4/24/2010
Courage
No one has yet computed how many imaginary triumphs are silently celebrated by people each year to keep up their courage. ~Henry S. Haskins
4/22/2010
Capistrano School Board please step Down
The Board again played a trick on the teachers by cancelling the 10:00 meeting without notice.
My High school student at Dana Hills was corralled into a classroom by alphabetical order with 65 kids and 30 chairs. The room was so loud she could not study for her AP test. She couldn't even read. No learning happened today. Students were released at 11:00 AM with no notice to parents
I have not heard from my middle school child as of this hour. The school bus service was uncertain if there would be buses today.
The Board made NO PLAN to educate students today, although they were aware the teachers might strike for weeks. The District’s website spouts tales about how credentialed substitute teachers would be teaching students in schools during the strike.
The District does not want parent help or input. The Board failed to respond to parents who emailed and wrote letters. The District demonstrates a pattern of avoiding public disclosure, holding secret meetings, and wasting taxpayer funds. The Board is playing a media relations fake to make parents and community angry at teachers..
A good General does not cut food rations and shoes for the front line soldiers while sitting in a cushy palace in San Juan Capistrano. The Taj Mahal palace cost $ 44 million dollars and bestows Board members, and District staff 1200 square foot palatial offices. The District has a history of mismanagement, disgrace and waste.
The District figured they could cut twelve million dollars by cutting teacher pay and slashing teacher benefits. It ‘appears’ they might like to fire higher paid teachers to rehire cheaper new ones in the negotiation techniques they have employed...
Half our State budget goes to “education.” Of that money more than 70% is allocated to administrators, brick and mortar, duplication of jobs, public relation firms, lawyers, special deals, and waste. Now the
District and Board have put taxpayers in a position to pay for the lawsuits, the special election and wasted learning hours that are the results of not settling in good faith.
My High school student at Dana Hills was corralled into a classroom by alphabetical order with 65 kids and 30 chairs. The room was so loud she could not study for her AP test. She couldn't even read. No learning happened today. Students were released at 11:00 AM with no notice to parents
I have not heard from my middle school child as of this hour. The school bus service was uncertain if there would be buses today.
The Board made NO PLAN to educate students today, although they were aware the teachers might strike for weeks. The District’s website spouts tales about how credentialed substitute teachers would be teaching students in schools during the strike.
The District does not want parent help or input. The Board failed to respond to parents who emailed and wrote letters. The District demonstrates a pattern of avoiding public disclosure, holding secret meetings, and wasting taxpayer funds. The Board is playing a media relations fake to make parents and community angry at teachers..
A good General does not cut food rations and shoes for the front line soldiers while sitting in a cushy palace in San Juan Capistrano. The Taj Mahal palace cost $ 44 million dollars and bestows Board members, and District staff 1200 square foot palatial offices. The District has a history of mismanagement, disgrace and waste.
The District figured they could cut twelve million dollars by cutting teacher pay and slashing teacher benefits. It ‘appears’ they might like to fire higher paid teachers to rehire cheaper new ones in the negotiation techniques they have employed...
Half our State budget goes to “education.” Of that money more than 70% is allocated to administrators, brick and mortar, duplication of jobs, public relation firms, lawyers, special deals, and waste. Now the
District and Board have put taxpayers in a position to pay for the lawsuits, the special election and wasted learning hours that are the results of not settling in good faith.
100 Better Budget Repairs for Schools
It’s about money. Give me pragmatic solutions not pedagogic policy. Please take a minute to explain a problem or duplication and suggest a cheaper leaner better way in the comments box.
I am a Mom and a businesswoman. I am not running for office. We can save the right way. Cutting teacher salaries is not the correct path. We need concrete methods to reduce waste to bring to our Governor and State Board and Districts
Leave aside Unions and other elements of the education establishment. Be thick skinned. Allow those who are going to be hostile to input to open their hearts and make California education better.
Obama administration’s Race to the Top education improvement grants did nothing.
100 things in California’s education system which need to be made efficient:
First one: E.L. policies Assembly Bill 748 requires testing to measure ELD standards applied appropriately for students in each grade level. The Bill hoped to standardize English language arts content to ensure that limited-English proficient (LEP) students (now politically correctly renamed English learners in California) develop proficiency in English. The standards are supposed to assist teachers in moving English learners to fluency. The California English Language Development Test (CELDT) is a required state test for English language proficiency that must be given.
This is a behemoth of waste. The information gathering and testing forms change all the time. They are often outdated at the school site and expensive bar code forms tossed away. Some teachers might have 1 EL student a year and in another area they might have 12 or more. The teacher may score the student low on purpose in the start up to show improvement. There are special coordinators in each district. There are special employees to track the progress. Thousands of phone calls, hours of training. The teachers score a child on a scale that is vague and subjective. This is a paperwork monster. When the results finally return to the teacher so much time has gone by the teacher is already working with the child to get up to speed. The tools are broken.
I am a Mom and a businesswoman. I am not running for office. We can save the right way. Cutting teacher salaries is not the correct path. We need concrete methods to reduce waste to bring to our Governor and State Board and Districts
Leave aside Unions and other elements of the education establishment. Be thick skinned. Allow those who are going to be hostile to input to open their hearts and make California education better.
Obama administration’s Race to the Top education improvement grants did nothing.
100 things in California’s education system which need to be made efficient:
First one: E.L. policies Assembly Bill 748 requires testing to measure ELD standards applied appropriately for students in each grade level. The Bill hoped to standardize English language arts content to ensure that limited-English proficient (LEP) students (now politically correctly renamed English learners in California) develop proficiency in English. The standards are supposed to assist teachers in moving English learners to fluency. The California English Language Development Test (CELDT) is a required state test for English language proficiency that must be given.
This is a behemoth of waste. The information gathering and testing forms change all the time. They are often outdated at the school site and expensive bar code forms tossed away. Some teachers might have 1 EL student a year and in another area they might have 12 or more. The teacher may score the student low on purpose in the start up to show improvement. There are special coordinators in each district. There are special employees to track the progress. Thousands of phone calls, hours of training. The teachers score a child on a scale that is vague and subjective. This is a paperwork monster. When the results finally return to the teacher so much time has gone by the teacher is already working with the child to get up to speed. The tools are broken.
4/21/2010
Capistrano Teacher Strike Tomorrow
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?"
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?"
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