BY AMELIA BISCARDI
Daily Post Staff Writer
Las Lomitas Elementary School District Superintendent Beth Polito charged Disneyland Resort hotel stays, meals at Fleming’s Steakhouse and rooms at the Four Seasons hotel in San Francisco to the taxpayers, according to credit card receipts a parent obtained from the district through a California Public Records Act request.
Susanna Chenette started looking into the district’s finances because of a teacher strike, trying to figure out if the district’s claim that there wasn’t enough money to meet the teacher’s request of a 10% raise was true. Chenette began digging and found what she considers to be discrepancies.
The teachers union went out on strike for three days and won a 16% raise over three years and fully-funded health insurance. The district says the new contract will cost at least $8.3 million. The contract will raise the average teacher salary to $143,208.
“I think this poor board has been taken for a ride by a very sophisticated and experienced superintendent who knew exactly what she could get away with,” Chenette said.
President Hopkins said the board will discuss these con- cerns and consider if a third-party audit over credit card charges was needed.
“I think the board will try to use the audit to show that it did nothing wrong,” Chenette said.
Polito said in an email to the Post that she often places group meals or group hotel stays on her card and that “total charges on my card often doesn’t reflect my personal consumption.”
She also added that her contract allows for $10,000 a year for “professional coaching and development.”
Polito spent $746.21 at Flemings Steakhouse in Palo Alto on December 23, 2023, a Friday.
Assistant Superintendent Valerie Park spent a similar amount over a month earlier at the steakhouse for $700. Flemings, located in the Stanford Shopping Center, charges more than $60 for many of their classic cuts, according to their menu.
According to an invoice from the public records request, $2,355.18 was spent during a stay at the Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa, located along Cannery Row.
The school district also paid for her stays at San Francisco’s Four Seasons hotel. Her stay on Feb. 19, 2024 cost $390.17 and another on March 24, 2023 cost $151.79.
Polito submitted an invoice for $1,686.02 at the Wallace Hotel in Manhattan, which calls itself a luxury hotel with an arrival date of Sept. 3. A room with a single queen bed there can range from $319-$719 a night.
Polito $315,362 in total pay in 2023, according to the government pay tracking site Transparent California. She is retiring in August.
A few hundred dollars and only $10000 in leadership coaching? This is peanut as compared Mountain View Whisman school district’s Superintendent Ayinde Rudolph who spent close to a million in multiple leadership coaching, meditation, and PR contracts to boast his reputation. What a Superintendent can get away with when he has friends in the board. His friend Devon Conley did NOT put any CAP on coaching and professional improvement contracts.
Rudolph was at least spending on contracts; he and the District got something in exchange for the amounts spent, albeit chakra clearing and crystals. Polito spends taxpayer money entirely on herself: flight upgrades (business class!), luxury hotels (when she’s not even attending a conference!), two-star Michelin meals – all on the taxpayer’s dime and in no way related to the District.
Also – the article incorrectly states her Wallace NYC charge – she spent $4796, not $1686, and she checked in on 9/2 for a two-day phonics workshop on 9/4-9/5, and didn’t leave until 9/8. $799.33/night, footed by the taxpayers and donors, when she wasn’t even attending any event.
Finally – her pay is repeatedly underreported to Transparent California. She last made $415k in 2023/24 ($347k salary and 67k in benefits) for managing two schools, 1100 kids, with an assistant superintendent. In 2022/23 it was roughly $405k ($338k salary) and 395k in 2021/22 (328k salary). Is it problematic not to report financial details correctly? Her salary is under-reported on the School Accountability Report Cards too. I’ve asked the District repeatedly about it and no one will respond.
Susanna says Transparent California is wrong. Susanna says the Department of Education’s accountability report cards are wrong. Everybody is wrong except her. And yet she doesn’t even give her source of information.
Susanna sounds more convincing than Bill.
Polito’s employment contract — which is a public document — ought to say how much she is being paid. That should be the source of her pay information.
I received Polito’s salary schedule from Board President Heather Hopkins in October. The figures I reference are from that document. I’d provide it here but no links in comments allowed.
Also – the School Accountability Report Cards are provided by the Board, not the DOE. They’re available on both LL and LE websites.