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…
No need to hate, people!
I think a thread for news related articles is an excellent suggestion. Thanks, Art!
Carry on, All!
This mornings’ LATimes described the drop of 20 units for high school graduation from SAUSD: Earth science (a 1 yr, 10 unit course) health, and career planning (both 5 unit, 1/2 yr courses). Rather than “smart move” it’s better called it “undoing a dumb move” which raised the credit minimum for a diploma to 240. The effect of this was to leave absolutely no time to retake a failed course in the regular school day. Hundreds of students who failed a class are shunted into the far inferior and underfunded before/after school classes or summer school. Students are packed into these classes in high densities, they’re all failing students. The teachers are seldom the higher-level teachers, but those desparate to work longer hours to make some extra cash, and there is significant administrative encouragement to pass any student who attends regardless of whether they show any mastery of the topic. Then they’ll be promoted to the next level of study (algebra 2?), without the prerequisite knowledge and fail again.
This is the reality of school life seen from the classroom, which administrators miss. Palacios was wrong on this one. It was a good move.
These are the
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/02/should-the-sausd-have-lower-graduation-requirements-than-la-unified/
SAHS Teacher is right again. I have juniors taking NINE classes this semester to try and make up units lost from failed classes their freshman and sophomore years; what kind of success rate can they have in ANY one class when they have that large of a class load on their shoulders? HS teachers and counselors have been protesting the high credit requirement since it was instituted… listen to people who know and work with the students. I don’t know a single teacher or counselor who does not want their students to succeed, and when you look at the stats and the facts this is the right move.
Note for SAUSD Teacher. It is not “units” it is “credits”. Might not seem like a big deal, but let’s keep it accurate.
Correction. My comment should be directed to SAHS Teacher
I’ll stand corrected, exsausd, nevertheless “a rose by any other name … ” (btw: why “ex”? retired? unlucky? got mad and left? graduated? or “ex” for exhausted?… exaspperated? …
I believe that inappropriate conduct should be met with harsh penalties.
I feel that our union ‘overly’ spends money defending the few ‘overtly’ guilty. Teachers should be allowed to make racist comments and sexist comments. I do BOTH regularly. I do it in sarcasm, and I do it in full love for each of my students.
158- as this is a comedy blog, I hope you’re not serious. I do not believe you are a teacher, any educator knows sarcasm is poisonous to young minds. Self-deprecation and assaults on the fascist authority structure are permitted, but it is unconscionable to pick on youngsters. They are defenseless, really. You must be a Republican free marketeer or a libertAryan, both of which make the worst possible teachers. Sticks and stones may break their bones, but words do irreparable psychological damage which may later be manifested in horrible crimes. I sure hope you or your loved ones are not victims, and please do not reproduce. You will raise monsters.
Rintrah – I’m worried that the sarcasm did not pass well over the internet.
My original statement is my intent. Teachers are often ‘overtly’ guilty of deeds like sexual misconduct. The union spends a lot of money defending these people.
The district spends a lot of money prosecuting these people.
SAEA doesn’t defend anybody, that’s the union-hostile propaganda constantly pumped out by the political right in an attempt to lower the labor costs of its chief benefactors. This has been very effective over the years. What SAEA defends is an agreed-upon process outlined in our contract. If this process was bad, SAUSD wouldn’t have agreed to it. Administrators frequently are ignorant of those processes or try to circumvent them for convenience. Our contract is not designed to defend the guilty or unfit, its intended to protect the falsely accused, which happens frequently.
As part of being a dues-paying CTA member however, every member has access to a CTA-contracted attorney if a criminal inditement occurs. Attornies defend their clients in court, guilty or innocent, but that isn’t the union or CTA defending the accused, that’s normal jurisprudence.
Now here are some people getting to the heart of a major problem that is effecting SAUSD schools:
In Georgia, Most Students Who Fail End-Of-Course Exams Still Pass Course.
The AP (2/11) reports that “a state study in Georgia shows that teachers in some high schools there are awarding passing grades to students who can’t pass an end-of-course exam.” (copy and paste this url:)
http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/DMGetDocument.aspx/Grading%20Disparities%20in%20Georgia%20Narrative.pdf?p=6CC6799F8C1371F6C7266EED5C121F7B351AF55B46DBE1C462C217CE0F0E3CEB&Type=D
A lot of well-meaning Santa Ana teachers don’t realize they reflect a racial/ethnic prejudice when the say “my students don’t test well,” in explaining why they base their course grades primarily on the work assignments that students turn in. Of course, their students don’t “test well”, because they haven’t learned much, except that if they get together and copy each others assignments and turn them in, they can pass classes without studying. They actually believe that Anglo, Asian, Indian, Persian, Arabic students can “test well”, but Latino’s can’t? This is a big problem, and we’ve fooled a lot of Santa Ana students into thinking they’ve gotten a good education, when they haven’t.
My apologies for straying from the current topic, but this is teaching related. I have a bit of a dilemma, and I don’t know what course of action I should take. I teach at the high school level in SAUSD. The year had been going really well until recently when a small group of students in one particular class began disrespecting me. I didn’t take it to heart and simply ignored it.
Over the past couple weeks, the disrespect has mounted to a point that the atmosphere of the class has changed. It was recently brought to my attention (by several students) that a teacher would engage in conversations with this group in which they would trash talk me. Again, I simply ignored it because I didn’t want to engage in such discussions with my students (though I was upset with the news).
Another teacher on campus approached me today with startling news. He walked into this teacher’s classroom to find him casually talking with this group. They were indeed making comments of a slandering nature and discussing my personal issues (information I shared with this teacher in confidence as I regarded him as a trusted friend). This person came to me out of concern for my welfare. I was very hurt and now it’s become clear to me why my students had been disrespectful.
It doesn’t bother me that another teacher dislikes me (though I don’t know why the sudden change in feeling). What bothers me is that he would share this dislike with our students thereby affecting my classroom’s atmospthere.
What rights do I have? I’m thinking about speaking with the union rep on my campus, but at the same time, I don’t want to appear the squeaky wheel. I’m still probationary.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Maestra,
Are these classes that you and your colleagues teach so very informal, that the students can just “chat” about whatever gossip is around at the time? I am assuming that you and your colleague are not teaching math, science or other core courses that would demand strict focus on subject matter over, say, current events?
Have you considered just telling your colleague: A number of things we’ve discussed at lunch seem to be getting out to the students. You know how kids are and I don’t want them knowing too much about my private life or yours. Please be extremely careful about what you say about me and I will do the same for you. Smile. And mean it.
I don’t suggest going to the union. Find people who are ASSERTIVE in personality, and they can show you how to draw professional boundaries which you’ll need from time to time for years to come.
As a teacher, you cannot control what happens in other classrooms, but as soon as you lose focus and control in your own classroom, you’ve got a huge problem on your hands. I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck to you, Maestra!
Maestra, You can’t let this continue. It undermines your ability to teach effectively, consequently, also the academic progress of your students. You can address this without putting your job in jeopardy. (Unless you have one of the “protected credentials”, special ed, science, maybe math, expect a RIF notice next month in any case.) Since there isn’t a violation of the collective bargaining agreement (our contract), a “grievance” isn’t used here. Disputes of this sort are handled with a “Concern”, using a “Recommendation/Concern” form that your office manager should have on file. (I checked just now and couldn’t find it on the SAUSD web page.) Write out a brief description of the problem, and include as a suggested resolution that you meet together with the other teacher and the principal with the principal mediating the dispute. The Concern form goes to your principal. There are three other sections on the form: 1) actions taken by the principal; 2) actions taken by the assoc. supt. for secondary; 3) actions by the superintendent. But something of this sort should be resolved at the site level. Your principal should appreciate your asking him/her to resolve the problem in a discrete and professional manner, and should not jeopardize your job. Union or union reps aren’t needed here; they’re only needed in contractual or disciplinary matters.
SAHS teacher,
That is an interesting solution using a “Concern” form. It seems very formal, though. Is there a reason that the two teachers should not discuss the problem together, before involving a more formal process of notifying the principal?
It just seems if they are “friendly” enough to know each others’s business, they might be friendly enough to come to a quick resolution?
RV, sure talk to the teacher first … but if that doesn’t work, the Concern is the way to go. That is the purpose it’s designed to do … a Concern must have a resolution. It’s part of Board Policy and Admin Regs of SAUSD.
Here’s a OC Register story of some interest:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/unified-elementary-high-2308288-teachers-salary
I wonder how they calculated “average class size”?
Most of our English teachers have 40/class, 200 a day. A week ago I spoke to a middle school teacher with nearly 240 students each day, 6 classes of 40. Maybe they averaged in the K-3 w0-1 classes and counted preparation periods as “classes of zero students”.
Average in this case I believe includes Special Ed Teachers, QEIA schools and Class Size Reduction classes. What is interesting is that even when all of that is accounted for, SAUSD is still tied with Fullerton for the highest class sizes in the county. Those numbers essentially mean that you could add about 10 students and get the “normal” sized class. I don’t believe the Juan Lopez “I’ll do it any way I want and include prep periods” can be used for the reporting of these averages. The state ed code specifically prohibits the inclusion of prep periods in averages. Unfortunately it has taken years of grievances to finally get to the heart of the matter on that one. The district is receiving it’s slap on the hand for using this method and you will likely see caps at the elementary level as a result of grievance arbitration which the district is losing badly.
SAHS teacher-
That IS an interesting article. They have to be taking into account the 20-1 and prep periods as classes of zero… what a joke. What do you think the class size numbers are going to be next year when so many are laid off?
Also, in post 165 you mentioned “protected” credentials… I thought they weren’t protecting anyone this time around and instead basing layoffs off of master schedules (need) and seniority. Do we know how they’re doing it this time?
Special Ed will always be protected. Science will also be protected and they seem to have flip flopped back on math and will now protect those positions also.
I could see them protecting math, as there is a move for a 2nd period of math at 9th grade for those scoring below grade level. It doesn’t make sense that science would be protected though, since they are getting rid of the Earth Science and Health requirements, which logically would mean less need for science sections. They already have a 2nd period of English for those in 9th grade but below scoring below grade level in reading, and are talking about expanding the program for 10th graders who are also behind- yet aren’t protecting English. Where the heck do they expect to cut with the need for that many teachers, at least at the HS level? Grrr.
We are a unified school district. One level is not protected solely based on subject area. There are actually plenty of elementary teachers who can or are credentialed to teach upper levels. The elementary level is where most of the cuts will happen due to the elimination of class size reduction programs. It is a difficult job to determine who you will need and who is credentialed to teach something else and has seniority. The best bet financially for the district is to RIF as many people as possible and leave your options open for when the hearings are decided. It’s a mess and how it will turn out is anyone’s guess. Pretty soon we won’t be teaching anything but math and science and every other subject area will go by the wayside. This has essentially already happened at many of the middle schools, it’s interesting to hear that now this is being pushed in the high schools. It’s all so sad. The worst part is that we keep getting more and more student teachers in the area of history, I guess they aren’t being told that there are no jobs and probably won’t be any jobs for years to come.
Sorry, I meant that we will be left teaching only math and language arts.
I don’t teach math but the teacher in question does teach math. I would assume he is informal in class as he occasionaly hangs out with them off campus (including the same 3 students who have been undermining my authority). I’m more formal and take my career/subject matter seriously. The news came to me during the lunch hour as the student didn’t want to appear “ratting” out others. Later, another teacher approached me during lunch about this same information.
As I said, I’m concerned about possible repurcussions should I approach this teacher. I’ve come to learn the hard way that there are a few teachers that are as bad if not worse than the students.
I’ll look into that statement of concern. Thank you for your advice.
Hangs out with the students off campus? Is he or she for real? If this is true, there is a bigger problem that he/she spilling private info to students.
P.S. to Maestro, I’m not trying to minimize your plight, just pointing out the inappropriate.
If he/she is hanging out with students off campus, you can end this problem very quickly by reporting it to Juan Lopez’s office. In the current environment, this stuff is dealt with pretty quickly.
I am in no way suggesting that you do that, but it would be an immediate fix for your current problem, I just don’t know if you would want the rest of the problems that come after that.
Maestra, The concern form documents what you do. Your principal must have first opportunity to mediate this problem. Briefly describe the problem without detail or accusations on the concern, and ask the principal to meet with you and the other teacher. Let the details come out there in a confidential meeting with the 3 (maybe 4, the principal may want an a.p. attending) of you. If you circumvent the principal in a situation like this, you definitely will put your re-election (i.e. rehiring of a probationary) in jeapardy. Relax and let the principal do his/her job.
If there’s a parent organization at SAHS I’d certainly use this forum to call for an initiative to set up informative sessions on why teachers should not be “hanging out” with students. These sessions should also arm parents with information regarding the pitfalls of teachers “hanging out” with students.
Remember the pervert at Mendez/Middle High School that “hung out” with students?
Here’s something to keep an eye on:
The St. Petersburg Times (2/17) reports that “a sweeping plan to make it easier to fire teachers and put a bigger spotlight on teacher quality is headed to the Florida Legislature.” The plan calls for changes to the state’s teacher-tenure policy. “Instead of permanent ‘professional service’ contracts, teachers would get annual contracts for the first 10 years, then contracts of no longer than five years after that, according to” a draft of the legislation.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article975946.ece
Right now I have to counsel probationary teachers that they have to have to suck up to their principal for two years, feigning enthusiasm for his/her ideas no matter how dumb or unproductive they might be. Geeze, in Florida they’ll have to do it for their whole career. What an opportunity for a smart school district to steal the top teachers from surrounding districts – just offer long-term contracts to top notch teachers.
Apparently many first year, probationary and/or temporary teachers at many sites received notice last week and this week that they will not have a job next year. This included many math teachers as I have been told. This sounds like a good move, ask the principals who is not worth keeping and can be fired without any problems, get rid of them and reduce the number of RIFS. Of course, it’s only good if the principals made wise choices, choices made without any particular axes to grind. We’ll see.
Perspective from a non-teacher. Only in the world of education would young, energetic and bright employees be tossed out for the older, rigid and stodgy employee. This is one mixed up way of doing business. And that’s why I believe there’s merit to reviewing teachers on how their students perform on the state standarized tests. Number of years clocked in should not result in retention of job.
anon,
As a teacher, I agree with almost all of what you say. It is ridiculous that good teachers will have to be let go to protect the jobs of under-performing teachers who are more senior (and who are paid more.) It is a challenge for any enterprise to be effective under this sytem, for which we have to thank the all powerful teacher’s union and its allies in the state legislature. The one thing you said I don’t agree with is measuring teacher performance by standardized test scores. Not all classes are the same. Some wonderful teachers do an amazing job helping low performing students make tremendous progress, but these students still may not be proficient on standardized tests. Other teachers do practically nothing with high performing students who stay that way. There are better ways to measure teacher performance than standardized test scores.
The current move by the district has nothing to do with RIFS. These are new teachers who have just not cut it according to their principals. The district is under no obligation to keep them if they are not doing a good job. This is the one area that all districts can improve by getting rid of teachers prior to tenure, they can weed out those who need to find another career. One of the biggest problems is that the bad tenured teachers were actually bad teachers from the beginning and nothing was done to remove them when it was possible. Much of the problem can be resolved here but it hasn’t happened in the past. Those who have done a good job (theoretically) will end up going through the horrible RIF process and hopefully not lose their jobs.
Yes, #184, you’re correct it’s not “good business” to keep poor teachers,
and #185 is also correct that teachers should NOT be evaluated by how their students perform.
I was very successful in business (sales) for years before becoming a teacher. I believe any enterprise should have the right to hire/fire employees with the caveat that the employees have a say in the process…yet unionization isn’t the answer as much as privatization. That is, many productive companies have designed their business to be “profit-sharing” with every employee having a vested interest in seeing their company be productive. Somehow, someone needs to develop a construct whereby schools are run by the teachers/educators (charter!!) and the entire staff is involved with hiring/firing knowing that their “product” will be evaluated based on the professionals they employ.
Let’s move on to a better educational “business” model.
Some suggestions:
*Restore local control to schools.
Many problems have developed by the “unified” district model.
Get the federal government OUT of education and greatly reduce the role of the state too.
More government bureaucracy = less efficiency.
*Make all schools “fundamental”. By that I mean, have high requirements/expectations that the parents will indeed actually “parent” their children.
*REDUCE the incredible number of ASSessments being foisted upon students. Fully 10% (18 days) of the educational year is now devoted to testing (beginning in 2nd grade!).
[It’s amazing that somehow, back in the 60’s and 70’s when I was a kid, we were tested once a year, watched “educational/Disney” movies at least once a week, were “drilled & killed”, and still managed to become erudite professionals.]
Change…yes, education needs it and Obama isn’t the savior. It’s going to require a complete reorganization of the American educational “model”.
Re. post # 184:
Anon, there are, in fact, a couple of other areas where the old, rigid, and stodgy are preferred over the bright, young, and energetic. Most people prefer an old, stodgy cardiac surgeon who has performed a couple hundred sucessful by-pass or valve replacement surgeries to the bright, energetic, young surgeon right out of med school. Many people would prefer legal representation by an old stodgy attorney who’s argued scores of cases before the court, over an energetic young attorney who’s just passed the bar. There really is a lot of people who share your view that controlling and teaching a class of 30 – 40 adolescents doesn’t require experience, just youthful energy.
What did you sell avon. Bad business model.
Your ageist assumptions leave me aghast. Some of the best teachers have been teaching for decades. Some of the worst just walked in the door. Some of the most dynamic teachers who continually update their profession have gray hair. Some of those that feel thay know it all and will learn little are among the youngest. And your anti-veteran teacher rant proves what?
I don’t know if the #184 anon is the same as the 189,190 anon. I don’t completely understand 189, 190. But there is a true perspective in both 184 and 189. You can find great teachers among both young and old. We have several young, gifted teachers at this high school who will be RIF’d, and this will be a disaster to the academic future of SAHS. A gifted, dynamic teacher doesn’t “burn out” or become “stodgy”; their teaching improves every year as they gain experience. They are treasures you don’t want to lose. A young mediocre teacher, not gifted or driven to excel, often doesn’t get better. They do gain experience, but in the form of delivering the same mediocre classes with less personal effort and time. I know examples of both, and it drives you nuts when you lose the young great ones and keep the old knuckleheads. The problem we have is not enough wise and gifted school managers to trust with the hiring and firing outside of a rigid, negotiated process. Not all, but too many school administrators are arrogant, self-serving or simply incompetent. I’m not certain of a best way to improve the system.
I agree that age has nothing to do with whether a teacher is good and talented or not. The sad thing is that some high quality teachers, younger or older, who have little seniority, will have to be RIFFED in favor of more senior teachers, younger or older, who have never been devoted to the job or the students. The system does need to be improved. One improvement would be to grant permanency after more than two years. Two years is hardly enough time to evaluate a new teacher. Another improvement would be to make it easier to release under-performing teachers, or to at least encourage administrators to work within the framework that already exists for releasing these teachers. Clearly, teachers need protection from incompetent, vindictive administrators who favor their cronies. But there has to be a way of striking a balance that gives teachers the protections they need without locking in practically all teachers to lifetime employment after two years.
February 24 agenda
17.0
APPROVAL OF MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN CITY OF SANTA ANA AND SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
anybody have info on this? What are we signing up for?
#193,
Joint use of school fields with the city, as public parks.
Actually it was for the city police to provide a chief of police for the school for an undisclosed amount of money.
#195
Really? You mean the district can’t find and hire a non corrupt police chief on their own so they are going to the city for one? No kidding. What is the logic in that? The district will still have to pay the salary, won’t they?
#196,
Apparently the parks issue is still being negotiated. I spoke to a friend yesterday who was at the school board meeting. The district is paying the SAPD to provide extra policing services.
BTW, there were three cops at the school board meeting…and only fourteen or so folks in attendance. Talk about a waste of money!
They still have to pay full salary for the SAPD person, I too questioned the reason for (3) = one officer was off duty awaiting the outcome of the vote, 2nd is required by the board to sit there until end of meeting and 3rd was the department supervisor required to stay till end of agenda action items. Better served else where probably will SAPD dictate to the board where their officer go doubtful
#191 –
Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.
I’ve met many “burned out” teachers who should not be in the classromm, yet their years of service and union protect them.
Do yourself a favor and view the French movie The Class. I’m certain the classroom conditions and the faculty meetings that unfold in the movie are spot on, whether they take place in Paris or Santa Ana.
Ageism? Get real. The state of education in the US is deplorable! High school drop out is the highest in the industrialized world. And we, the taxpayers, keep throwing money after money for what? Aren’t the majority of SAUSD schools underperforming?
199 – I invite you to spend time in a classroom at any underperforming school in SA. You would be shocked and appalled with what teachers have to contend with in their classrooms (especially in secondary). Until we hold parents accountable, underperforming schools will remain underperforming. No amount of teacher training, engaging lessons plans, etc. will improve test scores if students are absent, ditching, refuse to do any work outside the classroom, refuse to do any work in the classroom, etc.