FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SALT LAKE CITY BRANCH OF THE NAACP CALLS FOR AN AUDIT OF THE SALT LAKE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

(Salt Lake City, Utah) – On Tuesday, October 18, 2016, at 5:00 p.m. at the Salt Lake City School District Offices located at 440 E. 100 S. in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ms. Jeanetta Williams, of the NAACP will join other Community Leaders in calling upon state Auditor John Dougall to conduct a performance and financial audit on the Salt Lake City School District.

“Over the past two years, the community has repeatedly called upon Board President, Heather Bennett, and Vice President Tiffany Sandberg to honor and respect the authority invested in the Salt Lake City Board of Education by not interfering with that public body’s responsibility to deliberate and take action publicly and openly.” Stated Ms. Jeanetta Williams. “The Board leadership continues to ignore the pleas of the community and in frustration; we now turn to the State Auditors Office.”

“The violations set forth in the report to State Auditor John Dougall will outline a pervasive pattern and practice wherein the Board leadership has abdicated the Board’s authority by NOT allowing the Board to deliberate and take action openly and transparently on matters of finances, employment, contracts, and state grants.” stated Utah Coalition of La Raza (UCLR) founder Archie Archuleta. * “Ms. Bennett (Board President) and Ms. Sandberg (Board Vice President) would have the District run as an autocracy where the school administration is permitted to maneuver in secrecy, operate by abuses of power, cronyism, nepotism and discrimination. We ask that Auditor John Dougall help our School Board reclaim its dignity and assume its rightful place as guardians of our children’s education.

“The call for this audit should in no way diminish the great work of our teachers and local school administrators who should be proud of what they are able to accomplish despite the failed leadership at the top. This request to Auditor John Dougall is about failed Board leadership which includes the top administrators in the District office.” Stated GOP Chair James Evans. *

“The community and leaders of the west side of Salt Lake City have been raising concerns of questionable practices and lack of transparency at the Salt Lake School District offices, for the last couple of years. The concerns of the community have been ignored; a need for an audit is timely and can provide specific recommendations.”  Stated State Senator Luz Escamilla. “Transparency and openness are critical in the efficiency and effectiveness of our Government.”

* Mr. Archuleta and Mr. Evans also sit on the Salt Lake City School District Equity Leadership Team

###

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. 

NAACP TUESDAY PRESS RELEASE FINAL

Supplemental Information

06 October 2016

DELIVERED VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

Ms. Alexa Cunningham, Superintendent
℅ Salt Lake City School District
440 East 100 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111-1891

Re: Horizonte College Advisor

Dear Dr. Cunningham,
Acting under the authority of my elected office, and in my official capacity as a member of the Salt Lake City Board of Education, I submit the following request on behalf of the residents of Salt Lake City, District 2. [1] Pursuant to Government Records Access Management Act (GRAMA),[2] I am requesting a copy of all EMAILS that you, Janet Roberts, Larry Madden, Joshua Bell, Michael Williams, Jason Olsen and Heather Bennett have had between each other AND anyone else in reference to Kimball Young AND College Advisor AND Scholarship Advisor AND Horizonte, for the time period of July 1, 2016 to the present. Please recognize that any effort on your part to withhold information under the guise of a “protected document” [3] will be appealed by me and will be the subject of review by the State Records Committee. [4] For example, at our last Board meeting, Board President Bennett and Vice President Sandberg stated that this was a “personnel issue”. That is not a true statement as I have seen nothing that even suggest that this is a “personnel issue”. Moreover, based what you presented to the Board in the illegally held, closed door meeting in September, this is no “personnel issue”.

I am, unfortunately forced to invoke GRAMA, in requesting this information due to your refusal to provide me with accurate and reliable information on what led to you illegally terminating the contract with Kimball Young, who was providing Horizonte Alternative High School with College Advisory Services.

Furthermore, I am now being informed by fellow Board members that you have re-instated Mr. Young as Horizonte’s High School College Advisor. Really? Then why not apprise the Board member that initially asked you about this contract termination? Why not update the Board member, whose District has the highest concentration of students attending Horizonte? Why not keep all Board members equally appraised of this weighty matter?

MR. KIMBALL YOUNG
As one who has oversight responsibilities for this school district, I must confess that I am embarrassed and ashamed to have witnessed the manner in which you and members of your administration treated Mr. Young over the past three months. I had the honor to meet with Mr. Young about three weeks ago and found him to be dedicated to the cause of ensuring that each Horizonte student has a successful post secondary experience. Over the past three weeks, I have had the privilege of meeting with multiple current and former students of Horizonte that are and were the beneficiaries of Mr. Young’s services. At our last Board meeting, you and those in attendance caught a glimpse of the gratitude that Horizonte students have for this man. [5]
As someone who professes that their actions are driven by the mantra: “Kids Come First”,[6] I would have expected you to move heaven and earth in an effort to ensure that a man of Mr. Young’s caliber is in front of our students at every opportunity. Instead, you acted contrary to the purpose and mission of this school district. [7]

Just four short months ago, I reluctantly voted in the affirmative to appoint you Superintendent over this District. [8] A District that you now acknowledge is in organizational turmoil, where no accurate organizational chart exist, there are no job descriptions for the administrators, there are no evaluations on file for administrators etc. Moreover, you have advised the Board that the administrative organization is so convoluted, you will need to hire an outside firm to perform an organizational audit in order for you to make sense of it all. Understanding that those problems exist, you can understand why it is baffling to me, educators, members of the community and other elected officials, that changing the manner in which Horizonte receives College Advisory Services is such an urgent matter for you. I would urge you to get in touch with what it happening in our schools or you can watch the videos where I interview students impacted by Mr. Young’ work:

DISTRICT OFFICE
I hope that you now recognize the value of shared governance [9] and the importance of respecting site based decisions. In this instance, when you deviated from the approved course set by the School Improvement Council (SIC) [10] and approved by the Board, [11] you inadvertently or intentionally exacerbated the already deficient manner in which this District delivers its post secondary transitional services to Horizonte students. [12]

If anything, your involvement should have increased a Horizonte’s student ability to have access a College Advisor, not decrease it. My advice to you, leave the schools alone and instead concentrate on fixing the problems within the dysfunctional district bureaucracy. It was anticipated that the arrival of a new Superintendent would help us build trust amongst each other and the community. [13] Your management style has deepened the level of mistrust among the employees, Board members, community and students.

The social demoralization within the District office is such that communicating the simplest information accurately is difficult even when no one is deliberately sabotaging the flow of information. A number of the decisions that I have seen come out of the District office are so irrational that there is no predictable relationship between what they decided and the ends that they had in sight. More specifically, administrators in the District office cannot even act in their own self-interest, even when they agree on what that is. I believe the District office has reached the ‘normalization of incompetence’ point.

BACKGROUND
On September 15, 2015 – I sent you an email, asking why was the contract with Mr. Young terminated? You replied with the following explanation:

 SEE WORD FORMAT FOR GRAPHIC

BOARD MEETINGS
On September 20, 2016 –The Board held its regularly scheduled meeting. A closed door session was convened under the guise of a “personnel issue”. In prior email exchanges, you stated you would answer my questions about the cancellation of College Advisory services to Horizonte at the Board closed door meeting. Once the closed door meeting was under way, you and your attorney repeated what you stated in your September 15^th email. As already indicated the meeting was illegal as no personnel were discussed. [14]

I am so disappointed to see that you are comfortable with a lack of participation and engagement on the part of the public. I would like to see residents participate in inclusive and responsive policy making. I am still trying to determine if you lied to me in your initial email on September 15^th or if you and your administration are just so disconnected from the lives of teachers and students, uniformed about what is really going on in the school system. Rest assured that it is my intent to challenge your abuse of Utah Open and Public Meeting Act whenever it occurs. [15]

To allow you to dispense with transparency, is to allow this institution to perpetuate this persistent lack of urgency about improving itself. I cannot permit you or anyone else to be so committed to the status quo that we cannot then rid ourselves of this culture of complacency.

On October 4, 2016 – The Board held its regularly scheduled meeting where the dysfunctional District office was once again on full display. Although I asked for the issue of Horizonte’s College Advisor to be placed on the agenda, it was not.[16] I am not at all impressed with your ability to consistently produce the framework that encourages the degradation of civic discourse and erodes the capacity for collective critical thinking in the Board room; at that same time it is apparent that you and Business Administrator Roberts have lost your capacity for even common decency as demonstrated when you had my microphone turned off while I was speaking to the Horizonte students during the Board recess. [17] What was the purpose of cutting off my microphone? The Board president called for a recess, the majority of the Board left the room.  Conversely, I chose to stay in the Board room and explain to the students how the components of local government functions. Why did that offend you to the point that you ordered the Business Administrator to cut off my microphone? That was just petty and I hope that in the two years that you are in Salt Lake City, you can develop better leadership skills.

The day following the Board meeting, I was at a community meeting. One of the pressing questions: “Why did the Superintendent tell them to cut off your microphone when you were speaking to the students?” I explained that from my perspective, it is a sign that you are very insecure in your new role as the Superintendent of the Salt Lake City School District. I also told them that it is a symptom of the District’s institutional failure which creates a social environment that encourages yet more failure, one downward spiral generating another. I went on to explain that the demoralized social environment within the District creates an irrational organizational context where cultural, social, and material supports for teaching and student development are minimal. As you have so clearly demonstrated, even something that is currently working well is not safe. I then made the analogy that something good like a College Advisor at Horizonte, in a school district that operates in a severely damaged social infrastructure is tantamount to bringing a lighted candle into a wind tunnel. I pointed out that the questions that the Horizonte students and I were asking you, occurred in an atmosphere of ideological rigidity and smug contempt for elected officials. I also pointed out that the organizational characteristics that we ordinarily expect to contribute to efficiency are taken to such extremes as to do just the opposite, resulting in a school district that is dominated by over-centralization that only knows how to victimized anyone who comes in contact with it. Such was the experience of the Horizonte students. They came to the Board meeting expecting that their concerns were going to be accepted and addressed. They instead were exposed to a politicized system of command and control that rewards incompetence over what is best for students.

CONCLUSION
We have now come full circle and I am told that Mr. Young is back at Horizonte. I am nevertheless, deeply troubled by your response to me on September 15^th, that we now know to be false. I am troubled that you countermanded an official act of the Board. I am concerned that you gave the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) the assurance that you would use $25,000.00 of Adult Education Funding for a College Advisor. What is the status of that funding? I am troubled by your persistent actions designed to clouding transparency in an effort to avoid accountability. I can assure you that your behavior on this issue falls way below the standards of the community that I was elected to represent.

Nevertheless, I am hopeful that the production of emails that I am requesting, will give us some insight into your motives and what it was you were hoping to accomplish by getting rid of Horizonte’s College Advisor. Accordingly, GRAMA encourages agencies to fulfill a records request without charge.[18] Based on Utah Code §63g -2-203 (4a), I am requesting a waiver of copy costs because releasing the records primarily benefits the public rather than a person:

In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the state, its agencies and political subdivisions, exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly [19]

Moreover, my “legal rights are directly implicated by the information in the record” [20] as I am an elected member of the Board of Education. [21] To that end, the late Speaker of the House, Becky Lockhart shepherded a bill that clarified the role of Board members, which is now in Utah Code:

 Notwithstanding a local school board’s status as a body corporate, an elected member of a local school board serves and represents the residents of the local school board member’s district, and that service and       representation may not be restricted or impaired by the local school board member’s membership on, or obligations to, the local school board. [22]

Consequently, any attempt on your part to deny this request will be viewed as an act of “restricting and impairing” my ability to represent the residents who elected me to represent their interests. I recognize that you will respond to my request within 5 business days, as permitted by GRAMA. [23]

Shalom,

Michael Clara

J. Michael Clára
Board Member, District 2

cc:
Senator Wayne Niederhauser, President
Representative Greg Hughes, Speaker of the House of Representatives
Senator Luz Escamilla, Minority Assistant Whip
Utah State Auditor John Dougall
Select Members of Utah Legislative Education Committees
Councilman James Rodgers, Chair
Ms. Ricky McCandless, Salt Lake City Mayor’s Designee
Dr. Ric Harnsberger, Horizonte Scholarship Fund
Dr. Janet Harnsberger –Horizonte Scholarship Fund
Mr. James Andersen –Horizonte Scholarship Fund
Mr. Kimball Young – Horizonte Scholarship Fund
Mr. Jordan Nak – Horizonte Student Body President
Mr. Zay Alverez – Community Activist
Horizonte School Improvement Council
Equity Leadership Team –Salt Lake City School District

2 October 2016

DELIVERED VIA USPS PRIORITY MAIL

Office for Civil Rights, Region VIII
U.S. Department of Education Office
Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Building
1244 Speer Boulevard, Suite 310
Denver, CO 80204-3582

Re: RESOURCE INEQUITY
Complaint Against: Utah State Board of Education & Salt Lake City School District

 
Dear Region VIII,

Acting under the authority of my elected office, and in my official capacity as a member of the Salt Lake City Board of Education, I submit this complaint on behalf of the residents of Salt Lake City, District 2.[1]
I have reason to believe that the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and the Salt Lake City School District (District) are in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which states:

No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. [2]

This complaint will demonstrate that Superintendent Cunningham [3] and Board President Heather Bennett [4] are denying students, based on race, color and national origin, equal access and opportunity to educational programs and activities of the District. Furthermore, once placed on notice, they failed to take corrective action. More specifically, they are denying students of Horizonte Alternative High School, equal access and opportunity to the postsecondary transitional programs of the District. Horizonte High School has the highest concertation of ethnic minority students when compared to the other High Schools in the District. Consequently, Superintendent Cunningham recently implemented a practice that has a DISPARATE IMPACT on the students of Horizonte High School. This complaint will also demonstrate that similarly situated students at less diverse High Schools are treated differently which constitutes DISCRIMINATION of treatment.

BACKGROUND
During the month of September 2016, I was made aware that Business Administrator Janet Roberts terminated a contract for College Advisory Services that provided Horizonte Alternative High School with a full-time College Advisor. I sent an email to Superintendent Cunningham asking for an explanation and the following email exchange ensued:

30 September 2016

DELIVERED VIA USPS PRIORITY MAIL
The Honorable Sean Reyes
Utah Attorney General
Utah State Capitol Complex
350 North State Street, Suite 230
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114

           Re: Superintendent Cunningham’s & Board President Heather Bennett’s
                                         Violation of Utah Open & Public Meetings Act

Dear Mr. Reyes,

Acting under the authority of my elected office, and in my official capacity as a member of the Salt Lake City Board of Education, I submit this complaint on behalf of the residents of Salt Lake City, District 2. [1] I have reason to believe that the Salt Lake City Board of Education on the advice of Superintendent Cunningham violated certain provisions of Utah Open & Public Meetings Act. [2] Furthermore, The ACT states that your office has the authority to enforce its provisions. [3]

On September 20, 2016 – The Board of Education held a regularly scheduled meeting that was properly noted and convened at 6:00 p.m. at the Salt Lake City School District, Board of Education office located at 440 East 100 South in Salt Lake City, Utah. [4] The presiding officer declared that the Board was convened to hold a closed door meeting, there was a patron that was asked to leave prior to the doors being closed. The Superintendent’s attorney, Kristina Kindl stated the purpose of the closed door meeting:

“discussion of the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual…” [5]
At the commencement of the meeting, Superintendent Cunningham had her attorney explain to the Board why Business Administrator, Janet Roberts terminated a contract for Graduate Advisory Services at Horizonte Alternative High School. [6]  The reason given was no different from what the Superintendent had advised me via email earlier in the week:

“…a new position was added to each high school to assist students with scholarships and the college application process…we cannot support the new position and an outside contractor.” [7]

28 September 2016
DELIVERED VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
Dr. Sydnee Dickson, Superintendent of Public Instruction
℅ Utah State Board of Education
250 East Cesar Chavez Blvd.
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111

Re: Horizonte Alternative High School, College Advisor

Dear Dr. Dickson,

Acting under the authority of my elected office, and in my official capacity as a member of the Salt Lake City Board of Education, I am in the process of writing a discrimination complaint to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on behalf of the residents of Salt Lake City, District 2.[1] This complaint is primarily against the Salt Lake City School District for discrimination based on the District’s practice of Resource Inequity. More specifically, I have reason to believe that the District is discriminating against students based on race, color and national origin by not giving them equal access and opportunity to postsecondary preparation and transitional programs of the District, which is a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. [2]

My purpose in writing this letter to you, is to ascertain if the Utah State Board of Education is complicit in this violation through the appropriations from the Adult Education State Legislative Funding Program. It appears that the District received 1.7 million dollars under this state grant for the 2016-17 school year; $25,000.00 of those dollars was allocated towards a College Advisor for Horizonte Alternative High School who worked with students in the high school and the adult programs. Over the past two years Horizonte has funded a College Advisor under contract for $48,000.00 a year, with the District making up the difference. I was recently notified that Superintendent Cunningham [3] eliminated this full-time position from Horizonte and is only permitting a part-time College Advisor to work in the school. Additionally, it appears that she has banned the College Advisor from working with adult students. Earlier this month, I asked Superintendent Cunningham for an explanation of her actions and she replied as follows:

“During last year’s budget cycle a new position was added to each high school to assist students with scholarships and the college application process.  This was essentially what Mr. Young was doing at Horizonte.  Mr. Young was told that he could apply this position but we could not support the new position and an outside contractor.  He did not apply for the new position and his contract was cancelled.” [4]

I later determined that Superintendent Cunningham’s response was not true. There were no new positions added to the High Schools. Moreover, there is no basis for her to state that “we could not support the new position and an outside contractor”.  The so called “new position” was something of her own making. The funding for the contracted position was approved by the Salt Lake City Board of Education at its August 2, 2016 meeting. [5]  This is the same position that the state is paying $25,000.00 of the contract through the Adult Education grant. The truth of the matter is, the Salt Lake City School District has a total of four high schools. Horizonte Alternative High School has the highest concentration of ethnic minority students, yet, it has the least postsecondary transitional programs and resources at its disposal. For instance, East High, Highland High and West High each have a full-time College Advisor and a part-time Scholarship Advisor. In my OCR complaint, I will go into a more exhaustive comparison of programs like GEAR UP, AVID etc. which are not offered at Horizonte. Superintendent Cunningham’s elimination of Horizonte’s full-time College Advisor has created an even greater disparity which is a violation of Board policy and state and Federal statutes.

On September 20, 2016 – Superintendent Cunningham and her attorney (Kristina Kindl) convened an illegal closed door meeting of the Board of Education, only to repeat the false narrative that Horizonte’s full-time College Advisor must be eliminated because of the so called “new positions” being added to the other High Schools.

On September 28, 2016– The Board received an email from Superintendent Cunningham advising us that there were indeed no new positions created for the other High Schools.[6]  Yet it does not appear that she is willing to reverse her decision to eliminate Horizonte’s full-time College Advisor. I have made a request to have this issue placed on the October 4, 2016, Board agenda so that this situation may be rectified. At this point, it appears that we have a local Superintendent who defying an official act of a local Board of Education. I am trying to ascertain what role the offices of the Sate Board of Education have in this act of insubordination, bigotry and racism.

Shalom,

J. Michael Clára
Board Member, District 2

cc: State Auditor Dougall
Senator Escamilla & Representative Romero & Representative Hollins
Horizonte High, School Improvement Council & Mr. Kimball Young, Horizonte College Advisor
Superintendent Cunningham, Salt Lake City School District
U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights