Ref Rodriguez pleads guilty to conspiracy and resigns from L.A. school board
Dogged by accusations of political money laundering, Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez pleaded guilty Monday to a felony count of conspiracy and resigned from office.
Rodriguez, 47, who had no previous criminal record, will avoid jail time. Instead, he will get three years’ probation and 60 days of community service. His resignation was effective immediately.
As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Rodriguez also pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of assumed-name contribution.
Rodriguez had faced three felony charges and 25 misdemeanor counts and could have received several years in prison if convicted.
The deal ends a strange and stormy saga for Rodriguez, a widely admired educator who became the first charter school executive elected to the governing board of the nation’s second-largest school system.
Just over a year ago, Rodriguez was selected school board president by a narrow 4-to-3 margin, which included Rodriguez’s vote on the seven-member Board of Education. He became board president as a result of a first-ever majority elected with substantial financial support from charter school backers.
Charter schools are independently operated and compete with L.A. Unified for students — and for the government funds that follow them. Los Angeles has more charters and more charter students — about 18% of district enrollment — than any other school system.
Many charter enthusiasts had long believed that the district treated their schools unfairly in terms of sharing campuses and other resources. They saw the rise of Rodriguez as the herald of a new day.
But the campaign finance problems surfaced within months of his becoming board president. Rodriguez had known about the investigation for as long as two years but had kept the Continue reading: Ref Rodriguez pleads guilty to conspiracy and resigns from L.A. school board
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