Teachers Strike Thursday
Call out the National Guard
My children are riled up. I am mad and sad about how District treated the Teachers and the students. This is going to happen not just in California but Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Illinois, Michigan…
We will all pay.
I say to my children, “keep your eye on the ball, you have your studies and sports just block your ears to the drama and march on.”
I don’t want my children to loose faith in our system. They need to find solutions for their generation and I pray they just may be stronger than you and I...
I found myself choking up when I spoke to teachers yesterday morning standing in front of Niguel Hills Middle School with my sign. Yes I was on the picket line. I’m not a Teacher. I did cry later in my car. My sign isn’t about TRUSTees or RECALL its pragmatic and a plan. My white cardboard : SELL THE TAJ MAHAL. We as citizens not must tell all our Districts, all our representatives we have had enough.
A good General does not take away food and shoes from the soldier on the front line.
The great State of California is near bankrupt. California is broken. We have pushed taxed, legislated away and restricted business so much they left. Hypomesus transpacificus (a little fish) caused a new Dust Bowl in Central California. I know the Sacramento smelt is endangered but let's see the real picture. Now a number of other birds, animals, and fish will die because all the top soil is blowing away and the marsh lands are cracked bone dry.
Get real. Bureaucracy must be cut in size, dollar amount and endless legal foolishness. Citizens must be willing to volunteer and go without. I tire of “special interest groups.” A vague phrase but it means someone thinks they are special and deserve a separate kingdom deal.
A few years ago I followed Dr. Fleming dropping off his grandchildren at Crown Valley (my son’s same school)
I asked our then Superintendant of Capistrano School District, “Why do we need such a large building for 250 employees?”
“Because they deserve a nice workplace.”
The word: DESERVE, it rang in my head like a marble in a goldfish bowl... or smelt bowl perhaps I ought to be farming them. The gesture with palm out, give me something great because I am entitled attitude.
The old District offices (years later are still occupied by the District and never were sold or sublet i.e.: WASTE) weren’t in a gorgeous location. The buildings were adequate not great. The District offices had citronella eucalyptus trees that smelled of lemons when the bows gently moved in the wind. The wash behind the structures was pretty in the spring with wildflowers and smooth stones . I run that path down to the beach. The buildings were older and industrial looking but at the time they were fine.
I am certain it is the same in every District. There is fat. The pay scale of a secretary starting at $ 67000.00 is wrong. The teacher on the front line start pay is much less. There is some secret revolving door in the District where a burn out is put in Administration
California has massive waste in the duplication of Districts. We have local city funded schools (the rich ones) and state funded schools (now the poor ones) and Charters and special interest ones also state funded and a and a. Eight hundred Districts need to merge into one hundred. Many administrators will be fired. It will be painful. I do not see a leader strong enough to get all the special interest whining out of the way and cut the blubber.
It is far easier for a District to cut the health benefits and pay of the soldier/the teacher on the front line.Weak leaders do it. I fear the teachers will not be able to make an impact with a three day strike. They can’t go long because they don’t have huge savings. Teachers are generally not the type to be aggressive and strategic. If the strike goes long the District will find a way to fire all the rabble rousers and hire cheaper new faces out of the what 15% unemployed in California
Maybe my sign should have said “Fired Teacher needs ten dollars?"
4/21/2010
4/20/2010
Kenny Kellogg: Razeghi & the Power of Scribd
Kenny Kellogg: Razeghi & the Power of Scribd
thank you Scott Orn for posting "Innovating Through Recession"
A GREAT read
4/19/2010
Commercial Building (Correction) Palace Half Price
Dear Ms Bryson:
CC: Governor Schwarzenegger
I have two students in Capo District schools. I have numerous concerns about how the Board has handled negotiations and Now the District fails our children.
Allow me to go over a few ideas:
Our state is junk bond status. All state funded school districts must cut
It makes NO sense to start at the first line of combat soldier and shoot him in the leg.
Teachers are the life line to educating, developing and leading our next generation to be great.
Teachers don't make a great deal of money and usually are in it for the vocation.
Cutting their pay is not going to balance the State wide shortfall of funds.
THE ONLY SENSIBLE SOLUTION IS:
Consolidate Districts- Centralize District offices
Lay off duplications in staff
Sell off half of the brick and mortar District offices in the state.
Put a sign on the Taj Mahal 33122 Valle Road
I know it cost more than forty two million to build but has excessive square footage for the
Number of employees who work there and a symbol of waste. Put a sign on the building for
$ 30,000,000. now and contact Saddleback and other local districts which are state funded
To start negotiations to combine with a contiguous district.
Capistrano Unified School District is the second largest school district in Orange County, California, the 12th largest in California and the 85th largest in the United States.
There are about 250 employees in the Valle building who make each more than $ 67000. and
a tiny smaller number of employees in Saddleback. All employees will be allowed to apply for the new combined district jobs without tenure and based on employment testing models, and job reviews that I pray you have completed. We don't need to hire a new superintendant- keep Steven Fish for 2011 at his same salary.
Cost savings so far $ 47 million
Legal fees, lawsuits, attorney fees, special education mediators, all the businesses that profit from taking away from students need to have caps on the costs. This is a much bigger issue which a District can not change, but can influence by holding the line and saying no to forking cash, aids and fix-its without looking at the whole.
Our population of students/ children is going to decline in the coming decade as there is no more
Open land for development. Our tax basis is going to continue to fall in the coming eight years as
Property tax revenues go down more, and more business leave the State.
Be nimble but -Don't put in junky mobile home classrooms which have a life of 5 years (after being tread on
by thousands of high school students these structures don't last and are wasteful).
Keep classrooms clean, free of vermin and safe.
There are four vacant District buildings that I am aware of, why have those not been sold?
Engage parents in volunteerism. Lead parents in fundraising that could target projects not just be
Put in a black hole. Ask parents to help you. My hand is raised asking what you need.
Get back to the bargaining table. The 2100 teachers and their families don't want a strike, but they deserve to be treated fairly in the workplace. I want my senior to be able to graduate. My younger child in Middle School needs to believe in a system that works together and creates solutions.
I pray you will find a different method.
CC: Governor Schwarzenegger
I have two students in Capo District schools. I have numerous concerns about how the Board has handled negotiations and Now the District fails our children.
Allow me to go over a few ideas:
Our state is junk bond status. All state funded school districts must cut
It makes NO sense to start at the first line of combat soldier and shoot him in the leg.
Teachers are the life line to educating, developing and leading our next generation to be great.
Teachers don't make a great deal of money and usually are in it for the vocation.
Cutting their pay is not going to balance the State wide shortfall of funds.
THE ONLY SENSIBLE SOLUTION IS:
Consolidate Districts- Centralize District offices
Lay off duplications in staff
Sell off half of the brick and mortar District offices in the state.
Put a sign on the Taj Mahal 33122 Valle Road
I know it cost more than forty two million to build but has excessive square footage for the
Number of employees who work there and a symbol of waste. Put a sign on the building for
$ 30,000,000. now and contact Saddleback and other local districts which are state funded
To start negotiations to combine with a contiguous district.
Capistrano Unified School District is the second largest school district in Orange County, California, the 12th largest in California and the 85th largest in the United States.
There are about 250 employees in the Valle building who make each more than $ 67000. and
a tiny smaller number of employees in Saddleback. All employees will be allowed to apply for the new combined district jobs without tenure and based on employment testing models, and job reviews that I pray you have completed. We don't need to hire a new superintendant- keep Steven Fish for 2011 at his same salary.
Cost savings so far $ 47 million
Legal fees, lawsuits, attorney fees, special education mediators, all the businesses that profit from taking away from students need to have caps on the costs. This is a much bigger issue which a District can not change, but can influence by holding the line and saying no to forking cash, aids and fix-its without looking at the whole.
Our population of students/ children is going to decline in the coming decade as there is no more
Open land for development. Our tax basis is going to continue to fall in the coming eight years as
Property tax revenues go down more, and more business leave the State.
Be nimble but -Don't put in junky mobile home classrooms which have a life of 5 years (after being tread on
by thousands of high school students these structures don't last and are wasteful).
Keep classrooms clean, free of vermin and safe.
There are four vacant District buildings that I am aware of, why have those not been sold?
Engage parents in volunteerism. Lead parents in fundraising that could target projects not just be
Put in a black hole. Ask parents to help you. My hand is raised asking what you need.
Get back to the bargaining table. The 2100 teachers and their families don't want a strike, but they deserve to be treated fairly in the workplace. I want my senior to be able to graduate. My younger child in Middle School needs to believe in a system that works together and creates solutions.
I pray you will find a different method.
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