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The state of San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is chaotic and we are in the midst of a meltdown.

Here is a partial list of 10 disasters (with District Deeds links) caused by the horrible Superintendent and Board of Education LACK of Leadership since 2013 when former Superintendent Cindy Marten was appointed by Richard Barrera without due diligence and a selection committee:

  1. The corrupt SDUSD Superintendent Lamont Jackson has been removed (Link)
  2. Former Superintendents Marten and Jackson have allowed sexual offenses against students and staff to go unchecked for at least the last 7 years…and maybe more. (19 articles Link)
  3. The Superintendent selection process that produced Jackson and Marten is irrevocably broken based the the actual operational performance of both and the neglect of fully investigating Jackson. (Link)
  4. The SDUSD financial mismanagement of Jackson and Marten have produced historic multimillion dollar budget deficits. (Link)
  5. Enrollment is dropping at least 5% -7% each year and even more if you remove the new addition of Pre-k.,  (Link)
  6. Chronic Absenteeism has skyrocketed (Link)
  7. Suspension rates of Students of color has continued to rise (Link)  (Link)
  8. Highly qualified management, teachers and staff are fleeing to other districts causing a HUGE “Brain Drain” (4 Links)
  9. Nepotism, “the unfair use of power in order to get jobs or other benefits for your family or friends” is rampant and was allowed at the highest levels by Marten, Jackson and the Board of Education led by Trustee Richard Barrera. (Link) 
  10. The workplace toxicity caused by all these factors has bottomed out the morale of SDUSD Principals, Teachers, and Staff.  (Link)

But despite all that, with Marten and Jackson GONE, District Deeds has HOPE…IF the right steps are taken.

We call this the 3 Phoenix Plan…and it ALL aligns with our HAT Trick (Honesty/Accountability/Transparency) Initiative!

We liken this effort to the Greek, Egyptian and Persian myth of the Phoenix rising from the Ashes.

Selecting the next SDUSD Superintendent could either irrevocably destroy the remnants of the SDUSD organization or allow it to emerge from the ashes like the Phoenix.  Choosing the RIGHT Superintendent is the first critical step to permanent improvement and change.

Repeating the same INCORRECT method of selection used for Marten and Jackson who caused this operational disaster will bring us to ashes.

But CHANGING the Superintendent selection process and other key steps could allow the SDUSD to RISE from those ashes and make the very best Superintendent selection possible.

Here is our “3 Phoenix” perspective on this HUGE SDUSD choice and challenge:

CHOOSING ASHES

  • Appointing a Superintendent without a strong screening and selection process excluding including ALL stakeholders.

The SDUSD Board of Education, especially Trustee Richard Barrera, has chosen this route the last two Superintendent appointments.  He outright appointed the corrupt, unqualified Marten with ZERO credentials.  He basically did the same with the illegitimate selection process with Jackson.  He has actually gone to the press and said he wanted to directly appoint a superintendent without community input like he did with Marten…a decision that STARTED this whole disaster!!!

Although the leadership credentials with Jackson were minimally passable, obviously NO ONE looked into his personnel file to see what sexual harassment indiscretions were there…unless of course those had been purged during his  SDUSD employment as head of Human Resources.

CHOOSING the PHOENIX #1

  • Have a completely TRANSPARENT screening and selections process for candidates

This selection protocol MUST allow direct questions from ALL Stakeholders at all levels (not postcards) to all relevant candidates at ALL stages of the hiring process…from initial candidate selection to final candidate screening and hiring.

The data gathered from ALL that research must be compiled and matched to the position qualifications, also designed/specified by ALL Stakeholders.

CHOOSING ASHES

  • Keeping all candidate information on a “need to know” basis and preventing anyone outside of the select upper SDUSD hierarchy to review documentation and personnel files provided by the candidates.

CHOOSING the PHOENIX #2

  • Requiring ALL candidates for Superintendent, both in house and new hire, to provide their complete Personnel File from previous 2 employers for FULL viewing (minus residence, medical information and selected justifiable private info i.e.: Social Security Number) by ALL SDUSD Stakeholders including Teachers, Parents, Community Members and Staff.  This step holds ALL candidates fully ACCOUNTABLE for ALL their past actions.  After the failure to do so in the Jackson debacle, refusing to provide this Personnel File information by any candidate MUST be a strike against that candidate.

CHOOSING ASHES

Make current Acting Superintendent and/or new Superintendent manually grind through all the critical operational/budget business components to look for dysfunction, illegalities and operational shortfalls.

CHOOSING the PHOENIX #3

Empower the Acting and/or new Superintendent with ALL the information through a comprehensive Forensic AND Internal audit.  Share the results with ALL Stakeholders (Teachers, Parents, Staff, Students, Community Members, Elected Officials) and solicit solutions from all to problem areas.  This lays ALL issues bare for review and forces FULL adherence to the facts…virtually the DEFINITION of Honesty!

Here is the definition for audits from CPA and consulting firm Eide Bailey that we used in a previous post:

“A forensic audit/examination is designed to focus on reconstructing past financial transactions for a specific purpose, such as concerns of fraud, whereas an internal audit is typically focused more on compliance and/or the performance of the organization.”

Here are the forensic/internal categories (with some, not all, examples)  that need to be audited:

  • Mission/Vision  (20/20 Vision was a vision slogan not a mission)
  • Marketing (for new students, communities and donors)
  • Sales (for new donor/business partners, site specific to district wide initiatives)
  • Competitive Analysis (Private/Charter/Homeschool competition for Students)
  • Organizational Structure (Human Resources, Departments, Schools on-site and off-site supports)
  • Finance (ALL budget and expenditure strategies, processes and procedures)
  • Operating Plan (Supports, strategies for ALL categories of Students from pre-k – 12)
  • Complete existing SDUSD documentation and manuals including Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) for ALL operating units, from the central office to on-site to contactors, outsource suppliers/providers and vendors of all types.

As you can see this is a HUGE endeavor and there it may be a very slow process if the SDUSD Superintendent/Leadership depend strictly on internal resources.

This is where COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT comes in

Like the SDUSD under Superintendent Bill Kowba deployed prior to Marten, and that Marten terminated IMMEDIATELY after taking office in 2013…institute community/staff TIGER TEAMS to attack each of the audit categories above based on District/Stakeholder priorities.

As a member of four Tiger Teams ourselves (see ABOUT) , we can verify that it is an excellent way to include ALL Stakeholders, define key issues and provide strong evidence for SDUSD operational decisions.

For your review, here is a San Diego Unified School District Efficiency Committee Tiger Team Handbook we presented to the Board of Education in May, 2013, right after Marten was hired and which she soon rejected since it would expose her planned corruption.

We MAY even volunteer ourselves to help the SDUSD…as long as ALL the Phoenix choices above are realized.

IF the SDUSD follows this “3 Phoenix Plan”, we believe it can rise from the current ashes caused by Marten and Jackson and truly live up to the responsibility of FULLY serving ALL SDUSD Stakeholders.

Let’s get to work!!!!!

IF

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