Something is rotten at the Sausalito Marin City School District and it has everything to do with political agenda, abuse of power and the blatant spread of misinformation.

The story begins last year (well before the emotionally contested November 2016 election of two school district trustees) when Mary Jane Burke, the Marin County superintendent of schools, requested an evaluation of the district by California schools’ Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team — FCMAT. Alarmingly, Burke is also chair of FCMAT. She requested the evaluation wearing her Marin County hat and then, while wearing her FCMAT hat, ensured FCMAT’s report aided her ulterior motives.

The district consists of two K-8 schools: Bayside/Martin Luther King, a traditional public school, and Willow Creek Academy, a public charter school. Both have been reasonably well funded and both are doing their utmost to provide the very best education they can for their students.

The underlying problem is Burke’s well-known opposition to public charter schools. Consequently, the FCMAT report is a damning critique of the district and recommends major defunding of the charter school which, if its recommendations are implemented, will likely result in the bankruptcy and closing of the charter school.

Thorough responses to the draft FCMAT report were prepared by both the district and Willow Creek. Both responses completely discredited the draft state report.

For example, the draft implied that Willow Creek serves mostly affluent white students from Sausalito. The truth is that Willow Creek serves more Marin City students than Bayside/MLK, and its enrollment is approximately 60 percent African-American, Hispanic, Asian and mixed race.

These responses were essentially ignored and the FCMAT report was issued in final form with only cosmetic changes.

Burke then proceeded to use the FCMAT report’s recommendations to essentially take over management of the district. She installed one of her assistants as district superintendent while the incumbent superintendent was on medical leave (her assistant continues daily at the district despite the superintendent’s return from leave).

Burke has also paralyzed the district by unbelievably accusing district trustees of having a conflict of interest as parents of students at Willow Creek, and requesting this issue and other allegations of fiscal favoritism of Willow Creek to be referred to the California attorney general. The pressure of this current review by the attorney general has resulted in two of the five trustees recusing themselves on all votes concerning the charter school.

Surely one may reasonably ask whether Burke’s dual roles as chair of FCMAT and county superintendent constitute a conflict of interest and her actions represent a serious abuse of power, perhaps influencing an election.

Furthermore, these egregious acts by Burke have contributed to the current budget crisis at the district. Her actions have already caused the district, its trustees and the charter school to collectively spend well in excess of $100,000 in legal fees to protect their various interests.

What a disgusting waste of funds that are desperately needed in the classroom.

And then there’s the questionable allocation of Marin County resources by assigning one of her highly paid deputy superintendents to run a small school district that already has a well-qualified and capable superintendent.

Is it any wonder that there is a great deal of anger in Sausalito and Marin City around these issues for the two schools?

For at least four decades, real estate agents had been advising families to avoid Sausalito and Marin City because of the public schools. Willow Creek’s success over the past 15 years has caused real estate agents to advise differently, and these communities have now become very popular with families.

Should the communities stand by and allow the county superintendent to destroy the incredible progress that has been made? It is time for local residents and their representatives to speak up and protect the rights of their children to a quality public education.

Doug Lloyd is a longtime Sausalito resident. He was on the Willow Creek Academy school board for 10 years and served as president of the Willow Creek Foundation for seven years.

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