The new report, titled "Hart District Management Literacy Trends : Letters & Words, 2005-2007", found that senior District staff and all five board members had trouble with basic English reading and writing skills. "Senior Hart District Staff and Board members, simply put, lack the ability to read and write," the report said, calling the literacy problems at the senior district level "alarming." Auditors reviewed thousands of documents, emails, and meeting minutes and found that staff at the assistant superintendent level and higher had the "reading and writing skills of Mississippi third graders." It was even more harsh on the literacy skills of Hart Board members, saying that Board members Dennis King and Paul Strickland "could barely comprehend rudimentary traffic signs, let alone complex legal and financial documents." Community reaction to the report was swift. Speaking from a hair salon in Valencia, outspoken Hart critic Betty Arenson said, "I'm shocked and appalled. We just learned this week that the District staff couldn't count money correctly. As if that wasn't enough, now we learn that they can barely read and write?" "Just what the hell is going on on Centre Pointe Parkway," an exasperated Arenson asked. A mother of a sophomore student at William S. Hart High School in Newhall said the report made sense to her in light of recent communication she had with the Hart District. "Last month, I wrote an email to Board Member Dennis King, asking him about funding for the Hart High marching band," Laura Prendegast told SCVTalk. "His response was unintelligible and included pictures of cute puppies," she said. Prendegast said she eventually gave up on writing letters to senior District staff and board members, and called them instead. The literacy audit report was the second major blow to the Hart District this week. On Wednesday, Moss-Adams said it couldn't determine if Measure V bond money had been appropriately spent in the 2005-06 fiscal year. Some $6.6 million of Measure V bond money may have been "used to pay administrative salaries and transportation purchases, something prohibited by restrictions placed on the use of those funds," the report said. District staff said sloppy accounting and poor math skills were to blame for the mix up. Reached by phone on Friday, District spokeswoman Pat Willet expressed disappointment with the Literacy Audit Report, and said that the senior staff and Board members had "not yet read the report," but "were working on it." "The Hart Board is busy deciphering this report, and the Superintendent has asked the district's best English teachers to assist," Willet told SCVTalk. Emails and documents from senior Hart District staff and board members obtained by SCVTalk reveal that the lack of literacy skills may be at the heart of many of the district's problems.
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In May, for example, Superintendent Castellanos sent a poorly worded email to executives with SunCal, the developers of the NorthLake project in Castaic, which would include a site for the long-delayed Castaic High School.
"haaaaaay!!1! nORTHLAKE IZ IT GUD? I CAN HAZ IT 4 HIKE SKOOL?" Castellanos wrote.
SunCal executives did not respond to the email.
In August, Board Member Dennis King suggested at a District board meeting that area junior high and high schools implement drug testing on all students. Attached to the minutes from that board meeting is a drawing King made summarizing his thoughts on the controversial matter.
In the attachment, King drew a stick-figure student with a marijuana joint in his mouth, then violently scratched it out with his pen, making severe indentations and tears on the paper.
"Reefer it are not belong at," he wrote underneath the stick figure, completing the mal-formed sentence with a heart shape.
News of the literacy and accounting reports made a splash at Thursday night's debate for candidates running for the Hart Board. Board Candidate Joe Messina said, "If elected, I promise to do my best to get the senior staff and board members to attend remedial English and math classes at area high schools," to the loud applause of several in the crowd.
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Audit Finds Literacy Problems among Hart District board, senior staff
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