Taxpayers Deserve An Audit of the Capistrano Unified School District Finances Before Any Bond is Placed On The Ballot.

In reviewing CUSD Board agendas, I started to take notice of the number of companies that CUSD is contracting with to manage student data and implement Common Core curriculum and assessments. The number and cost is staggering. I would like to see the City Mayors, and Representative Bill Brough ask for an audit of the Capistrano Unified School District's finances; especially in light of the fact that the Orange County Taxpayers Association asked to have their name withdrawn from the $2 billion dollar bond measure, sighting a lack of specificity in how the money will be spent. They also commented on CUSD's inability to track the color of money.

Listen to Board Audio July 20th BOT Meeting https://sites.google.com/a/capousd.org/board-audio-archive/ at 1:10:18 .

This is a District that is asking taxpayers to borrow what will be $2 billion dollars over 25 years because of a lack of funding for facilities. Yet, the District has given employees 4 consecutive years of across the board compensation increases (8.67% this year alone)and the District has spent millions of dollars on technology to data mine our students.
See Student data is not protected due to FERPA loophole.
http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2016/05/up-date-to-post-dated-may-1st-obamas.html

In an independent study the Pioneer Institute called "National Cost of Aligning States and Localities to the Common Core Standards" found the cost of transitioning to national education standards was $16 billion. The study recommended that States and Districts should analyze costs stating that most states signed on to Common Core implementation without a thorough, public vetting of the costs and benefits. In particular, they pointed out the cost of technology infrastructure on cash-strapped districts could be devastating.

Source: http://www.accountabilityworks.org/photos/Cmmn_Cr_Cst_Stdy.Fin.2.22.12.pdf

In addition to the cost of implementing Common Core, there is a new concern for the number of for-profit companies that are gaining access to students and their families personally identifiable data. When I began to research the companies that would be receiving the data that is being collected; and the links to Trustee Hatton -Hodson's education company InnovateEd, it does not pass the smell test. There is at a minimum, the "appearance of impropriety" within CUSD regarding Trustee Lynn Hatton Hodson who resigned from the ROP Board in 2011 for the same reason. (See Trustee Resigns from ROP Board, Worried About the 'Appearance of Impropriety)

There appears to be a potential conflict of interest that effects CUSD Board decisions regarding spending money on technology and professional development vs spending money to reduce class size, fix and maintain facilities, restore programs (like a basic geometry honors class which every other school district in the area has) and increase instructional time. CUSD parents are still fundraising for core educational programs like art, music and science. Those schools that cannot afford to fundraise are no longer receiving instruction in art, music or science that aligns with minimum state content standards and curriculum frameworks.

http://cusd.capousd.org/cusdweb/boardaudio/1-27-16/CUSDBoardMeeting.January.27.2016.mp3

CUSD only recently restored it's school year to 180 days.

While most school districts make the educational interest of students their number one priority, CUSD puts the economic interest of employees above the educational interests of students and the financial interest of taxpayers. This practice has become abusive and has resulted in a notable decline in the academic performance of students across all demographics especially in Math.

CUSD has chosen to allow our students to attend school in sub-standard facilities for 15 years.

One example: Due to a lack of adequate funding, CUSD laid off all but 3 plumbers and allowed students to attend school in facilities that had over 16,000 plumbing work orders with a 90 day turn around time. See: http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2016/05/capistrano-unified-school-district.html?q=16000+work+orders and listen to the April 27, 2016 BOT Meeting audio at 2:30:20 https://sites.google.com/a/capousd.org/board-audio-archive/archive/2015-16-audio

CUSD has chosen to increase class sizes every year to balance its budget

Due to a lack of funding CUSD has the highest class sizes in the State and in the nation. These are "average" class sizes. Many classrooms have over 40 kids per teacher.



Due to a lack of funding students have been deprived of their fundamental right to achieve equality of educational opportunity; which is defined by 44 years of California case law to be:

"the same opportunity to obtain high quality staff, program expansion and variety, beneficial teacher-pupil ratios and class sizes, modern equipment and materials, and high-quality buildings."

However, CUSD has found funding to give four straight years of across the board compensation increases totaling over $120 million dollars. Average teacher compensation has gone from $95,000 per year to $110,000 per year since 2012-13 and unfortunately for taxpayers unfunded pension liabilities have gone from $49 million to almost $60 million since 2012-13.

CUSD has found millions in funding to purchase technology designed to data mine our students. The number of software programs designed to collect student data, and their cost is staggering for a district that cannot fund a minimum curriculum that aligns with minimum state content standards and curriculum frameworks.

According to stated LCAP Goals and expenditures, CUSD has invested in the following

June 24, 2015 BOT Meeting Agenda Item #5:

Common Walk-Through Tool CUSD LCAP Review page 44 of 73 at 36.42

Ready Step College Readiness Survey CUSD LCAP Annual Review page 44 of 73 at 36.42 and page 56 of 73 at 36.54

College & Career Partnership Project CUSD LCAP Annual Review page 44 of 73 at 36.42

MTSS Multi-tiered System of Support CUSD LCAP Annual Review page 51 of 73 at 36.49

Rtl2 CUSD LCAP Annual Review page and page 58 of 73 at 36.52

Senior Exit Survey CUSD LCAP Annual Review page 56 0f 73 at

Foster Parent Needs Assessment CUSD LCAP Annual Review page 54 of 73 at 36.52

California Healthy Kids Survey

Naviance Expansion CUSD LCAP Annual Review page 30 of 73 at 36.28

AVID CUSD LCAP Annual Review page 30 of 73 at 36.28

Bridges Transitions Inc by XAP

Voyager Sopris CUSD LCAP Annual Review page 53 of 73 at 36.51

CUSD also has contracts with the following companies which collect the personally identifiable information from both students and parents and which is stored (not on CUSD's servers, but on the for-profit company servers).

Illuminate Ed costs the district a quarter million dollars per year and is 1 of 11 companies that I have been able to identify as student data management systems.


The other 11 are:

• Aeries (Eagle Communications)
• BrightBytes
• Cambium Learning Inc.
• Catapult Learning
• Curriculum Associates
• Edupoint Educational Systems
• Follett School Solutions Inc
• Houghton Mifflin CO
• Naviance
• Renaissance Learning Inc
• Solution Tree Inc

InnovateEd Lynn Hatten-Hodsons company:




The following are some of the companies that CUSD has contracted with to promote a STEM and STEAM focused curriculum.

As you read these consider that STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Steam adds the Arts. CUSD has no STEM and no STEAM just a lot of duplicate software that is not producing results. Math is especially weak within CUSD. EAP Math results which measures the number of students that are ready for college math (Algebra II) in 2013 was 6% with that number dropping by 50% to 3% in 2014.

See: http://eap2013.ets.org/ViewReport.asp
http://eap2014.ets.org/ViewReport.asp





The following is spending on Technology at 1 Board meeting June 22, 2016.

Connecting the Dots CUSD and Data Collection:
CUSD in the only local school district to require CCP to graduate. Requiring CCP and Health uses one entire class block for a full year and is the main reason why CUSD students fall behind on their A-G completion rates, making it much more difficult for students to graduate college and career ready.

"Naviance by Hobsons is a comprehensive K-12 college and career readiness platform that enables self-discovery, career exploration, academic planning, and college preparation for millions of students around the globe. Naviance is now being expanded to elementary schools. Naviance for Elementary School helps ensure equal exposure to college knowledge and career pathways for all students. Help students understand who they are, discover unique paths, and develop the skills to be successful in school and beyond."

Naviance uses personality surveys and career assessments to collect student data. This type of personally identifiable data has always been protected under privacy laws until now due to a loophole created in the FERPA laws in January 2016 as the result of an Executive Action by President Obama.

CUSD has made the decision to expand CCP and to incoporate Naviance into CCP See: CUSD Board Study Session: CUSD High School Graduation Requirements:

• Aliso Niguel High School at page 42 of 209
• Capistrano Valley High School page 45 of 209
• Dana Hills High School at page 48 of 209
• San Clemente High School at page 51 of 209
• Serra High School at page 54 of 209
• San Juan Hills High School at page 57 of 209
• Tessooro High School at page 60 of 209

Naviance surveys and personalty tests are now required to complete a class required for graduation. so how is a parent going to have the ability to opt out? It looks as though the intention is to deny parents the ability to protect their families personally identifiable information and subject all students in CUSD to data mining.

Jay Westover is "Chief Learning Officer for InnovateEd.

Taxpayers deserve an audit of the Capistrano Unified School District finances before any bond is placed on a ballot.