Fact #7:

NOTE: Several members of the Facilities Planning Advisory Committee felt that they were just being used as "rubber stamps" to the district's plans to rebuild North School.  They did not feel as though their committee findings were above board and a truthful investigation of the facts. However, none of the FPAC members went public with their misgivings.

NOTE: Most community members who had knowledge and misgivings about HBCSD decisions and tactics were reluctant to go public with their misgivings. Many community members feared reprisals from HBCSD staff, school board members and parents for themselves and their children or grandchildren if they went public with their misgivings. There is a lot of unspoken pressure to go along with district decisions and statements.

(1) Email notes from Cassandra Bates dated May 27, 2016 regarding comments made by an FPAC member about the FPAC process in 2013 that had been shared in email exchanges between certain FPAC members. (Witnessed by at least 5 other people)

- Pat [Escalante] instructed Monique [Ehsan – FPAC Committee Chair] to shut her (an FPAC member) up.

- Technically not allowed to have [a] meeting.

- Agenda had to [be] posted week before, but was not and meeting had [held] anyway.

- Closed doors, agenda not shared, nothing shared about Community Center walk through to FPAC, Pat did it on her own.

- In actuality FPAC not being used, Pat using it for her own agenda.

- How can we garner community support without letting the community speak?  Communications – our hands are tied.

- “How can I possibly convince the voters that we have a well thought out plan that includes everyone in the city,… we simply don’t.”  FPAC member 2014

- “FPAC serving as window dressing instead of serving in a significant way.”

- “We are feeling used and concerned. Our reputations in community are being sullied by Pat [Escalante] and others using FPAC to justify actions over which we’ve had no control and or by the use of our names, to suggest significant community participation and the promotion of transparency."

- Monique [Ehsan – FPAC Committee Chair] to Patti Ackerman [school board member] – “we feel like we have simply become a rubber stamp for a flawed process.”

(2) Four-page resignation letter from an FPAC member that was never sent to the school district, but that explains the flawed FPAC process. 

1.         “The Committee was set out with a very narrow mandate, to explore the modernization or rebuilding of North School, without any background on how the Board came to the conclusion that indeed North School was the only option.”

2.         “The fact that the Committee was being asked to consider only two options at North School without having solid information on the lot lines and contractual agreements between the school [district] and the city, made for poor decision making.”

3.         “The FPAC continued to convene, only as necessary to approve of agenda items that were not written by the head of the committee to justify decisions over which we had no control.  This in turn created a perception that indeed we were a “rubber stamp” to the direction that the District wanted to go.”

4.         “The FPAC and the Board must work on an envisioning process that is consensual, articulates values and priorities and defines parameters.  It also requires broad community input, which has been denied until only recently.”

5.         “Transparency does not simply involve open meetings, but rather involved discussions that bring forth factual information on why certain decisions were made, with proper research and input from everyone in the community.”

6.         “The Gym Debacle” …  “I do not think that it would be any skin off the back of the board to simply admit that mistakes were made and to offer to meet with concerned parties to devise a tool that can ensure that these mistakes will not be made again.”*

7.         “I close with the description of the purpose of forming the FPAC: “To develop a long-term vision for the district’s buildings, examine the condition of current facilities and identify short and long-term maintenance priorities… to provide direction regarding the best use of district facilities for students, staff and the community.”  I am sad to say that in the year and a half that the FPAC has existed, it has not accomplished any of the above.  There is no long-term vision, the condition of current facilities and maintenance priorities will be done by architects and as providing direction for best use, it was never on the agenda.”

*NOTE:  Please also see:

Lie #41: (HBCSD School Board members) Claiming that the lawsuit brought against HBCSD in April 2005 was the cause of the district's decision NOT to accept construction bids in May 2005. HBCSD School Board members claimed that the lawsuit caused the delay, cost increases and elimination of two classrooms in February 2006.

Lie #42: (HBCSD School Board members) Claiming that the lawsuit brought against HBCSD in April 2005 cost the district $500,000 in legal fees.