Ep. 309 - School Board Scandal

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[00:00:29] Hot topics, the news of the day, in-depth interviews and a whole lot more. It's the Outlaws Radio Show. Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts today. That's O-U-T-L-A-W-S, the Outlaws Radio Show and FCB Podcast. This is the FCB Podcast Network.

[00:01:00] I pray to Lord my soul today, that we won't stay, then we won't stay. All we got is us, no one can take that away. So don't go spade, it's gonna be okay. I pray to Lord my soul today, that we won't go spade, then we won't go spade. All we got is us, no one can take that away. So don't go spade, it's gonna be okay. Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Just Listen to Yourself with Kira Davis.

[00:01:27] This is a podcast where we take hot topics, hot button issues and we discuss the talking points on those issues. And we draw those talking points all the way out to their logical conclusion. Today we're gonna do a little bit of citizen journalism. So as you guys know, you came with me on the journey. In 2022 I ran for school board here. I did not win, but I had the pleasure of meeting other pro parent candidates while I was campaigning. We kind of ran as a block.

[00:01:56] We supported each other, offered each other advice, all that kind of stuff. And I was really proud when my friend Madison Minor won as a parent empowerment candidate in Orange Unified School District. For those of you outside of California, Orange Unified School District is the next district over from mine. It's here in Orange County, in the city of Orange, in case you are confused. They had a vicious battle for those seats. They flipped the board.

[00:02:26] They did it. It was a great campaign. And then the union started a recall. And unfortunately, the recall was successful. They recalled their two conservative pro parent candidates making the board majority liberal majority pro union. We were disappointed. It seems to be the playbook for California school boards for the unions moving forward. And I think Republicans in California and particularly across the United States need to be paying attention to this.

[00:02:54] This is a strategy. It's coming to you. They're testing it out here. So Madison called me and she said, well, I have a little bit of info about what might have been going on inside the school district during that time. And I think this is a story that is going to catch a lot of eyes once we expose it to the sunlight.

[00:03:18] So even if you're not from South Orange County or California, this is going to be a story you're going to want to hear because you're going to get tips on how to poke into what's going on on your board. This is really important. And I think ultimately the important lesson here is that you have to keep an eye on these people. These people depend on being invisible. So we're going to make sure going on an orange unified school district is not invisible anymore.

[00:03:47] Please welcome to the show. Former OUSD school board member, the minor. Welcome to the show, Madison. Thank you, Kira. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so glad you've actually been on the show before. I think you were on when you were running. We we had you on and I before we get started, I want to say that I was just so proud of you for the race that you ran and you never bent. You never wavered. And you were in a bipartisan district.

[00:04:16] I was in a very conservative district. Your area was very bipartisan. How many doors did you personally knock on in 2022? Oh, my goodness. Okay. So me personally, I think I lost count, but I had a small army of parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles that came with me and we knocked close to 75,000 doors. Wow. And what was that? July, August, September, October, November.

[00:04:45] So, yeah, about four months. Thousand doors. You I mean, that was the definition of a ground campaign and you won. You you got in. And then that was rough. I mean, me and you were talking through the whole thing. Not only were we dealing with unions, but then also our husbands who were like, I cannot handle one more yard. Yeah. I'd have to hide them. I was a, you know, a yard sign addict, like hide behind the couch.

[00:05:15] So I didn't see him. I still have signs rolling around. It's terrible. I do, too. I know. He just told me he's like, can we throw those away? I don't know. There were so much money. This is what I'm saying. It was so much like those signs represent so much sweat, blood and tears. Yeah, throw it away. But let's talk before we get started. This is actually a big story. I think it's huge.

[00:05:39] But before we get in there, I just want to lay a little groundwork for what happened to you when you arrived at the board. We have we call them board of trustees here in California. You may where where you are, but it's your school board. So when you arrived in the school board was already contentious situation. Now, I said you flip the board, but did you flip it or you just got your two? You did flip it. Right. OK, I want to make sure about that. So you arrived. We kept an incumbent. We kept an incumbent. Uh, so we had three or two.

[00:06:08] What was that? We had one incumbent that was running and there were three of us that would have been new trustees. And I was the only one out of the three new trustees to win. But that that ultimately ended up flipping the board from a three, four left majority to a four, three conservative majority. And why did you run in the first place? What made you because you're just you're not to say you're just a mom, but like like we were just moms. We both have kids in school. What why did you run?

[00:06:37] Gosh, you know, back in 2016, a friend from church said you should probably start going to board meetings and know what they're teaching your kids in the future. Because my oldest at the time was. It would have been two years old and then I had a newborn and then I was surprised pregnant with a third. And so I looked at her. I said, look at me, I'm I'm exhausted. I have a newborn. I'm pregnant. I have a toddler. I'm not going to a board meeting. And she just kept telling me, you should probably go. So I went.

[00:07:06] I couldn't believe it. I started going to board meetings regularly starting in 2016. Finally, in 2020, my oldest was in kindergarten and I was just so angry at the policies that they were passing and they weren't following the science. And so I went to board meetings just to honestly just to pray over the meetings and to be a number.

[00:07:31] And it ended up that, you know, they'd have me pray for the entire group of conservatives that showed up. And then it was, hey, maybe maybe you should start talking at these board meetings. And I said, no, I'm not not in the public realm. I don't need to be a face out there in the front line. And but I started getting frustrated because I would watch I would sit in these board meetings. Actually, I would sit outside because they locked us outside in the cold. So I'd have my sleeping bag tucked over me and my other, you know, parkas.

[00:07:59] I have two parkas on my shoulders with a like the little heat pads in my pockets. And I'd sit out there and I'd listen to these meetings and we weren't even able to watch. There wasn't even a TV, but we would listen to these meetings from outside. And then when you had your speaking opportunity, you'd get to go inside and stand or sit, you know, six feet away from other people, which makes so much sense. It's laughable now that I look back. But I would watch as these other people were begging and speaking and talking to these trustees.

[00:08:28] And I would watch, especially the incumbent that I ended up beating. I'd see her and she would just be looking down or laughing at them or talking to the board member next to her or it was just so disrespectful. And I think she just made me mad enough that I wanted to take her down. And so I ran.

[00:08:47] I ran because I felt like I wanted to be a voice for parents and for moms and for people that are more on the conservative side that don't want, you know, pornography and the sexualization of children to happen. And I, um, I campaigned on those, on those platforms and I campaigned to change out the guard of leadership and OUSD.

[00:09:14] Because in Orange Unified, we had a superintendent who was not listening to the parents and, um, beat a 21 year incumbent. Purely by grit and hard work with, uh, like I said, an army of parents and a whole lot of Jesus. Because I truly don't think beating a 21 year incumbent is something that you would typically do, especially as a mom of four kids. But I was just, I was determined to give it my all.

[00:09:40] And so were the parents and the grandparents and aunts and uncles that believed that I would do the good job or the best job that I possibly could do if I was elected. So you get there, you get sworn in and you guys get down to work. But were there controversial things on the docket that you guys started working on right away that sort of raised the ire of the unions?

[00:10:03] Or was it sort of from the get-go they were determined to pull you out of there? I heard and got emails, very nasty emails, from constituents that were leftists. The day I got voted in, December 13th, I was already receiving emails. I was already getting that. I got anonymous letters in the mail from people saying they're going to find me and just these nasty psychopaths. Let me pause right there for our listeners.

[00:10:33] Yeah, she did say December 13th. That's how long it takes us to certify elections here in California. So you really are waiting until almost Christmas to find out if you won. Like a week before Christmas, I found out that I won. Yeah. I found out that I lost. Yeah. Right.

[00:10:51] And it's so crazy too, Kira, because the incumbent who I beat out, she still went to the CSBA school board conference, which was on the dime of OUSD families. The tax dollars, you know, hundreds of dollars that they paid to send her. Maybe even thousands. Honestly, I don't even know how much it costs because I never even got to go.

[00:11:18] Um, and so that, that was December 13th. Obviously the election was over first week of November, but in California, where we have all the nefarious happenings in our elections, fraud, for example, we didn't find out until December 13th. That's when I was voted in the day prior. The Orange County Supervisor's Office, is it validated, certified, certified the election. And that's when I found out that I had officially had won.

[00:11:46] And so I showed up the next day at the board meeting and they called me up and swore me in. And yeah, like I said, they were already threatening recall the day I was elected. And unbelievable. Yeah. And then within the first month, we did do a changing of the guards. The other three that were conservatives incumbents chose to bring that to a board meeting.

[00:12:12] And I had campaigned on those on that platform. I campaigned saying I was going to make a change and that included leadership. And so I was all for it. I think that our former superintendent and assistant superintendent were not great leaders. They were not doing a good job for our children. They were not protecting kids. They were not actually educating our kids. Our test scores are abysmal. They still are. And so I felt like they needed to go.

[00:12:41] And so that was the first thing that I did was I voted in favor of firing our superintendent and our assistant superintendent. They were placed on administrative leave, but they were soon thereafter fired. And then it kind of just I continued on the rampage from there. When did you find out that? Did you find out like right away that the unions were attempting or organizing a recall? Or was it sometime later? No. Yeah.

[00:13:08] I mean, I just assumed, I guess, because, you know, they would they would come to every board meeting and cuss at me and call me all the nasty names. They're vicious. Follow me to the bathroom and say nasty things as I walked to the bathroom during board meetings. Grocery stores with my four kids. They would come up to me and, you know, yell at me, point at me, call me a liar in front of my children and all this garbage. It was it was pathetic. I mean, they're going to I'm going to stop you right there.

[00:13:37] This is another reason why this story is important, because when you, dear listener, decide to go run for your school board or whatever local office you want. It's not as easy as you make it. I say easy, but knocking on doors there you are. You have to understand you're running for an office that's in your community. You're not going to Sacramento. You're not going to D.C.

[00:14:03] You have to live and work with these people who you're campaigning against. And we're dealing with an enemy, for lack of a better term, that has no moral compass and really does not care. And they operate. They truly do. This is not hyperbole. They truly do operate on fear. Their whole goal is to instill fear. This is why I asked Madison, does she did she know right away that the unions were going to recall her?

[00:14:33] You'll you notice what she said. I kind of assumed it. Nobody's getting that right now. If you're running for school board in California and you win, you better assume you're getting a recall. If you run, run knowing you will get a recall. We're dealing with this here in my own school district. Now that we flipped our board, we have school board members who are feeling a little bit scared now to do anything because we're going to get a recall. Recall's coming. So it doesn't matter. It's coming.

[00:15:02] So part of this story that I want to do, I want people to be inspired to dig into what's going on in their own area. And when these things come up, start forming a strategy and start getting busy because these people have worked unopposed till now. But this ends here. So. Yeah. So you're there. You know, these recalls are coming.

[00:15:25] You know that you have a lot of unhappy progressives who have put a target on you and your colleague. Right. What was going on? What big things were you working on inside the district while you were there?

[00:15:42] So we immediately passed a parent bill of rights change where we added to the bill of rights, you know, that secondary material that your teacher maybe gives to your student at school, but they don't send home because it's just busy work. That's called secondary or supplemental instruction.

[00:15:59] So we passed in our bill of rights, a mandate that a parent can come into the office and ask for any and all supplemental instruction to the principal of their student's teacher, which was hilarious because that seems so benign. But the now teachers union president, her name's Karen, she immediately came to the news and said, I will never give up that information. It's it's ridiculous to even ask that. You know, I do this, that and the other.

[00:16:26] And it's like, well, if you have nothing to hide, then what's the problem with bringing that to the parents, the kids parents? To me, that seems like such a silly thing to have a mountain, you know, have your hill that you die on. But anyway, so that was that was the first thing. Then shortly after we passed a flag policy where we wanted only the American flag to be flown at our campuses.

[00:16:49] I wanted it to be a little bit more rich in there in the content, but we weren't able to do the entirety of the of the of the policy. But so that passed. And then the last and most controversial policy that passed was a parent notification policy. And that notification policy is something that I helped author with Nicole Pearson and Jen Kennedy and Aaron Friday. And it was it was amazing. And it was all to protect kids and to protect and promote parent rights.

[00:17:17] And the idea behind that is that if your child wants to change bathrooms of their name, their gender, then they are to the school through the counselor is to notify the parents. And the parents would would come into the office, have a conversation. They would get tools. They would learn about counseling opportunities that their child can have.

[00:17:38] They would learn how they can support that child, how they can make sure that their child feels safe and comfortable and able to speak with their parents, because the truth is, is there's you know, there's a lot of kids that might mock, harm, terrify a kid who is confused about their gender. And so for a parent to be involved in that conversation, especially once that that bell blows or the bell goes off, you know, that the teacher is not going home with that kid.

[00:18:07] And so if the teacher is the only one that knows and that kid goes home and heaven forbid they commit suicide or harm themselves in any way, you know, that's that's on the teacher that that that shouldn't be on the teacher. They're not a counselor. They're not a psychologist. They're not a medical professional. And so that that right goes to the parents that they should know and be able to protect their child. So that was the last policy that I passed.

[00:18:32] And then I was working really hard on fixing a broken curriculum that's, you know, using our state standards. We had an OUSD and Orange Unified. We had under 50 percent of our kids were performing well on tests of the state testing, which is required for most of our students. I know some kids can opt out, but that's how you get your funding for your school is through those state testings. And we had below 50 percentile for math.

[00:18:58] We had right at 50th percentile for reading and literacy for English. And that's failing. Those are failing scores. And there was something that needed to change. And what we were doing in Orange Unified, and I'm sure in your district as well, Kira, is not working. And instead of, you know, open arms saying, yeah, let's get this fixed.

[00:19:17] I had a lot of heels digging into the ground and a lot of administrators in OUSD that were not wanting to get uncomfortable and not wanting to do big changes because, quite frankly, it's easier to teach crap curriculum. That's the setup. Here's the story. Sorry if I talk too much. Because people need to know. People need to know what the background of this is. This is very important because what you're hearing is Madison telling you she had a plan.

[00:19:46] She went in there. She executed the plan. And then the unions proceeded to execute a strategy to boot her out. And you hear all of the very common sense things that she was doing. Nothing crazy. It is astonishing that anyone would suggest that a parent shouldn't be able to, at any time, walk into the school and see what materials are being taught in the classroom.

[00:20:15] It's just astonishing. And I will add this. I have, right now, in my possession, stories that are being worked on of parents who had that situation where their kid was transitioned at school. They didn't know. Kid goes home. Parent has no tools to deal. They don't even know what's going on with the kid. Subsequently, kid makes a suicide attempt or runs away. I'm working on a couple of those stories. So this is not rare.

[00:20:45] It does happen. But there was something else that was going on at the time as well. And that's still really an unfolding story. And that is this idea that even though we went through COVID and teachers weren't at school and they weren't checking in and they were doing Zoom school across California, they were all still asking for raises.

[00:21:09] And your local or your union was negotiating a raise with your board. And so there are some very questionable things that are happening, still going on surrounding that. Were you on the board while you were negotiating this raise with the teachers union? Yes. So you were part of these negotiations. And then, oh, my goodness, look what happens. We got a recall on Madison Minor.

[00:21:36] We're going to be a on the boards. We're going to be a bit more clear. What's important to us and what our brand also makes us out. Start your test today for 1€ per month on shopify.de.

[00:22:10] But here's the thing, people. The curious thing is every time we went to sign on the dotted line, they would say, oh, you know, we need to fix this wording. And so it was just constant delay tactics. And I heard from teachers that were, you know, in favor of me being on the board who said we were told by the teachers union that you, the school board, are delaying us getting our teachers raises.

[00:22:34] And it's really souring a lot of the moderate teachers in our school district because they're being told by the teachers union that you guys are the reason that we haven't gotten our raise. And so she, you know, a couple of these teachers reached out to me and said, is that actually the truth? Because they're starting to believe it. You know, you hear it enough. You start believing it. But that was absolutely incorrect. We were we were totally ready to make a very generous teachers raise.

[00:23:00] And who was the president of the teachers union that you were dealing with? His name is Greg Goodlander. He was the president at the time while I was on the school board. So Greg Goodlander is the president of the teachers union. And ostensibly, this messaging is coming from him. Right. I mean, obviously. Correct. Top down. Right. That's going to be timing. They have a negotiation team. You know, I think it's three or four school board members.

[00:23:30] I mean, teachers union members who are part of this team that does the negotiations. But ultimately, yes, he is the president. He's in charge of making the final decisions and I'm sure bringing it to a vote. And who was the president of your school board at the time? At the time, it was conservative Rick Ledesma, who was recalled with me. OK, you got that, everybody. Rick Ledesma, president of the school board, recalled.

[00:23:56] Madison Minor, parent empowerment candidate, recalled. Greg Goodlander, president of the teachers union, working to negotiate teacher salaries. It's not until after Madison left that something very disturbing came up that I think had a lot to do with the recalls and might signal some illegal activities here. So I'm not going to ask Madison to take it away here and tell me what she's found out.

[00:24:25] I want before you go, Madison, I want everyone to know we're just asking questions here. We're not saying anything. There's nothing coming out that we don't have documentation of. We're not casting aspersions. We're not spreading lies. We are only asking questions. And we are asking questions about things that are that regard the public good. Right. Please continue.

[00:24:53] So I'm going to do it kind of in timeline form because I think that kind of helps my brain. Perfect. Perfect. To compartmentalize it. I think that's great for the Internet, too. The Internet likes timelines. So go ahead. OK, perfect. I'll make one later. I'll draw it up on paper. Cartoon it. OK, so I was recalled March of 2024, which seems like it was so much longer ago than it was. I was recall. I was elected, you know, December of 2022. Calls began December of 2022.

[00:25:23] The recall talk officially started happening in 2023, where it got onto the ballot and the ballot would have been for the primary in March. March. And so March, I get recalled. I hear the news. And quickly thereafter, the new majority, which was a 3-2, because it was a 3-3 conservative majority, two of us were recalled. So now there's only five left.

[00:25:50] So three of them are raging leftists and two of them are conservatives. So the three of them obviously can appoint whomever they want to take the seats of Rick Ledesma and myself. So they bring on these two crazy people to replace our seats. And immediately thereafter, they sign. It was June 13th of 2024.

[00:26:16] They signed a teacher's raise of 9.75%, which was the highest in Orange Unified School District history for our teachers. And it was retroactive as well. So it also... Stop. Recap. Madison and Rick get booted. They appoint. Do you hear this? They appoint the school board members to replace them. So it's not a vote of the people.

[00:26:40] This is sort of a like Kamala Joe Biden situation where they just thrust somebody out there. And then, oh my gosh, teacher's raise gets approved. Continue. Yeah. So the teacher's raise gets approved, but it also got approved retroactive. So they retroactively placed it into July 2nd or July 1st of 2023.

[00:27:05] So a year prior, these teachers are now getting a 9.75% raise. Now, let me pause real quick and say, we have amazing teachers in Orange Unified. Absolutely. We have great teachers. We also have some really crappy ones.

[00:27:26] So for the entirety of this district to now get a 9.75% raise was very shocking to me, not only because we had some, you know, conversations in closed session that had to do with the max that we were able to give for a raise without putting our school district in a compromised position. You know, you do the math on an Excel spreadsheet, you plug in that percentage.

[00:27:53] And when it comes up to where it's red, where, you know, you're giving them too much of a raise to where now your district literally doesn't have the funding to pay for that raise, you know, you as a school board trustee, that's your job is to say yes or say no to that. And we, as the conservative majority, we're looking at the potential of a raise that high. And we quickly were told by leadership, by the district staff, by lawyers, that that was not

[00:28:21] smart, that that would have bankrupted the district. So that was, that was July 1st. Sorry, that was June of 2024, June 13th that that happened, right? Where they got their 9.75% raise. Me, as a school board trustee, I'm immediately going, well, former trustee, sorry, I'm immediately going, that doesn't add up. That's going to bankrupt the district because I know how much we have in reserves.

[00:28:51] I know how much we make each year from the, from the state and federal funding. And I know that I was told by district employees that we cannot fiscally have stability in our school district if we are paying that much to our teachers. And so I sent in PRA after PRA after PRA. I finally got back, you know, the, the contract between the teachers and the,

[00:29:20] the school school district. And sure enough, it was 9.75%. And then I kid you not, you know, the summer goes by. And on September 3rd of 2024, the district superintendent of schools sends out a memo that says, and let me get to it real quick. Sorry. While the district has a healthy reserve, excuse me, through the closing of the books

[00:29:46] of 2324 and preparing the unaudited actuals, I have been meeting with our fiscal team as well as staff and the Orange County Department of Education. Based on what I have learned, this is the superintendent of Orange Unified. It appears that the adopted budget in June. That's when the teachers raise happened. Did not fully account for the ongoing costs of the raises. While the district has a healthy reserve and is projected $30 million reserve, by the way,

[00:30:14] and is projected to meet its fiscal obligations for the current year, for 2024, and the next two subsequent years, updating the budget projections to reflect the cost of the raises appears to require that the reserves will need to be used to meet our obligations. In other words, it appears that we are now at deficit spending, spending more money than we are receiving. Wait, did I? This is a memo from the superintendent. The superintendent. Did I? I just want to hear.

[00:30:45] I want to clarify that I heard this correctly. They sent a letter saying the budget is balanced, but it's actually not balanced. That's what the letter says. The budget's balanced, but oh, by the way, the budget is not balanced. Did I hear that wrong or am I getting it? Yeah, it goes on, if you don't mind. Please do. So he talked about deficit spending and the reserve, right, being used for this, for the teacher salary raises, $30 million.

[00:31:15] While deficit spending is very concerning as reserves are one-time funds and should never be used for ongoing expenditures, such as raises. Our substantial reserves allow time to correct the situation, probably firing staff, and bring our current spending back in line with current revenues. We are working to finalize the numbers and we will have an accurate picture as the first interim report presentation in December.

[00:31:42] So you go to the presentation report in December by the new superintendent because, oh yeah, they fired the superintendent that we put in. That was hidden in there, but that's why they started the recall on me was because I fired their superintendent. Unbelievable. Just a bunch of hypocrites. So the superintendent of schools, Mike Christensen, gets on the school board meeting and his recommendation is to look at current staff and consolidate current staff, like get rid of them, fire them, right?

[00:32:10] Offer early retirement, which is expensive, to a bunch of their current staff. But he also said that he's going to be consolidating schools. So he's going to be closing down schools that are, and he listed at least six schools that are at 50% or less population than they were 10 years ago in 2014. And there are at least six schools that are, I believe it was six, five or six schools that are below 50% capacity from 10 years ago.

[00:32:39] So that's awesome. Super child focus, right? Like, let's give these ratings to these teachers. And then close schools. Yeah, then we're going to close schools. And we're going to probably take away specials like art and music and all the extracurricular, you know, stuff that families really want for their kids. So that was September. Then it was December that Mike Christensen, the superintendent, announced probably firing teachers and consolidating schools.

[00:33:08] And then just for fun, because I guess I should have been a detective in my previous career, but no, I'm just a mom that happens to have some skills. I went on to the Orange County divorce. I guess that was too fast forwarded. I apologize. So I catch wind in January because of a memo that went out by the Orange Unified Educators Association on January 1st, 2025. So that's this year.

[00:33:35] This would have been a couple of weeks after Mike Christensen made that speech about closing schools and consolidating schools and getting rid of teachers. On January 1st, it is announced that Greg Goodlander, the teachers union president, as let's see what the exact words are. Effective Monday, December 30th, Greg Goodlander made the decision to step down as president of Orange Unified Educators Association to focus on his family.

[00:34:03] As vice president, Karen, remember the lady I was talking about, the teacher that said she would never reveal to her parents that secondary supplemental instruction because it's just too much work to give it to those parents. What a hero. So it is revealed that he is stepping down as of December 30th, 2024.

[00:34:25] I heard through teachers and through other individuals that are close with the Orange Unified Educators Association that he was having an adulterous affair. And so having seen this memo come out, it obviously, to me, was kind of concluding, okay, yes, he probably was having an affair.

[00:34:46] But if I'm going to sit here and suppose and guess, that's, you know, shame on me for being a gossiper like everyone else. And so I decided to do some research. So rewind. I was able to go on to the Orange County Courts website. Like I said, I'm a detective now, Kira. And I discovered that he petitioned on December 18th, right before Christmas. That's super cool.

[00:35:12] 24, dissolution of his marriage to his wife. I did hear he has two children. He has a wife and he is walking away from them because of this supposed affair. Likely. Okay, wait. I'm going to stop you right here. I still don't have the solid proof. You're right. Okay. No, but no, that's fine. I just want to stop you right here because I imagine at this point, outsiders are listening and going, okay, he had an affair. That's, you know, it's not great, but he's got bad moral character, but you know, that's his own choice.

[00:35:43] What does it have to do with this? But as Madison said, well, she's picked up a few extra skills as being just a mom in government and she, her spidey senses were tingling. You didn't leave it there. So stay with us. We're not leaving it here. We're not just being gossips. We're not leaving it here. No. You don't want to hear it. Go ahead. We have more, more information. So. Go ahead. All right. So I hear in January about his stepping down. I do my research.

[00:36:11] I discover he had filed for divorce December 18th, right before Christmas, like a serious winner that he is who does that to their children right before Christmas.

[00:36:20] And then, and then I start hearing rumors from teachers, from principals, from district employees, from people close to the school board that he had an affair with, I kid you not, teacher, the school board president who approved the 9.75% raise to the teachers union back in June of 2024. So for an entire year.

[00:36:50] So for an entire year. And that's saying, I hear from they have a natural force. And you're doing the children right now.

[00:37:20] I'm going. I'm going by this. Yeah. I'm gone by three months now. They approve this teacher's raise. Fast forward to December. Greg Goodlander files for divorce. Fast forward two weeks. It's announced that he has stepped down as teachers union president. Meanwhile, I'm hearing these rumors and going, okay, I'm not even part of the school board anymore. Like, let's move on.

[00:37:42] But then when it becomes the teachers union president with the school board president, that is incredibly bad because that is our tax dollars getting spent on teachers raises.

[00:37:54] And they were likely having sex, having an adulterous affair, having conversations, allegedly having conversations, allegedly between the sheets while they were both acting independently, approving a 9.75% raise. So, so again, this is all, oh, maybe this happened.

[00:38:24] Maybe it doesn't happen. Right. Well, just last week I got sent a post that Anna Page, who was the school board president. Now she is still a trustee. I got a post from a concerned citizen that says it's her posting and a page posting on her private social media page.

[00:38:50] I understand there has been some speculation regarding my relationship status, and I want to address it directly as I deeply value honesty and respect in all aspects of my life. Right. I have, I have started a profound relationship with Greg Goodlander, and I want to assure everyone that there is no conflict of interest or political involvement. What truly matters to us is our family, friends, and the values we both hold dear.

[00:39:18] The kids and I are happy. She has two children of her own with two different daddies, two different baby daddies. I'm sure they're real happy. Uh-huh. And she says the kids and I are happy to welcome him into our lives. We kindly ask for privacy, understanding, and respect as we move forward with positivity and gratitude. Well, yeah. Thank you for your support.

[00:39:41] So I guess my question to her is when did this adulterous affair become a profound relationship? Because I've, I've dated, you know, a couple different guys, men in my life, and I would say profound is probably, I don't know, eight months, nine months, maybe a year. Like, I wouldn't call one month a profound relationship, but this is just speculation, allegedly, right? Sure, allegedly.

[00:40:07] And I do appreciate her value of honesty and respect, but when did the affair start? Was he still married? Oh, yes, he was, because he filed for divorce just recently, and he has two children of his own. Did this happen before or after the 9.75% raise that OUSD teachers reached or were given? And was there any conversation that happened while they were having this affair in the sheets? And was there a conflict of interest?

[00:40:39] Was this part of the detriment to the district? Oh, so we have. Thank you. We have some visitors in the room. Kids, dogs. This is what real life looks like. This is what citizen journalism looks like. Yeah, no, but that's funny. Let me finish my thoughts. So was. Yeah, please go ahead. The definition of a conflict of interest is basically this. Like, this is a conflict of interest. This is the financial detriment of our district.

[00:41:06] Our district has said that they're going to be bankrupt in two and a half years, going through our reserves that we conservatives helped build up. And she is saying that there's no conflict of interest.

[00:41:16] Well, there is when you are putting a district in financial distress and having an affair with a gentleman who, not a gentleman, with a man who was married with two kids and was the teacher's union president at the time that the approval of this 9.75% raise came to fruition. So privacy and understanding. My children have been.

[00:41:42] My children have been mocked and ridiculed and put on the pedestal since I was on the school board. We had an assistant superintendent that we put in, and his children's medical privacies were exposed to everyone at a school board meeting. I've been approached at grocery stores. I've been approached at random parks. I've been approached by nasty, nasty people who are misinformed or complete crazy people.

[00:42:08] And so, you know, for her to ask for privacy at this time, it's pretty laughable. It's a nice way to put it.

[00:42:50] Mm-hmm. But it doesn't stop there. What? There's more. No. There's more. My goodness. I don't know if I even shared this with you. So it'll be coming out later. So it's actually not too much information that I can share at this time.

[00:43:07] But people close to both Anna Page and Greg Goodlander have come forward, and they are ready to expose and tell the truth because they are sick and tired of the manipulation and the lies and the mistruths that are out there. And these people are ready and willing to bring it forward, and that's about all I can share about that.

[00:43:34] But I look forward to those interviews because it's going to expose even more of the truth. But I think what we already have, to be completely honest with Anna, quite frankly, stupidly posting a social media post about her profound relationship with a teachers union president, I think that's kind of the nail in the coffin, if you ask me. When you showed me that, I was like, oh, no, honey, this doesn't make it go away.

[00:44:03] And now you smell an even worse. So it was definitely a miscalculation on her part. Unsurprising if you're stupid enough to do all of these things while you're serving the people. But there's no question that they were having an affair that's confirmed by the divorce records and confirmed by her statement. There's no question that teachers got the raise. That's confirmed by OUST.

[00:44:29] There's no question that Greg Goodlender was involved in those negotiations. He's the president of the teachers union. None of those things are in question. And I think, Madison, you brought up an excellent point. I mean, this is you're really working on being like maybe your next life is investigative reporter or something because you really are Matlock here. But this is like a courtroom moment. Just a mom. Just a mom, Kira.

[00:44:58] You say, well, this woman decided. No, I think this is very impression of you. This woman decided to describe that relationship as profound. That's how she described it. She posted this in which she posted February. So just the other day, she posted it last week. Social media. Yeah. On her Facebook page. We have the screenshots of that. She posted it. And it's February.

[00:45:27] And she used the term profound. When was the teacher's raise? June of 2024. So nine months prior. Nine months prior. So you have a woman in February describing her relationship with the which would be a conflict of interest if she was still working on this deal.

[00:45:50] Describing a relationship with the president of the teachers union that she's been having as profound and yet wants us to believe that it's recent. Recent being since Christmas, I guess. She didn't really specify what recent means. I mean, I think when I look back, I would tell you, Madison, that my son's last championship baseball game was quite recent. But I'm Gen X. It was actually 10 years ago. You know what I mean?

[00:46:20] Like, to me, what is recent? But we at least does it does bring up questions. Anna, I am sorry. This does not get you out of anything. You should have been quiet. You should have stayed quiet. Because what this does now is it makes me my reporter brain go. What is recent? Right. And what is profound? Right.

[00:46:40] At the very least, I think parents and voters in Orange Unified School District deserve to have the actual answer to that question. Was there a conflict of interest here? When did the affairs start? And were they having a sexual affair while they were negotiating the details of this contract? I don't think that's a crazy question to ask. Yeah.

[00:47:08] Well, and I, again, this is all potential or guessing or speculation, but I gotta believe there's a reason why she brought this to the forefront of her social media page. Like, what a weird place to post. I don't know who posts your relationship status anymore on social media. Maybe it's just me that that's weird, but she posted it on social media. I gotta believe there's a reason why.

[00:47:38] And rumor on the street is that she's also pregnant with his baby. Dun, dun, dun! Cue, like, cue the shocked gopher. Like, I didn't know that. Sorry. It just never... But, you know, of course. Of course. And I wish I could say that this is the only dirty thing going on in a school district. But this is par for the course.

[00:48:04] This is why I tweeted out earlier, you know, I tweeted out, I teased the story a little bit on my ex account. And I said, you know, but people act all kinds of ways in your local government because they believe they're invisible. I went to Orange. Yeah, I went to our Orange County at Madison. I went to our Board of Supervisors meeting a few weeks ago. And they have some very liberal members of that board. And the... Yeah. Katrina Foley is one of the liberal members. And she's a horrible person.

[00:48:33] And she is a horrible legislator. And she's rude. She is extremely rude. And I don't know what her views on race are. But she seems to be a little bit ruder to those of us who are minorities who take that mic, I noticed. I'm not sure why. But she's extremely rude. And she made a mom cry when I was there. A mom wanted to know, oh, I found some... This mom breastfeeds late at night.

[00:49:00] So she just sits up there and reads contracts from the county. Sure. And she was like, I saw this contract. It doesn't make any sense. Yada, yada. Katrina scolded her for bringing her baby to a meeting, a board meeting. She said she was an irresponsible mother for bringing her baby to the meeting and then giving an emotional statement. Wow. And so she cried. So anyways, my whole point is this, Madison.

[00:49:28] I'm sitting there watching her do this. And I'm thinking, this woman thinks she's invisible. That's what this is. She thinks she's invisible because Orange County Press doesn't really exist. There's a register. There's some independent bloggers. But it's really hard to get a message out there because we're overwhelmed by San Diego and L.A. news. So these people where you are, Madison, and I felt this when you were fighting that recall. And I marched.

[00:49:56] I got out there with you and I marched with you as well. And a lot of people did from my district as well because we felt you guys were invisible. And you were. I think you were far too invisible for something so important. We lost that recall that I thought we could have won if we had had the proper support. So I'm kind of done with this. We're just going to go along to get along here in Orange County. And it's just our county business and no one cares. Guess what? But I have a national audience.

[00:50:25] And California is national news. And what happens here matters to other people. So Anna Page and Greg Goodlander and all of the other ne'er-do-wells, to use my grandmother's term, they're in OUSD, but not just OUSD, across California. You're no longer invisible. This is a question that should be answered because it has drastic implications, Madison.

[00:50:55] And I want you to comment on this. It has drastic implications for your district. They're talking about dipping into the $30 million reserve fund. We're not getting those federal COVID funds anymore. Trump's about to cut off all the rest of California's federal education funding. Where in the hell do they think that money is supposed to go? What happens to the reserve funds when they're gone, Madison? How do you get them back? You go bankrupt.

[00:51:21] Your school district literally will have to go bankrupt when you run out of money. I don't know how else they can do it without firing a significant amount of staff. It's a very top-heavy district. We have a lot of district office employees that are paid six figures plus. I don't know. I don't know how else they're going to be able to recover from this, except by closing schools. And getting rid of more staff, which doesn't help the kids. No, of course not. It has nothing to do.

[00:51:50] It has absolutely nothing to do with the kids. Again, as you pointed out, OUSD has wonderful teachers. I am CUSD here. I have a few teachers that have just really changed the course of my children's lives. They've been amazing teachers. But I wish they were the majority. Unfortunately, those teachers are the minority in our public school system. And were there other aspects of that contract? I don't know if you know, but it was a 9.75% raise that was retroactive.

[00:52:20] So backdated to June of 23. Was there anything pension raises or benefits raises in there that you know of? I mean, I can look through it real quick, but I don't remember the pension or benefits raises. It was a decrease in the amount of hours. What is it? Staff meeting time is 80 minutes versus 90 minutes that it was.

[00:52:45] There is an increase to certificated, excuse me, 9.75%. Teachers with special education. God bless them. Absolutely. There's a caseload maximum of 28 people. That even seems too high to me, to be completely honest. Mm-hmm. And then the district shall budget $375,000 for the purpose of resolving class size problems. Great. That's awesome.

[00:53:13] More money, though, that we don't have because we have these extreme raises. Size problems, but they're closing other schools. Right. Right. And then there should be 30 days per school year for the purpose of allowing its members to participate in the associations or recognize the state or national affiliates, normal business activities. So, like, I'm guessing that means going to, oh, that's the association, to go to training camp for teachers, like a professional development.

[00:53:43] But I think that's union related. Professional development. Yeah. The professional development teachers conferences are just, it's just left wing. It's just progressive activism conferences, how to be a good little soldier. They now added into the association rules with the school district that every staff meeting at each individual school has to end with the teachers union being allowed to have an announcement. Oh, wait. Read that again?

[00:54:12] The association will be allowed to make a brief announcement at the conclusion of all staff meetings. Yeah. Wow. You read that. Or I read that. You heard it. Wow. And then another amendment was the association shall be provided not more than 60 minutes of time during the district's annual new employee orientation. So, every new employee gets indoctrinated when they... You guys see the game here?

[00:54:42] Do you guys see the game here? Right now, we have an unholy cabal. It is from top to bottom. So, do you see how if anybody wedges their way into that circle, they just round the circle again. So, it's just... I can't see it because it's... Right there. Oh, yeah. There. I got it. Greg Goodlander. His name is that. Greg Goodlander. There's your signature. Sure. So, given those provisions...

[00:55:11] I can't make this stuff up, Kira. No, you can't. You cannot. Given those provisions, it is a valid question for people like Madison and others, particularly parents who have their kids in this school right now, in these schools right now, to ask, well, did that relationship play a part in the negotiating process? And if it didn't, please offer us proof. Please come forward.

[00:55:36] Give us a detailed timeline because we're supposed to be able to trust our public officials. And that actually is our business because it's in the public interest. It is in our interest to know if you had this relationship. So, you need to prove that to us. And if you didn't... And we need to do further investigation. Right. Yeah. And prove that you didn't have that relationship, really, because at this point... Yeah. The burden of proof's on you. It is.

[00:56:03] Because at this point, all we are thinking is you definitely had this nefarious, you know, adulterous affair. We don't see it. And you're pregnant. So, like, shoot. You know how hard it is to get pregnant? Like, I've had four kids. It is hard. It's... There's math to it. Like, it's hard. So, the fact that she's pregnant now is like... They've been profounding for a while. They've been profounding for a while. Obviously. Obviously. That's what we call it now. It's profounding. Ugh. Gross.

[00:56:33] But I do think that, given what happened to you and Rick, Madison, this is egregious. This is a big story. This is a big story, actually. This is a huge story. I think so. Because it changed the course of your entire school district. But it's also going to affect all of California education policy. Yeah. Because what's going on right now is every school board that is taking action to protect parents and students and students is getting sued by Attorney General Bonta.

[00:57:02] Now, Bonta is losing those cases left and right. But it does... Sending our tax dollars. Our tax dollars. And it sends a chilling effect. Like I just told you with my school board. They don't want to touch the parental notification stuff because they don't want to get tangled up with Bonta. Even though we're winning all the cases, it's a chilling effect. But what is the strategy for the unions is whenever you flip your board, if you have a center right or right majority, they're going to put a recall on it.

[00:57:32] California was the test case. So now it's coming to you. So if they're going to use what they know to create a chilling effect for the rest of us, then it's time for us to make them a little chilly too. So you're not invisible anymore. If this stuff is going on in this district, what's happening in mine? What's happening in yours? It definitely sure as hell is a conflict of interest.

[00:57:58] If your board president, the president of your school board is having an affair, with the president of the teachers union that they are directly negotiating with to spend your tax dollars, you're damn straight. That's a conflict of interest. And we're going to see if we can dig up some more about that. We do have some PRA requests in. I put some in. Madison, I know you have requested some information. Have you heard back from the district yet?

[00:58:25] No, they said that it's going to take them at least four or five weeks to get back to me because it's so much information that I requested, which is malarkey. But now we did a lot. Yeah, we did request quite. We requested all their communications public. We threw private in there to see if we could get something. But all of that. Yeah, we got to try. But we everything that's public. We have requested all of their email communications done through their phones.

[00:58:53] And you can do the same, by the way, if you're an Orange Unified School District, if you're in that district. I actually think you can just put it in anywhere. You can put it in from anywhere. I mean, it's public information. But I would encourage people to do that. I'm actually going to do like a little copy paste. Perfect. And when I post this, so you can do it yourself. Give all the emails. I think people should be pressuring Madison. I think people should be pressuring your school board and Anna Page for answers. What do you think?

[00:59:23] Yeah, she needs. I mean, come forward. Give the truth out. Resign because you don't deserve that seat. You're a dishonest, adulterous woman that just destroyed another woman's marriage and her two children. Resign. Step down. You have done wrong. You have not served your constituents. You have not served this school district well. And you don't deserve this seat. You don't represent me.

[00:59:51] You don't represent the majority of the people in this school district. So I think you need to resign. And I think you need to be honest about this affair. And there needs to be new actions taken with all these races that happened with the teachers. Because, A, you're bankrupting the district. And, B, you did it while you were probably having sex with the teachers union president. Allegedly. Allegedly. You were profounding. That's what we were saying. Yeah, you were profounding.

[01:00:20] So all that is to say, no, it needs to come out. Anna, you need to be honest. You need to tell the truth. And it needs to be details. Prove us wrong. Show us text messages and emails dating back to 2023 when it probably started. Let us allegedly. Let us know. Prove us wrong. I dare you. I dare you to prove me wrong. Prove us wrong.

[01:00:44] Tell us why we're wrong and why you still deserve to be sitting in that seat and why what you did is not going to bankrupt OUSD. Prove that. And Greg Goodlender has some answering to do as well. I think he has some answering to do. I think he deserves to educate his union members about this as well. They need to know if they were, if all of these dealings were on the up and up. Because just because a teacher is a member of the union doesn't mean they want to be engaged in illegal practices.

[01:01:14] And a conflict of interest would be illegal here. It would be illegal. And it could have deeper consequences given the fact that the Federal Department of Education is about to start yanking funding and launching investigations. I don't know. I'd be nervous. Well, and I encourage you if you're watching this and you are a teacher or someone that knows of this situation. I encourage you to reach out to me. Kira can put my email address on here and you're welcome to reach out to me.

[01:01:42] I'm very good about keeping things anonymous and keeping your name out of it. But if you know the truth and you want to talk to someone, I'm more than willing to be a listening ear so that, you know, that you can get out what it is that you've been probably keeping inside for a couple of years now. Because we know it's happening. I've heard from teacher union representatives, you know, be the person that comes forward. Don't be the person that just hides and pretends like it's going to go away. It's not.

[01:02:11] We can't do it anymore, California. We can't keep pretending that this stuff is going to go away or we're going to age out of the school system and it will be someone else's problem. It's our problem. And just to reiterate, Madison, these people think they're invisible and that's why they do these things and that's why they get away with it. And so the only way to stop it is to make sure they're not invisible anymore. So if you can't get a hold of Madison, y'all know how to reach me.

[01:02:40] You can find me on social media. Send me a DM. My email is on my social media profile on X. Or you can also go to JLTY at ProtonMail.com. JLTY at ProtonMail.com gives your tips. If you're a teacher in OUSD and you have a tip for us, messages are great. Emails are great. We'll take those. But if you just want to give us a little tip as well, we'll take those. And we want some answers here.

[01:03:08] Madison, I really want to thank you for taking the time. Well, A, taking the time to come on and talk about the story, but B, just taking the time to dig into it. Because I think, you know, when I lost in 22, I kind of sunk into the background for a hot minute there because I was so devastated. You know, I wanted it so bad. I wanted to help our kids and our teachers so badly. I sunk everything into it, maybe too much. Yeah. Maybe it was too personally invested.

[01:03:38] And I hung back for a while. I just couldn't manage it. But you did the opposite. You weren't just like, okay, I tried. And then that's it. You got madder, it seems. Well, I mean, and you kind of touched on this earlier when you were telling people how hard it is to run for school board and that the evil comes after you and so on and so forth. And yes, it absolutely is hard to run. It's hard to be on the school board.

[01:04:08] You do get the demons coming at you, witchcraft. This one crazy lady like sits there and crochets and mumbles at me while I was at the board meetings. She's so creepy. But all of that, all of the strain that put on, you know, my family and my marriage and my children, the death threats, getting followed home from board meetings, all of it was worth it if it meant saving one kid.

[01:04:34] So, you know, if you were to ask me if I would do it again, my husband would probably be mad at this answer. But yeah, I would. I would. I think it was worth it. I stand behind my decisions. I stand behind what I stood for. I stood to protect kids. I stood to promote and protect parent rights and to fix a broken curriculum in our school district. And I fought to do that. I would do it all over again.

[01:05:00] And I don't think I don't want to discourage anyone from running because is it worth it? Absolutely. Is it hard? Absolutely. But I can tell you right now, I shouldn't have beat a 21 year constituent. That doesn't happen or an incumbent. Sorry, not constituent. I shouldn't have beat a 21 year incumbent by 221 votes. That was miracle one.

[01:05:23] And I shouldn't have heard people cussing me out, following me home, threatening to burn my house down, sending me letters unanimous or anonymously because they're so brave. That should have made me crumble. But it didn't.

[01:05:36] And honestly, even with the recall and all of the chaos and all of the devastation, this one creepy, greasy haired guy coming to the soccer games that I was coaching of my own kids, standing around talking crap about me, cussing out parents that I was coaching their kids, cussing them out because they wouldn't sign his silly little recall. All of that. I would do it over again. And I would encourage you to to do it because.

[01:06:06] You know, better is better is fighting for the kids than to have that millstone around your neck and you thrown into the ocean. It's it's worth it. It's worth it for the children. It's worth it for this district. And again, I shouldn't have done all those things. I shouldn't have been happy. I shouldn't have been joyful amidst all that chaos and all the crazy.

[01:06:24] I shouldn't have beat that 20, 21 year incumbent, but I can definitely tell you, Kira, that throughout the entire the entire craziness of being on that board for the 14 months, not that I was counting that I was on that school board. Maybe I was counting. My feet didn't touch the sand once. God God carried me through the entire thing. So I would absolutely do it again. Hands down to hear it. And thank you for your warrior spirit. Your story is definitely not over.

[01:06:51] And this story is definitely not over as Madison T. She's got some other things in the work. So when we can release some of that, I know there are some other local reporters and watchdogs also working on this story as well. So I'll stay tuned to them and see what they I will share everything. I not territorial at all about this story. No, everybody needs to know if you are outside of California.

[01:07:19] Please send this story around. It doesn't matter if it doesn't affect you locally. Someone needs to hear it. Let's make this a big story. Let's make these people famous. All right. I'm going to get off this podcast now. You can write to me at jlt. hey, why at proton mail dot com. Don't forget to subscribe. Subscribe to my sub stack. Just cure Davis dot sub back dot com so that you can get the written version of the story. I'm going to write it all out.

[01:07:45] We're just going to push it out to as many people as will listen to us. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Thank you, Madison, for coming on. God bless you and your family. and to you out there in the listening and watching audience. Don't forget every once in a while, just stop and listen to yourself.

[01:08:28] This has been a presentation of the FCB Podcast Network, where real talk lives. Visit us online at fcbpodcasts.com.