Well, we are in a New Year and we need to close up our 2008 SAUSD corruption thread before it becomes overwhelmed with comments. Consider this to be our new 2009 SAUSD corruption thread.
Click here to read our 2008 thread. And here are links to all our previous SAUSD corruption threads:
- 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
The results of last year’s SAUSD School Board elections were disappointing. The incumbents were re-elected. Shame on the teacher’s union for supporting them! And the one new Trustee, Roman Reyna, is not likely to make a difference.
The SAUSD budget is a mess and our Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, appears primed to make it worse. So this is going to be a very tough year. As always, this forum will be here to allow you to vent about what is going on at the SAUSD!
Al Mijares is long gone, but the corruption at the SAUSD continues unabated…
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/school-education-orange-2291805-county-department
Monday, January 26, 2009
County honors educators, programs
Education officials present ‘Outstanding Contributions to Education’ awards.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
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Three Orange County educators and a dance studio that works with at-risk youth were honored last week at a countywide awards ceremony for their outstanding contributions to local schools, the Orange County Department of Education announced.
Jack Cusick, assistant principal at Costa Mesa’s TeWinkle Middle School; Ann Niedringhaus, a volunteer for Santa Ana’s Music Mobile program for third-graders; and Jim Tamialis, a Laguna Hills High School math teacher, were given “Outstanding Contributions to Education” awards by the Orange County Department of Education on Friday in Costa Mesa. Saint Joseph Ballet, a Santa Ana dance studio that works with at-risk youth, also received the award.
Individuals or groups that have made significant contributions in the local education community are nominated throughout the year for the award, which is presented six times annually. Winners receive a plaque and recognition on the Orange County Department of Education’s Web site.
To nominate an individual for an “Oustanding Contributions to Education” award, go to outstanding.ocde.us.
Jack Cusick, assistant principal at TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa
Cusick was honored for his diligent efforts to ensure children’s safety on campus and for his technological savvy.
He is credited with expanding his school’s Web site, including adding information on school events, tests, activities, sports, field trips, school board and PTA meetings and the dress code.
He also is admired for his immediate attention to bullying and other issues affecting campus safety.
“Jack is known as a strong team member, working very closely with the school principal,” Orange County Department of Education board member Elizabeth Parker said in a statement. “Parents have noted that he is well respected among the students, and they know their children are safe on campus because he does an excellent job of orchestrating respectful behavior.”
Ann Niedringhaus, volunteer for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s Music Mobile program for Santa Ana third-graders
An 18-year volunteer for the Irvine-based Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Niedringhaus has been instrumental to the continued operation of the society’s Music Mobile program, officials said.
The program consists of a fleet of two vans filled with musical instruments and visual aids that travels from school to school to introduce the symphony orchestra and basic musical concepts to young children.
Niedringhaus has chaired the program several times and has built up its volunteer base by training others. She is a retired Santa Ana Unified School District music teacher.
“Ann is a dedicated professional who has introduced many students to the wonderful world of music,” Orange County Department of Education board member Alexandria Coronado said in a statement. “It is clear that she cares about each and every person she works with and that her work truly makes a difference.”
Jim Tamialis, math department chair at Laguna Hills High School
Tamialis was honored for his expertise and guidance in leading Laguna Hills High School’s math department.
He is admired for his quiet demeanor and his ability to speak volumes through a rational thought process.
He was recognized two years ago as one of 10 finalists for the “Educator of the Year” award presented by California League of High Schools.
“From the moment of his 5:30 a.m. arrival each day, Jim is there for his students,” Orange County Department of Education board member Jack Bedell said in a statement. “He provides tutorial assistance and help with assignments, allows time for make-up tests, and connects with students by being available to talk.”
Saint Joseph Ballet, a dance studio in Santa Ana that works with at-risk youth
Santa Ana’s Saint Joseph Ballet was recognized for integrating year-round dance training with academic assistance and family services, offering an alternative to youth who might otherwise fall victim to destructive behaviors.
Founded in 1983, the company offers dance instruction to fourth- through 12th-graders. Classes are taught by trained instructors and become progressively more challenging, allowing participants to improve year after year.
Youth who participate in the program are said to gain self-confidence, improve their grades and acquire skills that help them graduate from high school and attend college at a significantly higher rate than their peers on a national level.
Melanie Ríos Glaser, artistic director for Saint Joseph Ballet, accepted the award.
“As long as the Ballet is able to continue fulfilling its mission, at-risk youth will continue leaving behind a life hindered by poverty’s imposing obstacles and embrace a life filled with hope and opportunity,” Orange County Department of Education board member Long Pham said in a statement.
Although i have not heard much on classified. Has anyone heard about us? All I’m hearing now is that they will ask us to take furlough days now. I’m sure what more they can cut with us as there are not many of us left.
Here are some notes circulating after the last SAEA meeting this week.
Expect an additional 2.1 billion in mid-year cuts at the state level. California will be out of money in February, and in fact it is already issuing IOU’s. Govenor wants 5 days less of instruction = $1.5 billion. Expect hanges to ed. Code = send it back to districts and make each district adjust from 180 days down to 175 days. This will have to be negotiated with unions for each district/contract.
Federal help of 10 billion proposed by the president for California will not help k-12 much. Approximately 10 million of those dollars will go to SAUSD.
• Reducing per-student spending by $1,200 /yr =increasing the class size by 50%. Layoff of almost 160,000 teachers state wide. 2009-2010 cut 4/9 billion to educational school services. No COLA, count on 3 years with no raise. CTA expects 50,000 teachers will be riffed soon. 535 RIF’s in SAUSD.
SAUSD expects $20 million in mid-year cuts and $24 million less in 2009-2010
March 13 is state DAY of teacher. There will be events held for the day.
SAUSD will do a press release. Proposing no new book adoptions, only replacement books. Long Beach superintendent took a voluntary paycut of 10% in a show of support to staff.
CTA will fight attempts to combine pots of money – categorical and general funding b/c of vulnerable programs like nutrition and special education. SAEA is ready to organize now. State budget crisis is of premiere concern. 55 teachers are needed for the 70% salary offer for retirement. SAUSD board of education will be voting on reduced number of credits to graduate.
Timeline for RIF’s was handed out. RIF’s will begin in the next couple of months.
sad…
I’ve been giving my best for my students, their parents, and this district for 10+ years now at one of the worst sites and now?
Even teachers like me with over a decade of service may be RIFed this year.
I feel even worse for all those incoming/new teachers who have been trying to get a position. It truly sucks that after four or more years of college to be a teacher, they won’t be able to get a job for MANY years. Hey, education/students/parents need these fresh, energetic, highly-educated “newbies”. But, it will be a long time before any placements will become open. SAD!
Pathetic minging whiners. SA teachers are a politically apathetic lot, Republican or libertAryan, they deserve what they get. They don’t believe in public education and it shows in their work. SAD!
I am a fairly new teacher to the district. This is a nice district with good kids. I don’t know if I can handle getting rif’d, then rehired, then losing a year of service on the payscale, then getting no COL increase, and then worrying about doing that over and over again year after year.
I mean, losing the year is silly. I can swap to almost any other district… What if I do that, and then swap back later? Will they deduct a year from my salary still?
I really, really don’t want to leave this district. I don’t even entirely mind the loss of a year on the payscale… that might be the dumbest thing I have said in months.
There should be some kind of intelligence test involved in being hired by the SAUSD district office.
So much to say. Rintrah, please shut up,if you don’t know anything, don’t say anything. How dare you call the teachers of Santa Ana such horrible names. Have you tried to teach day in and day out under the circumstances we face? Most of us believe in our students, love them and do the best we can. The fact that you can make such sweeping generalizations really speaks volumes of your lack of knowledge and understanding.
Newblar, I’m so sorry for the situation the new teachers find themselves faced with both this year and last year. I know many fine new teachers who are being put through hell because of the state’s crisis. I am sad to say that it really won’t be any different in another district though. It may feel worse in this district because the ineptitude in this district began long before the state crisis, but now everyone is faced with the same issues. All I can say to those who will be RIF’ed and most likely will lose their jobs this year is to continue teaching as a substitute if you can, get applications out everywhere and hang in there, things will eventually change. I have been teaching over 20 years in this district and personally was RIF’d in my 2nd year. I am confident that things will turn around although this is definitely the worst I have seen. The most staggering fact to me is that we can expect 1 out of every 5 teachers to receive a RIF notice this year. The outcome is really dependent on how the state is able to resolve the financial tsunami that has engulfed us.
A recent court decision (sorry, don’t have the reference at this site) determined that, for the basis of establishing a seniority list for teacher lay-offs, a credentialed teacher who was originally hired as with an “emergency credential” will be given the date hired with the emergency credential as their original date of hire. Last year a number of teachers were given a start date as their first day of work with a “clear credential”, even though they had worked as a full-time teacher for several years with the emergency credential. Teachers need to take the initiative to insure that HR has their correct date of hire; and must be done right away, Feb 2, as the RIF list is about to be made up. The SAUSD HR makes frequent mistakes.
So I am looking at changing my kids to another district at the end of the year. My daughter came home today and said her teacher won’t be back next week, she found another job. Too many principals at the schoolno one to do the work. my neighbor only work a couple hours a day now at a school, she was full time. There is going to be trouble at schools with bullies and my kids will not be safe.
So SAUSD is going to *ignore* a year of service on the pay schedule?
Wow, just wow. Responding to the previous post (#106), how does that work with moving in and out of the district? Does this mean it would benefit newbie teachers (7-8 years and less) to LEAVE the district and then come back?
I know SAUSD pays more than some other districts, and fuck, I don’t mind if the district tries to renegotiate the pay schedule… but knowing that the district is just going to ignore the pay schedule, when I might be in this district for 5, 10, 15, or 20 more years???
Removing a year from my pay schedule will make me quit this district.
SAUSD, good luck replacing your good, new teachers. I couldn’t live with myself if I taught for (what I thought would be) 15-20-25 more years in this district, knowing that they had randomly ignored 1 year of my service.
SAEA union president, David Barton, is also a school board member for Long Beach so he has a unique perspective of both labor and management. The superintendent of Long Beach has given himself a voluntary 10% paycut as a show of support for the rest of LB’s employees.
The idea of freezing step/column is really bad faith bargaining. It is shameful.
Vice President Biden has a website dedicated to strengthening the middle class. The constant destruction of the middle class by firing workers can be reported directly to the Vice President using this link. Join me in reporting SAUSD.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/strongmiddleclass/
The reason I can speak so honestly about SAUSD teachers is cuz I ‘ve been teaching there for many years….I repeat, “The teachers are to blame for their passive and cowardly acceptance of the status quo. At my school site, most of the teachers are red-diaper Repugs, loony blowhard libertAryans who are too weak or cowardly to get a job outside of Big Gummerment, or completely whacked out American Taliban store-front church attending fundamentalist Xtians. They deserve the crap they are living through.” We live in a society governed by laws; teachers inaction, cowardice and complaisance has led our district, county, state, and nation to the brink of disaster. So quit yer whining and do something.
Rintrah I was going to make a comment about you but now that I think of it..you are so not worth my time.
Before everyone starts getting all excited and spreading rumors about step and column freezes, please understand that NO ONE has proposed this. This is one of three issues that the union will pretty much fight to the death over. I just don’t think it’s going to happen. The point of the union discussion was that it is POSSIBLE that it will be mentioned when contract negotiations begin. One of the key reasons SAEA supported (not me, SAEA, so relax) Richardson and Hernandez is that the union has them both videotaped making statements that they would never seek to freeze the pay scale. I can see the possibility of a pay cut, just not a scale freeze.
jpalacio@pacbell.net
Email Blast:
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Local school officials: Be skeptical of TV ad about class sizes
They say state plan wouldn’t radically hurt K-3 student-teacher ratio.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Orange County education officials are warning parents to be cautious about interpreting a new TV ad that claims Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some lawmakers are using the state’s economic downturn as “an excuse” to eliminate smaller class sizes in the primary grades.
The ad, set to begin airing this weekend, is part of a new campaign by the California teachers union to urge defeat of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s controversial proposal for helping schools weather reduced funding levels.
In essence, the governor’s plan would allow schools to use state money that’s earmarked for specific programs and services, including the class-size reduction program, or CSR, to help make up for general-fund revenue shortfalls.
CSR guarantees a 20:1 student-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grade by subsidizing teacher salaries.
“Nobody would want to eliminate class-size reduction if they didn’t have to,” said Wendy Benkart, the Orange County Department of Education’s assistant superintendent of business services. “However, our school districts would prefer to have flexibility and local control on how to spend their dollars, including class-size reduction dollars.”
If California school districts get that flexibility, it would give them an estimated $1.3 billion in CSR funds to spend as they see fit.
The state teachers union, however, warns that some school districts would elect to stop funding smaller class sizes altogether as they grapple with their budget woes.
The end result would be teacher layoffs and communities devastated by suddenly big class sizes, especially impoverished areas with high minority populations who struggle academically, union leaders said Friday during a telephone news conference from Sacramento.
“Our concern is that this proposal gives the district administrators carte blanche to be able to spend the money however they want, with no accountability,” California Teachers Association President David Sanchez said.
But local officials say the situation in Orange County wouldn’t be as dire as the union predicts. At most, class sizes in grades K-3 might be increased by two or three children each, to 22 or 23 students, Benkart said.
And with slightly higher class sizes in the primary grades, it might even be possible to reduce class sizes in the upper grades, she added.
“Parents think very highly of the class-size reduction program, but when you’re forced to make cuts of this magnitude, it’s better for each district to be able to make the decisions,” Benkart said.
Orange County schools received $124.5 million from the state in CSR funds last year.
Without spending flexibility, the 34,000-student Saddleback Valley Unified School District last year was forced to modify its popular 20:1 ratio in the third grade as part of its budget-cutting plan. Instead of an all-day 20:1 student-teacher ratio in third grade classes, about 10 children are now pulled out of larger classes for part of their day to receive instruction in language arts and math.
“I want to see our district get all the flexibility possible,” said Saddleback school board President Ginny Fay Aitkens. “We don’t want to get rid of small class sizes altogether, but we need to have a little bit more leeway in the number of kids in each class. Then the kids are still holding onto smaller class sizes, and we’re still getting the money.”
To view the California Teachers Association’s new TV ad about class sizes, go to http://www.cta.org.
Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com
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Bid for flexibility in use of class-size reduction funds criticized
Unions and activists say Schwarzenegger’s proposal would mean bigger classes in poor and minority schools. Administrators say adding a few more pupils per class could save the program.
By Seema Mehta
January 31, 2009
Los Angeles Times
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal to allow school districts to use state class-size reduction funding any way they choose is alarming teachers unions and community activists, who say it will inevitably lead to ballooning classrooms in the state’s neediest communities.
“What’s most offensive is that eliminating class-size reduction won’t save the state one dime,” said David A. Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Assn., which is launching a television ad blitz this weekend urging Californians to call Schwarzenegger and their legislators to oppose the proposal. “Districts will continue to receive that funding from the state, but won’t have to spend that money on class-size reduction, or frankly, even in the classroom.”
Activists say the proposal will take the greatest toll on minority and poor districts.
“I can assure you that the districts in poorer neighborhoods will be the first to increase classroom sizes, [which] means the achievement gap will widen,” said Alicia Gaddis, board chairwoman of the Sacramento branch of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now. “That is a tragedy.”
The proposal is among many aimed at dealing with California’s deep financial crisis. The state is facing a projected deficit of nearly $42 billion by the middle of next year. The 2009-10 budget is far from finalized, and it is unknown whether the class-size reduction proposal will survive negotiations in Sacramento. But education will probably face major cuts, because it makes up about 40% of the state budget.
A Schwarzenegger spokesman called the CTA’s claims “misleading.”
“If a school district believes class-size reduction is one of the highest priorities, nothing in the governor’s proposal will prevent them from being able to carry it on,” said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance.
He said the suggestion for greater flexibility in how districts can spend nearly $15.7 billion next year in so-called categorical funds, including $1.3 billion for kindergarten through third grade class-size reduction, came last fall from district superintendents as a way to address the impending state-funding cuts.
“The governor is proposing basically to tear down the fences that restrict how these dollars can be spent in order to give local school districts the greatest flexibility possible to allocate these dollars where they are needed the most,” Palmer said.
Class-size reduction, which became law in 1996, pays districts $1,071 yearly per student in kindergarten through third-grade classes with an average of 20 students or fewer per teacher. Several studies have shown that smaller class sizes lead to academic gains.
But several California district officials said that without greater flexibility, class-size reduction, which is subsidized with other district funds, will be on the chopping block as districts make tough decisions.
“Flexibility is always a good thing for a school district because we have a better and more intimate understanding of what our own district needs are,” said Leslie Crunelle, assistant superintendent of educational services in the San Gabriel Unified School District.
Alice Petrossian, chief academic officer in the Pasadena Unified School District, said cutting class-size reduction could save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, but allowing the district to add a couple of students to each class would help keep smaller classes intact.
“The flexibility in class-size reduction is crucial to saving class-size reduction,” Petrossian said. “Here’s what the option is: If we don’t get some level of flexibility to move up to 22 or 23 [students], the next option for districts who are cutting it will be [class sizes of] 30 or 31.”
She said school boards that try to summarily eliminate class-size reduction and spend the money on other costs, particularly if they are not in the classroom, will face parental revolt.
The governor’s proposal could also ease a move being considered for next year by Los Angeles Unified to increase class sizes in kindergarten through third grade and decrease sizes in fourth- and fifth-grade classes to meet a ratio of 25 students per teacher across those grades.
But other educators, such as state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, who wrote the class-size reduction legislation in 1996 while a member of the state Senate, say the governor’s proposal will lead to a dismantling of class-size reduction and an increase in the achievement gap.
“It’s a sad day for all of California,” he said. “This would be a major step backward. We know class-size reduction works. To address the dropout rate, we need more class-size reduction at more grade levels.”
seema.mehta@latimes.com
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Reducing California state payroll a daunting task
Schwarzenegger may succeed where Pete Wilson and Gray Davis failed. Legal precedents, political alliances and policy protections built up over the years by unions are formidable obstacles.
By Evan Halper
January 31, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — The notion that the only safe job in a recession is a state Civil Service job was punctured this week when a Sacramento court gave the governor the authority to take an ax to the government payroll.
Thursday’s Superior Court ruling, which greenlighted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to shut down much of state government on two Fridays each month — forcing 238,000 mostly unionized workers to stay home without pay — follows decades in which the state workforce remained relatively impervious to financial crises.
Governors have long tried — and mostly failed — to reverse the growth of the state payroll when deficits have soared. Even as private companies lay off tens of thousands of workers, the state employment rolls tend to remain impenetrable.
Past plans for reductions have been tangled in a thicket of policy protections, political alliances and legal precedents that organized labor has built up over the years. Delays in scheduled pay raises or trims in generous worker benefit packages are typically the extent of what governors wrangle from the unions.
Cutting the state workforce “is just very difficult to do,” said Jason Dickerson, a public employment expert at the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. “It can be a very long and cumbersome process.”
Personnel records show that there have been no mass layoffs in state government since 1975, when 2,500 California Department of Transportation employees lost their jobs during a budget crunch.
Schwarzenegger sidestepped the layoff process by opting for furloughs. Whether his plan to save $1.3 billion that way will survive the court appeal process remains to be seen.
Gov. Pete Wilson attempted a similar move in 1991. He used his emergency powers to cut the salaries of most of the state workforce by 5%. A state court judge ultimately ruled that the governor could not do so without the consent of the Legislature, and the money was eventually returned to employees in cash or vacation time.
Wilson also threatened to lay off 10,000 state workers that same year, when California was facing a $14.1-billion deficit. It never happened. Wilson abandoned the idea after years of battle with public employee unions.
Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 put plans in motion to lay off some 12,000 workers, sending them notices that the state had begun the lengthy process of eliminating their jobs. That process can involve six to eight months of appeal hearings, paperwork processing and negotiations between the state and unions. Those layoffs never happened either.
Instead, Davis struck a deal with the unions that put off a promised 5% pay raise for a year. In return, the affected workers got an extra day off with pay each month.
Schwarzenegger has been stymied in previous efforts to reduce the workforce.
His 2004 California Performance Review, a top-to-bottom examination of state government, proposed various ways the state could consolidate operations to function more effectively. The Legislature rejected every one of them. The governor put the proposals on the back burner, and the state payroll continued to grow.
The governor’s plan to temporarily cut state worker pay to the federal minimum wage during last summer’s cash crunch also failed. The state controller refused to make the salary reductions, which would have been repaid to the workers once a budget was signed. The courts declined to intervene before a budget deal was reached.
Labor leaders say that when the economy goes south, Californians need government services more than ever and that it is simply not a practical time to throw public employees onto the street.
“There are certain things that the state needs to do more of during bad times,” said Jim Zamora, spokesman for Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, which represents tens of thousands of state workers. “You can’t cut the workforce without making decisions about what it is that you are not going to do anymore.”
Unemployment claims that need to be processed rise in tough times, as do requests for welfare assistance, for example.
Government healthcare programs are stressed by Californians who have lost their private insurance. And some things, such as prisons, continue to operate around the clock.
Indeed, despite the furloughs and the governor’s urging departments to make only the most essential new hires, all indications are that the state has not completely curbed its appetite for new employees.
The State Personnel Board’s website lists 2,975 current vacancies. Of those, 1,172 were posted in the last two weeks. One local entrepreneur, Ken Mandler, continues to hold popular workshops on how to get a state job. He said he was too busy in meetings with clients to be interviewed.
Labor leaders argue that California already has one of the most efficient workforces, with a lower ratio of state employees to the population than most other states. But there are other factors in play.
California labor law generally stipulates that a governor cannot require give-backs from unionized state employees without offering something in return. The courts, until this week, have generally upheld that principle.
Steven Frates, a senior fellow at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College, says California officials might have an easier time slimming the workforce if they planned for it. Cutting state departments, he said, is tricky business that needs to be done with precision. Waiting until there is a budget crisis and then announcing across-the-board reductions, as Schwarzenegger has done, can backfire.
“It’s tough to just make big cuts quickly,” Frates said.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office, for example, said Friday that the governor’s estimate of savings from the furloughs is probably too optimistic. State hospitals, prisons and other 24-hour facilities may wind up paying significant overtime to keep their operations staffed properly, the report said.
But Frates said there is a reluctance to irritate the powerful unions with talk of job reductions before it is absolutely necessary. By then, it is usually too late to devise a practical plan. “The political will just isn’t there,” he said.
evan.halper@latimes.com
A Sacramento judge orders officials to implement Schwarzenegger’s plan to force 238,000 state employees to take two days off without pay each month.
By Patrick McGreevy and Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:34 AM PST, January 29, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — A state court has ordered government officials to immediately implement Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s executive order requiring state employees take two days off without pay each month, denying claims by unions and the state controller that the order is illegal.
The decision by Sacramento Superior Court Patrick Marlette clears the way for 238,000 state employees to be furloughed on the first and third Fridays of each month starting Feb. 6. Marlette said in his ruling that the governor has the authority to implement such cuts during an emergency.
The state is in the midst of a financial crisis, with an immediate cash shortage and a projected deficit of nearly $42 billion by the middle of next year. Refunds to taxpayers and other payments will be suspended Feb. 1 because the state does not have the money for them.
“The current circumstances constitute an emergency,” Marlette’s ruling said. He called the governor’s executive order “reasonable and necessary under the circumstances.”
Public employees unions had argued that furloughs must be approved by the Legislature. State Controller John Chiang agreed and sided in court with the Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, the Professional Engineers in California Government and the California Assn. of Professional Scientists.
But the administration argued successfully that Schwarzenegger can put the furloughs in place unilaterally during a fiscal emergency.
The equivalent of a 9% pay cut, the furloughs will save the state about $1.3 billion through June 30, 2010. The court ruling does not affect the governor’s order to cut state agency payrolls by another 10% through actions possibly including layoffs.
evan.halper@latimes.com, patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Records contradict Capistrano district trustees’ claim
Documents show Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter did not work against school board to get teachers’ contract signed.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – Public documents contradict statements by Capistrano Unified trustees that they were not formally notified that a teachers’ employment contract worth more than $200 million was signed on their behalf, calling into question their assertion that Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter routinely failed to provide them with important material.
Board President Ellen Addonizio and trustees Anna Bryson and Larry Christensen – the most senior members of Capistrano’s seven-member school board – told the Register earlier this month that district staff members had failed to provide them with a copy of a tentative employment contract signed in October 2008 between the school district and its 2,400-member teachers union.
Public records, however, indicate the trustees were provided with copies two days after the 2008-09 school year pact was signed. One trustee also confirmed the school board received a second copy from district staff a week later.
“In one of the shortest negotiations sessions in recent history, a tentative agreement was reached,” Carter said in an Oct. 17 memo to trustees. “The attached tentative agreement will be formally presented to trustees for approval in closed session on Oct. 20, 2008.”
When trustees rejected the agreement in a 4-3 vote in November, Capistrano Unified’s teachers union accused them of “reneging” on a written, signed promise. A widely circulated, anonymous e-mail also accused the superintendent of orchestrating an effort to get the contract signed without the trustees’ knowledge.
The records and Deputy Superintendent Suzette Lovely say that’s not so.
“The superintendent does not sit in on the negotiations,” said Lovely, the district’s chief labor negotiator, who signed the contract Oct. 15 on behalf of trustees. “I called Mr. Carter from the meeting to get concurrence (on whether it was appropriate to sign the contract), which is protocol. There was concurrence. I signed the contract.”
The one-page contract stipulates no cost-of-living raises for teachers, but says the school district will absorb “any increased costs associated with step and column and health and welfare benefits.”
Carter, who has declined all interview requests since he was put on paid administrative leave Jan. 6, had no comment.
CONTRACT CRUCIAL
Capistrano Unified’s employment contract for its 2,400 teachers is a critical component of the district’s long-term budget planning strategy. Faced with a $38 million shortfall this year and next, Capistrano Unified is looking to save money wherever it can.
In December, trustees approved a tentative budget plan for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years that calls for $14.9 million in cuts. About $10 million of the savings are based on the assumption that teachers will get no cost-of-living raises or step salary increases, which are automatic annual raises.
Without a teachers’ contract in place, the district has no assurance it will be able to get these concessions from union leaders. The rejected contract has yet to be renegotiated.
“We are in a bind,” Addonizio said. “The employees deserve to have a contract, and all parties work better when we have a contract, but the board is just trying to find a way to make payroll right now.”
The teachers’ contract represents more than half of the Capistrano’s $407 million annual budget. Teachers are working under last year’s contract this year, but any raises negotiated will need to paid retroactively to July 2008.
In a budget presentation earlier this month, Deputy Superintendent Ron Lebs said the growing district would spend $9.5 million more next year if it were to extend to all employees the benefits contained in the rejected teachers’ contract.
Trustees have never explicitly said the October contract was rejected because of the financial burden, noting contract negotiations are confidential, but stressed the economic forecast for public education worsened considerably around that time.
In late October 2008, Gov. Arnold Swarzenegger began warning school officials to brace for $2 billion to $4 billion in cuts in the middle of the school year. His latest proposal, released earlier this month, calls for a $2.1 billion mid-year cut.
“I hope teachers understand our position,” Trustee Christensen said. “We were looking at the district losing several million dollars. We’re trying to save every teacher’s job.”
ACCUSATIONS FLY
The flap over the October contract became a rallying cry for Carter’s removal in the wake of the school board’s decision to put him on leave.
In an anonymously circulated e-mail outlining the “Top 10 reasons Superintendent Carter must go,” Reason No. 5 says Carter “directed” his deputy superintendent to sign the tentative agreement without the trustees’ authorization or approval.
“At a time when Carter acknowledged he doesn’t know how they will even fund classrooms, he and his staff illegally signed an agreement stating ‘any increased costs associated with (automatic raises) and health and welfare benefits will be absorbed by the district,'” the e-mail says.
Trustees have never gone so far as to imply Carter was working against them. But in separate Register interviews earlier this month, three of them adamantly insisted they never received the contract.
Documents obtained through a public records request contradict those claims, calling into question their prior assertions that Carter would routinely fail to provide them with important information related to district affairs, including information they specifically asked for.
(Click here to read the two-page document provided to the Register through a public records request.)
Bryson, the lone dissenter on the school board’s 6-1 vote to put Carter on leave, defended her colleagues, saying there were multiple, documented reasons that led to Carter’s leave of absence. Trustees say they can’t disclose those reasons because of employee privacy laws.
“I think various trustees had circumstances which were valid,” Bryson said. “They are pretty practical people and I have to give them their credit on accepting what occurred in some instances. It’s pretty well documented.”
Bryson confirmed this week she found a signed copy of the contract after digging through her old Capistrano Unified files. Her searching also netted a second copy of the contract, which was provided to trustees in an information packet for an Oct. 20 meeting, she said.
“I asked myself why I couldn’t remember it,” Bryson said. “I had just come back from finance seminar in Northern California. I had to fly to Tennessee a few weeks prior because an immediate family member was ill. There was just a great deal on my mind at that time.”
Teachers’ salaries
Multiple factors affect how much Capistrano Unified teachers are compensated. Each of these items is negotiated annually with the school district. In the 2007-08 school year, the average Capistrano teacher made $75,390; the state average was $65,425.
Step and column: A teacher’s base salary is calculated based on tenure with the district and amount of education beyond a bachelor’s degree. These factors combine to form a salary table known as “step and column.” A teacher “steps down” the table vertically, to a higher salary, for each year of employment with the district. And a teacher who had additional credentials or has taken certain classes “steps across” the table horizontally, also to a higher salary.
Health and welfare benefits: The district pays for all or at least a portion of full-time teachers’ medical, dental, vision and life insurance. The district’s expenditures vary based on the type of plan and number of dependents.
Retirement benefits: California law requires school districts to contribute the equivalent of about 11.5 percent of the average teacher’s total compensation to the State Teachers Retirement System, which holds teachers’ retirement accounts.
Timeline
Oct. 6, 2008: Trustees meet in a closed-door meeting with Deputy Superintendent Suzette Lovely, their chief labor negotiator, to discuss the teachers’ employment contract. It’s one in a series of meetings the trustees have been having since spring 2008.
Oct. 15: Lovely meets with union leaders and signs a tentative agreement with union First Vice President Sally White that calls for no cost-of-living adjustments, but obligates the district to absorb increased costs associated with step-and-column salary increases and health benefits.
Oct. 17: Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter, in a memo to trustees, summarizes the Oct. 15 negotiations and attaches a copy of the one-page signed agreement to the memo for trustees’ review. Carter says they will be asked to ratify it Oct. 20.
Oct. 20: Trustees meet in a closed-door meeting with Lovely to discuss the teachers’ employment contract. Trustees are again provided with a copy of the signed tentative agreement, according to Trustee Anna Bryson, who reports finding it in her files a few months later. They report taking no action on the contract.
Oct. 28: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger begins telling school officials to brace for $2 billion to $4 billion in cuts in the middle of the school year.
Nov. 3: Trustees reject the contract in a 4-3 vote. The teachers union accuses the trustees of “reneging” on a written, signed promise and posts the contract on its Web site.
Jan. 6, 2009: The superintendent is put on paid administrative leave by a 6-1 school board vote.
Early January: An anonymous e-mail circulates claiming the superintendent had the contract signed against the trustees’ wishes and without board approval. The board’s three most senior trustees say they were not formally notified about the signed contract until after they voted it down Nov. 3, lending credence to the claim Carter was secretly working against them.
Late January: In response to a public records request, the school district provides a copy of Carter’s Oct. 17 memo that shows trustees received a copy of the signed contract. Trustee Anna Bryson, at the Register’s request, is asked to verify that trustees, in fact, received this information; she digs through her files and confirms Carter shared the document. She also says her files show a second copy of the signed contract was provided to trustees for their Oct. 20 meeting.
Why the teachers are having a fit over rumors? Oh yeah that because we all know rumors in this district end up being true. I can already predict whats going to happen. Just like last year the teachers will get riffed. They will march and protest with everyone watching and supporting. By June most will come back and the District will layoff Classified again. By June it will be to late and nobody will be there when we march and protest. We will get the shaft again. SAEA endorsed the pigs hernandez and richardson so if they turn their back on you its by your doing. If the District really gave a dam about everyone they would make Russo take a cut (because we all know shes overpaid and incompetent) and stop cutting from the school sites. Certificated and Classified support the students and make the schools run. CUT AT THE DAM DISTRICT OFFICE FOR ONCE! My god they have no connected with the students and even then why employ them for 12 months when school is in session for 9.5? We all need to stop the talk and take action! STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!
You are so right! I am sick and tired to keep taking the brunt of this. Every year we classified take the hit. Good workers at the school get bumped or just lose their jobs.. We are left again with people who have to do 2 or 3 or jobs.. but as everyone keeps telling us “you still have a job” Heaven forbit we should complain. Most of some think of us as disposable till they find there is not enough front office staff..there is no nurse..there is no accounts clerk..there is no secretary..there is no library tech..there is no groundsman.. I was away from my desk and had to cover phones a teacher complained that “They are not at their desk doing the job” Well no kidding sherlock!! I am covering another job! Open your eyes..Come on Certificated and Classified we need to all stick together!
I also say why all the 12 month employee left?? Hey, I’d be happy to take a furlough day if it would help. I am a teacher and I appreciate all the classifed. I feel for them. I am hoping that they will leave you alone this time as the last time you guys really took it last summer. I also don’t see how much more they can cut you unless it is asking for furloughs..I hear that may happen but not just to classified but also to certificated. Alot of good teachers will be gone and not coming back this time around. High Schools need their support staff as they are much bigger than elementary but the person is right in the comment by saying we all should stick together on this one
well if we don’t have classified we save a lot of money and nothing gets done in the front office or extra work with students in a lot of classes.
or
We cut back teachers and save more money, and class sizes will be 50-60 students and you can rest assured there will not be as many assignments and things will not be covered. When students get to college, they will take remedial classes, and probably not make it to sacond semester.
or
We cut back the district office and administrators and save a lot of money and we save money and we save money……..
I vote for the last on
I hear a lot of teachers are starting to get bad evaluations this year in preparations for rifs
Where are the evaluations for district administrators?
WHO thinks they are performing “according to the standards”?
They all seem to me to be overpaid and overrated.
I’ve still never seen Russo show up at our site to “shake hands”. Some oversight…she can’t even be bothered to meet the employees she claims to lead.
Seriously why don’t we strike? Why don’t we all not show up and lets see what happens. Yes yes I know its bad for the kids and there will be no school but at least one or two days will show them. Better now we show them then let another year go by with even more lack of support. We need to stand together. Maybe then the Register will finally tell the truth about things. Maybe just maybe we will catch the eye of the “Terminator” How can a District be broke when they give raises and continue to remodel the office? Making space for more 12 month people? Why does Juan Lopez need a promotion? The guy doesn’t even know crap. Last year when they presented the proposed lay offs he had no idea which job descriptions were 10 or l1 months. Hes such a fast talker. I’m sick in tired of this poor management. I’m sick in tired of Classified and Subs being bullied into doing 2 or 3 jobs while the school has 4 to 6 Admin collecting at least 80 grand a year. I’m sick in tired about people being made nurses when they are hired to answer phones. I’m sick in tired of sites with little or no security. I’m sick in tired of Teachers being talked down to when they deserve to be respected. Is this the way you treat someone who went through so much schooling and waiting to get a spot to teach? I’m sick and tired of calling down to the District Office and no one picking up. I’m tired of all the unanswered questions. I’m sick and tired of the District protecting pedophiles. I’m sick and tired of the students wondering why their teacher is gone. I’m sick in tired of Special Ed students losing the people that care about them. I’m sick in tired of board members like Noji and her dynamic duo destroying our hard work. On the subject of Noji didn’t she say last year that the District office should all feel our pain? I’m sick and tired of all the lies! I’m sick and tired of these poor decisions like cutting down high school staff. I’m sick tired of Classified and Certificated being put down when we make this District function. When will this all end? It will end when we unite and demand for change! It will end when we march down to Chestnut and fight so our students have a fighting chance in this world. We need to unite so we can protect the OUR future.
……………Stepping down from my soap box.
classified on the frontline! I love it!!!
Frontline,
I agree with every word you said. Sadly I doubt it will ever happen. After almost 30 years I have seen classified members take furlough days, members riffed, jobs eliminated, and entire departments eliminated. What I have never seen is a serious classified walk-out, sick-out, or strike.
It never seems to matter what the district does, or does not do to teachers or administrators. Classified employees just seem to keep on taking it and I do not know why. One could speculate it is fear or the ‘me first’ mentality. Whatever it is, it seems to work in favor of the district.
The union is no help in most cases no matter how they brag about protecting the members. As the district cuts people the union will tell you how many jobs they saved. The members hours and benefits might have been cutback, but the union will tell you that you still have a job. The union will still take your dues and the LRR for the union at the Orange office still goes home with full pay, full time job, and benefits.
One thing I’ve learned is that classified employees, as a group, are driven at the local level. Even the union LRR will tell you that. In fact the LRR will use that as an excuse for inaction. Have you ever been to a union meeting to see how many show up? Have you ever noticed during elections how many actually vote? Normally it is far below half the membership.
With this kind of disfunction I do not know what it would take to unite the majority of the classified. Nothing really has so far. Even if a dog is kicked enough times, it will eventually bite back. I have no idea how many times the classified employees will have to be kicked before we bite back.
I hope we can figure out a way. Obviously it has to begin with communication within our own group. Perhaps we need to get a computer savvy person to start a net message board where SAUSD classified can interact.
In yet another “feelgood” story in the Register Education section today, School district administrators, teachers, and other interested people are holding a rally this evening at district HQ. You can read the story at the link below.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/district-budget-santa-2297114-school-rally
Amazing how the district continues to deflect its own negligence onto the state. Most certainly SAUSD would have been in a financial bind as a result of state actions, but as long as the district continues to hand out 20k raises for promotions to top level administrators and keeps spending money to remodel offices, it is clear that their is enough blame to spread around.
No wonder the teachers union joined into an agreement with Russo to work out solutions to SAUSD problems. Apparently the idea is to toss the blame at the state so no one will remember what happened on Chestnut St.
Here is David Barton’s January SAEA President’s Letter:
http://www.sateach.org/January%2027,%202009%20President's%20Letter.html
January President’s Letter
Jan. 27, 2009
Budget. The state of the nation’s economy continues to deteriorate. And as of today, the State’s deficit is $42 Billion and growing. So far every attempt to solve the problem has failed and we are left with little more than rumors about what is to be done. We do know that cuts to education funding are virtually certain; we just don’t know what will be targeted by the State or the District. Some people in Sacramento want to cut the school year by five days. Some want to cut (and some want to save) the Class Size Reduction program. Some want to remove the restrictions on categorical funds. Some want to underfund education by billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the news gets worse, the deficit continues to grow, and you and I must deal with constant anxiety and uncertainty. This month, SAEA, its Board of Directors and its Rep Council, reaffirmed our basic commitment to preserving your salaries and maintaining affordable benefits options. The coming weeks will present us with a tsunami of bad news on the education front. All we can do is hold on.
Day of Action. March 13, 2009. The Education Coalition is planning a statewide Day of Action on March 13th to highlight the dire conditions we face. Rallies will be held throughout the State, and as a mark of solidarity with the estimated 50,000 teachers who are expected to be RIF’d in California, teachers will be asked to wear pink (for the “pink slips”), rally at selected schools and contact their legislators. More details will be available shortly.
RIF ’s. The District has indicated that it plans to RIF a substantial number of teachers—perhaps as many as 535. The process is grueling, demoralizing, inherently unfair, and incalculably stressful for teachers and their families. Reps have been given a preliminary schedule of dates, though we do not yet have names or seniority numbers. The District will be producing those in the coming weeks. Once again, members will be represented by a CTA attorney, Carlos Perez. SAEA will be doing everything in its power to make the process go as smoothly as it can.
Retirement Incentive. Prior to winter break, I sent out, with District permission, preliminary information on a retirement incentive plan. The Board of Education formally adopted the plan on Jan. 13th, and the PARS company sent out materials a few days later. The plan is substantially the same as described in December, though they did modify the emeritus pay schedule to a flat $195. At a time of financial insecurity, it is gratifying to know that over 700 of our teachers have the option of taking early retirement with a 70% incentive. PARS has scheduled a number of meetings as has STRS, and I hope anyone who qualifies will seriously consider the District’s offer.
Retraining Agreement. I am also happy to report that the District implemented my suggestion that the District help to defray the cost of tuition and fees for teachers seeking another credential, if that credential matched the District’s need for Math and Special Ed teachers. Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the District and SAEA, teachers who take a CSET Math test preparation course will be able to receive a $500 stipend. Teaches who pass the CSET Math test and a Secondary Methods Course will also receive a $500 stipend. Even more, teachers who enroll in and complete the OCDE Special Education Intern Program will have tuition fees for this program paid for by the District.
Social Security Offset. Finally, as many of you know, teachers who are ordinarily eligible for Social Security have those payments partially offset by their STRS retirement due to decisions made by the legislature decades ago. This is an unfair and potentially devastating loss for teachers in California. Efforts to change this have stalled in Congress for years. However, a new bill (HR 235) has been introduced in Congress to eliminate the Social Security Offset. The bill is sponsored by 120 Congressmen, and President Obama has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. I hope all of you will write or call your Representative in Congress to urge passage of this bill.
David Barton
President, SAEA
http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=54039&catid=80
SACRAMENTO, CA – A new non-profit organization dedicated to closing the achievement gap, California ALL, marked its first year of operation in Sacramento.
The organization’s chief executive officer, Ruthe Ashley, said their goal is to reach out to underserved students, to enhance their success “from pre-school to the professions,” and prepare them to successfully lead California’s economic and political future.
California ALL awarded its first grant to the University of California, Irvine, for a Saturday Law Academy. The program runs for six consecutive Saturdays and introduces ninth graders in the Santa Ana Unified School District to the legal profession, and helps develop their critical thinking, writing and speaking skills.
Ashley said the goal of California ALL is to fund educational programs that reach out to California’s disadvantaged students and introduce them to careers in law, financial services and technology.
News10’s Sharon Ito emceed the January 27 reception in Sacramento honoring California ALL. Her interview with Ashley can be viewed by clicking the Video link to your right.
Click here for more information on California ALL.
News10/KXTV
It is good to see new posters here, Welcome!
Actually maybe it’s not a good sign- is everyone coming around b/c it is getting to be THAT time of year again, when RIF’s fill the air and fear drives everyone to Google “SAUSD”?
I stated above (Jan 29) that Asso. Supt. Juan Lopez would speak to the SAHS faculty today, and would post a summary thinking it would be in regard to confronting the budget cuts. However, his talk was solely on the recurring problem of sexual abuse of students by district employees. He gave a pretty good presentation of the exent of the problem, how to help deter it and how to avoid coming under unwarranted suspicion while maintaining the individual care and attention good teachers and coaches provide students.
Does anybody understand if the district is going to use the credential date or hire date for purposes of the RIF list? The district is schizophrenic. The letter they sent out to confirm everybody’s credential states that they will go by credential date. But the date of first service they are putting on everybody’s letter is the hire date. This is very confusing.
They have learned their lesson: it is HIRE date. They screwed this up and it cost them big time last year (court cases support the hire date).
Good luck to you, #131, sorry you have to go through this again.
It should be the hire date in this district.
hire date…
higher is bad
lower is better
may y’all be low
and miss the RIF letter!
SAHS Teacher –
Recurring sexual abuse of students? This is startling news. Perhaps the district should direct its attention to riding the district of the perverts that are abusing its students.
The union meetings are usually scheduled in the afternoon/evening when some are working and aren’t given the opportunity to attend. Even when they can all get in the same room nothing ends up getting done because people are to busy complaining then trying to get to any serious answers. The union reps them selves don’t answer any questions other then we’ll see or make up some excuse about why that isn’t the “main” foucus right now. Well what is in this school district… it isn’t doing what’s best for it’s student or employees, so if not for that then why are we all here… just so the the big fat cats can have a ligit cover while thier bank accounts get fat.
This is the problem with Santa Ana as a whole the School Board and the City officials get away with murder and WHO holds them accountable for anything… it’s not the ilegal immigrants who’s childern make up a good percentage of SA students, its not the single moms or young parents trying to get by… or the rest of us working a 9-5 and barely staying a float in this economy to pay attention. ACCOUNTABILITY PEOPLE!!! If we want to come on here to complain then we should also try and make time to get involved. This is our community and we shouldn’t wait around for anyone else to fix it. We do need a district wide out sick 2 days… All of you need to unity wether you are directly effected or not. This is your fellow neighbor… we need to unite and make this year a year of change in OUR Community! … Hope to see more of you at the next city/ school board meeting.
Yep, recurring. Mr. Lopez said he has to conduct a half dozen or more investigations each year. SAUSD has over 6,000 adults working in close daily contact with 54,000 students, people leaving and hired all the time, but all these incidents may not all involve what one would normally invision as “perverts”. Some cases involve volunteer coaches, or class room aids only a few years older than students, but who fail to observe the inviolable student-mentor barrier. Sometimes, we just don’t know … a seemingly normal teacher, with wife and kids, seems to lose touch with reality. This is not at all a problem unique to SAUSD. The district is in fact directing its attention to detering this problem – that was the purpose of Mr. Lopez’s visit.
That’s funnyJuan Lopez was at the anti-bullying workshop given last week by the SAEA and SAUSD joint efforts. I think someone must have told him he needed to actually stay there and attend the whole thing. Under Mijares most of the upper eschelon would leave after a cursory entrance or they would even fall asleep. Hello, Lewis Bratcher!
Good thing he is giving those talks about how to spot sexual offenders. He probably learned a lot from that teacher at Saddleback who repeatedly warned Lopez about a sexual offender who was arrested in a classroom at Saddleback this past November.
When I was a student teacher, the lead teacher told me that you should always remember the student is not your friend, they are your student. Your friends are people your own age outside of work sometimes from work.You can be supportive of your student but it needs to end near the classroom line(sports, clubs) not at the parking lot where you may want to go and hang out after work.
There are a lot of teachers that are married with kids, try not to use your perverted little minds and make something else out of this, its a job. When you start to think its a cover, I think you have watched a little too much TV. I am not a popular teacher, never will be, don’t want to be I just want to do a better job.
I see a lot of teachers that live for gossip, and say terrible things behind everyones back, Oh well I guess you are not very busy. I like my job at junior high and I don’t have enough hours in the day. I’m at school till late,late every night of the week. Why don’t you try.
RV, are you a Union hack? who else would post such blatherings that take up so much room any continuity of conversation is destroyed? Post links, give ppl the choice of reading what they want, not your choices. Only a fat cat well fed Union protected pedagogue could blow so much self-righteous hot air-move over and give me a chance.
I really have to agree, although maybe not for the same reasons, that links should be posted. You could put your own take on something to motivate people to read it. Most of the time these are things I have already read and now the thread is already blowing up and taking too long to load and it’s only February.
RV, come on, we can read the newspaper. Maybe you could build an “archive” on a separate thread? It really is distracting and cuts the flow of conversation. The directly related SAUSD pieces are okay, but the rest is just ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Okay, here. We are only 100+ posts into this year so far, and if it’s like last year, there will be close to 1k posts on this thread by December 2009. You’ll still have to scroll to get to the bottom to leave comments. Unless you do all of your browsing and posting from a PDA or you are stuck on dial up, I don’t understand the huge inconvenience. Sometimes there is no link – like when John Palacio sends out his blast or when I get sent a section of notes that someone took from the union meeting. I prefer the full text and the unbroken link for information posted. It makes it easy to view the original source and it makes it a permanent capture of the information here for future reference. This thread has been THE SAUSD archive for a number of years – maybe before you ever thought to post here- and it has been valuable for many.
I am sorry if it feels like there is an interruption in the conversation. I don’t believe that is true. That is not my intent, either. I think people post and read as they feel it is necessary or as they feel comfortable. This SAUSD thread is the most widely read one in the Orange Juice and I know that it gets constant referrals of new readers/posters.
I refrain from harsh critique when I see posters claiming that they are better than other employees or that school personnel are stupid or if there are spelling errors or even when someone is just dead wrong about cultural issues. Those things are part of the continued conversation here. When a parent shows up with questions or concerns, I think: Thank God, more parents are starting to get active! This isn’t just a place to bitch, it isnt just a mouthpiece for the union or for the school district or for the newspapers. There is room for all of it. If something is off topic, please point it out. If you don’t like all the reading, then just learn to skip or skim. Why complain everytime a piece of news posted happens to run more than 6 paragraphs?
If this information is already familiar to you because you keep informed, then it still validates keeping it at OJ for others who come here and want to read past information that contributes to some of the decisions being made today.
These budget cuts are severe and education right now is under huge pressure. These news stories that Palacio thinks are important are what he thinks about when he has to meet with other board members when making budget decisions for the SAUSD school district.
On some of the current discussions, Juan Lopez is busy visiting campuses about illegal sexual contact between adults and students and for good reason- WE HERE ALL KNOW that HR has hired and retained some real nuts. I wonder how many of those people were a concern to other employees before they actually get arrested. There are consequences for people in charge who have poor judgement. There are consequences for a broken down reporting system that punishes the reporter and protects and hides the criminal activities of perverts and child predators. I take that back. The system is not broken -there is a deliberate absence of a reporting system so that HR can say they are not responsible. HR has been an enabler and concealer of despicable behavior. Arrests have happened despite HR’s attempts to keep the system dirty with inappropriate employees and punish those who dare try and protect the kids.
Ask Juan Lopez how to report criminal behavior and see what he says. Ask him what happens to whistle blowers who report pedophiles to his office directly. Ask him if the district is going to implement a district-wide anti-bully policy that prohibits bully behavior at all levels. It’s easy to “educate” small groups of teachers about the problem. It is entirely different to address the real problem of system thugs and cronies who thrive on a mean pecking order. WHY are there no 360 degree reviews to uncover problems?
I repeat, it still isn’t a pleasant experience. How many people need to say this before someone else’s opinion becomes more important than yours? I like the idea of a current articles section that people could refer to if you want to keep it all together, let’s just keep the comments separate.
RV,
I’ve learned in the past months that there is little point in trying to convince you that this thread is about SAUSD matters only, and that your mind will not concede that. At least 10 or more of these 150 comments have already tried that and you are sticking to your guns come hell or high water. OK fine.
I agree that Palacio’s letters should be included since he is a BOE member. In fact it helps the rest of us learn what one board member is thinking no matter what he writes about.
You say your intent is to archive these articles you cut and paste. I understand that and I agree. But at least consider they should be archived somewhere else. The way you put them up, as one long comment containing multiple stories, means that if I wanted to look up the story about CSUF two years from now, I would have to know it was in the SAUSD corruption thread. Then I would have to know it was tag-teamed on with 3 or 4 other pasted stories beginning with Palacios e-mail. That is not a very functional way to archive anything and would be the last place I would look for it.
You asked about comments/stories you put up that don’t belong. I just mentioned one. The CSUF story to start with. There is a whole section devoted to the city of Fullerton. Most certainly some post there would be more appropriate for that story than this thread.
The same could be said for the story on an Orange school closure, the state furlough closures and the county cuts to county offices. These too should be archived in the appropriate city or county thread. If no thread exists you can write a post on it, cut and paste the news article and then it can be filed wherever it actually should be.
You mention your refraining from comment or making critique for spelling, culture errors, comments that are dead wrong, just bitching, or one class of employee calling another class stupid. Why refrain from commenting? It is YOUR opinion and that is ALL it is.
I have been here since the first page of this thread and a lot of what you mentioned is what made this thread catch on. It was not pretty but it cleared a lot of air and misunderstandings between different class employees. More importantly it provided a place to report misdeeds of any kind from staff and parents district wide and opened the door for a SBHS teacher to discover that the same problem existed at Century, or SAHS, Valley, Willard, or any other school.
Speaking of parents, a lot that no longer seem to post here now did so in broken English and poor spelling. No one had a problem with it because they were involved enough to write and tell their story.
Before you started this practice of yours, comments, be it a rumor, question, report or insult, usually flowed together. This also allowed the casual visitor to catch up and comment. I didn’t even remember who wrote what before you tossed out this last string of articles. While I have nothing better to do than scroll up and try to regain the trend of thought, a lot of people with little time, or ESL people just move on.
As to Juan Lopez and HR your comments seem to be spot on. As I recall one of the teachers wrote that Lopez said he investigates about 6 cases out of 6000 employees a year. That’s about 0.1%. This is a figure I don’t believe otherwise why would Lopez himself be out doing these meetings. It is a CYA ploy so that the district can disavow any knowledge while they continue to bury reports.
RV. Just because Art gave you a key to the kingdom doesn’t mean you are also the final arbitrator. Enough people have objected to your commenting practice that you must realize it is an issue. I’ve provided a logical alternative. Consider it.
As somebody who reads this thread often, but has never posted, I have to agree that RV’s long postings have been a turn off to me. I am also concerned that not as many people bother with this thread as otherwise might because RV’s postings make it difficult to maintain meaningful discussion about any issue. However well intentioned such posings may be, I join the chorus of people who wish RV would post links or just post somewhere else. I think the thread would be better off, better visited, and more meaningful if that were done.
RV likes to tie up the sysyem so we can not talk about important items. He has plenty of time from the district office where he probably works. Your doing a good job of disrupting communications.
He will never change, it’s his job.
Vixen is not a typically masculine nom de plume, and I would bet money RV will ignore all SAusd input and continue to post off topic and easily accessed mainstream media baloney. Art must be too busy deciding which local politician’s career he will terminate with his next endorsement.
Rintrah,
Red Vixen has done so much for this blog. For that we all owe her a debt of gratitude.
I have asked her to start a new thread for the articles in question.
Whether or not she decides to do that is in her hands.