Unfortunately for the corrupt administration at the Santa Ana Unified School District, the developing story of fraudulent class rosters just won’t go away. Today Times columnist Dana Parsons weighed in, with an article entitled “Santa Ana teachers give a lesson in honesty.”
Parson’s put it this way, “What has interested me from the start was the decision by several of the teachers first to confront their bosses over the issue and then, when nothing was done after a few weeks, to go public.”
Parsons asked one of the teachers why she did not sign a fraudulent roster. Here’s what she said, “I definitely agonized over it,” she said as we talked in her home last week. “I knew by not signing the roster, I was making a statement. By not signing it, it’s almost like you’re not following the rules. My supervisors expected me to sign it. It’s almost like I’m being defiant. In the workplace, you don’t necessarily want to be defiant.”
Parsons ends up asking the teacher why she went public, even though she risked retaliation from the district. Her answers are quite revealing:
Too often, the teacher says, news stories dwell on negative things. Too seldom, she says, people of faith or conscience explain how those belief systems influence their decisions in a society that challenges people’s personal ethics on a daily basis.
The roster deception was bad policy, she says.
But more than that, it was wrong.
“I think if more and more people were to come forward,” she says, “and tell their stories about whatever it is within them
So how many teachers signed false rosters & should be keep them in the schools? – I think not.
Isn’t their union supposed to protect them from having to falsify documents?
Of course with their union negotiating pay reductions they obviously aren’t too well represented.
#1. The teachers’ union has supported all the teachers who went public and continue to support those who have called the union about this issue. You have not been involved in this issue at all and yet you are attacking the union over something you know nothing about.
As a teacher who has had students taken off my roll while still in my class, I have received nothing but support from the teachers’ union.
Your negative response to such a positive article about courageous people in our profession is sad. This blog is about heroism. We don’t need to read about someone who can’t seem to get over our pay cut from 3 years ago. We have received a 13.44% restoration, and a good tentative agreement with a 5% increase. I think it’s time to move on.
#1
David Barton now is president of the SAEA. This is his first year in that position and it looks like he’s made quite a mark so far.
This is not last year’s union. Not by a long shot. The real bad guys are underestimating him, just like they have underestimated the continued uncovering of the depth of the fraud.
Teachers can trust and rely on the union this year. It will be interesting when the audit team has results – will it match reality? This time everyone is watching.
That was a very thoughtful article of Dana Parsons. Thanks for sharing it Art.
http://www.sateach.org/Class-size%20editorial.html
SAEA President David Barton’s editorial:
April 5, 2007
Considerable attention has been directed at the District
I would like to know if Sal Tinajero was a part of it?
Hey, what is going on? OC Register had a section for community comments on the developing story about Jane Russo and fraud. However, the comments were removed today. What is that all about?
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/santaana/article_1642695.php
Look for yourself. No community comments any more. Why would the Register do that?
#6,
One thing we know for sure is that Robby Richardson is a part of it.
What a shock that is.
After all, wasn’t he supposed to be the white knight that was gonna come in and clean up the district?
“One thing we know for sure is that Robby Richardson is a part of it.”
#8 We know that!
What we do not know if Sal Tinajero was part of it.
I bet you are obviously wrong person to answer this question because you are pointing finger at Richardson to create a smokescreen.
So when you talk to your body Sal tonight please ask him if he knew about it.
“Why would the Register do that?”
For same reason OJ does it #7!
To cover up the truth.
#7
The comments are still online. I suggest you go to ocregister.com
and access Santa Ana and click on the story SAUSD Denies Fraud.
There really “are” districts that care about their students – be they second language learners or native born students. Look what San Diego did when they kicked out their crappy board and superintendent:
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/03/20/education/988cohn032007.txt
“I was taken aback by the amount of healing that needed to take place. There was incredibly low employee morale,” Cohn said.
“I think one of the things that people sometimes worry about is, ‘Even though this superintendent is talking de-centralization, he’s got this secret top-down plan to impose his ideas on everyone.’ And I don’t,” he said.
Cohn said he’s tried to better understand the needs of the district by hosting “Cookies with Carl,” a forum where district staff can quiz him on any number of topics. He holds the sessions every six weeks at sites throughout the district.
“One of the things that I do well, that inoculates me, is that I define myself with teachers and parents. I’m not the type of person who sits back and waits for others to define who I am. That’s part of the reason I do ‘Cookies with Carl.’ I don’t want to leave it to others to profile me.”
Cohn doesn’t mind delegating authority. “I think a job like this could absolutely drive you crazy if you tried to micromanage people or keep everything within your control,” he said.
“The process is set up to empower people that know a lot more about how to really accelerate gains for students than I do,” he said. “It’s inconsistent with the prevailing notion that you hire some superhero that comes in on a white horse and tells everybody how we’re going to get things done.”
Cohn’s efforts to tap into the knowledge of those “who have been laboring in the vineyard,” as he puts it, have included the creation of a second tier of superintendents. Five area superintendents are overseeing the district’s many elementary and middle schools, while two administrators split responsibility for the district’s high schools. The idea is to make the district’s leadership more accessible to parents, teachers and other staff.
Since the area superintendents were appointed in July, Cohn said there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of parent complaints.
#9,
I did speak to Sal and I asked him if he had any knowledge of the fraudulent activity that was taking place. He has assured me that he did not and that in fact both he and fellow board member John Palacio asked if such activities were taking place and were told that they were not.
These questions were raised during closed sessions and should be reflected in the minutes of those closed sessions.
Again, the evidence points directly towards the Richardson Cabal and their cronies in the district administration.
Sean,
Sounds like a breach of the Brown Act.
Retaliation has been a huge part of the culture of SAUSD administration. If there is a problem, the whistleblower is the one to pay the consequences. Remember the Valley Counselors and the little witch hunt that happened that spring, when information leaked onto this blog? Remember Bernedette Medrano threatening this blog when all the bottled up corruption and district abuses were coming to light? You can look directly to the top of an organization that has this kind of toxic focus. There used to be a question of whether those threats were generated by Mijares, but now that he
District lawyer, Keith Breon, probably needs to be sanctioned for all his bad advice and participation in intimidation and corruption.
On his website he lists his area of expertise for Special Education and ELD guidelines. Everyone knows that the Special Education division has withheld money from the students and has practiced dishonestly with the parents. He is also aware of several inappropriate employees allowed to continue to have contact with nonverbal, totally dependent students.
Teachers had begun asking the former Director of Special education Richard Erhard questions about whether certain practices were legal and he assured the teachers that the lawyers for the district told him that it was all legal. Those practices are still in question and now we are thinking we will need to talk to the union after spring break, because apparently lying and making things up is a big part of management decisions.
Keith Breon knows about an SH teacher, Julie Wilson, at Saddleback who was put out on stress leave and then when he met with her attorney to settle a grievance, he promised to address the issues and respond. It has been several months and the only “response” was for that teacher to be given a written reprimand by “new” VP, fred gomeztrejo. Fast freddie had been stalking that poor teacher and denied her weingarten rights even though she had specifically told him she would only meet with him with a representative because he is a known liar to staff familiar with him. She has written proof of weingarten request from last October. He also constantly bad mouths his wife as being mentally unstable. He seems to have personal issues with women in particular.
He brags he knows school “politics” well and he knows how to play them. Right. Terminated from the last two districts for questionable behavior. SAUSD Board of Education was quick to snap him right up. They voted to place him with troublesome principal, Jones, 5-0.
Fred unlocked that teachers classroom well before school hours while she worked on her reports and then he physically menaced her and gave her a falsified written reprimand with no rep present. Because of the stalking, verbal promises that she would be fired this year and menacing her with physical intimidation she was taken off work again by workman comp doctors.
Breon still has not addressed that woman or her attorney. Breon is a huge part of the problem and it looks like it might all come out as we continue to share and organize our information. One thing is for sure Breon and Schaffer don
#15
You’re absolutely correct in your observation that the intimidation oozes from fringe Supt. groupies.
Subject: Bully Police USA – FOX News 5 needs stories
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 08:47:13 -0700
Hi Everyone,
Just a couple of announcements