Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) parents and teachers are in a full uproar. Below is an email touting a “Strike” by the parents tomorrow. It is followed by the official response from the CUSD Superintendent.
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!
DON’T LET THE CAPISTRANO SCHOOL BOARD DISMANTLE PUBLIC EDUCATION!
Things are heating up in the South County schools. Last week students at two Capistrano High Schools went on strike, refusing to go back to class. Tomorrow, parents are going on strike, strategically withdrawing their kids from the schools for a day. Tomorrow is also the last School Board meeting before the strike vote among teachers. The Board will vote on an imposed “resolution” which includes a permanent 12.5% salary cut to teachers.
Meanwhile, the CUSD appears to be intent on provoking a strike of their teachers. Public records show that the district has spent $140,000 on background checks of armed and unarmed security guards to control students and teachers during a possible strike. Also, district office copy machines are currently pumping out mountains of worksheet packets for the students who would be most likely rounded up and monitored in the gym and/or on sports fields without their teachers. CUSD is also offering double-pay for scab substitute teachers willing to cross the picket line.
You can make your voice heard with signs, musical instruments, and by speaking during the School Board meeting. Stand with the teachers during this moment of struggle!
Tuesday, 7pm Capistrano Unified School District Office
CUSD EDUCATION CENTER
33122 Valle Road
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
(949) 234-9200
I-5 FWY SOUTH.
Exit CAMINO CAPISTRANO. Turn RIGHT on CAMINO CAPISTRANO. Turn RIGHT on SAN JUAN CREEK. Turn RIGHT on VALLE. Continue past the Volkswagen dealer to the end of the street.
The CUSD Superintendent reacted to the talk of a psarent walk-out thusly:
April 12, 2010
Dear Parents,
During the last week you may have read one or more e-mails advocating for a “K – 12 Student Walk-out” to take place on April 13 as a symbolic gesture of support for the teachers’ union position regarding labor negotiations. It is of significant concern to hear that students would be held out of school on a regularly scheduled and staffed school day in order to address adult issues.
Everyone in CUSD is experiencing and affected by these exceedingly difficult financial and emotional times, and no one is comfortable with nor escapes the anxiety of having to ask valued employees to make personal sacrifices. Clearly, all parties involved are deeply concerned, have strong opinions, and want to be heard. However, it is difficult for me to imagine that the same professional educators who stand before you during Back to School Night and discuss the importance of daily school attendance by asking you to plan your family vacations and celebrations during weekends and holidays, as opposed to school days, would approve of this method of demonstrating support.
Public education is at one and the same time a right and a privilege. We are, as a nation, blessed to have the opportunity to send our children to school to learn.
I have read one of the e-mails giving numerous reasons for this movement, and as I did so it further saddened me to learn there are so many misperceptions and so much misinformation driving a suggestion that completely loses sight of CUSD’s most important group……………our children. Due to furlough days, our students will already be losing three days of school this year. I only see an additional loss of privilege and a loss of opportunity to learn with their teachers should they not attend school tomorrow.
Meanwhile, if you did not read my letter of March 29 in which I explained how the Board of Education’s decision regarding CUEA negotiations substantially compromised its original pre-impasse proposal with that of the fact finder’s recommendation, please do so. I also refer you to our CUSD web site where you might click onto the April 13 Regular Board Meeting Agenda, Item 43 which delineates the results of an intense process to identify almost $6 million in cuts, efficiencies, and the recapture of revenue streams to further draw down our massive deficit of $34 million while still preserving class sizes, student programs, and teaching and support staff personnel. I can also assure you that additional feasibility studies are being conducted to realize additional savings.
District and site level leaders are diligently striving to salvage programs and services which have become core to the high levels of success CUSD students’ exhibit. These include Trustee designated values and appear in alphabetical order:
……Academies (high school)
……Advanced Placement programs
……Athletic programs
……Dual Immersion programs
……Co-curricular programs (i.e. academic competitions)
……Elective programs
……International Baccalaureate programs
……Keeping all school sites open
……Music and art programs (including grades 4 and 5)
……Preservation of class size
……Preservation of teaching positions
……Sufficient administrative and support staff services on all sites to ensure the safety and welfare of students
I thank you for taking the time to read this letter. My only purpose in joining CUSD was and remains to serve your children to the best of my ability and to ensure this great school district continues to be viable, solvent, and successful.
Most Sincerely,
Bobbi Mahler, Ed.D
Interim Superintendent
The trouble with unionism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.
“Illbeback,” you are right.
Much of the hell in CUSD swirls around one woman who ran for school board in 2008 and was defeated. That was the community’s answer to her rabble-rousing.
The new (“reform”) trustees began their terms in a district that was operating in the red and borrowing from the future. And that was before the bottom fell out of the economy.
I don’t know of anyone who could do better than the current trustees, but I am CERTAIN the situation would be worse if the trustees had caved in to the union’s demands.
I’m fed up with the union and fed up with the rabble rousers wanting to disrupt education. The “parents’ strike” and the “students’ strike” are both insane.
These parents are sheep.. not a thought in their heads..
Who do they think is failing the kids??
2nd highest paid teachers in the country and they rate 48th in the nation..
People have got to let go of this ridiculous love affair with teachers.. Their job is to teach and they are not doing it!
And if i hear one more word about its a hard job.. try being an ICU Nurse.. I don’t see the nursing bitching about their jobs or what they make even though they make far less than some of these crappy, overrated teachers!
Yes, I am not a fan of the teachers right now.. I think they stink and have failed their students for far to long!
Written like a true trustee member I’d say……..If only they could be that transparent DURING the elections.
By its stubborn refusal to negotiate in good faith, this Board has done everything in its power to precipitate a strike by teachers. As parents, we know this strike will result in days or weeks of classroom disruptions, of little or no teaching, of overcrowding and chaos for our students. This will be a disaster for their education.
But now, the district has the gall to warn us that a one day sickout by students is irresponsible because it will compromise the quality of their education. Give me a break!
If the Board cares about students and education, they will listen to what parents are saying. They will negotiate with teachers and allow TEMPORARY not PERMANENT pay cuts. I will be keeping my children home tomorrow precisely because I do care about their education.
Because of the Board’s stubborn intransigence, its complete and utter contempt for students, teachers and parents, it has sewn the seeds of its own destruction.
If your talking about my post – you got it wrong – its written by a women that has done her homework!
Districts and their teachers and of course the CTA (other wise called the teachers mafia)
have become such a drain on education the best thing to do is scrap the whole corrupt system and start all over again!
“By its stubborn refusal to negotiate in good faith, this Board has done everything in its power to precipitate a strike by teachers. As parents, we know this strike will result in days or weeks of classroom disruptions, of little or no teaching, of overcrowding and chaos for our students. This will be a disaster for their education.”
MQ says:
I am sorry do you live in some sort of bubble??
Do me a favor can you start looking at the API scores of your local schools – little green men are not teaching the kids – teachers are!
“But now, the district has the gall to warn us that a one day sickout by students is irresponsible because it will compromise the quality of their education. Give me a break!”
MQ says:
I say stay out – home school the kids and ask for a tax credit.. The parents might just do a better job teaching the kids – Since a lot of the parents want their kids speaking spanish – its their big chance to keep teaching their kids in spanish and we will get a tax credit!
“If the Board cares about students and education, they will listen to what parents are saying. They will negotiate with teachers and allow TEMPORARY not PERMANENT pay cuts.”
MQ says:
Please for God sake – DO NOT LISTEN TO THESE MISLEAD PARENTS.. Cut the teachers pay and send them on their way if they don’t like it.. and fire their asses if API’s continue to be less than stellar in CUSD..
In the past eight years, the California Teachers Association has spent $211,000,000 on lobbying and influencing campaigns (See FPPC February 2010 report). While an additional 5-7 cents of every private salary dollar is set aside as employer contribution to retirement, an additional 84 cents of every teacher salary dollar is set aside for retirement. Time for teachers to tell the truth and stop the lies that they have been promoting through their union dollars.
MQ,
No, I do not live in a bubble.
My wife and I have been active in our children’s education in CUSD since they were in kindergarten. We have seen many dedicated and hardworking teachers go far beyond the requirements of their jobs to support our kids, and now we intend to support them.
Sure you have MV dad… As long as you kids not failing in the system… Why care? Right!
Please do your homework and look at the state of your school systems and the amount of students failing in it.. I am sure you have met one or two good teachers.. but one or two can not fix a system unless they voice their concerns for their student’s instead of their pay!
I don’t mean to be hard on you.. but for God sake, CARE!
Alrighty, then, MQ. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Best of luck to you.
All I ask of you is too look at how many kids are coming out of CUSD with a sub-standard education..
If you want to support a cause, support the cause of transforming your sub-standard school system into something that you can be proud of – that will educate all kids not just the kids who’s parents actually give a crap!
disagree with me if you like, facts are facts!
Michelle Quinn,
You’re so extreme with your comments. What do these stupid API scores really mean anyways!? That your kids can take a test well?? Anyone can test well and by your comments Quinn you don’t know a darn thing about education. You really think API scores are that important? You think because a kid has a high API score he/she will run a business successfully, or he/she will somehow become more creative artist, or he/she will be a better doctor? If you really think an API score says anything about a student then you’ve been mislead. API scores have not shown any correlation to student success in school or in life. CST scores, Benchmark scores are all flawed in so many ways and they NEVER relate to anyones true success. Questions are made up by those who assume students experiences and most questions are made to TRICK 7-10 year olds. How’s that for a test? A test like the ones your speaking of are MADE in such a way many times to trick kids who are between the ages of 7 and 10 years old. You really want to base you child’s success on that?
“All I ask of you is too look at how many kids are coming out of CUSD with a sub-standard education..”
Michelle, how can you measure that? How could anyone ever follow that? Look at API scores?? API scores are flawed. What if a kids API score is basic and he become a doctor, now what?
You call schools sub-standard? Most schools in China probably don’t even accept kids at poverty level. Good luck there if you’re poor and have a special needs child. Most of them probably don’t even get to be counted in that society. Here we include everyone because the United States believes everyone deserves an education.
The fact is Quinn you have no facts. What are you basing education on? API scores again? I go back to my previous argument, show me where API scores predict student achievement in life. Are you basing it on private schools where parents well-off? Are you basing it on small charter schools? Are you comparing schools with special needs classes?
“You’re so extreme with your comments. What do these stupid API scores really mean anyways!?”
MQ says:
Thank you – what you call extreme, i call the truth. For some reason the truth has become extreme!
” Anyone can test well and by your comments Quinn you don’t know a darn thing about education”
MQ says:
Really?? how can you test well on material you do not know? If you have some sort of trick to overcome the natural – please do tell!
“You really think API scores are that important? ”
MQ says:
No i think it is a stupid way to test the aptitude of a school- but the state seams to think its a good idea and so do the california teachers union!
They don’t really like children being tested – Not very good for the teachers.. Shows the system for what it is – a disgrace.
“You really think API scores are that important? You think because a kid has a high API score he/she will run a business successfully, or he/she will somehow become more creative artist, or he/she will be a better doctor? ”
MQ says:
I know this may be hard for you to understand – but taking tests may be a pain in the ass, but it’s an excellent way to excel..
I can’t right now – but i will get back to you with all the facts that you need!
I have 3 kids in CUSD they moved from another OC School district, they were all doing very well there, they move to this school district and within 2 years they are failing seveal classes between them, there is something wrong with the way they are being taught and the teachers want to put all the blame on the parents, ummm they are in school with you ALL day every day, how is it MY fault they are failing everything?! I am very dissapointed with these teachers.
Michelle Quinn – I don’t know where you went to school, but wherever it was, the system grossly failed you.
1. Logic says you can’t say that a group of teachers is the second highest paid in the county, then throw in that California is 48th in the nation. You’ve set up a faulty causal relationship.
2. One cannot compare the work of a teacher with the work of an ICU nurse; they are not the same sort of work. Please provide back-up for your assertion regarding nurse’s salaries. I have a friend who has been an RN for only three years and she makes almost what I do as a twenty year veteran teacher.
3. If you believe that teachers have failed their students for far “to” long, you don’t make sense. It’s far “too” long. Too = also, or an abundance of. Such as your posts are TOO ridiculous TO take seriously. Do you see the difference?
4.Let’s look at this entire post of yours:
If your talking about my post – you got it wrong – its written by a women that has done her homework!
Districts and their teachers and of course the CTA (other wise called the teachers mafia)
have become such a drain on education the best thing to do is scrap the whole corrupt system and start all over again!
your should be you’re – your means belonging to you; you’re = you are. Example: You’re out of your mind. Do you see the difference?
its = belonging to it ; it’s = it is. Oh, and women is plural (more than one) for woman. You also seem to have abandoned the notion of correct comma usage.
Basically, your posts are full of false generalizations (CUSD has an extremely high graduation rate, as well as a high percentage of high school grads who are accepted to four-year colleges).
Oh, and “seams” are what you sew; “seems” is the word you should have used. Example: It SEEMS that your arguments are weak and coming apart at the SEAMS.
You know NOTHING about education because you clearly did not receive one. Good luck to you as you flounder (not the fish) through life.
Ladera Mom – if your kids are failing it’s because they are either not doing the work, or they came in with a weak foundation from the other district. An “F” does not always mean there is no learning going on; it might mean that there is no work being done. Have you bothered to talk to their teachers? How many missing assignments do your kids have? How many late assignments? An “F” might be telling you that your kids are not performing, not that they are not learning. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the teachers are failing them; it could mean that they are failing themselves. When I have students who fail my class, I inform the parents via progress report and comments. For example F – late, missing, incomplete work; improper use of class time; parent/teacher conference suggested. As a teacher, I have done my part. Now it’s up to the parents to show they care and schedule the conference. On the other hand, if I have a student who I can tell is really trying so hard, is coming in at lunch for help, is asking all the right questions, but just doesn’t get it, then I research the student’s past performance on tests as well as grades for previous years. I go back and in the file and read teacher’s comments from kindergarten all the way up to the student’s current grade, and then I call for an SST (Student Study Team) meeting to put interventions in place to help that struggling student. I check in four to six weeks to see if there’s improvement. If not, I request that the student be assessed to discover if there might be a learning disability. Now, if your children’s teachers aren’t doing what I’ve described here, then perhaps your disappointment is warranted, but please don’t lump all CUSD teachers into the bad teacher category. I’m a good teacher, and I know I am. Just this past week a student of mine who is well into his 20’s now came up to me in public to say hello. I remembered him because he was a naughty one. He told me that I was such a bitch to him, and so hard on him and he hated me (okay, so that hurt), but then he added, “…but I learned so much from you.” He graduated from UCLA and is in grad school now – working on his PhD. He hugged me, and when he walked away, I cried like a silly fool because it meant so much to me to hear what he had to say after being so emotionally beaten up this year.
Laderamom,
You are with your children for how many hours of the day? How many hours of the day are teachers with your children? Laderamom must be a troll post because what parent would speak in that way? Either way if you are really serious, add it up, you have more probably more influence on your children than do the teachers in MOST cases. Teachers and parents are suppose to work together in a child’s success, not JUST the teacher. If you just want to throw your kid into a classroom and expect not to participate then your kids will have some challenges ahead of them. Funny thing, your children actually need you in all aspects of life (doesn’t it stink that you have to actually for almost everything?). If you work together with your teacher then those challenges will be conquered and your child will probably enjoy more success in school.
What I notice from my years of teaching is that when the parents are actively involved with child’s education, their children have more success. It doesn’t mean I have any less work to do, because when I can meet with a parent and get a first hand “look” at what their child needs, I am more able to fine tune my instruction so that their child is always challenged. I teach kindergarten and its an absolute joy when I see kids blending words after their first few months. By the end of the year most of my kids are reading books and writing phonetic stories about their experiences in school and at home. I truly feel bad when I see a student who is capable of so much but is not getting the support at home because with me he/she is able to retain what we learn, but then goes home and vegges out and comes back to my class with very little knowledge of what went on the day before.
I apologize for the typos. I cannot see the small writing on my screen 🙂
wow! I’m from “another” district and I feel bad for you teachers just having to have MICHELLE QUINN take up this blog space with her uneducated and ridiculously unfounded comments. Try to ignore her and maybe she will go away!!! Anyone in education who knows ANYTHING knows that the fight for scores and testing is really only about MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT. Private schools won’t even put up with gov. money.
Sorry to hear of your issues, I suppose you aren’t far ahead of the rest of us. If public education is not supported by parents, students, and teachers (THE ONLY ONES WHO REALLY KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT EDUCATIONAL QUALITY IN THE CLASSROOM), then we are all in trouble, especially the students. Most families cannot afford the high cost of private schools, and most teachers cannot afford to teach there (especially in this area). GOOD LUCK AND I TRULY MEAN THAT!
“Michelle Quinn – I don’t know where you went to school, but wherever it was, the system grossly failed you.”
MQ says:
Your right it did.. but there where a lot of factors that was not the fault of the school system that made education not exactly a priority.
“1. Logic says you can’t say that a group of teachers is the second highest paid in the county, then throw in that California is 48th in the nation. You’ve set up a faulty causal relationship.”
MQ says:
I don’t understand what logic you’re using but the logic that i am using – why would you pay teachers who a top wage for doing a bad job… not very logical is it..(National teachers evaluation give’s california teachers D+) and please don’t give me the excuse of high cost of living here in california.. The reason it is so expensive here is due too in part the ridiculous bubble of high house prices and top pay rates for corrupt public employees.. There is a lot of them..
‘One cannot compare the work of a teacher with the work of an ICU nurse; they are not the same sort of work.”
MQ says:
You are right – Nurses are in the business of saving lives, public teachers, well they even send their kids private.. Would not want their children’s lives screw up by a public education..
3. If you believe that teachers have failed their students for far “to” long, you don’t make sense. It’s far “too” long. Too = also, or an abundance of. Such as your posts are TOO ridiculous TO take seriously. Do you see the difference?
MQ says:
Ok then – FAR TOO LONG- and your logic is so ridiculous that you prove the fact that you’re ability to spell has nothing to do with intelligence.. Anyone can be educated if they have a good teacher, common sense and intelligence is genetic!
Though you are right i am trying to read more and improve my “SPELLING”..
Good luck to you teacher, union worker or general public employee.. the fact that you can spell will not keep your job..
Do what i do, work for yourself and earn your pay!
Michelle Quinn,
I feel for you because you’re really not all the bright, but that’s okay, society needs dumb people too. Your errors are not with spelling; they are with usage, which you would know if you were an intelligent person. See, you spelled the words correctly, but you didn’t use the correct words. Poor thing. Since the CUSD BOT thinks they’re going to rape me permanently for 10% of my income, plus, plus, etc., etc. I will have to tutor after hours, because I sure as hell won’t be planning great lessons or correcting essays. If you’d like, I’ll give you a discount ($35/hour just for you, a very special deal) and be happy to teach you how to express yourself properly when using the written word.
“wow! I’m from “another” district and I feel bad for you teachers just having to have MICHELLE QUINN take up this blog space with her uneducated and ridiculously unfounded comments”
MQ says:
what better fact do you need than 48th in the nation to know that public teachers are not quite stellar in California..
http://wwhttp://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_50.htmw.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=186242
http://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/AcntRpt2009/2009GrthAPIDst.aspx?allcds=3066464
“I feel for you because you’re really not all the bright, but that’s okay, society needs dumb people too.”
I suggest you feel more for yourself, it must suck to be one of 48th in the nation!
When people stop listening to so called genius’s like yourself, then maybe the school system in California will be #2 again in the nation – not 48th.
What a joke!
Keep the kids out of school to support education?
How about “AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL…” collective bargaining units!
This union local (CUEA) is over the top doing the bidding for the statewide union movement and the local members are about to discover the depth of their community support.
Look again.
LOL – Couldn’t read much more of Michelle’s comments. I tried to read and take in her opinion and hear “the other” side….. BUT after the all misspellings and wrong grammar.. I couldn’t give her any credibility.
Also in dismay!
Never mind giving Quinn any credibility, someone needs to take away her bottle of Jack Daniels!
@ In Dismay re Quinn (# 17)
Hilarious. Still laughing about this post. I have rarely seen someone so willingly set themselves up for a beating and then come back for more.
MQ says, “I am not a fan of the teachers right now.” My guess is that when she was in school, the feeling was probably mutual.
“Keep the kids out of school to support education?”
MQ says:
To support their ridiculous pay is more like it.. average teacher salary in OUSD is S90,000
Dryer – Superintendent 220,00 app.. for a school district that is in Federal program improvement.. disgusting!
Dismay – like Ooo so many public workers, union hacks – YOU can not read my comments, because it makes you, “MAD” as hell to hear the truth.. start getting use to it!
Art,
I prefer the wine… the hard stuff is not good for the complexion!
“Since the CUSD BOT thinks they’re going to rape me permanently for 10% of my income, plus, plus, etc., etc. I will have to tutor after hours, because I sure as hell won’t be planning great lessons or correcting essays. If you’d like, I’ll give you a discount ($35/hour just for you, a very special deal) and be happy to teach you how to express yourself properly when using the written word”.
MQ says:
Sorry to offend, but if i were to choose a tutor, he/she would not be a public school teacher.. no offense!
if most of you send your kids to private, why would i go public??
“Hilarious. Still laughing about this post. I have rarely seen someone so willingly set themselves up for a beating and then come back for more.”
MQ Says:
I feel no pain, in fighting the good fight:)
To be serious though.. Teachers need to realize that they have a job to do, and it not being done. They are not being paid to get through the day. They are being paid to produce doctors, lawyers – not gardeners!
No offense to the gardeners. i am sure you too want your kids to be doctors not planters!
There are good teachers in California, but it is obvious that there are more of the bad..
We need to weed out the bad and keep the good. I do not mind paying up the ying yang for the best!
One of you is gonna have a heart attack tonight or wake up with grey eye brows. Thankgoodness I have been monitoring this…..as a very involved parent struggling with what to do tomorrow now it’s clear. It’s so sad. Get some sleep!
‘LOL – Couldn’t read much more of Michelle’s comments. I tried to read and take in her opinion and hear “the other” side….. BUT after the all misspellings and wrong grammar.. I couldn’t give her any credibility.”
MQ Says:
Then start learning the facts..
Its not just an opinion, its very true! “48th in the nation and good spellers!
It’s almost 10 and you have been doing this for six + hours….hello???? I seriously hope you are not the wack job speeding her suburban thru the neigh borhood tomorrow or teaching class. Get some sleep. I was going to support…my kids will be at scool tomorrow. What a joke glad I wasted my time watcing all this.
Would it be out of line for me to ask what a “ying yang” is? Aw, who cares? Is there anyone left besides Ms. Quinn who does not see this catastrophe for what it is? Our school board members are completely inept. They have provided a one-sided solution to a problem they do not have the experience or expertise to address. The current recession is being milked as an opportunity to politicize our schools. The teachers are being targeted. And PARENTS are providing a breath of sanity — a reminder that there will be no winners if this board is allowed to bully our educators, students, and communities.
At LFMS bullying is allowed, ask other moms about the popular kid Jeffrey. Actually, you sheep probably hang out with his mom who is on a first name basis at the school. In addition to negligence on a daily basis, knowing pre-meditated fights and gang attacks are planned out for Fridays after school, nothing is done except for 1 days they let kids out at separate times. Teachers, rather than teaching, like to watch funny YouTube videos or tell kids about someone with a old school cell phone having it blow up and kill him (also confirming it was on Snopes, then taught the kids about Snopes). Today, I enjoyed picking my kids up (after donating $500.00 in supplies, for the third time this year) only to hear their teachers complained about their poor pay (or as one explained, “shitty”) and encouraged our children, TEACHERS ENCOURAGED OUR CHILDREN TO SKIP SCHOOL AND SUPPORT THEM. Are you kidding me? And here you sheep are following suit. The same teachers who are planning a trip to BELIZE are now having financial woes? The same teachers who only allow our kids do to extra credit work if they earn bear paw points…not by doing well, but by donating supplies to their class. The same teachers who made us pay for a field trip where the kids didn’t even leave the school.
Next year I’ll pay someone to come here and home school my children. After calculating how much I’ve blown on these teachers who can’t even grade their students work or figure out how to manage their time (a certain 6th grade Math teacher who makes the kids late for their next class because they have to grade and correct their own work or get a F despite if they had all problems correct).
Go fight the fight, I’ll be here hoping you lose.
Have you 7th grader read all this cra9 like I just did. She wanted to stay home tomorrow and since we “researched”it now she has a headache and just wants to go. Wow.
The catastrophe is that public workers are milking the system and have completely destroyed with there unions help an entire generation of kids lives!
Form education to social services have been corrupted by unions and greedy public workers!
We must get rid of unions, fire bad teachers and start realizing that as parents and the general public (even bad spellers) must speak up for the kids and not let public workers bully there way out of doing their jobs!
If they don’t like the pay they are getting with a ranking of 48th “tough titties”.
LFMSMOM says:
MQ says:
that will do mum, that will do!
What more can i say:)
Lfmsmom way to go! I wish I could homeschool my kids….I hear all the time my kids algebra teacher looses papers or doesn’t promote becoming a teacher. It’s so sad!!!!!!
So where is this mystery email they sent out. My kids were told today one was sent out via school loop but I haven’t seen a thing. Can someone paste this email that’s got all of these “facts” and reasons we should keep our kids home and support this strike?
bams parent; I’m trying to find out what I can about it. I figure if our schools can have an offensively high student to teacher ratio, us parents can have something fair (like 10:1).We were hoping to just have “school” at my house every day and hire someone and pull together to pay for it, so those who couldn’t normally afford it can, as I’m happy to split the cost or even pay for another childs’ share in order to let them have what they deserve. A good education, a teacher there to teach (not chit-chat), a teacher who can provide more quality (in this case, it’s new for our kids since they don’t get it at LFMS) one-on-one assistance, etc. I hear home school teachers actually grade homework which will be something new for us! 🙂
Hopefully we can do something; I am not happy with the education provided at LFMS (or lack thereof), the politics & drama there being shoved down our childrens’ throats (but they ironically refused to play the Presidents Back to School speech), the fact that my 6th grader was thriving a year ago and now isn’t challenged at all. He comes home to tell me about fist fights, not about what he learned.
It’s a shame.
Anyone looking to expand their “research” outside a few repetitive, illiterate opinions posted by angry home-school proponents with no facts can find more information here: http://capistranoinsider.typepad.com/beyond_the_blackboard/
In Dismay / Trex
I am so sick of parent teacher conferences, every time its the same old thing, oh we will sign their agendas each day blah blah blah, within 3 days they are no longer signing agenda, the system is not working, I know so many other parents who ask why cant homework be turned in on a daily basis why are they given packets, t its because most teachers are lazy.
Trex – The teachers are with my children almost SEVEN hours a day, I get home at 7pm they go to bed at 9pm I am with them TWO hours a day! during that 2 hours I am trying to get them something to eat etc Maybe you have alot of parents who don’t have to work long hours but I do
Teachers – follow up with your students! If they don’t turn homework in GIVE THEM DETENTION make them pay for being lazy, there are no consequences at school, kids can get away with doing nothing all day, its very sad. Perhaps you guys teach in your classes but in Ladera Ranch Middle and San juan High they do not.
The best thing that has come out of these post’s is the fact that a lot of people just witnessed what i have seen and learned in the last 2 years..
Public workers especially the teachers have become a bunch of over paid, over rated and elitist moan bags.. who view themselves as untouchable to the mere public..
Go a head an strike.. Your not untouchable anymore.. time to let you all go and pay private teachers a lot more for a job well done!
Laderamom,
You need to spend more time with your children I think. To expect teachers to do 100% of our job and your job is delusional. I’m sorry you have to work long hours but when you decided to have kids YOU made a commitment to be there for them. I understand that you need to work to keep food on the table. But you have to understand that not everyone around can do your job and your kids will have to adapt because you work long hours. But to expect your kids to be raised by others is an expectation no one can live up to.
Also MOST teachers do follow up with their students. Detention after awhile just loses its effect and there are only so many consequences that can be used until the parents need to be more involved with following up with the consequences at home. Kids get away with it all day sometimes because they’ll go home with no recourse, they begin to understand that detention is only temporary and eventually they’ll be home riding their skate board and playing video games all night. Kids will really only learn if the consequences are followed up at home. When they understand that the teacher and the parent are actively involved then they shape up.
Its no wonder your kids are probably failing in their classes Laderamom, they might be serving detention but the consequence is not being reinforced at home because you only have 2 hours to spend with them. What do your kids do between 4 and 9? That’s 5 hours they get play and horse around with no follow-up on their behavior at school.
I understand that you need to work long hours Laderamom, but understand that kids eventually become numb to negative feedback at school overtime. You can give them detention everyday and sometimes it will never lead to anything. The teacher will provide a consequence but it at a point it needs to be followed up at home or else it won’t do anything.
To Michelle,
Your attitude is so negative. How could you ever influence anything with your negativity? I feel bad for anyone you interact with because your negativity probably pushes other away. I wish you had had a better life so you were not so negative.
Michelle Quinn – our state sucks as far as education, but Capistrano Unified does not, this is why you can’t say that CUSD teachers are the second highest paid in the COUNTY and then say they are to blame for the condition of the entire STATE. Do you see. Also, the state ranks so low because of a couple of sub-groups. California has a very large number of illegal immigrants and children of illegal immigrants who are sucking the marrow out of the public school system. For most of these folks the focus is on survival, not education. I could go on forever here, but there’s no room and you won’t understand. California, as beautiful as it is, has some pretty rough areas where there are a lot of people who are quite poor and education is not a priority. If you really want to do your “homework” go to the California Dept. of Ed website, check out test scores by area and see where CUSD falls. Then disaggregate the scores and you’ll see that teachers are doing their jobs as best as they can, but when a teacher doesn’t have the luxury of support from home, the students actually attending instead of missing 75 days for whatever reason, a state government that doesn’t make it so easy for the non-English speaking community not to have to learn English, then MAYBE we’d get somewhere. Believe me, you could take every teacher from Irvine and CUSD (both very high ranking districts) and plop them down in Los Angeles, Oakland, El Cajon, Chula Vista, National City, etc. and they wouldn’t make much progress. Frankly, I don’t care how good or bad a teacher is, no teacher can educate a child who isn’t present both physically and mentally. You don’t understand education. You don’t understand how the rules and laws in place limit a teacher’s ability to do what s/he often needs to do. You don’t understand any of it, just as I can’t begin to understand the rigor of an ICU nurse’s job, the physical toll being a drywall man has on a person, or the risks of being a peace officer. Seriously, until you or anyone else has spent at least three years trying to do another person’s job, you should not condemn that profession with your faulty generalizations. Let’s see. I had to make sure that I have two lessons in the pipe for today – one if my students are mostly there, and the other if my students are mostly not. I don’t know what you do for a living, but I’m sure you didn’t have to stay up last night and come up with your own contingency plan. Now I’m off to do the best I can at a job that I love but that really dumb people (you) don’t understand. I’m still trying to figure out why I bothered to respond to you when you will never change your opinions because you don’t processes necessary to re-formulate. To quote Henry Fonda as Juror 8 in “12 Angry Men” said to Juror 9 about Juror 7 walking away from the discussion, “He can’t hear you, he never will.” You are Juror 7.
Trex,
If you had a student at the same school, your opinion might have more strength behind it. Laderamom is providing for her children, and in the real world, that sometimes means working more than your average person.
It’s true, the teachers aren’t doing their jobs which is what they’re paid for. They’re unorganized, passive aggressive toward our children in class, and clearly overwhelmed trying to balance their work and home life.
We as parents cannot do our jobs staying on top of our childrens’ homework assignments, future projects, incomplete, late, or missing work because we usually don’t find out until grades are updated – at the end of the quarter. They do not sign agendas, they do not update school loop, they do not send home any form of notification or call when students didn’t do work.
I’m not some natural teacher hater, I want my children (all children, actually) to be given a quality education, to be faced with consequences for not doing their work, to be challenged at school rather than just go through the motions with some disgruntled teacher.
Reality Check, here’s one for you. You’re going to call people illiterate for wanting whats best for their kids (which is a good education)? Well, I’m not going to call you anything and instead, assume you’re childless. Everyone else can keep in mind these are the people asking us to have our kids go defend the people who (at LFMS atleast), could really care less about them. This is an exact quote.
“Get your kids out there on the corners at Wolverine Way and Pacific Park before and after school when traffic is heavy.”
I actually believe someone like this would fully support our teachers!! Yes, they said to put your children on street corners when the traffic is heavy to support the same teachers who can’t even grade their homework.
Brought to you by the same people who claim to be taking no part in or endorsing such a “walk-out” (CUSDSAT)’
“What will we do as an organization? We hope to organize a student walk-out along with teachers in an effort to demonstrate to the Board that this is a serious issue to us students. It will hurt the Board financially, which should send our message across well enough. We just need as many students involved as possible.
We are considering an organization of “strike-teams” to organize student walk-outs in the event of a strike. If you are interested in getting involved, please email us at cusdsat@gmail.com.”
At one time, I couldn’t understand how the whole Jonestown thing even happened. That has since then changed after moving here.
“To Michelle,
Your attitude is so negative. How could you ever influence anything with your negativity? I feel bad for anyone you interact with because your negativity probably pushes other away. I wish you had had a better life so you were not so negative.”
MQ says:
I agree my attitude toward the corrupt, greedy and elitists is not very sunny.. I will try to sugar it up a bit – NOT!
“our state sucks as far as education, but Capistrano Unified does not, this is why you can’t say that CUSD teachers are the second highest paid in the COUNTY and then say they are to blame for the condition of the entire STATE.”
MQ says:
who is teaching in the class room?? The fact that teachers pay into a corrupt system – called their union is the reason why the system sucks… The union runs the districts with a Iron fist ..
Shall we start off regarding the 4 billion that went to a QEIA grant for 480 schools – total scam!
“. Also, the state ranks so low because of a couple of sub-groups. California has a very large number of illegal immigrants and children of illegal immigrants who are sucking the marrow out of the public school system. For most of these folks the focus is on survival, not education. I could go on forever here, but there’s no room and you won’t understand.”
MQ says:
As much as i agree with you that Illegal immigration from south of the border has brought hugh problems, the facts speak for themselves.. Districts use children of illegal immigration as an income source .. federal grants are numerous for the underserved and the vulnerable.. I don’t have time to go into detail..
Children of illegal immigrants against all odds are doing quite well in school – how do i know?? look at the state STAR test and CELT testing – a lot of districts are keeping kids in early advanced level in the CELT testing, have increased the star testing score and keep kids in the stupid ESL hole for money.. This was brought up in a 2005 state audit that stated, “districts are not reclassifying kids because they would lose federal and state grants”.
What is have seen and what i have learned in the last 2 years that this statement is very true!
I am very much against illegal immigration from south of the border, because corrupt Americans and the local/federal/state government use illegal illegals as a source of income…
“a state government that doesn’t make it so easy for the non-English speaking community not to have to learn English, then MAYBE we’d get somewhere. Believe me, you could take every teacher from Irvine and CUSD (both very high ranking districts) and plop them down in Los Angeles, Oakland, El Cajon, Chula Vista, National City, etc. and they wouldn’t make much progress. Frankly, I don’t care how good or bad a teacher is, no teacher can educate a child who isn’t present both physically and mentally. You don’t understand education.”
MQ says:
I completely agree with your above statement.. But having a go-between in schools paid by the tax payer for illegal immigrants parents is paid and requested by your districts.. But you much understand the reason you are getting as much pay as teachers is because of illegal immigrants – most of the funding is federal title 1, title 3 immigrants grants – you name it, they get it..
Why do you think the close only schools that have a majority of American children of American parents – no money in it!
What needs to happen is that American parents, teachers need to speak up and voice your concerns as you just did to me!
I am very hard on teachers because your the kids only real hope… Please read Steve Perry, “MAN UP”.
Sorry to offend with my typos and such:(
GO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT!
If you read my post I understand Laderamoms situation. My point is she can’t expect everyone to do 100% of the parenting for her. She decided to have kids and took the responsibility to raise them. If you have kids you need to raise them and be on top of their academics and every other aspect of their life. Teachers are responsible for their education, but you are responsible for the whole well-being including their education. Don’t blame teachers for your problems when you work 15 hours a day and can’t spend anytime with them at home.
Its like blaming the doctors that your child is obese. Doctors teach you and provide you with tools to live a healthy life. Its up to you continue using these tools at home because doctors cannot be with your child all day long. A doctor can make your child healthy for the time he/she is with them but when they go home to eat McDonalds because you’re not watching them its not their fault all-of-a-sudden that they continue to be fat.
Oh my goodness, you guys are acting like this is the first time there has ever been strife in CUSD. I grew up in CUSD myself in the 70s and 80s and I can see that nothing has changed in that the teachers are always threatening to walk out over disagreements with the board. My first and second grade classes had more than 50 kids in them. I survived.
FYI, many many people I know in many industries took at LEAST a 10% pay cut LAST YEAR. Myself included. No one knows if our salaries will ever return to what they were either, but we’re making due. It’s the economy as a whole. Teachers are not being singled out here.
CUSD Alum.
As a resident of the CUSD I had considered attending tonight’s Board meeting but am tied up with other pressing tasks. And while I have not chimed in on this blog post I would suggest that the union do not go ahead with a strike. It’s time to get real. The Trustees of the CUSD lack the funds required to provide for the operating expenses of the district.
I might also point out that they were not responsible for the $52 million wasted by their predecessors and Superintendant Jim Fleming for the new CUSD HQ or the $150 million San Juan Hills High School across the street from the Orange County dump aka landfill.
In this economy teachers should be happy to have jobs. And for parents to use their children as pawns by keeping them out of class is beyond words.