The State of SUSD, and Special Education, is … FAILING!

STOCKTON- After much research through public documents, it is evident that the Speech-Language Pathologists employed by SUSD have been treated unfairly for many years. They are not supported compared to other neighboring school districts, and SUSD “leadership” continues to drive district employees away and opt to hire expensive outside contractors, in many cases paying double the amount of staff instead of highly qualified district employees. 

Over the last 20 years, it has been very difficult to recruit and retain SLPs in SUSD. This was affirmed by SUSD’s recent loss in formal PERB arbitration proceedings, whereby the arbitrator’s findings indicate some wrongdoings by the district, including in this instance: 

“The District’s failure to recruit or retain is solely the responsibility of the district and cannot be used in their defense.”(pg. 9) 

The district attempted to manufacture an excuse by taking contractual language out of context (i.e., “severely unusual circumstances”), however, the arbitrator was not swayed by SUSD gaslighting: “This was not a short-term emergency, … SLPs should not bear the burden of the hiring failures of the District or its HR Dept.” (pg.9) “This lack of any specific, credible evidence, … leads the Arbitrator to find that the District did not experience unusual attrition or student enrollment. The Arbitrator therefore cannot find the District was the victim of severely unusual circumstances.” (pg. 14)

Further evidence indicates lengthy documentation of retaliation and retribution against SUSD SLPs, including a Cease & Desist and Vote of No Confidence sent to both the District leadership (including Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez & SELPA Director Stephanie Reeves) and the School Board on March 11th, 2024. (*See attached) SLPs cited the history of caseload overages (exceeding CA Ed Code), overall untenable working conditions, and adverse disciplinary actions for protected activities. 

Due to district’s ongoing refusal to engage in any collaborative processes to resolve the SLP inequities, SLPs issued a Vote of No Confidence for the Director, specifically citing: “lack of collaboration, lack of communication, absence of support, ethical concerns, and alarming rate of high turnover” (i.e., failure of district to retain and support district staff). District “leadership,” and specifically Ms. Reeves in this instance, appear incompetent and unqualified as cited in her failure to meet job qualifications and essential functions: 

“The culture of fear and manipulation … is not conducive to a safe, healthy, and productive workplace.”

Incompetence or ignorance (or even willful ignorance) are NOT valid defenses! The basis of the arbitration filing was due to SLPs’ denial of promised additional compensation (via timesheets) due to historic caseload overages (exceeding California Education Code limits). District claimed that previous leadership was “not authorized”; however, longstanding past practice (with supporting documents) reveal that all levels of district administration (Directors, Administrators, and Principals, etc.) have and continue to sign timesheets for preferred staff, otherwise known as the “SUSD Friends & Family Plan.”

Those employees who refuse to subscribe to district’s plan of collusion, corruption, and coverup suffer refusal of fair compensation and treatment. As you will see, additional timesheet pay has been rampant among preferred staff, in some cases DOUBLING MONTHLY SALARY, meanwhile refusing this promise of pay to the broader SLP Dept. 

The district claimed that timesheets are not meant for SLPs, and that only additional days would be authorized, not additional hours after existing contractual workday; however, as you can see endless non-SLP staff had timesheets approved for a plethora of listed duties, during and/or after, existing workdays (*See attached, a more in-depth look into this is coming next).

Why are there special rules to exclude SLPs from additional compensation due to additional duties because district is violating the law. Shame on SUSD, for mistreating SLPs who work tirelessly to provide services to families and students in need throughout our community.

Parents and Board member(s) asked Ms. Reeves and district “leadership” publicly at a previous board meeting about the practice of hiring costly outside contractors, but all the stakeholders and public receive are nonanswers or alternative facts.

Are parents aware that the district is essentially re-implementing (on site) Distance Learning style speech therapy services with outside remote contractors at many school sites/programs? In fact, at the 12/17/24 SUSD Board Meeting, the District approved an additional $17 M on outside contracts for student service providers! 

Further, an August 2023 FCMAT Fiscal Health Risk Analysis report indicated that SUSD “does not have processes & procedures for schools and departments to review and verify their respective CALPADS data and correct it as needed before the report submission deadlines” (10.7), yet district special education staff continue to timesheet for these exact duties meanwhile the district has only gotten worse in terms of Special Education cited by California Department of Education as Data Identified Noncompliance status. This is inevitable because costly outside contractors, including out-of-state in some cases, may not be trained in district policies & procedures, or even California Education Code, as it pertains to Special Education laws, including eligibility and compliance.

The Arbitrator gave district an additional 90 days in her interim award as one last chance for district to provide SLPs their due remedy. Unfortunately, district continues to disregard and refuse to engage in the collaborative process to resolve. SUSD continues to act as if they are ABOVE THE LAW. So, the issue will return the Arbitrator to issue her final award to compensate SLPs since district continues to fail to resolve their issues. 

“The District violated CBA Article 11.1.3 (caseloads) by assigning an average caseload of more than 55 students to SLPs during the 2022-23 school year.”

The District proposed a “Side Letter”, what now appears as a disingenuous attempt at addressing the district violations in managing the educational code and contractual caseload requirements, which was posted to their Labor Relations website. 

The district negotiators, including Glendaly Gascot-Rios, proposed, then later refused, retroactive pay for this school year. Yet Superintendent Rodriguez stated around the same time in her September 30th FAQs, that “regarding retroactive pay … we remain committed to honoring ANY agreements reached retroactively.” (emphasis added) 

Does the Superintendent not know what her chief negotiators are doing, or saying, under her authority? After posting this agreement to the public, the district is now refusing to further engage. Sadly, this is nothing new to SLPs who have been the recipients of several broken promises over many years.

The district is fiscally irresponsible and has failed their fiduciary duty on behalf of the public! The attached timesheets of a subset alone add up to a TOTAL of over $50K! Yet the district states that they cannot, or will not, compensate SLPs equitably. 

If you think this is a lot, just wait until you see the Grand Total of ALL of the time sheets over the last 3 years! It is apparent that it truly is NOT about the kids of SUSD, rather the select time-sheeting of preferred staff. This is just a preliminary snapshot for public knowledge & transparency as to the ongoing investigations, including possible forensic professionals, so stay tuned…