Race is on for schools position

Did You Know? Bonnie Donovan

Politics is serious business. The latest scheme is to have no challengers to the Democratic-appointed script reader.

No political race is possible without any choices. No debates, no platforms, no positions, no holding anyone accountable for their campaign promises, when we have no real chance of “electing” someone because there is only one contender. What a world.  

However, the race is on -— for SB County superintendent of schools.  Susan Salcido, the incumbent, is challenged by Christy Lozano, a schoolteacher, after Ms. Lozano’s victory in court where Joe Holland, the Santa Barbara County registrar of voters, was absolved for allowing the challenger to remain on the ballot. Mollie Culvers, a political lobbyist, filed a lawsuit against the challenger for not having adequate credentials.

We are happy that Judge Connie Sterne, who focused only on the law, found that the voters should be the ones who decide elections instead of politically motivated operatives and their attorneys.

 What Ms. Lozano stands for has gained her national attention for her courage to go against the narrative and focus on reading, writing and arithmetic.

It seems to DYK that Santa Barbara elected officials, across the board, are being bullied by Black Lives Matter activists into excessive spending of taxpayers’ money to satisfy their thirst for more power. 

The Santa Barbara Unified School District Board just approved a contract with James Joyce III, aka Coffee with a Black Guy, at a cost of $8,100 for up to  three meetings/consulting with junior high schoolers involved in a racial incident. 

The reason, we suspect, the school district hired James Joyce was because of the three female BLM /Healing Justice representatives, who during a previous board meeting issued a list of demands, one being to hire black people as counselors, nurses etc. for the demographics of like on like (for black people). Is the school district endorsing the notion that henceforth, any student requiring counseling should be counseled only by a person of the same race?  If so, do they have access to exclusive, Hispanic, Chinese, Korean, Native American and Caucasian counselors?  If not, why not?

Remember, the SBUSD is accused of covering up 12 racial incidents over the different campuses. The district may feel under pressure of possible further investigation

This incident was not reported to the police. However. the parents insisted on filing a police report, and the investigation is in the hands of the district attorney’s office.

Nick Masuda, the communications director of the school district, when asked if the school contacted law enforcement regarding the racial attack, responded, “Unless there is imminent danger, we contact law enforcement after the investigation has revealed a need. In this case, the Ed Code violations did not require law enforcement to be called.”  

After the BLM demands, Mr. Joyce submitted a contract on March 9 to the school board for his “organic” conversation services. His contract was one of the consent items on the agenda March 15, which were passed without any discussion; which is normal for consent items. However, we wonder when it was brought to the table? 

Dr. Hilda Maldonado, the district superintendent, requested all items be approved. The board president asked if there was any discussion and none ensued. His contract was approved for $8,100; will this be the cost of any racial incident? 

Board member Laura Capps seconded Kate Ford’s motion to accept the consent items. We question if  Ms. Capps should have recused herself, due to a possible conflict of interest with her working relationship with Mr. Joyce on the board of the Common Table Foundation.

We understand that any expenditure less than $10,000 can be approved by the board. However we still wonder what qualifies Mr. Joyce to work with children? These families should have trained certified professionals. 

We researched other available solutions. Some comparisons of fees charged by qualified professionals in L.A.: Psychologists: $200-$300 for 50 minutes. Family law attorneys: $395-$595 per hour. Arbitrators: $1,000 per day. Los Angeles County judges: $1,200 per hour.

So why in heaven’s name are we paying Mr. Joyce $1,800 an hour or, $2,700 for 90 minutes, with a total of three sessions at $8,100 which is 4.5 hours to counsel some young boys?  We could get a trained, black, qualified psychologist to do it for $1,350. Or a black, family law attorney to do it for $2,677. Or a Los Angeles. County judge to do it for $5,400. 

In fact, in James Joyce’s contract with the district,, he, as “Coffee with a Black Guy LLC, founder and Chief Visionary Officer,” continues that “… he is a proven analytical thinker, speaker and writer who has a knack for addressing potentially tense situations head on, while creating ease and space for shared growth and development in the process.” Who says? Oh right, he does. And maybe some of his cronies.  

The contract continues, “the client (SBUSD) wishes to retain CWABG services for a custom incident intervention package of developmental facilitated conversations.” Custom incident? What?  And the payment schedule: Not many contractors exact these terms — 25% ($2,025) due at time of agreement approval and the remaining 75% ($6,075) within 30 days after completion of first developmental session. (90 minutes). Paid in full, after one third of the job is completed?

Several issues stand out: Not just the exploitive price, but also the confidentiality.  Although the contract states, “The scope of this specific interactive experience will be available to Santa Barbara Unified School District, La Colina Junior High School community.”

The three 90-minute sessions facilitated by CWABG, deems it “… best limited to families directly involved in the recent social media video teachable moment.” What?

Further the contract reads: “Confidentiality: Any reports, information, exhibits, data, documents, or materials given to or prepared or assembled by CWABG under this Agreement shall be confidential and shall not be made available to any third person or organization by CWABG without prior written approval of SBUSD.”

How will anyone know what happened? What focus, and what we got for what we paid? The whole idea is ludicrous, and smacks of the pandering of white people to woke bullyism. Wow – does that sound organic enough?  

This may be his start in a lucrative career of consulting in education.   Calculate 12 incidents at $8,100 equals $97,200.  Do you see why it was written as one school in his contract? Over $10,000 triggers competitive bids.

However, Mr. Joyce may have rosier paths to follow. After all he has close ties with Laura Capps and is a board of director on the Common Table Foundation.

If Christy Lozano’s qualifications for superintendent of schools are questioned, shouldn’t the same be for James Joyce? We find he attended Ohio University as a journalism major.  His work experience is as a reporter for a few regional newspapers, and he has had the title of director of communications for several politicians.  He copied Coffee with a Cop to set up his Coffee With a Black Guy stand.  Didn’t Lucy in “Peanuts” do that first? The Doctor is in – 5 cents.

It appears to DYK that the forces of indoctrinating our children with non-academic neo-political, social dogma, while failing them in true education, are fearful that Christy Lozano as the new superintendent of schools would reverse their grip on educational policies. Parents in Santa Barbara, take note. Your children’s future depends on their education and must be at the helm of those who are trustworthy. “It is time to clean out the Augean Stables in SBUSD.”