Bay Area

Teachers Unions Countywide Criticize County Supt. L.K. Monroe for not Informing Board of Ed of $600,000 in COVID Stipends to Managers

At least half of the staffers who received large COVID-19 stipends also contributed to Supt. Monroe’s re-election campaign. In all, 11 ACOE employees made political contributions to Supt. Monroe’s campaign, and she awarded the stipend to nine of them, the media release said.

Published

3 years ago

May 22, 2022

Oakland Post

Oakland Education Association President Keith Brown and Alameda County Supt. of Schools L.K. Monroe.

By Post Staff

Teachers’ unions in Alameda County are criticizing Alameda County Superintendent of Schools L. K. Monroe for paying more than half a million dollars in COVID-19 related stipends to employees without informing the Alameda County Board of Education (ACBOE).

The unions, which are backing Monroe’s opponent, Alysse Castro, in the upcoming June election, are saying the payment of these stipends is unethical, lacks accountability and adds doubt to her credibility as a leader.

According to a union media release, the superintendent’s office has resisted publicly accounting for these expenditures, violating Ed Code 1302, which says a county superintendent cannot provide stipends of more than $10,000 without first bringing it to the board for discussion.

“This is a blatant disregard to educators, parents, and community members who have been advocating to keep schools in Black and Brown communities open. The Alameda County Office of Education oversees the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) budget, and them handing out stipends to management like nothing shows where their loyalty lies,” said Oakland Education Association President Keith Brown.

“Together, we are united in keeping accountability in Alameda County. Superintendent Monroe’s attitude with all of this is a failure on her end as a leader. The irony in all of this is that the funds have been there all along to support our classrooms and students, and instead the funds are given to employees who have the least contact with our students,” said Castro Valley Teachers Association President Mark Mladinich.

“It’s a true shame this is what our leadership has decided to do with public education. As educators, we are going to do what we have always done – which is fight back to win the schools students deserve,” said Dublin Teachers Association President Robbie Kreitz.

“Accountability matters. If it is not educators and parents who are going to do the work in supporting ethics in our classrooms, who will?” said Fremont Unified District Teachers Association President Brannin Dorsey.

“This is taxpayer money that is being used without accountability, and it is extremely unfair to families in Alameda County who expect these funds to go towards where they are meant to go – to support the educators and staff who are actually with the students every single day,” said San Lorenzo Education Association President Karen Rosa.

A recent EdSource article reported that Monroe apologized last week after her office spent the COVID relief money on stipends for her staff, mostly for managers who took on extra duties during the pandemic.

Stipends ranged from $200 to over $26,000, depending on the amount of extra work employees did, which included COVID testing, contact tracing, distributing masks and overseeing logistics, the article said.

Replying to the Oakland Post, Michelle Smith McDonald, communicators director for the Alameda County Office of Education, wrote in an email, “In January, ACOE distributed COVID stipends from state and federal COVID grant funding. Those payments were appropriate and allowable under the terms of COVID relief grants. They were intended to provide compensation to employees across multiple divisions for working beyond the scope of regular job duties to support ACOE’s COVID response for districts and schools, as well the larger county and statewide efforts.

“Superintendent Monroe has acknowledged that the manner in which the stipends were dispersed has caused significant strife in the agency and with the agency’s labor groups. She takes full responsibility for this. ACOE leadership is working to be responsive, transparent with requested documentation and is collaborating with our labor partners to provide compensation to all employees in the agency for their extraordinary commitment to our students and schools.”

“Education Code 1302, which requires Board discussion of issues around increases in employee compensation, is not something we have had previous experience with, and will be a part of our process moving forward.

McDonald added, “EC 1302 does not require Board approval. It requires Board discussion. This is an important point of clarification.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges, The Black Mozart

Don't Miss

Ida Times-Green Running for State Assembly District 12

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

3 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.