Don’t Give Poor Leadership a Hall Pass

by Christy Lozano

Former Santa Barbara County Superintendent of School Candidate, Christy Lozano. Source: SBCurrent

Like many of you, my heart goes out to the teachers, students, parents, and taxpayers in Santa Barbara County, including Santa Barbara Unified. They have suffered a lot at the hands of poor leadership: a full year of Covid-19 closures (far more time than necessary), the divisiveness of D.E.I., the hiding of hyper-sexualized curriculum, dismal proficiency scores, and emotional distress. Regrettably, our local public schools are not the healthy, nurturing environment they should be.

And now Santa Barbara Unified teachers are frustrated that the District has applied for a waiver to the Superintendent of Schools. This waiver, if approved, would give a pass on the additional $6.7 million that Santa Barbara Unified is legally obligated to pay to teachers. California Education Code rules require all unified school districts in California to pay at least 55% of total expenditure to teachers. During the 2022-23 school year, Santa Barbara Unified paid less than 52%. Why can’t the District pay teachers the full amount?

Covid, of course.

The District claims it received so much in Covid-19 monies that the 55% rule should not apply. 

Asking for a waiver because of a windfall in non-educational resources is deceptive. The real question should be what the District is doing with the other half of the $211 Million in annual expenditures. The District doesn’t pay rent for use of the schools, so that’s not it. Even if the District spent the $35 million it received on Covid-related expenses, where did the rest of that more than $100 Million in non-teacher salaries go? 

Following the Money

Much of this riddle appears hidden in payments made to consultants and outside organizations, often those with a politically progressive viewpoint. These payments are notoriously difficult to track in that many are Board-approved in small increments for individual school sites; other payments are broken up in smaller chunks to be approved across a series of Board meetings. If you have ever searched for these numbers, it feels more like “hide and seek” than “show and tell.” The totals of all these non-teacher payments should and must be posted on the District website. Otherwise, how does anyone know if money is being misspent or where or to whom it’s going?

What type of payments do we already know about? Some may remember the “Coffee With a Black Guy” payments of $1,800/hour (see contract photo below) or that the local Santa Barbara BLM offshoot, “Healing Justice,” is still receiving large grant monies from Santa Barbara Unified.

Perhaps BLM organizers need another multi-million-dollar mansion?

Who knows?

The receipt for a very expensive cup of coffee. Source: SBUSD March 9, 2022

And what of the untold dollars paid to AHA! Santa Barbara, a group whose founder has been questioned by a journalist about activities, including this, this, this, this, and this. Rather than distribute monies to outside groups, many without mandated reporter requirements, Santa Barbara Unified’s Board should take care of credentialed teachers first.

Where Did the Board Members Go?

What happened to the three key Santa Barbara Unified board members who approved (in most cases, unanimously) many of these payments? Kate Ford left the board in 2022, ostensibly to “wander away from education and commitments for a while.” Within a year she was appointed to the Harbor Commission Board.  Laura Capps, who, like Monique Limon, successfully used the Santa Barbara Unified school board position as a stepping stone for higher office, resigned from Santa Barbara Unified in 2022. Ms. Capps is now 2nd District Santa Barbara County Supervisor, having won that well-paying job unopposed. The third board member to depart is Virginia Alverez, who abruptly departed just a few days ago to “spend time with her family,” and her primary job at Montecito Union.   

Without these original board members to talk to, all those teachers have been left frustrated, not quite sure what they should do now.

Some believe teachers should encourage students to skip school to advocate upon their behalf. Dos Pueblos Principal Bill Woodard boasted that “(Dos Pueblos) Staff successfully and safely supervised students throughout the walkout Friday,” December 1st in which hundreds of students skipped classes to rally for teacher’s pay across the 101 freeway at Girsh Park. 

Using students as political pawns is wrong.

First, teachers and administrators should be focused exclusively on education, not activism. Secondly, school activists need to get their activism right. Based on the teachings of Martin Luther King, there is a proper way to engage in civil disobedience.

“In any nonviolent campaign,” he wrote over sixty years ago, “there are four basic steps”: He goes on to list them as “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive,” then adds “negotiation, self-purification, and direct action.” While activist principals such as Mr. Woodard, are focused on the last step – direct action – they seem to have forgotten the first three.

Deny the Waiver, Save the Money

Which brings us back to the “collection of the facts” and the proper process to improve our school environment and outcomes. Here “the passing of the buck” should stop with current Santa Barbara Superintendent of Schools, Susan Salcido. In addition to requesting a full accounting of non-teacher expenditures, Mrs. Salcido should categorically deny Santa Barbara Unified’s waiver. This will have two important, positive effects.

First, by denying the waiver, teachers will be entitled to receive the $6.7 million delinquency amount for next year. Those funds would bridge the gap between what the teacher’s union currently wants and what the administration currently offers.

Second, and far more important than this short-term contract solution, it would send a positive signal through Santa Barbara County that the culture of issuing hall passes to excuse poor leadership and irresponsible spending has come to an end.

Without the expectation of a free hall pass for bad behavior, school boards might finally become more responsible with taxpayer funds and not just push for higher taxes to magically solve problems of their and their predecessor’s own doing.