Los Angeles Unified School District Board President Kelly Gonez voted to approve a contract with a former employer. She then accepted a campaign donation from them. .

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"We know that our competitive bidding is considered best practice in most cases." - Kelly Gonez

Like a hacker using spyware, education "reformers" have figured out that the best way to infiltrate a system is to embed themselves within the system. By using the incentive of paying a portion of an employee's salary, these organizations have filled positions within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) with people that they have selected. This allows them to strategically place people in positions of power within the district who will be loyal to their goals. The needs of the district's students become secondary."

While the conflict of interest inherent in these arrangements is rife with ethical questions, the way that these contracts are approved raises even more questions. An arrangement with Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE) that was approved by the board last year provides an example.

By the LAUSD staff's own admission, the positions covered by the contracts considered during a board meeting in August 2020 were not something that the district was looking to fill. Instead, LEE approached staff members with "policy opportunities." Without putting the position up for bid, a contract was drawn that included only a specified position but did not include an actual name for the person that would be hired. The district would pay $50,000 for nine months to cover a position that they did not even know they needed.

The proposal was opposed by Board Member Jackie Goldberg, partially based on the fact that it was a single-source contract and that staff had not researched other available options. Kelly Gonez also spoke before the vote to "raise some concerns with the single-source contracts" and even requested that staff "at a minimum... include the justification for single-source contracts" in their requests. However, unlike Goldberg, Gonez voted to approve these contracts without receiving this information. Apparently, these concerns were just lip service.

The fact that Gonez even placed a vote on this matter or even participated in the discussion is surprising as she was previously employed by LEE as a fellow. This former relationship gives the appearance of a conflict of interest that should be avoided by those in public service.

Following the vote, Gonez accepted a $1,300 campaign donation from this same organization, compounding the ethical issues represented in the contract. An ethically principled public official would have avoided the appearance of a quid pro quo and rejected these funds.

Considering that Gonez was an active participant in violating the Brown Act during the hiring of Austin Beutner, it should not be surprising that she is willing to subordinate ethical principles to the needs of her financial backers. Through her first term, this "the end justifies the means" attitude is a trait she has shared with her allies on the board including convicted felon Ref Rodriguez and the board member she picked to be her Vice President, Nick Melvoin. This is not the type of role model that our students deserve.

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"Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He is an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and serves as the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.

Authors Website: http://www.changethelausd.com/

Authors Bio:

Carl Petersen is a parent, an advocate for students with special education needs, an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, a member of the LAUSD's CAC, and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, the Network for Public Education (NPE) Action endorsed him, and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a "strong supporter of public schools." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.

Carl Petersen is a father of five, including two daughters who are on the autism spectrum. His involvement in education issues began when the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) refused to provide services that his daughters' teachers agreed they needed. It was then that his family was forced to sue the District.

At the end of two days of mediation at the District's headquarters, he turned to his wife, Nicole, and said: "somebody has to change this." His wife replied, "What about you?" He accepted the challenge and has run twice for a position on the LAUSD School Board. His platforms included advocacy for special education issues and strong support for public education. In his last election he was endorsed by Americans for Democratic Action Southern California, SFV/NELA Chapter of the National Organization for Women, and Network for Public Education (NPE) Action, a group co-founded by Dr. Diane Ravitch.

When Carl is not working or engaging in activism, he enjoys hanging out at theme parks with his family. He took his oldest daughter to Woodstock '94 when she was two and used to play in several local bands. If he is at his home in Northridge, California, there is a dog at his feet and he is probably writing one of his blogs which have been published in OpEdNews, Medium, Patch, and K-12 News Network.