BREAKING: Mixed Messages From Superintendent Deasy In Reply to KPCC Investigative Report on iPad Procurement

In breaking news after the initial revelation that cozy talks between Superintendent Deasy and his upper-level staffers and Apple Corporation/Pearson may have violated open bidding rules, KPCC is now reporting:

Deasy seemed to say that the emails unearthed by KPCC address a “pilot” rollout of iPads and not the final $1 billion plan, but the KPCC report pushes back on the timing, tenor, and scope of the LAUSD administrators’ conversations. From the report:

a total of eight classrooms were involved in L.A. Unified’s pilot: four at Mulhollland Middle School and four at Plummer Elementary.However, May 24, Deasy, his deputy Jaime Aquino and Pearson sales representative Judy Codding discussed the sale of 25 courses – about two courses for every grade level, not just elementary and middle school.

“I cannot imagine any one else able to do this as cheaply with all the PD [professional development] and all the materials for 25 courses for the price we discussed,” Codding wrote.

Aquino questioned whether the district could afford to pay 2,000 teachers for the training schedule proposed by Pearson – many more than the eight teachers that would be involved in a pilot the size Pinette said Monday they were discussing.

Deasy announced what appeared to be a “cancellation” of the existing iPad program and the pivot to issue new RFPs. He further clarified in a series of Twitter messages to a Los Angeles Times reporter that it’s likely Apple and Pearson would participate in the “rebid” and that the focus is still a 1:1 program where each student has a device and online access.

https://twitter.com/howardblume/status/504133291042426880

https://twitter.com/howardblume/status/504132705358188544

Finally, Superintendent Deasy’s “rebid” reboot of his signature troubled ed technology program will launch as his past actions are scrutinized again by the LAUSD Inspector General after that office had pursued an investigation with more limited scope but will now interview new people in light of investigative journalism that sheds new light on Deasy’s activities.

We haven’t even touched on the botched scheduling software MiSiS that’s kept many LAUSD students from attending their classes as schools opened this week.