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…
Word is that Jane Russo is going to model all the intermediate schools after Willard’s plan of 3 periods of Language Arts and 2 periods of Math.
Please, PLEASE, Jane send someone in undercover to actually see how this program is not working! There are substitutes covering the major math classes as well as the Language Arts classes. We are not talking one or two subs! We are talking school wide vacancies that are not being legally covered. The most telling sign is the behavior in the corridors and classrooms! It is frightening! Teachers are *not* supported by admin, and in some cases are being set up to fail by the same people that are supposed to help them. It is well known that if you are moved to certain classrooms, that means you are the next target! There is nothing here that warrants or deserves to be immulated.
Typical SAUSD, find the worst school, with the worst test scores and make everybody do what they are doing. It’s truly unbelievable.
Hey, just heard at lunch time today that Saddleback’s principal (Brennan?) vanished and isn’t returning. Disapperance is a mystery to the SHS faculty. True? Anyone out there have a line on this?
Red Vixen: I’m going to answer you here regards the blogger invite. What makes the OJblog special are bloggers like Terry, Art and Larry who research their articles well, then open up with all guns, holding nothing back, tearing into ideas and political behaviors like pitbulls. This has resulted in some retaliatiion … I believe both Art and Sean were forced out of city commissions because of the OJB. Teachers need to be circumspect in public, but circuspection doesn’t make for interesting blog. The OJ needs a Tasmaninan Devil of the left, Terry Crowley’s evil (liberal) twin. I know Art’s looking for one. I’m happy to watch and comment now ‘n then.
203 – I heard that very same thing about a half hour ago. Now all the AP changes around the district are starting to make sense!
We were given word today that we will not be forced to model our school after Willard, thankfully. We’ll see what happens.
205 – What AP changes?
Just heard from an SHS teacher … Brennan goes from Saddleback to ROP… Laxton goes from Spurgeon Intermediate to principal of Saddleback. No explanations.
This is SAUSD – you expect explanations?
Russo, Olsky, Ayalya, Lopez and Laxton met with SHS staff in the Library after the bell yesterday. That’s pretty much all the top brass when it comes to SAUSD administration overseeing high school. Russo announced that Brennan is taking a curriculum specialist job with ROP and that Laxton will be the new principal. Many of the staff are familiar with Laxton. He’s a move up as far as competence and efficiency.
Brennan had been out of sorts late last week. So was her back-stabbing pal, VP Evelyn Carrigg. This move was expected. Everyone saw something coming last Friday for sure. On Monday morning everything was cleared out of Brennan’s office. No box left. Even the name plate from her office door was gone. Ms. Russo might finally be getting wind of who needs to be sidelined from the big jobs and who needs to replace them. Tick-tock to pedophile hider and enabler, Evelyn Carrigg. You left those children exposed to that freak you protected for years. You’ll never be trusted. Why is it that Juan Lopez has hired principals like Tracy Brennan and Fred Gomeztrejo who have been serial rejects from their past districts? Is there some kind of incentive for him to undermine the Superintendent by making terrible choices to lead the district’s high schools? Fred Gomeztrejo has the least seniority of all administrators at the principal level and there are hopes that the district will finally have to make cuts at the top which would free Valley High School up. Bishop is rumored to be headed back to the classroom. So far, only hopes and speculation. Of course nothing will really get better until Juan Lopez is out of the job of hiring these people and protecting them. It’s disgraceful that he thinks he can get away with hiding pedophiles and rejects from other districts without being called to the carpet at some point. Jane will always feel like she is swimming upstream if she has to deal with Lopez’s incompetence. He’s cost the district a bundle. Say what you will about the Superintendent, but she did the right thing yesterday. Keep going Jane. You’ve still got a few bad apples to rid in SAUSD.
Heard Brennan hasn’t reported to her new job yet. Bet she’s already retaining legal counsel like she did in AUHSD. BTW, AUHSD is having a good laugh over this latest debacle. I see a lawsuit on the horizon. If only someone had Googled her name before offering her the job, this could have all been avoided. There was much information on the internet involving past practices. Who is responsible for hiring her? Some heads should roll. Look for downtown to become very quiet regarding this fiasco.
This is me not knowing about the state test taking procedures. I do know that with all the affidavits that are required to be signed prior to administering the tests that it was most important to follow the rules. I know that every time I did administer a test I was careful to follow the rules and time tests when it was appropriate to time tests and to collect the scrap math papers, etc.
My question is about how the entire school’s collective tests are picked up. I witnessed a school, a few years past, where the test booklets (I can only imagine their answer documents as well) were resting in the bed of the principal’s open bed pick up truck. The truck was parked at the front of the school and unguarded. Open boxes of text documents were in the bed of the truck. Staff in the front office made mention that they were supposed to keep an eye on it, yet it was behind their back. My question is should any official from a school be in possession of the test documents after the fact?
#200 –
Your comment is laughable! I’ve tried observing at a couple of SAUSD’s underperforming schools and the front office does a damn good job of making sure that does not happen. And don’t cite Ed Code. Tried that.
At one time you had a Superintendent who engaged cabinet members to mildly threaten those voices who attempted to make the Supt. “accountable.”
Does the term Banana Republic ring a bell?
Get real. The only parental voices heard at SAUSD are the puppets of the Supt. and Victoria Zaragoza leads the pack.
SAUSD needs one cohesive parent organization without the influences of the Supt., Cabinet and BoE. And SAUSD voters need to unseat the current BoE and impose TERM LIMITS.
200 – Let’s just say the problems we encounter in this district would be brought to the surface by strong parent organizations in any other district. The parents that are involved in our district (other than at the fundamental schools) seem to be very tightly controlled and sheltered by district admin and/or site administrators. They are really just for show to pretend that we are in compliance with state regulations. It’s pathetic.
SAUSD needs to cut 48 million $ from its budget over the next 16 months due to the California state cash shortfall. SAEA president Dave Barton said the District “is seeking long-term solutions to short-term problems.” The most ominous of these is a freeze on “step and column” movement on the teachers’ salary schedule, without a retroactive return to the original step schedule. This would place a teacher 1 year behind on the schedule for the rest of his or her career, with the total loss growing with each lost step increase. For example, a 5th-year teacher about to receive a master of arts degree would loose $5,288 the year of the freeze, but could expect to lose over $60,000 before retiring 25 years later as a result of that one-year freeze.
Is it true that on that board meeting Friday, the district is proposing to cut 600 jobs? There has been quite a bit of speculation this weekend about all the cuts, including cutting about half of all of the counselors at the Jr. High and High School levels. I had also heard a rumor that David Barton might not want to run for president again. Rumor mill stuff…
According to the district web site, 463 certificated employees will receive RIF notices this week. As for David Barton, the sooner he leaves, the better. He has never done anything to support teachers being RIFFED. When you look at what the teacher’s union in L.A. does when even one temporary teacher’s job is threatened compared to David Barton doing nothing, year after year after year as the district threatens hundreds and hundreds of teachers, good riddance too him. As far as I’m concerned, he can’t leave soon enough.
I’ve listened to Duffy, president of UTLA, in interviews. He seems to be a quick-to-anger blowhard. I’m not sure I’d want him representing me, and teachers in Santa Ana sure have things better than our LA colleagues. Always, when someone doesn’t like the guy leading, gotta ask, “Who you have in mind to put in their place?” Barton, in time, will go back to teaching English full-time in one of our high schools. I do know, first-hand, several teachers here were happy to see him arrive when they were getting some unfair treatment by a school administrator.
Bishop should not be in any administrative position or teaching. Too incompetent and lazy. The Brennan and Gomeztrejo appointments were a mystery from day one. Good riddance to both.
Where are they going to find $48 million to cut? SAUSD is already operating on bare bones, isn’t it?
The district office is fat. Why not close the district office so the schools could report to the Orange County Department of Education. Rumor has it that it’s going to happen anyway so why not speed it up.
sbello: OCDE is no citadel of competency. Only two school systems in OC got state intervention last year for low performance … SAUSD and OCDE county schools.
anon: regards next year … ogodogodogodogodogod
Regarding next year you said it, SAHS teacher. I just got Palacio’s fwd of the projected cuts , both to the district and to the classroom…for staffing reductions in 2009-2010 it’s at 463 certificated, including 29 administrators. Then of course you need to take into account the out-of-classroom teachers whose positions will be cut and who will move back into the classroom. AND, 259 more classified positions to cut. What on EARTH are we going to do?
219 Is Gomeztrejo leaving too?
One can hope!
259 CLASSIFIED?? HOLY COW! THERE WON”T BE ANYONE LEFT AT SCHOOL SITES. I’m sorry but they are to the bone as it is
Let’s start the talk about Obama’s plans for eduction and start with …
“Obama’s blueprint includes a controversial plan to hike pay for high-performing teachers, as well as money for states that raise student standards, track student progress and cut the drop-out rate.”
Reward performance. Now that’s a revolutionary idea for the educational profession. And someothing worth considering. Jumping point … the so-called fundamental schools seem to academically thrive while their second-class, run of the mill schools place poorly. Why is that?
Ok, here’s to your “jumping point”. The basic commonality of all successful schools is parents and the ability to send a student to another school if they continue to “infect” the rest of the population. The “other” schools don’t have that luxury and if the district has it their way, neither do the fundamental schools. As of late, the fundamental schools have been told to keep their students and the bottom line is that if you have no consequences for not following the contract that both the parents and the students signed, you have nothing, so expect to see a decline in the fundamental schools also. SAUSD has only one way to keep families of students who are academically and socially prepared to be academic and that is the fundamental and charter schools. Both Mendez and MacArthur have waiting lists of 400 students for incoming 6th graders, yet those who are lucky enough to have their names pulled in a random lottery seem to be in for the long haul, despite the fact that their parents don’t believe that they have to do anything to support the school and their own children. I bet many of those on the waiting list who end up out of district or in a private school would like a shot. The fundamental schools do an incredible amount of interventions with students and parents and you can bet that the parents are the common denominator when the school comes to the conclusion that a student should not be in a fundamental school. Yet this has been undermined by the district office. So say goodbye to the great education many of your children have been receiving in the fundamental schools, they will be just like any other if the current policies remain in place.
Fundamental schools thrive because of proper parenting!
Notice that fundamental schools demand/expect parental involvement and that caring parents are willing to camp all night to get their children into a fundamental school.
This raises the elephantine question:
WHY DON’T ALL SCHOOLS HAVE HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT??
Why won’t SAUSD make ALL schools fundamental?
I would suggest that SAUSD doesn’t think the parents are capable and District doesn’t want to work too hard!
Once again, I need to repeat, you must have consequences if you are going to have a fundamental school. While it is easy to say you are going to demand parental involvement, there is no way to require this in a compulsory education setting without setting up a school of choice. A school of choice by it’s very nature involves requirements that when not met, the student must return to his/her home school. Without that requirement, you become just like any other school. If all of the schools were fundamental, where would the children go when they refused to meet the requirements of the school? And, by the way, all it takes to get into a fundamental school is to place your name into a lottery and get very lucky by having your name drawn. This, too, has contributed to the decline of the fundamental schools as parents used to actually have to have some skin in the game when they made the commitment to camp out to get in to the school.
I tell you this much parents are VERY involved in the Fundamental HS setting!!
Another Anon Teacher,
I totally agree with you since I remember the commitment of parental involvement as they camped out for 1,2 up to 3 days in rain and cold to get their kids enrolled in a fundamental school. I wonder if anyone has conducted a comparison of student drop rates in fundamental schools based on the enrollment by lottery vs the older campout method.
I don’t see the decline in the Fundamental Schools. Where are you guys getting your info? At the high school level parents are very involved and want their kids to go a Fundamental HS. i have never seen so much parent involved in school in awhile! I NEVER seen it at the other high school I was at. Kids also know they are in a different enviroment. Why all the concern about Fundmental schools. Someone told me to check this site out. Pretty interesting. I won’t comment anymore but I just had to give my two cents. C ya
Maybe I should not be on this website. After reading this i thought you all should know both my kids go to Segerstrom. They are doing much better there than they did at Century HS. They were treated like a number there and no one gave them the extra time like they do at this school. I have a friend who’s son is at Godinez and it was tough at first because his gang bang friends at Valley gave him a hard time when he would walk to school. He is now a B student and away from those kids. As a parent I just want my kids to get a good education. Something i did not get while growing up. I will do what I need to do for my kids. As educators please keep it up. I for one do not take any of you for granted and know you are doing a great job. Thank you for letting me comment
Whether in college, or in first grade, the most important influence on a student in school is the students sitting next to him or her. Parent involvement is important for sure, but even a kid with apathetic parents, if surrounded by kids with motivation, drive and high aspirations tends to follow along. The fundamental schools don’t have better teachers or administrators, but they do provide a more conducive environment for learning. It’s probably best if we maintain that opportunity for those who demand it. If I had a child to raise in Santa Ana (mine are grown now), I’d put ’em in a fundamental.
But every young person is equally important, which is why I’ve remained at SAHS. It’s a real challenge to create and maintain a serious academic environment in the regular high schools, but it has to be done.
Thanks SAHS teacher, you are absolutely correct. There has to be a place in this district for parents and students who want a truly academic experience, otherwise, we will lose those parents altogether. There is no possible way that every school could become a fundamental school, but there are some things that can be done that haven’t been done in the neighborhood schools. First of all, the idea of the “us against them” between the fundamental and neighborhood schools needs to disappear. Teachers at fundamental schools shouldn’t think of themselves as better in any way but the neighborhood school teachers need to recognize that there are some things that are being done in the fundamental schools that CAN be done in their schools. It would be really nice if the neighborhood school staffs would spend more time looking at exactly what the fundamental schools are doing and try to determine which parts of the fundamental schools policies would actually work for the neighborhood schools as well. While not everything we do is possible, I do think that some things could be implemented. It is not a matter of having better teachers, there so many fabulous teachers in all of the neighborhood schools doing the best they can to educate the students they have.
It is great to read from all of you teachers and your positive attitude now compared to just a couple of years ago. While those of us in classified are not quite feeling the love from the front office, it seems the systemic problems at the teaching level first reported on this thread are starting to be addressed. Hopefully these improvements will filter down to us as well.
SA Parent. We all need to read more input from parents. Tell your friends to comment so the teachers and those of us in supporting roles know how you feel.
Anonplus-
Those of us who teach at a fundamental school really don’t need a study to figure out that the implementation of the lottery system has contributed greatly to a decline in the commitment we get from both parents and students, we live it everyday!
The sad fact is that parent involvement can be waylaid and manipulated; example Willard. There is a parent room where the kids are encouraged to complain about their teachers: the fact they have homework and it’s boring, the fact that the teacher calls home to explain to a parent about the child’s behavior that day in class. They are coached to say they are entitled to an education never realizing that their disruptive behavior in class is denying the same education to the other 36 students.
Parental involvement is essential for the kids to go forward; the teacher, parent, and admin all working with the common goal of the child’s future. When it has been mutated into the parent room and admin against the teacher it is a recipe for disaster: and the student is the loser. Willard has been failing its kids for 6 years now. And the district is allowing it to happen.
I’ve never heard of a “parent room”, oh, to actually have the space. Our teacher’s workroom is a computer lab and any available space was long ago filled with students. Anyway, sounds like a great idea, if it is used properly, how sad that the administration wouldn’t support teachers who are trying to help students.
http://orangejuiceblog.com/2009/03/santa-ana-educators-association-calls-for-a-day-of-action/
Although this is “hearsay”, I have to report that ever since Mendez opened, every single student/parent has fought hard to be there and NOT AT WILLARD! I’ve seen students and parents in tears when they realized they were not “chosen” to attend Mendez. That is truly sad. What a testament about Willard.
I was a substitute teacher there many years ago and it was such a scary place I never took another job there. God bless the teachers and staff who are willing to work so hard at a site the District has disregarded for years.
Teachers at SAHS just had to go in to the principal’s office and sign for a letter from the district re: Notice of Change in Duties and Assignment and Salary Reduction. It talks about some of the programs that will be affected and tells us to go to saud.us for more info. Most interesting is this paragraph:
“This letter is to inform you that your duties and assignment may be changed effective the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. Any change in duties, assignments, and work year may result in the reduction in your annual salary including a reduction of any stipends and other compensation you currently receive.”
Teachers- did all the other sites get this?
I think it’s just a CYA measure for the district, but hand delivery?
Yes, everyone received this. It is a requirement and must be sent personally to every person affected. The only other option the district had was to mail it out to everyone’s homes. I think they made the right choice under the circumstances to save the postage. The main issue here is that most likely we will lose the funding for the 3 staff development days we have been receiving the last several years. This amounts to a 1.5% decrease in salary (you can pretty much count on that) but is essentially a “furlough” as you will not be working on those days either. This was always the understanding of the union, if the state discontinued funding for these days, we would lose the pay. The union chose to include the pay as a part of our salary because it affects people’s retirements for the “highest salary earned” basis. The only good news recently is that the district has given up the idea of a step and column salary scale freeze.
#238
Is Bernedette Medrano still running the parent group at Willard?
#237 –
Does your post favor dismissing the AG’s ruling regarding fairness and equal access to public education?
Wouldn’t it be ideal if all teachers taught equally and didn’t discriminate between the fundamental schools and the lower rung schools.
I don’t know what I favor as far as access to fundamental schools. All that I know is that if you are going to have a school of choice, parents need to have a commitment to the policies of the school. Simply showing up to pick up a number is no indication of a parent’s commitment. I understand both sides of the issue, but if a parent can’t find time to attend a meeting, come to a conference or make sure their child has completed his or her homework, it is very hard to have a school based on commitment from teachers, parents and students.
As to the actual discipline of a fundamental school: the parents agree to be held accountable The admin agree to enforce the rules and the teachers agree to catch all the violations to the rules. All must work equally. At MacArthur the teachers man the detention hours;: gladly. It is agreed they will do this if the admin backs them up. The parents agree that they will back up both admin and the teachers. It works! And not just because they are a fundamental!
#245
This is from a parent, who later became a teacher: the teacher has to teach to the student/class. A teacher has to assess the emotional level of a class. Just because they are 6th grade, just because they are not honors , just because they are ….it doesn’t mean much. You can have a low class that is so empowered with curiosity that they out perform the honors classes. You can have a gate class that is so disenchanted that their scores are below basic. You have to figure this out and adjust your lessons accordingly. The problem comes when admin tries to curtail the kids into their testing zones. I’ve seen kids test very low but perform very high, and just the opposite: they test high but perform very low. Should we classify them by this method? No! Yet this is the popular method because it doesn’t take any effort to figure any other method out. The district has become very lazy which has also promoted many of its other problems. I would welcome the state to come in. It’s obvious Santa Ana will never actually “get” how to teach students.
#244
Bernadette is still there! Can’t translate Spanish for the parents, but is still there…translating….what?
I’m not exactly sure what you are talking about but here is my opinion. Everything is based on tests. Test scores are not a measure of a whole person who is learning every year at their own pace. We have a set of standards which are designed to say what a child should know at their age. Age is actually irrelevant because everyone learns in different ways and at different times. The standards we have set in California due to No Child Left Behind only ensures that we will leave far more kids behind. The students I deal with dropped out mentally years ago because someone decided that they must learn something they weren’t ready to learn and the problem grew exponentially ever since (yes, I teach math). We have done a huge disservice to these kids by providing only a test based curriculum. I have one class of students who have lost hope. I see it as my job to teach them until I almost reach frustration level and then back off and try to reach more of them. Continually teaching a curriculum that is so far above their current level only exacerbates their problems. I could go on, but I won’t.