DSCW Press Release: Issues With Desert Sands’ $14,400 Dr. Arriaga Independent Contractor Agreement
DEI, Gender ideology, and previous DOE cancelled contracts
This is a press release from DSUSD Community Watch, printed here for your convenience.
Previously mentioned on the DSUSD Community Watch meetings page.
The Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) is set to approve an Independent Contractor Agreement with Trudy Arriaga, Ed.D.( Item 20.2) at the May 6, 2025, board meeting. The contract is recommended by Superintendent Kelly May-Vollmar and Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Services, Joseph Hyde, Ed.D.. The contract may jeopardize DSUSD’s Federal funding (4.1% of budget) and might also violate the Brown Act, as the DSUSD neglected (again) to include for public perusal, a mentioned “Exhibit A” which was the Scope of Services.
The Contract
The contract with Arriaga only reveals that Arriaga will conduct a workshop titled "Opening Doors: An Implementation Template for Cultural Proficiency.” The workshop is for classified clerical support and consists of two in-person training courses and two full days of support. The cost of the contract, paid with Professional Development funds, is a whopping $14,400!
And that’s it. There is no Scope of Services included on the agenda, so the public has no way of knowing if the training courses are acceptable or if they violate federal law.
It is up to the community then, to inquire about what the DSUSD attempts to hide. As it turns out, the good “Doctors” training in Cultural Proficiency goes hand-in-hand with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and gender ideology tenants.
DSUSD/Arriaga History
In 2023, the DSUSD hired Arriaga “to deliver a professional development day on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Proficiency” to the staff of three schools (on the same day). The cost was $6,000, there was no scope of services included in the agenda, and it was paid through the federal Educators Effectiveness Grant.
In 2024, DSUSD once again hired Arriaga, this time for workshop for administrators, leadership, and counselors on “Leading While Female,” a book Arriaga co-authored. The workshop, according to the agenda description, was on how to be “culturally proficient and Inclusive,” and covered “…equity, access, intersectionalities, male alliances….” Once again, no scope of services was included with the contract. The workshop cost #3,500 and was paid for with Title IV funds.
Extending Knowledge: The Book
The current book, “Opening Doors,” that the DSUSD is hiring Arriaga to present was co-authored by Randall B. Lindsey, and we can glean more information from Bookshop.org then we can from DSUSD.
While Bookshop.org does not give a complete description of the book, Google does. According to Google Books, “Opening Doors” “… tells the story of Ventura Unified School District's successful implementation of cultural proficiency, which opened long-closed doors for marginalized students and returned gains on every key success metric. Most importantly, it will empower you to do the same for your school or district.”
However, bookshop does give details about the authors. Arriaga had a 40-year career in education, including Superintendent of Ventura School District, before retiring in 2015. After which she moved on to Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA, first as the Dean of Equity and Outreach, and then the Director, in the Graduate School of Education. In addition, Arriaga “…continues to contribute to the field of education through keynote speeches, workshops, leadership and equity institutes, and professional development collaborations.”
Arriaga’s co-author. Randall B. Lindsay, Whose are of study is “… the behavior of white people in multicultural settings,” also had a stint as Dean at Cal Lutheran, but has also spent time at Redlands, Pepperdine, and Cal State LA. Most interesting however, is Lindsay’s time as Director of the Regional Assistance Centers for Educational Equity, “a regional race desegregation assistance center. “
On February 13, 2025, the Department of Education issued a press release that it had cancelled $33 million in grants to Regional Educational Assistance Centers due to “… divisive training in DEI, Critical Race Theory, and gender identity for state and local education agencies as well as school boards.”
And there you have it. There is no denying Arriaga’s connection to DEI and gender ideology and the DSUSD should run, not walk, from any further association with Arriaga.
This post will serve as a support document in complaints to the DOE, and possibly other entities if there are Brown Act violations, should the DSUSD approve Arriaga’s contract. Any reader is also free to use this post as support documentation should you wish to file your own complaint at https://enddei.ed.gov/
UPDATE: Arriaga had an "Open Doors" contract with Needles Unified School District in 2023 which had, though still somewhat vague, more details of services. Learning Outcomes from the Needles contract:
• Participants to view Cultural Proficiency and equity as a shared priority; • Participants to experience Cultural Proficiency as personal and professional work; • Participants to use the Tools of Cultural Proficiency as a guide for addressing classroom, school and district based equity issues. • Participants will have the knowledge and skill for applying Cultural Proficiency's core values, expressed as the Guiding Principles of Cultural Proficiency, and the standards, expressed as the Essential Elements of Cultural Competence, to their professional practice and to the policies and practices of the district.
Needles USD and Arriaga contract
Update #2. The DSUSD maintains that since the contract says "...[OR] the Scope of Services,..." that the one sentence description in the contract is all that is needed to award a $14,000 contract. Even though Needles USD had a three page Scope of Services for the same training two years ago.
