The owner of an independent book store angrily addressed the school board at its last meeting about a grievance he had with a San Ramon Valley High School teacher.
Richard Van Tassell, 72, said that parents from an advanced English ninth-grade class recently came into his store with an informational letter from the teacher, Maureen Reschke. Van Tassell owns Bay Books, which has locations in San Ramon, Concord and Pleasanton.
The letter listed the books the students would be covering this school year. While the students had the option of using the school’s copies, she recommended they purchase their own. At the end of the letter, Reschke wrote, “I would suggest ordering the books at the same time using Amazon.com, as this will eliminate tax and orders over $29 are shipped at no cost.” Van Tassell passed out a copy of the letter to school board members.
Van Tassell explained that as a longtime resident of Alamo and the owner of a small local business, and as a taxpayer, he was offended by a public school teacher recommending an online giant that does not pay taxes to the state or Contra Costa County.
States can only tax businesses for interstate transactions if they have a physical store in the state, according to a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Amazon.com, which is headquartered in Seattle, Wash., is solely an online store, with no actual stores in California.
“I pay $800 a month in business taxes and $200 a month in home property taxes,” explained Van Tassell. “There should be no favoritism in respect to bookstores.”
After reading Reschke’s letter to her students, Van Tassell’s wife Diane wrote Reschke an e-mail expressing their concerns.
“As an owner of a business that is in the community in which you work, I am disheartened that you would prefer to send business to a large Internet conglomerate rather than support your local economy,” said Diane Van Tassell. “Independent bookstores have a very difficult time competing with the big chains and it is even harder for us when teachers suggest that students buy books from the biggest competition of all.”
Van Tassell claimed that Reschke copied his wife’s e-mail and shared it with parents.
“We have been harmed by her actions,” said Van Tassell. “We’re not on a level playing field. Pulling this kind of stuff is unacceptable.”
Maureen Reschke declined to comment for this story.
While the school board was not able to discuss the matter with Van Tassell, Superintendent Robert Kessler assured him it was not the district’s policy to recommend specific vendors.
“No district teacher should be directing people to one vendor,” said Kessler. He said the teacher was probably unaware of the policy and he apologized to Van Tassell. He said that the district would follow up on the matter immediately.
The district has restated its policy to all teachers since the school board meeting. Letters were sent to all schools restating that teachers should not recommend specific for-profit vendors.
Christine Williams, assistant superintendent of educational services, said she talked with Reschke soon after the school board meeting. She wanted to explain the district’s policy and also hear from Reschke what had happened.
“If you’re going to be asking for students to purchase something, tell them what they need to purchase but do not recommend a specific vendor,” said Williams.
The district has had to deal with this issue before, said Williams. Two years ago, a new music teacher in the district was criticized for recommending a specific instrument rental vendor to students.
Williams said the district is constantly inundated with requests by local businesses to partner with them but it is against district policy.
“Our local vendors offer incentives. They will say to teachers and schools, ‘If you send your children here, we’ll donate 20 percent back to the school,'” said Williams. “We have fliers that come to our district continuously for people who want us to put info out to our schools.”
The district can, however, distribute information for nonprofit groups such as the town of Danville or the Police Department, said Williams.
After speaking with Reschke, Williams believes she was only trying to be helpful.
“She didn’t realize. She thought she was helping them get something quickly,” said Williams. “She won’t recommend anything from now on. She will just list the books to be purchased.”
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