San Diego Education Report Blog

Sweetwater Board members to vote on each other's legal fees

2012-01-28T11:30:00.001-08:00

Superintendent Ed Brand declined to discuss the legal mechanism that allows the board to consider legal fees for its own members. He said the district is moving forward on the legal advice of Attorney Dan Shinoff, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Board members to vote on each other's legal fees
Some say the Sweetwater schools situation presents a conflict
Ashly McGlone
UT
Jan. 27, 2012

The Sweetwater school board will decide Monday whether taxpayers should foot the bill for up to $900,000 in legal fees — for three of its five members.

In each case, the board member who has incurred legal fees in the District Attorney’s Office probe of contracting practices plans to leave the room. The four remaining board members will consider the request for legal fees.

Under state law, that may not be enough to avoid a conflict of interest.

Government Code Section 1090 states that the board members “shall not be financially interested in any contract made by them in their official capacity, or by any body or board of which they are members.”

“If three members of board are going to benefit, the board benefits and therefore the board can’t vote,” said Robert Fellmeth, founder and director of the University of San Diego’s Center for Public Interest Law. “This is the quid pro quo setting that 1090, to me, does address. I think there is a personal conflict.”

The DA’s office alleges that board members Pearl Quinones and Arlie Ricasa received meals, theater tickets and other gifts from contractors, failed to report them under penalty of perjury, and voted to steer millions of dollars of bond money to the contractors. They have pleaded not guilty to four felony charges each are up for approval of for $400,000 in legal fees each.

Board member Bertha Lopez has not been charged, although her home was raided and she has been questioned. She could receive $100,000 in legal fees.

Former board member Greg Sandoval, who would not have a conflict in Monday’s decision because he is off the board, could also receive $400,000. He has pleaded not guilty to eight felonies.

Superintendent Ed Brand declined to discuss the legal mechanism that allows the board to consider legal fees for its own members. He said the district is moving forward on the legal advice of Attorney Dan Shinoff, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Michael Colantuono, the city attorney for Calabasas who was named 2010 Public Lawyer of the Year by the California State Bar, said the proposed legal fees are problematic.

“A public agency cannot make a contract in which a board member has an interest,” he said. “There is not a fix to Government Code 1090 other than to ask legislation to amend it.”

Some attorneys, however, say the vote could be justified.

“The key word is contract. In this scenario there is absolutely no contract between the board and their respective counsel,” said attorney Jim Pokorny, representing Lopez.

Pokorny said, if approved, attorneys would submit invoices to the district for payment, which does not require a contract.

Concerns about board members voting on each other’s behalf — to secure each other’s votes — are baseless, Pokorny said.

“To believe that would mean to believe that there was a conspiracy among all of them to protect each other and I don’t believe that,” he said. “There is a presumption of innocence here.”

Similar votes awarding legal fees to sitting members of a governing board have proceeded in the region in recent years.

In 2000, San Diego spent $30,000 to hire attorneys for then-Councilwoman Valerie Stallings when federal authorities were investigating stock trades she made involving a software company controlled by Padres owner John Moores. Stallings recused herself from the vote to cover her legal fees. She pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in January 2001 for taking gifts from Moores while voting on his team’s ballpark project.

Taxpayers also paid for the criminal defense of Chula Vista City Councilman Steve Castaneda in 2008, although only after the case ended in his favor.

The council voted 3-0 to pay $194,314.90 in legal fees Castaneda incurred while fighting allegations that he lied to a grand jury. He recused himself from the vote.

Castaneda — represented in the case by Marc Carlos, now representing Quinones — was acquitted of six counts of perjury and the jury deadlocked on two other charges, triggering a mistrial. The issue was not pursued further in the courts, and Castaneda remained on the council.

Carlos declined to comment on his current client’s appeal for legal fees before the board’s vote.

Ricardo Gonzalez, attorney for Sandoval, said those who take issue with officials seeking legal fees should put themselves in the board members’ shoes.

“If they find themselves in the position that these trustees find themselves as a consequence of serving, for doing community work for very little compensation, if you look at the allegations and realize this is a sensationalized case and doesn’t turn out to be the type of corruption that is mentioned, if that person were in the position that my client feels he is in, they would want the district to help them out with defending themselves for things that have occurred in their service,” Gonzalez said. “It would be a tremendous hardship to bear economically on something that is yet to be proven.”

Ricasa has set up a legal-defense fund, into which she can raise money if her fee request is rejected by the district. Her attorney, Allen Bloom, said donations from district contractors and vendors will not be accepted.

“If the school board doesn’t pay for the funds, she is going to be forced to gut her kids’ college trust fund and her retirement in order to pay for legal services,” Bloom said. “I am making a huge commitment to her with regards to services but it still takes a huge amount of time to fight charges and the fact that we expect them to be shown not to be true, all the more commitment that we have to them.”

The board should vote to pay Ricasa’s fees, “to help Arlie fight these unfair charges,” he said.

A whole lot of lawsuits in Jurupa Unified School District in Riverside

2012-01-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

January 25, 2012
Subject: Ermine Nelson: PERB Case No. LA-CE-5517-E

I attended yesterday’s PERB hearing for Ms. Ermine Nelson [PERB Case No. LA-CE-5517-E].

The hearing went very well from my perspective. What was alarming, however, is what was testified to about the absolute inaction and ignorance of the leadership of the employee unions’ representatives within the Jurupa Unified School District. Based on the fact that I contacted union leadership for the NEAJ and CSEA before then, I can only assume that the disregard of what the District is doing is intentional or you are being union-busted by the District and don’t even know it.

Under Government Code §§ 3540-3543 and related provisions of law, the District had an absolute duty to send any grievances, however old or new, merit or no merit, directly to the Union upon receipt (where the grievance originated from a member or presumed employee). In this particular case and many others I have tried to tell you about, NEAJ was never aware of grievances (as many as 28 in one case alone in July 2010).

Under oath and cross-examination, Tamara Elzig testified to the two following key facts. Her testimony is memorialized and recorded:

1. It is the District’s position that union and employee rights go on leave at the same time the employee goes on medical leave (regardless of whether breaches of the CBA occurred even while on leave – Which would include: breaches of union privacy, keeping information from the union, interfereing with lawful association of union members, and interfering with attorney work-product under CCP 2018, and union busting);

2. It is the District’s position that it does not have to forward grievances to the Unions when it feels that there is no merit to the grievance.

I very quickly, in an objection-response exchange, mentioned to Judge Cu that we have not filed a charge against the District’s unions. I am aware of 150+ grievances that have been filed by my clients alone (both classified and certificated). I am going to very nicely ask you folks to once again review your policies, practices, and procedures to make sure that your members’ rights aren’t being trampled right under your noses. As you know, the Code does confer the right to an individual employee to bring a Superior Court action. We have already mentioned the violation of many of these rights in Archambault v. JUSD, et.al. (a First Amendment, Due Process, anti-discrimination, ant-racism, and Equal Application declaratory relief case).

If you all really believe that DFEH, EEOC, USDOE, CTA, NEA, CDOE will take to the position that a disabled employee, on approved medical leave, cannot file any grievances whatsoever, this will be a REALLY BIG PROBLEM not only for the District, but for you. If the lack of attention to grievance processes meant that employees did not know they could even file grievances, there is a bigger problem. Unfortunately, there is plenty of sworn testimony on this issue already.

It makes one wonder about how many other employee problems were kept from you and the CSEA. Worse yet, how many breaches of confidentiality of membership, representative organizations, and counsel have occurred? It is a federal and state crime to monitor union membership communications without adequate notice and without sufficient probable cause. I am reserving all rights my clients have under Section 1983 and to take further action.

The District has already lost a motion under CCP 425.16, rendered damaging sworn testimony on lack of Due Process in the Braden arbitration conducted before Hon. Arturo Morales, and Superintendent Elzig’s performance yesterday was an outright admission of an intention to directly interfere with Union Rights. We already know from the Norman and Gonzalez cases that the District monitors all communications over its electronic wire systems and mail systems (as defined under Federal Law) and is aware of and checks the content of union and legal counsel writings and communications. Employees and union membership are not adequately warned of the tapping.

With regard to Mr. Vigrass, why don’t you have a private e-mail address for Union business? The District has already proven that it knows what you discuss. You have no less than two or three members under fire for what was allegedly found on their classroom computers (including Union business). Some of the horrifically perturbing information was placed on my client’s computer, in the Norman case, after he was already on administrative leave (a literal, figurative, and unconstitutionally sound reality).

Yesterday, your District proved, beyond a doubt, that it doesn’t see your union activities as confidential. Superintendent Elzig and her counsel vigorously argued for a claim to know what you are up to, when you meet with your members, and how many times. This is constitutionally unacceptable and, in my privileged opinion, violates many state and federal laws.

The ALJ also could not rule on whether your discussions with accused union members was/is confidential. I am supposed to brief that issue. I’ve never been to a PERB hearing and didn’t even know what PERB was before this proceeding.

Fortunately for the Union, in this limited case, you were not at the scene of ‘crime’ as it were. The unions had already chosen to ignore Nelson’s case and the District made CBA union representatives look ignorant and ineffective. As you can see from the attached briefing done in CSEA cases and testimony, this isn’t new.

I do know what the law is and basically had to argue it for the unions. It is the District’s position, through counsel and Elzig, that your communications with members are fair game. Worse yet, you have an indemnity provision in your CBA that gives the unions the privilege of paying the District’s bill (at their discretion), win, lose or draw. This is a constitutional and due process disaster of unprecedented proportion. I have many friends who are public employees, in official and elected capacities, and none would approve of this – regardless of politics.

I will look back in my files to find the e-mail from the CSEA’s Janet Jones telling me to mind my own business. More than one of my certificated clients has/have heard similar threats from others aside from Messrs. Sibby and Vigrass. I believe that you have all the right intentions, but your rights, as well as those of your members, have been trampled to death. Identifying what’s left of those rights will not be cheap, easy, or likely to come through my one-man office. I just got out of the hospital myself, am still being diagnosed and evaluated, and am overwhelmed by what is going on within this District. I am desperately hanging on to my ability to achieve victories for your members, but also don’t have the resources to keep it up if the Unions don’t get involved more visibly and effectively.

The amount of real exposure created for the Unions is beginning to be massive to say the least. I am on your side, but I don’t have the resources or manpower to argue matters directly affecting your leadership. Messrs. Sibby and Vigrass have been upfront with me, pursued what information they could verify, and don’t appear to be neutral on the rights of their members. Even with their efforts, the District has now crossed battlefield lines that will end up with innumerable casualties of failures in applying the Principles of the Constitution.

Should you choose to share this e-mail with Ms. Elzig and Mr. Duchon, if they have not already seen it, please let them know that these are simply my opinions and the hearing transcript speaks for itself. The unions got worked over bad and were made to look very stupid and ignorant – and it wasn’t by me.

Perhaps we should discuss this in a more confidential forum. My clients are very concerned and so am I. If you want to meet with my clients as a group and get your colleagues to join us from the CSEA, it would be appreciated.

Richard D. Ackerman
Law Offices of R.D. Ackerman
www.AttorneyAckerman.com

Temecula Office:
Madison Executive Suites
27247 Madison Ave., Suite 116
Temecula, CA 92590
(951) 296-2442

Downtown Riverside:
Riverside County Bar Ass’n Bldg.
4129 Main Street, Suite B5
Riverside, CA 92501
(951) 267-7000

Appeal of Poway Unified’s God Banner Ban Filed with U.S. Supreme Court

2012-01-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

Update: Appeal of Poway Unified’s God Banner Ban Filed with U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to overturn a decision allowing the district to prevent a math teacher from displaying classroom banners about God.
By Shauntel Lowe
Rancho Bernardo Patch
January 24, 2012

A Michigan-based public interest law firm has filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court objecting to a lower court’s decision allowing the Poway Unified School District to prevent a math teacher from displaying classroom banners with messages about God.

The ruling is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech in a public forum because other types of speech—such as another teacher’s poster with the lyrics to John Lennon's Imagine—are allowed, argues The Thomas More Law Center in its appeal filed Jan. 19 and announced Tuesday.

“What you really had was an egregious demonstration of a double standard,” Richard Thompson, president of the law center and chief counsel, told Patch. “The double standard was used again to censor Christian speech.

“There is this agenda that is out there supported by the ACLU, supported by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, that is trying to cleanse the public square from any kind of Christian message and they’re using the courts to do it.”

In September, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2010 decision by a federal judge in San Diego that said the district had violated the First Amendment rights of Westview High School math teacher Bradley Johnson in 2007 by ordering him to take down the banners. They bore messages such as “In God We Trust” and “All Men Are Created Equal/ They Are Endowed By Their CREATOR.”

In September 2010, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties filed a brief with the 9th Circuit Court supporting the district’s decision to have Johnson take the banners down, saying, “The banners’ repeated emphasis on ‘God’ and the ‘CREATOR’ creates a serious risk that reasonable persons would believe the District is endorsing religion.”

September’s ruling found that the district’s ban upheld the Establishment Cause prohibiting endorsement of religion.

The Thomas More Law Center—which describes itself as a “not-for-profit public interest law firm dedicated to the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life”—argues that this is a cherry-picked ban on Judeo-Christian speech. Another teacher displayed Tibetan flags with no recourse, and Lennon’s Imagine promotes an anti-religious point of view but was allowed, showing a bias against Christian speech, the center argues.

But this isn't about clamping down on Christian messaging, said David Loy, legal director for the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties which believes the banners and the Tibetan prayer flags should have been taken down.

"It's our position that both of those were unconstitutional," Loy said. "Public school teachers should not be in the business of promoting religion in the classroom."

The large size of Johnson's banners and that they had been there so long—particularly in a math class and not in a philosophy or literature class—could lead a "reasonable" student to believe that they indicated an endorsement of religion by the school district, Loy said.

Johnson, in a 2007 lawsuit against the district, said the banners are not a means to proselytize but represent historical messaging about the country’s origins. Thompson, too, said the banners are just a means of educating students about the role of Christianity in the nation’s development. Taking the banners down and removing Christian messaging from the classroom runs counter to that, he said.

“It really is a way of indoctrinating our students into believing that our nation was founded on principles other than Christianity,” Thompson said.

The school district, in a statement from its attorneys, said it would file a written opposition to the appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We believe that the Ninth Circuit properly followed the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent in ensuring that all students have a proper environment for learning," attorney Jack M. Sleeth Jr., of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, said in a statement. "The Ninth Circuit correctly found that teachers have no First Amendment right to espouse their personal religious beliefs in the classroom."

The issue about the banners in the classroom of Johnson, who had been with the district for three decades, arose when a fellow teacher questioned the school’s principal about them in late 2006. Johnson, according to court files, said he had had the banners up in some way since 1982. In January 2007, district officials had Johnson take the banners down and he soon filed suit against the district and school board, which approved the decision to take down the banners.

In February 2010, Johnson won his suit, arguing that the district had violated his First Amendment rights, but in September 2011 that decision was overturned on appeal. Poway Unified Superintendent John Collins, in a statement at the time, said the decision to overturn Johnson’s victory was “very consistent with the legal and educational rationale the District has used since the very beginning of this case. We are pleased with the outcome after more than four years in the courts.”

Whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case has not been determined. The Court received more than 7,800 requests in the term running from October 2010 to October 2011, but only agreed to hear about 1 percent of the cases.

Stutz Artiano Adds New Associates to San Diego Office

2012-01-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

Stutz Artiano Adds New Associates to San Diego Office
EIN PRESSWIRE
A Press Release distribution service of EIN News

New Associates Alex Tramontano, Kathryn Boyd and William Shinoff have joined the San Diego law firm of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz. All three are graduates of California Western School of Law, which, for three consecutive years, has had the highest pass rate in San Diego for those taking the California Bar Exam. [Maura Larkins comment: Good work, Cal Western! You've come a long way. I'm sure this isn't a case of teaching to the test.]

While attending law school, Mr. Tramontano received Public Service Honors in 2010 and 2011 and received an Academic Achievement Award in Medical Malpractice Litigation. Most recently, Mr. Tramontano served as a Certified Legal Intern with the San Diego County District Attorney's Office. He will focus his practice on litigation, insurance and public entity law.

Ms. Boyd graduated from California Western School of Law, earning a concentration in Labor and Employment Law with honors. While in law school, she received an Academic Achievement Award in Legal Drafting and was actively involved in the Labor and Employment Law Society, for which she served as Public Relations Officer. Ms. Boyd's practice will focus on employment, education and public entity law.

Mr. Shinoff graduated cum laude from California Western and served as an associate editor for California Western Law Review. He received an Academic Achievement Award in Evidence and was a member of the California Western Jewish Student Union from 2009 through 2011. Mr. Shinoff will focus on employment, education and public entity law.

Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz was founded in 1982. The firm currently has 40 attorneys and five offices in San Diego, Temecula, Santa Ana, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nevada that serve clients throughout Southern California.

Here's a story from last year about academic achievement at Cal Western:

Cal Western students receive awards, scholarships
By DOUG SHERWIN
March 29, 2011

Last week, California Western School of Law honored 40 students with nearly 50 awards and scholarships for academic achievements, community service and campus involvement.
Third-year student Porsha Venable was among the award winners. The Brooklyn native worked for the public defender's office in New Jersey prior to attending California Western. She received the Alec L. Cory Award for Outstanding Pro Bono Service.

The Alec L. Cory Award is named for one of the founding partners of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch. It honors a student who "best represents the spirit of pro bono service."

Students were recognized for academic achievement and participation in student organizations, clinical programs and the law school's law journals.
Jihan Younis received the Diane Ethics Award. It honors the graduating student demonstrating the best understanding of the scrupulous ethics and high ideals of the legal profession in academic, professional and extracurricular activities.
Devin Sreecharana received the American Board of Trial Advocates/Schoville Excellence in Civil Litigation Award. The award recognizes a third-year student with the greatest aptitude and desire to pursue a career with a commitment to excellence and civility in civil litigation.

Suit says district liable for athlete's brain injury

2012-01-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

The trial is scheduled to be webcast live on Courtroom View Network, a pay website that caters to attorneys and law schools across the country. A spokesman for the network said it chose the Eveland trial because it will feature “top-tier litigators and extensive expert witness testimony, which along with significant outside interest makes it a great candidate for electronic coverage.”

See also: Dan Shinoff's motion for gag order in Scott Eveland case is denied

Suit says district liable for athlete's brain injury
J. Harry Jones
Jan. 3, 2012
U-T

SAN MARCOS — On the second play of the second quarter of a high-school football game more than four years ago, Mission Hills High linebacker Scott Eveland limped off the field and collapsed on the sideline.

The 17-year-old’s life would be saved in surgery many hours later, but it would be a life greatly altered.

Now, a Vista Superior Court jury will be asked to determine why Eveland suffered a catastrophic brain injury that night in September 2007.

More to the point, they will be asked to decide if employees of the San Marcos Unified School District bear the brunt of responsibility.

Barring a last-minute settlement, the trial is scheduled to begin Friday and could last eight to 14 weeks. According to court documents, Eveland’s lawyers will ask the jury for roughly $25 million, which is what they say is needed to provide the expensive, 24-hour-a-day care Eveland will need the rest of his life.

Eveland suffered a subdural hematoma — bleeding in the brain. His mind is active, but his is body crippled. He can type out responses to some questions on a keyboard but can barely speak. He’s made some progress physically, but his mobility is very limited.

“He’s going to be severely disabled for the rest of his life,” said his mother, Diane Luth. “But you know what? That kid is motivated. He’s working hard. … He’s doing what he can to get the connection back. He hasn’t given up.”

Eveland will be brought into court in a wheelchair during the trial but will not testify, his attorney said.

Football head injuries have become a hot legal and health topic nationwide in the past few years, with far more attention being paid to signs of concussion because of the long-term effects such incidents can cause.

The trial is scheduled to be webcast live on Courtroom View Network, a pay website that caters to attorneys and law schools across the country. A spokesman for the network said it chose the Eveland trial because it will feature “top-tier litigators and extensive expert witness testimony, which along with significant outside interest makes it a great candidate for electronic coverage.”

Eveland’s lawyers maintain that during the days before the game, Eveland was experiencing worsening headaches. Just minutes before the game, they will argue, Eveland went to the team’s athletic trainer and told him his headache was so bad, his eyes couldn’t focus. They will say that he asked to be held out of the game for at least the first quarter and that the trainer, Scott Gommel, then went to Coach Chris Hauser with the information.

According to one witness, who was a student trainer at the time, Hauser was overheard telling Gommel “You aren’t a (expletive) doctor,” and something to the effect of “These are my players, and I’ll decide who plays and who doesn’t.”

Eveland started the game. Two other young witnesses are expected to testify that in the days after Eveland collapsed, Gommel told them that he had gone to Hauser and told him of Eveland’s health complaints but that the coach put Eveland in the game anyway.

Reasons unclear for fatal CPS decision to return a child to her parents

2011-12-26T17:53:00.000-08:00

Reasons unclear for fatal CPS decision to return a child to her parents
By Brad Branan
The Sacramento Bee
Dec. 26, 2011

Giovanni Melchor was just a year old when he drowned in the stagnant water of his family's backyard swimming pool in late 2006. The family's single-story, purple-trimmed home in south Sacramento seemed well maintained on the outside. But inside, a neighbor said, the house was infested with roaches and city inspectors later cited Giovanni's father for an unsecured pool fence, the lack of a door closing off the garage from the pool, and a host of other health and safety code violations.Not even three years later, Giovanni's sister, Yeinira, who had been removed from the home and then returned, was also dead, a victim of medical neglect by her parents. Case files from Sacramento County Child Protective Services, recently obtained by The Bee, show how the 2-year-old girl died. Court records show that her parents, Jose Jaime Melchor, 35, and Elizabeth Melchor, 29, pleaded no contest to child endangerment charges in July and were deported this year.What the records don't explain is how the agency made the decision to return the child to care that led to her death.County officials say they cannot discuss the case or the records because of confidentiality laws.But without documentation, evaluating the agency's actions is difficult, said Ed Howard, senior counsel at the Children's Advocacy Institute in San Diego, who reviewed Yeinira's file at the request of The Bee."If we take them at face value – that there is no documentation for reuniting this child with a very troubled family – then this is a fiasco," Howard said. "You can't do this job without documenting your reasons for making such a decision."Specifically, CPS records for Yeinira do not show whether the agency conducted an assessment about the risk of returning her to the home – using what's called the Structured Decision Making tool – in violation of its own policies."In all of its reports, the (CPS) Oversight Committee has recommended comprehensive and consistent use of the tool," said Gina Roberson, co-chair of the committee. "It means social workers are using the best practices in trying to prevent child abuse."The CPS Oversight Committee, echoing the complaints of experts and child welfare advocates, has repeatedly found the agency's social workers have made questionable decisions and serious errors in high-risk cases such as the Melchor's. That assessment was repeated in other reports this year, including one by the California State Auditor.CPS released two sets of files on the Yeinira case. The first contained 12 pages and no information about the family's extensive record with CPS. The second, released after The Bee requested it under the California Public Records Act, had 124 pages.County Health and Human Services Director Ann Edwards said the release of the incomplete file was unintentional. But neither set answers the questions about the fatal decision to return her to her parents. A troubled historyThe year Giovanni died, the Melchors were living in a working-class neighborhood on Center Parkway. They had five children.Neighbors, attorneys and a social worker who had contact over the years with the Melchors, an immigrant family from Mexico, said the family needed help. They said Elizabeth Melchor seemed incapable of caring for her children and, according to court records, Jose Jaime Melchor physically abused his wife.Five reports of alleged abuse or neglect involving the family were made to CPS prior to Yeinira's birth in July 2006, court records show.Some of the reports involved the father, who allegedly had a drinking problem and abused his wife, according to court and CPS files. Other reports involved the mother, accused of hitting the children. Two of the reports were upheld by CPS.Yeinira had a heart defect and a cleft palate that made feeding her difficult. Less than a month after she was born, CPS received another complaint, noting the mother wasn't learning how to take care of her fragile daughter. The child was still in the hospital and at risk of dehydration if not properly nourished.Melchor "admits she is depressed and overwhelmed," according to an unidentified reporter quoted in the CPS case file. The mother and the father were refusing the training needed to feed Yeinira, according to the report. The source recommended placing Yeinira in a special foster home for her medical needs.The complaint was upheld. CPS started monitoring the child, but allowed her to go home with her mother. Yvette Washington, a home visitation worker with the county's Birth and Beyond program, was assigned to counsel the family."She seemed withdrawn," Washington said of Elizabeth Melchor in an interview with The Bee.Washington said she brought a public health nurse to the family's home to explain the risks of having a pool with stagnant water and a small and unsecured fence.The mother didn't seem to take the matter seriously, Washington said, adding that she stopped providing service to the family in 2006 because Melchor was unreceptive.Giovanni drowned in October that year. Melchor told police she was taking care of Yeinira, and left her other children unattended in the garage for about an hour, records show. Giovanni apparently wandered from the garage and into the pool.Police found the missing garage door and the unsecured pool fence. Neither parent was charged. CPS also initially declined to take protective action, determining that an allegation of neglect was unfounded, court records show.That reluctance befuddled some of the Melchors' neighbors.Andrea Garcia, who lived next door to the family, said the Melchors were troubled. Her interactions with the family usually came when something went wrong, she said, such as when the children were left outside in diapers in cold weather.The Garcias watched the other Melchor children while the parents dealt with the emergency of finding Giovanni in the pool.Andrea Garcia said the children were filthy. She said she entered the Melchor home for clean clothes and saw cockroaches everywhere.Her father, Jesus Garcia, said he had worried about the safety of the Melchor children under their mother's care."We never understood why CPS let her keep the kids," he said.Taken away, brought backTen months after the drowning, the four Melchor children became dependents of the county as a result of abuse and neglect, court records show.In Yeinira's case, her parents repeatedly failed to bring her to doctor's appointments, CPS records show. She missed eight appointments in seven months. Doctor's notes indicated a growing concern about her well-being.In foster care, she had surgery for her ailments and had recovered well. But in May 2008, less than two months after her surgery, Yeinira returned to her parents' home, joining her siblings who had been reunited with them several months earlier.To place a foster child back in a parent's home, CPS must convince a dependency court judge that the conditions that originally made the home unsafe had been fixed. For Yeinira, CPS needed to ensure the issues at home had been addressed, said Bill Grimm, senior counsel at the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland, who reviewed the child's file at The Bee's request."Given all that was going on before, there was a pretty high threshold for them to resume care," Grimm said.The lack of documentation calls the agency's decisions into question, said Grimm, adding that returning Yeinira home without doing a risk assessment would have been a serious error, if that's what happened.Without careAfter Yeinira returned, she did not see a doctor for about a year because the family didn't have insurance, her father told Sacramento police investigators in 2009.During that time, Yeinira had a seizure, her mother told police. She said she put rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball and placed it under Yeinira's nose to revive her.A couple of months later, Yeinira had another seizure. Yeinira "fell back, arched her back, and her feet twisted" as she fell onto concrete, her mother said, according to the investigative report. She again used rubbing alcohol and an onion to revive Yeinira.The problem returned the next day, as Yeinira "fell forward, and her head hit the wall and her eyes went up," her mother said.Again, Melchor turned to an onion and rubbing alcohol to revive her daughter. Her father was holding Yeinira in his lap when the mother noticed Yeinira wasn't breathing, she told investigators.The father brought her to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, south Sacramento, minutes away from their home. Two days later, April 20, 2009, Yeinira died at Kaiser's Roseville hospital because of a lack of oxygen in the brain, an autopsy found.The Coroner's Office said physical abuse also may have contributed to her death, noting that she'd had a broken arm and other recent injuries.In court documents, Dr. Michael Myette of Kaiser said he could say with "95 percent to 99 percent certainty that if the parents had accessed care when she began seizing, she would still be alive."One of the Melchors' attorneys, Lori Calvert, said the couple grew up without doctors and that Elizabeth Melchor had been taught to revive her mother, who also suffered from seizures, as she had revived Yeinira.The Melchors faced a number of obstacles, their attorneys said. They were illiterate in their native Spanish, couldn't speak English and were poor.The prosecutor handling their neglect case agreed and cited those factors when explaining to a judge why she sought approval for a plea agreement resulting in a two-year jail sentence for the Melchors, the lowest under sentencing guidelines.The judge agreed to the sentencing recommendation. The Melchors had served about a year in jail awaiting trial and, with various credits, were released in July after pleading no contest to the charges. They were deported to Mexico shortly afterward, without any of their children. Their attorneys said the children were put up for adoption by the county.

Failure to Report Student-Teacher Sexual Relations Costs SD Unified $1.25 Millio

2011-12-24T10:13:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of secrecy in schools about things that should be discussed and, in some circumstances, reported to authorities. Schools should make a habit of having adults tell the truth. They do the exact opposite.

Failure to Report Student-Teacher Sexual Relations Costs SD Unified $1.25 Million
By Dave Rice
December 21, 2011

The California Court of Appeals has confirmed a $1.25 million judgment against the San Diego Unified School District, a decision filed Tuesday reports. The case stems from the District’s failure to report suspected sexual abuse while plaintiff Anisa Wieder was a student at the District’s School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA).

In 2007, Wieder filed a complaint naming the District, John Lee, and Elizabeth Laughlin as defendants, alleging negligence and failure in their statutory duty to report suspected child abuse. In 2008 the complaint was amended to name sexual abuse, sexual battery, battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

At trial, various school employees testified concerning their knowledge about a sexual and romantic relationship between Wieder and defendant Lee, that began while Wieder was in the 10th grade and continued through her high school years. Lee had been Wieder’s ninth grade physics teacher.

In the plaintiff’s sophomore year, she was a member of an after-school martial arts club that Lee instructed, and he often gave her a ride home after class in his pickup truck equipped with a camper shell. Wieder had developed a crush on Lee, who was 36 years old at the time. Shortly after Wieder’s 16th birthday, Lee initiated a sexual relationship.

The pair had intercourse one to three times per week throughout Wieder’s junior and senior years, according to testimony. Most of the time, Lee would drive her to a Mission Bay parking lot, where they would have sex in the back of his truck. The two were also close at school, with Wieder frequently eating lunch in Lee’s classroom and exhibiting displays of affection several testifying believe to be excessive.

Andrew Hinds, a teacher at SCPA, said he saw Lee and Wieder “hugging, grappling, stroking, and petting.” Wieder often spoke about Lee in class while she was a student of Hinds. In November 2005, Hinds began to suspect her relationship with Lee was sexual in nature.

Matt Stoever, another SPCA teacher, concurred. He told Hinds that a substitute teacher told him Wieder had confessed the nature of her relationship with Lee to a friend of the substitute. Hinds then wrote a letter to Laughlin, the school’s principal, informing her of what he had seen and heard. Stoever prepared a memorandum regarding what he’d seen, and made it available to police in a subsequent investigation.

Andrew Barbolla, yet another teacher at SPCA, testified that he heard from students that they believed Lee and Wieder were “maybe a little too close.” He also observed Wieder riding in the middle seat of Lee’s truck next to Lee, saw the couple hug multiple times, and witnessed Wieder run up to and jump on Lee, straddling him with her legs around his waist. Barbolla says he confronted Lee about the inappropriate relationship, and also conferred with Stoever and Laughlin about it, telling Stoever “it’s only a matter of time until [Lee] gets popped.” While Laughlin agreed she “needed to do something” about Lee, neither of them reported suspicions to Child Protective Services or police.

Hortencia Garcia-Rubio, another teacher, testified that she confronted Lee after having concerns expressed to her by another student. She says she also informed Laughlin about the report. The student, Daniel Hagos, testified that Susan Strasser, another SPCA teacher, was within five feet of Lee and Wieder while they engaged in some of the inappropriate behavior he’d witnessed.

Priscilla Pearson, an SPCA security guard, said she saw Lee and Wieder leave the campus together in Lee’s truck. She also saw them alone in Lee’s classroom, with Lee seated and Wieder standing behind him, running her fingers through his hair. Pearson immediately reported what she saw to vice-principal Emma Martinez, who went to the classroom and saw Wieder’s arm around Lee’s neck and her head on his chest, while other students milled about nearby.

Martinez pulled Lee aside and told him she thought the behavior was inappropriate, then reported what she’d seen to Laughlin. Martinez later wrote Lee, stating she was “shocked” with what she’d witnessed.

When it was principal Laughlin’s turn to testify, she denied Barbolla had reported any concerns to her. She likewise denied expressing concern about Lee to Hinds, and said Garcia-Rubio never reported student concerns either.

None of the witnesses reported what they’d seen to any higher authority than Laughlin. Child Protective Services and police did not become involved. The truth came out only after Wieder graduated SPCA and entered college, at which point Lee confessed to her mother that he and Wieder had shared a romantic and sexual relationship since her sophomore year. The relationship ended shortly after this conversation.

Before trial, Lee entered into a settlement agreement with Wieder for $40,000. After the trial, a jury awarded Wieder $250,000 in economic damages and $1,000,000 in noneconomic damages. It assigned 40 percent of the fault for harm caused to Wieder to the District, and 60 percent to Lee himself. The trial court then entered judgment against the District for $650,000.

On appeal, the District argued that Penal Code 11166, which requires “mandated reporters” including teachers, classified employees of any public school and others to report suspected child abuse, does not create a civil cause of action for its failure to follow the law. The district also argued that it “does not have any direct, mandatory duty under section 11166 to report reasonable suspicions of child abuse.” The appellate court struck down the appeal and upheld the judgment in total.

From Finland, an Intriguing School-Reform Model

2011-12-13T15:42:00.000-08:00

From Finland, an Intriguing School-Reform Model
By JENNY ANDERSON
New York Times
December 12, 2011

Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish educator and author, had a simple question for the high school seniors he was speaking to one morning last week in Manhattan: “Who here wants to be a teacher?”

Out of a class of 15, two hands went up — one a little reluctantly.

“In my country, that would be 25 percent of people,” Dr. Sahlberg said. “And,” he added, thrusting his hand in the air with enthusiasm, “it would be more like this.”

In his country, Dr. Sahlberg said later in an interview, teachers typically spend about four hours a day in the classroom, and are paid to spend two hours a week on professional development. At the University of Helsinki, where he teaches, 2,400 people competed last year for 120 slots in the (fully subsidized) master’s program for schoolteachers. “It’s more difficult getting into teacher education than law or medicine,” he said.

Dr. Sahlberg puts high-quality teachers at the heart of Finland’s education success story — which, as it happens, has become a personal success story of sorts, part of an American obsession with all things Finnish when it comes to schools.

Take last week. On Monday, Dr. Sahlberg was the keynote speaker at an education conference in Chicago. On Tuesday, he had to return to Helsinki for an Independence Day party held by Finland’s president — a coveted invitation to an event that much of the country watches on television.

On Wednesday, it was Washington, for a party for the release of his latest book, “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn From Educational Change in Finland?,” that drew staff members from the White House and Congress.

And Thursday brought him to the Upper West Side, for a daylong visit to the Dwight School, a for-profit school that prides itself on internationalism, where he talked to those seniors.

Ever since Finland, a nation of about 5.5 million that does not start formal education until age 7 and scorns homework and testing until well into the teenage years, scored at the top of a well-respected international test in 2001 in math, science and reading, it has been an object of fascination among American educators and policy makers...

Daniel Shinoff presentation: “Litigation in Schools Involving Athletics”

2011-12-13T10:16:00.000-08:00

Daniel Shinoff presentation: “Litigation in Schools Involving Athletics”

Stutz law firm partner Daniel Shinoff presented “Litigation in Schools Involving Athletics” at the California Council of School Attorneys Workshop, held at the San Diego Marriott on December 1, 2011. The County Counsel Association helped arrange the presentation, which met State Bar of California requirements for Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) for attendees.

Dedicated teacher sentenced for murdering wife

2011-12-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

It can be quite shocking hidden aspects of the personalities of "dedicated" teachers are revealed. You can't always judge a person by the personality he or she presents to the world. And you sure can't have any confidence at all in the hit-or-miss evaluations teachers receive in public schools.

Cruise ship killer gets life sentence
Greg Moran
Dec. 8, 2011

...On Thursday, Robert McGill was sentenced to life in prison by U.S. District Judge Irma Gonzalez, who acknowledged that McGill had led a life dedicated to helping at-risk teens but had to be punished for the murder for which precise motives remain unknown.

Shirley McGill’s children from a previous marriage and her elderly parents gasped in relief when the judge announced the sentence. They had pleaded with Gonzalez to impose the maximum sentence.

Robert McGill, 57, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in July, and his lawyers were seeking a sentence of slightly more than 11 years in prison. They cited his lifelong work as a dedicated teacher and that he was extremely intoxicated when he beat his wife, so much so that he has no clear memory of what provoked him or what happened...

Police chief's many hats raise questions

2011-12-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

Police chief's many hats raise questions
San Diego Union-Tribune letters
Chula Vista chief’s jobs raise questions
Susan and Peter Watry
Dec. 9, 2011

Recently on KUSI, Chula Vista Police Chief David Bejarano said that he spends 14 hours a day on Chula Vista police business (“Bejarano cuts ties to security firm,” Dec. 9). By that statement, it would seem that he certainly earns the $187,000 a year that Chula Vista pays him.

But then, when does he find time to earn $100,000 to $1 million as a board member of Vibra Bank? And when does he find time to earn $9,000 as a board member of the Chula Vista Elementary School District? And when did he find time to earn the $100,000 to $1 million that he earned, until recently, as an owner in Presidential Securities? And when does he find time to earn $1,000 to $10,000 serving as a consultant to Tatro & Zamoyski, LLP?

Whew, some guy!

And now he seems somehow mixed in with some private security firm, which in turns seems somehow mixed in with trying to smuggle Gadhafi’s son into Mexico. Wow. Wait until Vanity Fair writes its next story about Chula Vista!

Chula Vista
Stock options and security companies
J.F. Smith
Dec. 9, 2011

For the past two days, after reading about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that David Bejarano has made via stock options from a bank in which he serves on the board, at least two questionable security companies that he has “lent his name to,” and to consulting for an attorney firm that specializes in security legal services, all while serving as the sitting chief of police in Chula Vista, I have to ask the question — does “conflict of interest” mean anything anymore?

San Diego

General counsel at UCSD gets $15K raise

2011-12-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

General counsel at UCSD gets $15K raise
His is smallest of dozen UC pay hikes approved this week
Ashly McGlone
Nov. 30, 2011

The general counsel for the University of California San Diego will see a $15,000 boost in pay thanks to a 6.5 percent raise approved by the UC Board of Regents this week.

Daniel Park, chief campus counsel and associate general counsel for UCSD, received the smallest pay raise among the 12 raises approved by the board Monday, including increases for six lead attorneys, four vice chancellors, a dean, and a chief operating officer.

Park, whose annual salary will rise to $250,000, did not respond to requests for comment via phone and email Wednesday.

The highest raise totaled $103,500 — a 23 percent increase — for the chief operating officer of the UC Davis Health System.

Raises among attorneys reached as high as 21.9 percent.

The raises follow recent budget cuts and tuition increases.

Dianne Klein, spokeswoman for the UC system, said the raises, many postponed for years, are necessary to maintain skilled employees.

“Financially, it’s a bad time. We recognize that,” Klein said. “We believe that granting these petitions could not be put off any more without sacrificing the quality of the university as a whole.”

How For-Profit College Lobbyists Bought Congress

2011-12-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

How For-Profit College Lobbyists Bought Congress
By Don Bauder
San Diego Reader
December 10, 2011

The New York Times today (Dec. 10) has a story on how the for-profit college industry spent $16 million to soften government plans to rein in industry corruption. The lobbyists won, as usual. This means another debt crisis is coming. This year, student loans will total $1 trillion -- more than the total of credit card debt outstanding. For-profit colleges have 10% of students but account for 44% of loan defaults. Ashford University, which accounts for almost all the students at San Diego's Bridgepoint Education, has a dropout rate of 84% in its two-year program and 63% at its four-year programs. When the Department of Education proposed tougher rules to thwart boiler room-type abuses at the for-profit colleges, the lobbyists, such as former House majority leader Richard Gephardt, assaulted the White House, Department of Education, and the White House, reports the Times.

The Times didn't touch on one of the most interesting angles: how much money was accumulated by investors in for-profit college stocks. Throughout this year, I was saying that while Bridgepoint was a disgusting boiler room draining money from the federal government, its stock would go up. First, more than half its stock was short -- that is, the majority of investment money was hoping the stock would go down. This meant that if there was any good news -- such as the softening of proposed reforms -- the shorts would rush to cover, or buy Bridgepoint stock. That happened. The stock zoomed. How many Washington insiders raked in fat profits, knowing the rules would be emasculated and the stocks would soar? Plenty, I would bet. The manna is probably tucked away in an offshore, tax and privacy haven.

Nonprofit news website voiceofsandiego.org lays off three reporters, including education writer Emily Alpert

2011-12-10T13:48:00.001-08:00

If I had known this, I would have thought much longer and harder before I made my donation five days ago. I can't help thinking that this should have been revealed sooner. All three of these people did work that was particularly meaningful to me. Is it possible that Emily was not enthusiastic enough regarding San Diegans 4 Great Schools to suit Buzz Woolley?

MEDIA: Nonprofit news website voiceofsandiego.org lays off three reporters
By ERIC WOLFF
nctimes.com
December 9, 2011

Voiceofsandiego.org, a nonprofit news website in San Diego, laid off three reporters and another staffer Friday because of a fundraising shortfall, according to a letter to readers on the site.

The three reporters are Sam Hodgson, photo editor; Emily Alpert, schools reporter; and Adrian Florido, neighborhoods reporter. Hodgson was the site's only staff photographer, according to its staff page. The letter did not identify the fourth person laid off.

The lay-offs amount to a 30-percent reduction in staff. The "about us" page lists 13 employees, including the now-departed workers.

In a letter on Voice's website, CEO Scott Lewis and Editor Andrew Donohue said they had raised $1.1 million this year, but had budgeted for $1.2 million. The pair budgeted $1 million for next year, a 17 percent reduction. The reduction did not come from the loss of a major donor, but out of concern that grants from national foundations might not be available, Lewis and Donohue wrote.

"Further budget reductions will not be considered for 2012," Lewis and Donohue wrote.

Local Student Exchange Programs Under Fire

2011-12-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

Local Student Exchange Programs Under Fire
Homestay Services International, Pacific Intercultural Exchange Under Fire
10News.com
December 6, 2011

Last week, allegations against a San Marcos man came to light. A Japanese exchange student said her host father, Fernando Paucar, molested her. Paucar denies the allegations.

Administrators at Palomar College – where the Japanese student is studying – have asked to meet with the owner of the agency who sponsored her, Homestay Services International.

According to an Oregon newspaper article, another San Diego-based exchange program, Pacific Intercultural Exchange, is facing a $2 million lawsuit after a boy said his host father molested him.

But American students studying abroad are also vulnerable. Danielle Grijalva of Oceanside founded the Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students after hearing one horror story after another. She showed 10News reporter Itica Milanes a horrific picture of an emaciated American teen after he went to Egypt to study and explore the culture.

"When I see the photo, I have to rule out the word 'allegedly,'" said Grijalva...

Attorneys James F. Holtz, Ray Artiano flout court order in school free speech case Stutz v. Larkins

2011-12-08T12:14:00.001-08:00

< < < Click on image to enlarge.

Note: A status conference in this case will be held in Dept. 68 of San Diego Superior Court on Dec. 9, 2011 at 10 a.m.. Defendant will ask the court to address the issue of plaintiff's having failed to amend an order as directed by the court over two years ago.

On the trial date of April 6, 2009 attorneys James F. Holtz and Jeffrey Wade, Jr. showed up in Judge Judith Hayes' courtroom to represent Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz in its defamation lawsuit against this blogger, Maura Larkins. Ray Artiano is the attorney of record in the case.

The court chided plaintiffs for adding a finding of malice to the court's grant of summary adjudication to plaintiffs. The plaintiff won the summary adjudication decision by default when the court threw out defendant's opposition because she used improper format.

The court directed Counsel for Plaintiff on April 6, 2009 to "prepare and submit an Amended Order After Hearing on the Motion for Summary Adjudication" (see attached minute order).

Two-and-a-half years later, Stutz law firm continues to flout the court's order. Maura Larkins has reminded them twice of the omission. We'll see if Stutz brings an amended summary adjudication order to the status conference hearing tomorrow in Department 68.

Call to cut Education Department gets mixed reaction from educators

2011-12-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Call to cut Education Department gets mixed reaction from educators
By GARY WARTH
nctimes.com
December 3, 2011

When presidential candidate Rick Perry called for the elimination of the federal Department of Education in a debate last month, teacher Jim Groth did not bat an eye.

"I think it comes up every four years during presidential elections," said Groth, a Chula Vista math teacher who is one of two San Diego County representatives on the California Teachers Association board.

Perry's call to eliminate the department was overshadowed by a now-famous mental slip in which he forgot the third of three departments he said he would cut. He later said he would cut the departments of Commerce, Education and Energy.

The Department of Education was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1980 by combining offices from several federal agencies. According to the department's website, the agency's official task is to establish policies on financial aid for education and distribute and monitor the funds. It also collects data on schools and disseminates the research, focuses national attention on key educational issues, prohibits discrimination and ensures equal access to education.

"As in any bureaucracy, they do some good things, and yes, they do some silly things," Groth said about the department. "It's good in that they do collect a lot of information for us. But at the same time, they are a bureaucracy and it gets frustrating to deal with them."

Asked what they thought of eliminating the department, some local educators and trustees acknowledged that while a federal commitment to education is a good thing, they wouldn't necessarily miss the department if it went away.

"If you go back to our Constitution, education is a federal interest but a local or state responsibility," said Linda Solis, principal of Ramona Unified's Olive Peirce Middle School, which last week was recognized by the state as a model middle school.

Repeating a criticism often heard about the department, Solis also is critical that the federal government mandates programs without providing money to support them.

But the federal department does fund some programs, including Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program, or GEAR UP, which helps prepare underprivileged students for higher education.

Calvin One Deer Gavin, who runs GEAR UP at Palomar College, said he is highly concerned about the prospect of cutting the Department of Education, but understands arguments made by its critics.

"I know there's a debate ongoing that education should be local," he said. "Well, education is local. We have school boards, college governing boards. But the federal government's role is to guide the direction, to complement, supplement and attack some of the issues that the localities can't...

Great idea: teachers could ask to be evaluated!

2011-12-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

I like Paul Bowers idea of allowing teachers to ask for evaluations. The current system is close to useless. Many, if not most, principals write evaluations without doing adequate observations, and their opinions are often based on school politics. Many principals are afraid of their own bosses--and of their own teachers! Superintendents think no news is good news, so if a principal can keep a school quiet, that principal is considered a success.

Evaluations should be done by outsiders: ideally, the evaluators would come from another school district. I'd like to see both experienced and inexperienced teachers doing evaluations; it would be a great learning experience for the newer teachers.

What if someone started a business or non-profit dedicated to evaluating teachers?

VOSD Radio: No Way to Avoid Schools Insolvency?
November 21, 2011
by Dagny Salas

Listen to the Nov. 19 episode of our radio show on KOGO AM 600, which airs Saturdays at 7:30 a.m.

Editor Andrew Donohue and special guest Paul M. Bowers, a concerned parent and frequent VOSD commenter, spend the show talking about San Diego Unified School District's problems and potential solutions...

"Teachers are the second-most important part of the education equation."

District Investigating if Schools Use Poor Kids for Cash

2011-12-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

I don't know anything about principals recruiting students, but I have experience of teachers trying to keep kids out of their classrooms, or forcing kids out of their classrooms after they were placed. Usually the teachers tried to get the kids placed in another classroom in the same school rather than in another school. I can say this for certain: some educators do not feel an obligation to help the students in their care; instead, they just try to make their jobs as easy as possible by getting rid of students who require extra effort. Many teachers are lazy when it comes to helping kids who are behind. They just don't want to do it.

I also agree with those who think that sometimes a neighborhood school with less than spectacular scores is better for some children than a school with very high scores. The child is more likely to be taught an an appropriate level.

District Investigating if Schools Use Poor Kids for Cash
by Emily Alpert
Voice of San Diego
Dec. 1, 2011

Imagine this: Principals recruit poor children to come to their schools. The poor children are counted so that the schools get federal money for disadvantaged kids. Then after the money is secure, principals nudge the poor children to leave. They keep the money but drop the kid.

It's a nefarious scenario — schools using children to get money. School board member Shelia Jackson alleges that it happens in San Diego Unified. Now the school district is going to investigate.

Jackson raised her allegations Tuesday night in the middle of a school board debate about how to divide up federal money for poor children. The school board voted unanimously to start an investigation into the allegations, seeing if principals are indeed using kids to bring in cash.

Schools get a share of roughly $21 million in federal money based on their poverty rate. San Diego Unified calculates that rate from the number of families who apply for free or reduced price lunch at each school. It also uses census data to add in local families who are poor enough to apply but didn't...

How unhealthy is teacher culture? Suggestions to create a culture of collaboration

2011-12-01T04:22:00.000-08:00

In my experience, far too many teachers spend their energy trying to sabotage other teachers rather than improving their own teaching. The phrases "teamwork" and "collaboration" are often just a cover for team dysfunction. The reality is that teacher cliques tend to operate with the tactics of high school girl culture.

Response: Several Ways Teachers Can Create A Supportive Environment For Each Other
By Larry Ferlazzo
Education Week
November 29, 2011

S.H. asked:

Our school culture has a growing sense of [unhealthy] competitiveness. I believe a lot of this stems from the fact that our administration does not recognize (or maybe they do and simply don't voice) teacher expertise using specific, positive praise. We do receive thanks yous - but they tend to be blanket statements and pretty general. (For example, "Thank you Ms. _____ for helping your team out.")

This appears to have led to some teachers to measure themselves against others. Rather than feeling grateful that the students in our school are being taught by many talented teachers, it has become a zero-sum game and fed rivalries and pettiness.

It's sad for me to admit this, but I don't think there's a ton of hope in my administration changing their ways. I guess my question is, how can teachers create a sincere, supportive environment for each other?

I've asked Bill Ferriter and Parry Graham, co-authors of Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year, to provide guest responses to this tricky question, and also include some excellent reader responses later in this post.

I think they offer excellent specific suggestions. The one thought I'd like to contribute is that a challenge to many of us -- whether it is how we operate as teachers with our colleagues or with our students, or if we are administrators or policymakers -- is that it's easy to get caught up in the belief that power (or potential advancement, or success -- whatever you want to call it) is a finite pie -- that if you get some that means I will have less. The reality in the vast majority of instances is that the more I share with you, the bigger the whole pie gets and greater possibilities are created for everyone.

If I share my lesson plan with you, that really means that you might be able to make it better for both of us. If I tell you about the challenges that I faced in the classroom today, instead of making me appear weak, it instead demonstrates that I have the self-confidence to share and hear ideas from others who have probably experienced similar problems (or will in the future).

This perspective of the "pie getting bigger" is a core belief of community organizers (which I was for nineteen years prior to becoming a teacher). The first step towards making this happen in any institution or neighborhood is to build relationships -- an exchange of personal and professional stories -- so that people can learn the hopes, dreams and challenges of each other. The trust that develops during these conversations is the key building block towards countless possibilities...

Response From Bill Ferriter:

Bill Ferriter teaches 6th grade language arts in North Carolina, where he was named a Regional Teacher of the Year for 2005-2006. He is a member of The Teacher Leaders Network.

Another factor that feeds rivalries and pettiness in PLCs is the unhealthy push in many districts and states to use standardized test scores to rate and sort teachers.
Anytime that we try to assign numbers to individual teachers--rather than recognize that improvements in student performance come from collective reflection around practice AND the collective contributions of all of the practitioners that work with a group of children--competition is inevitable.

One way to address this is to establish a team norm that collaborative efforts AREN'T about studying successful people. Instead, they are about studying successful PRACTICES. While that may seem like a subtle bit of semantic gymnastics, it is an essential shift made by every healthy learning team. Conversations focused on the practices--instead of the people--that produce the best results are safer for everyone.

More importantly, they send the message that by working together to enhance and amplify effective instructional practices, a learning team can make tangible improvements in student achievement.

You'll have to be militant about language in order to cement this norm into your collaborative work, though.

Because teachers are (1). surrounded by efforts to tie performance to individuals instead of collaborative groups and (2). used to working in isolation, it is only natural to see competitive teacher-centered language slip into our conversations.

"Wow," we'll say, "Mary is a master! Look at her student's scores on the last assessment."

Instead, we should be saying, "Wow. Mary has discovered a practice that works! Look at her student's scores on the last assessment. How did you teach those skills, Mary?"
When your team stops talking about teachers and starts talking about teaching--or more accurately, student learning--you'll begin to erase the competition and defensiveness that is destroying your collaborative work.

Response From Dr. Parry Graham:

Dr. Parry Graham is the current principal of Luftkin Road Middle School in the Wake County Public School System. He is also an adjunct professor in the education department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

From what I can tell, there are two levels to this complex question. The first level is, what can an individual teacher do to impact the culture of her individual professional learning team? The second level is, what can teachers do to impact the culture of their schools?

At the team level (or department level or grade level), I think there are a couple steps a teacher can take. First, model what you think is positive behavior: don't gossip about other teachers, keep comments about others positive, praise others when you see something worth praising. Second, bring up your observations in team meetings. Mention your perceptions of negativity during a team meeting, ask if others have similar perceptions, and identify specific behaviors at the team level that can help to build a positive team culture.

At the school level, things get more complicated. First, I am somewhat dubious that a relatively simple behavior on the part of the administrative team--i.e., not recognizing teacher expertise using specific praise--could be the primary factor underlying a competitive culture throughout a school. School cultures are complex creatures that typically result from years of behaviors, actions, attitudes, and beliefs. Yes, administrators have some control over culture, but my guess is that the factors underlying this school's culture go much deeper.

So get involved in the kinds of groups that can influence school culture. If they exist, volunteer to serve on the school's improvement or leadership team, on curriculum committees, or on a hospitality group. If your backyard will handle it, host a schoolwide barbeque to bring teachers together outside of school. Set up a Friday afternoon club that meets after school to decompress over beverages of choice. In short, work to improve the relationships between the adults in the building, one interaction at a time.

Reader Responses

Kristen Hewett:

Building a sense of family and community spirit has been something that my school has struggled with for the past few years. As a mentor to our beginning teachers, one thing that I have started this year has been to ask them to select a staff member who exemplifies a certain trait that they admire and would like to emulate and have them let this teacher know this through a short note or a card. My hope is that this will allow my beginning teachers to make connections with other staff members and that it will help to build morale. My ultimate goal is to take this idea and slowly branch it out into other areas and begin a "pay it forward" type of movement. I know that this is just one small step, but my hope is that our small steps will eventually spark bigger changes.

Tyrion Lannister shares a way not to create a supportive environment:

My old school ordered teachers to collaborate, and then graded our collaboration according to a rubric.

Are the wrong people chosen as "experts" in education?

2011-11-30T09:46:00.000-08:00

The World Conspires to Make Expertise Unreliable
By Rick Hess
Education Week
November 23, 2011

Note: This week, I'm giving RHSU readers a look at my essay in Richard Elmore's recent Harvard Education Press volume I Used to Think...And Now I Think. If you find this stuff at all interesting, I'd definitely encourage you to check the book out. For days one and two, see here and here.

Say something smart once and there are huge rewards for spending a career saying it, in increasingly elaborate forms. Academics who own an idea get hired by prestigious universities, deliver keynotes, and get all kinds of attendant perks. Consultants who own an idea become must-haves for districts, foundations, and contractors. The result is a familiar kabuki of hyperspecialists airing their prebaked views.

The world is composed of niches. In each, a thinker may be iconic so long as she stays in her little crevice. Thus, an expert in pharmacology may speak to a cheering conference hall of awe-struck attendees only to walk across the campus or the hotel and quickly become just an anonymous face in the crowd. An expert on school violence or science instruction might be feted as legendary by those in her field but sacrifice that respect and deference should she wander outside that circle. The result discourages individuals from spending much time wrestling with thorny questions or complexities that reach beyond their core expertise. Hence, enormously respected thinkers will offer prescriptions for educational policy or practice that are woefully naïve in terms of political dynamics, organizational realities, institutional pressure, incentives, or practical constraints. Why? Because many of these experts have never spent much time thinking about how their expertise intersects with all the stuff in which they're not expert.

Meanwhile, within niches, the interest in weighing competing arguments or determining how one's expertise translates to the larger world is massively undervalued. Expertise promotes deep knowledge, which can too readily lead to inflexibility and self-assuredness (along with the expectation that one's biases and assumptions will be afforded deference). There are always exceptions, but most thinkers become expert by struggling to the top of their niche on the back of their big idea, and then do all they can to extend the reach of that idea and of the acolytes who aid in that quest--incidentally, or quite purposefully, stymieing heterodox perspectives. In fact, the very nature of expertise is that it stifles dissent and reifies the orthodoxy of the moment.

Moreover, since established figures typically find themselves addressing friendly audiences and gatherings where it is deemed impolite to contest their assumptions and evidence too ardently, it is frighteningly easy for experts to settle into a comfortable bubble where they are surrounded by like-minded peers and adoring disciples, their word is gospel and they are buffered from anything more than occasional interaction with those who might disagree.

Finally, our criteria for expertise are, almost inevitably, relational (e.g. my colleague tells me Trang is terrific) or formulaic (e.g. Wylie was executive director of X for a number of years, launched Y program, or has published eleven articles on this). Why? Our ability to form independent judgments of the hundreds or thousands of individuals most directly engaged in our field of endeavor, much less the thousands more peripherally engaged, is limited by our own inexpert grasp of the world. Only the arrogant or the deluded imagine they perfectly understand the strengths and skills of hundreds of friends, acquaintances, and strangers. Thus, we turn to proxies that are themselves deeply imperfect--but that can lead to our investing great authority in this or that expert for a season.

Done with sufficient skepticism and care, this manner of finding experts is natural and normal. But there's a decided temptation to lodge excessive influence in our choice of the moment. I can't tell you how many times I've been talking with a superintendent who has become a guru for a foundation and found myself wondering why this unremarkable man was deemed any more deserving of that status than any of a dozen other superintendents. The difference, in many cases, is nothing more than a personal relationship, experience in a few big districts, or the fact that a superintendent was an early adopter of a reform--all of which, perhaps bizarrely, results in an individual being invested with presumed expertise across a broad range of issues.

So why does any of this matter? Does it make any practical difference when it comes to schools or schooling? I think it does. In education, for instance, despite decades of research, experts have no systematic way to tell who will be a good teacher or how to design practices that lead to predictable improvement at scale. This state of affairs means at least four things.

First, we ought to be hesitant in casually suggesting that we can name, based on our experience, a list of the nation's best school districts, superintendents, or reading programs. Short of some protocol that helps us identify excellence in a transparent and consistent fashion (for better or worse), we ought to be much humbler about such exercises. They frequently amount to nothing more than an echo chamber, with participants passing on names that they themselves have received second- or third-hand.

Second, we should be wary of prescriptive advice, especially when it's based on the assumption that expertise easily and immutably travels across contexts. In fact, given its narrowness, expertise can exert a gravitational pull that distorts how one thinks about the larger world. Expertise can come at the cost of perspective when an expert starts contemplating efforts to change policy, organizations, or human behavior. After all, expert advice tends to reflect what experts know, which may not reflect what is most useful for solving the larger problem in the real world. For instance, grand assertions about merit pay, school choice, differentiated instruction, or class size reduction that overlook the practical impact of contracts, policies, existing incentives, and embedded routines can yield results quite different from those the experts are touting.

Third--all that said--expertise has a terrifically useful place, as long as we understand what the experts actually know, which is how to do specific, concrete tasks right. I'm always eager to turn to an expert when the question is how to build a bridge, estimate how many people will visit Vegas next month, design an assessment, erect a new school, or conduct a complicated statistical analysis. I'm less inclined to do so when the questions are bigger, messier, and more dependent on judgment and values.

Finally, we need to recognize that individual experts ought not be invested with too much prescience, but the right mix of experts can help identify tensions, incentives, and the contours of possible solutions. If one assembles the right mix of experts, their competing views can prove enormously helpful in crafting smart policies. The key, however, is not to empower any one expert to play guru but to allow competing expertise to illuminate and inform complex decisions.

One last thought. For what it's worth, my approach nowadays is not to casually reject educational expertise but to regard its acclaimed ministers with the same attentive skepticism I reserve for financial advisers and real estate agents. They know stuff that's useful, but that doesn't entitle them to blind deference or even trusting obeisance. At least not in my book.

Why did Yahoo erase photos of Ray Artiano, whose law firm sued me for defamation?

2011-11-29T07:41:00.001-08:00

See all posts about Yahoo and free speech.

UPDATE 11:25 a.m. November 29, 2011:

My erased and frozen web pages are back this morning. I wonder how long it will be before Stutz law firm gets Yahoo to erase them again. I'm getting a bit tired of this game. Why is Yahoo afraid of Stutz? Or who is it in Yahoo's legal department that does favors for Stutz?

Cecilia Yoshida
Sr. Legal Administrative Assistant at Yahoo!, Inc.
Company Address:
701 1st Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Cecilia:

It is clear that Yahoo's legal department has gone far beyond its stated standards to censor my website.

Ray Artiano's law firm sued me for defamation. The fact is that everything I said on my website was true. Still, Mr. Artiano's firm, representing itself in court, managed somehow to get a San Diego Superior Court judge to issue an injunction that said I couldn't mention Mr. Artiano's name! This ruling was unconstitutional, and every lawyer in Yahoo's legal department knew it. Yet Yahoo's legal department temporarily shut down my website at the request of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz. Why? As a favor to fellow lawyers?

That’s pretty unethical behavior for Yahoo, but it gets worse. Recently, even after the Court of Appeal threw out the illegal injunction, Yahoo again violated its own terms and conditions by doing favors for Ray Artiano.

Case in point: Yahoo has erased photos I took of Ray Artiano during his deposition. Does Yahoo not understand the concept of an issue of public interest? Ray Artiano sued me; he is the one who made his actions a public issue. A lawsuit is a public matter. The taxpayers pay for the judge, the bailiff, the court reporter, the clerks, and the courthouse. The justice system exists by and for the people.

What possible reason could Yahoo have for erasing these photos, which belong to me, from my website? It can only be a personal favor by Yahoo’s lawyers.

Sincerely,
Maura Larkins

HERE'S ANOTHER CASE INVOLVING YAHOO AND THE CONSTITUTION:
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:2010cv05897/235632/1/1.pdf
NOTICE OF REMOVAL with COMPLAINT filed by Yahoo! Inc.. Consent ...

Cecilia Yoshida, Legal Ops Manager. Yahoo ! Inc . 701 First Avenue ... information of users of Yahoo! products and services (hereinafter "Yahoo! User"). ...

We're still in Kansas, Toto: teen Emma Sullivan at center of free speech debate after criticism of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback

2011-11-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

In my experience, many California educators also fail to understand and support the US Constitution. And they also like to maintain secrecy in schools.

Kansas teen won't apologize for her tweet about Gov. Sam Brownback
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH,
Associated Press
November 28, 2011

An American teenager who wrote a disparaging tweet about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Sunday that she is rejecting her high school principal's demand for a written apology.

Emma Sullivan, 18, said she isn't sorry and doesn't think such a letter would be sincere.

The Shawnee Mission East senior was taking part in a Youth in Government program last week when she sent out a tweet from the back of a crowd of students listening to Brownback's greeting. From her cellphone, she thumbed: "Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot."

How much do you know about the US Constitution? A quiz.

She actually made no such comment and said she was "just joking with friends." But Brownback's office, which monitors social media for postings containing the governor's name, saw Sullivan's post and contacted the Youth in Government program.

Sullivan received a scolding at school and was ordered to send Brownback an apology letter. She said Prinicipal Karl R. Krawitz even suggested talking points for the letter she was supposed to turn in Monday.

The situation exploded after Sullivan's older sister contacted the media. Since then, Sullivan's following on Twitter has grown to about 3,000 people, up from about 65 before the tweet. She said she thinks the tweet has helped "open up dialogue" about free speech in social media..

"I would do it again," she said.

Sullivan has received emails from attorneys but is waiting to see what happens when she refuses to hand in a letter. Krawitz, her principal, told The Kansas City Star previously that the situation is a "private issue, not a public matter" but didn't return a phone message from The Associated Press at his home Sunday...

Romney Likes Obama's Merit Pay, School Choice Policies

2011-11-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

Romney Likes Obama's Merit Pay, School Choice Policies
By Alyson Klein
Education Week
November 22, 2011 2:06 PM

Gov. Mitt Romney's comments about beer and Mormonism in a forthcoming interview with People magazine are snagging lots of attention around the web, after Politico's Playbook published a snippet of the interview today.

But we at Politics K-12 are perplexed by Romney's comments on education policy, an area on which he says he has some common ground with President Barack Obama.

Here's the relevant exchange:

PEOPLE: In the holiday spirit of comity, can you say one thing President Obama has done right?

Romney: "He's a good example of a husband and father. Some of his education initiatives—merit pay for the best teachers and school choice—have been positive. The surge in Afghanistan was the right choice. But the pluses are far exceeded by the places where I'd give him a minus."

The merit pay for teacher thing we get. Obama has pushed for an expansion of the Teacher Incentive Fund, which doles out grants to districts to create pay-for-performance programs. And he made performance pay a component of both Race to the Top and the School Improvement Grant programs.

But school choice? Okay, Obama has pushed for an expansion of charter schools, again under Race to the Top and SIG. But he also scrapped the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (though the money was ultimately put back at the behest of Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the speaker of the House.) And his waiver package doesn't require districts to offer mandatory school choice or tutoring services.

So we're wondering what exactly Romney was talking about here.

Yahoo has continued to erase and freeze my webpages about Stutz law firm--even after I won in the Court of Appeal!

2011-11-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

See all posts about Yahoo and free speech.

from Maura Larkins
to Cecilia Yoshida
date Sun, Nov 27, 2011 at 9:34 AM
Subject: Yahoo has continued to erase and freeze my webpages about Stutz law firm--even after I won in the Court of Appeal!

Yahoo Legal Department
701 First Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94118
Dear Yahoo Legal Department:

When Yahoo began erasing bits and pieces of my education website a few years ago, I figured that it was merely doing a personal favor for Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz law firm and California Teachers Association. When I contacted Yahoo, I was told that Yahoo would never do such a thing. But the erasures continued, and some of my web pages were frozen so I couldn't change them. Also, the content of those pages was often changed to a long-outdated version.

I thought this would end when I won in the California Court of Appeal. I figured professional courtesy would take second place to the law of the land. But it has gotten worse, not better. I have found many altered, frozen pages recently.

I wondered why Yahoo would behave in this manner, undermining its customers for the sake of lawyers who had no legal justification for their requests. Yahoo knows that it is erasing material that is not defamatory--and what's more, Yahoo has no legal obligation to erase material even if it were defamatory. So why would Yahoo keep doing this? I have come to suspect that Yahoo isn't sabotaging customers merely to please its lawyer pals, but perhaps the lawyers are actually customers, and they pay more than I do! Did Yahoo accept payment for sabotaging my website?

Sincerely,
Maura Larkins
mauralarkins.com

FAMU band director fired in wake of drum major's death

2011-11-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

FAMU band director fired in wake of drum major's death
13 News
November 23, 2011

Florida A&M's band director has been fired, and Gov. Scott wants the state law enforcement officers to get involved.

They are the latest developments in the mysterious death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion following last weekend's Florida Classic.

As a task force begins investigating hazing at the school, a school spokesperson said the FAMU Department of Public Safety has three on-going investigations into hazing, and in two of those cases, 30 students were suspended.

Julian White, the school's band director, was placed on administrative leave with pay, with an official termination date of December 22. This is in line with the school's collective bargaining agreement.

In a letter from FAMU President James Ammons, White is accused of "alleged misconduct and/or incompetence involving confirmed reports of allegations of hazing within the department of music and the 'Marching 100'."

White has been with FAMU's faculty since 1972, and is a graduate of the school.

Gov. Rick Scott also asked Florida Department of Law Enforcement to get involved in the investigation. In a statement Wednesday he said:

The recent death of Florida A&M University’s “Marching 100” band drum major Robert Champion has generated great concern throughout the state and indeed the nation. While I recognize that the investigation into the death of Mr. Champion is being handled by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the reality is that the death investigation significantly impacts the University, the Tallahassee community, and the State of Florida as a whole.

Ammons suspended all practices and performances for the Marching 100 band Tuesday.

Champion died Saturday night in the parking lot of the Rosen Plaza Hotel on International Drive.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said hazing may have been a factor and it is an active criminal investigation.

Ammons announced the school will form an independent task force to look into the death and determine if there were ongoing inappropriate band customs or traditions.

"I am asking all that if anyone has any information to fully cooperate with the Orange County Sheriff's office. There will be no consequences or retaliation for helping. There will however be consequences for anyone who tries to impede it," said Ammons.

Champion's fellow bandmates likewise had no idea how he died.

Deputies said Champion threw up and complained about not being able to breathe beforehand.

The school has had problems with hazing in the past. Ammons said the school will cooperate with Orange County deputies who are investigating.

Wednesday, the Florida Civil Rights Association called for further action by asking the governor and FAMU Board of Trustees to fire Ammons, assistants to Dr. White and the entire leadership of the Marching 100 program.

The organization said in a statement:

The current administration within the University and in the Florida A&M Marching 100 has created a culture of corruption that tacitly approves of the persistent and deadly hazing that occures within the Marching 100 and Florida A&M University.

FCRA likened the situation to the scandal with the coaching staff and administrators at Penn State University. Read the full statement here.

Under Florida Statute, any death that happens as a result of hazing is a third-degree felony.

20 Students Now Accused in L.I. Case: cheating on SAT test

2011-11-22T19:12:00.000-08:00

I always wondered how George W. Bush got such a high SAT score. Listening to him talk, I just wasn't seeing the level of brain power required to achieve the scores. Suddenly I have a suspicion as to how he might have done it.

"The arrests on Tuesday included three people accused of accepting payment to take tests and eight who the authorities say paid impersonators to take tests for them." I also notice that one student is from Roslyn High School, where administrators were found to have embezzled funds a few years ago.

20 Students Now Accused in L.I. Case on Cheating
By JENNY ANDERSON and WINNIE HU
New York Times
November 22, 2011

MINEOLA, N.Y. — Schools do not write the SAT or administer it. But when school officials at Great Neck North High School suspected that students were cheating on the exam, their investigation led prosecutors down a trail that has resulted in criminal charges against 20 students and calls for widespread test reform.

Bernard Kaplan, the principal of Great Neck North, said he believed cheating was pervasive. “I think it’s widespread across the country,” he said Tuesday. “We were the school that stood up to it.”

On Tuesday, Nassau County prosecutors accused 13 students from five schools of accepting payment or paying others to take the SAT and ACT between 2008 and 2011. Eleven students turned themselves in; two are expected to do so next week, prosecutors said.

The arrests, coming two months after seven other Nassau students were accused of cheating on the tests, seemed to underscore the district attorney’s assertion that security measures for the tests, administered by ACT Inc. and the Educational Testing Service, are inadequate, leading to widespread cheating.

“When this cheating scandal was first reported, E.T.S. said that this was an isolated incident, and that the SAT was secure,” Kathleen M. Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, said in a news conference. “I’m glad to know, now, that E.T.S. appreciates that this is a larger problem.”

The investigation began when administrators at Great Neck North looked into student rumors. Their focus soon fell on students who had registered to take the tests outside the district, and those whose scores and grades showed a disparity. They turned over the details to prosecutors, who opened a broad examination.

In September, prosecutors accused Sam Eshaghoff, 19, of impersonating six students, including a girl, to take tests for them. Officials allege that students paid Mr. Eshaghoff up to $3,500 per test for scores ranking as high as the 97th percentile. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The arrests on Tuesday included three people accused of accepting payment to take tests and eight who the authorities say paid impersonators to take tests for them. One student has declined to surrender.

Those accused of fraudulently taking tests face felony charges of scheming to defraud, as well as misdemeanor charges of falsifying business records and criminal impersonation.

Among those charged with taking the tests for others on Tuesday were Joshua Chefec, 20, now a senior at Tulane, and Michael Pomerantz, 18, both of whom attended Great Neck North; Adam Justin, 19, a graduate of North Shore Hebrew Academy and a student at Indiana University; and George Trane, 19, a graduate of Great Neck South who now attends SUNY Stony Brook. Officials said Mr. Pomerantz, citing a medical condition, told them he would surrender Monday; the others turned themselves in Tuesday morning.

Of the students charged with paying to have the test taken for them, five were from Great Neck North, two from North Shore Hebrew Academy High School and one from Roslyn High School.

Because those accused of paying test takers were 19 or under and face only misdemeanor charges, their identities will be not be made public, a spokesman for Ms. Rice said.

Matin Emanou, Mr. Eshaghoff’s lawyer, as well as the lawyers representing the latest students arrested, have argued that their clients are not guilty, and that the situation should be handled by the schools, not in the courts.

“While no one condones cheating, we have a school system that is separate and apart from the criminal justice system, and we have that for good reason,” said Brian Griffin, a Nassau County lawyer representing Mr. Chefec, who was accused of taking the test for others. Mr. Griffin said his client was not part of a “ring,” but was rather accused of having taken two tests for one student.

“It’s not a systematic scheme to defraud when you’re alleged to have acted with one person,” he said.

Gerard McCloskey, a Nassau lawyer who represents a student charged with paying someone to take the test and is still in high school, said, “My feeling is that it should be handled administratively by the College Board and the school board, not criminally, especially when the county is experiencing budget issues and resources are limited to begin with.” The College Board owns the SAT...

Yahoo! censors my website because I published an Amazon book review

2011-11-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

See all posts about Yahoo and free speech.

Yahoo erased one of my webpages a couple of days ago. Why did Yahoo do it? Was my website obscene? Did it advocate violence or hatred? Quite the contrary. See for yourself: I have re-published the information on this new page. It seems that I stumbled onto some information that someone doesn't want revealed. The information is contained in an Amazon.com book review.

The webpage in question was written several years ago; the only recent information on the page was the book review and a short comment, both of which were located in a difficult-to-find spot that could be reached only after scrolling down a considerable distance. My page discussed the need to address evil when it is small in order to prevent greater evils like the Holocaust. Local school attorney Daniel Shinoff said that comparing local conflicts to pre-Nazi Germany was unacceptable and he accused me of being anti-Semitic for doing so. He even put his accusation into a sworn statement in an ongoing legal case.

But in a different legal case, he made a different argument. Voice of San Diego noted the following regarding a recent case involving Otay Water District:

A History of Death Threats, Scandal and Sewage-Tainted Water
by Rob Davis
Voice of San Diego

..."When the agency's attorney, Dan Shinoff, presented his case to the ethics board in March, he zeroed in on what he called Shilling's malicious critique of Gonzalez and Bonilla. Shinoff, who's paid $250 an hour by the district, appeared to be settling a campaign score. Talking to commissioners, he unfurled an inflated oratory filled with its own baseless accusations.

"Shinoff tried to connect Shilling to an anonymous website that attacked Gonzalez.
And yet Shinoff offered no proof it was Shilling's site. Shinoff said the criticism
was symptomatic of the country's devolving political discourse.

"Somebody's going to be a victim if we continue this in this society," Shinoff told the board, noting the shooting rampage that had left six dead and 13 wounded in Tucson, Ariz. a few weeks earlier.

He said an ethics board member shouldn't be allowed to make such attacks — not
with so much at stake. A rebuke was absolutely necessary, he said.

"I urge you with my heart and with my soul for you to do the right thing," he said.
"I come from a family of concentration camp survivors. And I can tell you from a very personal perspective, permitting this sort of dialogue only leads to tragedy..."

My page about the need to discuss evil in its mundane manifestations had existed for years. It includes a discussion of my shock when I learned that Daniel Shinoff was not descended from Holocaust survivors. I learned this in an April 27, 2003 story in the North County Times story that has been removed from the newspaper's archives. The story said that Mr. Shinoff's wife was the daughter of Holocaust survivors.

Then two-and-a-half days ago I was shocked to find the following book review by Mr. Shinoff's wife on Amazon.com:

Amazon Customer Review
July 29, 2007
By Michelle Shinoff
This review is from: The Outrage (Paperback)
I have been a student of the holocaust since graduating with a major in Judaic studies. I am also a relative of survivors of the horrors of nazi Germany. Mischa's experience was an incredibly unique perspective from an unusual human being. Most Holocaust experiences do not parallel this unique perspective. The lessons and sense of family that Mr. Kopiec brings to this story are uplifting. I hope that this book can find its way into the homes of not only the Jewish community but also those of any human being that has no tolerance for discrimination, or the atrocities of genocide. Further, I believe that there are important lessons embodied in this story, that are a contribution to the Jewish people.

Mrs. Shinoff states that she is "a relative of survivors of the horrors of nazi Germany." Could it be possible that even the NCT story exaggerated Mr. Shinoff's connection to the Holocaust? I added a short update and the text of the book review to my webpage. I tucked them both into a spot far down on the page. Here's the text I added:

Update Nov. 15, 2011
Okay. Now I'm really starting to wonder where the truth lies in this story. It looks like even the claim that Michelle Shinoff is the daughter of Holocaust survivors might not be true. Here's something she wrote herself. She describes herself as a "relative of survivors of the horrors of nazi Germany..."

Exactly what benefit does Yahoo! get by helping Dan and Michelle Shinoff conceal information that they themselves have placed in the public record? I thought Yahoo would quit violating the constitution after I won against them in the California Court of Appeal last August. (Previously, Yahoo had interfered with my site at the request of Shinoff's law firm, Stutz Artiano Shioff & Holtz.) When a third-grade teacher wins against a big law firm, you know that the law firm must have been clearly in the wrong. So what is Yahoo thinking?

This issue is of particular significance since it relates directly to a case that is ongoing in San Diego Superior Court.

When doctors rely on attorneys who lie: Tri-City Healthcare attorney contradicts her own witness

2011-11-18T09:19:00.001-08:00

Bonnie Dumanis' Public Integrity Unit seems to be confused about who the perpetrators are when it comes to bribery at Tri-City Hospital:

...On April 25, Elsner said, she received a call from the former intern, again asking for information. Elsner said she told her that it was not a good time to contact her because she was going through personal and financial issues, including a car that needed the engine replaced, which would cost $3,000.

“She said, ‘Charlie could help you out, right?’” Elsner said. “And then Charles said, ‘Of course. All we need you to do is talk to these people and tell them what you know about Sterling.’”

Elsner said she did not accept any money. She said she told her story to District Attorney’s investigators, who took no action on a Tri-City complaint against Sterling regarding the incident. The DA’s office declined to comment...

Paralegal says Tri-City report is wrong
She balks at hospital's version of events involving board member Kathleen Sterling
Aaron Burgin
SDUT
Nov. 17, 2011

Oceanside — In making their case that elected Tri-City Healthcare District board member Kathleen Sterling should remain excluded from closed session meetings for the rest of her term, administrators cited what they considered traitorous activity.

At a meeting last month, Tri-City attorney Allison Borkenheim offered a sworn affidavit saying that paralegal Linda Elsner informed district officials that Sterling in 2003 or 2004 divulged confidential information to her law office, which was suing the district.

In response to the report, the public hospital board voted 5-1 to keep excluding Sterling from closed session, where issues such as CEO Larry Anderson’s performance and the strategic direction of the hospital are discussed.

The Watchdog contacted Elsner to verify Tri-City’s statements. Elsner said Tri-City officials misrepresented what she said — that she specifically told them Sterling shared only public information.

“How can they get away with this?” Elsner said. “How can they say I said these things and put them out as fact when I didn’t say them?”

Tri-City officials declined to be interviewed and issued a statement that they stand by Borkenheim’s affidavit and the belief that Sterling divulged confidential information to Elsner...

COMMENTS

Heather Sterling
The integrity unit fails in integrity... My guess, they forgot they are supposed to protect the innocent and go after the perpetrators. Diverted tactic's, out-right lies, and evaded truths have made for a very frustrating year and a half! Who is the DA working for, Tri-City?

Leon J. Page
I hope that the San Diego District Attorney investigates Allison Borkenheim for perjury.

Randy Horton · San Diego State University
Tri-City heavily relies on lies as one aspect of its overall strategy to divert and distract from the truth of what is really going on. It believes that if lies are repeated often enough, soon the public will swallow them, hook, line and sinker. Tri-City may be world-class at maintaining superficial appearances, but it sorely lacks anything substantive. Tri-City routinely buries its dirty laundry in closed sessions, even though dirty laundry is public information!

Heather Sterling
Charlene, Your arrogance is enormous! At the board meetings, you act like a 3rd grader on a play ground... teasing, insulting, poking fun at your fellow board members because your daddy is the school principle and he rewards your behavior with goodies.

Charlene, What happened with the investigation by the Attorney General against you? You know the one... the one you thought Larry Anderson initiated against you because of his connection at the board of registered nursing? The investigation regarding multiple missing narcotics which were for the many patients you cared for during your grave yard shifts? Who was paying for your legal representation?...
http://www2.dca.ca.gov/pls/wllpub/WLLQRYNA$LCEV2.QueryView?P_LICENSE_NUMBER=461728&P_LTE_ID=828

John Greenman
Heather, let's not lower ourselves to their level. Keep a cool and level head about this. I understand your frustration and salute your passion, but remember that this will come out in the wash.
It appears that Anderson's revocation may have been stayed and her license is now probationary.
The smartest thing to do at this point would be to publish the PUBLIC information regarding the license status from the state's PUBLIC website to as many outlets as possible. Consumers will then be able to make an informed choice when deciding whether to visit a location where she may be employed.

Charlene Anderson
My license is not revoked Heather.

Maura Larkins
Charlene Anderson, I am curious. What was the action taken today by the Board of Registered Nursing? The only thing on the public website is this:
Disciplinary Actions
Public documents relating to this action are available here: http://rn.ca.gov/public/rn461728.pdf
...November 18, 2011 Revoked/Stayed/Probation
Why don't you make the decision public? I can see how someone would read the above and think that your license had been revoked. You say it was not revoked, so I guess that leaves "Stayed/Probation." What does that mean? Please be forthcoming. And please take your own words to heart: "So what is it? Give us the evidence"!

Okay, I think I understand now. Your license was revoked, but the revocation was stayed. And you were placed on probation. Do I have it right?
Add a Reply...

Brett Peterson · University of San Diego School of Law
Tri-City is ridiculous. This board member was elected. She was voted in by the public and she works for the public, not Tri-City. Only the public can "fire" her (through recall or voting her out of office). This is akin to all of the Democrats or Republicans in Congress trying to fire each other or exclude each other from working because they believe the other side is wrong. Tri-City, just let the democratic process work.

...Charlene Anderson · Oceanside, California
Tri City is not hiding dirty laundry as Mr. Horton states. Sterling is responsible for her behavior, unbelievable as it is, her behavior comes from her. We are simply trying to do business around it. Mr. Horton keeps insinuating that there is some hidden agenda by Administration or the Board. So what is it? Give us the evidence of what you say we are hiding behind the diversion of Sterling's behavior. These conspiracy theories you two have cooked up either independently or together don't hold water. I'm sure you both think they began in...Orange County perhaps? Randy why don't you speak at meetings? Why don't you participate? Why do you share closed session information illegally?

Allen School in Chula Vista loses score on teacher cheating concerns

2011-11-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

School loses score on teacher cheating concerns
Karen Kucher
SDUT
Nov. 15, 2011

CHULA VISTA — The state didn’t issue a key academic performance score for a Chula Vista elementary school this year after several fifth-grade students told their homeroom teacher they had seen passages of the English language arts test material prior to taking the state exam.

Allen School, a 300-student school in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, reported the irregularity to the state Department of Education in May.

As a result, the school was not issued an Academic Performance Index or API score for 2011. The district did receive score information for individual students, classes and grade levels.

“It was brought to the attention of the principal there,” said district spokesman Anthony Millican. “It was dealt with swiftly and decisively.”

Millican said the teacher is no longer employed in the district. He said he couldn’t say anything more because it was a personnel matter.

“It is very unfortunate this was done. This is a very high achieving school and we are certain that they are continuing to make outstanding progress,” Millican said. “During this year’s (testing) we expect them to do extremely well.”

In 2010, the school scored 881 on its API. A score of 800 is a state goal.

News of the school’s testing irregularities were included in a Los Angeles Times story Sunday that found about three dozens teachers in the state were accused this year of cheating, making mistakes or engaging in other misconduct involving standardized achievement tests.

According to a report Chula Vista submitted to the state, the teacher said she used poor judgment by downloading test passages from the Internet to use for test preparation.

Millican said the school principal sent a letter to parents in late August telling them about the incident.

Status inequality is unacceptable for high school teachers

2011-11-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

The Inequality Map
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times
November 10, 2011

Foreign tourists are coming up to me on the streets and asking, “David, you have so many different kinds of inequality in your country. How can I tell which are socially acceptable and which are not?”

This is an excellent question. I will provide you with a guide to the American inequality map to help you avoid embarrassment.

Academic inequality is socially acceptable. It is perfectly fine to demonstrate that you are in the academic top 1 percent by wearing a Princeton, Harvard or Stanford sweatshirt.

Ancestor inequality is not socially acceptable. It is not permissible to go around bragging that your family came over on the Mayflower and that you are descended from generations of Throgmorton-Winthrops who bequeathed a legacy of good breeding and fine manners.

Fitness inequality is acceptable. It is perfectly fine to wear tight workout sweats to show the world that pilates have given you buns of steel. These sorts of displays are welcomed as evidence of your commendable self-discipline and reproductive merit.

Moral fitness inequality is unacceptable. It is out of bounds to boast of your superior chastity, integrity, honor or honesty. Instead, one must respect the fact that we are all morally equal, though our behavior and ethical tastes may differ...

Status inequality is acceptable for college teachers. Universities exist within a finely gradated status structure, with certain schools like Brown clearly more elite than other schools. University departments are carefully ranked and compete for superiority.

Status inequality is unacceptable for high school teachers. Teachers at this level strongly resist being ranked. It would be loathsome to have one’s department competing with other departments in nearby schools...

Why we must put an end to secrecy in our local schools

2011-11-11T18:34:00.000-08:00

In my personal experience in Chula Vista Elementary School District, I have found that teachers will cover up wrongdoing rather readily in order to support the group. School lawyers and administrators pressure them to keep silent so as not to embarrass the school. We need transparency in our schools to protect our children; if it embarrasses some adults, so be it.

Bystander Psychology: Why Some Witnesses to Crime Do Nothing
By Maia Szalavitz
November 11, 2011

The grand jury investigation that resulted in 40 counts of child abuse against Penn State's former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, has raised profoundly unsettling psychological and moral questions about the actions — or lack thereof — of others involved in the case.

Head football coach Joe Paterno was fired by the university on Wednesday for his failure to intervene upon learning about the alleged long-running abuse. But many more questions center on Mike McQueary, who is still employed by Penn State; he witnessed child rape firsthand in 2002, when he was a graduate assistant coach, but did not alert the police.

How is it that a powerfully built ex-quarterback could watch the rape of a 10-year-old boy and do nothing to stop it? Why did he neglect to report what he saw to legal authorities for nearly a decade, even knowing that the perpetrator spent much of his time with at-risk youth? And why did the team and the university fail to act at every possible step?...

When the actions of a group are public and visible, insiders who behave in an unacceptable way — doing things that "contravene the norms of the group," Levine says — may actually be punished by the group more harshly than an outsider would be for the same behavior. "It's seen as a threat to the reputation of the group," says Levine.

In contrast, when the workings of a group are secretive and hidden — like those of a major college football team, for instance, or a political party or the Catholic priesthood — the tendency is toward protecting the group's reputation by covering up. Levine suggests that greater transparency in organizations promotes better behavior in these situations.

"It's the norms and the values of the group that are important," Levine says, noting that this fact doesn't reflect very well on Penn State. Indeed, the riot that broke out after the firing of revered coach Paterno — who appears to have covered up for his former colleague, Sandusky, or at least looked the other way, rather than reporting him to the police — suggests that group solidarity with the football team still takes priority over support for abused children at the school.

Another factor that may have prevented action by McQueary and others is denial. Social psychologist Stanley Cohen identified several forms of denial that may cause people to ignore atrocities. There's the denial that commonly occurs in response to difficult situations like receiving a cancer diagnosis or becoming addicted to drugs: the simple repressing of information and refusal to admit that the problem exists or has occurred.

In McQueary's case, however, there seems to have been another type of denial at play, which Cohen labeled "interpretative." "You don't deny that something happened, but try to transform the meaning of it," says Levine, explaining that a witness might minimize the significance of a crime or try to see it as something other than it was.

McQueary may well have been psychologically unable to accept that a man like Sandusky, someone he admired, had actually committed the abhorrent crime he witnessed. Research suggests that when people are faced with situations that threaten their view of the world as relatively fair and decent, rather than revising their own perspective, they often create accounts that deny reality, blame the victim or otherwise rationalize the situation.

Two Penn State officials charged in connection with sex-abuse investigation

2011-11-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Two Penn State officials charged in connection with sex-abuse investigation
November 05, 2011
By Joe Juliano
INQUIRER

In a development that strikes very close to Joe Paterno's storied football program, Pennsylvania State University athletic director Tim Curley and another university official were charged Saturday with perjury related to a child sexual abuse investigation of longtime Nittany Lions assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said Curley, 57, and Gary Schultz, 62, Penn State's senior vice president for finance and business, also were charged with failure to report, a summary offense. The perjury count is a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

The charges against Curley and Schultz, both of Boalsburg, Pa., stem from a three-year investigation of Sandusky, 67, who spent 32 years on Paterno's staff, 23 as defensive coordinator, before retiring after the 1999 season. Sandusky was arraigned Saturday in State College on 40 counts related to the sexual abuse case against him, and released on $100,000 bail.
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Paterno, in his 46th season as Penn State's head coach, will not be charged, authorities said.

In a four-page release, the Attorney General's Office said Paterno was informed by a graduate-assistant football coach in March 2002 that he had witnessed Sandusky allegedly involved in sexual activity with a boy in the showers of the Lasch Football Complex, where Sandusky maintained an office after his retirement.

"Paterno testified that he then called [Curley] and met with Curley the following day," the release said, "explaining that a graduate assistant had reported seeing Sandusky" involved in the activity.

Sources told the Harrisburg Patriot-News that prosecutors believe Paterno did the right thing. The newspaper also reported that Paterno will testify for the prosecution at Sandusky's trial.

Paterno, 84, the all-time winningest coach in Division I football, had no comment Saturday, athletic department spokesman Jeff Nelson said.

However, Paterno may not be completely in the clear. Twenty of the 40 counts filed against Sandusky, allegedly took place during the time he worked for Paterno, including three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, a first-degree felony.

One accuser, now 27, testified that Sandusky initiated contact with a "soap battle" in the shower that led to multiple instances of involuntary sexual intercourse and indecent assault at Sandusky's hands, a grand jury report said.

Moral responsibility: Would a woman have handled the
Penn State child abuse allegations differently?
by Theresa Walsh Giarrusso
ajc
November 9, 2011

I keep trying to find the right words to write about the alleged child abuse by the former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. I have just been sick about it for days and keep writing draft and draft not expressing exactly what I want to say. But I feel like we should discuss it.

Michael and I lived in the Happy Valley for two years after we first were married. I worked for the local newspaper there as a reporter and an editor. Michael covered central Pennsylvania, including Penn State football, for the AP. We met Joe Paterno on many occasions. I personally talked with him multiple times at university dinners and cocktail parties. He was sweet and very much like a grandfather. I think because I have met many of the people involved in this case, it is even more shocking to me that they didn’t do more to stop this alleged abuse.

A lot is being written about the moral responsibility of Paterno and the other leaders of Penn State. I think the Pennsylvania state police Commissioner Frank Noonan said it best on Monday. While he agrees that Joe Paterno fulfilled his legal requirement when he relayed to university administrators that graduate assistant Mike McQueary had seen Sandusky attacking a young boy in the team’s locker room shower in 2002, the commissioner also questioned whether Paterno had a moral responsibility to do more.

“Somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child,” Noonan said.

“I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone. Not whether you’re a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building. I think you have a moral responsibility to call us.”

I think we all have a moral responsibility to watch out for the children around us – in our neighborhoods, in our schools, in our churches. We can’t turn our heads and hope the system handles it.

We need to use our intuition. (One administrator at a school had a bad feeling about
Sandusky and told him he couldn’t come back to his school.) We need to be observant. We need to ask questions. We need to step in if we see something, and we need to shout loudly if we think something even seems wrong.

I am struck by the similarities between the Penn State case and the Catholic
Church child abuse scandals. These are well-respected men. They are men reporting
to other men. You don’t hear any women’s names mentioned in the chain of command.

Would a woman have made different decisions? Would a woman have called the
police? Would a woman have immediately broken up what McQueary reportedly
testified he saw happening in the locker room shower – the alleged rape of a 10-
year-old boy?

I believe almost any woman would have immediately marched into that shower and
stopped it – even if it was her boss, her father, or someone she respected or
someone she feared.

I’m not trying to slam all men, and I think many men would have also handled things
differently. However, many men were involved and none called the police.

Assemblyman Block to Grossmont-Cuyamaca: ‘Brian Jones Has Failed You’

2011-11-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

"...[M]ore than 23,000 students were denied admission and put on a waiting list because of a $6.3 million reduction in state funds."

Assemblyman Block: ‘Brian Jones Has Failed You’
Democrat spoke to Grossmont College students and faculty on the GOP role in the state budget crisis.
By Eric Yates
La Mesa Patch
September 28, 2011

Democratic Assemblyman Marty Block rapped his Santee-based Republican colleague Tuesday while speaking at Grossmont College on the state budget crisis.

“Brian Jones—your representative, your assemblyman from this area—has failed you,” Block said. “And we need to elect people—Democrat or Republican—who are willing to tax millionaires, tax oil companies, tax tobacco companies, so that you guys have more money in the schools.”

Block represents the 78th District, which includes Spring Valley, Paradise Hills, Chula Vista, Lemon Grove, Bonita and parts of San Diego. Jones represents the 77th District, including La Mesa and Ramona.

With redistricting, The 78th Assembly District will be renamed the 79th, which includes La Mesa. If Block wins re-election in 2012, he will represent La Mesa.

Block noted the nuances of budget decision-making, but said the crisis boils down to a simple issue.

“By and large, the system needs more revenue,” Block told an audience of about 60 Grossmont students, faculty and staff members. “It’s tragic. We’ve cut billions, even over the last three years since I’ve been in office. We’ve gone from $120 billion to $85 billion.

“There are unemployed at record rates, so there’s less income tax, people losing houses, so there’s less property taxes. Because of this, people are not buying things so there’s less sales tax coming into the state. The only way to fight this is to raise revenues.”

Because of state cuts, Grossmont College of El Cajon had to cut more than 200 courses for this semester, and more than 1,000 courses have been eliminated over the past two years.

Block then lobbed a shot across the Assembly aisle, saying, “When it comes to budget, Republicans in the Assembly and in the Senate have refused to budge. They have refused to tax millionaires, have refused to tax billion-dollar oil companies in order to give you guys more classes by hiring more professors. I think it’s unconscionable.”

Block thinks that one way revenues can increase it to establish a tax on oil severance, which is oil taken out of the ground.

He said a tax would be successful because of three factors: 1) the tax would be taken from oil corporations, some of which profited more than $19 billion last year; 2) any tax that was “passed on to the pump” and absorbed by consumers would be spread out across the world, as California distributes its oil to all parts of the globe; and 3) Since “you can’t pick up an oil well and move it out of the state,” corporations would choose to pay the tax over shutting down their oil wells and losing out on massive profits.

Block answered questions from a panel of three—Sue Gonda, president of the Grossmont College Academic Senate; Russ Lindquist, editor of the Grossmont College Summit, the student newspaper; and Marc Arizmendez, news director for Griffin Radio, the campus radio station.

Arizmendez asked about the issue of violence on college campuses. Block referenced AB 620, a bill that would require four-year colleges and community colleges to establish and publish policies and penalties for harrassment, intimidation and bullying of individuals based on sexual orientation. These would become part of rules of student conduct.

An issue raised by Lundquist was that of so many students being denied admission and having no appeals process.

The Grossmont-Cuyamacca Community College District announced before the start of classes in August that more than 23,000 students were denied admission and put on a waiting list because of a $6.3 million reduction in state funds...

Teachers Earn Too Much, Study Argues

2011-11-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

Teachers Earn Too Much, Study Argues
November 2, 2011
By John O'Connor
State Impact

Teachers are paid 52 percent more than their market value, according to a new study.

Teachers, did you know you are overpaid by 52%?

That’s the conclusion of a new study by conservative-leaning think tanks The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.

Taxpayers, they conclude, are “overcharged” $120 billion each year from the difference in teacher salaries and compensation compared to similarly credentialed private sector workers. Teacher benefits are often far more generous than the private sector, the study notes.

Other conclusions from the study:

The wage gap between teachers and non-teachers disappears when both groups are matched on an objective measure of cognitive ability rather than on years of education.
Public-school teachers earn higher wages than private-school teachers, even when the comparison is limited to secular schools with standard curriculums.
Workers who switch from non-teaching jobs to teaching jobs receive a wage increase of roughly 9 percent. Teachers who change to non-teaching jobs, on the other hand, see their wages decrease by roughly 3 percent. This is the opposite of what one would expect if teachers were underpaid.

The study reveals a divide among those pushing for changes in public schools.

Raising teacher salaries is a foundation of school reformers, which includes Republicans, such as former Gov. Jeb Bush, and Democratic President Barack Obama. Better pay is more likely to attract better teaching candidates, they argue, and better teachers mean students will learn more.

Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee disagreed with the study, in a statement printed by Politico:

We can accomplish the goal of attracting and retaining the best teachers and be fiscally responsible at the same time by moving money out of bloated bureaucracies that doesn’t improve student learning and into the classroom where it can.

Listening to Mozart seems to trigger neurons that make the brain function better--and saves lives!

2011-10-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

This story is about making the brain work better--much better, in the case of one doctor who tripled his polyp detection rate when listening to Mozart.

Could Mozart Decrease Your Risk of Colon Cancer?
By Katie Moisse
ABC News
Oct 31, 2011

Doctors were more likely to detect precancerous polyps during colonoscopies if they had Mozart playing in the background, a small study found.

It only included two doctors, but for one, listening to Mozart more than tripled the polyp detection rate from 21.25 percent to 66.7 percent, researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston reported today at the American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting. Undetected, the polyps — called adenomas — can become cancerous.

“Anything we can do get those rates up has the potential to save lives,” study author Dr. Catherine Noelle O’Shea said in a statement. “While this is a small study, the results highlight how thinking outside the box — in this case using Mozart — to improve adenoma detection rates can potentially prove valuable to physicians and patients.”

The polyp detection rate for the other doctor studies rose from 27.16 percent to 36.7 percent.

The study adds weight to the “Mozart effect” — the long-standing observation that listening to music can lead to a short-term improvement on some mental tasks. Some experts attribute the performance boost to a more positive mood or increased arousal. Others say complex music triggers a response in the brain that makes it better equipped to tackle an additional task...

There are high schools with as low as 5 percent of the students proficient in math

2011-10-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

Fact Check: High Schools Struggling with Math
October 10, 2011
by Keegan Kyle
Voice of San Diego

Statement: "There are high schools with as low as 5 percent of the students proficient in math," San Diego Unified school board member John Lee Evans said Sept. 27 at a board meeting.

Determination: True

Analysis: Students at San Diego Unified schools have been scoring better and better on state tests in recent years. Scores have steadily risen across most grades, ranking the district above California's other major urban districts.

It's a positive trend, but school officials say there's still plenty of room for improvement. While discussing test scores at a recent school board meeting, Evans highlighted one such area.

"At the same time that we have those high (district-wide) figures," he said, "I've heard in the last day or two that there are high schools with as low as 5 percent of the students proficient in math."

Evans asked district staff at the meeting whether that number was accurate. Ron Rode, who oversees an office that monitors test scores, stepped up to microphone.

"We do have some in the single digits and this has been a long-standing issue where we see higher performance at the elementary schools and then it drops as grade level increases, precipitously at high school unfortunately," Rode said.
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We checked the numbers, too, and they back up Evans' description.

Arroyo Paseo Charter High School in City Heights finished dead last with 1.8 percent of students demonstrating proficiency in math — able to complete basic geometric and algebraic tasks like calculating surface area and solving linear equations. The highest scoring school, Scripps Ranch High, had 57 percent of students meeting state standards.

Overall, about one in four San Diego Unified high schools came close to Evans' mark, with the percent of students meeting state standards falling in single digits. Here's the score for each school:

Though scores were dismal in some cases, they used to be much worse overall. The percentage of high school students meeting state standards in math nearly doubled in the last five years. Less than one out of every three students met or exceeded state standards in math last year.

At the school board meeting, Rode also pointed to a statewide trend that extends to San Diego. As students get older, they tend to score worse and worse on state test scores. And those low marks from high schools bring down the district's overall average.

The reasons for the precipitous decline aren't clear, but researchers suggest that school instruction gradually grows further apart from the concepts examined in state tests. By high school, the gap is wide enough that few students meet state standards.

Test results show a social difference as well, Rode said in an interview. At younger ages, students seem more eager to do well on tests. As they grow older, students become wiser of the lack of accountability tied to state tests, which don't affect grades, and then don't take testing as seriously. High school juniors may also focus on preparing for college placement exams rather than state tests, Rode said.

Because some high schools in San Diego Unified came close to Evans' description of math scores last year, we've rated his statement True...

Should Your Company Go After Anonymous Bloggers?

2011-10-24T11:19:00.001-07:00

I'm not anonymous. My name is Maura Larkins. But sometimes people will only reveal the truth if they can remain anonymous.

Should Your Company Go After Anonymous Bloggers?
By Cynthia Hsu
FindLaw.com
October 24, 2011

If your business has ever received criticism by an anonymous blogger, you may be irritated. You might also start to wonder if defamation law might be on your side.
Suing someone who has caused harm to your businesses' reputation and cost you money can be an option.

But it's more difficult now that there are various online platforms like Facebook, online message boards, Twitter, or forums where bloggers can keep their identity under wraps. Businesses may wonder if it's ever an option to go after someone who is nameless. It is - but whether or not it's a good idea is up for you to decide.
If you have the blogger's IP address, there are methods that you can employ to track down where the offending posts came from.

On the other hand, if all you have is their username you may have a more difficult time getting a handle on their identity. An Internet Service Provider (ISP) like Google isn't required to give you their personal identifying information. In fact, they'll likely fight to withhold this information to protect their customer. You'll probably have to win a court order to reveal their identity.

And courts can be hesitant. If the defamatory post is considered political speech, it can receive a high level of First Amendment protection. This can hinder your chances in court.

Courts, however, seem to be more inclined to grant orders in cases where anonymous bloggers have posted confidential insider information on the web.

You should also be aware that the blogger themselves can assert certain privileges to shroud their identity. In some circumstances, they can claim a reporter's privilege, which can protect them under their state's shield laws.

Companies that go after anonymous bloggers will likely face hurdles even though remedies are available under defamation law. Therefore, it might be necessary to go through several court proceedings in order to prevail.

San Diego's premier school attorney once again goes to work for Otay Water District

2011-10-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

Dan Shinoff defended Otay Water District's attorney Bonifacio Garcia a few years ago when a ratepayer sued. Bizarrely, the Otay Water Board had indemnified its attorney in case he was sued for wrongful actions. Normally, it's the other way around: the attorney guarantees that his legal advice is, well, legal. But apparently that's not the kind of attorney Otay Water District was looking for. As an Otay ratepayer, I helped pay Dan Shinoff's legal fees in that case. Now I'm paying Shinoff's legal fees again.

A History of Death Threats, Scandal and Sewage-Tainted Water
October 16, 2011
by Rob Davis
Voice of San Diego

...But this was March 2011, and an attorney for the Otay Water District was making a case for censure to the Chula Vista Ethics Board. One of the advisory group's members, a businessman named Chris Shilling, had run unsuccessfully in November against an Otay board member, David Gonzalez Jr.

The election hadn't been close. Gonzalez, the brother of Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, won easily after far outspending Shilling.

Shilling had taken his campaign against Gonzalez to Facebook, on a page with 46 followers. There, he called the district corrupt and accused Gonzalez of stealing campaign signs. They were baseless comments, hardly noteworthy during election season.

But they sure got the water district's attention. Otay pursued legal action. Bonilla filed a complaint with the ethics board to get Shilling booted.

Bonilla didn't do that on his own dime though. The district's ratepayers paid for the agency's attorney to work on the complaint, which purported to come from the agency's board of directors. But the board hadn't agreed to send it. Bonilla told the Union-Tribune that he, Gonzalez, Watton and an attorney had decided to.

Watton said the district got involved because Shilling had noted in campaign literature that he served on the ethics board, making his criticism carry more weight.

"If someone is just out making stuff up and lying to the public, that is of interest to the district," Watton said. "We're not corrupt."

Bonilla later told the board that he'd pay for any litigation himself, according to meeting minutes. But he didn't reimburse the district for its legal expenses.

When the agency's attorney, Dan Shinoff, presented his case to the ethics board in March, he zeroed in on what he called Shilling's malicious critique of Gonzalez and Bonilla. Shinoff, who's paid $250 an hour by the district, appeared to be settling a campaign score. Talking to commissioners, he unfurled an inflated oratory filled with its own baseless accusations.

Shinoff tried to connect Shilling to an anonymous website that attacked Gonzalez. And yet Shinoff offered no proof it was Shilling's site. Shinoff said the criticism was symptomatic of the country's devolving political discourse.

"Somebody's going to be a victim if we continue this in this society," Shinoff told the board, noting the shooting rampage that had left six dead and 13 wounded in Tucson, Ariz. a few weeks earlier.

He said an ethics board member shouldn't be allowed to make such attacks — not with so much at stake. A rebuke was absolutely necessary, he said.

"I urge you with my heart and with my soul for you to do the right thing," he said. "I come from a family of concentration camp survivors. And I can tell you from a very personal perspective, permitting this sort of dialogue only leads to tragedy."...

[Maura Larkins' comment: I think Mr. Shinoff meant to say that he married into the family of a concentration camp survivor. But I must admit that it sounds more compelling for him to say he "came from" such a family. In the past, Mr. Shinoff has said it was "vile" to compare local political conflicts with the type of behavior in Germany that paved the way for the Holocaust. So why is he doing exactly that? This seems to be a new low for Shinoff: he is violating his own standards in an effort to obtain a legal advantage. One might wonder if he is exploiting the suffering of Holocaust victims to try to squelch free speech in San Diego.]

W. enters my wife’s schoolboard race

2011-10-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

(Credit: AP/Courtesy of the author)

W. enters my wife’s schoolboard race
Our family gets a close-up look of how big money has taken over politics -- even at the local level
By David Sirota
Oct 21, 2011

Before it happens, it’s hard to know how you’ll feel when you see a slickly produced, oil-CEO-financed flier implicitly attacking your 11-month-old baby for not being old enough to attend school and explicitly criticizing your family for not being able to afford a home...

Six months ago, when my wife, Emily, decided to run for a school board seat here in Southeast Denver, I was (perhaps naively) expecting what we used to get from the most local of local races for such part-time, unpaid positions: lots of door knocking, a few yard signs, maybe a barbecue or two...

Emily knew it would be a tough race against her opponent, a deep-pocketed investment banker, but she felt confident she could run a solid campaign. She thought her experience as a social worker and community organizer in Denver gave her the tools to mount a good ground game, and she felt that her longtime policy work at the federal, state and local level was a good match for the school-board job. She also has deep roots in the community; her campaign has been endorsed by the district’s state representative and city councilors, by the city auditor, and by the key legislators who serve in the state’s senior education policymaking positions.

...Emily had thought a “big” contribution meant a few friends joining up to scrape together $500. But, in the last few weeks, news broke that oil CEOs and financial executives were cutting $10,000 and $25,000 checks to her opponent. We found out that notorious front groups like Stand for Children were funneling in tens of thousands of dollars of out-of-state financial industry cash, and we started hearing about serious threats of retribution from big-time professional politicians.

...In the process, this little grass-roots school-board race has become so inundated by big money and national political forces that none other than former President George W. Bush just made an education-themed appearance – one clearly designed to influence the education debate dominating the upcoming school board election.

At the local level, there are often no campaign contribution limits at all, so the rich are free to dump enormous sums of money into elections.

(Here in Denver, for instance, EdNewsColorado reports that “one quartet of donors gave a combined $92,000 each to the same three candidates, all of whom have been endorsed by the Colorado chapter of Democrats for Education Reform and by Stand for Children” — two front groups funded by the financial industry.)

[Maura Larkins comment: Regarding Democrats for Education Reform, I would like to say that it's nice that some Democrats are willing to stand up to the teachers union. Stand for Children, however, sounds like they are just knee-jerk corporate types.]

As NBC’s local affiliate 9 News noted in reporting on a coordinated Republican Party attempt to buy school board races all over the state, “Once thought to be ‘mom and pop,’ [school board] elections have now turned into coordinated, professional campaigns.”

...In one row, it contrasts my wife and her opponent based on the “number of children [each has] in Denver Public schools.” (My wife’s opponent: “3 daughters, 15 years and counting”; my wife: “0.”) And I can tell her that voters will realize that this particular comparison is grossly unfair, because it suggests that our son not being old enough to attend school is somehow a personal failing.

...I know that whether she wins or loses, the real damage has already been done.

When the same elites who fund federal elections start pouring unfathomable sums of money into our community’s school board races, it robs us of the last promise of democracy: the hope that while wealth and power dictate federal and state policy, every person can still have a small impact on his or her own local community.

...It’s easy to delude yourself into thinking that the only elections that matter are celebritized presidential and Senate contests, and that local elections for your school board or town council or county commission don’t count. Clearly, that’s not the case. The most powerful people of all sure think those local races do matter...

Oregon doctor who was required to have chaperone sues for defamation

2011-10-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Darm v. Craig
CMLP
October 12th, 2011

In July 2011, medical spa doctor Jerrold "Jerry" Darm sued blogger Tiffany Craig for defamation in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon. Darm alleged that Craig defamed him when she wrote about a 2001 disciplinary order against the doctor from the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners.

Craig wrote on June 30, 2011, on her blog that Darm was reprimanded for demanding sex from a patient, and that Darm was required to have a chaperone when examining adult female patients. The order in fact states that Darm touched and kissed the patient, from which the patient inferred Darm was seeking sex. The order did require the presence of a chaperone for Darm's treatment of adult female patients. Craig did not mention that the order against Darm was lifted in 2009.

According to OregonLive.com, Craig moved in August to dismiss Darm's lawsuit under Oregon's anti-SLAPP laws. Craig argued that "'the gist' of the blog entry is true and the statements, in context with a provided hyperlink to state medical board records, were opinions based on those facts." Craig also argued that Darm, as a prominent local doctor, is a public figure. Darm argued that because he never treated Craig, his record is not a matter of public interest.

OregonLive.com also reports that the court ruled in September that the case is a matter of public interest, and that Twitter is a public forum. A hearing is set for Oct. 20, when Darm will have to present a viable defamation claim.

Related Links:
Oregon's first Twitter libel lawsuit pits Tigard doctor against Portland blogger

Website(s) Involved:
Criminally Vulgar (blog)

Legal Counsel:
Thomas McDermott
Linda Williams

Professor told stuttering student not to speak

2011-10-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

Professor who told stuttering student not to speak acted inappropriately, County College of Morris officials say
October 12, 2011
By Dan Goldberg and Nic Corbet
The Star-Ledger

The college today said an adjunct professor acted improperly when she told a stuttering student not to speak in class because he was "infringing on other students’ time."

RANDOLPH — The County College of Morris acknowledged today that an adjunct history professor acted improperly when she told a stuttering student not to speak in class because he was "infringing on other students’ time."

Administrators declined to say whether any explicit disciplinary action was taken against the professor, Elizabeth Snyder, but expressed disappointment with the e-mail she sent sent to Philip Garber Jr. several weeks ago.

"The message was that because it does take him awhile to ask a question or answer a question, that it was interfering with the rights of other students," said Bette Simmons, vice president of student development for the Randolph college.

"That made me feel very mad," said Garber, who filed a complaint with the Office of Student Development.

Garber, 16, of Mansfield, described himself as shy, but said he was eager to participate in his first semester at the school, where he is taking two college courses to supplement his home schooling. Contemplating a career in photojournalism, Garber has been an avid participant in class, but his stutter causes him to speak slowly and methodically — often repeating himself.

"I do enjoy asking questions and participating in debates," he said.

In the e-mail, a copy of which was provided to The Star-Ledger, Snyder urged Garber to save his questions for after class, and said that if he knew the answers he should write them on paper instead. "so we do not infringe on other students time."

"This way, you can express your ideas and knowledge completely and I will have a better understanding of what you know," Snyder wrote in the e-mail. "You can give me the sheet after each class.

"Hope these suggestions help to make your experience in my class enjoyable and productive," she wrote.

Snyder could not be reached for comment today.

Simmons said it would have been better if Snyder had simply advised students in the class to be patient with Garber.

"One of the things that we’re all getting to have a better understanding of is to accommodate a student who stutters is not as easy as providing a sign language interpreter," she said.

Jim McClure, spokesman for the National Stuttering Association, said Garber’s initiative was somewhat unusual.

"The problem most kids who stutter have is they grow up being ashamed of their stuttering and so they don’t speak up in class," McClure said. "When a kid who stutters raises his hand and wants to talk in class, that’s a good thing. That’s a healthy thing."

About 1 percent of the population struggles with stuttering, according to the organization. Originally thought to be a psychological problem, the condition is now considered mostly physiological, and there’s new research that suggests it is often genetic, McClure said.

Snyder has taught at CCM for 10 years. She has not been suspended, but the administration would not comment on internal discussion with an employee.

"We don’t share personnel matters," Simmons said. "It’s a college practice, especially if things are still ongoing."

Garber is now in a separate section of the same history class, and said he is happy with how the matter was resolved.

"I made the decision to switch because I felt that if I stayed, there could be some unforeseen bad consequences," he said. "I do like the college experience."

Geta Vogel, principal at Warren County Technical School, where Garber spent his freshman year in high school, said Garber never had any problems with other students or his teachers. Garber began the school year by e-mailing his teachers explaining his stuttering problem, Vogel said.

Vogel told her staff to show patience and appreciation for who he is.

"Every kid adored him," she said. "I don’t mind going on record for Phil Garber. He is a joy and we were very sorry to lose him."

Students on the CCM campus today were quick to support Garber.

"Don’t teachers usually encourage you to participate in class?" said Mike Cortese, 21, an electronics engineering technology major. "He can’t help the stutter."

Since the New York Times first reported Garber’s story on its website Monday, Garber has received numerous calls, e-mails and texts of support. His YouTube channel, thestutteringman, received more than 70 complimentary comments within 24 hours of the story being published.

"I’ve been very lucky to have avoided much of the discrimination and bullying that many people who stutter experience," Garber said. "To a certain extent, I’m sure this is true of any person with a disability, people will always treat you differently, and it’s not always in a negative way, but it always makes you feel kind of weird."

Del Mar Union School District attorney preparing response to public-records lawsuit

2011-10-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

See all posts Del Mar Union School District.

I found this article in The Tampa Tribune on the subject of public officials using private email services for public business:

The problem is, when official e-mail goes to and comes from Yahoo, Gmail or any other private account, there is no public archive. Instead, officials must preserve their correspondence themselves and turn it over when someone asks for it. It's the world's biggest honor system, and sadly, not everyone is so honorable…The temptation for public officials to resist disclosure of incriminating or even just embarrassing e-mails is powerful enough when the e-mail is being housed within the halls of government. Give them a Yahoo account to hide it in and unless a judge orders an inspection of a private computer (which is precisely what happened recently in Florida), it's the public official's word versus that of the requester.

Del Mar Union School District attorney preparing response to public-records lawsuit
By Marsha Sutton
Del Mar Times
October 6, 2011

Del Mar parent Michael Robertson, who sued the Del Mar Union School District on Aug. 8 to compel the release of specific email documents, said he and his attorney received a letter last week from DMUSD attorney Dan Shinoff, of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, saying Robertson can soon expect a legal response from the district.

“We were served with the lawsuit, and now we’re filing a response to the lawsuit,” Shinoff said. “We’re going to ask for a hearing on it on an expedited basis.”

“I’m fascinated to hear what they’re going to say on why they shouldn’t have to give us this,” Robertson said. “I don’t know what reasonable explanation these guys could have.”

Robertson submitted a California Public Records Act request May 10, asking the district for all communications related to the California Teachers Association’s Week of Action held May 9 to 13. The state’s largest teachers’ union promoted the Week of Action as a way to raise awareness and encourage parents and the public to support increased funding for education.

Robertson filed his CPRA request to review correspondence among district employees, school board members and CTA organizers because he suspected that the district was working with the CTA to coordinate political action, which he said is inappropriate.

Also named in the suit is DMUSD school board president Comischell Rodriguez, for access to her personal emails related to the CPRA request.

Because she “possesses, maintains and controls records responsive to Petitioner’s requests that are not maintained in files” at the district’s offices, “Rodriguez is an indispensible part to this litigation,” reads the suit.

Robertson said the chances of settling the case out of court are low. “The odds of them saying, ‘Okay, you win’ is zero,” Robertson said, vowing to continue litigation to its final conclusion.

Robertson said he was “astonished” that the district would proceed with the litigation. “This will be a giant case, blowing through tens of thousands of dollars, when they should just turn over the damn documents,” he said. “This is money that should be going toward pure educational needs. It should not be going to Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz.”

In a May 27 letter to Robertson, the district said the request was “vague, overbroad and burdensome,” that it was “unrelated to the conduct of the public’s business,” and that the records are “exempt from disclosure because the public interest in not disclosing the information clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure.”

Robertson was critical of the district’s objections. “The outside law firm is happy to burn up DMUSD tax dollars dreaming up creative arguments about why they shouldn’t have to abide by the California Public Records Act like every other government organization,” he said. “Their attitude is, they don’t work for us [and] they should get to decide what information we get. We should just be content with whatever they decide.”

When asked why the district did not release all the emails, Shinoff said there are no more documents to be released. “We’ve provided him every public record that he’s asked for,” Shinoff said.

Robertson said he has received some emails from the district, but the documents released are incomplete and not fully responsive to his CPRA request. [see sidebar]

Regarding the personal Rodriguez emails sent to and from her private accounts, Shinoff said those are protected by law. “The United States Supreme Court has already ruled on this issue,” he said.

A public record, Shinoff said, is defined as “something that is maintained and controlled by the governmental agency,” not by private individuals. He said the Supreme Court decided this issue under the Freedom of Information Act, which is the model for the Calif. Public Records Act.

“If Mr. Robertson wants to have a different position in the state of California, he gets to make new law,” Shinoff said.

But Robertson said this is uncharted, potentially precedent-setting territory and that the personal emails are public documents. “Our contention is if it was used to do district business, it shouldn’t be protected,” he said.

Shinoff said the district has complied with the CPRA request and there are no more documents to release.

Color-coded IDs draw support from some students, parents

2011-10-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

Conservative parents and students in Orange County want kids to be assigned color-coded IDs based on test scores. We all know that standardized test scores tend to correlate strongly with socio-economic levels. Recent research also shows that innate ability has far less effect on the success of poor kids than it does on middle class kids. So why not just have kids go around with a name tag that shows how much their parents make?

This policy actually might discourage some kids who are working very hard. Test scores are related far more closely to socio-economic levels than to student effort. I suspect that many of the kids who support this policy don't need confidence-building. Why would a school do this? Because it's easiest to raise the scores of the above-average students, and thus raise the average score of the school, without changing the scores of the below-average students. This doesn't give us a better-educated society, it just gives us a better-educated elite.

Oct. 7, 2011
Color-coded IDs draw support from some students, parents
By FERMIN LEAL
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A group of about three dozen students at Kennedy High School arrived to campus Friday wearing their color-coded IDs to protest the Anaheim Union High School District's earlier decision to eliminate the controversial incentive program.

They said they wanted to show support for the program that assigned students color-coded ID cards and planners based on their state test scores, and required those who performed poorly to stand in a separate lunch line and awarded the others with discounts.

"Maybe it's just the conservative in me that says that it's just too bad that others didn't study or work hard enough for it," said Jason Seo, who helped organize the protest. "When I see what I do versus a person without a black card there are big differences. For one, I study a lot more than they do, so to call it 'intellectual discrimination' as some people put it, is stupid in it of itself."

The students taped, stitched and glued their cards onto clothing and backpacks to prominently show classmates, teachers, parents and administrators that they want the district to reinstate color-coded ID system.

...The program, in place Kennedy and Cypress high schools, was designed to urge students to raise scores on the California Standards Tests, but it also raised concern among parents and students who said it illegally revealed test scores and embarrassed those who didn't do well.

Anaheim Union officials announced on Thursday the district would eliminate the program after complaints from many students and parents, and after the state Department of Education called it unlawful.

...AnneMarie Conley, a UC Irvine educational psychologist who has extensively studied student motivation strategies in Orange County schools, called the system earlier this week "one of the worst ideas ever" to promote learning.

Bridgepoint Flirts With Fletcher

2011-10-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

...[T]hey gave to help advance the candidate they believed had their business interests in mind. And political experts said donations from a large number of employees are rarely made without some hope of advancing their business's interests...Increasingly, the company has become involved in local politics and Fletcher, an assemblyman, has been a favorite. He promoted the company as a "San Diego Success Story" in a May 2010 video on his state website.

See all posts re Bridgepoint Education.

Bridgepoint Flirts With Fletcher
October 6, 2011
by Liam Dillon
Voice of San Diego
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Bridgepoint, San Diego's fast-rising for-profit higher education company, is continuing to flex its newfound local political muscle.

Employees at the company and people in their households gave $12,500 to mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher, the San Diego Daily Transcript reported last week. From the Transcript (subscription required):

Bridgepoint had, by far, the highest number of employees giving to the same candidate, and none of its employees gave to anyone but Fletcher, according to the disclosure forms. Included on the list of Bridgepoint givers are Chief Executive Officer Andrew Clark, eight vice presidents and five others who list their title as "executive." The entire management team listed on Bridgepoint's website each gave the maximum amount to Fletcher. ...

While Bridgepoint employees interviewed for this story said their reasons for donating were personal, some owners of local businesses said they gave to help advance the candidate they believed had their business interests in mind. And political experts said donations from a large number of employees are rarely made without some hope of advancing their business's interests.

As we detailed in March, Bridgepoint has a brief but controversial history. In just four years, it's become a major local employer with soaring profits and enrollment. At the same time, it's attracted numerous federal and state investigations for its recruitment practices and use of student loan dollars. Just this week, Bridgepoint revealed in a regulatory filing that North Carolina's attorney general was investigating the company for possible violations of the state's consumer protection law.

Increasingly, the company has become involved in local politics and Fletcher, an assemblyman, has been a favorite. He promoted the company as a "San Diego Success Story" in a May 2010 video on his state website.

Fletcher's campaign told the Transcript in a statement that he views everyone who donates to his campaign as individuals.

"The individuals who are employed by Bridgepoint believe Nathan is the best candidate for mayor and support his plan to innovate and create good-paying jobs for San Diegans," the statement said. "The only interest company leaders have in the mayor's race is ensuring a strong, healthy future for the city where they are headquartered."

The Transcript story also detailed donations from multiple employees at different companies to mayoral candidates Carl DeMaio, Bonnie Dumanis and Bob Filner.

Vindicated: Ridiculed Israeli scientist wins Nobel

2011-10-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

"I was thrown out of my research group. They said I brought shame on them with what I was saying," he recalled. "I never took it personally. I knew I was right and they were wrong."

This story reminds me of high school girl culture. No, wait. This is simply typical of human beings, right?

Vindicated: Ridiculed Israeli scientist wins Nobel
By ARON HELLER
Forbes.com
10.05.11

JERUSALEM -- When Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman claimed to have stumbled upon a new crystalline chemical structure that seemed to violate the laws of nature, colleagues mocked him, insulted him and exiled him from his research group.

After years in the scientific wilderness, though, he was proved right. And on Wednesday, he received the ultimate vindication: the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

The lesson?

"A good scientist is a humble and listening scientist and not one that is sure 100 percent in what he read in the textbooks," Shechtman said.

The shy, 70-year-old Shechtman said he never doubted his findings and considered himself merely the latest in a long line of scientists who advanced their fields by challenging the conventional wisdom and were shunned by the establishment because of it.

In 1982, Shechtman discovered what are now called "quasicrystals" - atoms arranged in patterns that seemed forbidden by nature.

"I was thrown out of my research group. They said I brought shame on them with what I was saying," he recalled. "I never took it personally. I knew I was right and they were wrong."

The discovery "fundamentally altered how chemists conceive of solid matter," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in awarding the $1.5 million prize.

Since his discovery, quasicrystals have been produced in laboratories, and a Swedish company found them in one of the most durable kinds of steel, which is now used in products such as razor blades and thin needles made specifically for eye surgery, the academy said. Quasicrystals are also being studied for use in new materials that convert heat to electricity.

Shechtman is a professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. He is the 10th Israeli Nobel winner, a great source of pride in a nation of just 7.8 million people. Shechtman fielded congratulatory calls from Israeli President Shimon Peres, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Every citizen of Israel is happy today and every Jew in the world is proud," Netanyahu said.

Staffan Normark, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy, said Shechtman's discovery was one of the few Nobel Prize-winning achievements that can be dated to a single day.

On April 8, 1982, while on sabbatical at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington - now called the National Institute of Standards and Technology - Shechtman first observed crystals with a shape most scientists considered impossible.

The discovery had to do with the idea that a crystal shape can be rotated a certain amount and still look the same. A square contains four-fold symmetry, for example: If you turn it by 90 degrees, a quarter-turn, it still looks the same. For crystals, only certain degrees of such symmetry were thought possible. Shechtman had found a crystal that could be rotated one-fifth of a full turn and still look the same.

"I told everyone who was ready to listen that I had material with pentagonal symmetry. People just laughed at me," he said in an account released by his university.

He was asked to leave his research group, and moved to another one within the National Bureau of Standards, Shechtman said. He eventually returned to Israel, where he found one colleague prepared to work with him on an article describing the phenomenon. The article was at first rejected but was finally published in November 1984 to an uproar in the scientific world.

In 1987, friends in France and Japan succeeded in growing crystals large enough for X-rays to verify what he had discovered with the electron microscope.

"The moment I presented that, the community said, `OK, Danny, now you are talking. Now we understand you. Now we accept what you have found,'" Shechtman told reporters.

Shechtman, who also teaches at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, said he never wavered even in the face of stiff criticism from double Nobel winner Linus Pauling, who never accepted Shechtman's findings.

"He would stand on those platforms and declare, 'Danny Shechtman is talking nonsense. There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists.'" Shechtman said. "He really was a great scientist, but he was wrong. It's not the first time he was wrong."

Shechtman's battle "eventually forced scientists to reconsider their conception of the very nature of matter," the academy said.

Nancy B. Jackson, president of the American Chemical Society, called Shechtman's breakthrough "one of these great scientific discoveries that go against the rules." Only later did some scientists go back to some of their own inexplicable findings and realize they had seen quasicrystals without understanding what were looking at, Jackson said...

A new yardstick to measure schools?

2011-10-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

A new yardstick to measure schools?
Legislation on Brown’s desk would overhaul how California measures academic success
SDUT
Oct. 4, 2011

Senate Bill 547 would still use standardized test results, but those could account for only 40 percent of the overall yardstick.

SACRAMENTO — California’s traditional yardstick of success in public schools may be broadened beyond the existing method solely driven by test scores.

Legislation sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk would scrap the state’s reliance on the Academic Performance Index — a measurement that ranks school performance based on a series of standardized exams.

In its place, the state Board of Education would be directed to adopt a more comprehensive set of high school accountability benchmarks that would include graduation rates and career and college readiness.

Some weight, but not more than 40 percent of the overall scores, would still be assigned to how many test questions students answer correctly.

Standards for middle and elementary campuses also would be rewritten to de-emphasize test results.

The legislation requires the new assessment policy, called the Education Quality Index, to be in place for the 2014-15 school year.

Using only test scores to determine proficiency has been turbulent going almost from the outset, drawing protest and praise from Sacramento to Washington. Many educators bristle at having their success judged on how students “fill in the bubbles” while others say that’s the only way to hold schools accountable.

Brown’s looming decision carries with it widespread implications for education in California. Nearly 5 million students in grades 2-11 take the standardized tests every year.

“This bill will change schools to help better prepare kids for the real world,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat carrying the legislation.

But to what extent — and how — are questions left unanswered until the state Board of Education fills in specifics by a 2014 deadline. The uncertainty is one reason why educators still cast a wary eye on the legislation.

“There are so many unknowns at this point,” explained Ron Rode, executive director of the office of accountability for the San Diego Unified School District.

Yet there are positives, Rode said. Generally, the San Diego Unified board philosophy appears to match Steinberg’s goals.

“The board wants to look at critical thinking, creativity — broadening how we evaluate the performance of students,” Rode said.

Teachers have similar reservations. “We are concerned about the vagueness,” said Jim Groth, the San Diego-based representative on the California Teachers Association board. For them, a major question is funding: implementation costs have not been fully vetted.

However, teachers see value in the reforms, particularly in language that could eventually provide districts with more latitude.

“It’s getting away from the one-size fits all, test-test-test mentality,” Groth said.

The Academic Performance Index, or API, has its defenders. Among them is Frances O’Neill Zimmerman, a former San Diego Unified trustee, who argues that the policy has sparked a resurgence in academic achievement.

“Parents depend on it,” Zimmerman said. “Scores may be flawed. There may be too much testing. That can be remedied. But if you toss out the API, the community and the public have no way of assessing what is happening at their public schools.”

The legislation, Zimmerman said, “is an end run around accountability.”

Scott Himelstein, director of the Center for Education Policy and Law at the University of San Diego, said he’s not convinced that college and career readiness can be fairly measured.

Diluting existing standards could easily “mask some of the low test scores. We do have a serious achievement gap in this state,” he said, referring to the disparity between some lower-scoring minority students and other groups.

Nevertheless, he supports taking another look at the API, but would prefer that educators take time to craft recommendations and follow those with legislation.

Steinberg insists that “test scores aren’t everything” and parents and the community are not receiving a complete picture of school performance.

Many educators have said they are under too much pressure to produce scores on paper — the result of the No Child Left Behind legislation once hailed by Republicans and Democrats alike.

No Child Left Behind threatens failing schools with sanctions — even firing staff or shutting down the worst performing schools. That approach, critics say, has forced teachers to concentrate on exam results instead of focusing on broader student needs. Some suspect the demand for results contributed to test-cheating scandals by teachers and administrators in Atlanta and elsewhere.

Groth, the CTA representative and veteran teacher, said that pressure to do well on tests robs students.

“Teachers are teaching to the test. The creativity of the classroom has been taken away,” he said.

Changes may be on the way at the federal level. President Barack Obama last month announced a plan to grant states waivers from key elements of the federal law, including a 2014 deadline for all students to meet baseline standards in math and reading...

Solana Beach school board member working for Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz education law firm

2011-10-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

Solana Beach school board member working for education law firm
By Marsha Sutton
Del Mar Times

Solana Beach School District board member and attorney Art Palkowitz is providing general legal advice to school districts as Senior Counsel at Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, a San Diego County law firm specializing in education law.

Formerly Assistant General Counsel at San Diego Unified School District where he worked for nine years, Palkowitz joined Stutz Artiano in March 2010.

Palkowitz, whose second four-year term on the SBSD school board expires in November 2012, has been a practicing attorney for over 28 years, with background in public education and civil litigation.

Since Palkowitz joined Stutz Artiano, the Solana Beach School District has continued to have the law firm represent the district on two cases. SBSD superintendent Leslie Fausset said there is no conflict of interest.

“Art has nothing to do with any of the cases that the firm represents,” she said.

Also, she said he recuses himself from voting on all decisions involving Stutz Artiano cases that involve expenses with the firm.

“We’ve taken probably a more cautious approach, but that’s how we’ve handled it,” Fausset said.

She said Palkowitz shared with her his intent to join the law firm in advance, and she said she had “no misgivings at all.”

“We took all of the appropriate precautions,” she said, adding that “it’s very beneficial to a district” to have attorneys on school boards who understand education issues.

Palkowitz’s professional experience, according to his profile on the Stutz Artiano Web site, includes an understanding of the California Education Code, certificated and classified employee suspension and termination proceedings, strategy and compliance in collective bargaining, employment-related litigation, wrongful termination, the Brown Act, Public Records Act, California Tort Claims Act, preparation and review of district policies and administrative procedures, and charter school petitions, operations, renewals and appeals.

One of the two cases Stutz Artiano has handled for the SBSD since Palkowitz was hired began in September 2010 and was concluded earlier this year. The district paid about $6,300 to the law firm for the case.

The other case, concerning a preschool special education student, is continuing through the court system and is on appeal at the Ninth Circuit, Fausset said. To date, the district has paid Stutz Artiano about $11,600, and the Special Education Legal Alliance has paid the firm about $40,000 on this case.

With miscellaneous fees of $823 for opinions on Public Records Act requests and student fees, the total paid to Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz by the district from 2010 to the present is about $18,745.

Solana Beach School District special education preschool case goes to Court of Appeals

2011-10-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Case goes to Court of Appeals
Del Mar Times
Oct. 4, 2011

A legal case involving a Solana Beach School District special education preschool student, begun in August 2010, is now with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case is being handled by Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz lawyer Dan Shinoff.

The case has been paid in large part by the Special Education Legal Alliance, formed seven or eight years ago to support potentially precedent-setting cases where the outcome could impact other districts and other cases, said SBSD superintendent Leslie Fausset.

“What happens in so many of these cases is that even if you are right, you have a tendency to settle because it’s often less expensive to settle than it is to go through the full court process,” Fausset said.

She said there is a tendency for districts to settle even when they may not agree because “it is expeditious to do so financially for the district.”

The purpose of the alliance, she said, was for school districts to contribute to a fund to provide resources that would support districts “when they were in the midst of a case that potentially was precedent-setting.”

“Laws get written, and there’s a lot of interpretation with any written law,” Fausset said. “When you settle, you don’t have the opportunity of getting full, clear definition of the intent of the law.”

The Special Education Legal Alliance provides a way for districts to pursue a case through the courts to receive more comprehensive interpretation of the law. “The lack of definition is not helpful,” she said.

The alliance is county-run, Fausset said, and is voluntary for districts. She said her district makes an annual contribution of about $.50 per student, for a projected cost for 2011-2012 of approximately $1,418.50.

“I’ve been very supportive of it,” Fausset said of the legal alliance.

The case to date has cost about $51,650 — about $11,600 from the district and about $40,000 from the legal alliance.

Tri-City loses effort to block use of documents

2011-10-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Two stories about the publicly-owned Tri-City Hospital's efforts to avoid transparency.

U-T says Tri-City lawsuit attempts to abridge free speech
Ricky Young
SDUT
Sept. 26, 2011

links:
U-T anti-SLAPP motion against Tri-City, Sept. 26
Tri-City lawsuit against the U-T, Sept. 15

The San Diego Union-Tribune filed an anti-SLAPP motion today against the Tri-City Healthcare District, alleging that the agency's Sept. 15 lawsuit against the newspaper should be stricken as an attempt to abridge free speech rights.

The public hospital district says it mistakenly sent the U-T attorney-client privileged information in response to a public-records request for executive expense records. The newspaper returned the documents in question as a courtesy, but the agency is suing to block any use of the information.

The newspaper's motion claims the healthcare district's action is a "strategic lawsuit against public participation," not allowed under California law. The motion calls the agency's lawsuit "a brazen affront to the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom of the press."

The U-T Watchdog team, which filed the public-records request, has asked the district for its response to the anti-SLAPP motion and will add it to this post when it's received. The next hearing on the dispute is Oct. 21 before Superior Court Judge Joel Pressman.

Tri-City loses effort to block use of documents
The healthcare district says release to the U-T was a mistake
Aaron Burgin
Sept. 20, 2011

The San Diego Union-Tribune prevailed Tuesday in opposing the issuance of a temporary restraining order in connection with a lawsuit filed against the newspaper by Tri-City Healthcare District.

The district sought to block any use whatsoever of documents that the district sent to the U-T by regular mail and email, along with its initial response to a reporter’s request under the California Public Records Act for executive expense reports and receipts.

Inclusion of of the attached documents was a mistake, the district says, and the newspaper is not entitled to them because of attorney-client privilege.

The U-T reviewed the documents, decided they were not newsworthy at this time and returned them on Monday. Even though the U-T destroyed all copies, the healthcare district proceeded with its application for a restraining order enjoining the U-T’s use or publication of, or reliance on, the communications.

Superior Court Judge Joel Pressman denied Tri-City’s application for a temporary order Tuesday morning, and declined to prevent publication of the underlying information.

The two parties will meet again in Pressman’s courtroom Oct. 21, when the court will hear arguments on whether the district’s request for a preliminary injunction should be granted. In the meantime, the newspaper agreed to give the district reasonable notice before publishing any story that discloses the information the district claims is privileged.

The Oceanside-based district said any use of the privileged documents would put it at a competitive disadvantage.

“Additionally, publication will reveal the district’s litigation tactics and strategy,” the lawsuit states.

Jean-Paul Jassy, a Los Angeles-based attorney representing the U-T, said the restraining order sought by the district would be a prior restraint, which is when the government takes action to block communications before they occur. The U.S. Supreme Court, according to the U-T’s response to the district’s lawsuit, has repeatedly ruled that prior restraints are unconstitutional.

Del Mar Union’s legal battles: saying no to public record requests; Sharon McClain lawsuit

2011-09-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

...Diane Crosier, SDCOE’s executive director of the San Diego and Imperial County schools JPA, refused to comment, referring me instead to DMUSD attorney, Dan Shinoff. Shinoff did not reveal specifics but suggested that McClain’s attorney, Dale Gronemeier, was “trying to make it as expensive as possible.” Gronemeier, last week, objected to this comment, saying that Shinoff’s firm was the one employing delaying tactics and driving up costs.

Del Mar Union’s legal battles
By Marsha Sutton
Senior Education Writer

Bowing to the Great Bureaucracy, I reluctantly paid the San Diego County Office of Education $1.52 to receive a piece of paper listing all the legal fees incurred from December 3, 2010 to August 2, 2011 for the Sharon McClain vs. Del Mar Union School District litigation.

Although this information should be made available to the public without having to jump through so many hoops, particularly considering that it was a single, readily accessible page, sometimes it’s easier to give in than stand and fight on principle, when the amount of money is so minimal.

So that’s how we know the cost of this lawsuit is approaching $90,000 so far, excluding the hearings that took place last month and all the hearings and court actions yet to come.

McClain, the former DMUSD superintendent, sued the district last October after she was released in March 2010. In 2010, before the suit was filed, DMUSD superintendent Jim Peabody said the legal fees incurred by the district were $12,762.

Once the suit was filed, the district’s litigation insurance carrier, the San Diego County Schools Risk Management Joint Powers Authority, took over. At that point, all legal fees were covered by the JPA, less a $1,000 deductible and the district’s annual premium of $21,808, Peabody said.

According to information provided by SDCOE on that piece of paper, the insurance carrier paid $74,896.45 — all of it, except about $3,600 — to the district’s law firm on the case, Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz. With the district’s $12,762, this brings the total to about $87,600, to date.

Back in May, I attempted to learn the costs without having to comply with SDCOE’s ridiculous demand for $1.52 to receive the information. But Diane Crosier, SDCOE’s executive director of the San Diego and Imperial County schools JPA, refused to comment, referring me instead to DMUSD attorney, Dan Shinoff.

Shinoff did not reveal specifics but suggested that McClain’s attorney, Dale Gronemeier, was “trying to make it as expensive as possible.”
Gronemeier, last week, objected to this comment, saying that Shinoff’s firm was the one employing delaying tactics and driving up costs.

In Sept. 14 and Sept. 15 emails, Gronemeier wrote, “The Shinoff firm has stonewalled on discovery since last December by filing evasive responses and baseless objections to interrogatories and document demands and by refusing to allow Board of Education members to be deposed.”

He said Shinoff and his team “would not legitimately respond to the most obvious and simple discovery requests” and unnecessarily increased billing hours.

Gronemeier said Shinoff’s firm is paid an hourly rate, while his firm “is a hybrid partial hourly, partial contingent fee arrangement.”

He said his fee structure pays most but not all of his firm’s overhead costs. To be paid personally, Gronemeier said he has to win the case. So billing extra hours, he said, “decrease[s] my firm’s profits from which I get paid rather than increasing them.” He said his firm’s payment structure “disincentivizes me from milking a case.”

The courts validated Gronemeier’s complaints, he said, at a hearing Aug. 19 when the judge ruled that the school district needed to provide documents requested months ago and allow the depositions of specific board members.

Regarding a possible settlement, DMUSD trustee Doug Rafner, in an email to Peabody dated May 17, 2011, wrote, “I personally would like to discuss resolving this case in some way that does not involve running the district through the mud. Would the ‘insurance’ pay for a settlement of a case, or only for judgments?”

Peabody responded to Rafner, writing, “We will get this on the agenda for the next meeting.”

As this case churns through the courts, talk of a settlement seems to have dissipated.

These McClain-related emails were among those released by the district to Del Mar parent Michael Robertson after he filed a California Public Records Act request May 10 on an unrelated topic: the Week of Action last spring sponsored by the California Teachers’ Association, which was organized to rally parents and teachers to support more funding for education.

Robertson said the material he received was incomplete, and that the district and its lawyers (Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz) were unresponsive to repeated attempts to obtain all requested documents related to the Week of Action.

On Aug. 8 he filed a lawsuit against the DMUSD to force the district to comply with the CPRA request. To date, the district has not responded to the suit, he said.

Depositions allowed in lawsuit against Del Mar school district

2011-09-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

“You’re not supposed to be able to take board members’ depositions,” Church [Ryan Church, an attorney with Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz] said.

But the court did not agree.

Depositions allowed in lawsuit against Del Mar school district
By Marsha Sutton
Del Mar Times
September 29m 2011

Over the defendant’s objections, a judge ordered at a hearing held Aug. 19 that depositions could be taken of former Del Mar Union School District board members Steven McDowell and Annette Easton, in the case of Sharon McClain vs. the DMUSD.

Other rulings overturned DMUSD’s objections to providing documents and interrogatory responses to former DMUSD superintendent McClain.

Attorney Dale Gronemeier, who represents McClain in her case against the school district for wrongful termination, called it a very successful hearing.

“We’re starting to get the information we need,” Gronemeier said. “I think we have broken down an approach to the litigation where the other side was thinking that maybe they could prevent us from getting meaningful discovery.”

Gronemeier requested the McDowell deposition in March, but DMUSD’s legal counsel made a motion to quash the notice of deposition.

“They immediately asserted that it was improper because of what’s called the deliberative process privilege,” said Gronemeier, explaining that the deliberative process privilege is a rule of law that does not permit inquiry into the motives of legislators.

The defendant, Gronemeier said, was claiming that members of an elected school board cannot be subpoenaed because they are legislators. But he said the issues in this case were administrative, not legislative, and the deliberative process privilege applies only to legislative acts.

Furthermore, he said the rule doesn’t mean one can’t take a deposition, but objections may be raised to certain types of questions.

Ryan Church, an attorney with Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, explained in a May 12, 2011 article in this newspaper that the deliberative process privilege prevents public board members from being deposed and bars judicial inquiry into the motives of public officials.

“You’re not supposed to be able to take board members’ depositions,” Church said. But the court did not agree.

“Defendant’s deliberative process privilege objection is overruled,” read the court documents. According to the court, “under the circumstances of this case, the strong public interest in ascertaining the truth in judicial proceedings outweighs the public interest in nondisclosure.”

Two of Gronemeier’s motions, both granted, asked for the depositions of McDowell and the Person Most Knowledgeable (PMK) about the issues. He said the district and its legal advisors identified Easton as the PMK.

“The entity has the right to select the person,” Gronemeier said. “I can’t impose who they are.”

“We’ve agreed to allow them to be deposed,” said DMUSD attorney Dan Shinoff, of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz.

McDowell’s deposition was held Sept. 21 and lasted about six hours. Easton’s deposition is scheduled for Sept. 30, and Gronemeier said it may take three or four days. “There are a lot of facts in this case, a lot of details,” he said.

Shinoff said the judge at the trial will rule whether the information obtained by the depositions can be used as evidence. “For purposes of admissibility in trial, he’ll rule on it on a question-by-question basis,” Shinoff said.

Gronemeier said the testimony obtained from a deposition is valuable even though little of it is read in court. “I use it in the sense that I know what the person’s going to say,” he said.

Gronemeier will also seek the depositions of Doug Perkins, Comischell Rodriguez and Katherine White, the other three trustees who served during McClain’s tenure, because “the only people who have real knowledge of most of the events in dispute in the lawsuit are the five board members and Dr. McClain,” he said. Only Perkins and Rodriguez are still DMUSD board members.

McDowell deposition

McDowell was chosen first, Gronemeier said, because “we viewed him as a good starting point in this process.”

“Lawyers learn a lot in depositions, and you build an understanding from the depositions,” he said. “So by the time you get to the most important witnesses, you sharpen your knives quite a bit more.”

Gronemeier would not disclose specifics of McDowell’s deposition except to say that questions were related to McClain’s contention that the board did not have good cause to terminate her.

Termination for good cause, he said, requires an honest and thorough investigation. “So we’re looking at how adequately they conducted the investigation,” he said.

McDowell was also asked about his decision to abstain from the vote to release McClain, Gronemeier said.

Shinoff said the focus of the case is not why McDowell abstained. “The issue will be, did she or did she not breach the contract,” he said. “That’s the whole issue.”

McDowell was asked “all kinds of questions,” Shinoff said, “and he explained himself. He also provided the reasons why he thought there were very serious performance issues [with McClain].”

Both McDowell and Easton declined to comment.

Stutz Artiano attorney Jack Sleeth, considered an expert on closed-session open-meeting laws, handled the McDowell deposition and will represent Easton for her deposition Sept. 30.

Gronemeier said depositions can be contentious and are often an adversarial process. “But this was not a deposition where there was a lot of hostility,” he said.

Gronemeier praised Sleeth for his professionalism, calling him a very good lawyer. “Jack asserted many objections, most of which were to closed-session discussions,” he said. “Some were to attorney-client privilege. I have no criticism of the way he handled the deposition.”

Shinoff said Sleeth’s hourly rate is $170, to be paid by the DMUSD and its litigation insurance. Gronemeier said the cost of a deposition for his side will run about $1,000 per day for the court reporter, plus attorneys’ fees.

The other rulings

The hearing on Aug. 19 ruled on five motions, two on the depositions and three that overruled DMUSD’s objections to produce documents and answer interrogatories.

“Essentially it means I won on all the substantive issues,” Gronemeier said. He had sought monetary sanctions against the DMUSD, but that was denied.

Gronemeier filed the motions to seek relief for what he claimed were the district’s delaying tactics. “What they were saying is that Dr. McClain can get no deposition discovery,” he said.

When Shinoff’s firm requested documents and asked for a deposition of McClain, which took place over three days in June, “we didn’t stonewall,” Gronemeier said. “We don’t jerk people around in discovery.”

Shinoff had earlier alleged that it was Gronemeier who was delaying the process.

Besides documents, Gronemeier said the DMUSD also refused to release information about witnesses. “That got knocked down, and they have now provided the addresses and phone numbers of about 50 people they have listed as witnesses,” he said.

He also just received about one thousand pages of documents from the DMUSD that he had requested.

Shinoff minimized the importance of the August decisions, saying, “It was some names that they asked for that we provided, but that was the extent of the ruling.”

“It’s just part of discovery, and it has nothing to do with the merits of the case,” Shinoff said.

McClain was hired by the DMUSD on Sept. 17, 2008, at a base salary of $168,000, through June 30, 2009, the end of the fiscal year. Salary increases in the contract are listed as $178,000 for 2009-2010, $183,000 for 2010-2011, and $188,000 for 2011-2012. She was released from employment March 31, 2010,

In her formal complaint, she claimed the DMUSD breached her agreement on a number of grounds, calling the conduct of the DMUSD “arbitrary and capricious.”

The district’s evaluation, written September 2009, charged that McClain’s performance constituted a “breach of material terms” of the contract and cited deficiencies, willful neglect, failure to uphold contract provisions, and a “general inability to be effective.”

The performance review was signed by all five board members. The vote seven months later to terminate McClain’s employment, however, was 3-1-1, with Rodriguez opposed and McDowell abstaining.

Gronemeier said McClain seeks just compensation. “Our position is they have never … given her the proper notice, and her salary is still accruing,” he said. “The contract continues in force. It wasn’t properly terminated.” McClain seeks salary through June 30, 2012, the end of the contract.

McClain also contends that her retirement income was diminished by the loss of the extra years of salary. “The reduced pension benefits are very significant damages,” Gronemeier said.

In addition to monetary compensation, McClain is seeking the restoration of her standing in the community.

“She has been a very successful woman in her professional career, and what they did to her sullied her reputation,” Gronemeier said. “She wants vindication for that, and appropriately so.”

Despite the setbacks last month, Shinoff remained sure of his case. “I’m still very confident in the merits of my position,” he said.

The best way for the next mayor to improve education in San Diego is to make educated decisions

2011-09-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

Next Mayor's Office Should Be Education Model
Sep 22, 2011.
by Michael Aguirre
Letters, Voice of San Diego

The best way for the next mayor to improve education in San Diego is to make educated decisions based on reality and good ideas. The mayor should be an example of how a well-educated person acts. The mayor's staff should include scholars. The mayor should be a source of basic research on solutions for the city's problems. The mayor should show an understanding of financial management by getting the audits out on time. The mayor should do important parts of needed research and writing. Abraham Lincoln was busy with the Civil War but still managed to write his own speeches. If the mayor wants to change education in San Diego, begin by bringing education to the mayor's office.

Michael Aguirre is a former City Attorney.

Were police protecting a corrections officer?

2011-09-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

Click here for story.

Teacher dated the husband of a parent; Dan Shinoff failed in effort to get restraining order against the wife

2011-09-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

Dan Shinoff advised the Del Mar Union School District to pay his firm to help a teacher make allegations against a parent. The teacher had been dating the parent's husband (now ex-husband) and apparently believed that the ex-wife should be prevented from making comments. The court found the allegations that the parent was a threat to anyone's safety to be untrue.

Del Mar school district pays teacher’s legal costs
By Marsha Sutton
Del Mar Times

The Del Mar Union School District agreed to pay a teacher’s court costs and legal fees when the teacher filed a harassment charge last spring against a parent at her school. The teacher claimed the parent, the mother of several children at the teacher’s school, was threatening the teacher and endangering the students at the school.

The teacher, and the district, lost the case when the judge ruled in favor of the defendant, the parent, after a court appearance that included testimony from the teacher, the parent and the school’s principal, Wendy Wardlow of Del Mar Heights School.

The alleged erratic behavior started when the teacher began dating the mother’s now ex-husband (the mother and father were separated and in the process of divorcing at the time).

After the teacher reported to the school’s principal that the mother had made offensive and threatening statements to her, Wardlow alerted DMUSD superintendent Jim Peabody, who brought the issue to the district’s lawyer Dan Shinoff, of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz.

Shinoff advised the school district to take the threat seriously and to pay the teacher’s litigation costs. The district became involved, he said, “because of the safety of the kids on campus.”

After handling three school shootings in San Diego County, Shinoff said he weighed the risks carefully and recommended that the district support the teacher. “The school district’s interest was to make sure that all students and staff were safe which is its constitutional obligation,” he said.

If the district had not taken the reported threats seriously and someone had been hurt, Shinoff said people would view the tragedy as having been foreseeable and would consider that those “in loco parentis had recklessly disregarded the obvious.”

“That’s a huge calculated risk,” he said.

Shinoff had no regrets about advising the district to take the case. “It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback,” he said in an email.

The harassment case began on April 25 when the teacher filed a temporary restraining order against the mother, which was granted. The mother was ordered to stay at least 100 yards from the teacher until the formal hearing on May 13.

At the May 13 hearing, after testimony, the restraining order was dissolved and “denied with prejudice,” meaning the case cannot be filed again.

“The court initially granted the request for a temporary restraining order and later declined to grant a request for a longer term injunction,” Shinoff explained.

The case cost the district about $6,700, said Peabody — $2,875 to Shinoff’s firm to represent the plaintiff (the teacher) in court, and $3,800 to the defendant for her attorney’s fees.

After finding in favor of the defendant, the court ordered the teacher to pay $3,800 to the defendant for reimbursement of legal fees. The DMUSD school board then met in closed session and agreed to pay the $3,800 owed by the teacher to the mother. It was after the case was officially closed in August that the district disclosed that the school board had agreed to cover these costs.

The mother said her defense cost $4,500, and she will try to collect the remaining $700 in small claims court.

Comments (4)

Maura Larkins
Dan Shinoff advised the district to pay legal costs to his own firm, right?

1 reply
concerned citizen
Larkins you are crazy. Do you have a life or are you on a vendetta against that firm?

concerned parent
So has the teacher, who was dating the still-married father of several children at the Heights, been disciplined? We the parents of kids in the district are paying for her legal fees but what are the repercussions for her?

As a taxpaying parent of children in the district, I would be extremely concerned about my own children being under her care and tutelage after this extreme lapse of good judgment.

Michael Robertson
Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz is the outside legal firm that Del Mar school district uses. The problem is that the law firms interests are NOT in alignment with the schools. The school's goal is to educate children to the best of their ability. The law firms goals is to bill the district for as many hours of work as they can to make money. Naturally the law firm recommends they fight every action - even if the case is a complete loser as it was in this case. It was such a poor case that the district had to pay the other sides expenses as well. The law firm doesn't care because win or lose they get paid. They see the tax funded school district as a dumb client they can milk for money.

Until someone in authority stops this we will see this over and over. The losers are the tax payers and Del Mar students who have less money that goes to their education. The winners are Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz law firm.

Has your blog been blocked? Is your platform provider violating its own Terms of Use?

2011-09-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

See all posts about Yahoo and free speech.

Account Deactivation and Content Removal
Guiding Principles and Practices for Companies and Users
September 20, 2011
by Erica Newland,
Caroline Nolan,
Cynthia Wong,
Jillian York
Center for Democracy & Technology,
the Berkman Center

This report...recommends principles, strategies, and tools that companies and users alike can adopt.

From the activist who communicates with her network via her Facebook account, the user who posts documentary-style videos to YouTube or the citizen journalist who raises awareness with photos uploaded to Flickr, platforms that host user-generated content are increasingly used by a range of civic actors in innovative ways: to amplify voices, organize campaigns and coordinate disaster response, and advocate around issues of common concern.

However, while the online space may be perceived as a public commons, private entities play a role in shaping online activity, behavior, and content via Terms of Use (ToU), community guidelines, and other mechanisms of control. Platform providers often enforce such rules in response to potential threats, misuse, or ToU violations; users must observe them or risk losing their accounts, their contacts, or their ability to post content.

The clarity, transparency, and consistency of how such terms are established and implemented are important to all users, but for the growing number of human rights activists who depend on web 2.0 platforms for core elements of their work—and for whom removed content and deleted accounts can have severe consequences—the stakes are much higher...

Children Sue Judicial Council, Claim Denial of Effective Counsel

2011-09-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Children Sue Judicial Council, Claim Denial of Effective Counsel
By Robyn Hagan Cain
FindLaw.com
September 16, 2011

Four California foster kids sued California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in her capacity as Chair of the California Judicial Council alleging that “crushing and unlawful caseloads” frustrate the ability of Sacramento Dependency Courts to fairly and adequately hear their cases, and prevent court-appointed counsel from providing effective assistance.

Their suit seeks a Dependency Court for Sacramento’s abused and neglected children that meets basic due process requirements, and provides adequate, competent, effective counsel for the children of Sacramento County in dependency proceedings.

The Judicial Council oversees the statewide administration of justice in the state's courts. As Chair, the Chief Justice directs the Council's work, including its allocation of the judicial branch budget; promulgation of rules of court administration and procedure; and setting of priorities for the system's continual improvement.

The district court dismissed the complaint on abstention grounds; it concluded that, under O'Shea v. Littleton, federal courts may not entertain actions that seek to impose "an ongoing federal audit of state proceedings." The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

The Ninth Circuit noted that, in order to declare the current attorney caseloads unconstitutional or unlawful, the court would necessarily have to consider through a generalized inquiry how many cases are constitutionally and/or statutorily permissible, whether some types of cases require more investigation or preparation, which types of those cases deserve more resources, and how much time or attention is constitutionally and/or statutorily permissible.

The foster children argued that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals should reverse the district court's ruling under Los Angeles Cnty. Bar Ass'n v. Eu, a 1993 case in which the L.A. County Bar Association claimed that average court delays and "speedy civil litigation" rights problems would be solved by a simple increase in the number of judges.

This case, by contrast, involves the impact of attorney caseloads with regard to effective counsel; remedies could involve substantial interference with the operation of the program, including allocation of the judicial branch budget, establishment of program priorities, and court administration.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the declaratory relief that the Plaintiffs sought would intrude in the administration of the Sacramento County Dependency Court, and agreed that O'Shea mandated abstention.

This case is an unfortunate reminder of the practical effects of California budget cuts. Even if the Ninth Circuit had ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in the case, where would the Judicial Council find the funds to effect the necessary changes in the courts?

9th Circuit overturns decision about religious banners in Johnson v. Poway Unified School District

2011-09-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

I don't understand why the ACLU would be trying to take down the Soledad cross and at the same time trying to preserve religious banners in a public classroom. The only thing that I can take away from this is that the San Diego ACLU has a very piecemeal, unprincipled approach to legal issues.

I can't say I'm shocked, though, that the San Diego ACLU would be on the wrong side in a First Amendment case. I have come to understand that the San Diego ACLU is different from the typical ACLU organization. The San Diego ACLU board and its head counsel, David Blair-Loy, seem to pander to political interests rather than adhering to principles of justice.

I would never expect to be allowed to present one-sided religious points of view to my students. The California curriculum framework tells teachers that we should present a minimum of three different religions anytime we teach about religion.

Click HERE for opinion.

Johnson v. Poway Unified School Dist. (9th Cir. - Sept. 13, 2011)
by Shaun Martin
California Appellate Report
September 13, 2011

This may well be the best opinion I've ever read from Judge Tallman.

It's really, really good. Regardless of whether you agree with it -- and it involves a controversial issue -- it's incredibly coherent, comprehensive and tight. It's written extremely, extremely well. It's an extremely good primer on the issue. Well done. Very.

I'll not tell you how the case comes out. You should read the opinion for yourself. But here's the issue:

A public school teacher down here in Poway (a suburb of San Diego), Bradley Johnson, teaches mathematics (at Westview High School). He hangs two large banners -- each about seven feet wide and two feet tall -- on the wall of his classroom. One has red, white, and blue stripes and states in large block type: “IN GOD WE TRUST”; “ONE NATION UNDER GOD”; “GOD BLESS AMERICA”; and, “GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE.” The other states: “All men are created equal, they are endowed by their CREATOR.” You can look at pictures of the banners in the appendix to the opinion if you'd like. He's the faculty sponsor of the Christian Club, but says that his banners are purely patriotic, with no religious purpose.

The school district tells him to take down the banners but is free to put up these things in context if he'd like (e.g., to put the entire Declaration of Independence on his wall). Johnson refuses, saying that he has a protected First Amendment right to say what he wants on these issues, whereas the school district contends that he's a government employee so his speech rights are limited. Johnson ultimately complies with the order and takes down the banners, but promptly sues. He also visits other classrooms shortly after filing suit and photographs other teachers' walls that he believes display sectarian viewpoints, including Tibetan prayer flags; a John Lennon poster with “Imagine” lyrics; a Mahatma Gandhi poster; a poster of Gandhi’s “7 Social Sins”; a Dalai Lama poster; a poster that says, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality”; and a poster of Malcolm X.

Who should win?

It's far from a no-brainer. The district judge, Judge Benitez, granted summary judgment to one side. The Ninth Circuit reverses -- unanimously -- and orders the granting of summary judgment to the other side. So clearly reasonable minds both can and do differ.

Plus, check out the lineup of the amici. You can easily (and accurately) guess which side the Thomas More Law Center is going to be on, which side the National School Boards Association supports, and where Americans United for Separation of Church and state stands. But what about the ACLU? Which side do you think they're going to come down on?

All good questions. Which make the opinion only even more worth reading.

Teachers interested in improving teacher evaluation form new groups

2011-09-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

NewTLA, for instance, began as a group of Los Angeles teachers who were frustrated with the local union’s failure to put forth proposals on teacher evaluation and professional development.

September 12, 2011
New Groups Giving Teachers Alternative Voice
By Stephen Sawchuk
edweek.org

In times of great uncertainty for U.S. teachers, who speaks for them? The question is almost axiomatic in its simplicity, but the answer is far less clear-cut.

The teachers’ unions remain the most visible, powerful, and probably the most important advocates for teachers. But over the past few years, a number of new efforts have sprung up purporting to give teachers a say in policy, and their emergence is extending discussions about “teacher voice” in unexpected ways.

In general, the groups’ origins, goals, and purposes remain diverse, and their work continues to evolve. Where the groups seem to converge, though, is that their members are gradually becoming involved in conversations about policy, ranging from teacher evaluation to seniority to professional development.

Groups include the Los Angeles-based NewTLA, which operates as a caucus within the city teachers’ union, and the Educators 4 Excellence group in New York City, which has purposely worked outside the teachers’ union.

Two other efforts, one begun by the Boston-based Teach Plus nonprofit organization and the other by the Carrboro, N.C.-based Center for Teaching Quality, have gathered together teachers in multiple cities. Their approaches are similar: providing those teachers with research on issues of interest and avenues for interacting with policymakers.

“There are so many teachers out there who want change and have great ideas, but they’ve had so few venues and vehicles to be heard, understood, and embraced,” said Barnett Berry, the president of the center. “They’re itching for the research knowledge to help them articulate the connections between policy and practice.”
New Majority

It is hard to point to just one factor that has led to the surge in such groups.
Advocacy Groups

NEWTLA
Caucus within United Teachers
Los Angeles
No. of Teachers: N/A
Location: Los Angeles

TEACH PLUS POLICY FELLOWS
Nonprofit organization
No. of teachers: 2,000
(current fellows and alumni)
Locations: Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Memphis, Tenn.

NEW MILLENNIUM INITIATIVE
(Center for Teaching Quality)
Nonprofit organization
No. of Teachers: 85
Locations: Denver; Hillsborough County, Fla.; Illinois; San Francisco Bay Area; Seattle

EDUCATORS 4 EXCELLENCE
Nonprofit organization
No. of Teachers: 2,500
Location: New York City
SOURCE: Education Week

One important influence, though, could be demographic changes. According to an analysis of federal data conducted by Teach Plus, 52 percent of teachers now have 10 or fewer years in the teaching profession, a phenomenon the group refers to as “the new majority.”

Teach Plus’ founder, Celine Coggins, began the organization in 2007 to give such teachers leadership opportunities and, ultimately, to help retain them in the profession.

“Having a say in how our schools look and function will play a role in their decisionmaking about whether they’re going to stay for another 10 years, or two, or five,” Ms. Coggins said.

The Center for Teaching Quality’s efforts date to 2003, when it began an initiative to assemble a cadre of accomplished teachers to discuss the broad issues facing the profession. Gradually, the idea has evolved into the New Millennium Initiative, in which local networks of teachers work to make their voices heard on topics of local interest, such as the implementation of new state laws.

Support from a variety of private national and local foundations, including the Joyce Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Denver-based Rose Community Foundation, have helped in the transition. (The Joyce Foundation underwrites coverage of improvements to the teaching profession in Education Week, and the Gates Foundation provides grant support to Editorial Projects in Education, the newspaper’s parent company.)

Jessica Keigan, a high school language arts teacher in Denver participating in the initiative there, said she was excited not just about having her voice heard, but also in learning the details of how education policy is made.

“I’d never immersed myself in policy before,” she said, “and it’s been a great way to see how decisions get made and to feel I had some awareness and also some say.”

The Educators 4 Excellence group was formed by Evan Stone and Sydney Morris, who were frustrated by a lack of control over district policy decisions while teaching in a traditional public school in New York City. Their decision to form a group for like-minded colleagues, in 2010, quickly attracted other teachers.

“There are all these new changes created at the 30,000-foot level pushed down to you,” Ms. Morris said. “It’s our mission to include teachers in creation of those changes.”
Whither Unions?
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
The traditional teachers’ unions have had a variety of reactions to the emergent organizations, ranging from respectful to uneasy.

NewTLA, for instance, began as a group of Los Angeles teachers who were frustrated with the local union’s failure to put forth proposals on teacher evaluation and professional development.

In the union’s recent internal election, NewTLA-affiliated members won a significant number of seats on the United Teachers Los Angeles’ governing body...

Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente nurses strike September 22, 2011

2011-09-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

Sept. 9, 2011
National Nurses United Announces One-Day Strike by 23,000 California RNs September 22
Market Watch

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- More than 23,000 registered nurses at 34 Northern and Central California hospitals will hold a one-day strike Thursday, September 22, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United announced today.

The strike affects two of California's largest and most profitable hospital chains, Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente, as well as Children's Hospital Oakland.

A centerpiece of the strike at the Sutter hospitals is Sutter's unprecedented demands for some 200 sweeping cuts in patient care and nurses standards on top of months of widespread reductions in availability of patient care services, motivated by commercial concerns, throughout the greater Bay Area.

Kaiser RNs will engage in sympathy strike activity to support other frontline healthcare workers who face demands for significant cuts in health benefits, which follow a steady series of local service reductions Kaiser has been enforcing for nurses and patients in Northern and Central California.

For Children's Oakland RNs, it will mark their third strike over efforts by the hospital administration to limit healthcare coverage for nurses and their families.

"Nurses will not accept drastic, unwarranted, and unconscionable cuts that harm our communities, harm our colleagues, and harm our families," said CNA Co-president Deborah Burger, RN.

According to CNA/NNU Sutter wants to restrict the ability of many of its nurses to advocate for patients in making clinical assessments of staffing and other patient needs; force nurses to work when sick, exposing fragile patients and themselves to illness; subject nurses to arbitrary discipline based on benchmark budget goals; and sharply raise out-of-pocket costs by thousands of dollars for nurses and their families. All despite amassing $3.7 billion in profits the past six years.

"We staunchly refuse to be silenced on patient care protections," said Sharon Tobin, a 24-year RN at Sutter Mills-Peninsula in Burlingame. "A common theme throughout management's proposals is removing our presence on committees that address important patient care issues and nursing practices. As nurses, we speak up, and we insist on standards that safeguard our patients, but Sutter doesn't want to hear about anything that might cut into their huge profits."

Kaiser RNs will strike in sympathy and support for Kaiser social workers, optometrists, psychologists, and other frontline workers who are striking September 22 to protest substantial reductions in healthcare and retirement coverage...

Dan Shinoff's motion for gag order in Scott Eveland case is denied

2011-09-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

SDUT columnist Logan Jenkins writes about the gag request:

In April, after I’d written a column about the really disturbing questions raised by deposed witnesses, Shinoff emailed me. “Being the mensch you are,” he wrote, “I am confident you will extend your apologies to this fine educational community when the truth comes out in court.”

Maura Larkins comment to Mr. Shinoff:
And what if a court of law finds that YOUR clients are not such fine individuals, and, in fact, have testified falsely? Will YOU apologize, Mr. Shinoff, to the courageous people who came forward with the truth? In fact, I think you already owe an apology to Diane Young, the principal in Mountain Empire Unified School District who was found by a court of law to have been telling the truth about your client Patrick Judd.

Muzzle motion denied; governor mulls dump; a Labor Day brick
Logan Jenkins
San Diego Union-Tribune
Sept. 6, 2011

A bouquet — the Freedom of “Extrajudicial” Speech award — to Vista Superior Court Judge Thomas P. Nugent for turning a decisive thumb down on what would have been an extremely rare gag order in a lawsuit over the brain injury suffered by Mission Hills football player Scott Eveland almost four years ago.

According to Nugent’s ruling, attorneys for the San Marcos Unified School District wanted to preclude “any parties’ counsel from publicly commenting about inadmissible evidence or making extrajudicial prejudicial comments about this case — including judgments on the evidence expected to be presented in this case — to parties not directly involved in this litigation.”

In his ruling, Nugent emphasized that “prior restraint” of speech is a serious matter that requires serious justification, as is sometimes the case in criminal trials involving ongoing investigations. He rejected the defense’s claim that quotations attributed to plaintiff attorneys in a Union-Tribune article either posed a danger to a fair trial.

This is a good thing for the free flow of information. All signs point to an exhausting November trial that at long last will answer the two main questions:

Did Scott’s coach send his player into a game knowing he was suffering from severe headaches? Was there a cover-up after Scott collapsed?

It’s essential that lawyers from both sides help reporters frame high-profile, high-stakes cases, as this one surely is.

Is there always the danger of spin? Sure. But even the relatively taciturn defense team, spearheaded by well-known attorney Dan Shinoff, is not above planting a seed of guilt and hoping it will grow into softer pretrial treatment.

In April, after I’d written a column about the really disturbing questions raised by deposed witnesses, Shinoff emailed me.

“Being the mensch you are,” he wrote, “I am confident you will extend your apologies to this fine educational community when the truth comes out in court.”

Shinoff went on to imply that the region’s stellar medical experts would confirm that the San Marcos district is not culpable in Scott’s brain injury.

Maybe so. I’m not prejudging the trial’s outcome. Maybe the witnesses are mistaken. Maybe there were no reported headaches. Maybe Scott’s injury was caused by a single hit during the game. Maybe the district is guiltless, as Shinoff suggests.

But I am prejudging the defensive muzzle motion, which is enough to make you gag...

[Maura Larkins comment: Dan Shinoff's law firm also lost in the California Court of Appeal last month regarding another effort at prior restraint of speech. I appealed Judge Judith Hayes' order permanently forbidding me from mentioning the names of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz law firm or any of its lawyers (the order didn't just apply to my website, but to all my speech!)]

Are schools better than the CIA at keeping secrets?

2011-08-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

I was struck by how much the following article reminded me of the manner in which school districts and their attorneys conceal problems in schools.

"...[R]edacted passages revealed the agency's incompetence, rather than sensitive information."

Aug 30, 2011 20:31 ET
Censored by the CIA
A 23-year veteran of the agency reveals how the vetting process is used to stifle critics of the war on terror
By Laura Miller

News that the CIA has demanded "extensive cuts" from a forthcoming book by former FBI agent Ali Soufan made the front page of the New York Times last week. But Soufan's isn't the only recent memoir to earn the intelligence agency's wrath by, in part, criticizing its use of brutal interrogation techniques in the decade since 9/11. There's also "The Interrogator," by Glenn Carle, a 23-year CIA veteran who was given the task of questioning a purported al-Qaida kingpin in 2002. Carle's book was published earlier this summer with many passages -- and occasionally entire pages -- blocked out with black bars to show where the agency had insisted on redactions.

Soufan has called many of the CIA's excisions from his own book "ridiculous," pointing out that some of the "classified" information is a matter of public record and appears in the 9/11 report and even in a memoir by former CIA director George Tenet. Carle had a similar experience; "The Interrogator" is laced with caustic footnotes explaining that redacted passages revealed the agency's incompetence, rather than sensitive information.

When I reviewed Carle's book in July, I made a few guesses about facts the author was obliged to leave out of "The Interrogator." Less than a day had passed before I learned that most of my guesses were wrong. Readers sent me helpful emails with links to articles supplying all the missing details, including the identity of the detainee Carle interrogated, a man he eventually came to believe was innocent.

If the CIA is trying to prevent information in Soufan's and Carle's manuscripts from reaching the public, they've obviously already failed. If anything, the agency's efforts to censor these and other books only seem likely to inflame interest in the forbidden material, which will surface anyway. Does the CIA's power to vet the writings of former government employees have any teeth in the Internet age? I decided to call up Carle to ask about his experience with the agency's censors...

Former Baseball Coach Sentenced For Embezzlement

2011-08-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

It's interesting that folks who embezzle from schools get prosecuted all over San Diego County, but Chula Vista Elementary School District embezzlers get a pass. The PTA president of Castle Park Elementary was arrested for embezzling $20,000, but Bonnie Dumanis chose not to prosecute. Perhaps Bonnie didn't want to bring attention to all the problems at Castle Park Elementary. That certainly wouldn't have helped Cheryl Cox politically.

Former Baseball Coach Sentenced For Embezzlement
Larry Rinehart, 59, Guilty Of Embezzling Funds From Monte Vista High School
Channel 10 News
August 30, 2011

EL CAJON, Calif. -- A former Monte Vista High School baseball coach who stole $16,000 in team funds, which he used to gamble at county casinos, was sentenced Tuesday to 240 days in jail.

Larry Rinehart, 59, was convicted Aug. 2 of two felony counts related to embezzling team funds from 2005 to 2007.

In addition to the jail term, El Cajon Judge Lantz Lewis sentenced Rinehart to five years probation and ordered him to take anti-theft classes and stay away from casinos. He initially faced as much as three years in prison before Lewis opted for the lower sentence.

"You abused your position of trust," Lantz said to Rinehart, citing what he called "repeated acts of deceit," including more than 100 transactions involving team money that Rinehart used for gambling at local casinos.

The judge said he had to balance the criminal act against the fact that Rinehart spent his entire adult life teaching and coaching young people, and had no prior criminal record.

Rinehart did not speak at his sentencing, but his attorney read his words aloud: "To the community, students, administration and staff of Monte Vista High School, I apologize to all of you for betraying your trust."

The statement went on to say how Rinehart has paid a steep price for the decisions he made, losing his teaching credentials and being forced to resign from Mount Helix High, where he taught money matters and personal finance classes. It also said he will get help for both his depression and gambling "issues."

Rinehart's attorney argued that he should get probation, but Deputy District Attorney Daniel Shim argued that prison time was warranted because this was a long-term embezzlement scheme, impacting dozens of players on his team.

A representative for the Grossmont Union High School District read a statement to the judge: "As one of the largest school districts in the nation, I believe it is incumbent upon me as a representative of the district to let this court know that at any time, the loss of public funds creates a crisis it has a deep financial impact on student programs and results in a lack of confidence in the larger school community, which hurts all of us deeply. And in a time of fiscal crisis -- like that which we are currently experiencing -- the effect becomes even more profound on our students' opportunities."

The statement concludes: "It is our hope that all the monies will be returned as quickly as possible. Thank you for acting on behalf of our kids."

Rinehart was ordered to pay the money back in increments of at least $100 per month after his release from jail. At that rate, Shim said it would take 41 years to get full restitution.

Outside the courtroom, two parents of former players were disappointed with the sentence.

"It doesn't really send the message I was hoping it would send," said parent Kirk Gentry. "He's definitely betrayed the trust of the public, of the players, the school, the school district. It's very disappointing that they only gave him a short period of time in custody."

Gentry was one of the parents who helped investigators track the money, which he said Rinehart had placed in a hidden account.

Katherine Vance said a stronger sentence was warranted and she wants the embezzled money returned as soon as possible.

"I think that he should have to sell his house and pay back all the money," said Vance.

Rinehart's wife, Margaret, now faces two criminal counts of receiving stolen property and aiding and abetting a criminal act. Her trial date is fast approaching.

Prior to his arrest, Rinehart taught accounting, money matters and personal finance classes at Helix High School. He coached baseball at Monte Vista High from 2003 to 2007.

Judge: Missouri's 'Facebook Law' Violates Teachers' Free Speech Rights

2011-08-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

Judge: Missouri's 'Facebook Law' Violates Teachers' Free Speech Rights
by Wendy Davis
Media Post Publications
August 29, 2011

A state judge in Missouri has struck down a new law in that state that would have restricted teachers' ability to use social networking sites.

The law, which aimed to protect students from sex abuse, prohibited teachers from having accounts on Facebook or other social networking sites that allow "exclusive access" with a student.

Last Monday, the Missouri Teachers Association filed suit to have the statute declared unconstitutional. The teachers' group argued that the law violates their First Amendment free speech rights. The teacher leading the protests, Christina Thomas, argued that the law's provisions were so broad as to make it illegal for her to communicate with her own child through social sites.

Late last week, a judge agreed. Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem issued an injunction banning the state from enforcing the new law for at least 180 days.

"The breadth of the prohibition is staggering," Beetem wrote.

"Social networking is extensively used by educators," he continued, adding that the law is so far-reaching that it "clearly prohibits communications between family members and their teacher parents using these types of sites."

It isn't surprising that the law was struck down, given just how broad it was -- and how little sense it made. Rather than protecting students, the law would cut off a means of communication for no reason other than a fear of technology. After all, teachers can talk to students in person every day of the school year.

Notorious El Nino Doubles Civil Wars, Scientists Say

2011-08-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

Notorious El Nino Doubles Civil Wars, Scientists Say
International Business Times
August 24, 2011

The El Nino climate cycle brings not only high temperatures and dry weather, but also more chances of civil wars, a new study claims.

Between 1950 and 2004, the risk of civil wars doubled in 90 tropical countries when hit by El Nino, is the warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, a periodic warming and cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean.

A farmer guides his carabao on dried and cracked farmland in San Juan town, Batangas province, south of Manila April 18, 2010. A mild dry spell brought about by the El Nino phenomenon damaged the Philippines' agriculture sector and caused power shortages due to low water levels at hydro power plants.

El Nino Weather Events Linked to Tropical Civil Wars - Study

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While its partner La Nina is a cool, rainy period, El Nino brings high temperature and more scarce rainfall every three to seven years, impacting weather patterns across much of Africa, the Mideast, India, southeast Asia, Australia, and the Americas, which holds half the world's population.

Interacting with other factors including wind and temperature cycles over the other oceans, El Nino can vary dramatically in power and length. At its most intense, it brings scorching heat and multi-year droughts.

In the study published in Wednesday's Nature, scientists from Princeton University and Columbia University's Earth Institute used statistics to link global weather observations and outbreaks of violence.

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The scientists correlated ENSO from 1950 to 2004 with onsets of civil conflicts that killed more than 25 people in a given year. The data included 175 countries and 234 conflicts, with over half of which each caused more than 1,000 battle-related deaths.

The findings suggest that the arrival of El Nino doubled the risk of civil conflict across 90 affected tropical countries, and may help account for a fifth of worldwide conflicts over the past half-century.

Remarkable links were found between El Nino patterns and civil unrest in Peru in 1982 and Sudan in 1963.

Further, a strong link between violence and El Nino were also found in El Salvador, the Philippines and Uganda in 1972; Angola, Haiti and Myanmar in 1991, and Congo, Eritrea, Indonesia and Rwanda in 1997.

"This is the first major evidence that the global climate is a major factor in organized violence around the world," says Solomon M. Hsiang, the study's lead author, a graduate of the Earth Institute's Ph.D. in sustainable development.

While the study does not blame specific wars on El Nino, it confirms many scientists' speculation over the strong link between climate-conflict.

Just this July, the UN Security Council discussed on climate-driven conflicts. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that the possible adverse effects of climate change are "not only exacerbates threats to international peace and security; it is a threat to international peace and security".

"The most important thing is that this looks at modern times, and it's done on a global scale," said Hsiang. "We can speculate that a long-ago Egyptian dynasty was overthrown during a drought. That's a specific time and place, that may be very different from today, so people might say, 'OK, we're immune to that now.' This study shows a systematic pattern of global climate affecting conflict, and shows it right now."

"No one should take this to say that climate is our fate. Rather, this is compelling evidence that it has a measurable influence on how much people fight overall," said the co-author Mark Cane, a climate scientist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

"It is not the only factor--you have to consider politics, economics, all kinds of other things."

According to Cane, the poorest countries respond to El Nino with violence.

The natural El Nino cycle is different from manmade global warming which continuously ramps up the temperature and extreme weather, according to the researchers. Global warming would have even greater impacts than the El Niño, and is more likely to provoke conflicts, noted Cane.

El Nino patterns can be predicted up to two years ahead, the study may give room for pre-emptive action for some conflicts and reduce humanitarian suffering.

Peabody of DMUSD refuses to release documents, but claims that it's inaccurate to say he's hiding them

2011-08-24T12:27:00.001-07:00

To Jim Peabody, superintendent of Del Mar Union School District:

Dear Jim,

I, for one, am prepared to believe you when you say to Michael Robertson, “We have no interest in ‘hiding documents' as you've charged."

Why can't Mr. Robertson accept that you really want to turn over all the documents, but for some reason you just can't? Maybe no one in your office can find the documents. That was the reason given by your lawyer Dan Shinoff and his partner Ray Artiano when they didn't produce the documents I subpoenaed when Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz law firm sued me for defamation. But there could be other explanations in your case. Heaven knows it's a crazy world. Maybe someone took the documents to the beach and they got all wet and sandy! Whatever the reason is, I'm sure it's a good one.

I see that you have provided three alternate explanations for why you haven't turned over the documents:

Alternate explanation #1:

“The district objects to the requests as they are vague, overbroad and burdensome.”

There you have it. It's just that it would be too much work to produce them, not that you want to hide them. Excellent response!

Alternate explanation #2:

“In addition, the district objects to your requests insofar as they seek any information unrelated to the conduct of the public’s business.”

Now I'm confused. I thought you said you weren't interested in hiding the documents. This seems to be a justification for hiding the documents. It appears that do you want to keep them secret.

Alternate explanation #3:

“The district further objects to your requests insofar as they seek records exempt from disclosure because the public interest in not disclosing the information clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure.”

Ah! Now this explanation is pure genius. You are not interested in hiding the documents, the public is! Who can argue with that?

Well, I guess the public can argue with that. I'm afraid you've given Mr. Robertson an opening here. If you say it's in the public interest to keep the documents hidden from public view, then you're pretty much obliged to consider the public's opinion on the matter. Mr. Robertson is clearly part of the public.

And there's another problem. Why exactly is it in the public interest to keep the public ignorant? Are you saying that the public benefits from being kept in the dark? Perhaps the information would change the way they vote, and you want to protect them from themselves? You want to stop them from electing someone unsuitable? Now we're getting into the very heart of the matter. The precise reason we have open government is so that the public can decide if the people it has elected are performing as they wish. The public has the right to elect someone who seems unsuitable to you. Without transparency, elections are a joke. Voters don't really know how their elected officials behave behind closed doors, so they don't know who will best represent them. Until schools start operating transparently, school board elections are hardly more effective than rolling dice.

Yours truly,
Maura Larkins

Del Mar Union School District sued to release documents
By Marsha Sutton
Del Mar Times
August 24, 2011

Del Mar parent and resident Michael Robertson filed a lawsuit against the Del Mar Union School District Aug. 8, charging the district with withholding public documents Robertson requested May 10 under the California Public Records Act.

Also named in the suit is DMUSD school board president Comischell Rodriguez, for allegedly not disclosing personal emails related to the CPRA request that were sent to and from Rodriguez’s private email accounts.

“Because Respondent Rodriguez possesses, maintains and controls records responsive to Petitioner’s requests that are not maintained in files located in Respondent District’s offices, Respondent Rodriguez is an indispensible part to this litigation and must be included as a respondent in order for Petitioner to obtain complete relief,” reads the suit.

Robertson submitted a CPRA request on May 10 for access to files, documents and records relating to contact from March 1, 2011 between employees and representatives of the DMUSD and the California Teachers Association, a statewide teachers union of which the Del Mar California Teachers Association is a member.

This request was later expanded to include communication among and between Rodriguez, DMUSD superintendent Jim Peabody, the DMCTA and its representatives, the CTA, and the California School Boards Association (CSBA).

Robertson’s Public Records request was triggered by a CTA-organized “Week of Action” held May 9 to 13. A resolution to support the Week of Action was passed by the DMUSD school board at its April 27 meeting.

Robertson objected to Peabody’s recorded, automated telephone call to all Del Mar parents asking for their support of the week’s activities, and to flyers produced by the CTA that were distributed to parents by Del Mar schools’ PTAs. The flyers asked parents to call or email legislators to urge them to back more money for schools.

Saying this was “clearly calling for political action which is in violation of California law,” Robertson criticized the flyers and the school district’s actions that he claims inappropriately supported the union’s mission.

A May 27 letter from the DMUSD in response to Robertson’s May 10 CPRA request provided three primary reasons for not fully complying, citing court cases to support each point.

First, the letter stated, “The district objects to the requests as they are vague, overbroad and burdensome.”

“That is typical legal babble,” Robertson said. “They pay an outside firm to just object on every possible grounds.” He contends there is nothing vague about his requests. “It’s a shame that they’re spending money on attorneys to block perfectly legitimate requests.”

The district’s letter also stated, “In addition, the district objects to your requests insofar as they seek any information unrelated to the conduct of the public’s business.”

In a May 27 letter back to the district, Robertson wrote, “How DMUSD is run and who they communicate with, and this includes with outside agencies, is the public’s business. My request is completely within that scope.”

The district, in its letter, offered a final objection: “The district further objects to your requests insofar as they seek records exempt from disclosure because the public interest in not disclosing the information clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure.”

Robertson responded to this by writing, “If you want to argue that pathetic excuse in court, I suppose it’s the district’s prerogative. But to spend money that should be used to educate children on attorneys to hide its interactions with the California Teachers Association seems like gross mismanagement to me.”

Peabody wrote back to Robertson, in a June 1 letter, saying he was disturbed by the “accusatory tone” of Robertson’s last correspondence, and asked for courtesy.

“Your negative commentary which, amongst other things, charges that the district ‘is hid[ing] documents,’ likens the district’s response to your request as a ‘pathetic excuse,’ and threatens litigation, is inaccurate and mistaken,” Peabody wrote.

Peabody said over 4,000 documents had to be reviewed, which he called a time-consuming process. “We have no interest in ‘hiding documents’ as you’ve charged, and no desire to engage in unnecessary litigation,” he wrote...

Pages of documents were then provided to Robertson, but they were unresponsive to his request, he said. A letter from the school district’s attorney on this case, Dan Shinoff of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, said the district has cooperated fully.

“If you know of communications that are responsive to your CPRA requests and that the district has not produced, kindly identify them and the district will gladly produce the documents if it is in possession of them,” Shinoff wrote.

“This is not a game called ‘hide the document until a citizen knows it is in existence,’” Robertson replied. “The very purpose of the CPRA is to reveal documents that citizens do not have knowledge of.”...

Interactive Timeline of last 30 years from Education Week

2011-08-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

K - 12 America Since 1981
Produced by: Education Week Staff
Background Photos by: Leah Nash for Education Week, Trent Nelson for Education Week,
Bernard Troncale/The Birmingham News/AP-File, Steve Helber/AP-File, Bob Daugherty/AP-File, and the White House.
August 24, 2011

This interactive timeline digs deep into the Education Week archives to tell the story of U.S. education and the changing policies, theories, and perspectives that have influenced it since 1981, the year the publication began.

Study Measures Bullying's Academic Toll

2011-08-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

Study Measures Bullying's Academic Toll
By Nirvi Shah
Edweek.org.
August 23, 2011

While bullying is known to leave physical and emotional scars, a new studyRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader finds that victims may suffer long-lasting academic effects, and high-achieving black and Latino students are especially vulnerable.

Building off of previous research that found high-achieving black and Latino students are more likely to be bullied, Ohio State University doctoral student Lisa M. Williams and Anthony A. Peguero, an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Tech University, found that bullying, in turn, could lead to lower achievement for victims.

Their study is due to be presented Tuesday at the American Sociological Association’s annual meeting in Las Vegas.

The sociologists found that the grade point average of all students who were bullied in 10th grade dropped slightly by 12th grade. By their senior year, black students who had a 3.5 grade point average, on a scale of 0 to 4, as freshmen, lost almost one-third of a point if they had been bullied. The result was more pronounced for Latino victims of bullying: They lost half a point. That compares with a loss of less than one-tenth of a point for white students who had undergone such harassment, the researchers found.

One reason minority students seemed to suffer larger academic aftereffects, Ms. Williams said, could stem from some of the stereotypes about minority students, including that they are tough or street smart, compared to their peers from other racial and ethnic groups.

“Schools may think that because students are black and Latino, they’re better able to handle bullying,” she said, “and their schools won’t have the same type of [bullying prevention] programs.”

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On the other hand, Ms. Williams said, there are often prevention strategies in place at many predominantly white schools. Instead, schools must employ bullying-prevention programs regardless of the racial and ethnic backgrounds of their students, she said.

This fall, the U.S. Department of Education will begin a study that looks at how local bullying policies are put into action in several individual school districts and states. At about the same time, the Education Department will share the results of an analysis of current state anti-bullying laws and model policies. The study will aim to identify promising strategies that school districts are implementing to combat bullying in schools. This information will be used by the department to better support bullying-prevention activities.

Ms. Williams’ and Mr. Peguero’s results were based on the academic performance of 9,590 students in 580 schools. While many factors contribute to students’ academic performance, the researchers controlled for some other variables often associated with students’ academic achievement. They eliminated family background, previous grades, and school characteristics when calculating the effect of bullying on students’ grades.

In a previous study published earlier this year, Ms. Williams and Mr. Peguero found that black and Latino students who have high test scores, countering stereotypes of low academic achievement among such students, are more likely to be harassed or teased at school. They also found that low-achieving Asian-American students—going against stereotype—were also particularly vulnerable to bullying. Another study by Mr. Peguero has found that black and Latino students bullied at school are more likely to drop out than their peers.

For the study released at this week’s conference in Las Vegas, Ms. Williams and Mr. Peguero came to their conclusions by comparing students’ academic baseline performance as 9th graders, before they had been bullied, with their academic achievement four years later as high school seniors. They found that about 40 percent of all students in their study answered yes to questions about being bullied, including whether they had been hit, bullied, or threatened with violence in the previous year.

Earlier this year, another studyRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader involving school bullies and stereotypes suggested that the most likely campus aggressors aren’t the most popular or most socially outcast students—those most typically thought of as potential bullies. Mapping of students’ social networks found instead that children somewhere in the middle of the social hierarchies in their schools were the most likely bullies on campus.

Triton Football: District Acted After Probe by Private Investigator

2011-08-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

Next I'd like to see an investigation regarding commissions paid to Daniel Puplava at SDCOE.

Triton Football: District Acted After Probe by Private Investigator
by Stacie N. Galang
Aug 22, 2011

A private investigator’s recent findings into financial improprieties with defunct Lapes Athletic Team Sales led Capistrano Unified School administrators to remove San Clemente High football coaches last week, district officials told parents tonight.

In a carefully choreographed meeting about the decision to put the coaches on administrative leave, Principal George Duarte backed by Superintendent Joe Farley addressed the nearly 100 parents in the Triton Center and fielded their questions. The administrators spent about 45 minutes assuring parents they were doing their best to keep the student-athletes’ best interests at heart while discussing the bare-bone basics of a months-long investigation into alleged kickbacks.

“The reason we’re here is because we take this entire situation seriously,” Duarte said. “It’s been tough.”

Last week, Triton head football Coach Eric Patton and four additional coaches were abruptly pulled from their coaching jobs, leaving players and their parents frustrated and concerned about a season only days away from starting.

None of the coaches have been charged criminally, but Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said last week his agency is investigating Lapes Athletic and coaches...

“I would just give my heighty-ho to Eric Patton,” said Murphy whose son Kevin Murphy plays for Harvard University and senior Kyle Murphy is among the top-ranked high school offensive tackles in the country.

Both Duarte and Farley indicated that coaches at other high schools, in other districts and even some retired may be affected by the probe.

Already, several of the coaches placed on leave last week had been reinstated, but Farley could not specify tonight. Athletic Director and interim head football Coach Jon Hamro did publicly acknowledge that Jaime Ortiz had been returned to the sidelines.

The superintendent said tonight that the investigator hired by the district spent about eight months looking into the allegations. Farley said he had spent nearly every day over that period dealing with some aspect of the investigation...

Farley and the district’s lawyer Daniel Shinoff said the affected coaches had been invited to discuss their leave, and some had already met with the superintendent. Others’ attorneys had scheduling conflicts.

All had been formally notified, Shinoff said. As of today, none of the coaches placed on leave had been disciplined by the district, he said...

A chance to listen to Catherine Lhamon, one of the attorneys who won case about massive teacher layoffs at low-income schools (also Camille Zombro)

2011-08-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

I attended this event, but we didn't find out why SDEA has added a vice-president. (See comment below.)

Talking Teacher Layoffs
by Emily Alpert
Voice of San Diego
Aug 22, 2011

When teachers get laid off, disadvantaged schools often get hit hardest because they tend to have the newest teachers, and the newest teachers usually get laid off first.

Civil rights groups launched a suit to try to curb that phenomenon in Los Angeles, arguing that if teachers were laid off strictly by seniority, the neediest kids would lose the most.

Los Angeles worked out a controversial settlement that spared some schools from layoffs but worsened them elsewhere. But what will happen here? Though teacher layoffs have been lessened, hundreds of San Diego teachers are still getting the ax, resulting in big disruptions at schools.

Come listen to Camille Zombro, vice president of the local teachers union; Catherine Lhamon, one of the attorneys who lodged the Los Angeles case; and your humble education reporter (me) talk about teacher layoffs, their many impacts, and the debate over whether schools could find a better way at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law this Wednesday night.

There will be a reception from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. and the panel will run from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The event is sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties and the San Diego Lawyer chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy...

COMMENT

Emily, maybe you can tell us readers about the position of Vice President at San Diego Education Association. Is this a new position paid for by union dues? Is it a full-time job? Is the person annually elected to the position as the President is? When was this position established?

I had always understood that after an SDEA President completes two terms in office, he or she returns the the rank-and-file and the classroom. But here is Camille Zombro, SDEA Vice President after already having been President for two years, filling in for SDEA President Bill Freeman at your roundtable. What's with that?

Colleges and universities are making it harder for average American families to afford higher education, while making it easier for the wealthy

2011-08-22T11:45:00.001-07:00

Even at Swarthmore, which runs its plan in-house, the fee is 2.6 percent, or an extra $1,330 a year...

The Hidden Costs of Higher Ed
By NOAH S. BERNSTEIN
New York Times
August 21, 2011

OVER the next few weeks, millions of Americans will be heading off to college, and despite the promise of need-blind admissions, more of them than ever will be struggling to pay for it. It’s not just the economy’s fault: even as they publicize lavish financial aid packages, colleges and universities are making it harder for average American families to afford higher education, while making it easier for the wealthy.

In the past, families and students covered their tuition with lump payments at the beginning of each semester. To ease the burden of such large bills — recent data shows that tuition and fees have increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007 — many colleges have instituted monthly payment plans, while charging zero interest. Even many families that could afford to pay an entire semester upfront find such plans appealing.

Though such plans have undoubtedly allowed a greater number of modest-income students to go to college, they can actually end up unintentionally raising tuition costs. While the plans typically don’t charge a fee for payments made by check or direct deposit, they tack on a hefty charge for credit card payments.

Why? Because most institutions outsource the management of their plans to private companies, which have to make a profit. They charge universities a fee for processing credit card payments, and the schools pass those costs on to students and families, amounting to over a thousand dollars or more per year in some cases.

For example, some of the top liberal arts colleges in America, including Williams, Amherst and Wellesley, use a company called Tuition Management Services, where the fee is 2.99 percent for each payment made by credit card. At Amherst, where tuition, room and board cost $53,370, that’s an extra $1,595 if all payments are made by credit card. Even at Swarthmore, which runs its plan in-house, the fee is 2.6 percent, or an extra $1,330 a year...

Strange redacting of public records at SDUSD: Sally Smith and Emily Alpert given very different versions of records

2011-08-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

Maura Larkins comment: It's no wonder SDUSD wants to charge for producing public records. It takes a lot of time to do all that redacting!

S.D. Unified to review public records policy following complaint
Parent was originally told she would be charged for staff time to make copies
Ashly McGlone
San Diego Union-Tribune
Aug. 19, 2011

A parent-activist who was going to be charged for staff time so she could see San Diego Unified Superintendent Bill Kowba’s calendar won’t incur that cost, after her story was highlighted in The Watchdog.

The district ended up charging Sally Smith $2.70 — 10 cents a page — for the cost of duplicating the public record.

Smith had been told she would be charged 10 cents per page “plus clerical time for the actual duplication, at a rate of $20 to $28 per hour.”

Typically, public agencies charge for the cost of making a copy, not for staff time to do so.

After The Watchdog highlighted the effort to charge Smith for staff time, the district backed away.

The district’s policy of charging for staff time in such cases previously caught the attention of the Sacramento-based open-government group Californians Aware. That fee contributed to the district earning an F in the group’s audit of public agency compliance with public records law, released earlier this year.

District officials said they will now review their copying rates.

“We are entitled to recover the costs to produce a record that is maintained in electronic form,” said Andra Donovan, the district’s deputy general counsel. She added, “In light of the concerns raised by the U-T, we will review our copying charges to make sure they are an accurate reflection of the direct costs of duplication.”

Additionally, The Watchdog compared the calendar provided to Smith with a calendar provided to Emily Alpert of

voiceofsandiego.org and found that Smith’s calendar was incomplete and the redacting was inconsistent.

Alpert’s version included auditor visits, as well as cabinet, area superintendent and principal meetings, charity meetings, chamber of commerce and city events, select employee travel, sexual harassment training for a staff member, and media interviews — all of which were left off Smith’s calendar.

Meanwhile, Smith’s calendar included a carpool meet-up with the dean of San Diego State University’s College of Education and other employee travel redacted from the calendar provided to Alpert.

By law, agencies may withhold documents related to pending litigation and personnel, medical or similar files if disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

Told of the discrepancy, Donovan said the district will reproduce a more complete calendar and give it to Smith free of charge.

“We will also review our redaction policies to make sure we are consistently and appropriately redacting information,” Donovan said.

Smith, who wished to compare Kowba’s appointments with those of former Superintendent Terry Grier, said she was concerned about the district’s handling of her request.

“Californians Aware graded school districts across the state and San Diego Unified got an F, and I can see why. It is intimidating to go in and ask for public records and have to encounter so much trouble getting them,” Smith said. “San Diego Unified has to be more transparent and has to be open to requests and let the public see what it is doing.”

In 2009, The San Diego Union-Tribune requested copies of the calendars for 55 local government leaders, including Grier. The requests were all fulfilled with no fees.

District officials said budget cuts no longer allow for such freebies.

Did Tri-City Hospital board member George Coulter, who accused Kathleen Sterling, give false testimony in his deposition?

2011-08-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

Tri-City Healthcare board member George Coulter

"Court records indicate that Coulter testified May 27, during a deposition in a separate case involving Sterling, that he "had a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Gold Coast University in Orange County. Stone says in court documents that Gold Coast does not exist in Orange County or Ventura County."

OCEANSIDE: Fellow director's credentials questioned in Sterling case
BY PAUL SISSON
August 18, 2011

A question over a colleague's credentials is the latest wrinkle to surface in the legal battle surrounding Tri-City Healthcare District director Kathleen Sterling.

Sterling's attorney, public defender Sherry Stone, is asking the court to force hospital director George Coulter to produce a diploma showing he has earned a doctorate in clinical psychology. A judge is set to rule on that request Aug. 26.

Court records indicate that Coulter testified May 27, during a deposition in a separate case involving Sterling, that he "had a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Gold Coast University in Orange County."

Stone says in court documents that Gold Coast does not exist in Orange County or Ventura County.

According to a transcript from a court hearing June 30, Stone's request for the diploma calls into question Coulter's credibility.

"We've found no evidence that he does possess that degree," Stone said at the hearing.

"He's stated in depositions, as well as at the preliminary hearing, that he had obtained it at two different universities, neither of which exists," she added. "So he's given conflicting testimony. His credibility is at issue."

Coulter did not respond to telephone messages seeking comment. A rebuttal filed by his attorney, Robert Ottilie, called Stone's subpoena "an abuse of process" and said whether Coulter can locate his diploma is not relevant to the case.

[Maura Larkins comment to Bob Ottilie: How about asking him to at least locate the university? That's a lot bigger than a diploma and should be much easier to find--if it exists.]

Sterling faces a misdemeanor charge of undue influence stemming from her decision to vote against sanctions against her approved by the Tri-City hospital board July 12, 2010.

It was at that meeting that the hospital board voted to forward information to the San Diego County Grand Jury regarding a now-controversial dinner meeting at a local steakhouse.

Prosecutors later brought two criminal charges against Sterling. On June 1, Superior Court Judge K. Michael Kirkman dismissed the most serious charge ---- felony vote-trading charge ---- but allowed a misdemeanor charge of undue influence to remain.

Stone had filed a motion to dismiss the remaining misdemeanor charge on grounds that the board's sanctions against Sterling, which eventually spawned the criminal investigations and charges, violated the hospital director's due process rights.

A hearing on Stone's motion to dismiss is set for Sept. 16.

Sweetwater Unified High School District didn't follow the rules in spending half a million dollars on PR

2011-08-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

The Fine Print on Sweetwater PR
August 18, 2011
by Emily Alpert
Voice of San Diego

Sweetwater schools spent more than half a million dollars on communications and outreach for their facilities bond, we reported today. Tracking those communication costs can be difficult because they're part of a bigger contract to manage the bond.

It's also tough because the contract itself never mentions the firm that got the work, Marston + Marston Inc. That surprised me: The bond management contract says if the company hires subconsultants like Marston + Marston, it will submit a written request that describes the work and name the subconsulting company and its hourly rates. Sweetwater then decides in writing whether to approve the deal.

That didn't happen with Marston + Marston. Program manager Jaime Ortiz said Marston was not brought up separately for written approval because its workers were already covered under a staffing plan that was automatically approved along with the bond management contract.

But Marston + Marston isn't actually named in that plan. The staffing plan just includes the names of positions like "communication specialist" and "outreach manager" and their fees and hours, which correspond to the hourly rates that Marston employees have been paid.

To read the contract for yourself, click here. The staffing plan is on pages 56 through 58.

‘Truly Mind-Boggling’ Cuts Loom for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges, Chancellor Says

2011-08-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

‘Truly Mind-Boggling’ Cuts Loom for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges, Chancellor Says
Cindy Miles, newcomer to La Mesa and community college district, says nearly 800 class sections will be lost and 5,000 students turned away.
By Ken Stone
La Mesa Patch
March 29, 2011

Cindy Miles says she didn't give a thought to the president's opening at San Diego State. "This is The Show," she said. "This is the real work."

Cindy Miles grew up in Pasadena, TX, then known as "Stink-adena" for its paper mills.
Cindy Miles says she's tried all the downtown La Mesa restaurants and "recommends them all."

In her first visit to Grossmont College, Cindy Miles said she thought the modular building housing the chancellor's office was a maintenance structure.
“Cheers” is Cindy Miles' signature sign-off in email—and her attitude toward life, she says.
If Cindy Miles had her way, the district would add a performing arts building with enough space to hold graduations.

Cuts looming for Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges are “truly mind-boggling,” says the leader of East County’s community college district, a new La Mesan who herself knows financial distress.

Under a “best-case” scenario, the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District would lose 600 course sections as a result of the state budget ax—after chopping 1,000 sections over the past two years, says Cindy Miles, chancellor since March 2009.

“We’re potentially cutting up to 20 percent of our course offerings”—under the best forecast, she said Friday—before Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision Tuesday to call off budget talks with Republicans on a June ballot on extending higher taxes.

The district now is operating under “Plan B” revenue assumptions (see attached letter), said district spokeswoman Anne Krueger on Wednesday. That includes funding under Proposition 98—the 1988 voter-approved amendment to the state Constitution that led to a minimum annual funding level for K-12 schools and community colleges.

Community enrichment classes? Stand-alone courses?

“They’re gone,” Miles said.

Students already will face a steep rise in costs. Last Thursday, Brown signed into law a boost in student fees from $26 a credit unit to $36 a unit, starting this fall.

That money won’t go to colleges, Miles notes, but into the state’s general fund which pays for public schooling.

Like many other educators, Miles, 56, said Friday she would tell Republicans in the state Legislature to allow a Brown-backed bill to go forward that would let Californians decide on extending several state taxes.

“Let the voters decide on how they want to spend our tax dollar—whether they are willing to extend these taxes to make sure the education and future of their state is protected,” she said.

And like many Americans, she has suffered in the economy—taking a big loss to sell her home outside Miami before moving to a rental near The Village, which she shares with her only child—son Gabriel, a recent graduate of Florida International University.

“I was caught up in the real estate crash like everybody else,” Miles said Friday in an interview at her modest Grossmont College office. Her mortgage was “upside down”—meaning the home near Miami she bought in 2005 at the top of the market was worth less in 2009 than what she owed on it.

“I lost a lot of money, just like everyone else in the nation,” said Miles, whose three-year contract through 2012 pays $245,000 a year, not including $1,050 a month for auto and other expenses.

Unlike K-12 school districts, however, Miles says hers isn’t planning pink slips.

In a “Dear Colleagues” letter circulated Thursday, Miles wrote: “Let me again reassure you that we have no plans for layoffs and we are not considering this option as we work with our budget councils and employee groups to solve our problems. Even in a worst-case scenario, we would call on our employees to help develop solutions to share the pain of cost-cutting with our students.”

But fewer students would be admitted to the two-campus district under any budget scenario, she wrote. Under “Plan C,” in fact, more than 1,000 additional classes would be cut—with 8,000 students turned away.

The district would freeze all but the state-mandated positions, purchase nothing but “indispensable items” and work with employee groups to identify “fair share” solutions—which could include voluntary furloughs, ending summer school and closing nonessential facilities.

But one effort that won’t end is a Department of Advancement Services in the chancellor’s office—a fundraising and “grant-development system that never existed” in the 50-year-old district.

“We’re very serious about this,” said Miles, who worked at Miami Dade Community College when it acquired a reputation as the most successful grant-generating community college in the nation.

Kids in La Mesa succeed in kindergarten when focus is broad, not just on academics

2011-08-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

"And it’s become so academic it’s almost against my principles of teaching like this. Really. It shouldn’t be that way. That’s what made me make my decision.”

Unrelenting Ruth: Leiderman of Murray Manor is Longest-Serving Teacher
But kindergarten veteran is parting in sorrow and protest in 2012
By Doug Williams
La Mesa Patch
May 7, 2011

Even after all these years, Ruth Leiderman still gets nervous and can’t sleep the night before the first day of school in September. It’s the joy of being around children that keeps her going...

“She believes passionately that we not only teach the academics but also develop the whole child developmentally.

“The mentality that has crept into some educational institutions has been ‘put away the clay.’ Not Mrs. Leiderman and her incredible kinder colleagues. I can walk into her classroom on any given day throughout the year and she has something amazing going on for the students. It could be a life-size igloo made of milk cartons, a Polar Express train running down the middle of her room, or all the students dressed as kings and queens.”

Those are examples of the old-school kindergarten values that Leiderman still believes in.

While teachers are now held more accountable for test scores and measured student growth, Leiderman continues to incorporate as much hands-on play as possible.

In her classroom, she still has sand tables, easels, a playhouse and uses clay and Play-Doh, whenever she can mold them into the curriculum.

As she says, “I’ve adapted.”

Yet she disagrees with some of the change.

“The standards have increased,” she says, explaining kindergarten evolution. “And I don’t mind saying, I personally don’t feel for the better. ... I’m actually sad to see the way it went. Very sad.

“I still think the kindergartners should be doing things other than reading and writing. There’s plenty for them to do that’s developmental. … I think learning through play is lost. I truly believe that children learn through play. And that’s gone. All those discoveries that they used to make on their own.”

Leiderman says she’s grateful that at Murray Manor she’s been allowed to blend the old with the new. She knows it’s not the norm at some schools.

As the day unfolds, two hours of language arts are scheduled in the morning, followed by recess, math, lunch and then social studies, science, music, art and “developmental time” when she can blend in the clay and the play.

And is the old-school approach hurting the new-age expectations?

No, says Magliato. He says Leiderman still “maintains rigorous academics” and her class is exceeding the reading-level expectations for this year...

Next year is my last year,” she says. “Do you want to know why? Write it carefully when you write it. I don’t like the way education is going. I’m upset that there’s 30 kids in kindergarten. I think there’s no business for 30 kids to be in kindergarten. And it’s become so academic it’s almost against my principles of teaching like this. Really. It shouldn’t be that way. That’s what made me make my decision.”...

School Board Member Among 270 Owing on ‘Delinquent’ Sewer Accounts

2011-08-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

School Board Member Among 270 Owing on ‘Delinquent’ Sewer Accounts
School trustee Bill Baber, treasurer to several political campaigns, faces $407 lien on property taxes.
By Ken Stone
La Mesa Patch
August 17, 2011

Thanks to recent council action, La Mesa hopes to collect $126,000 from people who haven’t paid their sewer bills—about 270 residents, businesses and other property owners.

Among those targeted is Bill Baber, a three-term member of the La Mesa-Spring Valley school board who served as campaign treasurer for incumbent Ernie Ewin in the 2010 La Mesa City Council race and state Sen. Joel Anderson.

Baber, an attorney, is currently the treasurer of Steve Danon’s campaign to unseat county Supervisor Pam Slater-Price in 2012.

Baber owes the city $407.72, according to a list of delinquent sewer accounts dated Aug. 3 (attached).

When contacted Tuesday night, Baber said he didn’t know he was on the sewer lien list—approved by a 5-0 vote of the City Council on July 26.

“I will investigate [the bill],” Baber said after Tuesday’s school board meeting. “If it’s a valid claim, I’ll take care of it.”

Also on the delinquent account list is Richard Bucklew, a member of the PBID Formation Committee, which is working to create a system in The Village where property owners tax themselves for various improvements and services.

Bucklew, owner of Don Keating Used Cars on La Mesa Boulevard, owes $747.56 on two parcels, according to the delinquent account list. In 2008, he owed $233.29. (The 2008 delinquent list said 359 accounts owed the city a total $103,747.)

An email to Bucklew’s business address wasn’t returned by late Tuesday night.

By far the largest amount owed by an individual is $9,521.50 by Joyce A. Peterson, who had to pay $4,457 in 2008 as well. The No. 2 individual is Charles Rowe, said to owe $1,428.

Sotal University Inc. owes $8,328, according to the 2011 list, and Sideral Systems Associates Inc. owes $1,039. In 2008, it owed $670.

On Nov. 8, a news release from Flocke & Avoyer Commercial Real Estate noted that Peterson had leased about 2,480 square feet at 5611 Lake Murray Blvd. to Scott Winston for a fitness center.

“The lease is for five years with a consideration of $195,708.12,” said Flocke & Avoyer.

The City Clerk’s Office said Tuesday it sent the names of delinquent accounts to the county Recorder’s Office so these can be added to the property tax bills of the listed people. When property tax bills go out, residents with liens will have to pay extra—the amount owed on sewer bills. The city then get its money.

Baber was first elected to the school board in 2000; his current term ends in December 2012. He has served as treasurer for Oceanside Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, a group reportedly backed by Associated Builders and Contractors, which is critical of labor unions.

Baber is listed as government affairs director for ABC’s San Diego chapter.

In December 2010, the state Fair Political Practices Commission found that Baber had violated state law “because you should have reflected the name of your sponsor in the name of your committee” during an Oceanside campaign.

But the FPPC levied no fine—only a warning...

Trustee seeks to keep bonus issue before school board

2011-08-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

Trustee still irate over retirement bonus
Written by
Jeff McDonald
SDUT
Aug. 11, 2011

County schools Trustee Jerry Rindone continues to rail against a $25,000 retirement bonus given to Superintendent Randolph Ward — and is complaining about how his no vote was recorded.

At the Board of Education meeting this week, Rindone requested that the two issues be added to a future agenda for further discussion.

“I am asking my board colleagues to support this request since Superintendent Ward in fact requested not to receive a $25,000 retirement payment in fiscal year 2009 due to the very difficult economic times,” Rindone said.

In addition to the $25,000 bonus approved earlier this year, Rindone objected to the way the board meeting notes discounted his opposition to the payment approved in June. He voted against approving the minutes and requested a discussion over how board notes are written.

It is unclear whether the board will comply. A majority of trustees declined to pursue the discussion Wednesday despite Rindone’s request.

Board President Susan Hartley did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Earlier this year, the board voted itself a modest pay raise, with Rindone opposed.