was her boss in a hearing in 2019. Michael Fine, Chief Executive Officer of FCMAT, told me a few years back that he has never gotten a request for a review by FCMAT by the TRUSD board nor the County office of Education and that was around the time he responded to emails that he was a quite offended I implied FCMAT was not acting proper with an employee at FCMAT also working in a district I was complaining about because FCMAT would not be proper or neutral. Bill Mcguire and Bill continued and are still working there part-time. McGuire’s consulting firm was over 1 grand a day several years back. Now interestingly, Fowler does not have an Administrative license either and is on the board now but was president for years especially years I was making complaints of civil rights to the board.
The district, Martinez, the board, and McGuire all were ok with trickle funds of dramatically lower that was expected for the Independent Studies. We had a paper budget, barely any funds for anything and lunches for students even through the complaints of Title 1 funds by Mattu not coming into the district. In 2012 I sent an email, (gave that to the gatekeeper of the grand jury and many other places too to no avail) to the prinicpal Mattu at the IS school KHS where I worked as a misclassified teacher that basically said something to the effect I have students that can not get bus passes except on the one day they come to school but THEY CANNOT GET TO SCHOOL ON THE OTHER DAYS TO GET TO THE TUTORING LAB THAT IS OPEN MONDAY TO FRIDAY FOR DROP IN. I sent that email to Mattu and all the staff because I had to beg for passes for my students because they wanted to come back. I found ways. Our kids took the regular city bus and they should be able to come to school all days that the tutoring lab was open at least because we had no lunches, sports, or all the other things other schools get and we knew we were a Cash Cow. The building was given freely to the district so there was no rent either. I used to put up notices not to drink the water because I knew the water was not sound based on that the site was a Superfund site and was a clean up that did not make the old building totally safe to drink the water.
Mattu kindly and sadly responded to my email and CC all staff that —When we get the funds we can look into it.
We had nothing for them and the students didn’t even eat until a year or so before everything changed and we were in negotiations. They tried at first to not include the other teachers.
I sent an email back to Mattu and all staff (which I still have) – we should go to the board.
But, I never did go to the board in 2012 about my concern that our students had rights to come everyday to school and only got one round trip bus pass for one day a week and occasionally staff got away with giving out more but not always.
I was too selfish and at will each day with no contract as a misclassified teacher to speak up and it wasn’t until we all faced (40 plus), except the five tenure teachers, that I started to speak up. I was the only one speaking out that we were misclassified but I had nothing to lose really and my instinct was right, of course, they were going to let everyone go so there was no bravery in it. I know stories people tell me not to tell and so much is not seen or heard.
Bill worked, according to his Linked In at his current job where he owns the consulting company California Schools Inspection LLC and then he also worked at TRUSD from 2014-2020. What he does not disclose is that he was for 18 years at least up to 2022 working for FCMAT and at least for all years at TRUSD from 2014-2020 and during the FCMAT on the Charter in 2018. Michael Fine continues to be the CEO of FCMAT to this day.
“As the core instructors of the FCMAT CBO Mentor Program since its inception, Bill [Mcguire] and Francie have played an essential role in the success of its participants over the past 18 years. They have spent countless hours preparing the next generation of CBOs, engaging in meaningful dialogue, and inspiring others to be their best. ..” page 2. 2021-2022 CBO Mentor Executive Report with a photo of Bill Mcguire Francie Heim and Bill McGuire served as core instructors for all sessions; they coordinated the curriculum and speakers and taught many of the segments of the curriculum. P.25
And hey, on page 27, in FCMAT’s Executive Report on Feb 4th and 5th 2021-2022 year show Mcguire was teaching future CBO Chief Business Officers about Human Resources ( I saw he was teaching this for years per past documents in FCMAT I found many years ago and that led along with him to the not so nice email exchanges between its head Chief executive Michael Fine and me) with no Administrative or teaching Credential which is required to be the Deputy Superintendent by law for that position to oversee HR. I was complaining as well the School Accountability Report Cards or SARC were false and so were the Annual Fiscal Reports to CDE, California Department of Education were false as well hiding the 50 plus teachers or hundreds over the decades.
Mcguire has NO license, not a teaching credential nor Administrative one. I know I tried to find out because he is a supposed to be an Expert in the state as one of two for the last 18 years at least up to 2021 for FCMAT’s trainers of up and coming CBO chief business Offices for all districts in California yet his oversight was intentionally are so far from ethical and right for 2014-2020 when he worked at TRUSD.
Education Code 35028 Deputy, associate, or assistant superintendent
A person shall not be eligible to hold a position as city superintendent, district superintendent, deputy superintendent, associate superintendent, or assistant superintendent of schools unless the person is the holder of both a valid school administration certificate and a valid teacher’s certificate, unless the person is employed as a deputy, associate, or assistant superintendent in a purely clerical capacity.
FCMAT CBO MENTOR Executive-Report 2021-2022
https://www.fcmat.org/PublicationsReports/CBO-Mentor-Executive-Report-2021-22.pdf
According to abc10 in their documentary they asked Highlands about the overcrowding of in person teachers and the unlimited signs up for online Independent Studies. HIghlands responds to the overcrowding in the in-person school and they are planning to hire many teachers. Yet, I found in the LCAP, ( LCFF Budget Overview for Parents) Highlands Community Charter planned on p. 46 of their 2023-2024 LCAP and LCFF year to have 42:1 ratio for classified staff or paraeducators and 96:1 ratio of students to teachers or basically one teacher to 96 students and that’s the plan in their LCAP under their Local Control and Accountability Plan. It’s not clear if that’s the online school but it claims the Charter school. Indeed their Annual Fiscal reports are not detailed either but so much money is going to bizarre things.
I hope you the readers watch abc10 and their ongoing documentary series and their request for TRUSD and HIghlands to Both be audited but they limit TRUSD audit to its overseeing effects on Highlands. They point out the very small percentage that is going to Teacher salary while other districts it’s dramatically higher. Personally, I think more money should be spent on support staff that make very little and be given medical insurance with full time work, not ongoing advertising for dozens of part-time workers with no medical benefits. This however, will not expose TRUSD corruption in the similar fashion and worse how they are doing what they allow to be done and its sinister. It’s fraud and misappropriation when it’s intentional and that’s the difference.
“Highlands is currently hoping to recruit 80 teachers” is the response to abc10 for this school year’s overcrowding. BUT THAT WAS NOT THE PLAN for the ratio of students to teachers is planned in the LCAP.
Instead they pay a very low percentage to teachers, pay paraeducators to teach these schools and spend millions on lobbying which a district does not spend a dime on. The pay, is or was around 13 grand a student per year if that has not gone up already and it is the same amount if a student is in online studies or in-personUnion teachers can opt out under the law so their money does not go to unknown or wanted lobbying. However, where is the fine line between doing this and just abuse of the structure of funding and spending? and that needs investigating.
abc10 Article
Highlands LCAP
https://hccs.hccts.org/apps/pages/LCAP
So who is responsible for overseeing a Charter or a Public School District for Vacancies, and fiscal reports and complaints?
CDE claims it is the District, TRUSD and the County Superintendent of Schools according to its letter of concern about ABC10 raised issues. It points to laws that make TRUSD and the County Superintendent responsible. The board has responsibilities of course as well.
https://www.scribd.com/document/698500895/CDE-Letter-to-Highlands-Charter-District-and-County
However, case law requires all laws to be in harmony and we must look at equal education for public funding and determine that charters are supposed to be audited by CDE and other agencies and CDE, CCTC claim they are only an agency taking in reports which is not true. Actually, it is written in the laws for teacher assignment monitoring or Vacancies but CDE still claims the buck stops at the School district or school board and claims misalignments or vacancies. The counties are also an issue. Financial and Compliance Audits is in Education Code Section 14502.1 and this requires various state agencies including CDE and nonprofits to work together to have the audit process and reporting yet again CDE claims it has no power to enforce or change reports but this law claims it does allow it in the Administrative Procedures Act.
Administrative credentials are required for administrators overseeing teachers in Charter schools because it would be in harmony with all the other laws and produce equal education for all students of public funds.
CDE and CCTC claims they have no authority to enforce, change data on SARC Reports, or Annual Fiscal reports, and that Characters do not have to abide by Administrative Credentials for Administrators but It’s not clear what law, if any, that claims they do not need to. If such a law exists, then it is not in alignment with the federal laws and constitutional right to an equal education and is subject in my opinion to the supremacy clause where the constitutional right to equal education would override a state law. Thus such a law would be in my opinion null and void but I could be wrong, and certainly it’s understandable that in private school it is not needed. People should have the freedom to choose their kids’ education. None-the-less for a charter it could be a violation and misinterpretation of the responsibilities because under the law it seems clear Charters are to be monitored. EDUCATION CODE EDC Section 44258.9 – Teacher assignment monitoring. California Williams Act.
https://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/calsaas-information/Appropriate-credentials-nonclassroombased
EDUCATION CODE EDC Section 44258.9 – Teacher assignment monitoring
What is clear is that to have equal education paid for by taxpayer dollars the interpretation that the CDE, CCTC, and even the COE claim they are simply not some enforcement but just a reporting of information agencies in terms of Teacher assignments, is inaccurate. The law EDC 44258.3 says otherwise. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=44258.9.&lawCode=EDC
So why does Linda Fowler and TRUSD have so much power other districts may not have or not as much?
Linda Fowler worked for the California Attorney General. The AG is connected to the DA office, the Grand Jury and CCTC when it has a hearing on Credentials.
Many top players in TRUSD have connections to audits and government agencies and is probably why one of the top California Commission on Teaching Credentials or CTC for short told me in person they shiver when they hear TRUSD. LInda Fowler worked for the Attorney General’s office and dealt in Civil Rights so she is far from ignorant as well as she was an attorney. The AG will oversee CTC hearings or appeals of teacher issues, and can oversee the DA office which is connected to the Grand Jury. The top HR person, Gina Carreon worked in the Sacramento Superior Court and has a law degree, so they have no innocence to the laws and ethics they break. She worked there as an intern in the court which houses the grand jury office for at least the last three decades. The only person who is the only filter for complaints worked and about half dozen of my complaints never got into the hands of the grand jury members.
Bill McGuire, past deputy superintendent of TRUSD who left in 2020 but has a consulting company and it is unknown how much or what he is working with TRUSD is doing.
So has the legislature in California known about TRUSD corruption and the incompetence of CDE, California Department of Education, Sacramento County office of Education and its Superintendent ?
Yes, I have run around letting them know for almost a decade.
What about Yolo County and why does it care or should care?
Well, I had a coworker who informed me his wife worked in Yolo County and she taught Native American and the county did an audit for vacancies and misalignments and found she was a Substitute in her class for four years and the county reclassified her and put her under probationary contract effective immediately that day. A county office of education must do an audit every four years for higher performing schools and every year for those performing lower in API 1-3 under the California Williams Act.
Currently, there are reports to CDE and CCTC for missassigments and vacancies but these can be sinisterly misused and accounting for funding should be crystal clear. Oversight is needed and should not take a decade for a JLAC to be requested.
All counties, however, are not providing the full support of oversight because they think they do not have to and CDE is not doing its job. Continue reading please.
Does Local Control and Accountability Plan or LCAP really mean Local Control And Ultimate Power? CDE has claimed to me it only oversees some things like parent participation in a LCAP for projected funding but not for how it was used but does not audit data reports except to make sure they are done (I created that meaning of Ultimate Power one day at the river in contemplation)
We don’t live in kingdoms anymore but the LCAP brings so much power to the local agency that it takes a JLAC to make the changes because not even a civil Grand Jury can get rid of Lidna Fowler.
Yet there are things the CDE and other agencies can do. The Office of Controller can do audits as well. They claim they only check for the proper reporting form and information that is approved by a board but this would include taking action or require auditing if inaccurate or complaints are made. EDC 42100.
Salary Sanctions. Education Code Section 42129 allows the SPI to authorize the withholding of stipends, expenses, or salaries of district superintendents, county superintendents or members of governing boards, as appropriate, if required reports are not submitted within 14 days after the due date. https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/ac/co/observations.asp
Criteria and Standards. Education Code sections 1240 and 1622 (for county offices) and 42127 and 42131 (for districts) require that budgets and interim reports be reviewed by the SPI [State Superintendent of Instruction] or the county superintendents, as applicable, to determine whether the reports comply with the Criteria and Standards adopted by the State Board of Education. https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/ac/co/observations.asp
The Manual below describes on page 16-19 various auditing requirements by the SPI.
https://www.fcmat.org/publicationsreports/COE-manual-2019-final.pdf
In education code or law there is oversight for accurate reporting. EDC 14502.1. (a) The Controller, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the State Department of Education, shall develop a plan to review and report on financial and compliance audits.
I have spent hours on the phone with several people from CDE who always claim the buck stops with the district school board for Vacancies and improper reporting on SARC or Fiscal reports. Their brochure, or from half a decade ago, claims any complaints go to the school board not CDE. They claim they do not change or review SARC or Fiscal reports for accuracy nor audit it except to make sure it is filled out and done. One kind man overseeing the LCAP and reporting said I could record him but he reserved the right to object but they all basically said the same thing. We talked for about two hours and it was down to the interpretations of the laws on the jurisdiction of CDE when it came to the Williams Act and vacancies and reports. They claim at the top as well the same thing, I know. This is not just on Charters, but districts as well. They do audits for when parents complain about the LCAP.
But we also talked about the parents. This was murky because I could not make a complaint but I knew things had happened.
THERE WAS DARK RETALIATION AND INTENT TO HAVE FRAUDULENT FISCAL LCAP AND OTHER REPORTS BY STEVE MARTINEZ TO PARENTS AND THEY COULD HAVE BROUGHT FORTH AN INVESTIGATION
A friend, John Berchielli , was head of the LCAP parent committee District Advisory Committee that signs off on the LCAP for approval and that approved LCAP goes to CDE. This is necessary because the district must include parents in the process and as CDE has claimed to me the CDE can get involved if parents are not a part of the process. HE Gave me Permission for all the quotes to put into this and said that again today.
YET, he was asked by Steve Martienz to sign off on Blank reports for Title 1, LCFF which is the Local Control Funding Formula which is under the LCAP and he would not do it. He Refused. He told me Martinez brought him into a room and told him he had to sign off on it or he would be taken off the parent president committee position he held. He would not sign it.
Martinez promised parents they would get a trip to a Title 1 conference in far off cities if they signed off on the Parent approval . But after they signed, many were told they won’t get their trip because they were not legal citizens.
“2014 seems to be the last year of the DAC. [District Advisory Committee] Superintendent dissolved when I would not sign blank documents for Title 1 funding.” –John Berchielli. President of DAC.
In 2021 DAC was reinstated but it’s a different name but John said in a text to me.,
“I have been calling it out to the Board members for years” and,
“ I have forwarded the laws to Baker and then he and Jefferson pressured Martinez to reinstate DAC”
The first parent Martinez blackmailed into signing the documents was Ms. G.
“As the chairperson of DAC my signature was required. The Title 1 annual conferences is another scam Martinez uses to reward loyal administrator’s -John Berchielli referring to the DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
So parents are recruited to go and then after doing the paperwork they are blackmailed into not going and a staff member goes in the place of a parent. That was the Long Beach scandal
He would offer the illegal immigration status parents free travel books and supplies in exchange for signing the Title 1 each year.”.. John B.
“I refused to sign blank documents [LCAP’s Local Control Funding Formula] and refused to sign anything until the entire DAC review the funded programs as that is the purpose of DAC. A parent’s checks and balances to keep the Administration from manipulating data and misinforming the Board.When I refused to sign, other parents were manipulated to sign in my place.” –John B.
“I had a private meeting with Martinez the second week after he started the job. He said if I wouldn’t cooperate he would dissolve the DAC. So he did. I was the only chair for the District DAC from day one until Martinez eliminated it….
He invited the DELAC to vote in DAC elections. That violated the DAC Bylaws. The Martinez interfered with election was voted by the DAC not valid. A valid election followed I was again reelected unanimously…John B. [ District English Language Advisory Committee]
…that he did was against all parents having any input in the District. Continues to do the same to this very day. Meeting notices and committees are not adequately published according to the Brown Act…”
[John B] DAC chair from the first year to the last year.
I asked him – He wanted it dissolved because he knew you would continue to be re-elected each year and you won’t sign and play his illegal game?
John replied back in his text – “Correct.”
“The issue is Martinez rewarding staff who screw over parents with trips on the Title 1 money
Most of the Trips were East Coast Washington New York and Florida”-John B.
“All the trips were paid for with Title 1 money to attend the National Title 1 conference. Every year is in a different city. Martinez would manipulate an undocumented Delac member to sign in my place. Then they would get to go on the trip. Right before the trip the District would notify the person and mention that due to their undocumented status they couldn’t go. So Martinez would send a staff member in place of the parent. This is how Martinez rewards Administrators that support his BS.
“Steve used the Delac to replace the Dac.” [District Advisory Committee]
“Martinez used Delac for years after disbanding the DAC to sign off on parent committee review….Instead of the meeting being parent lead the District took over running the meetings.
All of the DAC resources and CDE and US Ed codes were removed from the District website.”–John Berchielli
I am familiar with this that John is talking about. When I made complaints suddenly things were off the website that I pointed to.
“Using the police department databases targeted illegal immigrants to sign documents with incentives and threatened deportation if they didn’t go along….John.B
The Long Beach scandal was a Delac parent that pulled a fast one on Martinez …..”– John B. The parents drove down to LA and went to Disneyland.
Gina Carreon runs the HR that is above the police department. One time while at a board meeting I asked a sweet and kind school police officer where I would go to complain about things from high up and he seemed to think it was a conflict of interest to go to the TRUSD. In regards to seeing the abc10 document series this year this is what John B. had to say in a text to me –
“Incredible misjustice. I did see the video series. I posted it to the community group [TRUSD Facebook parent group] and received a very angry voicemail in response. From Linda Fowler”
“All of the issues covered in the video [abc10 Wild Wild West] series support my allegations all along,” and he thinks federal charges should apply.
In 2020 Fowler sent me an email in response to my email and letter to all board members including herself. She claimed my emails would not be read or looked at in the future from her board member email. She did not clarify, or maybe intentionally, if the board or she would not review future emails which were (respectfully enough) on corruption of TRUSD.
ISSUES HAVE BEEN RAISED IN THE PAST BUT ONLY AFTER YEARS OF COMPLAINTS OF THE CHARTER SCHOOL AND THE FISCAL CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAM THAT CAN DO AUDITS DID NOT FIND ANYTHING FRAUDULENT BUT abc10 CLAIMS IT WAS NOT ABLE TO GO DEEP AND THAT’S TRUE.
Similarities among the 2018 FCMAT on Highlands Community Charter and TRUSD run under Fowler as president, yet no JLAC or further investigation was done when legislatures knew. The following are a few of many issues raised in a 2018 letter to Linda Fowler. Ultimately, the FCMAT claims it has no subpoena power according to abc10 but FCMAT could file in court a writ of mandate, so could CDE, or Office of Comptroller that oversees Data documents and does their own investigations when they feel like it. Writs have subpoena power. Abc10 claims that the FCMAT claims it cannot go deep enough and the JLAC will be able to go deeper basically. I hope the JLAC is approved because these 2018 claims are still going on in 2024 from the year of investigation seems to shown by abc10.
- 2018 – FCMAT claim HCCS had curriculum not approved by the board, this happened at TRUSD school KHS as I have seen myself but this may have changed since I left.
- 2018- FCMAT claims that HCCS was providing gifts for students not approved nor legal. Yet in TRUSD In 2018 under oath, and video of assistant superintendent of curriculum said KHS was getting laptops when other students are not outside of kHS but this was and possibly unknown to her in violation of board policies and Ed code on Independent STudies that does not allow it to provide an incentive and I personally know it was not kosher to inform students they had the right over the parent to say no to IS and be in regular school because I did it a lot which I was lucky with kind principals that put up with me doing it but I did not hear other teachers say it but I knew the law. I never had a parent complain about that.
- 2018- FCMAT claims HCCS had irregularities in Instructional days. At TRUSD in the public school that was prevalent in KHS for at least 2008-2016 when I complained for over a year and Fowler and the board knew. They were misclassified and there were vacancies with no teacher for decades plus and this is clear in court documents. Court ruled it was not a substitute but a regular teaching position.
- This goes on….
How similar were HCCS Independent studies claims of corruption and TRUSD independent Studies ?
Highlands Community Charter School and the Online Independent Study school called Technical Schools (HCCTS) have too much in common in Corruption.
Abc10 interview witness who claimed their Independent studies documentations for evidence of student work was using fake samples or old ones at the Charter school. This is how they get ADA which is tied to a full week of attendance or Days to get the Money that is given to the School on the Attendance. In contrast, at TRUSD in Keema HIgh School where I worked we did not have fake samples to my knowledge but the work was not in any way around 20 hours of homework to represent a week but maybe sometimes a day or four hours even of work in modified classes. In KHS students were allowed to turn in late work and be absent. I was not aware of any work being used again.
I know at KHS the students never had a teacher assigned to the position except maybe one out of fifty teachers but the five or so contracted tenure teachers had other jobs like being misclassified and a counselor for a decade until I filed my complaint. None-the-less the teachers were not allowed to be in the teacher training portal and I got an email on that, because they were not teachers but indefinite substitutes sitting in the same desk for a decade plus with students from day one to the last day and graduating students who were seniors. It was a cash cow because they made millions off the students without giving them normal paid teachers who are a part of the normal teacher training who were paid millions less overall than the regular teachers on salaries while working the same or more hours as the five contracted teachers. (well subpoena documents show eight but one of them was a teacher down below on the first floor that I nor anyone else knew existed so I do not know what to say about that but shake my head.
Fabrication of documents is nothing new to TRUSD when it comes to Independent Studies.
ABC10 news coverage reviews that Independent Studies is claimed to be a cash cow and this is what was said under oath by one witness in a case on misclassification in TRUSD for its Independent studies. Same words. And I heard many teachers who were misclassified at KHS say that as well.
Why does CDE and other agencies under the California Williams Act laws that they do not have jurisdiction for auditing or enforcement of changes to inaccurate Date in Fiscal Accounting reports or SARC on Vacancies and missed assignments?
CDE claims the change or fixing inaccuracies or vacancies and or missed assignment is ultimately on the LEA or district or Charter. They claim for both districts and charters they have no control. Yet, the law does not say that and indeed the laws say the opposite. This is the ELEPHANT in the Room needing an overdue Writ of mandate in courts to force the agencies to do the right thing and abide by the law.
I spoke to CDE many times and they said the same thing for the known FALSE reports even during the 2015 and 2016 years when they continued to falsify the SARC in TRUSD and CDE would not act nor the county County Office of Education (COE). They point to the law and say they interpret it that way but I do not not do it in harmony with all other laws as I have reported as well which it must. I have had attempts to silence me on issues.
FCMAT is not Fit to do a review and potentially a conflict of interest if not corrupt itself or Is it?
I think it’s corrupt but when I sent an email to legislators in Sacramento with accusations and some details wanting a JLAC and other investigation FCMAT head Michael Fine he sent an email back to me and then he was quite offended but never changed his or FCMAT ways on TRUSD. He emailed me whether the county Superintendent or TRUSD board has ever asked for a FCMAT but he could have recommended it based on the information. HIs pride and joy one of two top FCMAT trainers is Bill Mcguire, presumably his dear friend. He said in the law legislatures could recommend a FCMAT review on Charters but they can’t for a School District and only a county superintendent like David Gordon or the School Board has the power to request a FCMAT. – at least in that year and before. I guess after years the pressure on Gorden recommended a review on HCCS Charter in 2018. He won’t go so far as to request one on a district like TRUSD under no circumstances regardless how many times I email or contact the county so I filed a Grand Jury investigation into the County office of Education. It never got into the hands of the juries as per the email implied by the gatekeeper because it was not on the form but yes, it was and I complained about that too. FCMAT will only go so far as it wants and what it wants. They play favorites so what would stop them from limiting their playing field. Bill Mcguire ran the school district with Steve Martinez and Gina Carreon into dark corrupt waters under the guidance of Linda Fowler. There are unbelievable sickening depositions, transcripts of those under oath, and reporter videos of those under deposition that show the details of HR , PAF forms, misclassification, Vacancies in violation of the Civil Rights of students under the California Williams Act and corruption. It shows the incompetence and worse corruption of the Sacramento County Office of Education.
I wonder into the night if that is one reason why one top official in CTC said to me personally they shiver when they hear TRUSD, or maybe because Bill Mcguire has no credential and is outside of purview or maybe all the other million reasons I have no space to write about here.
FCMAT should not have top employees who potentially need to be audited and it’s a government agency even if it says .org in its own twisted, confused way. I hope they do a JLAC. The State Auditor dabbled in the COE corruption in the state but she probably knew she could only go so far.
The CDE, the COE, nor the Board of TRUSD or Highlands requested a FCMAT but then CDE sent a letter of concern after abc10 started investigating and asking questions or for that matter when I was complaining with documents to CDE, COE, state Auditor, and the board of TRUSD. I can only say deep thank you to abc10 and its amazing journalist for taking it on. Andie Judson is phenomenal. I fear they will be afraid to go into district waters outside of connections to Charters out of fear of rocking the boat with the public school system and its powerful unions. My grandfather, born in 1906 who worked on the railroads, was the only union-toting democrat in his small town in Kansas and I grew up to love unions but now that love comes with caution if not I begin to question if they are that good of thing to have. I feel lost at times. When they speak, they get noticed but they were not speaking except about school closures before the media came trotting along. I forced their hand over the misclassifications.
How much Retaliation for speaking out on unethical actions has happened at TRUSD under the guidance of LInda Fowler and TRUSD?
Abc10 story Wild Wild West of Education uncovered a story about a claim Linda Fowler threatens retaliation and so does the executive of the charter school. Yet, this is done in TRUSD under Linda Fowler, Steve Martinez, and HR to many people for the last decade. I believe the 2012 grand jury investigation did not go high enough on TRUSD.
I have experienced retaliation under Linda Fowler who would know it was exactly that as a one with a law degree and an expert in education laws.
For starters when I went to the board meeting years ago, I was talking about the fiscal and ethical crimes and wrongdoings and Michael Baker got upset and his back was still bent over like he had not completely straightened up and he looked over at Linda Fowler and she waved him down. I kept talking. I already knew she was the ringleader but it was well known and people talked about it and I had heard this from others as she was an attorney and board members believed they could not do their job without her. What is clear is even when a grand jury says she has to go the board would not budge or vote her out in complete defiance of a grand jury of Sacramento.
Fowler made those comment, “Why should I work for free when it isn’t against the law?” In the Bee article below about her unethical connections to the Charter school and did get fined for it, she paid it, and kept on going even when the grand jury told the board to remove her. I will say she does some good of making sure all people from walks of life are hired but if they speak out it could be a different thing. She says this and gets paid all while knowing and allowing teachers not to have benefits, regular salary, and work long hours without the proper credit of a day to the retirement system. What she gets is not what she will allow or fight for the people under the board she serves as president for most of those years.
“Why should I work for free when it isn’t against the law?” –Linda Fowler
Sacramento Bee, Diana Lambert July 20, 2015 Twin Rivers board president receives payments from charter school she helped form
https://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/the-public-eye/article27448474.html#storylink=cpy
https://sacgrandjury.org/docs/reports/15-16/report-2-twin-rivers-conflict-of-interest.pdf
In 2021 Fowler sent me an email for a response to my email to all board members requesting the board to request a JLAC [from a member of the California legislature], an Office of Controller audit and other audits and that FCMAT was not proper because of Mcguire who now works with Highlands. I also sent an email to the Office of Controller requesting to review Highlands because Fowler had no credential and was working as an Admin. I claimed many times in person and emails that there was fraud and wrongdoings including the misclassification which the courts ruled in 2022 there was but no damages even though there were. I said the top people had jumped ship and she said the top people were still there.
However, Mcguire left in January 2020, When Assistant Superintendent Sarah Naguchi was deposed and had said KHS was the lowest performing school [Title 1 and in API 1-3] she left after but it is not known why or for what reason. Greg Murray also left and was overseeing all high schools. Principal Elmena was told not to discuss the future changes for the Hourly misclassified teachers until near the end of the school year and then the district allowed teachers to be upset with her while she did not explain or rat her superior out. Granted, my writing was not steller. She had ignored my emails for six years so I was a bit surprised. In 2020 my coworker Bashamak was found to be retaliated against by the public labor board. In December 2020 Fowler emailed me back from the district email as a board member. My emails were absolutely founded in what I knew and not improper in any way. She knew for years of the vacancies as president of the board, she knew I continued to work misclassified like most all my coworkers, she knew the SARC reports and Fiscal report for all years she was there up to 2017 was FALSE, and she happily let me not get reclassified with everyone I was negotiating for without the employees knowing I was. Emails obtained in Subpoenas.
I had been emailing the board members since 2015. As a member of the DELAC, as a volunteer representing my school for a few years, I sent an email to the district asking for an anonymous review in paper form of the school and some issues in 2014 –but I wrote my name and emailed with my district email.
This email response by Fowler below was sent to me in December 2020 in response to complaints I made to All board members using their board member email and it was honest, and respectful enough but not improper and as an attorney she should know and understand school laws and policies better than anyone. It is implying she and or the whole board will not be reviewed as a board member which based on recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that a board members private facebook they should not even be deleting opposing view comments ( in Fairness not entirely sure I agree with that even if it helps the People freedom of speech)
To: Rebecca Wu
Apparently, you have listened to and talked with individuals who are as misinformed as you are. I have not been, and am not currently, involved in whatever gibberish you espouse.
I highly resent your statement of lies about me. This is not only evidence of your erroneous belief, [vacancies, misclassifications…] but you should be ashamed to show your ignorance. And, by the way: the “top people” are still at Twin Rivers!
Any future communication from you will not be acknowledged, read nor answered.
Linda Fowler, J.D.
And Proud Of It
P.S. You need to take some academic classes in grammar and writing skills to be taken seriously!
Sent from my iPad
This is a district email and permanent record on their server. I was wondering why assistant superintendents at TRUSD Craig Murray and Sarah Naguchi had jumped ship. Naguch left around 2018 after her deposition in the misclassification case.
PAINFUL AND SAD EFFECTS OF THE MISCLASSIFICATION AND HIDING THE TEACHERS FROM THE DATABASES TO CDE, AND ALL THE IMPROPER PAY, AND RETIREMENT. WITH THE UNION COMES A CBA AND A VOICE THAT WE DID NOT GET.
In 2015, my coworker and friend at Keema High School passed away right after a misclassification case was filed by the state union. She was an African American who students loved so much with her kind and happy voice. She loved wearing African outfits and had a lively personality. She had been an acting guild member in Los Angeles and New York city where she loved to act but like many changed her career and got into teaching. She was part of the Sacramento State acting group and was a civil rights activist in South Sacramento where she grew up. The CBA had a death insurance, retirement system payout would have been inaccurate as well, and had help in pay for terminal illnesses but she did not get all of that because we had no contract, no hiring paperwork for me and many others, no CBA, no union, no benefits, no lunch and well she did not know she was misclassified but her son Ali, whom had lived with her at the time wrote declaration under oath in the misclassification case she didn’t know and he said she did not get medical attention when she was sick because she had no medical insurance. Her niece and her friend, a close other coworker of mine , told me she was leaving Keema so she could get a contract with benefits and then she got sick. She finally went when she turned 65 and got free medical care for seniors when she had been sick for years. She found out then at 65 she had stage four cancer and around that time left KHS. Two years later in 2015 she passed away weeks after a misclassification case was filed.
MORE RETALIATION AND CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
It was the principal Mr. Mattu who said under oath and video the board knew they were substitutes and they were the teachers. In a Declaration under oath he said that the Personnel Action Forms PAF that say not for use with Substitutes were what HR had informed them to use and he did not set any of that up that way. Chief of HR Claimed under oath that it was the principals doing and tried to get at least one of them to agree but that did not happen so then she tried to get an office employee to agree they did it on their own that way and that did not work, as I was told this by the employee, and then tried to claim in a horror fashion that they did it because of a medical condition. The employee demanded a union rep who came but then upon hearing what was said was so horrified she stopped the meeting and would not let the HR Chief talk to them. This meeting happened around a week or so after they received in certified mail a subpoena for that employee who then said they will not go.
Another employee who ran the substitute systems for years in HR up to May 2016 claimed to me that she told the Sheriff who served a subpoena as witness in the misclassification [also regarding the PAF forms] that she would not go because of what they did to her and she said she did not like Carreon. She also said to me the 2012 Grand Jury did not look deep enough into the treatment of African Americans TRUSD HR and Carreon was head of HR at the time and she said she mistreated her. It is unknown why she left in May, not at the end of the school year.
Another employee told me that when she brought up the issues of the Native American and that no committee or parent group was up and running but they had them in other districts for years that she was singled out by HR Chief Carreon. They did not have the committee or services for years under Fowler and Mcguire, or the Superintendent and complaints to board members from my experience and stories of others go unanswered [ Except Bob Bastion would get back to me] .
Mohammad Bashamak won a Retaliation case that pointed at Gina Carreon, Chief of HR retaliation against him in the Public Employment Relations Board. He works at KHS and when he spoke to News and Review newspaper days later he was retaliated against as well as because he had sent a letter to HR which included what was happening to minorities and the misclassification issue that he sent around 2019. That case is final and not challenged so it stands. He has basically a restraining order against TRUSD.
Principal Harjinder Mattu, I know, was fighting for Civil Rights of students when he raised the issue that Independent Studies at KHS in TRUSD improperly did not have the Title 1 status for its low income student percentages. It thus did not have the extra funding for it. But you see, under Title 1 it is far less pennies to the millions saved EACH YEAR by not having teachers assigned as teachers but hourly paid substitutes. A Title 1 requires more audit or review and they did not want exposure for the wrongdoings. Mattu, and other principals told all of us we could not work over 75% of the days because HR does not let them. [This would bring up a can of worms] but most the non-retired teachers of 20 or more worked at or over full time hours in the CBA if they had been placed under the CBA and as a probationary or regular teacher per EDC 3545 b.1 The savings of not providing medical insurance, proper salary that goes up each year and an hourly rate that is higher than a regular substitute but for a non-retired teacher it is dramatically different if one had rights to the years of service per year that moves you up. Mattu was let go in 2014, with a claim the position went away yet that was illegally, the district did not replace the principal for two more years and we called the vice principal – principal or site admin. He told me I could tell media that those instructions of using the PAF form and how it was used and the hourly paid teacher using substitute timesheets and the office wrote in we were substituting for a PAF form and those PAF forms were lists of us, substitutes or ourself and thus clear vacancies, that was all the direction of HR. YET, Carreon not only signed those PAF forms, but claimed in court that the Principals like Mattu were the ones doing it on their own and she filed that After the office employee told her no it was all at the direction of the district. Carreon, who used to be director of HR, had been signing those PAF forms and she graduated from law school and did an internship in the Sacramento Superior court as well.
In 2019, when an editor from an agency I had whistleblown to, asked for information to the Payroll director about who were substitute substituting for at KHS for various years but then sent me an email the district payroll director was not going to communicate as the school attorney had claimed there was a suit that would have to be finished before they provide the information but that was a crime under the law. The information was never given and the auditor stopped the audit. The attorney and district knew there was a Subpoena request for the payroll director and employee who oversaw substitute services but one did not get service until a month later and had been coming in an hour earlier than normal so the server had issues.
A different employee told me herself in Land Park where we talked that the same Director had told her she had signed a form, that she did not and did not have her signature on it, and claimed that would waive her unemployment. She had to fight for unemployment as it was during the middle of the school year. She was let go where she knew no issues were raised and was let go after over a decade of being an employee. This happened in 2020 the same month Bashamak’s hearing in the Public Employment Relations Board and she could have been a potential witness because she had substituted a bit for Bashamak.
I have been contemplating for years or almost a decade if Linda Fowler orchestrated the hiring of all those at top, each willing to play and play its perfect part. A mastermind and brilliant one at creating illusions and clouding the truth. A moving masterpiece of manipulation which skilled attorneys can be good at and a circle of strength feared and impenetrable.
When Bill Mcguire, questioned by the Media on the news, why he was asking for a pay raise when he claims schools he is trying to close, left TRUSD in 2020. Yet, he instantly created a consulting firm and the records or details are not transparent. Gina Carreon took over his job as a part time deputy Superintendent and continued as Chief of HR but without a doubt they still used him or still do. He was inside the circle of power and he is brilliant.
But What about Superintendent Martinez? Mastermind or follower just enjoying the power? Or both? Who knows. The attorney for the district told me he likes loyalty. The president of the union told me the misclassifications were a drop in the bucket and the attorney for the district plays dirty. Emails by Carreon, Mcguire, and others in HR were allowed in a retaliation Public Employee Relations Board case but Martienz emails were not allowed as Carreon had claimed decisions were hers. [not ruled on yet]
Lets not think Linda Fowler is on her way out when she leaves office to her lost election in March 2024 and due to end in June 2024
She has her own ability to be contracted out not just by the Charter but by the district. We will never know unless the details of the finances are allowed to be audited or given. Highlands has reported the monetary money for future costs for Bill Mcguire but is it accurate?
When I went to the Board in June 2015 I came with a dozen plus other teachers from KHS because we did not want to lose our job as uncontracted hourly paid teachers and have many more teachers like the three that had been transferred in whose tenure. There had been five of fourty or fifty teachers that were contracted and tenure but we were all not. I was the only one to complain that it was not legal and we should join the other members of the California Teachers Association as we could not be local members. On that day as the complaints I made to agencies, Steve Martinez Said Please do not speak and come see him personally, but I spoke.
PERSONAL ACTION FORMS WERE WHAT THEY USED FOR ACCOUNTING PURPOSES FOR THE GHOST TEACHERS THAT DID NOT EXIST IN THE SUB DATA SYSTEM OR TEACHER SYSTEM FOR YEARS. THESE FORMS SAID “NOT FOR USE WITH SUBSTITUTES.” REQUIRED A POSITION CONTROL FORM TO MATCH INTO THE SYSTEM AS TEACHERS AND THAT WAS NOT DONE FOR YEARS ONLY FOR US. THEY WROTE ON THE FORM THE SUBSTITUTE FOR THE TEACHER AND SAID SEE LIST WHICH WAS A LIST OF OURSELVES. THIS CAUSED A LOOP. THE FORM HAD THE YEAR OF TEACHING, TITLE OF TEACHER.
Because the PERSONAL ACTION FORMS PAF (signed by HR chief) did not have a position control then they did not end up in the data system. The required internal procedures of a Position Control was reviewed under video and oath in depositions of HR techs in late 2017. These would then be entered into the Database to go to CCTC and CDE but they were not so they were TOTAL GHOSTS.
Because of these Ghosts positions then they had to stay GHOSTS in the SARC REPORTS. They did. In the SARC reports they show 5 teachers to 700 students on average from at least 2010-2016 then the 2016-2017 SARC report card changes and has less than 700 students and 32 and I as well as most teachers for those years can tell you we generally had most our students all year with some who graduate and drop out. The SARC report cards also show many years with no missed assignments and no vacancies.
Then, the School ANNUAL FISCAL REPORTS for many years prior to 2016 show that there were only 5-8 teachers and 700 students as well but it claims the pay was under a Million or so depending on the year. Those one page reports with 5-8 teachers show 1.5 million and also varying but that was for Additional School Funds in an Excel on the Report of the school.
YET in the 2016-2017 ANNUAL FISCAL REPORTS it claims 30 something teachers and less students and is more reflective after they Reclassified everyone on August 5th 2016 but posted it on the Board meeting September. This Annual Report claims at its Beginning of the report for the All schools not just on the school that Due to Keema High School having “variable” pay salary or positions the budget has a big change. The Additional funds are now like all the other schools which are the Extra Duty or overtime and it’s very small. Now the report looks similar but again, they were GHOST teachers that did not exist so they fraudulently reported them as some additional funds the kids or students somehow got and they did not. IT looks Pretty but it’s Ugly.
Yet, there was no money for students to come back more than one day to a school with no lunches, no sport, and a weeklong open Lab for tutoring. We had to watch our paper use as well. That was our pay. But if you look at other schools with 700 students you see many many millions more for teacher pay and dozens more teachers. We did not have extra duty pay, allowed into the training district professional development classes, BTSA, medical insurance.. And it goes on. The students had basically nothing. The County office of Ed knew this was going on and so did everyone else. The board knew because Mattu said they did.
Layle Bojanski
I attempted to get the PAF forms that show how money was approved for the position. I heard that it existed that says not for use with substitutes and was signed by Carreon in HR in August 2015. I got some of them after many tries to have my HR file copied but only after the employee who oversees the Substitute system sent me emails. Those PAF forms in my HR file were for internal use only and I could not have them. Years later she told me in emails and phone calls all the Substitutes at KHS who were teachers and most were, they were not in the Substitute database which raises red flags if they are there long, so we did not exist. Those forms state they are “Not for use with Substitutes” and require a position control but we were never in the Database for position control either. The office employee in KHS told me that around September 2015 people from the district office came in and took out about eight boxes of PAF forms for all the teachers [misclassified as hourly paid substitutes for years] and those have never been seen or given in subpoenas.
TRUSD KNEW TEACHERS WERE MISCLASSIFIED AND NOT IN THE SUBSTITUTE SYSTEM OR TEACHER DATABASE THAT GETS SENT TO CDE
Jennifer Taylor, a Human Resource Analyst in HR met with me in 2013 and others like me to go over No Child Left Behind requirements for my assigned teaching position (but filling out substitute timecards like all of us except the few tenure teachers) She later Wrote a Declaration under oath about the misclassifications of teachers at KHS. The County office of Education had told them in HR in 2013 that all the teachers at Keema High School were misclassified. Layle Bojanski, HR manager claimed in 2021 under oath that they knew they were misclassified and that’s why they were offering them tenure or contracted jobs in 2016. Years earlier, my bosses said I did a good job.
Roseville Superintendent of HR said under court reporter video and oath in 2017 in a shocking way that his board, his cabinet, and his superintendent would have a problem with denying the tenure track to substitute who were teachers and work them such long hours. He was visibly upset at the thought of it.
Another HR employee who overseeing Substitute systems, Ms. B claimed to me and in email we were not in the sub system. She also claimed no substitutes were sent there at KHS. When we were absent no substitutes came, because we were filling out substitute timesheets, and so our students who we met with for an hour once a week just picked up the homework and did not meet with teachers unless we rescheduled them. We all just left our homework on the desks when we all had a staff meeting once a month, until I complained in 2015 and then it was once a week like all other teachers in the district.
After working for almost a decade I learned that retired substitutes do not get the same legal protection as active paying members and substitutes who were not retired like me could join CTA so I did and encouraged others to do so when they transferred in three full time Tenure teachers. We worked almost double the hours in one day teaching instructional one to one hours as the regular teachers do now and one or so did teach while the other tenure teachers had other job duties. Students were not told we were substitutes and we thought of ourselves as teachers. It was a great environment where everyone loved each other like a family for years and why I would not leave. Then with a threat of loss of all of our jobs many of us went to the board, and Martinez said please do not talk and you will have your jobs for one more year while we review changes. But, I complained to the union and they filed a case.
Then I was negotiating on behalf of everyone but when the union president said the attorney played dirty I did not know what to do but thought about leaving and wanted my years of service recognized to be placed on a proper salary schedule and my retirement fixed. Emails show I was willing to settle for 2 grand which is less than the claimed hiring bonus because of teacher shortages around the state.
They did not want that but a Letter or MOU was sent out by the Chief of HR to all the staff that as soon as it settles she will talk to them about their job status for the following year. We were not under a contract so we could be let go. Eventually, they reclassified everyone but me. I was out of my regular teaching job I had been at since 2007. They knew I was scared to be in the regular classroom but then that’s where they put me as a substitute. They claimed to Unemployment I was working the same job but I was not.
The MOU letter sent to everyone at KHS they will find out about their job status when they settle and will not meet with them until AFTER.
Yet, without my years of service and fixed retirement to incorporate the CBA I had rights to by law as a regular teacher would have my Days based on five hours of teaching or around that to represent a day as is the case for Secondary teachers in most all other schools in the district. The letter caused pain because just a month before that letter was sent I was arguing at a conference meeting with the union attorney remembering that I wanted the retired teacher and everyone to be included and claimed the retired teachers were “My best friends.” so they knew what would hit me the most. Turning people against each other is Ms. Carreons specialty.
A half a year after I stopped working at KHS I started regular substituting and working in Home Hospital. Every school I went to I posted notices that you can join the statewide union but not the local union, and have no idea what they thought about it. Then half a year later, after going to the board with complaints, The Chief of HR in TRUSD wanted to stop me from working after she got an email from my boss that I was whistleblowing. When he found out that she wanted to get rid of me he asked that I continue and claimed there were no complaints. Carrenon had sent an email to another coworker in HR within hours or minutes of getting the email I was whistleblowing and said I should be cut. I was emailing CDE, CCTC, county supervisors, COE and making complaints and then my email was cut. I was never informed I was let go and then I could not get my cash out for my retirement because HR sent a 0 dollar check that prevented me from getting my retirement which is not allowed as an active employee and the QSS internal system showed I was active as well many months after my email was cut. I sent emails to her, and HR directors asked to reactivate it when it happened and my direct boss did not know why it was cut or shut off and wanted to give me students to have for the Home Hospital which was on a first come first serve bases on who responds with their email first and there were not many students so competition was fierce.
That was my last day working at TRUSD. I went to the board a few days later to talk but did not talk and then two days after that got a letter that it’s a misdemeanor to disturb a school meeting but the Chief of HR later said under oath that I never disturbed a board meeting. A few days before she cut my email so I could not work but did not inform me she sent an email. I came in as a whistleblower and how do they keep me away. She told those in HR not to respond to my personal email asking for my work email to be turned back on. I had contacted IT to ask them to do it as well.
SOME BEAUTIFUL ASPECTS OF THE CHARTER SCHOOL SHOULD BE POINTED OUT.
I do think some of the many expenditures and aspects of the charter school that are not found or not as much in the regular district should be pointed out. I think having fun teacher bonding events is essential to a healthy system and they may or may not be spending more money on. Outrageous trips are questionable.
When I was at KHS the district sponsored me to go to Safari International with my close colleagues. It was fun flying to Jackson Wyoming but it was not on the district’s dime. I argued back in 2008 I didn’t want to go because it was supporting exotic animal hunting and I was a vegetarian. My principal wanted me to go and come back and help in a nature site because of my background. I said I do not agree with Polar Bear hunting and he forever nicknamed me Polar Bear even in emails and we laughed and chatted at times. He said they pay for the internship or summer program so I won’t be supporting it and I should go so I did. We went through classes and field trips from sunup to sun down, which didn’t make some people happy but meals were fun and great. They were a kind and amazing group of people running it. I came away with, if I ate meat I would rather have hunted meat for sure, and we brought back environmental and natural teaching kits, mostly focused on hunting use for wildlife management and had scats in it for our classes. I still didn’t agree with exotic hunting but it brought us teachers closer and that builds something good in a school. We went on to do trips to Washington DC and museums on our own dime as friends.
We should probably keep in mind that teacher pay is higher at a district and that they buy their own property and in long term effects that can be a savings. I do not know the whole picture on their expenses because I wonder about the details that are not reported. I was impressed with Highlands Charters’ many claims of the innovative or just decent acts of giving and helping adult students like expungement, bus passes, homeless needs, help in paying for some vision and other medical care, and the list of other things they do in the LCAP.
It was or looks like on paper something that is not done at the regular school district especially when it comes to bus passes, events, trips, lunch meals to the school KHS I worked at.
ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO HAVE REVIEWS OF TRUSD
I tried going to News and Review in early 2016 when I was in negotiations on behalf of misclassified teachers at KHS that continued day in and out to misclassify and violate the civil rights of Students. I still admire the newspaper but they kept taking my comments down with a few exceptions. The Bee ignored me but recently a few years ago had an Opinion article that looked at the effects of the union on another local district and that was surprising they allowed it to be printed and I was impressed but no they won’t go there and shed light on the whole corruption unless it points to Charters. CTA is the most powerful union and elected officials in all areas of Government from courts to agencies do not want to point any fingers.
I ran around the capital and sent complaints to the state auditor office, walked in and emailed elected officials, grand jury reports, nonprofits and other federal and state agencies. A Writ of Mandate could be filed, like the California Williams Act that forces the hand of government to make changes and they did then have auditing but it can and is a joke.
LOCAL CONTROL AND ULTIMATE POWER NEEDS OVERSIGHT
In 2013 the LCAP and law was rolled out to have more control of school districts and charters so CDE had less oversight but this is taken to an extreme especially where you get big districts where a few outspoken people can get washed away or drowned. Ultimately, there is a constitutional right to equal education and CDE must take responsibility and this can be done with a Writ of mandate to force the hand either by one person or organizations. The federal government could or should step in if a JLAC is denied.
The dance of Circumvent the law with a claim of no responsibility is a skillful but easy one that is masterful by those who know the laws but it is not the right thing. CDE needs to claim its power it already has and they should request JLAC investigations when they send many claims and review the claims they get.
NOWHERE TO TURN
Why is it the state and county agencies do not want to be responsible?
Sometimes I wonder if its fear. Its the biggest pot of money or its the costliest part of the pie. Other things are more easy to review I wonder.
When the State Auditor did review the Department of Education and counties she made some recommendations but I wonder if she didn’t go deep enough because it was so muddy.
Taken from the website – https://information.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2021-614/index.html#section6
Education Is Responsible for Monitoring LEAs’ Use of Funds
Federal and state laws require Education to monitor LEAs to ensure their compliance with a broad range of federal program requirements, including requirements related to ESSER and GEER
ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA
California State Auditor
One part of the response by CDE to the audit findings and the recommendations
By CDE Mary Nicely Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction
- When selecting LEAs for monitoring, use the data that LEAs submit to identify those that have reported significant amounts of spending of ESSER funds in the category of “other” activities.
Education’s Comments [CDE] Chief Deputy Superintendent of public Instruction did not agree
⑤Do not concur.
Moral of the Story —We the people need change and oversight for details about the fiscal reports, inaccuracies, vacancies, and more. We need this so it does not take a decade for a JLAC but CDE oversight of districts and charters as they should because the students have rights to equal education and laws must be in harmony. It’s the Elephant in the room.
My hope is CDE and other agencies as stated by law acknowledge their responsibility and a deeper investigation into the fraudulent acts of TRUSD either through this coming approval of a JLAC or another one that would show how this was no oversight mistake by the district but intentional because where did they learn how to be so corrupt is the bigger question. I am still left wondering, what about the details never given for the 6 million dollar pool? Is there any 6 million dollar man out there or a combo of contracted out ones? Is Bill Mcguire still working for the district in the shadows of the unknown or not reported?
