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YourHub.com \\ Glendale \\ Stories \\ Education \\ School News

Open Letter to Darline Robles Ph.D. Superintendent

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Contributed by: Zeev Goldreich on 4/7/2007

Dear Dr. Robles,

I am writing this open letter to you to make sure you and the rest of the world have the facts in the dispute between Friends of Arts High (FOAH) and the administration of the LA County HS for the Arts (LACHSA).

It has come to my attention that you have recently been told by Mr. David Flores (LACOE Director of Alternative Education) and Mr. Paul Gothold (LACHSA Principal) that FOAH is withholding funds from LACHSA. That - to put it bluntly - is a lie. This lie is one in a series in a campaign to besmirch and vilify FOAH officers in order to discredit them. During the last two years, FOAH has been witness to campaigns of intimidation and retaliation against students, teachers and parents who dared to recount their horrific experiences at the school and express their opinion thereon.

Regarding the most recent lie you have been told, for your consideration, listed below are the facts, supported by written and recorded evidence collected by FOAH and hereby attached.

oOn the morning of February 9, 2007, Messrs Flores and Gothold met with FOAH board and explicitly instructed FOAH treasurer to hold off on disbursing funds for any and all school programs. Attached is an excerpt from the recording transcript of this meeting in which you can read how I asked what to do when I get calls from Arts Chairs asking for funds. You will read Mr. Flores explicitly instructing me to not disburse any funds, not even for the departments that are not involved in any dispute, Music and Visual Arts.

oOn the afternoon of February 9, 2007, I returned from the FOAH board meeting with Messrs Flores and Gothold to find an email from Dr. Castro, Music department Chair, asking me to disburse FOAH funds for one of his programs. As you'll see in the attached emails, both Dr. Castro and I emailed Mr. Flores asking for guidance. Mr. Flores advised Dr. Castro to work with Mr. Gothold to find an alternative source of funding. Mr. Gothold asked Foundation to pay the vendor with FOAH reimbursing Foundation. Foundation board was unable to grant Mr. Gothold's request and the Foundation's Executive Director, Ms. Sheila Bergman, emailed Dr. Castro to that effect, with a copy to me, on February 26, 2007, at 6:12 PM. 6 minutes later, Dr. Castro forwarded Ms. Bergman's email to Mr. Gothold, asking again for instructions. At that point, all communication from Messrs Flores and Gothold ceased. A roaring silence in response to repeated requests for instructions on where to go from here. In the absence of any response from Messrs Flores and Gothold, FOAH board voted on March 2 to honor its commitment to LACHSA and pay vendors directly for the invoices submitted by Dr. Castro. Does that sound to you like FOAH is withholding funds from LACHSA? For your information, FOAH board members have repeatedly encountered a similar modus operandi with several LACOE and LACHSA administrators: they drop the ball and stop responding, pushing others to make the decisions they don't have the ability or willingness to make. Just like Messers Flores and Gothold, when their proactive obstruction of the proper FOAH payment process hit a dead end, they were at a loss for what to do next and became dead silent.

oOn March 17, almost 6 weeks after Mr. Flores promised to resolve the FOAH-LACHSA dispute within 2-3 weeks, there was still no clear guidance from Messrs Flores and Gothold on disbursing funds toward the approved budgets. At that point, I sent the following language attached to the monthly FOAH financial reports sent to each department's Chair and FOAH reps: "As a reminder, while FOAH Board is in the process of researching the issue of transferring funds to the Foundation, FOAH intends to honor the arts budgets as approved by Mr. Gothold back in December 2006 and pay vendors directly for items that were allocated to be paid out of FOAH funds. It is up to each department chair to submit vendor invoices to the FOAH Treasurer in accordance with their respective department approved budget." Does that look like FOAH is withholding funds?

oOn March 28, 2007, Mr. Gothold instructed the Arts Chairs to stop submitting vendor invoices to FOAH for payment.

Mr. Gothold's strike on March 28, 2007, was the last in a series to ensure the death of the budgeting process. This valuable process was lauded and commended by Messrs Flores and Gothold themselves. Yet both gentlemen used the unrelated incidence of FOAH's letter of no-confidence in a certain Chair to completely derail the budgeting process and set us back two years. I have spent over 1,000 volunteer hours, consulting, crunching numbers, preparing analyses and material for meetings, and facilitating discussions in those meetings, to create the tool-kit for budgeting and controlling the expenses in the arts departments, and to teach everyone involved in the process how to use it. At a market rate of $250 per hour, typically what my Firm - a leading national independent CPA Firm - bills for my services, the value of time and expertise I volunteered during the last 2 years approximates $250,000.

Despite repeated obstacles posed by Messrs Flores and Gothold and the fact that an important tool to ensure accountability and fiscal responsibility has been thrown out, FOAH has bent over backwards to honor the budgets as approved by Mr. Gothold back in December 2006. In LACHSA's fragmented environment - where there are no less than three funding sources - accountability, fiscal responsibility, communication and coordination are paramount to ensure expenses are properly prioritized and to avoid waste, double payment and fraud. The proof that the process works was in the actual results for the 2005-06 school year. Once we have completed the 2005-06 budget-to-actual comparison, we had not only a clear record of how much the programs cost in each arts department, but were also able to show that with a bit of control and discipline we can keep the deficit down to a minimum, and eventually eliminate it. The combined deficit for all arts departments for 2005-06 was $9,000. During the investigative phase of my consulting work, I heard claims that the arts departments spawned deficits approximating $300,000 a year, however, there was not a clear analysis or record to show how that number was derived. In 2005-06, we were able to prove that when all involved worked within the guidelines of the process, deficits - if any - were minute.

Incidentally, the process was derailed right before the first budget-to-actual comparison for 2006-07. The Chairs of Music and Visual Arts were both ready and looking forward to their budget-to-actual comparison. The Chair of Dance and Theatre departments was the one who pushed to derail the process, (a string of emails showing that is available upon request). I have reason to suspect that the budget-to-actual comparison for Dance and Theatre departments might have shown a repeat pattern of weaknesses we have already seen in those departments last year.

FOAH has raised and committed roughly $125,000 for the 2006-07 school year. To date, FOAH disbursed approximately $25,000 of this $125,000. The question is how can FOAH make good on the rest of its commitment when Messrs Flores and Gothold are impeding the budget process? Please keep in mind that transparency is imperative. LACHSA is not a private corporation: Roughly half of its funding comes from taxpayer money with the other half coming from various donors. Both taxpayers and donors should be kept abreast of how their money is used.

FOAH has raised an additional $100,000 with the intention to commit it to the 2007-08 school year. How can FOAH commit any money and help the school when Messrs Flores, Gothold, and one department Chair refuse to operate with fiscal transparency and accountability?

I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts about possible solutions for the difficulties raised in the two preceding paragraphs. Please keep in mind that solutions that do not honor fiscal responsibility and accountability are out of the question. I have just received communication from Ms. Bergman that LACOE has graciously agreed "to reinstate FOAH's ability to distribute funds to the arts departments pursuant to the current budget agreement" (see email attached). I hope you understand that this communication is insufficient and inadequate; We have to hear it directly from the individuals who initially instructed us to stop disbursement, namely from both Mr. Flores and Mr. Gothold. I sincerely hope that "reinstating FOAH's ability to distribute funds" means getting the budget process back on track, including budget to actual comparisons to be performed very soon. Otherwise, this powerful tool will be rendered ineffective and LACOE will have only itself to blame for uncontrolled deficits. Inviting FOAH to continue to pour its painfully raised funds into a "black hole" defies and defeats the principles of communication, transparency and fiscal responsibility. Furthermore, it will handicap FOAH in its future fundraising efforts.

I am sure you realize by now that the budget is just one of a myriad issues plaguing the school. I would encourage you to invite the FOAH board to a meeting in the very near future, as soon as your schedule allows. During our meeting, we will discuss with you the lack of safety and organization at the school, rampant violations of student, teacher and parent rights, including but not limited to free speech, intimidation and vilification campaigns based upon lies and rumors crafted by LACOE employees, and deterioration of core values. For the first time you will hear the facts directly without the prejudiced filtering through the toxic and harmful intermediary of Messrs Flores and Gothold.

Lastly, you may be interested to know that in 17 years as a financial and operational auditor and consultant, I have never had to face so many hurdles trying to help. It is ironic that I suffered through two years of jumping through hoops and constantly battling obstacles on a pro-bono mission. The latest intimidation campaign is against me personally and your office will hear from my attorney shortly.

Please don't hesitate to call me with comments or questions.

Respectfully,

Rae Goldreich, CPA
FOAH Treasurer

CC: LA County Board of Supervisors
Foundation Executive Board
FOAH Board of Directors
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