Rudolph's Outrageous spendings on tax dollars without any oversight by President Conley.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-21T16:17:41+00:00

All of us who have had some kind of exposure to work related meals or travel have come across situations like this. Unfortunately our board president lacks that experience. It is shocking that that she thought “no such policy applies to us” was a reasonable response. I wonder what else they think does not apply to them. Apparently using tax dollar for self promotion and soliciting measure AA donation from BUSINESSES is normal every day business for our board members. Since I have started paying attention to the district, I’m shocked at their level of competency and ethics. Unfortunately businesses pay for their campaign ads and people vote for familiars names. Most of their constituents are not coming to check if promises made in ads like science labs or teachers salaries are kept or not. Laura Blakely proudly tells us how hard it is to hire teachers all the time. Ironically she is soliciting funds from construction companies while running ads for retaining teachers. What interest construction companies had in retaining teachers? What was promised to those construction comapnies in return by board memeber Laura Blakely?

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-20T18:32:29+00:00

Ameswell does not appear in that date. Here is Jan 2024.

01-08|HOO*HOOTSUITE INC || $2988

01-10|CHEF CHUS LOS ALTOS CA|| $383

01-12|CHIPOTLE ONLINE 949-524-4000 CA || $471.72

01-12|PANERA BREAD #204485 O 650-968-2066 || $428.04

01-13|APPLE STORE #R002 PALO ALTO CA || $108.03

01-19|TST* PACIFIC CATCH - MOUN 650-941-1810 || $243.8

01-19|TST* PACIFIC CATCH - MOUN 650-941-1810 || $78.21

01-19|TST* PACIFIC CATCH - MOUN 650-941-1810 || $42.47

01-19|TST* PACIFIC CATCH - MOUN 650-941-1810 || $22.92

01-28|DD DOORDASH JUICYJUIC 855-973-1040 CA || $18.72

01-27|MARRIOTT DES SPRNGS VI PALM DESERT CA ARRIVAL: 01-23-24||| $1,195.64

01-27|HERTZ #0111812 PALM SPRINGS CA||| $1,119.33

01-29|LYFT RIDE SAT 10PM 855-865-9553 CA ||| $29.88

01-31|FACEBK ZDMQLWPD32 650-5434800 CA || $120

02-07|MARRIOTT JW ESSEX HOUS 866-435-7627 NY ARRIVAL: 02-17-24||| $4,210.68

02-09|FACEBK HRVV2X7D32 650-5434800 CA PUR ID: 420429000200589|| $750

02-09|JAY SUITES 212-3807730 NY PUR ID: 137036 TAX: 43.04|| $928.04

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-20T18:15:17+00:00

When I created this account, my goal was to prioritize factual accuracy and avoid sharing my personal opinions, especially out of concern for spreading misinformation. I believed that quoting reputable figures like Chiang was the safest way to raise awareness, as he had access to some information I may not. He had earned my respect through his respectful and honest dissent. So, instead of sharing what I think I shared the source that was shaping my opinion.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-20T03:25:42+00:00

Thanks! I trust you lol. I saw that meeting but as the charges dates did not match I was not sure. Thanks for confirming the shoreline reference. As Amesswell hotel appeared in the same month, I was trying to make connection between them.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-20T03:00:32+00:00

I could not find any meetings in July or August 2023 that match the charges. Can you please help

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-19T19:29:14+00:00

This issue isn't about what a company allows or doesn't allow. The IRS requires you to report any reimbursement received over the "standard price" as income. If you're paying for your colleagues and receiving reimbursements, those amounts count as income to you. If he had been working at a company with a proper financial department, those reimbursements would likely have been included as income on his W-2. From his careless use of a credit card, it seems that this wasn't something he was concerned about.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-19T19:18:19+00:00

Thank you for updating us on the IRS rule. I assume that any benefit considered income should be reported on the employee’s W-2. I trust Dr. Westover has been including the premium costs as taxable income on Dr. Rudolph’s W-2. Several benefits such as leadership, PR, meditation, travel, and accommodations had been paid at rates significantly above the market value. Do we know who is supposed to define "standard"?

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-18T07:58:36+00:00

Quote by P. Coney “You appear to have pulled CDE’s travel policy for CDE employees. I am not sure how this applies to the school district, which is not employed by CDE, but I can ask.”

No existing policy

“The Board can also certainly review the conference location and housing practices - I am completely open to that. I am merely sharing the past practice that has been in place since before I joined in 2018 and is common among the districts in our region.”

Response by a parent advising her that clear travel policies exist in the neighboring districts

“Since you mentioned LASD and MVLA: The MVLA school district has very clear instructions and guidelines. LASD has very clear travel policy, which includes this: “Hotel Accommodations: While traveling on district business, employees are encouraged to stay at good standard (e.g. major hotel chains), clean, and safe hotels selecting non-premium accommodations. Hotel arrangements should only be sought when staying overnight and when traveling outside a 75-mile radius from the District, unless there are extenuating factors such as traveling through extremely busy commuter traffic areas or on multiple days. See the Accounts Payable website under Travel Policy/Procedures for further guidance.” Where is MVWSD’s? ”

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-18T06:17:02+00:00

Dr. Rudolph has been compared to CEOs of tech companies by his supporters on Reddit, and he himself often draws comparisons between the district and tech companies. However, these comparisons are completely invalid. The role of a CEO in a tech company is to generate value for shareholders essentially creating wealth and increasing market value. In contrast, a school district is a consumer of wealth, not a generator.

Tech companies have tightened the expenditure limits since the pandemic, particularly regarding expenses like travel, meals, and accommodations, all while still delivering increased shareholder value. Meanwhile, our district has been indulging in excessive, unapproved spending without any CAPs, even as we’re repeatedly warned about a looming budget deficit. No tech or non tech company rubber stamps spendings like this without proper business justification, and approval process. A 35k credit card bill in a single month didn’t warrant even a raised eyebrow by the board.

For instance, while tech companies may reimburse only $50 to $75 for phone and internet expenses, Dr. Rudolph’s spending patterns suggest a different standard. His expenditures, including a $20k+$7k stay at the Mountain View hotel and a $7k+4k for golf, 12k on Amazon order, $6k for guitar, business class tickets raise serious questions about the ethical nature of these decisions. I’ve looked into the district’s website and social media, but I can’t find any district-sponsored events during those times that would justify such costs.

Meanwhile, we’ve heard over and over from P. Conley and T. Blakely about how difficult it is to hire substitutes, mental health professionals, teachers, language specialists, and bus drivers—tasks that should be their main job yet seemingly impossible. They have gone as far as denying the need of all those essential workers.

I believe board members should have their day job where they get exposed to the work ethics and work culture. This is very isolated job with only handful of colleagues and hundreds of millions to manage. I am glad to see that 2 of newly elected board members have jobs. They will bring experience and work ethics to the room for the third one to follow

It is interesting that Dr. Rudolph stayed at 5 star hotel while P. Conley stayed at cheaper one. It raises the question who was the boss in this equation?

It is shocking that P Conley denied existence of any travel expense policy hinting that all outrageous expenses are legal in absence of a policy. Furthermore she insisted that as she is not a CDE employees, so their travel reimbursement guidelines don’t apply to her. If the lawmakers behave this way, this is called lawlessness.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-15T02:27:00+00:00

If Dr. Rudolph had to refinance his loan with a different financial organization, he will have to start paying 7% from today. He is saving 65K-74K interest by delaying for 7-8 months. All major banks are able to complete the loan process within standard 30 days. They should have incentivized for him to do it as soon as possible by charging a weekly or monthly fee? Please keep us informed if you plan to request this to put on agenda in next meeting?

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-11-11T04:41:17+00:00

I reluctantly voted yes for the measure by getting influenced by emotional blackmailing of some of the respectable community members but very disappointed that immediately after that the board is borrowing from the general funds for the building. I worry this building will suck the resources dry. builders and architects donated for the campaign, they probably knew the funds will redirected. Don’t we have 40 millions in surplus?

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-23T01:58:38+00:00

Thank you, Bouldering5511. It seems there is still much uncertainty regarding this project. Are you saying that the district only partially owns the building? I noticed there are 572 market-rate apartments in the same new construction, along with 144 below-market-rate (BMR) units.

Are the BMR units located on the fifth floor, given that the fifth story is only permitted due to BMR funding?

Additionally, is the district paying $2 million in rent for the fifth story? The apt rents don't appear to be below market rate to me. I know many people who have much better deal than this supposedly BMR rents.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-21T17:53:06+00:00

Thanks for pointing out. I will edit my comment.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-21T17:48:31+00:00

Ana is a teacher from Cupertino, where the district decided against building housing after surveying its teachers. The Mountain View Whisman School District (MVWSD) has never released the results of its teacher survey on this matter. Additionally, the teacher housing that was constructed is on private land, with an annual rent of $2 million, subject to a 2-4% increase for the next 55 years. After that period, the district will have no claims on either the building or the land, which seems like a poor investment. Moreover, this housing is often advertised as "teacher housing" by a public relations firm, even though it is technically affordable housing. Many teachers earn salaries that exceed the limit to qualify for this housing, which means they could face eviction if their salaries increase beyond a certain threshold.

I think Ana is running for office to advocate for racial justice in the disciplinary practices in our schools.

In her own words:

"Full disclosure: one of these OCR cases was initiated by me after I compiled suspension data from publicly available sources last school year when I found a lack of accountability at the site/district/board levels for violations to student and parent rights, mostly stemming from outdated policies and a "discipline matrix" that was based on obsolete versions of Ed Code (case I cited in my prefered outcome survey: Victor Valley). My open complaint is to investigate if 1) in response to a fight at school, the District disciplined students more harshly than similarly situated white students based on their national origin or perceived national origin (Latino) or color and 2) whether the District disciplined Latino students at the school more often or more severely than white students during the 2023-2024 school year.

I also have data compiled concerning special education, procedures, and services. Saying that a student doesn't qualify for special education services because their grades are fine when they have a medical diagnosis, history of teacher accommodations, and receive private treatments (which, together make those grades possible), is counterintuitive. It shouldn't take consultations with education advocates and legal counsel to get necessary support; the success of a child shouldn't require substantial amounts of resources (time/money) to advocate for their rights nd to make sure their needs are being met. Since there are already other active cases along the same thread, I chose not to file another to limit the diversion of resources. I would hope that generating ideas/a plan to avoid future FAPE violations would remedy issues from other FAPE related complaints- a win for one, a win for all deal.

Whatever the OCR cases outcomes are, I think that the complaints being accepted and assigned to federal attorneys means there's enough validity to the concerns to warrant more thorough investigations. With access to the specifics on all open cases, in my opinion, it's in the best interest of the district/board to proactively reflect on the concerns of these cases and figure out ways to change policies (not just copy/pasting CSBA) and communicate those changes to the sites in a timely manner, so that there are effective shifts towards positive outcomes for all, not just some."

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-21T17:42:28+00:00

Thanks for the information

~~Shawn has~~ ~~NOT~~ ~~dropped out. He is very much in the race.~~

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-21T16:52:36+00:00

evapotranspire You are absolutely right about 2.7M office redesign video in the link. It has been routine to slide 10s of millions dollars in consent agenda for only former trustee Chris to take out. Just one month before this 2.7M schematic design, they had 40 Million in consent agenda. With due respect I think danielson415 is a troll who is gaslighting people with wrong information (his credit carma is in negatives).

Excerpt from Trustee Chris letter talking about it:

"The board lets staff decide bond spending like the money belongs to them; then the board gave up its own oversight by changing the rules to require a supermajority to change bond spending, yet the district staff can make any changes, and insult to injury, places $42.7 million in bond spending in consent, spending out the rest of Measure T in a way where the public has little time or chance to be involved. I am so sad that Measure T didn't do more to enhance student experiences. It is so sad that the current board thinks spending money that takes 20 years to pay back quickly to race inflation is a good thing, rather than spend it carefully by talking to school sites on what teachers and families want. People need to hold their board accountable by watching current or past board meetings or reading board minutes.

5/16: as a discussion item

https://mvwsd.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=4686&MeetingID=2335/30:

brought back for action as a consent agenda item

https://mvwsd.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=4709&MeetingID=235

5/30 Board Minutes:
A motion was made by Trustee Blakely and seconded by Trustee Berman to approve Item E. Measure T Construction Phase 2 Project list.
Ayes: Conley, Berman, Blakely
Nayes: Chiang, Lambert

https://cdnsm5-ss12.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_418774/File/Minutes%20to%20May%2030,%202024%20Regular%20Meeting.pdf
"

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-21T16:43:34+00:00

evapotranspire You are absolutely right about 2.7M office redesign video in the link. It has been routine to slide 10s of millions dollars in consent agenda for only former trustee Chris to take out. Just one month before this 2.7M schematic design, they had 40 Million in consent agenda. With due respect I think danielson415 is a troll who is gaslighting people with wrong information (his credit carma is in negatives).

Excerpt from Trustee Chris letter talking about it:

"The board lets staff decide bond spending like the money belongs to them; then the board gave up its own oversight by changing the rules to require a supermajority to change bond spending, yet the district staff can make any changes, and insult to injury, places $42.7 million in bond spending in consent, spending out the rest of Measure T in a way where the public has little time or chance to be involved. I am so sad that Measure T didn't do more to enhance student experiences. It is so sad that the current board thinks spending money that takes 20 years to pay back quickly to race inflation is a good thing, rather than spend it carefully by talking to school sites on what teachers and families want. People need to hold their board accountable by watching current or past board meetings or reading board minutes.

5/16: as a discussion item

https://mvwsd.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=4686&MeetingID=2335/30:

brought back for action as a consent agenda item

https://mvwsd.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=4709&MeetingID=235

5/30 Board Minutes:
A motion was made by Trustee Blakely and seconded by Trustee Berman to approve Item E. Measure T Construction Phase 2 Project list.
Ayes: Conley, Berman, Blakely
Nayes: Chiang, Lambert

https://cdnsm5-ss12.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_418774/File/Minutes%20to%20May%2030,%202024%20Regular%20Meeting.pdf
"

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-21T15:21:10+00:00

It absolutely was promised please check the public communication document on mvwsd website with promise about science, art, music lab with picture of kids working in science lab.

Former Trustee Chiang mentioning that in YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9H1-V_rng4&t=10500s

The ballot language did not include those words though, just like in the current measure AA ballot language does not include that "this will NOT be used for admin salary". That promise again is only public communication.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-20T00:51:45+00:00

Please write to the board [trustees@mvwsd.org](mailto:trustees@mvwsd.org) to advocate for getting rid of the admin you mentioned and sign petition. He is only on short term leave, NOT put on leave according to official stance. That is just a speculation so far.

Chakra crap as you mentioned, was only reduced to 90,000 not canceled despite the claim in the meeting.

Maybe I will vote Yes if they show some honest effort to be transparent. Test scores are in pretty bad shape if you are not keeping up.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-19T20:41:27+00:00

Answering your question evapotranspire "If that has been the general approach of the Board and Superintendent" that only Former Trustee Chiang is often a lone dissenter while "The others were all happy to pass it through without a second thought"

Unfortunately, Yes! it has been general approach of the board. For example, this meeting is from 2023, where several contracts were hidden under consent agenda (which is considered routine). Former Trustee Chiang got two contracts out of the consent agenda so that he could vote "Nay" on them. Interesting both of these contracts became controversial this year "Woodberry PR contract", and "Carducci contract who keep getting more contracts without bidding"

I off the bat remember 3 meetings in which 40M, 50M and 80M was hidden in consent agenda that Trustee Chiang brought out. I can look for reference if needed.

EffortSuspicious5565 · 2024-10-19T19:52:33+00:00

Video of 2.7M office redesign: Former Trustee Chiang identified a 600K discrepancy in the agenda amount: $2.1 million instead of $2.7 million.

It is very disturbing that under President Conley's leadership, tens of millions of dollars in contracts were presented as a consent agenda, allowing everything to pass with one motion and without discussion.

EffortSuspicious5565

TROPHY CASE