Letter to the Editor:
I want to express my disappointment in the BUSD Board of Education and their oversight of the management and financial accountability of our District. The more I watch the videos of past meetings, review agendas, read staff reports and back-up documents, the more concerned and angrier I become.
These Trustees were elected and entrusted with oversight of over $200,000,000 dollars of public funds, every year and now nearly $500,000,000 in bond funds. Most importantly they serve as Trustees of the educational system for the children of this community.
Superintendent Paramo, who they hired, has resigned, and they have censured Board member Tabet, who continues to be a Board member.
By the Boards’ admission, and those of Mr. Cantwell, the Chief Administrative Officer and Dr. Macias, the Interim Superintendent, “trust in the district has been breached”. They have told us how angry they are and that it is their responsibility to rebuild that trust. They promptly hired an independent third party to do a thorough and impartial review, the Sobel Group, Inc.
During the July 10 Board meeting, Trustee Weisberg, told us the Sobel report will be released to the public and “it won’t be redacted”. Just moments later Trustee Ponzer-Kamkar said the Sobel report will be released, “with as few redactions as possible”. And so, the political word salad of obfuscation begins.
Are they really being transparent or just buying time hoping this mess blows over?
The terms and conditions of the Sobel contract literally preclude transparency from occurring. They arranged for this contract to be made through their attorneys. The contract states, and I quote “the Investigator agrees that it shall not disclose any information or evidence obtained in the course of its investigation to anyone other than the firm. (their attorneys) It goes on to say” Specifically, the investigator agrees that it shall not disclose or disseminate its findings, evidence gathered, or its investigation report to the district.”
Why? Why would this Board undertake an investigation to be conducted under the legal cover of attorney/client privilege? It appears to me to be an effort to sweep the truth under the cover of the proverbial legal rug to protect this Board and Mr. Cantwell, the people in charge of this mess.
They were elected to ask difficult, probing questions and to do so at public Board meetings, not behind closed doors. They approved the Specialized Support Services/BreeAnn Weist/Tabet contract and purchase order without a single question asked publicly.
Frankly, not one Board member has proven to be a capable steward of our children’s education. They need to acknowledge their part in this embarrassing scandal and the deep endemic problems we are facing.
They need to look in the mirror. They all need to step down.
Jef Vander Borght
Burbank
