iPad Scandal Continues to Implode

By Zamná Ávila, Assistant Editor

Strained relationships with the school board, an acrimonious relationship with the teachers union — to say the least — and a blowing scandal surrounding a pet project may be the end of Superintendent John Deasy’s tenure with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The negative attention the $1.3 million project, which aimed to give an “iPad for every student, teacher and administrator in the district,” has the superintendent considering whether to step down from his position.

Tensions with the school board recently reached an impasse, Sept. 10, when Deasy decided to take off his gloves and file a public records request seeking emails and other documents involving board members, two people and 18 technology companies in a two-and-half-year period, scrutinizing their ethical relationships. The public records act requests target board members Steve Zimmer, Monica Garcia, Bennett Kayser and Tamar Galatzan. The companies include Google, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, McGraw-Hill and Microsoft, among others. An Aug. 28 request asked the same from board President Richard Vladovic and Board Member Monica Ratliff. In essence, he may be trying to prove that the board may be “calling the kettle black.”On Aug. 25, Deasy announced the halting of the billion dollar project and restarting the bidding process. The decision came after Public Records Act-obtained reports from KPCC and the Los Angeles Times produced emails and reports that questioned interactions with Apple and Pearson, a software publishing giant, long before the bidding process took place.

“Looking forward to further work together for our youth in Los Angeles,” wrote Deasy to then-Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino in a May 22, 2012 email, after a lunch conversation.

Meeting with vendors before the bidding should be common business practice, Deasy said.C

The KPCC investigation also reported that Deasy and his deputies had further communication with Pearson employees with regard to pricing, training and technical support. These specifications closely resembled the request for proposals from vendors. Pearson and Apple ended up being awarded the bids when the board approved the initial $30-million contract with Apple in June 2013, raising eyebrows about unfair favoritism.

Deasy has reportedly denied impropriety, stating that type of contact with vendors is standard. He said his involvement in writing the bid specification. He’s said he was not allowed to even see them. He recused himself because he’d owned more than $7.79 million in Apple stock in the past, though in 2011, Deasy appeared in a video testimonial promoting the Apple iPads.

“Today, even though we have taken advantage of a number of opportunities to constantly improve processes associated with this work, this extremely important initiative for the youth of LAUSD has been sidetracked by insinuations, innuendos, and misleading statements,” Deasy wrote in a memo to the Los Angeles Board of Education dated Sept. 2. “In view of the many false and misleading statements of fact that have been made public for what seems to be primarily political reasons, I believe it is incumbent on me to set the record straight so that an extremely important initiative does not continue to be undermined or compromised.”

LAUSD’s inspector has started an investigation among the two companies, Deasy and his the-Deputy Superintendent Jaime Aquino. One of the unearthed emails notes how Aquino advised Pearson be the lowest bidder. An earlier investigation about the iPad contract was forwarded to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which determined that no criminal charges were warranted.

“We are calling for thorough investigation by the inspector general,” said Aaron Bruhnke, United Teachers Los Angeles Harbor Area chairman, asking for him to take a leave of absence and stay home. “Deasy should do as he [pushed] so many teachers to when accused, and put himself in teacher jail.”

Deasy’s relationship with the teacher union is even more chilled. The iPad debacle seems to add to the chilled relationship with the teacher’s union with regard to their stalled contract talks.

“This is going to have deep repercussions in a bad way,” Bruhnke said. “This is the last time [citizens of the Harbor Area] are going vote for bonds — cutting support in communities for future bonds.”

Furthermore, the questions and doubts confirm the suspicions of local leaders: that Deasy’s rush to get the iPads was all about testing, Bruhnke said.

Critics highlighted the fact that many schools were in need of repair, pointing out that the money for the iPads was taken from the school construction and modernization bonds.

From costs to typos, to incomplete software, to students accessing restricted sites, the iPad rollout proved proved problematic, to say the least.

The ambitious plan was for LAUSD to purchase 700,000 iPads with learning software that Pearson, a publishing giant would provide. The district planned to spend $768 per table. The district estimated a total  to come to $500 million and an additional $800 million to install wireless internet and other infrastructure at more than 1,000 schools.

The digital expansion was a response to California adoption of the Common Core State Standards, academic standards in mathematics and English language arts. Students will have taken standardized tests using computers, not paper. Also, providing computers to district students might help narrow the digital divide that separates the poor from the rich.

The fiasco started in May 18, 2012, when Pearson sent a full proposal  to Deasy. By late 2012, Deasy approved a pilot program on 13 campuses. Students only received the iPad.

In the interim, Pearson’s charitable foundation — a separate, but related organization — provided free trainings for 50 LAUSD employees and gifted iPads to participants.

The district did not even set up parallel pilot programs with other devices and software.

The software did not include simulations, games and other interactive tools that were promised to the district. The state found errors in every grade, from kindergarten to eighth grade (the curriculum was and is not complete) such as typos and incorrectly applied standards. High school student needed keyboards to write their papers, but iPads do not come with keyboards. So, the district had to spend extra to purchase Bluetooth keyboards. Then, there were firewall issues.

Though the bidding process has been restarted, between 75,000 and 109,000 iPads have already been purchased. About half of those iPads had the Pearson software. About 47 schools have received the tablets out 1,066 schools in the district.

Below is a list of the Phase 1 and Phase 2A schools that are part of the current Common Core State Standards: