OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN - FIRE JUDGE H. JAMES AHLER

August 12, 2012

Honorable Governor Jerry Brown,

Honorable Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California

Honorable Linda Cabatic, OAH supervising ALJ

PRA coordinator

Full Disclosure, Chief News Editor

CNN Regional News Editor

Let me ask what I am sure is and has been known in Sacramento for a decade. What circumstances has allowed a man convicted of killing a pedestrian while driving intoxicated, (by State standards), to remain as an Administrative Law Judge until now? To my knowledge, he was never disciplined for the manslaughter of the pedestrian in Vista, CA where he sits at the head of the North County Bar Association. 

In my opinion, he unofficially sits as paid "in-house Judge" for the likes of a private law firm, Friedman, Fagan and FulFrost. This firm represents almost 420 school districts. Ahler has the well-deserved reputation as executioner over the lives and careers of hundreds of educators. Almost all of these educators are denied the legal due process demanded by law, contract, the CTC and California Ed Code standards for disciplining educators. 

Ahler appears oblivious. Yet H. James Ahler's victim's family is denied closure or justice because Ahler appears to have skated under the radar by virtue of his office and connections made while in that office, according to The San Diego Tribune. Governor Brown, how can someone convicted of a misdemeanor for killing a man walking home while Ahler was about on a drunken stupor - BEHIND THE WHEEL - ever sit in judgment of anyone’s employment?

I have started investigating Judge Ahler’s association with large law firms representing (Government funded) public schools and against educators all at the top of their districts pay scale. Ironic? I am sure I will have a considerable amount more to ask once the investigation is concluded. However Governor Brown Sir, the question remains. How does a man like Ahler sit as lawfully employed Judge in any venue in California under your watch?

Under your watch Sir, you appointed Linda Cabatic to replace the former OAH supervising judge. I am sure you saw the need for change of the quasi-constitutional and quasi ethical tribunal. Despite your efforts, nothing of substance has changed and Administrative Law Judges like James Ahler sit in judgment and in Ahler's case specifically; while having escaped fair judgment himself. Ahler is an example why the OAH is universally seen as the new extension to Public School District’s hiring and firing process and their ability to cull highly paid Educators from the payroll. In turn more educators are having to sue their districts in Civil court to find a remedy. Ultimately, this ends up costing the local tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary attorney’s fees and judgments every year.

 No Educator enters this process expecting any semblance of 'justice,' especially when agency attorneys can depend on the strategy of a last minute motion to remove a presiding ALJ and without notifying the defendant, pull Ahler in. 

Ahler himself has been suspended for his overt acts to control the outcome of OA hearings in favor of the agency (e.g. OAH hearing Maura Larkins, San Diego.) As Governor, why would you allow the likes of H. James Ahler to represent the OAH of our State? Yet, Ahler remains a dirty little secret of California's legal system. Ahler represents a significant stain on your administration and bane to the CTC's efforts to keep good educators. I hope you will order an investigation of H. James.

FDN’s video “The Cost of Courage.” Richard I Fine's fight against judical corruption, Los Angeles and California.

Thank you for your personal attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Five Myths (Lies) About Teaching in America - Edited by yours truly.

Originally Published  2/29/2012
Myth #1:  Teachers make more than the average American. Their salary is not less than it should be.

Let’s take a look at those claims… the average teacher salary in the United States is $52,900 and the average salary for all workers in the United States is $52,544 so yes, teachers make slightly more than average. However, the average income for American workers with a bachelor’s degree or better is $77,293 (1) well above the average teacher.

Looking at total compensation (includes insurance, paid holidays, retirement etc.) the private sector average is $71,000 and the public sector average is $69,000.(2)

It should be clear that teacher’s pay lags well behind that of our similarly educated peers. It should also be clear why we have the paid retirement and insurance we do – it helps bring our compensation in line with our private sector peers. And we still lag behind our private sector peers.

Myth #2: Teachers should not have a “Job for Life.” The teacher’s unions protect bad teachers and make it impossible to fire bad teachers.

Nothing could be further form the truth. First, it is important to be clear on what teacher tenure is and what it is not. “Unlike tenure for university professors, tenure for K-12 teachers does not shield them from dismissal. Instead, it's simply a guarantee of due process — that if a teacher is fired, it will be for cause.”(3)

Teachers and their unions are not the least bit interested in hiring or protecting poor teachers. Nor are teachers hired for life. Teachers and their union are interested only in protecting good teachers from abuse and arbitrary firings and this requires due process. The fact that poor teachers can hide behind these protections is really a reflection of administrators who are unable or unwilling to clearly articulate a case against a poor teacher and that we DON'T have any valid standardized way of evaluating performance. Currently, many administrators who were poor teachers themselves that moved on  to get out of the classroom, subjectively write the final evaluation of teachers through a process where personalities and non-teaching agendas come into play.

Myth #3: We have to do something; we are lagging far behind other countries in education.

I do not know a teacher who does not believe that education in America has critical flaws. Teachers also believe that we are lagging behind other industrialized countries and there are grave concerns about our failure to keep up. However, how we come to that conclusion and how we measure ourselves against the world is flawed. (See the preceding article.)

The “Us versus Them” comparisons are flawed and causing grave harm to education in this country due to the reliance on standardized testing to measure student and teacher performance.

There are major issues with this comparison.

For starters, China, India et. al. Do not test every student, nor do they attempt to educate every student.(4) Schools in the United States (excepting private schools and in many cases charter schools) are required to accept and teach any student who appears at their door. This includes well qualified students, motivated students, unmotivated students, students with special emotional or mental needs ( read - not enough school counselors,) unprepared students, students with little support outside of schools, students who don’t speak a common language, the list goes on. Most of these students would not be accepted to, or be allowed to remain in most foreign schools. Up untell the Bush administration, most Americans were proud of this fact. Further, the fact that we have chosen to educate all children is the only socially progressive achievement we can lay claim to ahead of any other country.

This is in no way a complaint about providing instruction to these students or an excuse or even a claim that these students can’t or shouldn’t be taught, but simply a clear reason why the comparison of test scores is problematic at best, and faulty and harmful in the extreme.

Not only is the comparison flawed, it has led us to the point where we are basing our educational decisions on standardized tests and even trying to evaluate teachers on how well their students do on these tests. (5)

The problem is, a test does not provide information on how well a teacher has taught a subject, at best a test tells us how well a student has learned the subject. In the absence of other data, a test does not even do that reliably.

While there is plenty of research on the subject – enough to write a book – the simple explanation is this: a teacher cannot control all of the variables that go into how well a student learns. The support a student receives at home is far more important than what goes on in their school. How motivated a student is to learn will effect how well they learn.

Interestingly, China is attempting to rely less on standardized test and create a more American system. (6) Chinese policy makers are beginning to realize that teaching to the test has created generations of very good test takers who are unable to critically analyze and solve complex problems or creatively think of new ideas.

"We have just seen 43 states and DC adopt a Common Core curriculum that will have a Common Core national test (common “yardstick”) in 2014-15, and another name for that national test is “gao kao.” It will drive U.S. education for decades and we may never be able to get off of it. The American teacher was always unique in deciding what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach it…and the variability in creative questioning has gained us 270+ Nobel Prizes. (Score for China-educated doing research in China is zero…but that will soon change due to many who return after receiving a graduate education in U.S.) But now, partly from test envy and international ignorance, we have headed down a path to standardization in testing that we will not be able to get out of in our lifetime." (7)

Is this really where we want to head?

“But [the] intention is to use the Special Curriculum as a laboratory to experiment with a curriculum that will help all Chinese students, not just those who study abroad. Special Curriculum students may be encouraged to exercise and play, watch movies and read novels, engage in chit-chat and extracurricular activities. But in tests they do just as well as – or even better than – students who are given no choice but to study all day. This fact has profound implications for curriculum design and implementation in China. (8)

Scientific research and the experience of Finland’s highly praised education system show that a varied and flexible schedule that incorporates play and pleasure with study and work produces the best learners. Fitness and nutrition, music and arts, sports and games are not unnecessary distractions to learning but healthy supplements.” (9)

Myth #4: In this economy teachers are lucky to have a job.

No, teachers are not lucky to have a job.

This should not minimize the severity of our current economic situation, but unemployment is near 9% (10) meaning that if you selected 100 people at random 91 of those people would be employed. Having a job isn’t lucky, not having employment is unlucky.

In addition, many teachers worked very hard to earn degrees and employment that is relatively stable. Having a job now is the result of making good choices when selecting a career. Many teachers chose to forgo maximum profit for security and it is paying off now.

Myth #5: Why shouldn’t teachers be held accountable when everyone else is accountable for their performance?

Teachers are and should be held accountable. For good teaching. Not politically driven misconceptions by people without Credentials to even understand the complexity of issues. Bill Gates stole the idea behind Windows from Apple Inc, who had stolen the actual code for their PC interface from the scientists at Bell Laboratories with no repercussions. In spite Gates' many books,  Gates' is intellectually, experientially and functionally unqualified to comment on Education change. He hasn't taught one day in a public school. He could not qualify to teach. He dropped out of college. Leaving him approximately five years of college to even qualify.

Most teachers want to be the very best teacher they can be and that is impossible without being regularly and properly evaluated. It is difficult to make specific comments because how teachers are evaluated varies from district to district but it is fair to say that most teachers don’t have an issue with being evaluated.

However, teachers want to be evaluated on their teaching. Tying their evaluations and pay to student performance is unfair. There are far too many variables that are outside a teacher’s control. And unlike a manager in the private sector a teacher cannot interview potential students and pick the best nor can a teacher fire those who choose to ignore their responsibilities in school.

A teacher’s role is to teach the best they are able. To implement best practice and the best teaching strategies. To continually adapt to the needs of their students and to learn new ways to reach them and teach them. Additionally, an ability to form positive relations with most if not all of their students. As we all know certain personality traits and false expectations lend to negative impact on the learning process In those developmental years.


That is what a teacher should be evaluated upon.

A student’s role is to be in class and to complete the tasks a teacher asks – whatever those task may be – to the best of their ability. If a student does not do this, for whatever reason, they are not doing their job and they will not learn as well as they are able. A teacher does not control this, and no matter how well the teacher teaches a student who fails to perform their job will fall short of expectations and their potential.

1. “ 2011 Statistical Abstract,” U.S. Census Bureau, accessed February 23, 2011, http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
2. “For public-sector workers, a wage penalty,” Economic Policy Institute, accessed February 23, 2011, http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/for_public_sector_worke...
3. Greenblatt, Alan, “Is Teacher Tenure Still Necessary?” NPR.Com, accessed February 23, 2011, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126349435
4. Compton, Robert, “2 Million Minutes: A Global Examination”, The Finland Phenomon, accessed February 23, 2011, http://www.2mminutes.com/
5. “K-12 testing,” Fair Test, the national Center for Fair and Open Testing, accessed February 23, 2011, http://www.fairtest.org/k-12
6. Schrock, John Richard, “Why Doesn’t China Get Off the Teach-to-the-Test System?” Yong Zhao, accessed February 23, 2001, http://zhaolearning.com/2010/12/29/john-richard-schrock-why-doesnt-...
7. Ibid.
8. “Education Reform in China: What the educators think,” OECD 50, Better policies for Better Lives, accessed February 23, 2011, http://oecdinsights.org/2010/03/19/education-reform-in-china-what-t...
9. Ibid.
10. “Table A-14. Unemployed persons by industry,” United States Department of Labor, accessed February 23, 2011, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t14.htm

Sources:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126349435
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/for_public_sector_worke...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/20/ravitch.teachers.blamed/index...
http://www.dianeravitch.com/
http://www.worldsalaries.org/usa.shtml
http://www.educationworld.net/salaries_us.html
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Country=United_States/Salary
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
http://www.aeaweb.org/students/Careers.php
http://zhaolearning.com/2010/12/10/a-true-wake-up-call-for-arne-dun...
http://slatest.slate.com/id/2284732/entry/4/#add-comment
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/chinas-education-prepares-students-t...
http://zhaolearning.com/2010/12/29/john-richard-schrock-why-doesnt-...
http://oecdinsights.org/2010/03/19/education-reform-in-china-what-t...
http://www.aare.edu.au/05pap/zho05780.pdf
http://www.asainstitute.org/2mm/index.html
Compton, Robert 2 Million Minutes: A Global Examination (2008), http://www.2mminutes.com/

Tyack, David B. The One Best System: A History of American Urban Education (1974)

Tyack, David B., and Elizabeth Hansot. Managers of virtue: Public school leadership in America, 1820–1980. (1982)

Archbald, Doug A.; Newmann, Fred M. Beyond Standardized Testing: Assessing Authentic Academic Achievement in the Secondary School (1988)

Alfie Kohn The case against standardized testing: raising the scores, ruining the schools (2000)

Our Union Leaders Are Betraying Us. Lieing to us. Stealing From Us...

First published Monday, June 04, 2012

in Schools Matter.

Attention All Teachers (Educators): Your Union Leaders Are Betraying You

Though this article is about Massachusetts it perfectly true for California as well. Last year Paul Toner, the ostensible leader of the MA Teachers Association, surrendered his membership by capitulating without a whimper to the first step in the corporate blueprint to replace tenured and experienced teachers with a new generation of untrained neophytes who will cycle through the system after a two to three year stint.  That first step in that process was to establish a teacher evaluation scheme based on student test scores, and to link job security pay to those test scores.  Toner accomplished this feat without a vote by the rank and file--not even an opinion survey. 

This kind of open contempt for the teachers he was elected to represent in 2010 signified a transparent betrayal of teachers and children for the self-aggrandizing goal of cozying up to the corporate foundations and education terrorist organizations like Stand for Children (see Jonah Edelman spill the beans on the real goals of Stand on Children).

Now we find that President Toner has surrendered Massachusetts teachers once more in Step 2 of the corporate education deformers' plan to destroy teacher tenure, job security, and due process .  From Barbara Gordon posted Saturday on Facebook:

This week the Massachusetts Teachers Association's Board of Directors voted to put forward legislation that will end the use of tenure and seniority as the primary factors to use in layoff situations. Instead, the primary criteria will be performance evaluations and "the best interests of the students" with seniority being used only for "tie-breakers."  

This was a "legislative compromise" the MTA leadership worked out with educational terrorists Stand for Children, who had a ballot question that did the same thing and more, ready for the November election. The MTA leadership negotiated this compromise without input or approval from rank and file MTA members. Their position is that there is no way we could have beaten Stand on the ballot question so it was better to compromise and lose seniority rights and involuntary transfer rights than to fight and possibly lose those things and more.  

People are shocked and furious. Does anyone have any ideas for anything we can do about this? They are pushing to get this into the legislature and passed by July 3, the deadline when Stand for Children has to submit the final paperwork for the ballot question. 

We know we might lose the ballot question, but we wanted a chance to fight. If the MTA leadership will not fight for us, where are we? What are we paying our dues for?

And this from Tim Scott:

MTA & STAND FOR CHILDREN: As we know, collective bargaining entails negotiating with our employer over our compensation, hours of work and working conditions (broadly). Under these rules, we often need to organize ourselves to take action to ensure that we strengthen our contracts, while not giving away past gains. 

The current MTA leadership has now decided to take us in a new and very different direction and bargain (secretly in the beginning) with Stand for Children - a private anti-union, corporate front group - not only over contractual issues, but fundamental union rights. Instead of organizing members and allies to fight this aggressive assault by a group notoriously hostile to teachers unions, Toner and company chose to take a pathetic and defeatist stance to enter into "negotiations" with Stand, knowing that teachers rights and the the union's integrity will be significantly damaged.

There is one solution to this problem, and it is the same solution to the problem RIDDLED OFTEN CORRUPT NEA and CTA:  replace the duplicitous cowardly union leaders who have sold millions of dues paying union members down the river in mass, espousing the same at the local level and refusing to allow descent.  But even these measures will not be enough, for the new leaders must be chosen (which would imply the right for members to vote) from those few young men and women with courage and a willingness to lead the FIGHT. Who will restore the social justice mission that unionism was once based upon, a mission that advocates for children's rights to read and learn and grow, parents rights to have a say in school matters (COURAGE ENOUGH TO SAY THE SCHOOL BOARD SYSTEM FAILED AT THAT TASK), and workers' rights to the respect and dignity that is afforded teachers and school staff in other countries as a matter of course.

 There is no future for educating all children, or parents emmeshed in their children's learning while having Gates and Broad control the voices of Educators by buying off phony leaders like Paul Toner, and ramrodding poorly thought out ideals (extrapolated from reading a lot of books, we're told) but having no significant idea what occurs in the classroom. That's right Neither ever taught. 

 Let's not forget GATES built Microsoft on stolen tech that it's self was stolen by JOBS from Bell Laboratorys, and grew the behemoth MS without any real competition. He doesn't qualify as a sociology or education genius in my book. He just has a lot of money. So does the prince of Saudi Arabia. Are the Saudi Royals then education experts as well?

If the teaching profession is to be saved for now and the future, teachers must take back their unions (F... that, union leaders need to reach out to members in meaningful ways, open their accounting books, embrace descent) prepare for the impending fight to come (yes, be prepared to strike!) and reclaim the mission that made them a movement of solidarity among teachers, parents, and students.  There is no other choice, and there is no greater calling.
I Praetorian

Hispanic Girls Face Special Barriers on Road to College

Hispanic women are more likely than Hispanic men to complete high school and college, but they still trail white and African-American women

Originally Published in Ed Week 6/19/2012

By Katherine Leal Unmuth

Dallas: After 15-year-old Valerie Sanchez spent a day of her spring break in Fort Worth touring the well-manicured grounds of Texas Christian University and listening to an inspirational talk from members of a Latina sorority, she felt sure of her future.

"I'm going to college," says the teenager after the visit organized by the Dallas center of Girls Inc., a national nonprofit group. "I want to be the first in my family."

But like many young Latinas, she faces a host of challenges in the coming years, as she works to graduate from high school, go on to community college, and then enroll in a four-year institution.

Sanchez moved from Mexico when she was 9 years old and enrolled in the 156,000-student Dallas Independent School District. After taking bilingual classes taught in Spanish and English, she found the transition to all-English classes in middle school difficult.

Consequently, Sanchez was held back in the 8th grade last year at Edison Middle Learning Center here in Dallas. She now attends tutoring sessions after school in addition to programs provided by Girls Inc. that focus on career planning and pregnancy prevention.

The plight of Latino young men often dominates the discussion of graduation rates. But young Latinas also face cultural, economic, and educational barriers to finishing high school and entering and completing college.

"There's the assumption that girls are doing fine," says Lara Kaufmann, a senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center, in Washington. "It's true that within ethnic groups girls are doing better than boys. But they're not doing well."

Falling Behind

While Hispanic women are more likely to graduate from high school and college when compared with Hispanic men, some statistics suggest they trail behind African-American and white women on some such measures.

Postsecondary Engagement Lags for Latinas

Latinas ages 18 to 24 have lower postsecondary-engagement rates than Asian, white, and black women of the same age bracket. Asian women are twice as likely as Latinas to be either enrolled in higher education or to have a postsecondary credential.

SOURCE: EPE Research Center, 2012. Analysis of data from the American Community Survey (2008-2010), U.S. Census Bureau.

According to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of 2011 Census survey data, about 17 percent of Hispanic females ages 25 to 29 have at least a bachelor's degree, compared with about 10 percent of Hispanic males, 43 percent of white females, and 23 percent of black females in that age span.

To delve into why such gaps persist, the National Women's Law Center collaborated with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund on a 2009 study on educational outcomes for Latinas.

While the middle and high school girls interviewed in the report said they wanted to graduate from college, they also said they didn't expect to achieve that goal. The report also cited challenges for them in reaching educational goals, including such difficulties as immigration status, poverty, discrimination, low self-esteem, higher rates of depression and attempted suicide, gender stereotypes, and limited English proficiency.

A cultural emphasis on loyalty to family also can play a role. Latinas may be expected to take on additional duties as caregivers, such as helping to watch younger children or aid elderly family members. They may be expected to live with their parents until they are married, making it difficult to leave home to go away to college.

Ties That Bind

Celina Cardenas mentors Hispanic girls in the 37,000-student Richardson Independent School District in the Dallas suburbs. Cardenas, a district community-relations coordinator, is Mexican-American and feels she can relate to their experiences.

Valerie Sanchez, 15, works on a writing assignment during reading class at the Thomas A. Edison Middle Learning Center in Dallas. The eighth grader is working to become the first in her family to attend college.

—Allison V. Smith for Education Week

"It's kind of like you're born with responsibility—especially the girls," she says. "Doing something on your own may not sit very comfortably with them because they may not want to let anyone down. I talk to them a lot about not feeling selfish that they're disappointing their family by going away, and understanding there's nothing wrong with having those goals."

Family loyalty can cause Hispanic girls to choose less-competitive colleges than they are qualified to attend so they can keep living with their parents. They may also not be well informed about financial-aid opportunities to attend more expensive schools.

University of Texas at San Antonio education professor Anne-Marie Nuñez says that when girls live at home while in college, they may have a hard time focusing on their studies because of family obligations.

"They may be juggling multiple responsibilities that pull them away from being able to focus on their studies," Nuñez says. "Other family members may not understand the energy they need to focus on their studies."

In Texas, a nonprofit online magazine written by girls, called Latinitas, aims to empower young women. The organization also provides workshops, mentoring, and college tours. On the website, Saray Argumedo, 23, shares her own experiences about the tension with her family when she studied at the University of Texas at El Paso.

"All I can do is ask for forgiveness when my mom questions why I spend all my time outside of the house studying, working, and getting involved in my community," she writes. "I thought that they would be proud of me, but why are they so angry?"

Teenage Motherhood

Young Latinas also are more likely than most young women in the United States to have their own children as teenagers. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, in Washington, about 52 percent of Latinas become pregnant before age 20, nearly twice the national average. In Dallas, the nonprofit group Alley's House helps mothers complete their General Educational Development, or GED, studies and build their confidence.

Yesenya Consuelo, 19, dropped out of Spruce High School in Dallas her freshman year when she became pregnant with her now-4-year-old daughter. Consuelo wants to study at a community college to be a surgical technologist, but she needs to pass the math portion of the GED, which she has failed twice. She comes to Alley's House for math tutoring four days a week.

Consuelo says her daughter is her motivation to finish school. "I'm trying to be the best I can for her," she says.

Despite the challenges, says Nuñez, the education professor, "the truth is Latino families have as high aspirations as other groups. Sometimes, they just don't know how to translate those aspirations to reality."

Katherine Leal Unmuth is a Dallas-based freelance-writer.

Latino education issues at latinoedbeat.org.

CTA Cowards and NTA lackies - hear this

    FUCK MARCHING ON SACRAMENTO.

  MARCH ON BURLINGAME, CALIFORNIA.

    WE WILL BE HEARD! October, 2012!

AFTER TRUSTEE'S ABRUPT RESIGNATION, SCHOOL BOARD SEEKS APPLICANTS

Chula Vista Elementary School District Seeks Applicants for Vacated School Board Spot

By TAWNY MAYA McCRAY

March 20, 2012

The Chula Vista Elementary School District is looking desperately to appoint a new board member.

It was announced Monday that board member Russell Coronado is resigning from his post effective March 31, nine months before his term is up in December. Board President Pamela Smith said Coronado, who was elected in 2008, was leaving due to “personal reasons.”

“(Coronado) has been very dedicated and it’s been a pleasure to serve with him,” Smith said at Monday’s meeting. “He’s brought a lot of expertise to the board and always focused. I have never been in a conversation publicly or in closed session with this board that isn’t always about kids, kids first, and Russell has been very true to that. We’re going to miss him.”

The remaining trustees, minus Douglas Luffborough who was absent, voted Monday to begin accepting applications to fill the position on the five-member board. Coronado was also absent from Monday’s meeting.

Applications are due at the district office by noon April 11.

Applicants must be at least 18, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the school district, a registered voter and not legally disqualified from holding public office by state law (for bribery or perjury convictions, for example).

The board decided not to fill the vacancy through a special election because of its estimated cost of $770,000 to $800,000. Trustees plan to interview the applicants and appoint the new member at a special board meeting April 23. The chosen candidate will serve the remainder of Coronado’s term.

This will be the third time since 2007 that the board has decided to appoint a new member. Trustee David Bejarano was chosen out of a pool of 39 candidates in 2007 after Cheryl Cox stepped down following her election as mayor of Chula Vista. Luffborough was selected out of 23 applicants in 2009 after Bertha Lopez resigned to serve on the Sweetwater Union High School District board.

“We have been through this process before and it’s been a good one and has resulted in some outstanding board members,” Smith said at Monday’s meeting. “I think it is a very inclusive process and we take the process very seriously. We look forward to hearing from our community and seeing who’s interested in this.”

Applications are available at the superintendent’s office, 84 E. J St. or on the district’s website at cvesd.org. Eligible community members must submit a letter of intent, the completed application, and two letters of recommendation to Soreli Norton, assistant to the superintendent and the board of education.

BACKGROUND

Head of CV school board to move temporarily

Russell Coronado, president since last year, is tending to a family member, officials say...

Ashly McGlone

Aug. 30, 2010

The board president of Chula Vista Elementary School District has temporarily moved to the North County to care for an ill family member, officials said Monday.

“I have a commitment to the students and people of Chula Vista, but at this time I also need to provide care and support to my family members,” Russell Coronado said. “At an appropriate time, we will make a decision about my position on the board.”

Further details were not disclosed.

Coronado was named school board president in December 2009 after being elected the previous year.

When asked whether there is a threshold for how long a board member may live outside of the school system's boundaries, district spokesman Anthony Millican said officials were looking into it.

Millican said the district’s day-to-day operations will be unaffected.

Originally Posted by Maura Larkins at 2:39 PM 
CVESD Reporter

Labels: . Coronado, Chula Vista Elementary School District, CVESD,  board members

Moreno Valley School Board Member Mike Rios Makes Bail

Moreno Valley School Board member Mike Rios makes bail; bail sources approved by Judge Dugan. Rios is charged with pimping, pandering and rape charges stemming from a prostitution operation that authorities said he ran out of his home.

As part of the terms for the $250,000 bail, the unidentified bondsman required Rios to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Becky Dugan said. The device sends a signal giving the wearer’s location at all times.

Jail records Tuesday night indicated Rios was no longer in custody.

Dugan made the decision to allow bail after reading in chambers a declaration from Rios, which she sealed.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Brusselback said the bail was being granted under the continuing objection of his office. The open-court hearing followed what he called “extensive” in-chambers discussion about Rios' declaration among Dugan, Brusselback and Deputy Public Defender Michael Micallef.

“I do find the bail in this case comes from legitimate sources,” Dugan said.

A court order remains in effect for Rios to stay away from alleged victims as well as any unrelated minors.

Rios, 42, was arrested April 4 and faces 11 felony charges in the pimping, pandering and rape case. Authorities said up to six females were involved, two of them 17 years old. He has pleaded not guilty. 

In February, Rios has been charged with attempted murder after police said he shot at two men outside his home . No one was injured. Rios spent almost a month in jail before posting $250,000 bail in that matter.

In the pimp, pander and rape case, two underage girls, along with one adult woman, were approached about becoming prostitutes, according to the complaint.

Three adult women were allegedly employed by Rios, who took their pictures and advertised their availability on the Internet, set prices for the women's services, drove them to and from appointments and supplied condoms for their encounters, according to a declaration filed in the case. Prosecutors said none of the females involved were students in the Moreno Valley school district.

On Friday, members of the Moreno Valley Unified School Board went to the Banning jail facility where Rios was being held and asked for his resignation from the board, but he refused.

They said Rios told them he expected to be at the next board meeting.

Rios has said he is innocent and that unidentified people were making up claims to stop him from running for Moreno Valley City Council. He ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2008. Then in 2010 made a surprise last minute run for a Moreno Valley Unified School board seat.

In spite of claims otherwise, Rio's has been linked to Developer Iddo Benzeevi and former board member Victoria Baca of the Mexican Political Association. Baca herself was convicted of interfering with a police officer at a publicity stunt during her one term tenure on the Moreno Valley Unified School Board.

FROM 2001 to 2003, I "taught for America."

Originally from an op-ed piece by Jesse Hagopian

After graduating from college, I headed for the Bronx, N.Y., where I underwent Teach for America's (TFA) "teacher boot camp." With just five sleepless weeks of on-the-job training teaching summer school to fourth-graders, team meetings and night classes, I was given the stamp of approval and shipped off to Washington, D.C.

The Seattle School Board is expected to vote Wednesday whether to bring TFA to our school district, and before they decide, they should consider the lessons of my experience.

At 21, I found myself in a public elementary school in the ghetto of South East Washington, D.C. — in a classroom with a hole in the ceiling that caused my room to flood, destroying the first American history project I ever assigned the students.

One lasting memory came on my third day of teaching sixth grade.

I had asked the students to bring a meaningful object from home for a show-and-tell activity. We gathered in a circle and the kids sat eagerly waiting to share their mementos. One after another, each and every hand came out of those crumpled brown lunch sacks, clutching a photo of a close family member — usually a dad or an uncle — who was either dead or in jail. By the time it was my turn, all I could do was stare stupidly at the baseball I pulled out and pick nervously at the red stitches.

Working in the "other America" was a personally powerful experience and made me decide to dedicate my life to finding a solution to transform public education and the broader society that would allow such neglect to occur.

But while TFA allowed me this window into the problems of our country, it didn't prepare me to address these challenges. With only five weeks of training, it wasn't just that I was not equipped to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of students with a wide range of ability levels, create portfolios that accurately assessed student progress, or cultivate qualities of civic courage — it was that I didn't even know that these things were indispensable components of an effective education.

As well, TFA often overemphasizes the importance of test scores, driving corps members to narrow the curriculum to what's on the test to prove that they are effective teachers. Yet even by this measure, TFA-ers don't make the grade.

Consider a six-year study of TFA out of Stanford University that looked at more than 4,000 teachers and 132,000 students on six different tests and found not one case where TFA educators performed as well as certified teachers. Moreover, TFA's own statistics show that a mere 33 percent continue teaching after their two-year commitment — creating high turnover in the very schools that most need the continuity and stability.

Seattle has an abundance of teachers with teaching certificates and master's degrees struggling to get a teaching position in the local public schools — West Seattle Elementary School, a target school for TFA, had some 800 applicants for a single job. Why bring in undertrained TFA recruits when we have so many young teachers in Seattle who have spent years developing their skills?

TFA is being presented as a solution to the problems in our public schools. But the reality is, in this era of cash-strapped school districts, officials are lured not by the quality of TFA-ers but by the fact that young teachers who leave the district and make room for more young teachers provide an inexpensive alternative to investing in more experienced teachers who will earn a higher salary.

Yet, if the Seattle school district truly wants "excellence for all," it will need highly trained teachers who have a lasting commitment to the profession — not the revolving door that has come to be known as "Teach for Awhile."

Jesse Hagopian teaches history at Garfield High School and is a founding member of the Social Equality Educators (SEE).

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 Ex-NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf arrested in Montana

“NEA IS Not Happy When You Publicly Disagree With THEM” 

Don't I Know...

Originally posted by Mike Antonucci March 25th, 2012,

There was a big stink over the weekend in Connecticut when Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green published an internal e-mail from Connecticut Education Association executive director Mary Loftus Levine. It read:


NEVER send anything to anyone until you send to Phil and me first. We spoke last night and we are not happy when you publicly disagree with us. AFT is playing you off against us, to get a deal. NO deal is always better than a bad one. From here on, I will be the spokesperson. If you want a caucus call one. While we appreciate all you do, you do not set policy, but rather advocate for our CEA positions. Now, if we disagree with what you sent we will let YOU know and you can send our changes as CEA’s. I will review later. Thank you. Also, if anyone attempts to contact you, please let me know immediately and refer them to me. Thanks again.

My first taste of NEA Democracy(?)

Two weeks previous to this statement, Randi Weingarten

pres for the AFT proclaimed, " a union must always be a democracy."

The “deal” referred to regards the ongoing negotiations between the teachers’ unions and Gov. Dannel Malloy over his teacher evaluation legislation. Once again the AFT in Connecticut is reported to be more willing to cooperate than is CEA.The first problem occurred because Green originally thought the memo had been sent to CEA members. Instead, it was an e-mail to a single CEA employee – apparently the union’s legislative coordinator – and inadvertently cc’ed to an entire listserv. I was unable to find any public statement that triggered the e-mail response.While Loftus Levine is justified to correct an employee whose opinions contradict company policy, (Bullshit! Randi Weingarten AFT said a union must be a democracy!) I’m amused at her substitution of ”our changes as CEA’s” (hers and those of CEA president Phil Apruzzese). I was under the impression – pounded into me by numerous union officers – that the members set policy through their representative bodies. (Not with CTA the California Equivelent to the CEA.) It is the job of the president to carry out those policies as spokesman for the organization. The executive director oversees the staff and has no policy-making function. That's just not the way it works in reality. It is also ironic that the executive director of a teachers’ union would address an employee as if he were a misbehaving child. What could be more undermining of a lobbyist’s status than to constantly get mommy’s permission?We all know real life isn’t like civics class, but the tolerate-no-dissent tone of CEA’s memo might help explain why teachers’ unions enjoy the PR image they do today. Sorry but I have to republish a memento from my personal CTA experience.

Diana DeGette You Go ! In the Name of Shirley Chisolm!

Mitt Romney declared, "Planned Parenthood has got to go!" Afraid if it had been around when he was conceived he wouldn't be here today ...

Republicans have a clear agenda for women: Defund Planned Parenthood, deny women access to health care and birth control, and even prohibit women the right to participate in the debate about women’s health care.

Grassroots Democrats around the country have united against the Republican War on Women to launch a Women's Health Accountability Fund. Our goal is to expose the truth about Republicans' war on women with an aggressive rapid response operation including ads, on-the-ground organizing and more.

The Emanant Insolvency of San Diego Unified School District: A Harbinger of Things to Come for Moreno Valley USD??

Original story by andrew.donohue
voice of sandiego

The public proclamations that the San Diego Unified School District faces a state takeover dropped like bombshells this month, but district leaders have had serious discussions about insolvency both publicly and privately for years.

At one point more than two years ago, former Superintendent Terry Grier was so concerned that school board members didn't grasp insolvency's consequences that he scheduled a private briefing from perhaps the state's foremost expert on it, San Diego County Office of Education Superintendent Randy Ward.

"We'd just had numerous discussions with them about the possibility of insolvency. They just didn't believe the state elected officials could or would allow it to happen," Grier said. "There was even early discussion about how becoming insolvent might be the right thing to do."

Ward knows state takeovers well. The state appointed him to take over Oakland Unified School District after it went broke in 2003. He unilaterally ran the district, cleaning up its finances after the superintendent was fired and the elected school board became an advisory council.

When he met with them, Ward didn't tell the board members they were headed for insolvency. Rather, he explained what would happen and how the district would need to take drastic measures to avoid it. "He also rang that warning bell loud and hard," Grier said.

At least twice since that meeting, while the state continually cut funding to local schools, the school board has made high-stakes gambles that state finances would improve or that school spending would significantly increase. In light of California's continued economic problems and those serious ongoing discussions about insolvency, those gambles have begun to look misguided at best and reckless at worst.

District officials have cast the financial crisis as one wholly of the state's making, but talk of insolvency has always hung over the financial gambles the district's taken in order to keep class sizes small and teachers employed in the short-term. The long-term consequences of those decisions only compound the trouble handed down by the state.

Just a year after Ward's talk, the school board entered into a labor contract that, while providing short-term relief, saddled it with burdens it may well not be able to handle. The contract was, by the board president's own admission, a "gamble." Then, this summer, the board voted to rehire hundreds of teachers based on rosy state projections, despite advice to the contrary from their staff and consultant.

Now, with the state's projections looking unlikely to materialize, school board President Richard Barrera is calling for the state to levy taxes on the wealthy, oil extraction or alcoholic beverages to save school districts from insolvency.

Grier, who left the district in 2009 for Houston, said the district's dynamics changed when the teachers union's slate of school board members, John Lee Evans and Richard Barrera, were elected in 2008 and joined with Shelia Jackson to form a pro-labor voting block.

When Barrera and Evans joined the board, Jackson put together a plan to cancel teacher layoffs that had been issued before their election, a move the new board approved unanimously.

Grier said the move went against staff's advice and had little justification as the district's enrollment had been shrinking for the better part of a decade and the teachers simply weren't necessary.

At the time, then-board member Katherine Nakamura said schools were fully staffed and it would be hard to even find places to put the teachers. She warned of the bad timing, too, considering the state's plight. "You don't eat a jelly donut in the middle of a heart attack, no matter how sweet it might be."

Nakamura ended up voting for the plan, though, saying she wanted to move the board forward.

Barrera said his decisions have nothing to do with his relationship with, and support of, labor unions. He said his relationship with the teachers union has soured thanks largely to his vote in favor of layoffs earlier this year.

Make no doubt about it: The state Legislature has made severe changes to the way it funds K-12 education, offering districts 15 percent less money than it did just a few years ago. And it's not even giving the districts the smaller checks it promised, forcing them to borrow money every year and bank on IOUs. That's put districts around the state in serious trouble.

In response, San Diego Unified has made its own harsh changes. It's cut staffing by 15 percent since 2009 and this year it ultimately laid off more than 1,000 workers, including 500 teachers. The threat of insolvency, for example, popped up during the school board's public deliberations about whether to issue layoff warnings to teachers this March.

Today, district leaders say they've cut to the bone and are now evaluating closing some schools. Teachers agreed to shorten the school year by five days the last two years, taking five unpaid days off and saving the district about $20 million.

But, despite those major changes, the school board has been banking on the state Legislature upping education funding or a roaring economy to come to the rescue before the consequences of some of its long-term decisions come due. Every cut that wasn't made a year ago compounds now, and only deepens the budget pain when it eventually has to be made.

Barrera said every budget decision he's had to make has involved risk. "We either risk the education of kids or we risk the financial health of the district, that's the situation we've been in, over and over and over again," he said.

The issue to Barrera is one of drawing a line in the sand.

The board has already made cuts that have raised class sizes to an unacceptable level and impacted the welfare of children, he said, but there's a point the board simply can't cross. If refusing to make cuts entails gambling against the financial health of the district, then that's what he's got to do, he said.

Choose against the financial health of the district too often, though, and you eventually run out of money to even keep a school district functioning.

That's the situation the district faces today.

It's already staring at a $60 million deficit for next year after managing a roughly $80 million deficit this year. It has a rather vague list of solutions to fund that deficit, from closing schools, to selling off land, to asking the union to make concessions on teacher salaries and benefits. All that will have to be decided soon.

If the state's optimistic revenue forecast fails to materialize, next year's deficit could nearly double for and the district will have to find more ways to cut without laying off teachers. So far, the only solution that's been floated for that problem is shortening the school year by seven days, a proposal that, again, the district would have to negotiate with its unions.

If the state goes ahead with the threatened midyear cuts, Barrera and Superintendent Bill Kowba say the district will be on its way to insolvency. If the district goes insolvent, it will get taken over by the state and local control would be eviscerated.

Budget decisions would be made unilaterally by a state-appointed trustee. The superintendent would be fired. The school board would be advisory. The state would have some power over school finances for decades as the district paid back its bailout loan.

Kowba, a former rear admiral in the Navy, served as Grier's chief financial officer. Grier said Kowba had continually raised red flags for the school board.

However, he said, often staff's warnings to the board went unheeded.

"We knew the cuts were going to be painful. We also knew from everyone we talked to that this was not going to get better. We kept sharing that with the board. They were in a hard position, I don't envy them," Grier said. "But they kept going in the opposite direction that staff recommended."

You can reach us at andrew.donohue@voiceofsandiego.org orwill.carless@voiceofsandiego.org. Follow us on Twitter: