Interim Chino Valley superintendent announces proposed cuts

[Ex Board Member]

CHB wrote:

<quoted text>
Then stop with the personal attacks on me and Mr. Calta who I feel to be a good and honorable man.

Read the record. you statted it with comment #43. And wow, you are so wright, spellin has sure hindered my career.

This kinda banter is deeply ingrained in your district. Teachers who live in CVUSD and work in others are amazed.

[teacher]

Speak for yourself, EXB, and please stick to the topic.

[Ex Board Member]

teacher wrote:

Speak for yourself, EXB, and please stick to the topic.

??? You disagree with what? Although the majority of teachers, parents, administrators, etc. are great in your district, there are those mean spirited individuals that ruin it for all.

[Laurie Paz]

You are definately on the right track "boggled" we could use you at the search for a new superintendent meeting on Thursday and the next budget meeting Oct 8th! Keep up the great work speaking out! THANK YOU!!!!

Boggled by this mess wrote:

No, this is what happens when District Administration is allowed to run rampant without School Board oversight. The District administration was increased toward LAUSD-like levels by Heatley over the last 4 years. How many Assistant and/or Associate Superintendents did he need at over $150k/year each? Add to that the addition of expensive, and marginally effective programs, like AVID ($600k/year) and IB ($1 million+/year).
Then, add to that the unnecessary legal fees that have been incurred by the District for defending poor decisions. It is a mess, and it is expected to be balanced on the backs the people that do the real work in the district, the teachers and classified employees.
Start the axe down at the district office. Clear out the offices with the people that make $100k/year whose main purpose is to oversee the clerks and secretaries that do all of the work for half of their salary. Cut the consultants and the window dressing programs.
Get CVUSD back to the business of providing an efficient and effective education for the students in the community.

[Laurie Paz]

Citizen,
I respectfully disagree with you, at a time when our district is cutting resources in such crucial areas as lower grade class size and additional teacher layoffs, our district could NOT afford to show this speech in ours schools. How many parents would have withheld sending their students to school in protest of their child seeing the speech at school? How much money would have been lost? My children go to school to learn their required course material. Political speeches can be viewed at home and discussed appropriately with parental involvement! Politics need to stay out of the schools!

Citizen wrote:

The President's speech was quite inspirational and was discussed in my household with my children. I feel the school would have been a better place to view it with their classmates so to begin the discussions on touchy race relations within our district. It is ok to disagree with his policies, but to outright have people show such disgust at a man who is the leader of the free world is mind boggling. I think you and Mr. Joseph could have gone the other route and let the teachers show it in their classroom. To site little known policies that are ambiguous and confusing leaves constituents dazed and confused. I just wish you had made a stronger effort in our district to have this shown thsi at our schools. Thanks for listening.

[Laurie Paz]

Heatley did not earn the API scores, the students and teachers did. Heatley posing for photos, hogging the limelight and overstaffing the district with overpaid assistants for overpaid assistants did nothing for API achievement and everything for helping weaken our district monetarily. Good riddance to him! As for celebrating these API scores we still can't compete with Walnut Unified!

Ex Board Member wrote:

<quoted text>
Didn't this happen on Heatleys watch. My CVUSD teacher friends say the increase in scores happened on Heatleys watch. Is this true Mr Calta? In your own sneaky way, you continue to blame all the districts mistakes on him. Will you give him credit for the increase in API scores?
By the way, yesterday the saying was going around your district that "Calta is more sneaky than a truck load of Chuck Taylors."

[Citizen]

Laurie Paz wrote:

Citizen,
I respectfully disagree with you, at a time when our district is cutting resources in such crucial areas as lower grade class size and additional teacher layoffs, our district could NOT afford to show this speech in ours schools. How many parents would have withheld sending their students to school in protest of their child seeing the speech at school? How much money would have been lost? My children go to school to learn their required course material. Political speeches can be viewed at home and discussed appropriately with parental involvement! Politics need to stay out of the schools!
<quoted text>

What part of the speech was political? It was a minority of parents who cried the loudest that got their way. It shows the prejudice that exists in CVUSD. No other district that showed the speech had a mass exodus of parents, just the people like you who think our President is trying to indoctrinate the kids. You would not say the same thing about Bush.

[Laurie Paz]

Citizen wrote:

<quoted text>
What part of the speech was political? It was a minority of parents who cried the loudest that got their way. It shows the prejudice that exists in CVUSD. No other district that showed the speech had a mass exodus of parents, just the people like you who think our President is trying to indoctrinate the kids. You would not say the same thing about Bush.

Citizen,
Any speech made by a politician is "politics" whether it is Obama or Bush. I don't recall my children ever seeing Bush deliver a speech in their classroom either. I am just concerned about the children getting the education they deserve. I use things like "speeches" to spend quality time with my children at home teaching them morals, values and life lessons. School time is for academics and anything that takes valuable instruction time away from academics can be viewed on our personal time. As for your PEOPLE LIKE ME STATEMENT... Do you know me? Did I say anything against Obama? No I did not! So your implication that I have an opinion regarding Obama's intentions is TOTALLY OUT OF LINE! And as for me saying the same thing about Bush... How do YOU presume to know what I would say? That is arrogant and ignorant to think you can presume my political opinion when my main concern was the financial stability of the district. YOU are just looking for a fight with someone and I will not dignify any further tantrums with a statement.

[CHB]

Laurie, I'm sure you understand that all one has to do these days is oppose the President on anything, and you are automatically accused of being racist. Sad, but all too true these days. What many in our district fail to grasp is that there simply was not enough time given the late notice of the speech to get permission slips signed. Mr. Joseph got the word out as fast as was possible, but by the time the teachers go it, schools had let out, for the most part on that Friday. For example, I didn't see the message in my inbox until I checked it that Friday night.

[teacher]

That is true, CHB. I wasn't able to run off permission slips before excusing the class for the weekend.

Unfortunately, politics are all over our schools - we are public institutions, and part of our job is to turn out good citizens. Many students watched the Inauguration - no one said a thing about that.

[Citizen]

Laurie Paz wrote:

<quoted text>
Citizen,
Any speech made by a politician is "politics" whether it is Obama or Bush. I don't recall my children ever seeing Bush deliver a speech in their classroom either. I am just concerned about the children getting the education they deserve. I use things like "speeches" to spend quality time with my children at home teaching them morals, values and life lessons. School time is for academics and anything that takes valuable instruction time away from academics can be viewed on our personal time. As for your PEOPLE LIKE ME STATEMENT... Do you know me? Did I say anything against Obama? No I did not! So your implication that I have an opinion regarding Obama's intentions is TOTALLY OUT OF LINE! And as for me saying the same thing about Bush... How do YOU presume to know what I would say? That is arrogant and ignorant to think you can presume my political opinion when my main concern was the financial stability of the district. YOU are just looking for a fight with someone and I will not dignify any further tantrums with a statement.

I dont see how that 20 minute speech would have presented grave consequences for our students, as you alluded too. There was not one political statement in that speech and it went back to values of hard work equals success. Your opinion is that politics has no place, I agree. There was no reference to healthcare, Iraq/Afghanistan, school days being longer, or anything else that has been at the forefront of political news. And no I do not believe you would have said the same thing about Bush. The office of the President has never seen such a back lash on speaking to students on the importance of an education. We had the only local district that was in session with "no time" to show it. Other districts did not experience any of that. And the first Bush did give a speech and it was mandatory to watch it at my school.

[Calta]

Citizen wrote:

<quoted text>
I dont see how that 20 minute speech would have presented grave consequences for our students, as you alluded too. There was not one political statement in that speech and it went back to values of hard work equals success. Your opinion is that politics has no place, I agree. There was no reference to healthcare, Iraq/Afghanistan, school days being longer, or anything else that has been at the forefront of political news. And no I do not believe you would have said the same thing about Bush. The office of the President has never seen such a back lash on speaking to students on the importance of an education. We had the only local district that was in session with "no time" to show it. Other districts did not experience any of that. And the first Bush did give a speech and it was mandatory to watch it at my school.

I want to reiterate that students could have and still can watch the Presdient's speech at school. Teachers simply have to follow the pre-existing policy BP 6161.11 which requires parents be informed and give consent. What this does is it leaves the decision up to each parent instead of the decision being imposed on children by a public school district or the government. It supports parents who are or ought to be, in my opinion, the primary educators of their children and strengthens the critical partnership between parents and the public school system. It supports parental rights.

BTW, the majority of LA Unified (over 700,000 students - 2nd largets district in the nation) wasn't even in session when the President's speech was broadcasted.

[Party on Garth]

Laurie Paz wrote, "School time is for academics and anything that takes valuable instruction time away from academics can be viewed on our personal time." She also wrote,"Politics need to stay out of the schools!"

I agree 100%. I would like you thoughts on some CVUSD teachers using valuable class time to offer students extra credit for writing Board Members or attending Board Meetings to support ACT's (the teachers union) position during contract negotiations in 2006.

Valuable class time was used to enlist students in a non-academic, union contractual labor issue. Even more egregious was that the extra credit offered wasn't for academic endeavors but for political activity. Thoughts?

[CHB]

teacher wrote:

That is true, CHB. I wasn't able to run off permission slips before excusing the class for the weekend.
Unfortunately, politics are all over our schools - we are public institutions, and part of our job is to turn out good citizens. Many students watched the Inauguration - no one said a thing about that.

I had my own class, plus 2 others cram into my classroom this past January to watch the inauguration. Like Obama or not, it's history!

[Another concerned parent]

Party on...I would only add that elementary schools in our district take kids on field trips to the state capitol instead of staying to do math problems...kids at various high schools are encouraged to write letters to the editor instead of practicing their spelling...I know I may sound sarcastic - sorry - but as a parent, I want my students, especially in the high school, to learn about their power and responsibility to participate in their community. I want my kids to apply what they learn in history to today's political environment.

While there may be teachers who cross the line, I sure hope they are the minority. The teachers I know do not tell the students what to write. Rather, they encourage the students to speak from their own heart.

[teacher]

Part of public education is learning how to voice your opinion in our democratic society.

Letters to the editor may come from a lesson on persuasive writing which is a writing standard from about 3rd grade on, and yes, part of our job is to learn how to be responsible citizens.

Students, especially high school students, are learning skills like public speaking and debate. If they received extra credit for participating in a public meeting, and voicing their opinion - great. Most of the students who spoke at the meeting referenced were from the Canyon Hills Debate Club - totally appropriate. If anyone thinks that 12-18 kids aren't capable of having their own views and opinions...then you don't know any teens.

I had my students (elem.)write persuasive essays on why the music program should not be cut. But, of course, I told them that they might feel that it should be cut, and that's okay too. As it turns out, all 31 9-10 year olds were able to write very persuasive essays on how this cut would affect their own music development. Each had 3 great reasons to support their opinion, and fortunately, that cut didn't remain on the list at the time, so I did not send them. But, they learned a valuable lesson on writing to persuade.

If you read some of these posts, it is obvious that more education is needed on writing to prove a point. People post thoughts with no evidence or support for their opinions; I require at least 3 supports for each point made - not just a ranting full of insults.

[Party on Garth]

Student participation is the democratic process is absolutely critical in their development of critical thinking skills. This can be done in many venues, the arts, public debate, essays on the political parties, even letters to the editor, and many, many more. My point, for those who missed it, was that when a teacher has students engage in an effort that benefits him or her directly, it is self serving and inappropriate. A position which, I believe, a reasonable person would agree.

Extra credit for an essay on photosynthesis is appropriate for a biology class, going to a board meeting and proffering ACT's position is not. Some people will not see the point, I concede that; some will rationalize it, I concede that too. It is a question of integrity and our teachers are one of those people who influence our students; they do a good job most of the time; they also cross the line at times and it is wrong to do do.

That is my only point.

[CHB]

"going to a board meeting and proffering ACT's position is not."

Oh really? Until I was RIF'd, I taught history and government. If you think attending Board meetings is irrelevant to that course (and others), you are sadly mistaken.

[Party on Garth]

CHB -- Read and respond to the entire text, not just what apparently suites your needs. I said that students going to a Board meeting to proffer ACT's position and receiving extra credit is not appropriate. You obviously missed the point.

If a student wants to go on their own accord, fine, they should. If the student goes because the teacher gives them extra credit to go and lobby for the teacher(s), it is inappropriate. If you can't see that, you are sadly mistaken.

[CHB]

Garth, I got your point (and read your entire post, too), you obviously chose to ignore mine. Going to a School Board meeting, City Council meeting and the like is great exposure for our students to how local government is run, be that good, bad or indifferent. After I was RIF'd, a student of mine asked if it would help if she went to the next School Board meeting to plead my/our case. I told her I appreciated the gesture, but no, it wouldn't.

You may now return to Wayne's World.