Are the Expanded Learning Opportunities Contractors Ripping Off California Schools?

Who is watching the kids, does anyone actually know?

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Earlier this week we discussed the 33 Independent Contractor Agreements (ICA) that the Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) had up for approval. After publication, I realized that the hourly rate the ICAs are reaping in for before and after school daycare, ranged from $250.00 to $1,250 per hour, with most collecting over $500.00-$800.00 per hour.

Again. The DSUSD pays, from its pool of $23 million of taxpayer money, gifted to it from the State of California for its high equity score, as much as $1,250 per hour to third party daycare at their school sites (mostly). Teachers can only dream of charging similarily.

Who are these contractors exactly? Remember, the law governing ELOPs encourages LEAs to reach out to community businesses to partner with.

One such community partnership is with Bollywood Dance Central who is paid $555 per hour, according to their own contract breakdown of $5,000 for nine hours of service.

You might have noticed that the above graphic is for a “Little Scientist” program…wait from a dance studio? Hold on, we’ll get there.

Bollywood Dance Central

Bollywood is indeed a dance studio, specializing in Indian Cultural dances and is in the community of San Francisco, which is 509 miles from the DSUSD district offices.

However, according to the Bollywood website, the Limited Liability Company (LLC) also has dance studios located in Los Angeles and Oakland California, and the Texas cities of Dallas, Houston, and Austin (yes, Texas).

The Bollywood San Francisco address on the DSUSD contract, signed by one Sindhuja Karanam, is the same name and address from the LLC’s California registration as an out of state entity. The address appears to be in a residential area, according to Google maps.

Empower Teaching

However, there is absolutely zero information on Bollywood’s website on daycare or little scientist programs, so where does that come from?

The Scope of Services attached to the DSUSD contract is from an LLC called Empower Teaching. An LLC founded in 2017 by the same Sindhuja Karanam. Note the name is slightly altered to “Sindhu” in the Empower Teaching LLC documentation.

To be clear, the contract, signed by Karanam, is with Bollywood Dance Center but the services are provided by Empower Teaching LLC.

There is no record of Empower Teaching, LLC in California on the Secretary of State website.

Texas

What about Texas? The Secretary of State in Texas charges for business entity searches, but the Texas Comptroller does not.

According to the Texas Comptroller, Sindhuja Karanam first registered Bollywood Dance Central, LLC in 2019 in Sugarland, Texas. The corporate address for Bollywood appears to be a very affluent neighborhood, according to Google maps. Google maps also shows that San Francisco dance studio is at or above a grocery store, while the Austin, Tx studio is at a Montessori school. Odd.

However, the Texas Comptroller shows nothing for Empower Teaching LLC. If Karanam founded Empower Teaching LLC in 2017, it most likely would have been registered in Texas, because according to this LinkedIn profile, Karanam was at the University of Texas, Austin from 2015-2019. And, while the profile does list Bollywood Dance, there is no mention of Empower Teaching, LLC. Was it business class project come to life years later?

Karanam is a full-time Google employee in San Francisco and has been since 2021. Yet the DSUSD contract lists Karanam as the only person approved for being physically in the DSUSD classroom, though other names are due in August.

Google must not be a demanding job, as Simbli for education, where many California school districts host their management documents, shows that Bollywood contracted with seven other districts around California since 2023.

In addition, this contract from West Contra Costa School Unified lists 10 school districts that Bollywood has contracted with—the DSUSD was listed as a reference in this contract by Bollywood. The contract was worth $20,000 for 8 hours of service.

Crazy.

Other school districts that hired Bollywood, mostly for dance but at least one for cooking daycare, were (all ELOP funds):

1. Menifee Unified School District in 2024 for $106,000.

2. Plumas Lake Elementary in 2023 for $22,000 for 24 hours of dance instruction.

3. Plumas Lake Elementary in 2025 for $1,832 for four hours of cooking camp.

4. Vallejo City Unified in 2025 for $10,476 (5/7/25 PO Reports) and $12,000 (4/16 PO Reports).

5. Washington Unified in 2024 for $70,872 for 105 hours of service.

6. West Contra Costa in 2025 for $20,000 for 8 hours of service

For those that were wondering who DSUSD was throwing money at like Hunter Biden on a binge, I hope this helps because I still cannot tell you.