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New SAUSD corruption open thread

Art Pedroza posted this in "The OC", Classic Juice 1, Fresh Juice, SAUSD, Santa Ana on June 22nd, 2008

UPDATE: Comments on this thread are now closed. The new 2009 thread is available at this link.

I wrote a post on July 16, 2006, entitled “SAUSD corruption coming out with Mijares gone,” and it blew up to over 2,000 posts. However, it exceeded the capacities of our server and has been truncated recently at about 1,529 posts. But one of our readers has stepped up to the plate and painstakingly copied all of the comments into four NEW posts:

Also, don’t forget you can go to the right sidebar of any page page and search for “SAUSD” to get links to ALL of our past SAUSD stories.

I have been honored that this blog has allowed so many people to vent their frustrations with the SAUSD administration and school board. We will continue to shed light on these issues and I hope that our readers will continue to use this blog to communicate about the corruption at SAUSD.

SAUSD does not belong to the administrators or to the school board. It belongs to us. We will have an opportunity this fall to take back the school board, with three seats opening up. I pray that good candidates will emerge so we will be able to do exactly that. Until then, please keep the comments coming! But post them here, to this new thread. Thank you.

976 comments to New SAUSD corruption open thread

951

anon says:

December 27, 2008 at 8:02 am

Here is a short video clip on workplace bullying that helps explain dysfunctional employment practices:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSLtIwBlsYM

The union actually becomes part of the problem at some point. I did notice that SAEA is having anti-bully workshops in the new year, fyi.

952

anon says:

December 27, 2008 at 8:05 am

Here is a letter from the head of EndTeacherAbuse.org, Karen Horwitz. Difficulties with school systems seem to originate with the Board of Education and the top level administrators. Terrible systemic problems are more common than should be:

Dear Mr. Doggett,

I just read a 2000 article you posted, The insane war against teachers, http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=830

and was thrilled to hear someone who understands why the teachers are appearing increasingly “insane” as you are correct: sane people cannot easily survive this system. I have worked for over a decade trying to expose what is going on in our schools and recently published a book detailing just what is going on entitled White Chalk Crime: The REAL Reason Schools Fail. It also explains that “sane” teachers are regularly cleansed from the system so their voices will not be heard.

As you mentioned in your article, it is hard for most people to side with unions so even on issues such as false accusations, most people tend to just ignore. What I explain in my book is that unions and teachers are two entirely separate interest groups; teachers are held hostage by the system, stuck with unions that sell them out. And yet the unions are not the primary culprit despite how despicable they are. The primary culprits are the boards and administrators that require unions to either go along or be put out of business. Thus, given that business is their primary agenda, they go along to get along.

The only solution for our schools is to teach people exactly what is going on and how these false accusations are a tool of administrations that want to do as they please with teachers so they can carry out their White Chalk Crime, a concept explained in detail in my book.

Because you so brilliantly understand the issue of false accusations, I am sure you will enjoy knowing about how this fits with the bigger agenda of teacher abuse. I also have a website at EndTeacherAbuse.org that I launched to locate teachers who had the courage to speak about what is going on and now have over 1000 members, most of whom will speak publicly. In fact, my book contains the voices of 140 of them as I am aware that any lone teacher will hardly be heard. Most of them have won major awards and have been the most popular teachers at their respective schools. Yet, what parents want is not part of the White Chalk Crime agenda. In fact, the agenda is to keep the schools from the parents and teachers so they can do as they please. In addition I recently launched WhiteChalkCrime.com to alert the public to what is going on.

I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you further or do an interview if you still have a radio show. We are trying to break through the tax subsidized propaganda that ensures voices like ours are not heard. I truly promise you that fixing our schools would be easy. What is hard is being heard!

I am also pasting in a piece I wrote to the Obama transition team since it focuses on how people with power can stay in office despite obvious guilt whereas powerless teachers are purged and silenced with little effort. We cannot have decent schools with this imbalance and where rule of law is not in effect for the powerless.

I was especially impressed that you were able to set aside your conservative beliefs and support teachers “despite the unions.” Our group is composed of conservatives and liberals because all of us realize the problem is not what people are made to believe and the beginning of change will be when this realization blossoms, not before. In fact, the White Chalk Criminals thrive on a divided nation where people are too busy arguing about other issues such as homosexuality and in fact intentionally add controversial issues to the curriculum to keep the light shining on the issues, not on them.

Thanks for your time. I hope to hear from you as we are dependent on people in the media to get this message out yet they too seem to support White Chalk Crime either inadvertently or intentionally, another topic in my book.

Dedicated to the children I remain,

Karen Horwitz

teacherkh@aol.com

312 397 1940 (Chicago)

953

SAUSDTeacher says:

December 29, 2008 at 11:11 am

#953 anon:
“I did notice that SAEA is having anti-bully workshops in the new year, fyi.”

I noticed those workshops as well, but when I looked closer saw that they are about children bullying other children.

954

anon says:

December 30, 2008 at 11:17 am

An unanswered question from an employment law site:

http://www.justanswer.com/questions/1gzjs-wife-work-santa-ana-unified

MY WIFE & I WORK FOR THE SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT.THE UNION THAT REPRESENTS US CSEA#41 MADE A OFFER TO OUR UNION THAT WOULD ELIMINATE DUAL MEDICAL INSURANCE FOR COUPLES IN THE DISTRICT, IN ORDER TO GIVE ABOUT 430 4 HR EMPLOYEES FULL INSURANCE BENEFITS. I FEEL THIS MARRIAGE DISCRIMINATION, THIS ALSO AFFECTS MANY MANYOTHER EMPLOYEES.IS THIS LEGAL?

Optional Information:
SANTA ANA, California

Already Tried:
TALKING WITH OUR UNION REPS.
THEY ONLY SEEM INTERESTED IN BRINGING BACK THE 430 LAID OFF WORKERS SO THEY CAN COLLECT THEIR DUES/ /p>

Customer (name blocked for privacy)

955

soka1 says:

December 30, 2008 at 11:40 am

Why are part time people with 4 hrs getting Insurance?? I’m sorry but only full time employees should get benefits! Hey.. this is my opinion love it or hate it but this is my opinion.

956

Teacher says:

December 30, 2008 at 11:44 am

Why are office managers and Registrars still being left at 12 months?

957

simple Teach says:

December 30, 2008 at 11:47 am

#957 i hear they will be going 11 months for office managers and 10 1/2 for registrars. i do not think they can cut office staff anymore as they have done that enough.

I hear it will now be programs and money that each of the schools get for their budget.

958

anonfive says:

December 30, 2008 at 7:33 pm

soka, I agree. There are very few if any employers that provide health benefits to part time employees. Don’t part time employees qualify for medicare anyway?

959

anon says:

December 30, 2008 at 7:40 pm

I would like to know the real cost of CAHSEE and the spring testing series to our district and state. This would include manpower, grading, administering pre and post. How many jobs are alligned to do just this type of testing? While someone is at this how much is spent on English benchmarks? It can not be a minimal amount, the testing companies are making big dollars.

960

anon says:

December 30, 2008 at 7:52 pm

We could save money on hourly, cutting sports, do away with insurance and testing,increase class sizes to double what we now have and closing the district office and moving each superintendent to a school site to replace a pricipal.

Do away with district vehicles, bid jobs to the lowest and pass students throgh to the next grade level if they come to class 50 per cent of the time. Make it mandatory to keep students to 21 so we make more money.

So when all this is done our students cannot compete with the foreign out sourcing and they cannot get the good paying jobs I want my students to get.

961

simple Teach says:

December 31, 2008 at 10:36 am

I do no think they should cut all sports. Come on now. May be cut levels such as Frosh Soph. Please the kids got cut sports at the Intermediate level let’s not cut all the sports they poor kids have!
Anon 5 I agree with you too! Why the heck are part time people getting full benefits! This is not right! There is the money that could be saved right there!

962

Anonplus says:

December 31, 2008 at 5:38 pm

It just may be possible that these part timers getting some kind of benefits were FULL TIMERS until the district cut their jobs in half, doubled up on their duties and put them into classifications they were never hired to do in the first place. All because the piss ass CSEA union agreed to it as some sort of comfort for cutting these jobs in half in the first place.

For those with a short memory, how many teachers were fired then rehired? CSEA didn’t have the influence, so the best they could agree to was keeping people part time with partial benefits.

Anyone care to tell me why the BOE all have full benefit packages when they don’t even work for the district half time?

963

anon teacher says:

January 2, 2009 at 9:33 pm

All of this talk about part timers not deserving benefits really brings home a few points.
#1 That’s exactly the reason that so many people who were doing full time jobs at the district no longer have full time jobs, it’s pretty sad when health insurance becomes so costly that the district’s response is to take these people away from serving the students.
#2 Something has to be done about the costs of health insurance.
#3 When others don’t have something (like insurance in a part time job), they assume that this is the way it SHOULD be, and no one else deserves what they don’t have. Just because it is that way, doesn’t mean it is right.

964

Anonplus says:

January 3, 2009 at 9:06 pm

Anon Teacher,

My past few comments have been in the heat of temper and hopefully I have regained my composure if not my spelling.

To my knowledge part time classified employees only get benefits if they exceed a certain amount of hours per day/month. CSEA agreed to the districts reductions for some but not for all only so some employees would continue to have some sort of benefits. My question has been why CSEA not defend all rather than a few? Thus I sort of lost my grip on gentlemanship. But it does anger me.

I agree it is a sad state of affairs when the district uses insurance as a keystone for cutting jobs. When I came to SAUSD they not only paid all of the insurance but also PERS. That was a long time ago and CSEA bargained all of that away.

Insurance is a monster. You can watch TV ads for insurance and see the price Blue Cross and others offer. Health costs have gone over the wall but for that I don’t blame the district so much. Over my time the district went to at least 4 different insurance carriers to keep the price down, but only after CSEA agreed to force employees to pay part of the costs.

I’m not defending the district on this matter only stating previous boards and superintendents tried to keep the price as low as possible. I don’t know about this current batch of scallywags since they seem to be most self serving including insurance packages for themselves. Since all are employed elsewhere, I would ask why for starters.

965

Fed Up says:

January 4, 2009 at 4:17 am

Finding solutions to the budget problems of SAUSD would be easy to do….. but every time a dollar or two is found because of these drastic cuts….it is either wasted because of management’s incompetance or it finds its way into the pockets of people like Juan Lopez, Russo, Olsky, Dixon, and Boden.

Health Insurance is not the problem.
California Governor Arnold S. is not the problem.
The problem is corruption in high places at Santa Ana City Hall and SAUSD.

The residents of Santa Ana seem to be unwilling or unable to stand up for themselves and their children. I’m positive that standing up for oneself wouldn’t work anyway. Only when they stand together will it work.

Why is Franklin Elementary School still standing?
Why hasn’t anyone sued the school district for allowing students to be taught in that toxic waste dump? I’m amazed that no one demands answers. Why do parents send their students to that polluted school? There has been a coverup.

The Hot Potato goes from Mayor Pulido to Hildy Myers (UCI) to Camille Boden to the Santa Ana Courts.

Are the kids getting any better over there at Franklin? There wasn’t any environmental cleanup…..just sweeping it under the rug as usual.

966

anon says:

January 4, 2009 at 7:48 am

SAUSD continues to be mismanaged. We all see the waste and yet the board of education and Jane Russo target cuts closest to the students. Poorly run organizations typically have an excessive number of bullies that are in control. Incompetence breeds incompetence.

Here is an excellent video describing the types of bully behavior, what you can do about it and some upcoming legislation that would help to curb this particular brand of incompetence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfv3PB202H0&eurl=http://therightnottobebullied.blogspot.com/2009/01/actively-aware-monday4-missing-roxanne.html

967

anon teacher says:

January 4, 2009 at 10:03 am

I too, have been with this district for a long time (over 20 years), and yes, insurance was fully paid for SAEA members for about just about 10 years of my employment. It is not just CSEA paying for benefits now though. While our costs were low a few years ago, recent negotiations have us paying 9% of the costs. Agreeing to pay a percentage rather than a flat amount has resulted in a guaranteed increase in our out of pocket costs every year. I have seen co pays go from $5 to the current cost of $20 and I have seen prescriptions go from $4 to the current anything they want to charge (I’ve paid anywhere from $10-$30 and a few prescriptions that were just not covered at all by our plan). Anyone can say that corruption is the problem in SAUSD and I really won’t disagree with them, however, insurance costs ARE one of the biggest problems facing the district. Blue Cross is claiming that last year they lost money and will try to recoup it by charging more this year. No one ever questions their accounting though. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that even with some major illnesses that this company could be losing money on SAUSD. Just take a look at what Blue Cross actually pays compared to the bill the average person receives, there is just no way there are losing money.

968

SAUSD teacher says:

January 4, 2009 at 4:27 pm

#968
MISS(Russo)management:
1) Joe (Taj Majal) Dixon (major loser from CUSD) at $164,000 salary +++ support positions +++ new offices.
2) Juan “hack” Lopez, $20,000 salary increase ++ new job title.

Sorry, she’s too busy creating more administrative positions to bother with studying to achieve a doctorate in education.

Failure is unacceptable, it’s up to us all TO KEEP DISTRICT ADMINISTRATORS IN JOBS THEY AREN’T QUALIFIED TO FULFILL.

969

confused anon says:

January 4, 2009 at 11:06 pm

#964-seems that BOE members get benefits after a certain number of years according to the CA Ed code
#970- I don’tunderstand your last statement

970

Anonplus says:

January 5, 2009 at 11:45 am

Confused Anon,

Could you please direct me to the Ed Code section to which you refer? All I find is the amount each board member can be paid monthly for attending board meetings. The amounts are based on the size of that district. I see nothing about any entitlement of health benefits.

Since these people are elected officials I find it difficult to believe that the Ed Code would provide for health benefits to anyone simply because they are re-elected a certain number of times. Please correct me if I am wrong. The Ed Code is about the most screwed up code in California thus anything is possible but I really find it difficult to buy your statement.

971

Red Vixen says:

January 5, 2009 at 7:27 pm

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/school-year-million-2274175-cuts-schools

Monday, January 5, 2009
O.C. schools can survive $490 million in mid-year cuts, educators say
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offers up a plan to close California’s budget deficit, including a shorter school year next fall.
By SCOTT MARTINDALE
The Orange County Register
Comments 0| Recommend 0

Orange County schools would survive $490 million in mid-year cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but would be forced to continue slashing employees and programs as they brace for several more years of gloomy budgets, officials said Monday.

The governor’s office last week unveiled its latest plan to close a projected $41.6 billion, 18-month budget deficit, which included cutting $2.1 billion in immediate cuts from public schools and withholding $2.8 billion until July, when the next fiscal year begins.

In Orange County, the plan would require about $210 million in immediate cuts from K-12 schools, plus tapping into about $280 million of rainy-day reserve funds to weather the temporary drop in funding levels.

“We’re fighting for every dollar for kids this year, but we’re also realistic and know we can’t just not take cuts,” said county schools Superintendent Bill Habermehl. “In Orange County, we’re in a much better position than the rest of California because our school districts are well managed. It will hurt, but not as much.”

The governor’s office has released multiple budget proposals in the past few months, all calling for multi-billion cuts to public education. But the state Legislature thus far has failed to act on the widening budget gap, leaving school districts in limbo as they work to stay afloat financially.

“It’s really early to anticipate what or how we’re going to cut,” said Julie Hatchel, spokeswoman for the 52,000-student Capistrano Unified School District, which is preparing for $16 million to $17 million in mid-year cuts. “Our reserves are already extremely low. Depending on what they’re expecting us to cut or use from our reserves, it could be problematic. We’ve already made so many cuts to our programs.”

Last year, K-12 education funding was cut by about $3 billion from what schools had expected to receive under state funding formulas.

In response, school districts across Orange County slashed a combined $150 million, laying off scores of custodians, groundskeepers, office workers and administrators, plus forcing more than 100 teachers to find employment elsewhere.

“For the state to tell you that you have to maintain class sizes, buy new text books, and comply with everything else they demand and not give you the funding for it is just crazy,” said Audrey Yamagata-Noji, a trustee for the 54,500-student Santa Ana Unified School District, which is looking to cut upward of $46 million over the next two years.

Under the governor’s latest plan, the future isn’t bright for the next school year, either. K-12 schools in 2009-10 would receive $3.1 billion less than what they expected to get under state funding formulas. Part of the cost-savings would come from a proposal to cut the school year short by a week, shaving off $1.1 billion.

California schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell has blasted the governor’s plan for funding education, saying it would create “a cash flow crisis” for school districts and shortchange California’s future.

“This budget proposal would be devastating for not only public education, but to the state,” O’Connell said Friday. “This is less learning opportunities for students, longer bus rides, fewer materials. Many of us would like to see a longer school day now and this takes us in the opposite direction.”

Cutting the 2009-10 school year by five days would create a substantial and potentially difficult adjustment period, educators said, but they said that Orange County’s teachers would be able to rise to the challenge.

“Given enough time, our teachers are flexible enough to handle a change in schedule,” said Tom Turner, spokesman for the 34,000-student Saddleback Valley Unified School District, which is bracing for about $10 million in mid-year cuts. “Our teachers are professionals and they have their year set out – 180 days to get through textbooks, standardized testing, reviewing how to be a better teacher. Taking away the five days can change the way a teacher runs a program.”

Staff writer Fermin Leal contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 949-454-7394 or smartindale@ocregister.com

972

anon teacher says:

January 5, 2009 at 8:52 pm

I sure hope they subtract that week from the END of the school year. It seems that Santa Ana keeps adding days to the end of the year and all of the state testing is completed by the first week of May. This amounts to about 6 weeks less to teach the content the kids are supposed to know. Granted, we still teach after the test, but what a waste when our kids need that time so much (and how much do they really remember by May of the following year?).

973

Anon says:

January 5, 2009 at 9:31 pm

Anon teacher,

In fact what percentage of kids really show up for school the last 2 weeks of school anyway? The last week is what? Half days plus 1 minute for ADA and even then a majority of the high school students don’t show up. Try policing the schools and city the last 2 weeks of school. Their are more kids running around town than in classrooms.

974

confused anon says:

January 5, 2009 at 11:01 pm

BTW, if the school year is shortened by a week, you have taken an approximate 3% pay cut. Tack on to that any money that the District goes for either in give back or in increased benefits- looks pretty bad, no?

975

sausd | Lasts information says:

May 30, 2008 at 10:21 am

[...] New SAUSD corruption open threadI wrote a post on July 16, 2006, entitled “SAUSD corruption coming out with Mijares gone,” and it blew up to over 2000 posts. However, it exceeded the capacities of our server and has been truncated recently at about 1529 posts. …Orange Juice! – http://orangejuiceblog.com [...]

976

Stunning contrast in the way SAUSD and Capo school districts handle molestation incidents | Orange Juice! Politics For The Rest Of Us. says:

December 3, 2008 at 7:00 pm

[...] aide got busted at Santa Ana’s Saddleback High School, we first found out about it here at the Orange Juice, in comments left by our readers on our longstanding post about corruption at the Santa Ana Unified [...]

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