Ackerman's last fiasco

EDITORIAL

The entire flap over former school superintendent Arlene Ackerman's expense reports demonstrates how deeply ingrained a culture of secrecy is at San Francisco Unified School District headquarters — and how critical it is that the new acting superintendent make it a priority to change that.

The whole fuss started over a basic public-records request. A school board member did what school board members ought to do, and sought to find out how Ackerman was using her district-issued credit card.

This is public money, being spent by a public official. It's absolutely, without a doubt, undeniably a matter of public record.

Ackerman, however, claims she's being harassed.

Her attorney, Waukeen McCoy, told Tali Woodward (see page 14) that Ackerman has no problem giving up the records to the school board. But when reporters (including Woodward) also began asking for them, Ackerman, who was supposed to be off the job Feb. 1, decided there had been a "leak" and called her lawyer.

If this weren't Arlene Ackerman, we'd have to call the behavior bizarre, but in her case it's actually not that unusual. Defensive, hostile to criticism, and obsessive about controlling information, Ackerman made her own job impossible. Let's remember: When information is public, that means anyone — the school board, the press, any person who walks in off the street — has a right to see it. There's no "leak" here; there's nothing remotely confidential to leak.

The bottom line, though, is that the city and the school have had enough of this nonsense. Ackerman seems to want to hang around for another few months as an "advisor," so she'll keep getting paid and will qualify for her juicy severance. That's a terrible idea. The school board needs to pay her off, now, and send her packing, immediately, so acting superintendent Gwen Chan can get started repairing the damage and running the schools. *