Remember when Richard Nixon emphatically told us he was not a crook? Or when Bill Clinton said he did not have relations with that woman? Or when George H. Bush told us to “read his lips?” Or when his son said that there were WMDs in Iraq? Politicians lie – they do it all the time. And now we can count Santa Ana Unified School District Superintendent Jane Russo in their number.
Russo oddly wrote an “editorial” pronouncing that “No Fraud or deceit has been committed in Santa Ana Unified School District
Sounds like the old crime of “time card” fraud. The teachers who signed false rosters will get fired while Russo & staff will get a nice raise for taking care of the problem.
Where’s Robby Richardson been in regards to this? He is the President of the school board and yet he remains silent. Why?
There is nothing that goes on in that district that he doesn’t have some knowledge about. He tries to portray this squeaky clean upright image, but those of us that know him, know better. This guy is the reincarnation of Eddie Haskell.
He is supposed to be a leader, so why isn’t he leading. Instead he is hiding away until his minions can clean up the mess.
John Palacio is the only member of the board who looks good on this. He has shown tremendous leadership in this time of fraud and deception.
We sure could use a leader like John on the city council. Maybe he’ll take a run at the Ward 3 seat next election.
Thank you so much Art! You said it all! As a Santa Ana teacher who has had kids taken off my rollsheet while still in my class, I was outraged by Russo’s letter. It seems heads never roll in SAUSD. Will it happen now?
Sean,
I think Richardson learned to duck and hide from Pulido. “Leaders” like this would be laughed out of Los Angeles – or run out on a rail.
Amen, Art!
Why is this news not on La Opinion?
I have not seen any stories about SAUSD in their paper.
The total community needs to get involved.
The grievance process is totally useless in this district. It is dysfunctional and anyone with a modest amount of competence and a small measure of self motivation to learn from mistakes could fix it.
For anyone who does not know about a
Register now has a place for comments on this developing story and there is quite a bit of public input, fyi
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/santaana/article_1642695.php
Nice job to this group of citizen blogger activists.
David Barton can give the truthful answers to many of your questions #10.
The more that the district tries to hide and cover, the worse it will be for them.
Thank u Art for your blog. Can we hear and see protests @ the next SAUSD School Board Meeting please? If I am not mistaken there will be a School Board Meeting on April 10 & 24th, we should ALL go and protest.
-Unknown
The main problem with Russo
Here is some commentary from a teacher who posted at the Register board:
Thank you for your series of articles about SAUSD. It is unfortunate that SAUSD administration has become so focused on finances that they have lost the moral foundation of looking to provide the best possible educational experience for every student.
After reading Ms. Russo’s editorial yesterday, I sent her the following email and sent copies to SAUSD board members.
Dear Ms. Russo, I can understand your desire to make the current class-size reduction fiasco look like it was all good decision-making with a view to providing the best for our students, but your editorial isn’t factual. You state Our traditional process, had we enough classroom space, would have included forming new classes with a new teacher to continue Class Size Reduction. Because we did not have the classroom space in order to meet CSR requirements, long-term substitutes were assigned to 27 of the District’s 36 elementary schools where classrooms exceeded the 20-to-1 ratio. This is not true. There is PLENTY of classroom space at Wilson. At Wilson, there are several empty classrooms yet we have two substitutes working phantom-style even to this very day! Wilson has the available space and yet no new classes were formed with new teachers. Why? Perhaps you were uninformed. Perhaps our principal never told you of the many empty classrooms at our site. Sincerely yours, Guy Swentek Wilson Elementary
Ms. Russo nor any SAUSD board members have replied to my email. I believe that SAUSD chose not to hire teachers and tried to use substitutes and spurious documentation to receive the maximum funding while providing less than an adequate education for the affected students.
Sincerely, Guy Swentek 2nd grade teacher Wilson Elementary
A friend just sent me this quote and he felt it was quite appropriate for the discussion at hand.
“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
-Mark Twain
I concur with him completely.
Thank you Mr. Swentek for your comments.
I’d like to know the billable hours charged, by the attorneys, to craft this *open* letter.
The district is notorious for not returning telephone calls or responding to emails or any written form of communication.
Maybe they are all asleep.
#17 Those crafty lawyers are busy clocking 80+ hours monitoring this blog from their SF and Irvine offices.
You think they like the critiques on that letter they put together?
That open letter from Jane Russo was a joke. No way did she craft that thing.
Let
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/santaana/article_1642695.php
More comments by the Wilson teacher who feels betrayed.
Jonquil, Thank you for your support. I wish more SAUSD teachers would sign-on by name but I understand their reticence since the SAUSD administration is quick to remonstrate offenders. Just this afternoon my principal stopped me in the hallway to let me know of his displeasure with my “blog”. He assured me that I did not know all the facts, that my blog was inaccurate, that I should not have mentioned him, and that he would never do such a thing to me. I simply stated that what I wrote was true and that I have a right to my views. He didn’t want to discuss it any further in “the open”. I have been trying to alert SAUSD Board members and District administration to the MANY educationally immoral practices at our school site for over five years. The reward for my continued interest in trying to obtain the best educational experience possible for the students is to be ignored by Mijares, and reprimanded numerous times by my principal. I had hopes that Ms. Russo would actually bring change. She had a meeting with me several weeks ago to discuss my concerns about the lack of standards for promotion, lack of follow through on SSTs, the denial of full MDA evaluations for students, and that the Bilingual Resource Teacher never teaches students–only does administrative tasks. At the time, she assured me that Dr. Stainer would look into those matters right away. To date, nothing has changed. Finally, after her obviously disingenuous editorial letter of obfuscation, I have now lost trust in her.
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/santaana/article_1642695.php
One response:
Guy, bless you for doing the right thing. your principal is a bully and I recommend two immediate online resources for you to understand what you can do to protect yourself. one is kickbully and the other is bullyonline org. There is also a book called the No A-hole Rule that SAEA has copies of. There is also a blog by art pedroza, mentioned in the earlier comments here that has other stories that demonstrate outrageous and even criminal activity by our district. I was suprised to read that you personally met with Russo and that nothing happened. She comes across so sincere that I am wondering if she is just a dupe for the district or if she is just part of the larger problem of the lying and deceit that is practiced. She is supposed to have done a podcast that will be available today on the district website. Your principal has the mentality of organized crime by trying to intimidate you for doing the right thing. If it was all just a big mistake, then why is he disappointed and angry with you? His response is so predictable in this district run by a bunch of thugs. You probably have already been documenting events and discussions, but please continue to do so. There are numerous lawsuits pending in this dishonest district and unfortunately, at some point, you may need the documentation in a suit yourself. Thanks for your dedication to your students and for doing your best to make things right on their behalf. I hope your parents know how lucky they are to have you.
There should be 2 audits.
One should be as it is now with the corrected documentation.
The other should include all falsified documents, so it can be seen what the intent of the district was, and how far reaching this attempt to game the system was.
Obviously, Russo’s claim that no false documents got submitted to the state is based on the fact that they are not yet due until May, but let’s see what the district was actually attempting to do and what they would have gained by these shenanigans, in order to determine what the intent was.
Incompetence galore. Truancy monies that could not be paid to the district per an audit report September, 2005.
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:p0-vH_bzafYJ:www.sco.ca.gov/aud/mandCostsRpts/fy0506/santaAnaUSDnotification.pdf+santa+ana+unified+school+district&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us
Late fees and unsupported claims knock down the payment by over $700k. Who was in charge of submitting that incomplete report? It seems like no one knows anything about education in the main offices. The money for programs is lost AND taxpayers get the priviledge of paying some fool/s for incompetence!
Kick them out! As a tax payer I am angry.
#22
I’d like to see names of those involved. “The District” is a over-used cover for excuses by some unbelievably inept individuals and their compromised thinking.
Those principals didn’t just dream up, individually, how to game the system. Some one/s told them to do it. And probably under the threat of “and you know what will happen if you dont….”
When people get together to plan a crime is is called Organized Crime. There needs to be names, accountability and assurances that this way of behaving is no longer going to be tolerated.
There seems to be confusion with some of the posters and administrators over retaliation and its effectiveness. Retaliation in the SAUSD system has been in place for a number of years. However, with the advent of the internet, the constant instances of FRAUD coming out publically, the citizens’ ability to more closely monitor what is going on in their community and schools, I predict that this culture of retaliation is on the way out. Retaliation is used by incompetent individuals to hide their inadequacies. If others are intimidated into silence, then the bully can control the situation. But only for so long.
Here are a couple of resources for people who are dealing with bully principals. Look, there is an entire webpage for it, because it does surface. But it only flourishes in the most disorganized and corrupt systems. The current SAUSD is a perfect example. However, judging from the teacher and community input, bully practices and illegal stunts by corrupt and inept individuals will soon be coming to a close.
http://www.jfo.org.uk/work/sector/teaching.htm
The Bullying of Teachers Through the Use of Formal Disciplinary Procedures
http://www.jfo.org.uk/work/sector/teaching.htm#def
The implications of dysfunctional organisational culture have been highlighted in a number of reports dealing with abuse and malpractice
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1593469.php
Sounds, like fraud to me. In September of 2005, I was evicted by a Principal and His Agent and a private judge conley. I was not able to put my kids in school where we were living, because they said the schools were full. The nearest school was King, Monte Vista, Diamond. But they were all full. Then, I was reading an article in the Cityline News which said that the enrollment was down 3 thousand students. I quickly thought that how can that be? with the additions to the current schools and the new schools completed. So I brought this to the attention of the School District and the Mayor and Mr Ream. My kids had been out of school for 3 weeks. The Planning Department is the culprit did you ever stop to think about all the Redevelopement in the Area there are very few families in the area any more. So they have to close that School Down. I think this is why the Super of the School District left. When 2 Plus 2 make 6 someone better get out of Dodge. The new Area is Cesar Chavez Campesino Park. It is being subdivided and the park renamed Harper Park, What a Slap in the face to Cesar Chavez Family and our Hispanic Culture, since we are a silent majority. I here to make them scream for our rights!
Lisann Martinez – Feb. 28, 2007 12:00 AM
Mr. Guy Swentek says that Russo assured him that Dr. Helen Stainer would take care of the issue.
Well, looks like she didn’t.
Isn’t that insubordinatiion? REAL insubordination and dereliction of duty.
Bully principals like to pull the old insubordination trick on teachers in order to pressure the teachers and other staff into doing wrong things or to keep quiet about wrong doing.
Let’s see what Helen Stainer has to say about her disregard of Russo’s directive that she get back to the brave teachers who had the stamina to face sure retaliation by an inept group of unethical cowards.
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
If that fraud letter that is so prominent displayed on the webpage of the district is not of Jane Russo
The board meeting notes are still a month in arrears. And they continue to be un-signed by whoever is taking and recording the notes. This new
Maybe someone on the board could explain why the offices of Breon and Schaffer were monitoring this blog. They were fingering the IP addresses from both their offices. What are they planning to do with all that evidence collected
http://azbilingualed.org/AABE%20Site/AABE%20NEWS%202003/lopez_walloped_in_schools_recall.htm
Richardson, 41, an administrator for the county and a Santa Ana planning commissioner, took nearly two-thirds of the votes. The other candidates were recall organizer and district parent Vivian Martinez, an office administrator; Lopez supporter Cindy Pettus, a community college instructor; and former Rancho Santiago Community College trustee John M. Raya, a businessman.
Lopez, head of the popular Hermandad Mexicana Nacional of Santa Ana, was rallying his troops until the last moment. Tuesday afternoon. He gave an impassioned speech to dozens of supporters at a labor union office before they were loaded into vans and taken to working-class neighborhoods. There, they urged voters to go to the polls and stop the recall.
At the union headquarters late in the evening, Lopez, flanked by his tearful wife and one daughter, said, “If the electorate in our district did not respond to our message, it was not because we didn’t work hard enough. The balance of force was completely lopsided.”
Recall supporters raised almost three times what Lopez had, bringing total contributions to nearly $400,000, more than 20 times the usual amount for a school board race.
Record money used for the recall and Richardson winning over 3 recall activists from the community. Richardson is no obvious stakeholder in the educational system in Santa Ana, other than his vow to overhaul the entire system. Great job.
Mr. Richardson is a savvy career administrator with criminal justice practices and connections to PR and media outlets. He should be legally savvy, as well. How could he allow all the lawsuits that this district is faced with and not do the responsible thing by cleaning up unethical practices?
Mr. Richardson, quit hiding out. Looks like you got a credibility crisis on your hands.