Dear Cajon Valley parents, community members and concerned citizens,

On the coming Tuesday (January 31, 2023), the Cajon Valley Union School District (CVUSD) Governing Board will hold a special board meeting in which the board members will discuss a recent contract for professional services and assistance between CVUSD and Alfabet Soup, LLC. Please attend the meeting and speak up to urge the board exercise proper and ethical financial oversight.

The contract involving Alfabet Soup, LLC, which will draw $60,000 in district funds for “professional services and assistance to designated programs throughout the district,” was motioned and approved at the school board meeting on December 13, 2022. It was quickly discovered in the official filing of Alfabet Soup with the California Secretary of State that CVUSD’s former board president Tamara Otero is the manager and sole member of the business.

The foregoing situation presents a glaring conflict of interest for former Trustee Otero who had placed the contract on the board agenda on December 8, 2022. To obscure the collusion, Otero intentionally withheld her involvement with Alfabet Soup, LLC prior to the December 13 meeting, as the company’s initial filing of Articles of Organization failed to list her name. Compared with other consultant agreements placed on the December 13 meeting agenda, the agenda item on Alfabet Soup is suspiciously oversimplified with no attachment or detailed explanation.

Otero’s actions leading up to the Board’s approval of a major contract with her business demonstrate the dangers of not holding our locally elected officials accountable. The role of the Board president is so important because the person must be a capable and ethical leader and steward of public education funds.

On the flip side, the incident also signals the urgent need for taxpayers, residents and parents to proactively engage in local school district affairs as public watchdogs. Without citizen oversight, educrats, unions and self-interested parties can easily hide behind the bureaucracy and expend large sums of taxpayer funds for activities, services and ideologies that do not benefit or even harm our children.

We urge you to attend the January 31 Special Board Meeting at 5pm at CVUSD in the Boardroom located at 750 E. Main Street, El Cajon, CA 92020. Sign up to give a public comment and address the Board with your concerns and demands for fiscal accountability.

Going forward, we encourage you to continue to get involved at the local school district, monitor new developments and speak up. The future of local education and our next generation needs to be vigorously safeguarded.

Thank you in advance!

Californians for Equal Rights Foundation