Thursday, November 30, 2006

Dan Shinoff appears to no longer be on the approved attorney list for SDCOE JPA

Update: I was mistaken when I first wrote this article.

While it is true that Daniel Shinoff is not on the Legal Services Council list of approved attorneys, it turns out that there is a secret list of lawyers, who have no written contracts with SDCOE-JPA, to whom SDCOE-JPA pays a secret amount of money each to represent school districts. SDCOE has ignored my public records requests for this information.

The following webpage lists SDCOE Legal Services Council-approved lawyers. The only thing I can't figure out is: Why is Ed Brand in charge of legal matters at SDCOE when he is no longer a superintendent?

List of approved SDCOE attorneys.

Previous SDCOE Superintendent Rudy Castruita knew about obstruction of justice and other wrongdoing by Daniel Shinoff, but was either unable and/or unwilling to challenge Shinoff. It turns out that Randy Ward, the new county Superintendent, is also covering his eyes and allowing wrongdoing to proceed unabated.

Cheryl Cox (the mayor-elect of Chula Vista), on the other hand, must pleased. Beginning in 2001, she did everything she could to support and protect Daniel Shinoff and his illegal activities. I suppose that's only fair, since he did everything he could to support and protect her illegal activities as board member of Chula Vista Elementary School District. Her most recent discussion of Shinoff's wrongdoing was in May of this year.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Castle Park Elementary isn't the only place PTA funds went missing

Castle Park Elementary in Chula Vista Elementary School District isn't the only PTA with embezzlement problems.

(SOURCE--Ricci Graham/Daily Review)

Hayward, California PTA theft

Five people were arrested on suspicion of embezzling $56,000 in PTA funds at Lorin Eden Elementary School. Former principal Mable Haskins, 58, agreed to turn herself in after learning that Hayward police had issued a $30,000 warrant for her arrest on three counts of grand theft by embezzlement....Others arrested were former PTA president Janet Castillo, 58; former PTA president Denise Chew, 41; Chew's husband, Johnny Chew, 31, and son, Derick Thompson, 22; and Steven Airo, 31. All are Hayward residents, and Airo is a close friend of the Chew family.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Did dirty tricks get Dan Shinoff "re-elected" in Grossmont?

Many school boards in the San Diego area allow lawyers to make their decisions.

Of course, they don't usually admit that the schools are being run from behind the scenes by people who weren't elected.

But public-relations director Bonnie Hall of MiraCosta College recently came right out and said it as clear as day:
“[The president of the college] was informed this morning by college attorney, Daniel Shinoff, that the vice president of instructional services will be on leave until further notice."

It was clearly NOT the college that made the personnel decision, but the lawyer.

It seems Dan Shinoff makes decisions for many districts. Some of his decisions are illegal. If people who were elected to run schools are going to ignore the law, and give Dan Shinoff millions of tax dollars to help them get away with breaking the law, those people need to be thrown out of office.

One such person is Grossmont Union High School District's Jim Kelly (who was re-elected, but lost his controlling board majority two days ago). On the day before the election, Jim Kelly's lapdog, Superintendent Terry Ryan, sent a phone message to parents in Santee to boost Kelly's candidacy.

Or was it Dan Shinoff who told Ryan to send the phone messages? Perhaps Shinoff feared that if Kelly lost his job, Shinoff might also be thrown out.

Dan Shinoff defends the message. He says it was meant to be informational.

Right. It was positive information about one member of the school board sent out in the hours before voting began.

Cheryl Cox, CVESD school board member and mayor-to-be of Chula Vista, came close recently to admitting that Dan Shinoff is in charge of CVESD, not the other way around.

As long as Dan Shinoff is in charge of their legal affairs, school board members will continue to pay him large amounts of money (which was intended for the education of children) for unethical and illegal actions aimed at keeping them in office.