UPDATE FROM ANONYMOUS COMMENTER:
Come to The Accelerated School this Tuesday, March 24th from 4-8 pm to hear the board make up excuses, Patrick Judd blame everyone else, and perhaps more lawsuits to be filed that day.
See all posts on Patrick Judd.
See all posts on The Accelerated School (TAS).
ORIGINAL POST:
March 18, 2009 was a day of joy for The Accelerated School’s classified staff!
They have unionized with SEIU Local 99. As a parent of The Accelerated School I support the unionization of the teachers and classified staff.
...According to Mr. Eric Johnson, President of TAS Board of Trustees Patrick Judd was brought to The Accelerated School to help take our school out of program improvement; I think it’s more like program destruction. Patrick Judd has managed to create nothing chaos.
Patrick Judd has been forced down our throats and we parents weren’t allowed to give input into his hiring and the current extension of his contract for another school year. Teachers, parents, students, community and staff are doomed! Don't be mistaken, we parents will not give up the fight to remove Patrick Judd and Sandra Phillips.
(This report appeared as an anonymous comment elsewhere on this blog, but it's so informative regarding both events and attitudes at TAS that I thought it deserved a post of its own. --Maura Larkins)
TAS teachers also want to unionize
The Accelerated School charter teachers seek representation by UTLA
First time that employees of a Los Angeles start-up charter school are seeking union representation.
February 5, 2009 - United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) announced today that it has filed papers with the Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) to represent teachers, counselors and other certificated employees of The Accelerated School (TAS) after teachers approached the union requesting representation. PERB will now process the papers to certify UTLA as the exclusive bargaining representative for the purposes of negotiating a contract and representing TAS employees...
TAS consists of grades pre K-12 at one campus, and a dual-language school for grades K-6, the Accelerated Charter Elementary School (ACES), at a separate location nearby. Approximately 70 teachers, counselors, etc. are employed by the schools...
Email correspondence and a question from a parent at The Accelerated School:
What kind of investigation is this??? The people that were contacted were Johnathan Williams, Co-founder and TAS Board of Trustees Secretary and Sandra Phillips, K-6 Principal. I forgot some happy parents??? What happened to interviewing the TAS Parent Coalition??? This investigation if you can call it that was one sided. ALL LIES! We parents have been asking to see the schools budget, agendas, and minutes but Patrick Judd has not complied with our requests.
T. R. Porter's response to a TAS parent:
From: "Porter, T.R" LAUSD
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 11:27:13 AM
Subject: RE: concerns at TAS
Dear Mr. Robert Saldaña,
...I, along with staff of the Charter Schools Division, have received your e-mail expressing concerns about the validity of The Accelerated School Charter Renewal Petition... you indicated specific disagreements and concerns with hiring decisions made by The Accelerated Schools’ governing board, regarding Mr. Patrick Judd...
With regards to The Accelerated School ‘s governing board’s decision to hire Mr. Patrick Judd...I am not aware that Mr. Billings benefited, in any way, from his recommendations of Mr. Judd...
I spoke (February 23, 2009), with Mr. Jonathan Williams (TAS Co-founder, Co-Director)... However, if you have continuing doubts concerning this issue, please address these concerns to the TAS governing board, directly.
(Maura Larkins' note: Marvelous idea, Ms. Porter! Mr. Saldana should ask Mr. Billings if Judd was hired as repayment for Judd's hiring Mr. Billings. Perhaps he could also ask if Billings was trying to strengthen his political position on the board. This should set to rest everyone's worries about the appearance of a conflict of interest. Why didn't folks down in Chula Vista think of this? Perhaps Ana Stover wouldn't have had to sue Lowell Billings for the abusive tactics he used to enforce political loyalty, if only she had known about this clever strategy.)
...Should our office... receive information that has the appearance of impropriety, the Charter Schools Division would have the responsibility to consider what follow-up actions were appropriate.
[Maura Larkins' note: You already have information that the hiring has the appearance of impropriety.]
... These minutes document the board’s considerations and actions that changed Mr. Judd’s status from an unpaid volunteer consultant to a paid consultant...
If the scope of Mr. Judd’s responsibilities was unclear at the time he was hired, my understanding is that you now have the organizational chart that clarifies his duties...
My own inquiries to the CSD fiscal staff, regarding payment from TAS to Mr. Judd, did not yield responses that indicated a need for further follow up. In addition, TAS, like other independent charter schools, has autonomy for much of the decision-making regarding payments to their school’s staff.
...Best regards.
t.r. Porter, Ed.D
Coordinator, Charter Schools Division
Phone: 213 241 2665
Fax: 213 241 6862
e-mail address: t.r.Porter@lausd.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A TAS parent writes to T. R. Porter
February 22, 2009
To: Porter, T.R
Subject: concerns at TAS
Dear Ms. T.R. Porter,
My name is Robert Saldaña; I am a parent of The Accelerated School located on 400 S. Main Street in Los Angeles , California 90037.
Ms. Sandra Phillips, K-6 Principal of The Accelerated School provided me with the draft of our charter petition... but I have some serious concerns as to the validity of the petition... Other parents and I have already voiced our concerns to The Accelerated School Board of Trustees to no avail...
We have probable cause to believe that one of our Board Members Mr. Lowell J. Billings from Chula Vista Elementary School District recommended for hire a former [boss] of his Mr. Patrick Judd to oversee all operations of The Accelerated School, Accelerated Charter Elementary School (ACES), and Wallis Annenberg High School.
...We have requested...Mr. Patrick Judd’s scope-of-work, where the money is coming from to pay his salary, what process was taken to hire him as a consultant, how many other consultants were interviewed, and what was the purpose of hiring Mr. Patrick Judd. We strongly believe the hiring of Mr. Patrick Judd is questionable, a conflict of interest and is unethical.
Parents were informed by Kevin Sved, Co-founder at a parent meeting that Mr. Patrick Judd was hired as a consultant through a leadership grant to create systems for the schools.
Now it is clear that Mr. Patrick Judd was hired and given complete oversight of all the family of schools mentioned above.
This is evident in our schools organizational chart that Mr. Patrick Judd is more than a consultant but in fact he oversees everything.
...According to Mr. Johnathan Williams and Patrick Judd, LAUSD Charter Schools Division has no jurisdiction over our schools because we are an independent charter... it’s apparent that no one is listening to the parents of The Accelerated School...
Sincerely,
Robert Saldaña
6 comments:
Word is they will fire all classified staff and replace them with contracted workers. Judd has so much compassion for people doing honest work to support their families.
THE ACCELERATED SCHOOL CLASSIFIED STAFF WERE RECOGNIZED ON MAY 28, 2009
Any school that wants their teachers and classified staff to unionize hire
Patrick Judd he is the man for the job
Patrick Judd is the number #1 union organizer of the year
He managed to unionize teachers and classified staff of The Accelerated School in a matter of 6 months. Patrick Judd’s tactics include intimidation, retaliation, corruption, dictatorship, harassment. These are just to name a few of his tactics. We must not forget that he uses these tactics not only on teachers and classified staff but on parents and students. Anybody out there looking for the perfect man for the job you can find him at The Accelerated School and his name is Patrick Judd now CEO!.
Parents and Students want Patrick Judd out of The Accelerated School!
Parents and students have been protesting outside of the school for a couple of weeks demanding that Patrick Judd’s contract be terminated effective immediately. Check out the web link below to an article in La Opinion regarding the protest.
Apparently Patrick Judd doesn’t know what is going on!
Joke!
He should be embarrassed to make such a comment because it only proves that he does nothing but hide in that big office on the second floor and earns $12,000 a month and a $500.00 car allowance plus his medical insurance to ruin The Accelerated School. Whoever is responsible for hiring him is a smart cookie. Oh! I forgot it was Kevin Sved the co-founder of The Accelerated School that jumped ship when the going got tuff. Kevin Sved left Johnathan Williams to deal with the sinking ship! What are friends for???
http://www.impre.com/laopinion/noticias/la-california/2009/6/9/fustigan-a-directivos-de-escue-129158-2.html
Google: THE ACCELRATED SCHOOL AURORA PONCE!!!! MUST READ!!!!
THE GRADAUATION IS JUNE 27, 2009
WOW!!!
It's sad to hear the dissatisfaction of so many over a school that has so much potential. Please people do not forget the BIG picture! This is a troubled area that truly would operate within the boundaries of a troubled district if it had not been for TAS. I know there are problems and I would NEVER try to minimize them BUT it could be much worse, please count the few blessings you have because many do not have it this good!!!
In addition, be mindful that blaming never brings change or solutions. I have had close ties to this school and I am a former employee. Please note that there is a lot of information that happens behind the doors that everyone is not privy to. First off, no ONE person can make the decision to hire for the position that P. Judd currently holds, this position is/was board approved. Furthermore, Kevin Sved has always been a compliant individual and only carried out the directives that he was instructed to carryout even though it might have been against his better judgment. In my personal opinion he most often received the unpopular responsibilities/directives and the responsibilities that had negativity attached to them. The blame of the decisions made by the "powers that be" often times fell unto his shoulders because he wa the "front" man. Mr. Sved has dealt with so much in the past that I am happy he has decided not to shoulder all this mess,that is why it is falling elsewhere (no one knows what additional challenges this man might be facing at this time in his life). Although I have not spoken with Mr. Sved in some time, I know his heart will ALWAYS be with TAS. He and Mr. Williams did a tremendous job of making their vision a reality. Mr. Sved gave relentless support and dedicated his every waking moment to TAS, he needs to be supported in this new direction. May all be well with everyone and especially TAS.
Dear former employee:
I agree with you that no one person is responsible for hiring Patrick Judd. The entire board is responsible. Of course, it was almost certainly Lowell Billings who brought Judd to the attention of the board and strongly endorsed Judd. Who else knew Judd? My guess is that the board is full of Lowell Billings clones. If some board members are unhappy with Judd, they sure are doing a good job of hiding it. I guess their motto is "go along to get along", and the wellbeing of kids is of less importance to them than the approval of their peers.
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