A San Francisco school district with significant achievement gaps has spent $315,000 on an “energy healer” who uses “chakra cleansing” while teachers have to sweep their own floors and deal with a nasty infestation of cockroaches.
A group of parents recently discovered that the Mountain View Whisman School District has been paying ‘Master Energy Healer and Intuitive Guide’ Alycia Diggs-Chavis to conduct 160 guided meditation sessions for the district’s leadership team, SF Chronicle reported.
While their zen sessions have brought “greater concentration, higher levels of engagement, and increased productivity and efficiency” to administrators, parents and 4,500 students have been left to fend for themselves.
Frustrated parents also discovered that the district, led by Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph, has been paying a public relations firm and an executive coach to mentor staff.
Meanwhile, one former teacher said the district never spent money on them, leaving her to clean up her own bug-infested classroom while administrators were allowed to attend their funded programs during the day.
The Mountain View Whisman School District has been paying Alycia Diggs-Chavis (pictured) $315,000 to conduct 160 guided meditation sessions for the district’s leadership team.
Frustrated parents also discovered that the district, led by Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph (pictured), has been paying a public relations firm and an executive coach to guide staff.
“These decisions that he’s made have led to a very high rate of teacher attrition in the district, including myself,” the teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said of Rudolph, who makes about $370,000 a year.
For years, parents believed the district’s budget was going toward necessary programs for their children, but after some high school elective classes were at risk of being cut, they began covering the costs themselves.
They soon landed a contract for a staggering $189,000 approved by the school board for the spiritual healer’s services. Over the course of three years, the district paid Diggs-Chavis just over $315,000, the SF Chronicle reported.
“We assumed the board was doing its job,” said one parent, who also asked to remain anonymous.
“Why are we spending all this money? It doesn’t go to teachers. It doesn’t help our children at all.”
A deeper investigation into the district’s roughly $110 million budget led to angry parents signing multimillion-dollar contracts across the country.
Washington DC-based PR firm Woodberry Associates has been paid $180,000 a year to help “highlight” them “both locally and nationally.”
The district paid more than $600,000 a year for leadership training, in addition to hiring Woodbury Associates to advertise for them and “draft press releases, statements and other media documents to elevate the district’s success.”
Rudolph said all school employees, including teachers, also have access to executive coach Peter Gorman (pictured). He has charged the district between $37,000 and $50,000 a year and $12,000 in travel expenses.
“It’s unbelievable. We are very angry here,” the father added.
Additionally, the district also hired an internal public information officer, whose salary in 2022 was more than $264,000, according to state data reviewed by the outlet.
In response to the district’s spending habits, Rudolph told the SF Chronicle that having meditation sessions for his staff is vital to stress relief and is backed by “scientifically based research.”
‘All the tech industries around us do it.
“The performance of our schools depends on the performance of our teachers and leaders… I think we’ve reached a point where all organizations need to take employee stress seriously,” he added.
He added that although the contract states that Diggs-Chavis is there for leadership staff, teachers are also welcome to use her services.
Rudolph said all employees in his district, including teachers, have access to executive coach Peter Gorman, a former superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in North Carolina, where Rudolph was a principal.
Gorman has charged the district between $37,000 and $50,000 a year and up to $12,000 in travel expenses since Rudolph brought him on board in 2015.
He is president and CEO of Peter Gorman Leadership Associates LLC, which “provides executive support and organizational development for superintendents, senior leadership teams and school boards throughout the United States,” according to its website.
“What I’m saying is that we spend a lot of money to make sure our employees are well,” Rudolph said. “I think the well-being of our employees is worth every dollar.”
Parents soon found a staggering $189,000 contract approved by the school board for the spiritual healer’s services. (pictured: Alycia Diggs-Chavis)
But the former teacher who worked in the district ended up leaving because she didn’t feel like a priority to Rudolph.
In addition to horrendous classroom conditions, she said many teachers were taking over as substitutes after the district said it would not pay for teacher coverage.
“There was a lot of burnout because we were constantly substituting for other students and had crazy class sizes,” she revealed.
He added that managing students also became difficult when leaders took a step back to relax.
“There was no one to turn to if there was fighting, bullying or threats from a student,” she said. She has since moved to another district.
Another anonymous teacher expressed the same concerns, specifically highlighting how the district was barely funding teachers but adding more staff and costs in the office.
‘Whenever someone expressed concern about something, they were silenced very quickly.
“I say we spend a lot of money to make sure our employees are well. I think the well-being of our employees is worth every dollar,” said Rudolph (left).
“The most important thing was that they didn’t seem to care about the children,” the teacher admitted.
They also said Rudolph’s high salary in the small elementary district was nowhere near what teachers are paid.
Rudolph told the outlet he was aware of the parents’ findings and concerns and planned to address them in a presentation Thursday night.
During the Board meeting, Rudolph emphasized that the established programs are also intended for teachers.
“Our district spends a significant amount of money on both our teachers and our administrators to ensure that they can perform at the highest level and to ensure that they can close the achievement gap,” she said.
Due to “changing economic conditions,” he announced that he would pause or reduce sessions with Chavis-Diggs and Gorman.
DailyMail.com has contacted Rudolph, Diggs-Chavis Woodberry Associates and Gorman for comment.
