A question of financial accountability

The March 22, 2012 issue of the West Marin Citizen reported that the LWIP parents preparing a charter petition have hired an unnamed lawyer and financial accountant to prepare the charter and financial documents. As a parent in LWIP it would be very helpful to finally get the names of these consultants, copies of the contracts, and information about how much they have been paid. It would also be nice to know how the LWIP Administrative Council (AC) has spent the money we parents donated 2010-11 and 2011-12. It is impossible to know since we parents have never been given any financial reports. That is a troubling track record for a group that is now asking to be given control over much more money as a charter school.

The current District budget presented last Tuesday shows LWIP with about $58,000. That was news to me because the only financial documents I have ever gotten are proposed budgets. We have never gotten a balance sheet of what has come in and gone out. How is this money being spent? It is supposed to be used to hire our wonderful specialty teachers. But it would be nice to know details.

I ran a non-profit organization and prepared balance statements for my board of directors. LWIP is supposed to have been doing that as a matter of fiscal accountability but it has not. The AC has never once prepared a balance sheet to show what has happened with the many tens of thousands of dollars donated by LWIP parents to the program. I know because I have asked about 3 times at AC and Parent Council meetings during the past 19 months and despite being told it is "a good idea" I am still waiting.

This lack of basic fiscal accountability indicates that those proposing to take our program charter are neither prepared nor experienced in managing money—especially taxpayer money. As a result they will need to hire expensive accountants and auditors to do this work thereby taking money out of the classroom and away from the education of our children. Is this what we really want?

One needs to ask how these LWIP parents can be expected to be given perhaps $300,000 to $400,000 to run a charter school when during the past nearly 2 years they have never once accounted for the donations they have received and how they have been spent.

This is a critical issue that needs to be addressed for several reasons. First, there are numerous cases of California charter schools going under due to fiscal mismanagement and corruption. In San Diego several charters left the District with unpaid debts that can never be collected.

Second, if LWIP goes charter and then fails we will no longer have a Waldorf program, period. Wouldn't we be more secure staying as a program and continuing to organize to expand our program, keep our teachers and elect more supporters to the Board of Trustees? Our track record in the past two years is actually not bad. We fought off two layoffs last year and added a grade this year.

Third, going charter may require we parents handle a lot more responsibility for less return and more risk. As I will examine in future blog posts, we may end up with less money per student—all our children in LWIP and the entire District— at the same time we now find ourselves responsible for hiring and firing teachers and contracting with the District for services and facilities. Money will be drained from the classroom to consultants, lawyers, an expensive administrator, and to the District for the work it will have to do monitoring our operations.

We need to thoughtfully ask if all of this is really worth it? And above all we should be asking if we really can handle it.

The unresolved questions about how our parent donations are being spent should be seriously seen as a possible indicator of things to come.

A "small group of self-selected parents"?

This morning I received an email from Mia Terziev, a fellow parent and member of what I called the "small group of self-selected parents" in my last posting who are proceeding with a petition to turn our Waldorf Inspired Program into a charter school. Mia, as you will see in our email exchange below, takes issue with me describing them as a "self-selected" group because they are "elected" by the parents as the Administrative Council (AC).

Good point but as my Intro to US Government students learn the form of democracy is not the same thing as the process of democracy. They may have been elected but what is the process by which this small group within the AC is making these decisions? Where in our bylaws is the AC authorized to turn our program into a charter and sign contracts with consultants? When did they send out the AC agenda indicating that they would vote on turning our program into a charter and sign contracts? What was the outcome of the vote? How did each AC member vote? Can I read the minutes for that meeting? When was it announced to the parents? I would like to know these things in order to better inform myself as to the merits of whether our program should go charter.

Mia apologized for my apparent misunderstanding of the process writing, "i am sorry you misunderstand." I'm sorry but I'm not sure what I do not understand about the way decisions are supposed to be made in a democratic society.

The lack of transparency in the way this "small group of self-selected parents" has been working for about a year makes me wonder about how these decisions are being made. How are we supposed to hold our "elected" representatives accountable when they operate in the dark? It is worth remembering as US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis noted "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."

As you may notice in the email below Mia didn't offer to send me the documents I have requested to read. I'm still waiting.

The emails follow...

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On 3/21/12 8:31 AM, robert ovetz wrote:
> Mia,
>
> Where in our bylaws does it authorize your group (or the AC) to pursue a charter, work with consultants, and sign contracts? If this was an action of the AC as you say when was the vote announced to the parent body? Can I have a copy of the agenda sent out to the parents and the minutes? When did the vote take place? What was the outcome of the vote? How did each AC member vote? When was this vote announced to us parents?
>
> I would appreciate this information to help me make an informed decision about your proposal.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Robert
>
>
> On 3/21/12 7:29 AM, Jasper Thelin & Mia Terziev wrote:
>> to remind you: the ac is not self-selected. all members of the ac have been elected by the parent council.
>> i am sorry you misunderstand.
>> from your blog:
>> "This week a small group of self-selected parents in our Lagunitas Waldorf Inspired Program..."

A small group of parents in our Waldorf Inspired Program plan to submit a petition to split off our program into a charter

This week a small group of self-selected parents in our Lagunitas Waldorf Inspired Program (LWIP) publicly informed the Board and San Geronimo Valley that they plan to submit a petition at the next Board meeting on Tuesday, April 17 to split off our program into a charter school. Only this month did they announce to us fellow parents in the program that they have been quietly working on the petition for about a year. My daughter is a student in the LWIP program.

Because this group of parents have refused my request to let me read the petition, preliminary budget, feasibility study, and consultant contract(s) and refuse to release it to anyone outside their small circle we don't yet know what their proposal looks like and if it even has the support of the parents in our program.

Although there were 2 recent parent meetings held to announce their plan no agenda was distributed announcing this critical issue in advance. Unfortunately, I missed the meetings due to a family obligation and having to teach. Yet, the only document shared with my fellow parents at those meetings was a short memo dated March 4, 2012 announcing their plan to file a petition. According to the memo and a March 20, 2012 email, this group of parents have been working with undisclosed consultants on this petition for about 1 year.

At tonight's board meeting I asked that the board consider requesting a broader range of documents than listed in the board policy. When Trustee Steve Rebscher asked me if I had any concerns I explained that I was concerned that this process is proceeding in an un-transparent manner. I explained that I had requested to see these documents but was denied them. At that moment I was interrupted by fellow LWIP parent Matt Andrews who yelled at me from across the room that I was a "liar". However, the following emails clearly demonstrate who was telling the truth. It was Matt who refused to share the documents with me.

Although this petition is supposedly being written on my and my fellow parents (not to mention our kids) behalf I have no idea what it says, who is being paid to write it, and what the contract with them says.

More to come...

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On 3/15/12 9:08 AM, Matt Andrews wrote:
> Hi Robert,
> Unfortunately we are not ready to hand this info to the Waldorf parent body, Administration, Board or the community at large yet. Everyone will have plenty of time to go over and digest the material before the public hearing on the Charter that the Board has to set within 30 days of receiving the petition. Let me know when we can get together.
> Matt
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 5:19 PM, robert ovetz wrote:
>
> Hi Matt,
>
> I would be happy to meet with you but I am also asking the see the drafts so I can make an informed decision as a parent in the program. I would appreciate it if you would send me the current drafts of the budget, feasibility study and the petition. This is critical information for me to be fully informed participant.
>
> Also, could you please tell me the name of the consultants and send me a copy of the contracts that the AC has signed with them.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Robert
>
>
> On 3/12/12 4:41 PM, Matt Andrews wrote:
>> Hi Robert,
>> We are working on the final budget and getting the petition finished up right now. When this stuff is complete we will present it to the program parents. We did have a couple of informational meetings with the parent body. I didn't see you there so I imagine you would like some info. I would be happy to sit down with you and fill you in on what's going on. Let me know what works for you. We could do it after drop off one morning.
>> I don't have the email addresses to the AC linked to this account so I just want to give you a heads up that I will be copying and pasting this email in my other email account and cc'ing them on it.
>> Speak to you soon,
>> Matt
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 3:38 PM, robert ovetz wrote:
>>
>> Hi Matt,
>>
>> I understand you are the person to ask for these from. I would like to see these please.
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Robert
>>
>> --
>> robert ovetz, ph.d.
>>
>>
>> earth
>>
>> "they marched with staves and music"
>>
> --
> robert ovetz, ph.d.
>
>
> earth
>
> "they marched with staves and music"
>
--
robert ovetz, ph.d.


earth

"they marched with staves and music"