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:
- 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
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.
#595
Not everyone has forgotten what happened at Franklin.
Well, summer is over and this blog has been uncharacteristically quite. Everyone returns on Monday and we will see what the outcome of all of the cuts will be. I’m sure this blog will start exploding again soon.
Thank you George for the info about Light the Night Walk.
I’m not going to forget what is going on over there. There was a girl at Franklin who had leukemia too. They weren’t all boys.
I want to know why all the parents of the Franklin Students don’t protest and keep them at home? That might bring the attention that is needed to this problem. Is it because the pollution is in the surrounding areas, so it is just as bad at home as in the school? I heard that so many young women in the area also have cancer.
They had town meetings on all this before. Last December (2007) a group was at Franklin testing it for lead and other toxins. They said it was loaded full of toxic lead and were still in the process of testing. By the time the report gets to someone good like Senator Dunn, it has been tampered with.
See this is what coverup looks like…..this is a new news story…….how can we win against odds like this? What about Superfund? Is it all just for show?
“Despite Love Canal’s Lessons, Schoolchildren are Still at Risk”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/08/22/toxic.schools/index.html?eref=ib_topstories
At least it helps to vent, but I want to do more.
Its good to know that not everyone has forgotten about the children. There have been more cases of childhood leukemia in Santa Ana. Unfortunately, we were never given accurate information. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) held a Public Information Meeting on April 23, 2007 at Kennedy Elementary School in Santa Ana.
The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the results of air monitroing conducted at Kennedy and Franlkin Elementary Schools in Santa Ana; health risks associated with the existing operations at Markland Manufacturing and the proposed installation of a new plating line and additional control equipment at this facility. But, Markland is only one of hundreds of manufactures polluting the city of Santa Ana
Should you have any questions or require additional information contact Lourdes Cordova Martinez Community Relations Manager at
South Coast AQMD
909) 396-3214 or Debra Reed at (909) 396-3199
Don’t Forget:
Please Join Latinas Contra El Cancer
Light The Night Walk 2008
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
Tailgate: 5:00 p.m.
http://www.active.com/donate/ltnSanta/2284_gallorskies1
On April 23, the AQMD held a Public Information meeting in Santa Ana to update the community on proposed permits for a local manufacturing company. In attendance were 40 community members, including teachers and staff from Kennedy and Franklin Schools in Santa Ana. Also in attendance were Council Members from the City of Santa Ana and representatives for the local State Senator, Assembly Member and County Supervisor. District staff presented information on the preliminary findings from special air monitoring that was done near Kennedy and Franklin Schools, as well as specific information on the air quality permit for the manufacturing company. In order to ensure multi-agency coordination, staff was directed to notify the other permitting agencies, e.g., DTSC, Water and Sanitation Districts, as well as the meeting attendees, when the air permit is ready to be issued to the business.
http://www.aqmd.gov/hb/2007/June/070619a.html
George –
It’s alarming the city and the school district “allowed” a manufacturing plant, such as Markland, to open shop directly across the street from an elementary school and within a three-miles radius of another elementary, middle and high schools. I thought I heard that Villa and Century students were afflicted with cancer as well. Is the true?
I found it ironic that the district’s chief nurse, Gayle MacLean, was recognized as a school nurse of the year. Several schools serve up rotten food and have inadequate P.E. and nutritional classes in place to help combat the obesity problems plaguing the students.
For those Classified Employees who voted on the defeat of SAUSD / CSEA Tentative Agreement. We did it! 85% NO VOTES, 15% YES VOTES.
Don’t think we’ll allow you to sell us out again!
It’s really nice to see the classified employees develop some backbone. Special kudos to Duane Lundquist and Pilar Sanchez for their tireless efforts.
George,
The toxins are in the ground and in the water mostly.
If you spray water on the concrete sidewalk by the classrooms next to the outdoor lunch area, you will see large crystals form and pop up out of the concrete.
The air quality is affected by thick black rubberized mold trapped in the ventilation system in the girl’s bathroom and no way to get to it. You can only access it from an area in the next hall. Once you go there it has been boarded off and you can’t get to it.
They already know but do nothing about it.
How can they keep up their lies?
They never did a test or they would know all this already.
All true….check it out for yourself.
All 24 counts were dismissed against Markland.
Check the records and you will see.
Related OJ links for SAUSD issues:
(SAUSD Board Member) Rosie Avila bakes a hateful Prop. 8 cake By Art Pedroza.
Updated SAUSD School Board candidate list By Art Pedroza.
SAUSD teacher honored by state group as top educator! By Art Pedroza.
Protest against SAUSD layoffs tomorrow at Laborer’s Hall By Art Pedroza.
SAUSD to rehire fired employees By Thomas Anthony Gordon.
Hundreds protest classified employee layoffs & soccer field fiasco at SAUSD headquarters By Art Pedroza.
Soccer truce declared in Santa Ana By Art Pedroza.
SAUSD employees reject tentative agreement by 85% By Art Pedroza.
# 1-9 have pretty much summed up the situation and I’d like to further comment on the passive nature of employees in SAUSD who have allowed the school system to mistreat them time and again. The common response is to barely react or avoid the bad news. This weak reaction is what SAUSD administrators are used to. They got you where they want you. Crying and confused as Ms. Russo takes away support services for the children and takes away the jobs of their parents.
A voter registration campaign and a solid throw-the-bums-out at election time will be the one solid way to get the attention of Russo and company that things have changed. You will have to come to the realization that you deserve much better than what she has done to you and your kids.
If any of the fired employees are expecting Russo & Co to be reasonable, forget it. She and Hernandez have made it clear that the latest excuse to do their jobs poorly is to have budget difficulties. Devastating services for the school district was an easy decision and it was made quickly after the teachers’ union refused to let Russo abuse its members this coming school year.
John Palacio is the only one consistently fighting for you. The guy is alone on the board, fighting for the kids and SA citizens who deserve better treatment. If you don’t understand the severity of this situation and what has to happen in the November elections, as a collective group, you’re going to continue to be targeted for job elimination. The students will continue to fail, despite any cutesy slogans dreamed up by Russo.
I have heard that union members are assembling a class action suit against their union for non-representation. This is long overdue. However the biggest step towards job security if you work for SAUSD is to show that you are organized and are willing to get out there in big numbers to make permanant changes on the Board of Education during election time. Only then will your children have a chance at getting the best educational services the city can produce as well as respecting dedicated school district employees.
SAUSD can afford to be lazy and make lazy decisions as long as SA citizens allow it.
TYPICAL SAUSD…LIKE BOARD MEMBERS, “OVERSIGHT” MEMBERS ARE LISTED WITHOUT ANY EMAIL ADDRESSES OR PHONE NUMBERS. SAUSD DOES NOT LIKE TO HAVE DIRECT CONTACT/INPUT FROM THE PUBLIC, UNLIKE IRVINE UNIFIED, WHICH POSTS EMAILS AND PHONE NUMBERS FOR BOARD MEMBERS.
MAYBE ART OR ONE OF THE JUICE’S FINEST CAN UNEARTH A WAY TO DIRECTLY CONTACT ONE OR MORE OF THESE OVERSIGHTERS SO THEY CAN HEAR FROM THE PUBLIC THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO SERVE.
Measure G Bond Oversight Committee Members Selected
Committee First Meets on September 11, 2008
SANTA ANA, CA – August 22, 2008 — The Santa Ana Board of Education has appointed nine members of the community to serve on the Measure G Bond Oversight Committee. Members will exercise fiscal responsibility for ensuring the proper expenditure of Measure G school bond funds as voters intended and will have oversight for the efficient completion of projects. Committee members and their representative groups are below.
Member
Category
Desi Reyes
Business Community Rep.
Narinder “Nindy” Mahal
Taxpayers Organization Rep.
Juan Laguna
Parent of SAUSD Student
Rosa Aldaz
Parent & active in PTA
Mark McLoughlin
Member Active in Senior Org.
Glen Stroud
General Member
Alex Flores
General Member
Robert R. Miranda
General Member
Kristofer Pitman
General Member
The Bond Oversight Committee will meet quarterly at the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) administration building located at 1601 E. Chestnut Ave., Santa Ana, Ca., 92701. Meetings will be held in the executive conference room beginning at 6 p.m. on the following scheduled dates: September 11 and December 11, 2008, and March 12 and June 11, 2009. Meetings are open to the public.
Measure G is a $200 million General Obligation Bond passed by voters in the June 3, 2008, statewide primary election. Passage of Measure G enables SAUSD to leverage up to $120 million in State matching funds for a total of $320 million in funding. These funds will be used to make necessary safety improvements for schools and students including modernization of facilities and various upgrades to classrooms. For a copy of the Facilities Master Plan projects to be funded by Measure G, visit http://www.sausd.us, facilities page or call 714-558-5555.
Notes from a teacher on the first day of school: Three parents cars had Obama stickers! Reason and compassion have a foothold! No McSame at all!
Willard’s staff faces a whole new low; the removal of Nutrition. To accommodate a 3 lunch schedule (each grade level their own lunch to stop the food fights) they had to do away with any morning breaks. For 7th or 8th grade teachers this means no breaks for minutes shy of 4 hours to beyond; 5 and 6 periods before any type of opportunity to grab a water or bathroom break. It’s hard enough there without having an ogre as a principal.
#614-numbered #514 for whatever reason
This sounds to me like a labor code violation of some sort. I’m no expert, but I certainly would ask the teachers union. It seems to me you are entitled to a break after 2 hours and a lunch after 4. The food fight problems aren’t your fault and you shouldn’t have to suffer for a lack of control by the administration.
The price of a can of paint to renumber the bungalows…$9.00.
The price to remove the wrong renumbered bungalows from Willard’s site? …$100,000
Priceless? Ask Jane who paid a visit to Bishop today.
Someone please enlighten me…….Do the same useless SAUSD board members remain on the board because no one votes them out? Who is doing the voting? Are there enough SAUSD employees living in Santa Ana to counter whoever is voting for these self serving people? I’m not talking about Palacio who has always done the right thing, but he is in the minority, so his vote doesn’t even count, it seems.
I think the Russo Terrorist Regime knows they will never be held accountable because the employees affected haven’t got any say in the matter. Too many live outside of Santa Ana.
I can not believe that Camille Boden is now in charge of the Benefits Department as well as Risk Management. She will for sure rake us all over the coals. Can anyone stop the madness?
Someone is pocketing the money at the expense of the students.
Teachers, I hope you stand up for not getting your breaks, because if you let it go this time, they’ll keep taking more and more from you.
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. – Edmund Burke
Here’s just a report after the second day of students at Santa Ana High School.
Things had been looking ominous after severe cutbacks in classified staff, people doing double jobs all over, day custodians working overtime into the night to get things fixed. New principal Julie Enfante established her style of bottom up collaborative management very quickly, but not in an overbearing way. So far, positive comments from most faculty. Classes are packed across the board due to a stingy allowance of teachers (“fte”s) from the district, but no bizarre nightmares. We’ve had one of the smoothest openings we’ve had for years.
On the scary side, SAEA president Barton said no monies will be coming into SAUSD from the state until the legislature passes a budget, and whereas the school district has enough cash on hand to make the September 30 payroll, it won’t be able to make the October 31 payroll if the budget isn’t passed by then. Advice is to start putting away some cash to make mortgage, rent, and car payments, and something for foodif this disaster occurs. Skip “back to school” shopping and everything not absolutely critical.
It is important to give credit to both the teacher’s union and Jane Russo for the much smoother opening of school than in the past few years. The word from the union was that huge class sizes and disorganized school openings would not be tolerated, Jane listened and sent all members of the district office out to oversee the first day of school. Class sizes and organization were greatly improved. Please also remember that we can also thank some brave teachers who made sure that these issues got to the press last year. The district definitely wanted to make sure that teachers picketing before and after school was not displayed on the front page of the paper again.
It seems that voting in their own enlightened self-interest would be a good idea for teachers. Too bad so few live within SA or the SAUSD boundaries. Perhaps this national election can accomplish something. Enlightened self-interest, what a concept!
#519
Has the Russo regime suddenly figured out what they were doing wrong? The principals have figured out they will get no help from Russo. Teachers and staff should be given the credit.
Teachers really can’t be given credit for the fact that our class numbers made much more sense this year, just as they couldn’t be blamed when they opened their classrooms to up to 70 students each during the past several years. The bottom line of the disorganized beginning of school in SAUSD was attributable only to class size and the district’s desire to use the opening of school as a “free pass” to save a bunch of money in the first few weeks of school. The message of the union and the actions of some teachers finally came through loud and clear: enough is enough!
My previous post should not be taken to mean that the cuts to the classified staff or the way it was handled were in any way acceptable or that anything except the change in class sizes for the opening of school was improved.
#617
Yes, the same useless board members remain because the Pulido machine has placed Noji, Richardson, Hernandez and Avila in place to carry out Pulido’s agenda.
It’s important that you understand the city politics to fully understand why SAUSD is saddled with these incompetent and snobbish school board members.
If school principals are allowed to advocate for the passing of a school bond measure, on school grounds, during school sanctioned events, it’s easy to figure out how these clowns – Richardson, Noji, Hernandez & Avila remain in office.
Nov.4 – Do Not Vote for Rob “Eddie Haskell” Richardson and Jose “Millionaire Immigrant”Hernandez. If you do not live within the voting area, then devote your time, talent and money to defeat these men.
Remember, please, the SAEA set up a phone bank for Measure G. Why not a bond to increase teacher and classroom staff salaries, it would pass with 90 percent! Elitist insider backroom deals, such as Measure G and the Memo of Understanding just imposed on teachers , are prime examples of Max Weber’s theory of bureaucracy… The first duty of any bureaucrat is to entrench the bureaucracy! Site reps don’t help much… we get no news at my site since our site rep is an anti- union libertarian. Is Mickey weeping?
Why is your site rep an anti-union libertarian.Why don’t you volunteer then?
Hey rintrah, do the majority of your teachers feel like you do regarding your current SAEA rep? Remember, all teachers may come to the “rep council meetings” (3d Tuesday of each month, but check http://www.sateach.org for changes) and may speak up regarding any and all concerns of your faculty. The only thing extra the official rep can do is vote — not a really big thing.
When did you have your last rep election? Supposed to be at least one a year. We had ours last week. Easy, our high school gets 8 reps. At a faculty meeting we asked for candidates, 5 stood up, asked for a thumbs up from the faculty for an ok for these candidates — Job done and sent the names to SAEA. Secret ballot would only be needed if there were more candidates then positions. If you might have trouble with some people in running an election, ask SAEA to come to your site and run it for you.
But, yeah, it’s a lot of money out of your paycheck each year. You do need to have some good reps to find what’s going on.
rintrah –
yep, I know SAEA hosted the pro Measure G phone bank and there are plenty of SAUSD voters that are still stinging from the teacher’s union imposing additional taxes on SAUSD homeowners.
I have no beef w/a bond for teacher’s salaries. I think I read somewhere a district in Colorado took this action. But that would mean Mayor Pulido would have to sanction this action and he won’t. His primary concern is to keep this town undereducated and in poverty. This agenda is self-serving for Miguelito.
And that’s why it’s important to understand the political dynamics between the mayor, school board and the superintendent.
I’m trying to express the deep disconnect between the union and its members. This is the second school where I have encountered anti-union libertarians occupying the union job. It is not misrepresentation- most teachers I encounter are Red- diaper OC repubs, Reg-reading wacky but lovable libertarians, or American Taliban store-front church End Times Dominionists. Union leadership is composed of a more actively politically oriented group, many of whom undoubtedly endorse such unpopular views as evolution. And never the twain shall meet, except about hours of work and wages..Local OC yokels, voting yokely! Mickey weeps as OC burns!
#629 I’m afraid I can’t really understand what you are trying to say. Is it just me? Maybe someone can explain.
I think what rintrah is saying is that teachers run the entire political spectrum, left to right, and that their Association should stay out of politics and stick to their primary function: bargain a contract that provides a fair wage, and protects members from bullying and abuse by management, and then make sure the contract is followed.
It seems that the type of teachers who volunteer to do the union work tend to come from the liberal-progressive end politics, and forget that most of their membership sit various degrees to the right of them. I myself consider myself a liberal, but I feel like Newt Gingrich when I’m at a CTA meeting. Nevertheless, God bless ’em for doing this. They teach full time (except the pres. and grievancanc chair) and no one gets anything extra to do the union stuff. Without ’em we’d be in deep trouble — this school district considers teachers as only labor to be squeezed as much as possible without breaking.
Wrong. I’m saying that many teachers in this district are OC sheep, unconscious of politics except for what beliefs they inherited and a lifetime subscription to the REG. My 2nd week at SAUSD was highlighted by a senior teacher telling me that Mexicans were proof that the Spanish successfully inseminated burros, tho in much more graphic terms than this. They are against government and against public education, yet they work in this field. Teachers like this fail to educate our students to be citizens because they don’t believe our students have the right to be citizens- citation- endless lunch discussions w/ Soc Stud/Coach “teachers” and AM listening suburban brides. The teachers of this district must share the blame for the failure of our students, not to pass arbitrary tests, but to become members of a civil society.
Rintrah,
Please don’t judge that “many teachers…are OC sheep”. I’ve been teaching in SAUSD for nearly a decade and can’t definitively determine that I have even MET most of the teachers in the district, much less determine the “beliefs they inherited”. I’m sorry that your senior teacher was so bigoted/biased, but I do not believe that gives you the right to arbitrarily denigrate your colleagues. YOUR sweeping generalizations about SAUSD teachers are perhaps more egregious than that one senior teacher’s comments. I do not believe that the teachers “fail to educate” nor that they “must share the blame for the failure of the students”. The vast majority of the SAUSD teachers that I have interacted with over the last decade share a passionate concern to provide the best possible educational experience to every student they serve. Unfortunately, the vast majority of District administrators that I have interacted with are most interested in what best serves the District, not the students. This is the reason for this blog about the DISTRICT not caring to serve the students.
So, please join me in being “members of a civil society” and stop attacking your colleagues.
Sorry, rintrah. Wow. I don’t think you’re at my site. I haven’t meant anyone like that — let alone a group of ’em. Maybe they hide out and lunch away from the rest of us. But I don’t doubt that there are a whole lot of really poor and/or demoralized teachers in this district, ’cause the majority of my students (16-18 yrs old) come into my class really behind, 3-5 years behind their peers at …for example, Uni or Troy H.S., and don’t seem to realize it. I have to push, drag and use every trick I’ve learned to get them up to speed.
The teachers have never been the problem. SAUSD has the most caring teachers around. They can’t do their jobs without the money that is instead being wasted on the salaries of the School Board, Russo, and whoever Olsky is. Mijares was never this bad.
To save money, we should elect three chimps who do one thing and one thing only…vote exactly the way John Palacio does. Then we will have a School Board that cares about the children, gets the job done, and saves SAUSD lots of money that can be used to educate the children.
http://www.sateach.org/
SAUSD School Board Candidate forum:
When: Wed., Sept.10, 6 PM
Where: OC Musicians Association Hall, 2050 S. Main
Hosted by the South Santa Ana Merchants’Association
Teacher Housing Programs
The Wall Street Journal is doing a national story with a quick deadline of this Wednesday, Sept. 3, about teacher housing programs. They want to talk to a few CA teachers who recently bought homes using these incentive programs – such as the CalHFA Extra Credit program of the San Jose Teacher Housing Program. There are many others. The reporter wants OWNERS and not RENTERS at this time, and is looking at whether the housing crisis has increased use of these programs. Please call the SAEA office if you would be interested in talking to a reporter.
#635 I completely agree and I’ve been teaching in the district over 20 years.
I’d love to join your civil society, sahs teach. The one the teachers have built in Santa Ana is most impressive. I still believe our teacher corps is full of real losers, more concerned with job security than anything else. I’ve encountered more critical thinking from a road crew than from all these well-intentioned but misguided OC schoolmarms. You cannot blame failure on economics, society, language barriers, lack of family support, and the district admin without including teachers.. Teachers are partly responsible for this failure. #635- 20 years of service, read about your results in the Register crime log and the obituaries. Heckuva job, teach.
#638
While I understand that there are probably a decent number of bad teachers (in all districts, not just Santa Ana), I truly fail to see how a city’s crime log and obituaries are a real indicator of the quality of the teachers in that city. We have real systemic problems in this city, most of which originate from poverty and undereducated parents. Decades of research has proven that academic levels can really only be minimally affected under these circumstances, but we keep trying. When the society begins to tackle these major issues, we may see some change. However, I’m not holding my breath, I’m just continuing to do the best job I can to educate our very worthy students and the results (at least at my site) have been fairly remarkable. I don’t think any group of teachers in Irvine or Laguna Beach or some other wealthy area could do any better with our students.
Since I am neither a teacher nor a sociologist, I read with interest the various comments by the teachers here. While I do not have any real qualifications I find it quite refreshing that some teachers, like every other facet of society, seem to run from one extreme to the other but like most people in the country, the middle of the road seems to be the majority.
With the opinions being so diverse, I decided I would look at the API scores provided by the LA Times. This school guild lists how every school did across the state. They listed 8,933 schools. I can only assume that this is a complete list of all schools that were applicable. Unlike the Register which cheers on the most improved SA or OC schools, or the positive spin the SAUSD likes to put out, these numbers are pretty interesting since they are not bias or have an agenda.
As I scrolled through the list I was looking for the first Santa Ana school I could find on the list. I actually found four. The first came in at # 177 and the other three came in various places down to # 889. All were listed as located in Santa Ana. But upon closer inspection, all four were part of the Tustin Unified School District, not SAUSD.
Eventually I found College Middle school and the school of the performing arts at 1019 and 1038 respectively. I find it hard to really count these schools as they are special in nature with smaller populations of students and higher ratios of teacher per person. But never the less they came in pretty well.
I admit I may have missed a school as my eyes glazed over, but the first real SAUSD schools I found were Greenville at 1342 and Thorpe at 1429. Both of these schools are not really normal as they are fundamental schools but at least they were there.
Since SBHS, Century, and Valley had been mentioned as performing lowest in the county, I was curious where they placed overall statewide. I found the three in order as #8268, #8311, and #8410. This again is out of a total statewide number of #8933.
Obviously a number of schools did worse than SA’s worst. I noted these other statewide schools were located everywhere from affluent, to poor or dangerous communities. Many were continuation or independent study. Others were not.
What I’m gleaning from all of these numbers leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions. Why are schools in Santa Ana, but managed by Tustin Unified, doing so much better? Not all of those kids are shipped in from Tustin and at least one of those schools must be located in some of the densest areas of Santa Ana.
Why are three of Santa Ana High schools just barely under the 600 lowest rated schools in the state? All have received new principals in the last several years. Two of these principals have been raked over the coals on this blog in the last year.
Thus while teachers debate, the results tell the story. As long as we have 3 High schools within the bottom 600 of just under 9000 statewide schools we have a problem. You can blame whomever or whatever you want. I can think of a number of districts in poor, English deficient, and gangland areas that do not show half of their High schools in the bottom 600.
Obviously I’m not a math master either. My previous comment should have said under 700 not 600. Either way it’s not a great record.
The schools that you are questioning with a Santa Ana address but located in the TUSD are not actually in the city of Santa Ana. In addition to being several miles away from the city of Santa Ana, the schools are in the 92705 zip code and serve a student population that lives in that zip code. The area is actually in a rather affluent county area and has a Santa Ana address for mail purposes only.
#642
Thank you for correcting me on those Tustin schools.
It’s really a pleasure to have people sincerely curious about how schools work. There’s a lot of variables that affect overall school performance:
1. Parent involvement in their kids’ education. All schools will be having “back to school” night in a few weeks. SAHS’s will be 9/24. We’ll be lucky to have 20% of parents show up. Tustin and Irvine will have close to 80%. Our parents love and care for their children, but schoolwork is just not a big part of family life. This shouldn’t be an excuse for poor performance, but it is a real obstacle we need to take into factor into our education strategy.
2. When you see relatively similar schools, some doing ok, others doing terrible, take the latter as a big red flag for poor, unsupportive principals. Poor principals can destroy academics with a weak student discipline policy, and forcing teachers to keep continually disruptive students in their classrooms. Some principals lead their schools through domination and intimidation, creating an exodus of their stronger and veteran teachers to other sites, leaving submissive and passive teachers and a high proportion of unqualified temps on the faculty. Principals, district managers and school board members maintain long-term friendships with one another. I’m always astonished at how blind and forgiving administrators seem to be to a colleagues’ ineptitude.
3. It is really true that we have a lot of dedicatited, caring teachers, but that doesn’t necessarily make them good teachers. It hurts me to know a number of very nice teachers who just don’t know their subject very well, teach at far too low a level, and don’t instill a passion to learn in their classes. We have far too many teachers who graduated with mediocre gpa’s from weaker colleges. We need to recruit into teaching far more U.C. grads, Stanford, USC, Pomona, CMC, Oxy and the like grads — not for the extra knowledge, but for their passion for academics that got them into those schools in the first place. Now, I know I’m going to take some heat here from the Cal State grads, but the fact is, CSUF and the like graduates a heckuva lot more academic slackers than UCLA, and academic slackers on a public school faculty tend to transmit that same attitude to their students.
SAHS Teacher
Thank you for your time to write your comment. I especially agree with you on the matter of principalships. This blog has been repleat with information on both the old and newer principal at SBHS. Their were some very interesting comments on the principal at Valley too going back to his tyranical methods while an AP at SBHS.
I don’t recall a lot of information about your principal except that she recently came to SAUSD from another district and was highly motivated and innovative. I would hope so since your school actually didn’t do much better than the others on the API list coming in at # 7988.
It makes me wonder why she would not have been assigned to the lowest rated High school instead of the highest rated of the four. While all four came in at the bottom third of the state (as did most of the intermediate and elementaries)logic would dictate that the principal at Valley needs to be kicked out of there and replaced first.
Anonplus, oh my god, please, don’t encourage the school district to follow your common sense suggestion.
True, SAHS, rigor breeds rigor, and most of the National Unversity tchrs have gone on to lucrative but short-lived careers in the mortgage broker and RE business. You may run into them at Trader Joe’s even now.
Realistically, the newest teachers get the worst classrooms and the problem classes and students. Principals are different than teachers, tho. SAUSD’s seniority system is clearly out of whack when medieval hierarchies allow failing principals to maintain their fiefdoms at chronically failing schools.
September President’s Letter
Sept. 2008
State Budget Crisis. It is day 60 without a State budget, and no prospect of one is in sight. So far every attempt to broker a deal in Sacramento has failed. CTA is encouraging you to contact your state legislator and to insist upon a budget that does not result in further cuts to education. We will shortly be entering uncharted territory, where the state may begin to have cash-flow problems. As you know, the Governor has already attempted to limit state workers’ pay to minimum wage until a budget is passed. While districts have enough funds on hand to get through September, including your September paycheck, after that there is only uncertainty. Other states have reached the point of shut-down, but this would be a first for California. Let’s hope those responsible can get together and craft a solution soon. Visit our website, sateach.org, for further information and updates.
Bargaining. The bargaining teams have been meeting during the summer in an attempt to close off the 2007-8 Contract. While it may seem odd to be discussing last year’s Contract at this late date, I am told we are not alone and that nearly half the Districts in the state have yet to settle last year’s contracts. Much of this delay is because of the unresolved state budget crisis. Still, even if there is no money on the table, there are important updates to the Contract that need to be finished up. The teams are very close and I hope to have a tentative agreement ready for your approval soon. We will then begin to discuss a future contract. The bargaining team consists of Ron Shepherd (Sepulveda), Susan Mercer (District Office), Billy West (Century), Peter Boyd (MacArthur) and Louise Settino-Sobieski (Mitchell)
CSEA. The layoff of instructional aides and other classified staff was especially Draconian. Members of the SAEA Board of Directors and I attended rallies during the summer to protest the layoffs as well as the reductions in salary and benefits. I have been in contact with the new leadership of CSEA and expressed our continuing support for their goals. My understanding is that their talks with the District will resume through the impasse process. Not only is the loss of instructional aides a blow to your classroom plans, but the loss of income by so many people in the community is a very real tragedy.
Elementary and Intermediate M.O. U. During the summer a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U.) was signed between SAEA and the District. The District was under considerable pressure from the County to provide for more teacher collaboration time. As a District under county supervision through the DAIT process (District Academic Intervention Team), Santa Ana needed to clarify how and when teachers would be able to collaborate. It was SAEA’s goal to help make for a smooth process without requiring teachers to attend extra mandatory meetings without pay. In the end, we worked out a pilot program that standardizes the use of the flex minutes already in the Contract. This pilot program (copies of which have gone out to you) provides for weekly modified Wednesdays for all Elementary and Intermediate schools. All meetings are to take place during modified days. Two Wednesdays a month will be for staff meetings; the rest of the Wednesdays will be used for collaboration. There will be no more after school meetings. This agreement does not change the length of the day. 900 of the flex minutes moved from instruction to collaboration. Collaboration meetings are intended for teachers to work with other teachers. The agendas for these meetings are to be determined by teachers and administrators in a ratio of 3 teachers to 1 administrator. This is a pilot program, and can be stopped if it appears that the District is not following it correctly.
Stress. SAEA will be providing a number of workshops this year that will focus on job stress. It is our hope to help you deal with the very real consequences of working in a public school environment that increasingly strangles your creativity while demanding more and more. We hope to address issues of stress in the classroom and stress between colleagues. In a parallel series of workshops we will talk about financial stress. With rising gas prices, the continuing mortgage crisis and the failure of financial institutions, it is imperative that all our members know how to stay afloat in troubling economic times. Look for the flyers for these workshops a little later in the year.
Welcome back!
David Barton
President, SAEA
ChalkTalk online from SAEA:
http://www.sateach.org/ChalkTalk08-08.pdf
Guidelines for school site safety:
http://www.sateach.org/SchoolSafetyGuide.pdf