HBCSD Corruption

Attempts by school board members to bolster Pat Escalante’s standing within the community AFTER proof of misinformation disseminated by Pat Escalante was sent to school board members, city council members and reporter Ryan MacDonald.

Just months after the passage of the district’s $59M facilities bond in June 2016, the transcripts with fact checking of the May 25, 2016 Measure S Informational meeting and Pat Escalante’s collusion with HBCSD attorney Terry Tao to provide false and misleading information to the public during the May 31, 2016 Joint Hermosa Beach City and HBCSD meeting was provided to school board members and city council members and Easy Reader News reporter Ryan MacDonald.  See information on Misinformation presented by Superintendent Pat Escalante in the Measure S Informational Presentation of May 25, 2016 and HBCSD paid their attorney $10,900.00 of taxpayer funds to give an approximately one-hour curated presentation of misinformation and misleading information one week before the district’s $59 million dollar bond vote.

Neither school board members, city council members nor Easy Reader News reporter Ryan MacDonald responded to the allegations of wrongdoing by Superintendent Pat Escalante and the school district’s attorney, Terry Tao.

Pat Escalante was never publicly rebuked by school board members for the  misinformation she provided to the public during the 2016 $59M facilities bond campaign.  Instead, school board members continued to support her, provide her with large pay raises and worked to elevate her standing within the community.

Proof of the lie:

Pat Escalante “honored” at the Sundance Film Festival Creative Coalition Gala in Park City, Utah.

Shortly after the proof of intentional misinformation during the 2016 bond campaign was made public, Pat Escalante and school board member Patti Ackerman and her husband Aric Ackerman, who worked in the entertainment industry, attended the Creative Coalition Gala in Park City, Utah held during the Sundance Film Festival.  A press release claimed that Pat Escalante had been honored by the Creative Coalition to receive an award as superintendent of HBCSD.

(1) The Creative Coalition “tackles issues of direct importance to the arts and entertainment community, including First Amendment rights, public funding for the arts, and arts education in the public schools.”  https://thecreativecoalition.org/about/   

(2) According to local news reports, HBCSD school board member Patti Ackerman’s husband, Aric Ackerman, was one of the chairmen for the Creative Coalition’s Gala in 2017.    “Escalante was nominated for the honor by longtime Hermosa Beach resident Aric Ackerman, founding partner of The LOLA Agency and Chairman of The Creative Coalition’s 2017 Spotlight Initiative Gala.”  https://www.dailybreeze.com/2017/02/14/hermosa-beach-superintendent-honored-at-sundance-film-festival/   

(3) Pat Escalante was supposedly honored at the Creative Coalition Teacher’s Making a Difference Luncheon.  The luncheon was hosted by actor Matt Walsh (“Veep”, Brigsby Bear) with his “star student” actor Adam Polly (“The Mindy Project”) and actor Rio Mangini (“Bella and the Bulldogs”) and his teacher Janiece Jary.   Janiece Jary is a private acting coach. 

(4) To our knowledge Pat Escalante has never taught drama or any theater arts classes nor did she increase arts and drama classes at HBCSD during her tenure at the district.  In fact, she has not taught for years.   She was an assistant principal then principal for five years at Beverly Hills Unified School District.  In 2010, after five years as principal at El Rodeo Elementary School in BHUSD, Pat Escalante was removed from her principal job and was made director of Adult Education for which she took a cut in pay.   After one year as the director of Adult Education she was let go from BHUSD.  HBCSD hired her to be principal at Valley School for one year from 2011 to 2012, then made her superintendent of the district in 2012.

(5) Pat Escalante had no education or training to qualify her to be a superintendent at HBCSD.  She has done nothing of distinction other than pass a $59M dollar facilities bond for HBCSD to have been “honored” by the Creative Coalition.  The luncheon that supposedly “honored” her was “Teachers Making a Difference” NOT Superintendents Making a Difference.

(6) The cost of a ticket to the Spotlight Initiative Gala in Park City in 2017 was $2,000/seat. 

(7) Pat Escalante received a $2,645.64 check in March 2017 in addition to her normal salary.  Was the additional $2,645.64 that Pat Escalante received one month after attending the Creative Coalition Gala at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah actually her expenses for the trip?  Was Pat Escalante’s trip to Park City, Utah simply a taxpayer paid vacation in the guise of being honored by the Creative Coalition? 

(8) Was Pat Escalante, who had not been a teacher for many, many years, nor was she involved in the arts and entertainment industry as an acting coach or drama teacher, actually chosen to be honored by the Creative Coalition?  Or was the Creative Coalition’s Teachers Making a Difference Luncheon a way for HBCSD school board members to shamelessly create positive spin for Pat Escalante after proof of her misrepresenting of facts was released to the public only months before?  Had the cabal promised to protect and promote Pat Escalante if she did their bidding by lying about district facility facts to the public?

(9) Similarly, HBCSD Board members also nominated Pat Escalante to be Superintendent of the Year in 2019, continuing the misleading information.