Shining The Light On Kevin Johnson

I received an email below announcing a new blog in Sacramento, California known as SAC Chartergate . It seems this blog was created by a group of Sacramento citizens who are interested in shining the light on Kevin Johnson, St Hope and the takeover of Sacramento High School.

Who is SAC Chartergate: According to their blog they value the public trust and true accountability from their elected and appointed leaders. They represent parents, neighbors and community members who still believe in Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ words about governance and public policy making: “sunlight is the best disinfectant ." Well who better to shine the light on the Kevin Johnson/Michelle Rhee story then citizens from Sacramento. Here is their email as well as Sac Chartergate’s first entry titled: Making The Grades With Kevin Johnson.

Hi Candi:

"Just a quick note to send you this link to our new blog in Sacramento: http://sacchartergate.blogspot.com/ The point of this is to get out there any and all information we can find regarding the sad saga of the Sacramento High School give away in the service of Kevin Johnson’s (and Michelle Rhee’s) rise to power.  Take a look and spread the link around your neck of the woods.  More to come from us. "- L. Jablonski and all the outraged citizens here in Sac Town

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Making the Grades with Kevin Johnson

 New allegations that mayor Kevin Johnson offered hush money to a young Hood Corps volunteer who complained of his unwanted sexual advances splashed across media outlets around the country last week.  The story has national legs given the zeal of congressional Republicans to underscore the involvement of Obama Administration officials in the dismissal of Inspector General Gerald Walpin, whose findings related to the illegal use of federal funds by St. Hope included the revelations.

 Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of Washington DC schools and Kevin Johnson's fiance, also has a role in the latest saga due to allegations she mishandled the Hood Corps volunteer's complaint while serving as a St. Hope official and also intervened with Inspector General Walpin on behalf of Johnson.  We will have questions about Rhee in a later post. 

 All of this plays out in the broader context of Johnson's controversial "strong mayor" proposal to change the city charter.    The bloggers at BossMayor.com   believe this latest revelation underscores Mayor Johnson's lack of judgment and "outright creepiness," given that reports of inappropriate sexual contact with girls date back to Johnson's basketball days in Phoenix in the mid-1990s.

 While we certainly agree with the creepiness factor, we can't just stop there.  The willingness of so many people in Sacramento to ignore or explain away for so long this alleged pattern of behavior is supremely troubling, especially since Johnson was handed over a public high school with young girls in his charge.  More on this later too.

 For now, we would like to take this in a different direction. Walpin's investigation into the alleged sexual misconduct includes the following:

"One Member, (redacted) reported that, in the February/March 2007 time frame, she was entering grades into the SAC High database system per Mr. Johnson's instructions at the St. Hope office at night, purportedly as part of her Americorps service.  (Redacted) contacted Mr. Johnson to inform him that she had completed the grades and wanted him to review them.   About 11:00 pm, Mr. Johnson arrived at St. Hope and instructed (redacted) to gather her things and come with him.  Mr. Johnson drove to (redacted) apartment, in which another Americorps Member had a separate bedroom, Mr. Johnson laid down on (redacted) bed.  (Redacted) sat on the edge of the bed to show him the grades..."

Our Questions:  

Why was an Americorps (Hoodcorps) volunteer entering grades into the Sac High database alone late at night, without oversight by teachers or registrar?*

Whose grades? And for what class or classes?   

Why would Mr. Johnson, who does not have a teaching or administrative credential, be instructing an Americorps volunteer to enter grades and then be reviewing the grades the volunteer entered?   

Did Mr. Johnson regularly "touch" the grades at Sacramento Charter High School? 

Who, other than teachers and the registrar, are able to "touch" the grades at Sacramento Charter High School?

 *State Education Code Regarding Grades

49066. (a) When grades are given for any course of instruction taught in a school district, the grade given to each pupil shall be the grade determined by the teacher of the course and the determination of the pupil's grade by the teacher, in the absence of clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, shall be final.

(b) The governing board of the school district and the superintendent of such district shall not order a pupil's grade to be changed unless the teacher who determined such grade is, to the extent practicable, given an opportunity to state orally, in writing, or both, the reasons for which such grade was given and is, to the extent practicable, included in all discussions relating to the changing of such grade.

Posted by The Washington Teacher, featuring Candi Peterson, Blogger in residence, story courtesy of SAC CHARTERGATE blog