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An off-site summer retreat for Livermore school district leadership has attracted negative attention in recent months, leading to criticism over the agency’s spending.
Originally costing $5,885.08, attendees of the three-night rental in Pismo Beach for professional development in June included Superintendent Torie Gibson, the executive cabinet and district spokesperson Michelle Dawson, according to a purchase order for the unit obtained via public records act request by LVJUSD parent JuNelle Harris.
The lodging was paid for via the superintendent’s gift account during the 2024-25 fiscal year and according to Dawson, a $1,500 refundable deposit was recently put back into the gift account.
An additional $5,272.82 was spent on office furniture from the same account during that period, according to an account transaction report provided by Harris.
Revenue to the superintendent’s gift account during the 2024-25 fiscal year included $29,878.03 through a settlement with vaping company Juul Labs, Inc. and up to 100 additional, unidentified parties, as well as $1,000 from Hindu Community and Cultural Center Inc. for a total of $30,878.03, the report states.
While Dawson told Livermore Vine that gift accounts can be used toward expenses like fees and travel accommodations for professional development conferences and work retreats, she said that Juul settlement money was not used for the Pismo Beach retreat or office furniture. She said that carryover funding from prior years allowed for the purchase of both.
“I feel that this Pismo Beach retreat is sort of a symbol of being out of touch and it feeling like administration putting their own interest before the public interest,” Harris told Livermore Vine. “People are not happy about that”.
A purchase order obtained by Harris and provided to Livermore Vine indicated that the three-night retreat to Pismo Beach took place June 18-21.
Located in the Pismo Shores complex, the beachfront condo had access to community amenities including “a pool, spa, clubhouse and private beach”, according to the rental agency Seven Sisters website.
“At best, this action seemed out of touch at a time of staff reductions and major local, state, and federal budgetary pressures, as well as a worsening economic outlook for families in our district,” Harris wrote in a letter to the board Sept. 8, expressing her concern over the alleged use of Juul settlement funds for the trip.
The expense initially entered public conversation during the May 20 regular school board meeting, when Trustee Craig Bueno inquired about the content of a $5,885.08 order to Seven Sisters Vacation Rentals upon review of the April purchase requisitions.
“That is out of the superintendent’s gift account and that is for our summer meeting off-site,” Gibson said during the meeting.
The item was corrected to state that the purchase was for the superintendent and cabinet, rather than Gibson and the board.
However, in the account transaction report for the gift account in 2024-25 fiscal year, the lodging is stated as costing $2,709.54.
A few months later during the Sept. 9 board meeting, Livermore Education Association President Aimee Thompson expressed her discontent with labor negotiations as well as district budgeting at-large, referencing the retreat in her comments.
“Cutting classroom supply budgets while spending to rent a beach house for the highest paid employees is not a good look for our district,” Thompson said. “While everyone here is feeling the financial hardship of increased benefit costs from their pay, our highest paid employee has the full cost of her benefits paid for by the district. This is not a good look.”
In the following weeks, several letters submitted to the board ahead of its Sept. 25 meeting mirrored Thompson’s sentiments.
Of the 16 letters included in the board agenda, over half of them expressed discontent with employee compensation amid the cost of the retreat and superintendent’s compensation.
“The inadequate wages offered to our educators have, for years, failed to adequately value their contributions, and this stance is a poor investment in our children’s future,” many wrote to the board, including Dennis Bertoli. “It is particularly disheartening to learn of the reported costs of a Pismo Beach retreat for district leaders.”
Many of the commenters also expressed concern about Gibson’s compensation, which they stated as being in a salary bracket typically associated with much larger districts, such as those in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Gibson’s base salary was set at $350,000 annually from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2028. Per the compensation agreement, her base salary shall increase by 2.5% or the same as LEA, whichever is higher, pending a satisfactory or above satisfactory annual performance evaluation, Board President Emily Prusso said during the June 18 meeting.
Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District earned $440,000 as regular pay in 2023 for a grand total of $444,562, according to Transparent California, a public pay and pension database. The site did not have wage information about Maria Su, Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District.
“Such expenditures do not benefit our children directly, nor their education and these costs send a powerful and troubling message about the district’s priorities, especially when teachers are continually asked to do more with less,” Bertoli wrote.
In a separate letter, signed by 19 individuals, LVJUSD speech-language pathologists requested fair competitive compensation.
The district is also failing to directly fund its libraries, according to library media specialist Megan Sanborn.
Instead, the libraries depend on PTAs and book fairs to fund their purchases, Sanborn explained during the Sept. 25 board meeting.
The district provides site budgets that allow for choice allocation of certain portions, said Kayla Wasley, LVJUSD assistant superintendent of business services. There is no funding dedicated directly to libraries, Wasley added.
“As a profession, I recognize there is always more need than money available in the district budget,” Sanborn said. “However, with recent questions from the community over how our district has been spending and allocating money, I thought it was an appropriate time to advocate in front of you today on behalf of our students and the libraries that serve them.”
The district has not responded to multiple requests for funding made during monthly meetings between library media specialists and district leadership, Sanborn added.
“Our students deserve access to libraries with content that is up-to-date and refreshed regularly, regardless of the affluence and financial engagement of their personal school community,” Sanborn said.
In response, Wasley stated that she’d not previously heard about library funding being an issue and that she would bring it to the cabinet for discussion.
Questions surrounding how Juul settlement funds have been used came to light when Harris sought to find the source of funding for the professional development retreat. Upon receiving documentation she requested from the district in her records request, Harris found that the Juul settlement funds appeared to make up the majority of the account revenue for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Previously during a board meeting March 21, 2023, trustees unanimously approved a $320,836 settlement with Juul as part of a class-action lawsuit regarding the impact of Juul products on students. Contract fees and case costs were to be deducted from the gross recovery, then-trustee Yanira Guzmán said at the meeting.
As a claimant in nationwide litigation by public agencies against Juul, the gross settlement amount for LVJUSD was determined by a court-approved formula that was set for application to all school district claimants in the litigation, Guzmán said.
The original complaint was filed Dec. 16, 2019, wherein LVJUSD alleged that Juul’s “marketing strategy, advertising and product design targets minors, especially preteens and teenagers, and has and will continue to increase the likelihood that minors, like the students in the district, will begin using e-cigarettes and become addicted to tobacco products”.
Two years later Feb. 2, 2021, a second amended complaint was filed against Juul et al. wherein the district also sought equitable relief to fund prevention education and addiction treatment; actual and compensatory damages; punitive and statutory damages; reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs of suit; pre-judgment and post-judgment interest as well as “other and further relief as the court deems just and proper”, according to the case file.
As a result of the settlement, the district has received three payments, according to Dawson.
Most recently, the district received a settlement check worth $29,878.03, dated Feb. 21, 2025. The funds were placed into the superintendent’s gift account, which currently holds approximately $36,000, according to Dawson. No additional settlement funds are expected, she said.
Gift accounts house donations and money from other sources such as settlement agreements and many teachers, staff, schools and district departments have gift accounts, Dawson said.
Some donations are given for very specific purchases, while others are provided with the flexibility to use for allowable expenses, Dawson explained. Expenditures from gift accounts must meet the same public fund expenditure standards as the general operating budget, she added.
Placed within a restricted fund, the settlement money is trackable, Dawson said.
“State and federal allocations for our general and restricted operational expenses are not commingled with money that is received through donations or other infrequent outside sources such as settlement agreements,” she said.
The two prior payments from the settlement in 2023 and 2024, totaling over $150,000, went to the general fund, Dawson said. Once in the general fund, the money is not easily trackable.
There are expenses in the general fund that go toward students’ learning about the dangers of nicotine use and vaping, according to Dawson.
At the Sept. 9 school board meeting, Harris spoke out in public comment about the settlement money.
“I believe that that settlement frames as intended for restitution and remediation and I would like this board to make sure that that money is spent for that purpose – to combat and address youth vaping and nicotine addiction — rather than for administrative perks,” Harris said.
“Contrary to what was stated in public comment, Juul settlement money has yet to be spent,” Dawson told Livermore Vine. “Potential uses are still being considered, including for expenses related to the support and services our counselors provide to students.”
General fund dollars can also be used for the purchase of furniture and professional development, but it is best practice to use restricted funds when possible, Dawson said.
During the 2023-24 fiscal year, professional development expenses totaling $16,772.32 were charged to the superintendent’s gift account, according to an account transaction report.
“It is important to note that the superintendent’s gift fund has also been used to support student programs, staff appreciation, and other needs that arise that don’t always have funds allocated,” Dawson said.
