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.
#150,
See this story for the info you are looking for, “Michele Martinez has a new job, trying to rip off the taxpayers.”
SAUSD caught in another lie
http://www.sateach.org/April%2016,%202008%20President's%20Letter.html
David Barton’s April Message from SAEA:
April 16, 2008
April President
#150
Why don’t you post something that you like about sausd instead of just critisizing comments that you find offensive because they shed light on the ugly side of your idol, Mr. Bishop?
Dear readers,
One of our readers has copied all of the comments from the first year of the Mijares corruption post, and you can read them in order at this post, “SAUSD-Mijares Corruption Thread, 2006.”
#152 – Luis Navarro is a DSO at Willard.
#152 – Luis Navarro is a DSO at Willard.
#159,160
Are you sure he is a dso, has been seen by several raking leaves, using the lawnmower and even watering roses and the grass around the school.
Some staff even reports seeing him waxing floors.
#168 Art, that link does not work. fyi.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-local20apr20,1,2688445.story
Administrators in the Santa Ana Unified School District will need a two-thirds vote to move forward with a sale of $200 million in bonds — money that school officials say is needed to repair deteriorating classrooms and upgrade security and computer systems.
Wiki link to SAUSD elementary schools:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Elementary_School_(Santa_Ana,_California)#Kennedy_Elementary_School
Has anyone heard the chisme that
Patrick D. Yrarrazaval-Correa is kissing up to District Administrator, specially Juan Lopez to get the principal assignment at Middle College.
There are alot better and more qualified individuals if this is true.
#164 – Having known and worked with Patrick for more than 15 years, he is well qualified for the position. As to whether he’s interested in the position, I don’t know but it would be a great match.
#164 –
Mr. Patrick is well qualified and able to take any position that he is offered and accepts. He takes his duties in a very professional way. He’s been passed up, repeatedly, by suck-ups to Mijares who landed at the High Schools and some of the other middle schools. Thank god those pigs have gotten slaughtered over the last couple of years.
Your vague and negative sentiments are not shared by anyone who actually works with him or knows him in a professional capacity. Detail out what you think he lacks or just stay silent and that will speak to your political motivations.
Mr. Patrick has remained ethical, supportive of staff and focused in on educational goals for his site year after year. He’s a leader and one of the “heroes” of this district – consistently doing his job right, no matter what pressures he must have been under from Mijares’ henchmen to get sidelined into alternative political agendas.
He deserves to be promoted and most of all, he deserves to be acknowledged and hailed as an exceptional leader in this crippled district. SAUSD needs people just like Mr. Patrick to help lead it into a much better district. There are a LOT of staff left who have been waiting for the kind of turn around I am talking about. Where teachers are not harassed and abused for doing their jobs, because petty tyrants are in favor by the superintendent and Board of Educatioin.
All you people at Valley who keep watching your colleagues get mistreated are going to have to organize and bring your complaints to the top.
Yes, everyone knows you’ve got a very physically intimidating guy there. You’re still going to have to take a stand. Keep documenting. Keep an eye on the shenanigans and report it!
You keep wondering how Saddleback High School “allowed” Jones to stay for so long and how she was finally shown the door – it was because it takes a long time and a lot of effort to make the TOP understand the issues. Don’t let any more of your professional colleagues fall victim to workplace bullying from a select few misplaced leaders.
The district cannot afford to keep high profile nut cases in place. Help your site, your students and yourselves by fighting the abuse.
Good Luck!
Juan Lopez should be shown the door. He does not have a clue and is part of all the old problems of Mijares. He’s absolutely clueless.
He’s a terrible gatekeeper. He has no idea who is right for the job and who is dead wrong. He still has the old mindset of hiring favorites, over competence.
His buddy over at Valley is a perfect example. He’s a trainwreck in progress.
#164
I worked with Mr. Patrick for many years.
Mr. Patrick sees things through and makes sure the job gets done right.
He tells it like it is but at the same time he is supportive.
He is so far above the norm when it comes to working with kids, parents and teachers that he is in my top 5 administrators past and present.
#164 wouldn’t it be a conflict of interest for Mr. Patrick to seek the position at Middle College since his daughter is a student there? Also, the word is that he desires the principalship at Santa Ana High School. Sorry #165, others would object to your ethical description of Mr. Patrick
“Sorry #165, others would object to your ethical description of Mr. Patrick”
egotistic
1. A conceited, boastful person.
2. A selfish, self-centered person.
egocentric, egoistic, egoistical, egomaniacal, egotistical, self-absorbed, self-centered, self-involved, selfish, self-seeking, self-serving
Patrick D. Yrarrazaval-Correa,
Any questions!
#171
It sounds like you are saying he’s prideful.
So? How does that translate? Does he hurt others just because he is in the position of authority to do so? Does he spend his time focused on making his school the best it can be?
Not everyone is going to get along with everyone. Maybe he comes across as too prideful for your tastes, but maybe others don’t think of that as any kind of threat.
I wasn’t aware that Carr had a high staff turn -over (which would indicate a difficult/unreasonable leadership style).
Are you sure you’re not just a bit jealous and a bit fearful of Mr. Patrick’s ability to get his job done well?
I wasn’t aware that he’s had breaches of ethics. Has he changed student grades or turned off the fire alarms? Does he stalk and harass employees? Does he create stress injuries among employees? He fake student rosters (even when it was “popular” to do that?) or steal money from the disabled students? He break any laws?
Which of his ethics do you object to?
#172
Patrick has never sold out his staff by doing any of those things!
He’s a solid guy!
I do not work at Carr, but I can tell you I have worked with him for many years, and he is a man that cares. You may not always agree with his opinion, but he does his job well and treats people fairly.
Mr. Patrick also has always had a great sense of humor.
One of our readers has collected all of the comments made to our original Mijares corruption thread at this link, for the year 2008. You can also read all of the 2006 comments at this link.
absolutistic, arbitrary, autarchic, autarchical, autocratic, autocratical, despotic, dictatorial, monocratic, totalitarian, tyrannical, tyrannous, tyrannic
Where do you see the humor, All I see is brown-nose central.
#175, what makes you say he has great sense of humor?
Even some Ministries rely on fear and intimidation to keep the sheep from objecting to bad practices. SAUSD, abusive families and even churches can foster abuse or can choose to resist and eradicate this type of unnecessary harm. This is an excellent article that helps explain the phenomenon of how abusers defend themselves and make anyone who objects to the abuse, their next victim.
http://theocentricliving.blogspot.com/search/label/Dr.%20Robert%
20Morey
HOW ABUSIVE MINISTRIES DEFEND THEMSELVES
Philip Rosenthal
25 Jan 2006.
When one hears news of unethical behaviour in some ministries, one
may wonder how the leader managed to avoid being held accountable.
Many such ministries have developed sophisticated mechanisms to
defend themselves from accountability. Often these methods have
become part of the senior leadership culture, but no one else knows
about them. Thus they can catch people by surprise. Unsuspecting
enthusiastic young Christians involve themselves under the authority
of a dynamic and successful ministry leadership
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE_p340DQG8&feature=related
Santa Ana Unified Teaching 500 more parents English. YouTube video.
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2008/04/26/education/dpt-dhhprogram042508.txt
Santa Ana recants previous statement
Newport-Mesa district says students from outside district detract from own students.
By Daniel Tedford
Updated: Friday, April 25, 2008 9:18 PM PDT
There are No comments posted.
Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials did not initiate the discussion about phasing out a program for deaf and hard of hearing students as a Santa Ana Unified School District representative said recently.
A Santa Ana Unified spokeswoman who said it was Newport-Mesa officials who approached Santa Ana about winding down the program at Kaiser Elementary said Tuesday she was mistaken and apologized.
Santa Ana district officials now emphasize they made the initial contact with Newport-Mesa to withdraw their students and put them in a program in Santa Ana Unified. Educators in both districts say they are working hard together to resolve the issue.
The issue erupted last week when it was reported that Santa Ana wanted to educate its hearing-impaired students in the district to save money. Withdrawing the students would take the majority of students away from Newport-Mesa.
By next school year, parents and guardians of students living outside the district will have to use a different program, while Newport-Mesa students will be taught individually.
http://www.sausd.k12.ca.us/sausd/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=294703&C=53680
U.S. News & World Report Ranks Middle College High Among ‘Best High Schools’ in the Nation
U.S. News & World Report Ranks Middle College High Among ‘Best High Schools’ in the Nation
SANTA ANA, CA
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2008/04/20/news/dpt-weekinreview042008.txt
Monetary problems force special program to disappear
A Newport-Mesa special education program for the deaf and hard of hearing will be phased out over the next year.
The class mostly included Santa Ana School District students who used Newport-Mesa
#’s
175
174
173
170
169
165
front-runners
166
172
Amazing, Mr. Patrick can go potty and eradicate his own with so many bootlicks at hand.
I bet the front-runners fight each other for the honor of eradicating Mr. Patrick’s behind…
So, next time you’re around Mr. Patrick, make sure you have your fly-swatter at hand.
#183
I don’t know what your problem is with Mr. Patrick and I don’t really care. Not everyone can like everybody. I deal with most of the principals at some point in time and some give me frost bite while others give me assistance. I have no opinion either way. Patrick has never given me a problem.
Instead of trying to waylay this thread off of the screwballs like Bishop and that Bozo at Valley why don’t you just decide you don’t like Patrick but a lot of others don’t agree with you. A hell of a lot of people don’t like the two others I just mentioned and they have a lot of proof to validate their claims.
SAUSD administrators caught lying again
“Not everyone can like everybody.”
Touch
Does SAUSD follow it’s own policies before placing a childs face on its website?
http://www.sausd.k12.ca.us/sausd/site/default.asp
U.S. News & World Report Ranks Middle College High Among ‘Best High Schools’ in the Nation
U.S. News & World Report Ranks Middle College High Among ‘Best High Schools’ in the Nation
SANTA ANA, CA
“I don’t know what your problem is with Mr. Patrick and I don’t really care. Not everyone can like everybody. I deal with most of the principals at some point in time and some give me frost bite while others give me assistance. I have no opinion either way.“
To the complainer who is unhappy with Patrick, put up specifics or shut up. You come off as having a grudge, but no actual information to share.
#172 addresses poster #171:
Are you sure you’re not just a bit jealous and a bit fearful of Mr. Patrick’s ability to get his job done well?
I wasn’t aware that he’s had breaches of ethics. Has he changed student grades or turned off the fire alarms? Does he stalk and harass employees? Does he create stress injuries among employees? He fake student rosters (even when it was “popular” to do that?) or steal money from the disabled students? He break any laws?
Which of his ethics do you object to?
Response?
——Crickets chirping——
#188
While you are stating the facts all over the place, let’s look at a few. First of all I am in no position to judge if Mr. Patrick has the knowledge or personality to manage Middle School. I doubt you are either.
Let’s set that aside for a minute and look at Middle School. According to the stats presented by US News and WR. Middle School has an enrollment of 288. Among those 288 approximately 106 took the AP test at some point during high school. The passing rate was 86.7%, yet the college readiness index shows only 33.3%. USNWR also indicates this school has “open enrollment”. Try and get your kid in there and see how open the enrollment is. This is the districts “baby”???
Feel free to review the numbers yourself at:
http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/california/_middle_college_high_%28santa_ana%29
The School of performing Arts also won a silver medal in this testing with a slightly lower result as did a number of other Orange County Schools with thousands of students attending. I’d be more impressed if just ONE regular high school in SAUSD achieved this status.
Frankly this is a lot to do about nothing. If a school sheltered in the middle of a college, away from negative influence of local neighborhood crime, and a teaching ratio that has to be above average can only place at this level I don’t think I would be putting up bragging rights. But then again this is SAUSD where any form of manipulated statistics have to be put up to show how well they are doing.
Can Mr. Patrick do any better or any worse running this school? I don’t know but if you do feel free to tell me why or why not.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-teacher30apr30,1,6087028.story?track=rss
From Times wire services
A teacher pleaded not guilty today to felony charges of possessing a firearm on school grounds and child endangerment by a caretaker in connection with the discovery of a gun in her Santa Ana classroom by a third-grader.
Prosecutors on Tuesday filed charges against Jayne DeArmond that could bring a prison sentence of up to six years and four months if she is convicted.
The 51-year-old educator was arrested on April 2, after the principal of Diamond Elementary School was informed that an 8-year-old student found the .38-caliber handgun in a supply drawer in DeArmond’s classroom.
The gun was unloaded, but ammunition was also found, authorities said.
DeArmond was released on $20,000 bail after her arrest and remains out of custody.
Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Vickie Hix ordered her to stay away from firearms and not to be on any school property in Orange County.
“I understand you’ve already surrendered your firearms to a relative who does not live with you. Is that correct?” Hix asked the defendant.
“Yes,” DeArmond replied.
Hix said a pretrial hearing for June 6.
District spokeswoman Angela Burrell said DeArmond remains on leave pending completion of internal district and district attorney investigations. After the brief court appearance, a defense attorney released a statement on DeArmond’s behalf.
“If, in fact, it was her gun found in the classroom, it was inadvertently brought into class. There was absolutely no sinister intent to do harm,” the statement reads.
“Ms. DeArmond has absolutely no prior record and no history whatsoever for violence,” the statement continues. “While having the gun at school is dangerous and we regret the incident, there was no motive to do harm — to anyone at the school or anywhere else.”
SAUSD & Measure G hide behind closed doors
I heard a rumor that Lyn Maher, principal at Segerstrom, is retiring this year. Anyone else hear this? Any truth to it?
#194.
She and her school have had a very good year with very good news and good results. I doubt that she’ll be retiring soon.
I have not heard that rumor yet.
I’d be interested to know who is going to replace Dan at SAHS. That’s a big school and it’s important to all those influential families that live north of 17th.
http://www.sateach.org/Bargaining%20update,%20April%2025,%202008.html
Bargaining Update
April 25, 2008
The Districts’s April 21st “Negotiations Update” lists the District’s proposals in seven areas. Two of those proposals involved changing retiree benefits as well as the benefit structure for retirees and active employees. SAEA finds it incomprehensible that the District would propose a benefits cap one year after reaching an agreement that provides for a percentage payment. Also, we have made it clear that the issue is not open for the 2007-08 Contract, and that their proposals in many ways are incomplete and inconsistent. The Association has countered that any discussion of further benefit changes include the possibility of moving to a benefits trust. In addition, we believe that retiree benefits must include a provision that secures the benefits for those who already earned years of benefits under the Information Section of the Contract (IN.6.2.2.1).
SAEA has counter proposals in all of the areas mentioned by the District, though it should be noted that the District has not responded in the areas of Safety and Class Size.
The District and the Association continue to meet. SAEA, too, hopes that reasonable progress can be made so that we can address the impact of the State Budget crisis and the needs of teachers and students.
#196
The needs of the students is to have their teachers. The needs of the teachers is not to pay $1000 a year to a union that pretends to fight for the rights of teachers as they get fired one right after another.
Ronald Reagan proved about 25 years ago that no union can rule and SAUSD has proven that no union can dominate them either. The only weaker union than SAEA is CSEA who can’t even put up a decent website and lie about all they do for their members. Has anyone ever noticed that the high profile cases won by teachers are handled by private attorneys and not union ones?
I wonder if the district could afford to keep most of its teachers if they paid each $1000 a year less and the teachers didn’t have to pay union dues. When unions went closed shop someone should have realized they were being taken for a ride.
History is a cruel mistress. Unions are on the rise-and in crisis- across the economy and across the world. This is caused by something. Think hard.
197, your grammar is, perhaps, middle school level? Is this the Bishop’s gardener speaking up? Sad testimony.
# 198
Thank you for your commentary on my level of grammer. I thought I might write at a level even you could understand.
No, I am not the gardener at Willard. Now that you mention it I do have serious problems with “the” Bishop as do many others that seem to have firsthand knowledge. I worked with him at SAHS many years ago but have not had the displeasure since. Obviously we both moved on.
I have also had the displeasure of watching my friends pink slipped while the union stands by and pretends to work on their behalf. As a union hack I understand your distaste for my comments.
# 198
Thank you for your commentary on my level of grammer. I thought I might write at a level even you could understand.
No, I am not the gardener at Willard. Now that you mention it I do have serious problems with “the” Bishop as do many others that seem to have firsthand knowledge. I worked with him at SAHS many years ago but have not had the displeasure since. Obviously we both moved on.
I have also had the displeasure of watching my friends pink slipped while the union stands by and pretends to work on their behalf. As a union hack I understand your distaste for my comments.
#197,199
Your comments indicate that you have no clue concerning SAEA or CSEA. The people that work for the benefit of all volunteer their time after doing their regular job as an employee of SAUSD. They do not just stand by as you apparently do. They cannot change the reality of the drop in enrollment in SAUSD or the budget problems of the state of California. If you are a teacher in the district you just got a huge raise due to the efforts of these volunteers. Part of the raise was a restoration of a cut in pay accepted in an effort to save jobs. Part of the raise was COLA from the state over the past few years. If you think that was given by the district you need to think again. They tried to hold it up. Your benefits were saved as the result of their efforts. That whole package was negotiated by the volunteers. As an employee of SAUSD you have the option to stand by and accept the work of others on your behalf or volunteer to help. Many of the volunteers have done so for many years and could use some help or at least some support. I suggest that you stop your attacks and get to work since you seem to be unhappy with what is going on. Calling someone a union hack does little good and only shows how uninformed you are.
#199 #200
“As a union hack…” I don’t think you understand anything. I don’t even think you will understand that comment or even what your own words mean.