This document showing the EUSD board approval of $800,000 for health and wellness (aka yoga) was obtained by a special records request. It was discussed and approved at the special board meeting on April 26. There is not a link on the EUSD website. There is not one mention of the word yoga. This was a special board meeting to discuss a budget related item (not an emergency which is the true purpose of special meetings which allow only 24 hours notice to the public).I'm guessing some of that $800,000 is also going to "Healthy Day Partners" for running the vegetable garden. In any case, the district could certainly be more transparent.
This money came out of the general fund. Last year Baird asked for special permission of the state board to allow the $10 million Pacific View money (which by law should have went to a one time use) to be put in the general fund. This allows for no accountability of the money to the taxpayers. It was approved by the state.
Baird sits on the yoga board for the Jois Foundation.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
EUSD spending $800,000 per year on yoga?
From the Inbox:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks Mel.
ReplyDeleteFull circle back to the thread on mental health services and the homeless.
The Cardiff school district just voted to put yet another bond measure on the November ballot for another 22 million dollars to fix the same thing the last ballot measure was meant to fix. The roofs and the windows. 22 million to fix a leaky roof. I wish I could get that job. They are all the same. Bureaucrats that want to spend other peoples money.
ReplyDeleteVote NO on every school bond. It has been a green light for extravagance.
DeleteThere has been no vote. Yet. Cardiff people should go to the board meeting on 5/12 and let the board know we're done paying for this stuff. We paid once, and they have mismanaged the maintenance.
Delete“No other court in America has allowed unelected public school officials to lead children in formal religious rituals like the Hindu liturgy of praying to, bowing to, and worshipping the sun god”
ReplyDelete"While the practice of yoga may be religious in some contexts, yoga classes as taught in the district are, as the trial court determined, 'devoid of any religious, mystical, or spiritual trappings,'" the court wrote in a 3-0 opinion.
DeleteSore losers.
DeleteSpoiler Alert!
DeleteThe "sun god" is the sun itself.
I think you are all missing the point-- this really had nothing to do with yoga. The point is that Baird and his rubber stamping board are using special meetings to manipulate the taxpayers. He knew if he would have put this on a regular scheduled board meeting and listed yoga that there would be hundreds of people there to voice their concerns over the use of money. Money that can be spent supporting PE, music, art and other programs that have been cut from the budget (supposedly for lack of dunds?).
DeleteWe have had yoga for the last three years for free-- now to continue it -- the district has to pay up. It's all about priorities but it should also be a discussion among parents, teachers, and taxpayers. Having special meetings at 2pm is manipulative and very shady!
And if Baird sits on the board isn't that a conflict of interest?
How do you spend $800K on a yoga class?
DeleteWhat makes you think they did?
DeleteI heard Ra is running for council.
DeleteYes, total conflict of interest. For financial, There are 18 teachers and one curriculum writer. Leslie Wright is paid $75,000 last known and 800K is over $40,000 per teacher. The science, Visual and performing arts, and PE consultants are paid less (30K at one school) and don't get 40 hours. Given Sonoma/Jois gave 3.5M in 4 years for yoga teacher salaries, the amount 800K is similar to last 4 years, it's just that now EUSD/parents have to pay. Can't we "stretch" for less and get our PE required classes back?
DeleteEven if a parent other community member wanted to attend this meeting with only 24 hours notice, there were NO supporting documents posted on line to explain the details of what the board would be voting on. So you would show up and SURPRSE! And for those who aren't able to drop everything to attend a meeting with 24 hours notice at 2P in the afternoon, if the docs are posted online, how are we supposed to find out about this stuff?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter what the board is voting on, you have to inform taxpayers about it with plenty of notice and provide documentation - it's the law. And it was not done. In addition, with parents footing the bill for teaching consultants for mandated curriculum (PE, Science) why in the world would you yank almost a million dollars out the general fund to pay for something extracurricular? and not vetted by parents, teachers and principals?
Brown Act Violation?
DeleteQuestion: Does Baird get any money for sitting on the yoga board? If so, isn't is conflict of interest to give yourself a contract?
DeleteEmbezzlement?
DeleteYes, it would be, if he has a financial interest in the foundation.....
DeleteYes of course he is on the Sonoma board - along with Mirashira, Stedman Graham, Deepok Chopra and Gene Ruffin (Sonoma buddy he got into this with) so check the Sonoma website - his photo is there. Not to mention that they fly him all over to speak. See the program he is doing for Deepok Chopra in September on Chopra website.
DeleteI like how they include "energy savings" in the column tallying up all the extra revenue. That is presumably from the solar panels. But what is/was the cost of those panels? Has that been deducted from the "savings"? I doubt it. If you consider the cost to achieve those "savings" you might see a different picture. But who cares, as long as Baird get another green innovator award to pad his resume.
ReplyDeleteBaird and that dinosaur EUSD school board need to be put in their place. After royally screwing this town over for at least $five million on the PV deal, they should be denied all future requests for public funding until he and his school board are replaced.
ReplyDeleteHaving a party out in the desert trying to limit any public participation at great expense should have had their heads rolling. Anyone who attended their few public school board meetings back then would have come away with the impression that these people have no shame. The way they treated Mo Muir was shameful. I can only imagine how she was treated when out of the publics eye. No wonder she left and moved on to the high school board besides following her son to high school.
EUSD's plea for public funding deserves to be dumped, just as Baird and his board members deserve the same. The way that board dismissed the public plea for saving PV was again shameful. Moms and Dads and plenty of students took the time to go down there and were treated shamefully by this school board during this 6pm meeting.
At the time, the rest of us had no idea how badly Baird would screw this town over. All of us that supported saving PV from DeWald's plan for private homes, expected our council to not bend over and fight for a fair price. That was not to be, as they agreed to pay even more than Tim was willing to sell it for.
This school board should be dismissed and sent packing. I hope the public rejects their plea for funding and in so doing will send a clear message that their days are numbered. Their mismanagement needs to be accounted for.
Vote no on any funding for EUSD until Baird and that group school board members are sent packing.
Mo Muir isn't squeaky clean either. She's on the take just like her husband.
DeleteAnd what has Muir taken? She didn't go to La Quinta... She didn't go to Disneyland? She never requested the district to pay for travel to accept some fufu award-- have you seen the amount of money spent on out of district travel for Tim and his buddies? How many trips does he need to take? And please tell me how this helps our kids? This isn't about Mo-- it's about being held accountable.
DeleteThe poster at 5:50 should have never mentioned Muir's name then. I don't care where she went or didn't go. She is NOT squeaky clean. Period.
DeleteProbably no one is squeaky clean. But Mo Muir has been accountable, has pushed for more transparency, and was willing, while on EUSD Board of Trustees to be the only one to stand up to Baird, to stand against his cheating the taxpayers and not abiding by the Brown Act.
Delete1:47 Big deal. A lot of good that did for us taxpayers.
DeleteHow did Baird screw this town on the Pacific View deal? He has a fiduciary and ethical obligation to the district and the students. That means he had to sell the property for the highest price the market would pay. He asked a premium for the property to test the market. The City was not obligated to pay that price or purchase it at all. The fact the City did so is on the City. Baird did exactly what he was supposed to, and required to, do.
ReplyDeleteHow dare you state the obvious.
DeleteYou must be Baird, or Stocks, or Kylo Ren.
He did NOT have a fiduciary and ethical obligation to cheat us by ignoring the ramifications of the Naylor Act; he didn't have an obligation to take a raise when he's already overpaid. He didn't have an obligation to hide from the public eye public business at the La Quinta resort, violating the Brown Act. He's shady, even when it comes to lying about his efforts to eradicate bees, falsely claiming they couldn't be safely moved, before he got caught in another lie. Baird is a liar and a cheat.
DeleteBees? Really? Who cares?
DeleteNaylor and Brown are state laws. We don't need to follow state laws around here. We've been ignoring them for a long time and nothing bad has happened, so we should continue ignoring them. It's not like a judge is going to take over decision making at EUSD because of ongoing violations. We need people like Tim Baird who will stand up to the bullies in Sacremento and stand with local citizens in just saying no to Brown and Naylor.
The PV property was bequeathed to the children of Encinitas by an early founder. The city should have pursued and honored that request. Instead, loop holes were created to nullify that donor's request. Another failure of the City Attorney and the Council to act honorably and ethically.
DeleteHas anyone seen a single child yet attending the new outdoor classrooms on Quail Gardens Drive? Lots of adults there growing things, where are the kids?
ReplyDeleteTwo out-of-town moms aka 'Healthy Day partners' are making BIG salaries with their non-profiteering and padding their kids resumes, other than that there are a few hispanics weeding the 4 or 5 rows of shrubs every month.
DeleteMy kids have gone on field trips there (and really enjoyed it btw). Not a huge fan of spending so much $$$ on Healthy Day Partners and now our farm lab director when I see higher priority items get ignored. But since you asked..
DeleteLet's get real about Pacific View. This is not on Baird. This is on Tony Kranz, with support of the City Council majority at the time. Kranz is the one who offered 10 million, which was higher than the 9.5 million Baird wanted. No developer could be certain it would be rezoned, so therefore, no bids. Let me say it once again, there were no other bids because of the obvious reason that they could not count on it being rezoned. That is what Prop. A is about! Barth then further muddied the waters by not allowing the property to be held by the City in perpetuity.Instead she said they should be able to sell it in 10 years if another Council wanted to. It has now been 2 years and so far we have nothing to show for our money. Volunteers are great, but in this case, they have not been able to, so far, come up with a plan as to how to raise money to put an art colony there. It looks as if the citizens of Encinitas will once again have to pitch in or tax dollars to get anything off the ground. The whole thing was one big boondoggle and fiscally irresponsible. Baird has done many things one can trash him for, but PV is not one of them. Lay that on Barth, Shaffer, and Kranz.
ReplyDeleteAgree that the city paid way too much. Not sure I agree regarding re-zoning. State law supersedes here, and the zoning would revert to that of adjacent properties, Prop A or not. Now, if a developer wanted even more density, then, of course, Prop A would require a vote of the people.
DeleteNope. Sorry. Fail.
Deletehttp://ww2.eusd.net/Pacific%20View%20History/ENCINITAS%20UNION%20SD_%20Draft%20Instruction%20to%20Bidders%20for%20Sale%20of%20Surplus%20Property%20With%20Revision.pdf
Section (1)(G)(2):
"Re-Zoning Purchase. The bidder may submit a bid price conditioned upon the potential re-zoning of the property to residential (DR-15) within an escrow period of up to thirty- six months with bidder required to close escrow within a period of sixty (60) days after re-zoning to DR-15 is actually finalized. The District further has the unilateral option to extend the escrow period for an additional period of time if necessary to complete the rezoning."
Any bid submitted under (1)(G)(2) was guaranteed by EUSD to be rezoned during the escrow period, before the sale closed. If the rezoning never happened, the sale never closes, and the bidder never has to pay the bid price to EUSD.
Still think there were no bids?
You are delusional.
If you're going to talk Pacific View, you have to go all the way back to when Bob Naninga asked the question of why under the Naylor Act the Property was not offered to the city in 2006- 2008.
DeleteThen it gets into the proposed swap with Dewalt, Stocks, Bond and Maggie burying their heads in the sand, bad faith, the EUSD and on and on.
The property could have been required much cheaper, in an earlier time period.
Do you research..
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/uniontrib/20080822/news_1mi22pacview.html
http://www.theleucadiablog.com/2008/08/nanninga-calls-for-open-dialogue-and.html
It was all closed door session with Dewalt and friends by the school board before 2008. The board was pulling a fast one before 2008. Dewalt was brought in as the "consultant" on swapping school property for a commercial piece of property. The properties were never identified. The deal quietly died.
DeleteIt was always my view that Jerome Stocks was the real villain is the Pacific View saga, with Tim Baird a close second. Stocks always had three vote with Dan Dalager and James Bond to get what he wanted. He forgot that Dalager owned property on Third and F streets across the street from the school and had to recuse himself. When Teresa Barth and Maggie Houlihan made and seconded the motion to investigate the Naylor Act and buying the property, the vote tied at 2 to 2 and the motion died. This gave the advantage down the road to the school district. Who know what kind of deal Stocks was cooking up.
ReplyDeleteIt was Bob Nanninga who first mentioned the Naylor Act, and his untimely death left a void that wasn't filled by anyone else.
Muir could plug up a Black Hole!
DeleteActually, it was Dalager, who refused to allow any city dollars to be spent on using the Naylor Act, ask Tanya Mannes; and Bond/Stocks went along; but Teresa and Maggie were on the same side as Dalager until contacted by EUSD and an accommodation was agreed upon. Pacific View will be Tony, Lisa, Teresa and Catherine's legacy, not the previous council's. Property is still destined for AIRBNB...
Delete