The Rob McCoy and Sandee Everett Playbook — Why it Matters

After being elected as trustee in 2016, aside from Mike Dunn — who was voted out in 2018 — there is probably no trustee who has singlehandedly caused as much harm to our district in recent years than Ms.  Sandee Everett.

Ms. Everett’s agenda is clear:
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Create disruption on the public school district’s board of trustees in order to paint a picture of “chaos,” position herself as “the solution,” and insert a religious agenda designed to censor public school education.

That’s a bold allegation, you might say.

And so I respond, let’s dive into today’s lesson titled: “You Haven’t Been Paying Attention.”

To understand more about Sandee’s platform and intentions, you’ll need to understand a little bit about our former city councilmember, Rob McCoy — who you may know best as Godspeak Calvary’s Pastor — because they align, and often cross paths. McCoy supported Ms. Everett’s candidacy in 2016, declaring a public endorsement on her campaign website and also on his own campaign Facebook page, and I have every reason to believe they are still working together closely today, given their shared end goals.

(UPDATE: Oct. 24, 2020: Rob McCoy has made a $1,000 donation to Sandee's 2020 campaign, Angela Nardone (founder of Conservative Moms of Conejo Valley and propaganda paper in 2018 "The Voice/La Voz" donated $5,000 to Sandee Everett, and Caleb Standafer, who ran & lost for the GOP Central Committee, created a PAC (Conejo Integrity Education Committee) & donated to his own PAC $,6,000 to pay for a Sandee mailer that targeted Conejo Together members (including my daughter, whose photo they used without authorization.)

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Now you may be wondering what Rob has been up to (and why I bring it up) since he quit — with dramatic fashion — from his city council seat earlier this year after he violated County safety guidelines in order to host a mass gathering at his church, Godspeak Calvary. Yes, an elected representative of our community — who gave an entire speech at the state of the city address last year, passionately claiming “this is my city!” … abandoned that very city during one of its greatest times of need in leadership as we all navigate COVID-19 and its impacts. Hey, I guess you get more dues when you’ve got people’s butts in the pews, apparently. (By the way ... Rob didn't stay because "this is my city!" He stayed because his offer with Liberty University fell through.)

So that brings me to Public School Exit, which describes its mission as:

The mission of Public School Exit is to facilitate an exodus of American children and families from government-controlled education by educating the public and helping families. We are more than an organization, we are a movement.

Rob McCoy is listed as a member of its advisory board. (Extra fun observation, Sam Sorbo, Kevin Sorbo’s wife (yes, that Kevin Sorbo, yikes), is also listed on the advisory board. Sorbo donated to Amy Chen’s (who was endorsed by Sandee Everett -- as was Angie Simpson) failed school board run in 2018. As you may recall, McCoy heavily supported Chen’s candidacy and endorsed her from the Godspeak pulpit. Additional observation, a man named Brad Dacus from Pacific Justice Institute is also listed on the advisory board. I remember a colleague of his, Michael J. Peffer, who spoke alongside Sandee Everett at an anti-health and sex education forum hosted at Houses of Light Church in Northridge on Feb. 29, 2020.)

A quick aside on Amy Chen, because it’s important to understand who Sandee Everett and Rob McCoy support. In 2018, Amy Chen created a fake education nonprofit so she could claim that she was a director of an education nonprofit as her ballot designation. The nonprofit is only a paper shell ... and you can read ALL ABOUT IT HERE.

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Highlighted on its “about” page:

"Alex Newman, co-founder of Public School Exit, discusses why the shutdown gives Christians a historic opportunity to save children from government schooling..” - Janet Mefferd Today
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Alex Newman’s bio includes: "In 2019, Alex and a coalition of amazing high-profile Christian leaders formed “Public School Exit,” the nation’s premier ministry working to rescue American children from the horrors of government “education.” The organization exists to facilitate a massive exodus from public schools by raising awareness and knocking down barriers for parents, pastors, and children."
Promotion for Public School Exit, appears to be most heavily driven from an organization called Salt and Light Council, whose president is also CEO and President of PSE. Salt and Light Council lists on its website that its mission:

... "is to see America’s biblical and moral foundations restored by training and equipping churches to establish Salt & Light Biblical Citizenship Ministries that will defend and promote life, natural marriage, our constitutional and religious liberties."

They further describe themselves:

"We are a non-political, non-partisan 501c3, dedicated to promoting biblical moral values in the public sector. Further, we are a coalition of cross-denominational churches with active Salt & Light Biblical Citizenship Ministries working to rebuild our Judeo-Christian heritage in America. (Note from AM: Let me tell you what they mean when they refer to “Judeo-Christian heritage.” It is used as a means of exclusion — exclusion of those whom don’t hold the same belief system, and it has nothing to do with “heritage” or tradition.)

We mobilize Christians at the grassroots level, helping them to live out their responsibility to influence government and civic affairs for good. History has clearly shown that without a strong, godly influence to overcome the natural tendency toward evil, governmental authority will destroy God-given rights, including the right to hear and speak His truth."

Their tagline is: “When Christians show up, everybody wins!”

Want a taste of their views? This screenshot was from their most recent post, two days ago:

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Now, as you all know from my earlier post today (or any number of blogs I’ve written regarding this), Rob McCoy is heavily involved in evangelist Dave Lane’s American Renewal Project (ARP). The ARP is designed specifically to drive evangelical pastors into politics in an attempt to establish a Christian theocracy in America. In a 2011 interview Lane stated, “our country is going to hell because pastors won’t lead from the pulpits.” And so, ARP was formed, which recruits pastors to lead religiously, not just from the pulpits, but from positions of political power. (Don’t just take my word for it, here’s ONE of many articles. You can google for a buffet of them. There's no shortage.)

So if you’ve been keeping up, you’re not all that surprised by Rob’s affiliation to an organization like Public School Exit, especially when you recall the anti-public school forum that was hosted at Rob’s church, Godspeak Calvary, last Aug. 10. The event, which was advertised on Godspeak’s website and titled: 

BATTLEGROUND THOUSAND OAKS: PARENTAL RIGHTS AND OPT OUT MOVEMENTS, asked:

​"Are you disgusted with what is happening in California Public Schools? History has shown that those who control the classroom, control the nation.”

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It had an entire portion of the forum dedicated to private Christian and homeschool options as alternatives to public school education options.

You know what else it had? Sandee Everett, a current trustee who is running for re-election. 

Sandee Everett gave a presentation on her anti-gender identity and anti-trans views. And then she had Mike Dunn, former disgraced board member who lost in 2018, announce her re-election campaign.
Yes, you read that correctly. Sandee chose an anti-public school forum as the launch pad for her 2020 school board re-election campaign. But, if you’ve been paying attention, you’re not really surprised, are you?

And you’re not surprised by McCoy’s church hosting this anti-public school event because you remember a certain flyer that mysteriously found its way into the folders of your children, who came home with them from school. The flyer, which was presented as a partnership between Godspeak Calvary and then-mayor Rob McCoy (the pastor of Godspeak) advertised a paid youth academy leadership to “learn about faith, courage, American heroes and becoming moral leaders.” The flyer also advertised McCoy’s “American Legacy” adult series tapes for sale.

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So yeah … the mayor of our city at the time, McCoy, used his position, to have flyers advertising a “youth academy” at his church ... in OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. When the backlash came out, McCoy conveniently blamed it on someone else (a pattern of his) — HistoryMakers/Michael Hernandez (an inept “journalist” for the far-right online sham of a website, Citizens’ Journal — whose primary role appears to be publishing hit pieces on teachers and citizens, and boasting contributions from Deb Baber. You know Deb. The woman who had a literal meltdown at the VC Board of Supervisors meeting, and gave a presentation about not wearing a mask, and singing, and um … just so much more.)

You know what’s really “funny” about all of this?

When asked about the flyer, the quote McCoy gave to The Acorn was: “I don’t want to interfere with the school district in any way.” That’s quite a quote, considering he sits on an advisory council for an organization that aims to drive a mass exodus of students from our public school district ….

So now we circle back to Sandee Everett. Why? Because she’s running to serve another four treacherous years on our school board and she does not support public education. Her closely established relationship with McCoy doesn’t have to be your only consideration.

At the May 19, 2020 CVUSD Board Meeting, she was the only opposing vote on Resolution #19/20-34: Federal Education Funding in Light of Impacts Associated with COVID-19 Pandemic. The resolution addressed:

"The California School Boards Association has encouraged all school districts to advocate to state and federal leaders about how schools are being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The attached resolution supports the need for additional federal funding to assist school districts with the additional costs incurred as a result of providing significant support for distance learning, mental health support services and meal delivery, while continuing to address existing budget deficits. It is appropriate that the Conejo Valley Unified School District Board of Education calls on our Congressional delegation and the Governor of California to advocate for additional federal funding to prioritize stable public school funding, allowing for the continuance of our District's ability to deliver high-quality education to all students while safeguarding public health.”

Sandee voted in opposition of advocating for additional funding to support public schools, and instead, advocated for termination of teachers as a means to solve the looming budget cuts. 

But it’s not just recent actions/votes that are cause for concern. Even before 2019’s anti-public school campaign, Sandee had already made her stance clear.

Let’s hop back to 2017, when Sandee Everett had agreed to participate in a forum titled: “Saving Our Children’s Minds: Fighting the Public School System. (source: https://www.citizensjournal.us/gop-women-examine-public-education/) After intense backlash, Sandee withdrew from attending, but the press release speaks for itself.

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Oh, and then there’s The Conejo Guardian: a new “paper” that has popped up with lots of funding from (???) in order to publish inflammatory hit pieces against the district while touting Sandee Everett. (It’s a lot like Angela Nardone’s The Voice/La Voz “paper” that launched just prior to the 2018 election to influence the election, and now basically spits out California Parent Alliance (CPA) messaging — more on CPA shortly.

A deeper dive on The Guardian ...

After putting pressure on the paper regarding their self-described “nonprofit” status, my post from May 15:

“As of today, they've updated their "About" page with a Certificate of Good Standing. They are listed under the Franchise Tax Board ... but they are not exempt. They never responded to my inquires via email, Facebook or Twitter about an EIN, which make sense ... since they're not tax-exempt.

To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.

These are prohibited as a tax-exempt nonprofit:

Private Benefit: No part of the organization’s net earnings can inure to the benefit of private shareholders or individuals.

Lobbying: Tax-exempt organizations are allowed to lobby, but lobbying cannot comprise a substantial part of its activities.

Political Activity: Tax-exempt organizations are prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate running for public office. Organizations can promote and encourage voter participation, registration, and education.
^^^
Sounds like we know why they're not a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation.

So, whose pocketbook is benefitting from the donations this corporation receives? We already know about its political motives ...”

According to the CA Secretary of State website, Conejo Guardian registered as a domestic nonprofit corporation on 3/2/2020. Its ASOP is a service corporation. The business address appears to be a PO Box at a UPS store in Westlake Village. The Statement of Info lists the CEO as Jennifer Weir, the secretary as Amit Gupta, and the CFO as Brian Shin.

Wonder if Amit Gupta has any relation to Avani Gupta (HINT: that’s a yes), an active member of California Parent Alliance (CPA). CPA is an anti-health and sex education movement launched in part by Tim Cooley, who has a family connection to Sandee Everett. CPA describes itself as: “We are a California non-profit non-partisan organization dedicated to defending parental rights.” They showed up in force to CVUSD school board meetings to express outrage over the discussion to update the health and sex ed curriculum to adhere to state law (California Healthy Youth Act), due to its inclusivity being in conflict with their transphobic and homophobic ideals. Patti Jones, who is running in AREA 1 (Westlake), has boasted launching the organization and picking the name, just FYI. She and Sandee Everett share the same treasurer.

Here’s a flyer for one of their events ... notice Avani Gupta is a speaker listed. Stephanie Barrus is listed on the CPA website as the Conejo Valley contact. (Random aside: Carlos Velasco — the guy who created a ton of fake accounts to make memes about me until I caught him, is listed as the Oak Park contact.) And then there’s Tim Thompson. Tim is a pastor in Riverside County that mysteriously popped up at our CVUSD school board meetings ...

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Here’s the Sandee Everett/Tim Thompson connection — Sandee Everett started having her husband, Craig Everett (who lost in 2018 after a failed run for Ventura County Community College District) show up to board meetings with videography equipment. After the board meeting, Sandee would film a YouTube segment, in front of the Conejo Valley High School (where the district boardroom is located) ... and she did a whole segment with Tim Thompson.

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Oh, look — Rob McCoy has also done an interview with Tim Thompson!

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You can watch that “fireside chat” HERE.
According to Tim’s ministry website:
“Pastor Tim Thompson is the founding pastor of 412 Church Murrieta. He is a loving husband and father of two. He and his wife, Nicky, have been married since 1996.

He is a preacher/teacher of eschatology, and a leader in engaging the Church in the political arena by dealing with sensitive issues to have a positive impact on our culture.

Pastor Tim has a strong desire to WIN people for Jesus (Acts 4:12), help them in their growth as a DISCIPLE of Jesus (Hebrews 4:12), and SEND them out to continue the work of the Gospel (Ephesians 4:12). That mission focus is well evident in all aspects of his ministry.”
SO, I wonder ... what what Tim Thompson doing all the way from Murietta, at our school board meetings, giving interviews to Sandee Everett and Rob McCoy?? I mean, I don’t really actually wonder. It’s easy to connect the dots ...

Tim founded an organization called “Our Watch Now.” On its about page:

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So, when people wonder why I’m so invested in seeing to it that the school board trustees we elect actually support public schools:

• It’s because I’ve witnessed an anti-public school trustee (that’s Sandee!) show up to board meetings unprepared, in order to monopolize hours (I’m not exaggerating), hours of board meeting time with questions that could have been answered by staff prior. (She’s publicly stated she won’t interact with district staff for information).
• It’s because I’ve witnessed Sandee Everett attempt to stall and hijack the implementation of the FAIR Act — a law put in place to update history curriculums with contributions from important historical figures that had been previously excluded because of their race, sexuality or disability.
• It’s because I watched her personally implement a literature curriculum policy designed to censor literature on the grounds of her personal definition of decency.
• It’s because I watched as she prevented public input, committed a Brown Act Violation, and then blamed it on the board clerk at the time.
• It’s because I’ve seen her communicating via text with board meeting audience members, such as Amy Chen, and then refuse to comply with PRA requests pertaining to this violation.
• It’s because I’ve seen her take her phone out and film and take pictures of parents in order to intimidate them, from behind the dais, and at other school-related meetings.
• It’s because I’ve seen her attempt to discredit a reputable education foundation that has donated more than $9 million to our CVUSD schools since its inception.
• It’s because I watched her mock a trans student at the dais for addressing his concerns about her transphobic comments and approach to education.
• It’s because I don’t believe she values good governance, nor cares about students.
• It’s because I watch as she rolls her eyes at parents from the dais, and has cut off students from their right to share their comments at public school board meetings, in order to extend her own speaking time.
• It’s because she doesn’t listen or respond to all parents — only those parents whose votes she thinks she can get.
• It’s because I’ve watched her block dozens upon dozens of parents and community members from her official representative and candidate pages (which actually isn’t legal), for asking her questions related to her policy tweets. She then publicly states that anyone she has blocked was someone “bullying” her.
• It’s because I’ve watched as she has deceived voters into believing she has actual experience as an employed high school counselor. She does not.
• It’s because I’ve watched her publicly post NOT to support PTAs and PFAs — you know, the parent groups heading fundraising for art, P.E., stem, campus parties, book fairs, etc. for your child’s school.
• It’s because I’ve watched her put a sticky note over her camera during zoom school board meetings, disappearing for long periods of time — while also being told by those that live near her house, that her house becomes awfully crowded with lots of cars during board meeting nights ...
• It’s because I’ve watched city nuisance Cathy Carlson email Sandee on multiple occasions about me and how to handle me ... which leads to me to believe they’ve discussed this offline as well.
• It’s because her biggest and loudest campaign supporters include the “Conservative Moms of Conejo Valley” Facebook group — the ultimate mean girls group, which has hundreds upon hundreds of posts about me and other members of our community.
• It’s because she orchestrates and contrives fake controversies in order to make it appear as though the district is corrupt (it’s not).
• It’s because I’ve watched as she has insulted and now ignores the students involved with the Newbury Park High School Panther Prowler — the high school that falls directly within her area of representation.
• It’s because I’ve heard of her involvement in creating the district’s journalism handbook — attempting to rip protections from student journalists (fortunately others stepped in to insert ed code.)

Sandee Everett has wreaked enough havoc on our school board. She will continue to stall productive conversation on school-related issues because her ultimate goal is to discourage enrollment, and encourage waivers for alternative education (ask her buddy, Mike Dunn if you don’t believe me. Remember Dunn, the keynote speaker at the anti-public school forum that announced her re-election intentions? Yeah — he’s a huge advocate for waivers). It is our most vulnerable student populations that suffer the most when public school isn’t adequately funded. But, Sandee’s never cared about these students (oh, until just now — when it’s been convenient for her to use them to make a case to reopen schools against County guidelines.)

If Sandee Everett can’t get her way, and can’t control and censor public education to fit her religious agenda, she pushes constituents to choose alternative education over public school. It’s now been well documented.