A complaint has been filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission against the Oceanside Unified School District for a violation of the Political Reform Act of 1974, Sections 89001 – 89003, Under this section of the law, school districts are prohibited from promoting school board members up for election in mass mailings paid for by the District within 60 days of an election. A recent mailer sent out by Oceanside Unified violates this law, qualifying as a “prohibited mailing” by all criteria outlined by the FPPC. https://www.fppc.ca.gov/learn/public-officials-and-employees-rules-/communications-sent-using-public-funds/campaign-related-communications.html
This has been registered as sworn complaint COM-10032024-03578 dated October 2nd, 2024.
The total cost of this mailer, obtained with a Public Records Act request, was $13,330.23.
Despite academic performance at near-record lows, our District did not feel it important to spend this money on education (giving classroom supplies to teachers, buying books for kids, buying STEM supplies, etc.) Instead it felt it more important to promote two school board members up for re-election.
Why? In an email dated September 18th 2024 OUSD’s Superintendent, Julie Vitale, claimed ” we have recently received feedback and inquiries regarding how the bond funds are being spent.”
A Public Records Act request was filed on September 30th, 2024 asking for “copies of any communications received by the District (in any form) in the last three months containing such feedback and inquiries.” On October 11th, 2024 a response was received noting “The District intends to provide you with non-privileged, non-exempt records in response to your request on or about November 11, 2024.”
So… these inquiries were substantial and significant enough to justify spending $13,000 to address them with the public, but not significant enough to be able to find them in less than a month and a half.
Or perhaps the November 11th date was chosen because it is post-election?
Now…. why would the district feel it necessary to put their thumb on the scale – using public money – to promote these two board members? That’s easy to see.
During the March 12th, 2024 Board Meeting, the Board gave unanimous approval, a 5-0 vote (as almost always in Oceanside) to an across-the-board bonus raise for District executives. This raise applied to the “Confidential and Leadership, Associate Superintendents, and Superintendent” positions.
Note that even though the Board Agenda indicates this is a 5% raise, the actual disclosure provided to the County Office of Education (required under AB1200 legislation) indicates the total cost increase of this raise to be 16.01%.
In 2023 OUSD’s Superintendent, Julie Vitale, was given total compensation by the District of $379,205. Adding 16.01% to this increases her compensation by almost $61,000 – in one year. The District team of five people that “negotiated” this raise (for themselves) received a total increase of over $200,000/year, including over $47,000/year for Associate Superintendent Todd McAteer and $44,000/year for Associated Superintendent Andrea Norman.
As mentioned, raises of this sort must be approved by the Board, and as is usual in Oceanside’s case the Board approved this unanimously. A typical 5-0 vote with both incumbents voting “yes”. And with zero discussion of how the money could instead be used to improve the education of our kids rather than improving the bank accounts of adults.
Again, why would our District Administration possibly support their incumbent board members? It seems pretty clear – because they benefit financially from those board members’ actions.
Note that sending out such a mailer is almost unheard-of in this district, and given there are no bond-related issues on the ballot this year sending this out in September – less than two months before an election and prominently displaying the names of board members up for election – is a clear and obvious attempt to sway voters using public funds.
An additional Public Records Act request was made asking for copies of any emails involving board members regarding this mailer. That request, made September 17th, 2024, has not yet been fulfilled either. Likely it will also not be fulfilled until after the November election.
This promotion of incumbent board members during an election is not unusual for Oceanside Unified. While mailers are very rare, there is one case where something similar was done in the past.
Immediately before the November 2020 election (less than a month prior), the District sent out a very expensive glossy pamphlet that also prominently featured the board members up for election.
We look forward to the FPPC’s investigation and expect them to find the District has clearly violated the law here.
Unfortunately, such investigations take significantly longer than anyone would ever expect so we do not have much hope of this happening prior to election day…
Just another example of the corruption we see in Oceanside Unified, where the education of our kids clearly takes a back-seat to protecting the interests of adults.
October 31st 2024
Update 11/1/2024 8:18 PM
The FPPC has responded and is opening an investigation. No determination has been made, no deadline is given.
