This is part two of a short series on a rich set of emails I recently obtained from the universally reviled privatizers at GANAS Academy via the California Public Records Act. You can read part one here, a post which also includes some background on the situation. Today I’m just transcribing and commenting on a few more of these emails.
Oh! And no doubt you remember the famous Denny’s episode! Where Sakshi Jain called the Sheriff on some peaceful protesters and the dispatcher was all like ma’am, we don’t arrest people for protesting because IT IS NOT ILLEGAL. Well, today’s first email, this April 2019 conversation between GANAS board member and not-so-nascent fascist Tom Scotti,1 Port of Los Angeles police officer Jose Alvarez, and Sakshi Jain, shows that she didn’t learn her lesson at all, not at all. It also shows that Scotti has some really, really weird ideas about what’s going on. E.g.
GANAS wants to open in Wilmington but LAUSD is forcing it to open on one of their campuses (Catskill Elementary) in Carson. Not GANAS’ fault but now the Catskill parents and UTLA (united teachers los angeles) are all pissed off
Anyway, turn the page for a transcription of the whole thing, commentary, and even more emails!
So yeah, here’s that conversation between Scotti, the Port cop, and eventually Sakshi Jain. First Scotti, who, like many of his ilk, has an AKA, which is, if you’re interested, “Tom,” completely misrepresents the situation, probably using some kind of former cop dogwhistles to incite violence against the defenders of Catskill:
From: Gaetano Scotti [mailto:gscotti@polahs.net]
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2019 3:35 PM
To: Alvarez, Jose
Cc: Sakshi Jain
Subject: GANAS Academy Board Meeting at POLA High this Weds
Sgt Alvarez, how are you? Long time no see. This email probably seems like its out of left field so I’ll try to give you a brief background.
GANAS Academy is a charter elementary school that will be opening next year either in Wilmington or Carson–that’s where the controversy comes in. GANAS wants to open in Wilmington but LAUSD is forcing it to open on one of their campuses (Catskill Elementary) in Carson. Not GANAS’ fault but now the Catskill parents and UTLA (united teachers los angeles) are all pissed off and have shown up at the past two GANAS meeting and caused problems.
This Weds at 7pm, GANAS will be holding another board meeting at POLAHS in one of our classrooms. Is there a chance that there could be even a small police presence at the beginning of the meeting? Last time the UTLA folks were so disruptive that the GANAS people had to stop the meeting.
I cc’d Sakshi Jain on this email so you or someone from the department could follow up with her should you feel the need. Sakshi is the Principal/Executive Director of the school.
Thanks for you time,
Tom Scotti
Got it? LAUSD is forcing GANAS to co-locate. They do not even want to and it is not their fault. However, all the public school associated people are too dumb to get this so they are “all pissed off” and therefore causing problems. Therefore we need a bunch of cops at the meeting, thanks! Next, the fairly judicious cop responds:
On Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at 10:30 AM Alvarez, Jose <JAlvarez@portla.org> wrote:
Tom,
For something like this with such a short notice it is best you call me on my cell below. Advance planning would have been preferred as we require the approval of our command when our watch gets extended. How did it go and were there any issues? Is there any other future meetings?
Sgt. José Alvarez
Office 310-732-2646
Cell 310-935-9973
Then Jain weighs in! And she can see which way things are trending so she backs it up a little bit. Don’t ask for help you’re not going to get anyway, right?
From: Sakshi Jain [mailto:sjain@ganasacademy.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2019 3:28 PM
To: Alvarez, Jose
Subject: Re: GANAS Academy Board Meeting at POLA High this Weds
Good Afternoon Sgt Alvarez,
Our meeting is today at 7 pm. However, I think Tom’s intention was to just make sure I had a contact just in case we did have to call someone. We are hoping for a peaceful and productive board meeting with no need to contact the police. Thank you so much.
Warmly,
Sakshi
Sakshi Jain | Executive Director & Founder | GANAS Academy
P: 323.364.3629 | sjain@ganasacademy.org | GANASAcademy.org
And here’s the Sgt. again with the same schtick! We can’t do anything to them unless they break the actual law! Sadly, Jain’s response to this, if there was one, is not yet in my hands.
Mr. Jain,
Should any issues arise please call our dispatch at 310-732-3500. Since this is a board meeting the only way we would get involved would be if a crime is committed. We can’t intervene if they are just being loud, disruptive or verbal. The control of the meeting falls on the individual leading it. I wished I would have known but I am already gone for the day. You can call me on my cell if you have questions. How many people are you expecting?
Sgt. José Alvarez
Office 310-732-2646
Cell 310-935-9973
Now on to the City of Carson! In particular, the Carson City Council held a special meeting on April 26 to consider a resolution, ultimately approved, against the co-location of GANAS Academy on the campus of Catskill Elementary School. There’s some interesting video of this meeting and its aftermath, and here’s a copy of the resolution itself.
But it turns out that prior to the April 26 public meeting, Jain sought private meetings with the Mayor of Carson, the Mayor Pro Tem, two councilmembers and, for some reason, the City Treasurer. Here are links to the relevant emails, followed by a transcription of one, all that’s necessary since the emails are essentially the same.
- Jain to Albert Robles, April 8, 2019 — Mayor of Carson
- Jain to Cedric Hicks, April 8, 2019 — Mayor Pro Tem of Carson
- Jain to Lula Davis-Holmes, April 8, 2019 — Carson City Councilmember
- Jain to Jim Dear, April 8, 2019 — Carson City Councilmember
- Jain to Monica Cooper, April 8, 2019 — Carson City Treasurer
And here’s what these emails mostly say, exemplified by the one Jain sent to Robles. Note her unceasing repetition of the same tired charter school propaganda, that it’s a free public elementary charter school, not to mention a a world-class school where all scholars have the opportunity to thrive with which they, oddly short a preposition, hope to add and complement the educational landscape in this community. And see how she frames the co-location controversy. Not their fault, not at all, but they were basically forced into it because they love children more than LAUSD and Catskill people.
From: Sakshi Jain <sjain@ganasacademy.org>
To: arobles@carson.ca.us
Cc: srubio@carson.ca.us
Subject: GANAS Academy Introduction + Request for Meeting
Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2019 15:51:13 -0700
Bcc: Jasmine Ruiz <jruiz@ganasacademy.org>
Dear Mayor Robles,
I am reaching out to you on behalf of GANAS Academy, a free public elementary charter school that will be opening in the City of Carson this Fall. Our mission is to build a world-class school where all scholars have the opportunity to thrive in college and life. As a school of choice, we exist only because of parents who have chosen our school for their child(ren) and we hope to add and complement the educational landscape in this community.
As I’m sure you may have already heard and/or seen, there has been some tension against GANAS Academy, largely due to our placement at Catskill Elementary via Prop 39; that decision was handed to us from LAUSD’s Prop. 39 office and rather than entering into a long drawn out process that would drain resources, we decided to focus instead on funneling our resources into serving the children of this community and providing another educational option to parents – without taking away from what already exists.
The Founding Team, comprised of Sakshi Jain, Founder and Executive Director and Jasmine Ruiz, Business Operations Manager, welcomes the opportunity to meet with you to provide you with information about the school we seek to build in this community and also to gain further insight and perspective from you, as an elected official, of the community we seek to build it in. In addition, we’d be happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Sakshi Jain
Sakshi Jain | Executive Director & Founder | GANAS Academy
P: 323.364.3629 | sjain@ganasacademy.org | GANASAcademy.org
And the last item for this morning is this short conversation between Sakshi Jain and Sean Jernigan, who’s some kind of supervisor with LAUSD’s charter schools division. I’ll present it with no comment, other than to note that Jain, for someone who purports to have the ability to run an actual organization, seems oddly fixated on getting others to solve her problems for her and that Jernigan, like the Port of LA cop discussed above and like the Sheriff’s dispatcher, seems to be extremely clear on the fact that government agencies are not to interfere with the speech and the opinions of private people. This is a lesson that Jain, who presents as someone who should be trusted to teach civics, among other things, to children, seems not to understand in the least.
From: Sakshi Jain [mailto:sjain@ganasacademy.org]
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2019 7:32 PM
To: Jernigan, Sean <sean.jernigan@lausd.net>
Subject: Continued Harassment from Catskills Ave
Hi Sean,
Hope you are well. I wanted to share a video and some current facebooks once again attacking our school and our board. I am sharing this to ask you for some guidance on how to deal with this continual harassment. Thank you.
Warmly,
Sakshi
Sakshi Jain | Executive Director & Founder | GANAS Academy
P: 323.364.3629 | sjain@ganasacademy.org | GANASAcademy.org
On Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 12:36 PM Jernigan, Sean <sean.jernigan@lausd.net> wrote:
Sakshi,
I am sorry that this is happening to you.
Although the District is not able to manage private communications (even those related to, or commenting on, District business), I can assure you that we take our responsibility to all students, families, staff, and the greater school communities very seriously. To this end, we will be holding an operations meeting in May where the Catskill and GANAS principals will work together to plan for the upcoming year. It is my hope that this event will provide a foundation for a quality relationship moving forward. You should receive a “save the Date” announcement within the next couple of weeks.
Sincerely,
Sean
Sean Jernigan
Operations Coordinator, Charter Schools Division
Los Angeles Unified School District
From: Sakshi Jain <sjain@ganasacademy.org>
To: “Jernigan, Sean” <sean.jernigan@lausd.net>
Subject: Re: Continued Harassment from Catskills Ave
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2019 13:51:32 -0700
Thank you, Sean. I will look for that save the date.
Warmly,
Sakshi
Sakshi Jain | Executive Director & Founder | GANAS Academy
P: 323.364.3629 | sjain@ganasacademy.org | GANASAcademy.org
Image of Sakshi Jain playing a lawyer on the internet is ©2019 MichaelKohlhaas.Org and bears some passing resemblance to this Sakshi Jain here.
- From his board member bio: Prior to entering the teaching profession in 2001, Mr. Scotti began his career as a police officer in 1996 with the Los Angeles School Police Department, where he worked patrol and campus assignments in East and South LA and was the recipient of multiple awards for his outstanding work in combating delinquency in the communities he served.
