LBUSD Spring Cleaning

It's Spring Cleaning time, and it looks like we have our work cut-out for us this go-'round. Look at all the dirt, hiding in the corners of LBUSD!

It's no secret that LBUSD School Board member, Jim Choura wants to keep his seat this term. It's also no secret that LBUDS's superintendent, Chris Steinhauser, has been acting like he's in a blind panic - running around saying that TALB brought in a hired gun to off him on main street, at high noon.

If you're oblivious to all of this...where the blazes have you been?

With Suja Lowenthal's loss to Michael Ellis at the ballot box, and the unfortunate win by Mary Stanton; we can hypothesize that the scales that Stanton has so firmly held onto all these years will now be tipping in the direction of favoring more than just the East-Side families...if Choura is unseated this year.

Jim Choura, CEO of the El Dorado Management Group, is now in a run-off election this June against TALB-backed challenger, David Barton.

Which one do you pick?

Well, how about the guy who isn't possessed of obvious conflicts of interest?

Firstly, read this Press Telegram article that I clipped for you; and ask yourself why Steinhauser is campaigning so hard for Choura?

Secondly, follow my line of reasoning for a minute or so:

Long Beach Report (dot-com) correctly expressed serious reservations about Jim Choura seeking a seat upon the School Board, back in...what was it...2002? Their reasoning was that Choura is too cozy with City Hall; which, of course, he is.

No matter what fronts have been erected to conceal the facts, Choura is the owner/operator of The Grand in Long Beach; a business that caters to local city hall events and, interestingly enough, Steinhauser's efforts to re-elect Choura himself. Please note that, in stark contrast to that of last year; Jim Choura's name scarcely appears in relation to what has been trotted-out as an 80-year, proud family ownership/tradition of The Grand and, more recently, the Galley Catering Company. I wonder what happened to those previous crowing rights?

Choura also has contracts - through The Grand (or the Galley Catering Company...which one is a little hazy to outside observers) - to provide food services to LBUSD.

So...Choura, a current member of the LBUSD school board, has catering/food services contracts with LBUSD (read that as he has a financial stake in LBUSD), and is pretty cozy with City Hall...and the Press Telegram doesn't find this to be newsworthy instead of the drivel-laced 'conflict' shots they've been taking at David Barton over the past couple of weeks?

Steinhauser wants his $196,000.00 per-annum contract renewed, and can count on Mary Stanton for a "yes" vote. I'm guessing that he's pegged John Meyer as being in the "yes" camp as well. (IMHO, he looks the type.)

If you think Mike Ellis is a shoe-in for a "yes" vote on Steiny's contract, don't put money on it.

Felton Williams conducts himself like a man possessed of a conscience, which makes it a pretty good bet that he's going to be persuaded by the facts, instead of intimidation or cronyism.

That leaves me looking forward to the time that Steiny's contract comes up for the renewal vote...

Stanton and Meyer are probably automatic (and unthinking) "yes" votes on the issue.

I'd wager that Ellis and Williams are in the "No" camp; and I'm putting money on the fact that Steiny knows it for a fact.

That leaves Choura. The guy with some pretty blatant conflict of interest in his back pocket, some questionable City Hall affiliations...and a "yes" vote for Steiny's contract renewal. He did, after all, vote to affirm Stieny's contract the last time-around, and was pretty cozy with Steinhauser through the Lakewood Rotary Club, back in early 2005. Have a look at: this pdf document and this pdf document. I guess it really is true: It isn't what you know, so much as it is who you know. What's the harm in a couple of buddies helping each other out...right?

Since Steiny took the Superintendent's position, I've watched LBUSD spiral downward so far that it's nearly appropriate to refer to some individuals, in the performance of their duties, as "party officers" or functionaries of the "politburo".

I have spoken with district employees who express fear of retribution for offering contrary opinions in what amount to 'brainstorming' sessions - exchanges which should never be hampered by the opinions of other participants or facilitators. The reality is nothing approaching even being on the path toward the ideal.

Under this school board, and their fair-haired superintendent, LBUSD has been stratified into the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'; the 'have-nots' being deprived of equal access to the same services that the 'haves' enjoy with nearly the convenience of flipping on a light switch.

Steiny has his cadre of compliant individuals...people like Miriam Garcia and Frank Gutierrez...who will do exactly what he wants them to do. They understand that, in order to survive and flourish under the new regime, one must understand that a call for volunteers - by Steiny - is a call to arms...it's an order one must obey. Hey...196-thousand clams-a-year is worth fighting for, in some peoples' minds. Certainly enough to dispose of the last vestiges of any veneer of ethics, at any rate.

So...now we have principals campaigning for Jim Choura, using school district telephone numbers derived from private information submitted by parents to their schools. Information that, I'm sure, most parents would object to its current use. By the way: were they using school district telephones to make the calls from, too?

OK. How about equal access to both sides?

Will the district offer the phone lists and phone time to David Barton's campaign team? You can bet their bottom-dollar that they won't; and you can bet your bottom-dollar that this is all about nothing more than keeping money circulating within the upper-admin positions in LBUSD.

Then the district cannot ethically use the same information to campaign for Jim Choura, can they? But Choura is content to go for an under-handed advantage - as long as it looks like it's Steiny's fault, huh? However, the district has been doing just that.

Steinhauser simply doesn't grok the concept of giving-up certain of the rights that we all enjoy, as private citizens, when one takes up a prominent leadership role - such as the superintendent of schools for LBUSD. Believe me, folks, this chump didn't grok much in the way of 'Introductory Logic: Argument and Evidence', last year, so I'm not surprised.

Read the third to the last sentence of the article linked-to, above, where Choura speaks: '"I think that as a trustee, you have to be even more careful about conflicts than you would as a lay citizen and that's understood as we go through all the contracts that we handle and sign," he said.' Uh...does that include food services contracts with LBUSD? Does it include excluding oneself from sitting on the school board for the appearance of impropriety?

How about the next two sentences? 'McVarish said Steinhauser crossed the line with the principals' meeting. "He was their campaign manager in effect," he said' Let me see...when I had a meeting (group or otherwise) with a direct supervisor, or higher-up, I knew exactly what was expected of me: Any 'suggestion' or 'call for volunteers' is an implicit order - if you harbor even the slightest concern for your future upward mobility, that is. Don't think Steinhauser's principals heard things in that meeting any differently.

We don't need the self-serving Steinhauser obfuscating the real issues in LBUSD; and we don't need Choura around to keep Steiny imbedded in our collective side any longer than absolutely necessary.

What we do need is people who actually care about educating our children, instead of polishing political apples and padding their pockets.

David Barton is the correct choice in the up-coming run-off election.

After that, lean on your board members - HARD - for the 'NO' vote on Steinhauser's contract renewal.

We deserve a superintendent who knows what he's doing - as well as the benefit of a superintendent who is well-schooled in the ethical way of performing task { x | y | z}.

If the school board refuses to listen to you; electing, instead, to pander to resort town politics; remove your child from LBUSD and enroll them in The California Virtual Academies.

The only thing resort town politicians understand is money, and your ability to deprive them of it.

In our doing so, our 5th-grader (who would still be in 4th grade in LBUSD) will be taking high school courses next academic year.

How is your child doing in school...in LBUSD?

By the way...Please learn about public corruption here, and report public corruption when you discover it.