Another School District in State Receivership

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Release: #12-109
December 7, 2012

Contact: Paul Hefner
E-mail: communications@cde.ca.gov
Phone: 916-319-0818

New Interim Administrator Appointed for Inglewood Unified School District

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today appointed La Tanya Kirk-Carter to serve as interim Administrator of the Inglewood Unified School District after accepting the resignation of Administrator Kent Taylor.
"This change is in the best interests of taxpayers, students, and employees of the Inglewood Unified School District," Torlakson said. "I'm confident that our work to address the district's troubled finances will proceed without interruption."
Taylor stepped down after the California Department of Education (CDE) learned of financial commitments he had made without the required CDE approval and prior to the completion of a financial review and plan to restore the district to fiscal health.
Kirk-Carter previously served as Assistant Superintendent of Business Services at the district. She will serve in an interim capacity until a new permanent administrator is named.
The state took over the district in September under legislation passed at the request of the district that provided up to $55 million in emergency state loans to help the district meet its financial obligations. The legislation required the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to assume all the legal rights, duties, and powers of the governing board of the district.
Inglewood Unified School District is the ninth school district in California to request an emergency loan, thus triggering the state takeover, since 1990. Since then, local governance has been returned to four of these districts.

Related Content

• State Emergency Loans - Information on emergency loans made to school districts.
• State Takeover of Inglewood Unified - State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Comments on State Takeover of Financially Troubled Inglewood Unified School District.
• Inglewood Administrator Appointed - State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Appoints Inglewood High Alumnus as State Administrator for Inglewood Unified School District.

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Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

California Department of Education
1430 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

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Last Reviewed: Friday, December 07, 2012

THE 11 BASIC POSITIONS FROM WHICH ADMIN CAN WRONGFULLY DESTROY AN EDUCATOR:

THE 11 BASIC POSITIONS FROM WHICH ADMIN WILL RAPE AN EDUCATOR: LAWLESSNESS AND THE PRICKS THAT GET PAID TO PERPETRATE IT ON YOU! 

Thanks again to the hard work of Lenny Isenberg

at Perdaily.com

 Not if, but when HR or Your site Administor turns on you (for personal or financial reasons) and forces you to grab your ankles; in California you can expect:

1. A complete denial of basic due process of law

2. NO verified criminal charges under penalty of perjury and in front of a jury of your peers as required by law, the constitution and specific Supreme Court Ruling. But you will be suspended pending dismissal none the less.

3. You will be presumed guilty from the onset! Instead of being presumed innocent, a basic right in criminal and civil courts, so too the burden of proof is thrust on the educator without regard to your constitutional rights, US supreme court rulings and hundreds of State Education, labor, and government codes. This is the nature and rule of CA Administrative Law and the OAH.

4. CTA attorneys are supposedly paid to "defend its members." These same firms also take a large piece of other school district's budgets for prosecuting union employees. For instance, the CTA attorneys WILL go along with months to years  of stalling by agreeing to continuance after continuance inspite of stature to the detriment of their clients with the only goal of stringing out their billable hours only to settling the case at the employees expense and often termination. ...CTA then pays them an extra bonus, 40% of the paltry punitive settlement. Too often  the desperate and scared educator IS COERCED by these attorneys INTO SIGNING bullshit entrapment laden agreements.

5. Teachers are now automatically hit with the vague ambiguous "morals charges" under California Ed. Code 44939 to strip them of their right to grievance and arbitration under collective bargaining. Expect the local union to look the other way. Or try to tell you the union legal doesn't protect members from this kind of allegation. An almost certain lie. Even the infamous 'hatchet' ALJ H. James Alher admitted in a hearing, that he could not define the term "Moral Turpitude" yet he allows it as a charge and convicts many educators on its foundation. If in southern California, you are assigned Ahler as the ALJ over your OAH hearing tell your attorney to file an immediate request to have him replaced. This guy works almost directly out of the district's law firm's pockets. He is immune to discipline per Federal rule over ALJ's. Ahler, while driving intoxicated (twice the CA legal limit)  hit and killed a pedestrian in Vista CA.

6. No legal Skelly hearing  will  be provided. A  pre-disciplinary requirement on the district who must required by the 1975 case that states charges and evidence needs to be provided pre-discipline to charged teacher. This is never done. Half the time HR is still trying to figure the best charges to file against the educator. Some times they wont even tell you that the meeting is a skelly hearing, whose subsequent report to the school board for approval will become permanent record.

7. There is no bond provision or other ability to stop teacher from being put on unpaid administrative leave without benefits. How many people can survive under these circumstance and at the same time hire their own attorney in addition? This would cost them $5000 for openers with some teachers already having been fleeced of over $100,000. In Moreno Valley, CA the local is very reluctant to let go of any money for  the defense of  their members. Nor will you be able to look at that attorney's billable hours and retainer fee. Rumor is that each educator has over $20,000 dollars supposedly set aside by CTA. But CTA will never admit the existence of this.

8. Your CTA local provides no legal assistance and will only refer to their local attorneys such as the infamously incompetent Ron Skipper, Matt Singer (and others in Southern California. Happy to sell you out or ignore pertinent laws to ease their work load while collecting their easy money CTA checks.)

9. Example: Article V of the LAUSD/UTLA Collective Bargaining Agreement allows UTLA to bring a consolidated action on behalf of all their teacher members so charged in violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, LAUSD's own Bulletin Policies dealing with housing teachers, duration of housing, and who should be housed, and violation of state codes and federal law. UTLA NEVER has done this and makes every effort to keep teachers divided and unaware of each other. Strength in numbers? Check the wording of your contract. Other locals have similar.

10. In no other profession, e.g. lawyer, doctor, accountant, police officer, where the professional is licensed from the state;  will the public employee - educator - be deprived of the constitutional property right to make a living in their trained field without a criminal court conviction of that case and the same charges.

11. My personal favorite is when CTA, that you have paid dues to for years, deprives you of the right to vote in any union election or take part in any union activity. By this bizarre logic, all your district would have to do is put all teachers on unpaid administrative leave and no member would be able to vote to stop them. Huh? Yep! It looks like some districts are trying to do just that.