UPDATE: Comments on this thread are now closed. The new 2009 thread is available at this link.
I wrote a post on July 16, 2006, entitled “SAUSD corruption coming out with Mijares gone,” and it blew up to over 2,000 posts. However, it exceeded the capacities of our server and has been truncated recently at about 1,529 posts. But one of our readers has stepped up to the plate and painstakingly copied all of the comments into four NEW posts:
- SAUSD-Mijares corruption thread, 2008 Comments
- SAUSD-Temporary Thread (Migration 5/16/2008) Comments
- SAUSD-Mijares corruption thread, 2007 Comments
- SAUSD-Mijares corruption thread, 2006 Comments
Also, don’t forget you can go to the right sidebar of any page page and search for “SAUSD” to get links to ALL of our past SAUSD stories.
I have been honored that this blog has allowed so many people to vent their frustrations with the SAUSD administration and school board. We will continue to shed light on these issues and I hope that our readers will continue to use this blog to communicate about the corruption at SAUSD.
SAUSD does not belong to the administrators or to the school board. It belongs to us. We will have an opportunity this fall to take back the school board, with three seats opening up. I pray that good candidates will emerge so we will be able to do exactly that. Until then, please keep the comments coming! But post them here, to this new thread. Thank you.
Art I hate to be a stickler for detail but actually you started the SAUSD corruption thread in 7/2006 not 2007. People can still view all of the comments at
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5566751&postID=115308745590495161
I hope you can put them all in one place for people that have kept up with this thread.
#1,
You’re right! I stand corrected. Thanks for setting the record straight.
Thanks for the link too. I am talking to my webmaster and trying to figure out what to do with those posts.
In the future we may launch a new blog devoted solely to SAUSD issues…
Art. No problem. The link in #1 was the original posting place for this thread until you added the second link. Both were connected as you could post on either and the post would show on both. You might tell your webmaster that the problem appears to have started with the second link when the original link was broken down in newer, newest posts. I’m not sure if that helps your webmaster or not.
This doesnt seem like a good fix. With the budget cuts and elections just around the corner, I hope you can find a way to make this all a lot more accessible and readable.
It is an excellent resource on our local school district. Please see if you can find a solution that makes sense and is seamless.
Thanks for all you’ve done on behalf of staff and students in our community.
#4
I agree. Most district people know the old link(s). Just since this problem started the posts stopped except for those who knew about the original link #1 posted. Now is not good timing for this thread to be moved. It seems to me if the original link still works then the server still has room. Perhaps if the webmaster eliminated the page break up on the link mentioned by #1 the regular location will be able to continue.
No more than ever we need an SAUSD blog!
Keep up the good work.
I have heard rumors that one high school will be closed next year. It is possibly Valley High School. I hope it isn’t true. Has anyone heard anything like this?
Speaking of our kids, why hasn’t anyone on Orange Juice said anything about Carlos Eduardo Tello, a 53 year old Guatamalan immigrant who was convicted of continuous child molestation and jumped off of the Santa Ana Courthouse building to his death? That seems like a pretty big story. Does OJ have anything to say?
SAHS’s principal Dan Salcedo is retiring this year after a grazillion years with the district.
Anyone know who his replacement will be?
I agree. This is NOT the time to let this entire thread of almost two thousand posts about the school district, go broken. You’ve done a great job Art. Don’t let your work go to waste! Things are going to heat up again and you’ll have a lot of people wanting to vent and expose.
Yes it is true Dan Salcedo’s last year has been announced .
Now is for Santa Ana High School parents to demand the Board Members our next principal to be someone that fit the community that knows the challenges that face every day , and to be well aware how high the spectations are , some that will have the brains as well.
I’m so sorry #10. The SAUSD administrator selection process completely excludes principals of the type your describing.
# 10, please check read and check your spelling before posting.
Yes Mom. (#12).
Will Jeff Bishop be considered for the job at Santa Ana High? I think he has earned it. He is one of the best principals in the district.
Yes, Jeff Bishop would be perfect for Santa Ana High! Please take him! (PBIS!!!!) Remove the knife from Willard’s back. There is no doubt (nor surprise for those who know the school) that test scores will be at an all time low this year. It is time to *promote* Jeff Bishop!
Perhaps there really isn’t any budget crisis at Santa Ana USD.
SAUSD decided to create yet another administrative position because the current administrators were incompetent.
SAUSD doesn’t expect its administrators to do their job, they just create another admimistrative position (probably with accompanying support staff) to “solve” the problem.
Last year, SAUSD couldn’t count/keep track of how many students were in a certain number of classrooms and correlate how they are complying with state regulations…SO the ONLY answer is NOT to expect administrators already in place to DO THEIR JOBS, it is to
HIRE YET ANOTHER ADMINISTRATOR!
The new position:
Assistant Superintendent of Facilities and Governmental Relations
Art, I am pleading with the OC Juice blog to do a whole article dedicated to investigating Dr. Tracy Brennan at Saddleback HS. She is a racist that thinks the kids at Saddleback are “animals” This plague that has been thrusted onto SHS has a long history of discriminating against Latino students and parents ie. AUHSD. I have had to sit through meetings and listen to her insult the people who live in this community and even makes analogies saying the challenges we are being forced to face here in educating “this” population to what the south faced in educating their post-civil war “negros”. YES, she actually used the term NEGRO!!! Please give our community justice and expose this bruja!!!
School district fires 98 administrators
#17 – The hiring of Dr. Brennan reveals the most basic of flaws in SAUSD. By simply googling her name, one would have discovered that she was not administrative material. The buck stops with Ms. Russo, but what is the culpabiity of Juan Lopez and Dr. Olsky in this hiring fiasco?
Jane, show that you are a leader and resolve this situation immediately. Saddleback staff, students and community deserve better.
The staff there should be tape recording that nonsense during all of the staff meetings. Each staff member should be compiling a folder of documentation detailing what she is up to. Do it now. At some point she’s really going to show her dark side and you’ll be ready to stop her in her tracks before she can harm any additional staff, students or community members.
17 and 19: I truly feel for you out there. I’ve heard quite a few stories about her in only the last 24 hours. How she can get away with her comments and actions is beyond me.
All I can say is this; though I miss my colleagues and students, I’m glad I’m no longer there, and I couldn’t be happier at my current position.
New Campaign Exposes Teachers Unions — America’s teachers unions have a lot to answer for.
An international comparison study found that the United States gets the least bang for the bucks it spends on education, putting the U.S. at 18th in reading (behind countries like Japan and Poland) and a dismal 28th in math.
While they’re always the first (and loudest) ones to demand more money for schools that don’t teach kids anything, when it comes to promoting quality schooling or offering ideas for reform, the unions are nowhere to be found.
Blocking education reform: Teachers unions will do anything to stop education reforms that might threaten their own power. Anything that gives parents more power over their children’s education or allows teachers to distinguish themselves on individual merit is obstructed and blocked at every turn.
Unions protect bad teachers and hold back good teachers: Unions enforce the policy of teacher tenure, which makes public school teachers basically impossible to fire, no matter how bad they are. At the same time, they fight to keep schools from rewarding good teachers for good work. As a rule, union contracts don’t recognize teacher quality, whether high or low.
Unions take teachers’ money and give it to left-wing politicians and activist causes: The national teachers unions give money to practically every left-wing group in America. Teachers are actually more conservative on average than the typical American, but from the way their unions act, you’d think it was the opposite. Between 1990 and 2008, 93 percent of donations made by National Education Association political action committees and individual officers went to Democrats.
So what is the Center for Union Facts doing about it? We’ve exposed the facts that teachers unions don’t want you to know and we’re letting the public know about it with national newspaper and cable ads! We’ve also announced the “Ten Worst Union-Protected Teachers” contest, where we will pay the ten worst union-protected teachers $10,000 a piece to get out of the classroom-for good. Visit TeachersUnionExposed.com today to learn more!
#22:
I’m a teacher. Other than the students injured by a bad teacher, nobody … absolutely nobody … is affected more by bad teachers than other teachers who receive the results of that incompetence, and have to undo the damage. We all want the lousy teachers gone; it makes our job a lot less frustrating, That’s a principal’s job
Things at Willard are just getting better and better! Last week witnessed the assault of a teacher due to roughhousing, (which got a bit too rough) and this week a 6th grader, in a sheltered classroom, was also beat up, by 9 peers. Ask Mr. Bishop how the new discipline system is working! He will tell you there are no problems at Willard! Maybe he should take a step out of his office?
Does Bishop even have a clue as to what is going on at his school? Not so far.
Has anyone heard the rumor that Dr. Pat Machado will become principal of Middle College High School when Jean Williams leaves? If this is true, the corruption continues unabated.
26
She was supposed to retire. If this rumor is true, then the board of education should be tossed out.
She’s already proven herself to be a failed administrator. What is it about this district that “D” administrators (at best) are actively sought out for leaderhip positions? Rejects and failures thrive in SAUSD.
#26
Oh my God! I hope not! I never worked with the woman but I’ve heard plenty of negative stories. I mean 100% negative. Even Esther Jones had supporters, but I hear nothing but disdain for Dr. Machado.
Please, no! I hope she doesn’t end up at MCHS.
SAUSD takes care of their own. Word has it that no Assistant Principals were riffed. Just a reduction of 4-5 days in their work year. How can that be possible when millions have to be cut from the budget?
#9
Heard that Lucinda Pueblos, principal of Lathrop will become principal of Santa Ana High School. Anyone else heard this rumor?
It looks as if the district is going to balance the budget on the backs of teachers and classified.
Does anyone know if Jane Russo, Cathie Olsky and Juan Lopez are incurring any kind of salary reduction? Also, what cuts will the board incur as to their perks? Shouldn’t the pain be spread equally?
Who is minding the store?
If the rumors are true and Machado ends up in Middle College!
Jane Russo and School Board should all be recalled..
How are you going to place and F+ Administratror in one of the best schools the district has to offer.
Has the school board or Jane Russo stopped to think of what this poor excused of a person will do to this school!!
Why was she not fired!!!!
#29, Yes 27 A/P’s were to have lost your jobs. I believe now the District is changing their job titles to Dean of Instruction so they can be paid out of categorical monies, the same money classified get paid from. Again sacrificing classified for management.
Who is running for School Board besides Cecilia? There has to be someone else!!!
Dean of Instruction sounds like something out of Whittier.
Regarding “Dean of Instruction”: Can anyone verify that this is actually what is being done? If the answer is yes, two questions come to mind:
1 – Does this change of title go against a board directive?
2 – If the School Site Councils approve the expenditure of categorical monies, doesn’t this circumvent that whole process?
The corruption seems to continue and it appears that another expose by the OC Register and the Los Angeles Times is warranted.
How will the local school districts slash their budgets?
I heard that Machado is only filling in for the Principal that is leaving for Oregon, while the district finds a suitable replacement.
Jones has relatively few supporters. She’s burned bridges all the way down to her removal.
SAUSD actually had no replacement principal when they pulled her from duty. MacArthur’s principal ran back and forth between the two campuses until Brenan was hired.
Who really knows what all she was doing to be removed so suddenly? However, now that her influence is removed, just ask around and you’ll see that she’s made her underlings do her dirty work and there is increasing resentment as they realize how they were manipulated. Russo gets a thumbs up for that particular clean-up job.
Why would she be covering when the current principal is leaving at the end of the school year, not before.
Also, Dan Salcedo’s position is already advertised, whe would middle college not be! Maybe Russo is trying to pull a fast one and give Pat “Mentally Ill” Machado an even easier job before she retires.
If so, she is no better than Mijares!
38, your post is confusing. Nobody is going to Oregon. Jean Williams, MCHS Principal, is leaving at the end of the school year.
Why are you writing about Jones? She is long departed from the distridct.
30, the district has posted both positions – MCHS Principal and HS Principal.
Hey Dr. Olsky, when will you be holding the next meeting to get the input you said you would welcome regarding the after school program? When will we see those MOUs? Does anyone have info on this?
40:
Number 38 doesn’t seem to make much sense since he/she missed my point entirely. Plus, anything that begins with “I heard” isn’t really credible and therefore 38 doesn’t know too much.
Allow me to clarify. (Now addressing 38) Ms. Williams is NOT from Oregon but from North Carolina. Indeed she is returning to NC to establish a middle college out there. However, she will finish out the year at MCHS.
Regarding Ms. Jones: It was only to reinforce my point that all stories about Dr. Machado are 100% negative. Jones, who was the object of scorn among SHS staff, still had her few supporters whereas there has not been one person to support Dr. Machado.
It is also apparent you really don’t have any facts about Jones’s removal. I was at SHS during her administrative years. Most anyone can tell you why she was removed. You don’t even need to work in SAUSD to know what she was up to. Regardless, a settlement was made and she’s gone. End of story. No one misses her.
On to another topic…so the district has already begun reassignments. One of our long-term subs (credentialed but not contracted) who started the year with his students from day 1 has, without warning, been removed effective 2 days ago. 12 weeks before the end of the year and the district decides to place a reassigned teacher there without the principal and AP’s knowledge. Way to put students first.
Rosie Avila goes CRA(zy)
42
Yes Mrs. Jones had her bevy of trained chimps to do her dirty work and let her escape under the radar. It was no small feat for her to organize her ambition-blinded minions. She had a real talent for finding the weak and the gullible.
You’re upset about a substitute being replaced by a displaced FULLY CREDENTIALED TEACHER. Where were you when Mrs. Jones was tearing up competent staff to the point that they left? Quality staff was replaced again and again with staff without full credentials or with a haunting past that she could easily manipulate.
Pay attention. She avoided anyone who would have the character to stand up to her stupid demands. There are lots of ex-SHS staff out there and we are watching.
I notice you don’t say anything about your new principal.
You’re just a suck up. Under Jones and now under Brennan.
With these severe cuts, smart site staff are going to start banding together to make sure that their leaders are competent and supportive. The elimination of staff that bow down and shut up because they might lose their jobs -being underqualified or under experienced -will make it easier for experienced staff to demand better treatment.
Chalk Talk: http://www.sateach.org/ChalkTalk01-08.pdf
Upcoming:
Teachers & The Law Seminar-March 26
CTA lawyers Marianne Reinhold and Carlos
Perez will speak to SAEA members concerning
issues in work or union activities. Members will
also learn to determine which concerns are
reasonable (and which are not) and how to
protect ourselves from litigation. As time allows,
topics will include harassment, temporary vs.
probationary vs. permanent status, acceptable
use of district technology, vulnerability to
lawsuits arising from school and field trip
assignments, discrimination issues, hazardous
working conditions, student or parent threats,
and protection in state and federal law for
educators
Who are Saddleback’s union reps, anyways? Does that site even have any reps at all? What about Valley?
The SAUSD 2007-08 State of the District Reception and Presentation has been scheduled for Thursday, March 20, 2008, 7am, at the Segerstrom High School auditorium.
SAUSD Community Advisory Committee Meeting
The CAC Meeting has been scheduled for March 20, 2007, 6:30 pm in the District Board Room.
Contact Information:
Phone: (714) 558-5807
A Vote for Quality Schools – At its February 26, 2008, Board Meeting, the Santa Ana Board of Education approved placing a $200 million, 25-year traditional general obligation bond on the June 3, 2008, primary election ballot to improve Santa Ana schools. A traditional bond requires a 67% voter approval rate to be able to leverage additional State matching funds of $120 million
I wonder how many of the Century and Willard staff will attend Jean Williams departure?
Teachers! Know your contract!
http://www.sateach.org/PDFonline.pdf
Especially if you are at one of SAUSD’s high schools or middle schools. Those are the places where Mijares left the worst of the worst as far as evaluators and VP’s.
Know your rights. Fight for healthy workpace iniatives. You deserve to be treated as professionals. You should never have to play political games to keep your jobs at the expense of your colleagues and students.
Reject piss-poor representation. Gravitate to strong leadership at your sites.