Simi Valley Unified Superintendent Hani Youssef Wants More of Your Tax Dollars. Is He Doing Everything He Can to Protect the School Infrastructure Taxpayers Already Paid For?
Superintendent Hani Youssef wants a new property tax bond to fix Simi Valley's schools. But a banned commercial car wash at a Simi Valley Unified elementary school raises questions about whether Mr. Youssef and school board President Dawn Smollen are engaged in caring for the school infrastructure and protecting the students they already oversee.
FEATUREDSIMI VALLEY NEWSEDUCATIONOPINION
By Simi Valley Ledger Staff
What's Happening
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The parking lot at one of Simi Valley Unified's elementary schools is built for the ordinary rhythms of a school day: teachers arriving before the bell, parents idling in the pickup line, children waiting to hear their names called.
On the afternoon of Sept. 16, it was also a worksite. A photograph reviewed by The Simi Valley Ledger, taken in the lot at 2:34 p.m., shows a white pickup lettered "Mobile Detail," with a hose reel mounted in its bed, parked beside a white Chevrolet SUV in a section of the lot stenciled for staff parking. A hose runs from the truck to the SUV, a stepladder stands beside it, and the pavement around them is streaked with water.
Lettering on the truck advertises car washes and waxing and lists a local phone number. The company's full name is partly hidden in the photo. The photo was taken 14 minutes after the school's regular 2:20 p.m. dismissal, a time when parents pick up their children and students walk home. The Ledger emailed district officials roughly an hour later.
The Simi Valley Unified School District says that is not supposed to happen.
Asked by The Ledger on Sept. 16 whether such vendors were permitted on district property, Ron Todo, the district's associate superintendent for business and facilities, wrote back that commercial car wash companies "are not allowed to be washing vehicles on district property."
"I will follow up to make sure that the school is aware of the policy and to make sure that it is not occurring," Mr. Todo wrote. His reply arrived less than two hours after the question.
That answer settled the threshold question. It left nearly every other one open.
The Ledger's inquiry asked who, if anyone, had authorized the car wash and under what agreement; whether its workers had passed background checks; whether the company carried insurance; who would pay if someone were hurt; what kept vendor employees away from students; and whether the service was open to the public or reserved for district staff. It also requested copies of any policies, permits or agreements covering commercial vendors on district property.
Mr. Todo's reply did not address those questions or include any documents. Dawn Smollen, president of the district's Board of Education, to whom the questions were also addressed, did not respond to a request for comment.
It remains unclear how the crew came to be working at the school, whether anyone there approved its presence, how long this went on, or which employees used the service. It is also unclear whether Mr. Todo's promised follow-up has taken place or whether the crew has stopped coming.
The Ledger's final question was the simplest: Could a parent who arrived early for pickup get a car washed while waiting? If not, what policy gave district employees a perk on public property that the public could not have?
Mr. Todo did not answer it directly. By his account of the rules, though, the answer is the same for everyone: No one is supposed to be getting a car wash in a school parking lot.
Why It Matters
The unanswered questions point past one campus to the people who run the district. The Board of Education, led by Ms. Smollen, sets the policies that govern who may use school property and appoints the superintendent, Hani Youssef, to carry them out at every school.
Mr. Todo's reply also suggests that the district's leaders did not know the car wash was happening until The Ledger asked. He promised to make sure the school "is aware of the policy" and that the practice "is not occurring," wording that indicates the district had confirmed neither. His response pointed to no system for catching out-of-policy activity on Simi Valley Unified campuses before an outsider reports it.
The gaps matter because an unauthorized arrangement skips the district's safeguards. Outside use of district facilities must be requested through Facilitron, an online reservation system, and approved by district staff. Under the state's Civic Center Act, many California districts also require users to carry insurance and name the district as an additional insured.
One major concern is whether students were exposed to unsafe conditions while the crew worked, and background checks sit at the center of it. Under California Education Code Section 45125.1, employees of companies that contract with a school district and interact with students generally must clear a state Justice Department fingerprint check, and the company must certify in writing that none of those workers has been convicted of a serious or violent felony.
That requirement attaches to a contract. If the car wash crew had no agreement with the district, as Mr. Todo's answer implies, the rule never applied, and there may have been no way to confirm who was working in the lot.
Under state law, outsiders, including commercial vendors, must also register with a school's principal or a designee before entering school grounds during school hours, which last until an hour after classes end. The Sept. 16 photograph was taken within that window. Principals carry out that rule at each school, but it is ultimately the job of the superintendent and the board to make sure every campus follows it and the district's vendor policy.
Whether the crew checked in at the office is not known, and the district has not said what, if anything, it does to track commercial vendors on its campuses.
The Ledger's email raised a related worry: that a crew might stay on campus past the final bell, while students are still waiting to be picked up or walking home, and that those students could come into contact with unauthorized contractors who may not have passed background checks.
The school assigns staff members to supervise its parking lot during pickup. On visits to the campus during dismissal, The Ledger observed supervisors spending much of that time in conversation with parents rather than monitoring the lot and enforcing district rules.
Simi Valley Unified School District Campus Supervisor Socializing Not Monitoring Parking Lot
The Ledger also asked who would be liable if, for example, a vendor's worker were hurt washing a staff member's car on school grounds: the vendor, the employee who booked the service or the district. The district did not say.
The Big Picture
The episode comes as district leaders argue that Simi Valley's aging campuses need more money. Mr. Youssef has said a new facilities bond is needed, and when trustees left one off the November ballot this summer, he warned that maintaining district buildings would get far harder. Some trustees favor a 2028 vote. Bonds are repaid through property taxes on homes and businesses, and Simi Valley property owners are still paying off Measure C4, from 2004, and Measure X, from 2016.
For a district that wants more money from Simi Valley taxpayers, the episode is about more than a car wash. A crew the district says had no right to be there worked on an elementary campus with no sign of a background check, and its wash water ran across pavement that bond money pays to replace. No one has said what was in the water. The crew may have used harsh chemicals: some degreasers contain solvents that can soften asphalt, and some wheel cleaners contain acids. Products like these can also irritate skin, eyes and lungs, potentially causing respiratory problems for Simi Valley Unified students who use the lot for afternoon pickup.
It happened despite a district policy that Mr. Todo says forbids it. Nearly three weeks later, the district's leaders have not told The Ledger how it happened, whether it has stopped, or whether any worker was screened.
Taken together, these facts raise hard questions for the people responsible for Simi Valley's schools: Mr. Youssef, Simi Valley Unified School District Board President Dawn Smollen and the school's administration. A prohibited commercial operation worked on an elementary campus. The protections district policy is supposed to provide — a facility permit, insurance and a contract that would have required background checks — appear to have been skipped.
Simi Valley Unified School District Superintendent Hani Youssef
That leaves two possibilities for Mr. Youssef, and neither is reassuring. If he did not know that a commercial crew was operating on an elementary campus, apparently serving school employees and with no sign its workers had been screened, that suggests Mr. Youssef lacks basic oversight of the schools he runs. If he did know, nothing in the district's response shows that anything was done to stop it before a newspaper asked.
If Mr. Youssef wants voters to approve another bond for school facilities, he and the board will first need to show that they are managing the campuses taxpayers already pay for, keeping the students on those campuses safe and enforcing the district's own rules.
The point is not a car wash. It is what happens when district policy goes unenforced, as it appears to have at this school, and the district's leaders have not said how or for how long. A rule that stops at the district office opens the way to unscreened workers near children, wear on facilities taxpayers are asked to replace and liability the public would carry if someone were hurt. Policies protect students only when the people who lead the district make sure they are followed.
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