TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

News pertaining directly to Trona, Death Valley, the northern Mojave Desert, Inyo County, and adjacent areas.

Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby blackturtle.us » Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:33 am

As Trona Teachers Association (TTA) president, I was very much against any affiliation between the charter school and TJUSD. In fact, I set up an informational meeting back in early 2016 in which a representative from the California Teachers Association (CTA) provided information about charter schools in general and the problems associated with sponsoring charter schools. It was widely known back then that due to lack of financial oversight from the state, that many charter schools were corrupt. I felt very uncomfortable with the CA STEAM organization. [BTW, another organization TJUSD became affiliated with soon after Keith Tomes took over is onPoint and I had and still have bad feelings about that company, but that's another story.]

EMAILS FROM JAN 2016 between myself and CTA rep:
JAN 26:
Have you heard anything from the charter school expert? At some point an MOU will be drawn up between the district and the charter school outfit. Does the Trona Teachers Association have the right to be present at the meeting or review the MOU before it is signed? Is there any reason for the TTA to avoid involvement in this process? Thanks.

JAN 28:
I'm going to request that we have 1:30 to 2:50 as our meeting time on the 24th. Otherwise, we'll have to wait until 2:50 to meet. It will take me until next Tuesday to firm that up since the superintendent is out the rest of this week. Thanks.

Ultimately, the meeting was held February 24th.
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby wildrose » Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:36 pm

This is an interesting thread! And so much pertinent info was already stored away in different threads on this message board. It was like a conspiracy was just below the surface this entire time. I'll be watching for more indictments and hoping none involve anyone from TJUSD!
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby MojaveMike » Sun Jun 02, 2019 1:06 pm

Will the district be required to pay back any money received from the charter deal? It looks like the district probably received somewhere in excess of $1M. That could be a painful payout if that's what is required?
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby twister » Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:18 pm

A school employee provided some inside info. Nothing is proven. There's just a lot of speculation, but this is what she pointed me to:
8) Service Credit Cost - Mr. Tomes explained retirement incentives being offered to three senior employees. Basically the incentives offered must be less than the amount saved by the district as a result of the retirements. Since new employees come in at a lower point on the pay scale, the district saves a substantial amount of money. This savings justifies the use of retirement incentives and is a requirement for the incentives to be approved by at the county level.

This is from the November 12, 2015 school board meeting. What the stupidintendent did was clear out two experienced school employees by offering them retirement incentives. Their replacements had no clue what they were doing. In fact, there were all sorts of payroll errors during ensuing months. With clueless people running things, the stupidintendent could do what ever he wanted and they wouldn't know what was going on. The experienced officer workers were ushered out just in time for the school to begin its relationship with the perpetrators of the charter school scam.
:wtf: Nothing suspicious here folks!!!
:laugh: :smack: :laugh: :smack: :laugh:
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby KissMyTail » Mon Jun 03, 2019 6:17 am

recluse: Yes, that is the supt of TJUSD in that United Church of God video. Rather lame-ass sermon BTW, but I agree that we need to know if any of the people involved in the A3 Charter Schools scam are also members of the United Church of God. If so, then we've definitely caught ourselves a rat! blackturtle.us brought up another organization by the name of onPoint. It would also be interesting to know if the leaders of that organization are members of the United Church of God. That would be another rather revealing connection if it proved to be so.
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby tronagirl » Mon Jun 03, 2019 7:42 am

So, is the superintendent planning to resign over this? It was his baby from the looks of things. So, shouldn't he own up and turn in his letter of resignation pronto? It's pretty clear that he helped talk the school board into trusting the group that was running the scam and so he bears responsibility for what happened to a large degree.
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby shadylady » Mon Jun 03, 2019 8:39 am

tronagirl: Resigning would make a lot of sense, but the board would have to push the issue. I doubt that the current supt would frame the situation as being his fault. He'd probably push the idea that he was victimized by the scammers just like everybody else. Even if he took payoffs under the table, that's what he'd try to sell to the public. It will be very interesting to see how this situation develops over the next few months!
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby deathvalleyjake » Mon Jun 03, 2019 5:21 pm

Statewide Charter School Scheme
If fake students were used to collect state funds, then it would seem that any district that received any portion of the fraudulent funds would be required to repay the state. Hopefully the impact on Trona schools will not be too great, but I don't see how the schools could possibly not be required to repay the state.
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby mrgreen » Mon Jun 03, 2019 8:20 pm

KissMyTail wrote:recluse: Yes, that is the supt of TJUSD in that United Church of God video. Rather lame-ass sermon BTW, but I agree that we need to know if any of the people involved in the A3 Charter Schools scam are also members of the United Church of God. If so, then we've definitely caught ourselves a rat! blackturtle.us brought up another organization by the name of onPoint. It would also be interesting to know if the leaders of that organization are members of the United Church of God. That would be another rather revealing connection if it proved to be so.

Hopefully someone will actively pursue this possible connection. The United Church of God sounds like some kind of cult to me. Not sure what kind of a nutjob would belong to an organization like that. Could be a well-meaning nutjob or it could be a nutjob with a scam up his sleeve, but either way we're talking pure, undiluted nutjob!
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Re: TRONA CHARTER SCHOOL SCAM

Postby panamint_patty » Tue Jun 04, 2019 6:13 am

This does not look good, but that doesn't mean the superintendent is a crook. I'll admit that such is a possibility, but I'm not ready to go their yet. It does sound like this will get a whole lot worse before it gets better, but I don't think it is a disaster for the local school district. Obviously a whole bunch of people are saying I TOLD YOU SO right about now!
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