Friday, December 14, 2007

Chula Vista Elementary needs new trustees!

A message from Russell and Alice Coronado about the SDCOE meeting to discuss grassroots proposals for geographic "Trustee Areas" for the school boards of Chula Vista Elementary School District and Sweetwater Union High School District:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: January 9th (4:00pm) at 6401 Linda Vista Road, San Diego, CA, 92111 (County Office of Education Board Room)!


The San Diego County Board of Education (Committee on School District Organization) will hold a special meeting at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, January 9, 2008, to consider the grassroots proposals for geographic "Trustee Areas" for the school boards of Chula Vista Elementary School District and Sweetwater Union High School District. The Board MAY VOTE AT THIS MEETING WHETHER OR NOT TO PLACE THE PROPOSALS ON THE NOVEMBER 2008 BALLOT!


IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO SHARE YOUR OPINION WITH THE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION! You may send a letter of support (instructions below) or ATTEND THE JANUARY 9 MEETING TO SPEAK TO THE BOARD!


As you know, our two school boards currently have 8 of their 10 members residing in the Bonita area! If "trustee areas" are adopted by South County voters at a future election, the Western, Southern and Central areas of these 2 HUGE Districts would be guaranteed to ALSO have a school board member residing in their communities, in addition to the Northern and Eastern areas of the Districts where ALL 10 of the school board members currently reside!


NOTE: The County Office of Education would be responsible for officially mapping each school district into 5 equally proportionate population-based "trustee areas" prior to placing the items on the ballot for a public vote. Voters from the entire school district would still vote for the candidate of their choice from each trustee area (as required by Education Code). A candidate seeking election to the school board would compete against residents of their same general community, allowing for a more FAIR COMPETITION than the current system allows.


LET'S GIVE A VOICE TO PEOPLE FROM ALL CORNERS OF OUR DISTRICTS!


LET'S SHOW THAT ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES FROM DIFFERENT NEIGHBORHOODS CAN CONTINUE TO WORK TOGETHER FOR THE COMMON GOOD OF CHILDREN - AND BE MORE ACCESSIBLE AND RESPONSIVE TO THE COMMUNITY MEMBERS THEY REPRESENT!


THE COUNTY BOARD NEEDS TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS PROPOSAL PLACED ON THE BALLOT!


PLEASE either MAIL or CALL or EMAIL A LETTER IN SUPPORT OF THE CVESD AND SUHSD PROPOSALS FOR TRUSTEE AREAS!
- "Sample Letter" Attached if you want to use it as a model...feel free to use the letter as is, or put into your own words.
- EMAILS ARE BELOW
- See mailing addresses below.


You can E-MAIL the County Board of Education Members ("Committee on School District Organization") directly at the listed emails:
Nick Aguilar
Board Member, Second District
phone: (858) 292-3609 email: naguilar@sdcoe.net


Sharon C. Jones
Board Member, Third District
Phone: (858) 292-3609 Email: shrnjones@sdcoe.net


Susan Hartley
Board Member, Fifth District
phone: (858) 292-3609 email: shartley@sdcoe.net


Robert J. Watkins
Board Member, Fourth District
phone: (858) 292-3609 email: bwatkins@rjwatkins.com


John Witt
Board Member, First District
phone: (858) 292-3609 email: jwitt@sdcoe.net



- OR -


MAIL the County Committee (County Board of Education)...see attached word document.
(One signed letter with all board member names listed is fine; you can put a little note asking the secretary to copy the letter for each board member.)


ADDRESS THE ENVELOPE AS FOLLOWS:


Marcia Buompensiero, Executive Assistant
San Diego County Board of Education
6401 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111-7399


- OR -


If you wish to CALL and leave a message for the Board members, contact:
Marcia Buompensiero, Executive Assistant to the Board, Phone: (858) 292-3515, mbuompensiero@sdcoe.net


Please FORWARD this Message! THANK YOU!


***For more information on the proposals to create community representation on our school boards, please visit WWW.SCCFEA.COM (South County Community for Educational Accountability)***
Please email any questions you have about this issue to akcoronado@cox.net

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

A plea to San Francisco 49ers player Alex Smith

Dear Alex:
You are a hero for starting a foundation to help foster kids when they turn eighteen.

I know you could be a hero to kids and adults in Chula Vista Elementary School District where your mom is on the school board.

She's been under the influence of extreme right-wingers Patrick Judd and Larry Cunningham for many years. I don't know why Pamela Smith calls herself a Democrat, because she always votes with Pat and Larry, no matter what.

She should be ashamed of herself for voting to non-reelect teacher Danielle Coziahr. A first-year principal got it into his head that he had a right to fire a teacher for having a young child and then having the nerve to get pregnant--and everyone in the top echelons of the district went along with it--including your mom. Doesn't your mom know that you can't legally agree to something like this? Well, of course she does.

Tonight the rest of the board will vote to appeal the decision made by the jury last Friday.

Please ask your mom to do the right thing, to apologize to Danielle, and to settle the lawsuit instead of appealing it.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

CVESD can't seem to tell the difference between good teachers and a bad teachers



A Tale of Two Lawsuits

LARKINS V. CVESD
(Castle Park Elementary 2001-2005) See photo above, with teachers Peggie Myers and Karen Snyder standing together, and the famous Robin Donlan seated.

COZIAHR V. CVESD
(Silverwing Elementary 2006-2007)

After its bad experience with dishonest teachers who banded together at Castle Park Elementary, Chula Vista Elementary School District's Lowell Billings and Tom Cruz were less open than they should have been to a petition from fourteen honest teachers at Silverwing Elementary.

The teachers union, Chula Vista Educators, had worked closely with the district to make sure that teachers at Castle Park Elementary covered up illegal actions and committed perjury during depositions in the Maura Larkins case. After the union and the district committed these crimes together, there was a close bond between union leaders and CVESD administrators. That bond continues. The core agreement of the bond between CVE and CVESD seems to be "Politics trumps legality every time."

If Danielle Coziahr, whose case against CVESD is in court right now, had spent her time promoting the union instead of making lesson plans and collaborating with other teachers, the union would have fought hard for her job.

The union would have fought as hard as it did for Robin Donlan and current CVE president Peggie Myers, two of the Castle Park Elementary troublemakers. When the district decided it wanted some law and order to return to Castle Park, it transferred Donlan, Myers and three other teachers. The union wouldn't have it. CVE past presidents Gina Boyd and Jim Groth made a huge stink. They were determined that teachers who committed crimes and teachers who covered them up should not suffer the indignity of transfer to another school.

But of course, the district was completely dishonest when it said that instructional techniques were Danielle Coziahr's problem. The problem was that she had one young child, and was expecting another. She had "childcare issues." That's why she was chosen for non-reelection. She was marked for serious consideration on the day that her new principal met her. And her fate was sealed when that principal found out she was pregnant.

The latest on the Danielle Cozaihr case

For the latest news about the Danielle Coziahr case, please go to:
San Diego Education Report.

Do Diane Crosier and Keenan and Associates corrupt San Diego county schools?

See also Laurie and Mike Madigan at San Diego Education Report Blog. Also see Leslie Devaney.


Thanks to people like San Diego County Office of Education's Diane Crosier, insurance companies and brokers like Keenan and Associates are able to overrule public entities who might want to obey the law. Public entites (and private entities like Kaiser Permanente)are provided by Keenan and Associates with a list of lawyers who use cheap tricks to avoid the law.

Public entities should be allowed to choose ethical lawyers.

Here is an article from lawsuitabuse.blogspot.com about Diane Crosier, director of SDCOE-JPA and SDCOE's Office of Risk Management.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Lawsuit abuse by Dan Shinoff, Leslie Devaney, and Diane Crosier may have reached an all-time high in 2007. Leslie Devaney felt right at home in Cheryl Cox territory (Chula Vista), where she got the taxpayers to pay a big settlement to get rid of Laurie Madigan, the wife of a developer who was suspected of steering work to her husband's friends. You may remember Madigan as the woman who took sick leave BECAUSE SHE WAS AFRAID SHE MIGHT GET SICK BECAUSE SHE WAS BEING INVESTIGATED FOR A CONFLICT OF INTEREST. While collecting full sick pay, she continued with her evening teaching job.

Then there's Dan Shinoff, who helped make a mess of MiraCosta College at the same time he helped Victoria Munoz gain a life of leisure and luxury at the taxpayers' expense.

Here's what San Diego Union Tribune columnist Logan Jenkins says about the deal MiraCosta made with Victoria Munoz Richart to get her to resign as president. She'd long been working closely with Dan Shinoff to wreak havoc with the district's finances and human resources.

Logan Jenkins admires Victoria Richart's fabulous settlement with MiraCosta

Not everyone can waste two million dollars of precious education funds, and then be rewarded with another million in taxpayer funds. Victoria Munoz Richart of MiraCosta College, under the guidance of education attorney Dan Shinoff, did just that.

Yesterday, Logan Jenkins of the San Diego Union Tribune wrote:


"I don't know what element of the settlement to admire more.

"The $650,000 in “damages”? (You help blow up the place and then collect for your theoretical injury at the hands of dissident board members who may have illegally dissed your leadership. Fabulous!)

"Indemnification in all future lawsuits? (You walk away clean, no harm, no foul – forever!)

"The confidentiality clause? (All lips are sealed. No snitching!)

"Though not highlighted in the press, one clause of the settlement struck us as especially brilliant.

"If the college fails to pony up the dough by next Saturday, you'll “remain as Superintendent/President until those payments are made.”

"Talk about striking the fear of God into your marks. Pay me or I'll . . . stay!

"Madam president, you must be very tired, but deliriously happy."

Diane Crosier, director of the San Diego County Office of Education--Joint Powers Authority continues to steer the school districts of San Diego county to Shinoff and Devaney's firm, Stutz, Artiano Shinoff & Holtz. Superintendent Randy Ward refuses to cough up public records of how much money Diane Crosier channels to Stutz. In fact, SDCOE tries to put very little information in writing about its relationship with Stutz. As Terry Ryan revealed at a Grossmont Union High School District board meeting several months ago, Crosier has a "gentlemen's agreement" with Stutz. Isn't that nice for them? But not so nice for the public which pays the secret bills.

Friday, November 23, 2007

San Diego Union Tribune letter about Cheryl Cox and Lincoln Club

Was it an immaculate conception?
Susan Watry
November 9, 2007
One has to find comfort in the recent filing of a complaint with the Chula Vista Board of Ethics regarding the San Diego Lincoln Club’s use of the city logo on its web site.

While it remains to be seen what will happen to the complaint, it made the public aware of the cast of characters in this caper. First there were the guests of honor, Mayor Cheryl Cox and Councilman John McCann, then there were the hosts, Kevin O’Neill who is a local developer who sits as Chairman of the Growth Management Oversight Committee, Dan Hom, who was on our Planning Commission for years and a one time city Council candidate but is currently the public relations guru for Bill Ostrem in his effort to build some 500 homes on the KOA Campground, and Jim Pieri who is building the Gateway and who wanted to build Espanada - with the new mayor he may still be hoping.

It did not go unnoticed that McCann had canceled a meeting with the neighborhood group opposing the KOA proposed housing development in order to attend this fundraiser. The fact that Dan Hom was co-hosting didn’t ease their fears.

Cox said that after learning about it she called T. J. Zane at the San Diego Lincoln Club to ask him to remove it, McCann said he never saw the announcement (It was a fund raiser for him), O’Neill, Hom and Pieri said also they hadn’t seen it - truly an immaculate conception!

The Lincoln Club played a huge part in electing Cheryl Cox by attacking Steve Padilla repeatedly with slick mailers. There is more than a little worry that they intend to “help” Cheryl get what she wants during her tenure. This is unfair to Chula Vista residents.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Who's best at hiding the truth? CVESD or Capistrano?

From San Diego Education Report Blog:


Chula Vista Elementary isn't the only secrective school board
Chuck Wheeler writes, at Dissent the Blog:

Ah, but infamy is fleeting. It looks like the Capo school district’s board are the new paragons of arrogance, incompetence, and secrecy. Check out this morning's LA Times: "Capistrano Unified secret meetings criticized":

"Capistrano Unified School District trustees routinely violated the state's open-meetings law, discussing in secret topics such as construction contracts, how to silence a district critic and ways to prepare parents for bad news about schools, all of which should have been debated in public, according to a report released by the Orange County district attorney's office Tuesday.

"Trustees tried to keep the community from participating in district decision-making and to manipulate public opinion, the report said.

"'That such discussions are undertaken in secret by a body charged with the community's most important obligation, to adequately educate its young, is nothing short of disturbing,' said the report by Assistant Dist. Atty. William J. Feccia.

"The 58-page report is the latest blow to the beleaguered southern Orange County district, which this year saw its former superintendent and another top administrator indicted on felony charges of using public funds to influence an election and create an enemies list. Although the alleged violations of the state's open-meeting law do not meet the bar for criminal prosecution, if the district disputes the findings, prosecutors could file a lawsuit to prove the violations occurred, the report said.

"…Though most of the district's 56 schools are well-regarded, its trustees and administrators have been mired in conflicts in recent years. Critics have loudly protested the location of a new high school, opposed attendance boundary changes and fought construction of a $35-million administration complex while hundreds of classes were being held in aging portables…."


http://dissenttheblog.blogspot.com/


The full Los Angeles Times article is at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-capo10oct10,1,3975985.story?coll=la-editions-orange&ctrack=1&cset=true

CVE's Peggie Myers takes care of #1

From San Diego Education Report Blog:

For CVE President Peggie Myers, it's all about what's best for #1
Anyone who has listened to Chula Vista teacher Peggie Myers rant regularly about uncooperative students must have been shocked to learn that Ms. Myers didn't think her daughter should have to attend class when a standardized test was being given.

Logical consistency is apparently not something Ms. Myers strives for.

Myers' behavior, particularly the behavior that earned her a place among the "Castle Park Five," indicates that she thinks her students should obey her, but she shouldn't have to take direction from any principal.

In May 2005, the San Diego Union Tribune reported:

"Parent Peggie Myers said her daughter, also a junior, was afraid she'd be unable to get the letters of recommendation she needed for her application to Columbia University's summer school program, which she was in the process of applying for last week. "The pressure these kids are under is ridiculous. It's out of control," Myers said. "Something has to give, and it can't be the emotional health of our children." "So no, I didn't want her taking the standardized tests," Myers said. "It's not going to get her into a better college."" (http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040505/news_6m5tests.html)

Ms. Myers was outraged when the CVESD superintendent called her in and told her she was being transferred in August 2004 in order to improve the educational program. She claimed it was a violation of the contract that she not be given a more specific reason.

But it didn't bother her one bit that another teacher was transferred without any meeting with the superintendent, and absolutely no reason given. In fact, the transfer was done to aid the cover-up of illegal actions by members of the Castle Park Five. In that matter, Myers was represented by Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz.

Sadly, Myers has climbed her way to the top of Chula Vista Educators, thanks to assistance from Jim Groth. (She is president; he preceded her in that position.) The two of them have repeatedly shown themselves willing to discard the contract and the law in order to achieve power for themselves.

CVESD's own Jim Groth tells it like it is--sort of

From San Diego Education Report Blog:

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Jim Groth's October report to San Diego teachers
Jim Groth of the California Teachers Association Board of Directors (and Chula Vista Elementary School District) likes to explain how things work at CTA--leaving out some important facts. Here are some snippets from his October 2007 report entitled, appropriately enough, "Power and Resources."

1) Jim says:

"Legal Services is 3.6% of CTA dues. Legal Services provides CTA members and Chapters with comprehensive legal protection."

What Jim doesn't say:

"The 'comprehensive legal protection' only applies to teachers who are in favor with Beverly Tucker, the CTA chief counsel. These include child molesters like Albert Truitt, and probationary teachers who flunk exams, but not victims of crimes committed by me and my friends, such as the crimes committed at Castle Park Elementary School in CVESD. People like me and Robin Donlan and Peggie Myers are the ones who get the comprehensive protection, not competent, innocent teachers."

2) Jim says:

"Governance is 4.3% of CTA dues. Governance includes all direct membership involvement in the control, operation and direction of CTA."

What Jim doesn't say:

"The salaries of us folks who run the union are none of your business. But someone who will reliably parrot what Beverly Tucker and Carolyn Doggett dictate, and never disturb our board meetings with complaints about illegal actions and actions that harm children, can conceivably become president and live in luxury in Burlingame with a very comfortable income."

3) Jim says:

"The CTA budget is broad and far-reaching. It provides the financial resources so that we can exercise our power..."

What Jim doesn't say:

In this case, I've got to give Jim credit. He said it all.