HBCSD Corruption

The Misinformation:

The Misinformation:

“[Pat Escalante] was as an administrator in the Beverly Hills Unified School District.  She had heard rumors that the former Hermosa Superintendent, Dr. Bruce Newlin, was thinking of retiring.  So when the principal job opened ahead of the 2011-12 school year, Escalante applied for and won the position.  The next year, she was named the district’s superintendent.”  HBCSD superintendent will retire in June by Ryan McDonald, Easy Reader News, January 16, 2020.

CORRECT INFORMATION:  In May 2011 Pat Escalante was let go from the Beverly Hills Unified School District.  She was an older, single woman with a less than stellar resume looking for employment at the height of the Great Recession.  She had no training or education to be a superintendent.

Ryan McDonald of the Easy Reader News writes:

“She had heard rumors that the former Hermosa Superintendent, Dr. Bruce Newlin, was thinking of retiring.  So when the principal job opened ahead of the 2011-12 school year, Escalante applied for and won the position.  The next year, she was named the district’s superintendent.”

COMPETING INFORMATION: Why would Pat Escalante even THINK that she was qualified to become a superintendent ANYWHERE?   Why would HBCSD school board members consider hiring her as superintendent with no superintendent education or experience?

NOTE: How did Pat Escalante find out that Dr. Bruce Newlin was thinking of leaving HBCSD before it happened or was publicly announced?  Who was spreading “rumors” that Dr. Bruce Newlin was thinking of leaving?  

NOTE:  If school board members already knew that previously retired, now 76-year-old Superintendent Dr. Bruce Newlin wanted to retire (for the second time) from HBCSD by spring 2011 (when Pat Escalante applied for the principal position at Valley School) why hadn’t school board members already started a superintendent search process at least by summer 2011 when Dr. Newlin formally announced his second retirement as a superintendent?   School board members did not start a superintendent “search” process until AFTER Dr. Newlin had already left the school district six months later in January 2012. 

NOTE:  After Dr. Newlin had already left the district, school board members hired ANOTHER PREVIOUSLY RETIRED, INTERIM superintendent, Dr. Alan Rasmussen for six months. How much did school board members pay retired, overqualified superintendent Dr. Rasmussen for six months?

NOTE: In addition, school board members paid another $40k for superintendent lessons” for Pat Escalante from 2012 to 2014 from Dr. Alan Rasmussen. 

NOTE:  Had HBCSD school board members planned for Pat Escalante’s accession to the superintendent position before she was hired as principal at Valley School?   Is that why HBCSD school board members did not start a superintendent search process until after Dr. Newlin had already left in January 2012 and Pat Escalante was almost done with one year as principal at Valley School?

Were school board members actually just waiting for Pat Escalante to get closer to finishing one year as principal at Valley School and not really interested in looking at other qualified candidates?  School board members made Pat Escalante superintendent in April 2012.   Did certain school board members and Pat Escalante have an agreement that they would hire her to be Valley School principal for one year then make her superintendent the next year and publicly support her if she put her reputation on the line to do their bidding?  

Was the agreement for her to systematically mislead the public in order to pass a large multi-million-dollar bond to completely rebuild North School and prevent the school district from exercising its valid, priority lease agreement for classrooms, office and storage space at the Community Center?   In return did certain HBCSD school board members promise to pay her handsomely and provide her a hefty pension for her retirement if she did their bidding?   What were the prospects that another school district would hire her at a superintendent’s salary and pension level with her resume?  

NOTE:  Was the information in this article by Ryan McDonald of the Easy Reader News simply a SHAMELESS plant by school board members to mislead the community about the truth behind Pat Escalante hiring?  See also the full discussion of misleading statements contained in this article HBCSD superintendent will retire in June by Ryan McDonald. 

NOTE:  Why would Pat Escalante supply the community with so much misinformation during her tenure?  Was she really, naturally that unable to provide correct information to the public?  Why didn’t school board members censure her when given proof of her misstatements?  Why didn’t school board members speak up at meetings, etc. when they should have known that she was misinforming the public on a range of issues?  Why did school board members, year after year, continue to give her pay raises?  Were HBCSD school board members essentially paying Pat Escalante to lie to the public for them?