CVESD teacher removed for requesting massages from students, but Pettit isn't the only employee whose job is threatened

Stephenie Pettit

See comments at bottom of this post.

Stephenie Pettit has been placed on administrative leave for requesting massages from students. (See Channel 10 News story below.)

No one, including the police, has found that there was any hint of wrongdoing in Ms. Pettit's classroom--only bad judgment.

(Updated Mar. 14, 2014) But a parent has made me realize that Ms. Pettit's actions could result in serious harm to students in the future because they conditioned children to touch an adult on request. Even worse, kids were given class currency to do the touching. If CVESD used my plan for master teachers, this would not have happened. Our system puts untested teachers in full and solitary control of classrooms right after getting their teaching credentials. There is no close oversight or support to guide them.

Superintendent Francisco Escobedo will need to be careful in this case. A couple of members of his administration have more to hide than a few massages.

Asst. Supt. Sandra Villegas-Zuniga and Human Resources director Peg Myers will want to go easy on Ms. Pettit. They will want to continue the district's policy of avoiding investigations. It's a good policy when the people with the most to hide are not the ones the district is targeting. Ms. Pettit might say more than they want to hear if she were pressed for information.

WHAT KIND OF INVESTIGATIONS DOES CVESD CONDUCT?

Let's compare the two situations: guns and violence in the earlier case versus kids giving massages in the current case. Why was there NO investigation in the first case, while the police were called in in the second case?

The fact is, CVESD doesn't do thorough investigations to keep kids safe. Instead, it tries to protect its reputation. Too often this means covering up truly illegal actions by staff. As soon as as a report of child molestation surfaces in any school, a district administrator runs over to the school and threatens all the teachers that they'd better keep quiet. And they do keep quiet. The public has the right to vote for board members, but clearly does NOT enjoy the right to know what's going on at school districts.

Stephenie Pettit would NOT be the target of any investigation in the earlier case, but she'd be a star witness. She knows the truth about the reports of "fear for their lives" by teachers Jo Ellen Hamilton and Linda Watson when they taught at Castle Park Elementary in 2001. Pettit knows the role that Peg Myers played in the cover-up of crimes by Robin Donlan and other teachers.

And Sandra Villegas-Zuniga and Francisco Escobedo also know, or they should know.


Asst. Supt. Sandra Villegas-Zuniga might want to review her bizarre dealings with Peg Myers.


Peg Myers at her deposition

When Myers was the site representative at Castle Park Elementary School about ten years ago, she kept a tight rein on Stephenie Pettit in order to make sure that illegal actions were kept hidden. Stephenie Pettit was not involved in the original illegal actions, but she did keep her mouth shut after she found out about them. Later, when Myers was President of Chula Vista Educators (CVE), she continued to use her position to cover-up events at Castle Park in 2000-2001.

When she was President of CVE, Myers apparently impressed Villegas-Zuniga as someone who would help the district manipulate teachers. After sitting across from Myers at the bargaining table for a number of years, Villegas-Zuniga convinced Myers to clamber across the table to the other side and accept the job of Director of Human Resources. Obviously, Peg's intimate knowledge of individual teachers, and the workings of the teacher union, have been very helpful to the district in intimidating teachers. [Yes, I know that the district website claims that Myers is in charge of "classified" staff. Don't be fooled. She spends at least some of her time intimidating teachers.]

So here's the problem in the current situation. Stephenie Pettit knows the details of who was involved, and what actions they took, during the years when a large number of violations of civil and criminal laws were committed at Castle Park Elementary School, the district office, and the teachers union. The near-destruction of a school by power-hungry teachers and administrators was just the boost Peg Myers' career needed, and she has catapulted dramatically to higher positions since she was just an ordinary teacher at Castle Park Elementary in 2001.

CASTLE PARK ELEMENTARY

The effects of the decade-long teacher meltdown at Castle Park Elementary--that resulted in the school having 11 principals in 11 years--continue to ripple through the district.

It staggers the imagination to realize how many teachers involved with Castle Park Elementary's descent into a miasma of dysfunction have continued to make news long since the Chula Vista Star-News and San Diego Union-Tribune lost interest in supporting a troublesome group of teachers, parents and administrators that brought the school to its knees during their years of arbitrary power.


Pam Smith and Larry Cunningham

Current Chula Vista Elementary board members Pam Smith and Larry Cunningham oversaw the cover-up of illegal actions by CVESD employees at the school in 2000-2001. (I was a teacher at Castle Park Elementary, with Stephenie Pettit and Peg Myers, at that time.)


Former CVE president Jim Groth wanted a replacement who would continue the teacher versus teacher culture that he had helped create. Peg Myers fit the bill perfectly. See all Jim Groth blog posts.

It should be mentioned that current member of the statewide CTA board of directors Jim Groth played a big role in the concealment of illegal actions. He was then, and still is, a member of the Chula Vista Educators board. I imagine he's already hopped in his car and driven over to the district office to remind the administration that the district and the teachers union need to continue the cover-up.

After the district paid $100,000s of taxpayer dollars in legal fees to lawyers Dan Shinoff and Mark Bresee for their successful efforts to protect teachers and administrators who had committed crimes, the prevailing teachers apparently felt invulnerable. They delighted in their arbitrary power to do whatever they wanted and get away with it. What else could the district expect when it had fired a teacher (me!) simply for demanding an investigation, and for refusing to come back to work until something was done about the relentless harassment of me by teacher thugs.


Former CVE President Gina Boyd. See Gina Boyd's deposition HERE.


Robin Donlan, notorious along with her husband for $7 million Wireless Facilities stock options fraud case. See Robin Donlan's deposition HERE.

The rogue teachers were led by Robin Donlan, a personal friend of both Peg Myers and former CVE president Gina Boyd. Gina Boyd was a member in extremely good standing of the self-styled "Castle Park Family". The self-styled "Castle Park Family" resisted all efforts by a string of principals (averaging one principal per year for 11 years) to get them to settle down and do their jobs. I myself was a target of the ruling teachers. Administrators Libia Gil and Rick Werlin did the bidding of those teachers.

Before my lawsuit was even finished, five teachers were transferred out of the school during the summer of 2004. Stephanie Pettit was one of the "Castle Park Five" group that included the notorious Robin Donlan, Peg Myers, and Nikki Perez.

This district keeps finding that its favored employees have big problems. Perhaps an effective evaluation system for teachers would help? But no, that would interfere with the politics that currently guides employment decisions at the district. And the district wouldn't have hired Peg Myers if it didn't want to keep politics in the forefront of district decisions.

I doubt that the district will try to fire Mrs. Pettit. She knows too much about criminal actions by teachers and administrators. I predict a settlement.

And as far as the parent who says Stephanie should not teach again, I don't see how voluntarily giving a massage to a teacher could seriously harm a child. The situation is no more serious than if Stephanie were rewarding kids to fan her. The problem with the behavior is that the students are being asked to treat the teacher like a queen rather than a professional. The touching was clearly NOT sexual. It's only wrong because kids shouldn't be performing personal services for teachers--like combing hair, cutting hair, shining shoes, etc. Of course, Stephenie used poor judgment, but she's been taught by the district and the teachers union that she and other teachers with political connections are free to indulge any whim without repercussions.

A more important issue is that kids are being damaged by teachers every day in CVESD classrooms. There is psychological damage being done by cruel, rigid teachers who take pleasure in causing pain. Stephanie did not cause pain to the kids who volunteered to give her massages.

It would be interesting to know what else was happening when the kids were giving the teacher a massage. Was she teaching them at the same time? This could very well be the case. But there are so many classrooms where teachers spend huge amounts of time NOT interacting with their students that it would be very dangerous for anyone to criticize Stephanie even if she had not been teaching while receiving a massage. She could easily get plenty of witnesses to talk about the time wasted in classrooms while teachers are doing something other than teaching. I could write a book about it.

Stephanie deserves the due process than she herself helped to deny to me. Lawyer Dan Shinoff of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz took tax dollars for his successful efforts to keep Stephanie from being deposed in my case. I would be happy to deposed in any case she might file--which is exactly why I think that the district won't try to fire her. Here's my deposition in the current defamation lawsuit against me by Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz. Stutz is quite miffed, it seems, that the Court of Appeal says I have a constitutional right to discuss the lawyers who act on behalf of public schools.

Though I was not able to depose Stephanie, I was able to take the depositions of Castle Park Family members Gina Boyd, Peg Myers and Robin Donlan. (I recommend clicking on these links for these depositions if only to see the hilarious expressions on the faces of teachers who don't like being asked to tell the truth.)

NEWS COVERAGE

Channel 10 News and San Diego Union-Tribune have covered this story. Let's see if Channel 10 will investigate further the failure of school districts to do meaningful evaluations of teachers. The SDUT has been covering up for CVESD for years. I hope they will start to cover the real stories instead of only the sensationalistic ones.

EVALUATING TEACHERS

Researches say that 10% of teachers are doing a bad job, failing to add value to their students' academic abilities. Many teachers have serious personality problems. But the fact is that CVESD really doesn't know its teachers. I never met a principal who really observed and really talked to staff members to find out what they were up to.

It's time that ALL teachers in CVESD were properly evaluated.

Chula Vista teacher removed from job, accused of soliciting massages from students
Kandiss Crone
10 News
02/13/2014

CHULA VISTA, Calif. - Some parents at a South Bay elementary school told 10News they couldn't believe what their kids said went on inside their third-grade classroom.

"This behavior, to my son, has become so normalized that he did not report it to me," said parent Andy Stumph.

Some parents say Salt Creek Elementary School teacher Stephanie Petitt solicited massages from the students during reading time in exchange for $10 in class money. The parents also say Petitt also encouraged the third graders to give each other massages.

"The most children I've heard at any one time that was massaging the teacher was seven -- one on each leg, one on each arm, one on each shoulder, one playing with the hair," Stumph said.

The parents voiced their concerns at a school board meeting Wednesday night but weren't happy with the outcome, so they contacted 10News.

Chula Vista Elementary School District Superintendent Francisco Escobedo said Chula Vista police were called in to investigate but did not find any criminal wrongdoing.

"This behavior is absolutely not acceptable. We have professional standards at Chula Vista," Escobedo said.

Escobedo said Petitt is no longer teaching at the school, but is still employed with the district.

"She's on administrative leave; these allegations we take very seriously and we have to do due process to investigate," Escobedo said.

Parents say that's not enough, and they worry the teacher's actions could have a lasting impact on their kids.

"If there's a goal to be had ... Mrs. Petit would never be able to teach again," parent Samantha Trickey said.

Three parents pulled their children out of the school, 10News learned.

The district says a long-term substitute will replace the teacher.

Teacher on leave over massage claims
U‑T San Diego
Feb. 14, 2014 - She reported back to work Monday and taught her class after investigations by the Chula Vista Elementary School District and the Chula Vista ...

My Happy Hacker takes orders from lawyers, but also seems to have a sense of humor

I'm awarding good humor points to my hacker, who has become quite playful during the past week. He (or she) is having fun, but doing no harm.

Less than a week ago I discovered that this page in my related website had been hacked.

HERE IS THE HACKED IMAGE OF A GRIEVANCE I SUBMITTED TO CVESD:



I published this blog post, which the hacker must have read. In the post I wrote that California Teachers Association (CTA) director Jim Groth, who had been Chula Vista Educators (CVE) grievance chair at the time, had turned up unexpectedly at the grievance meeting and said that the union did NOT support the grievance. The grievance merely asked that the district RESPOND to an earlier grievance. It appears that CTA was quite desperate to cover up illegal actions of pals of CVE President Gina Boyd.


Former CVE President Gina Boyd at her deposition.
This blogger has awarded to Gina the Alberto Gonzalez
CRS award for her amazing lack of knowledge and
substantial memory loss: "I don't know"--25 times and
"I don't remember (or recall, etc.)--35 times;
total cognition lapses: 60.

Sometime during the past few days, someone went to work on my grievance image again. But this time, my hacker did NOT hide any information. He (or she) just moved black boxes around! It's actually quite entertaining to examine his (or her) handiwork.

He (or she) enlarged the black box to cover EMPTY SPACE on this page:




and moved the black box sideways on this page!



I actually like my hacker now, but I'm still not terribly fond of the lawyers who ordered the hacking.


It should be noted that CTA isn't the only party trying to hide these events. Current CVESD board members Pam Smith and her faithful allyLarry Cunningham were involved in the criminal actions, and they also have paid tax dollars to lawyers to support efforts to shut down my website.

I've been hacked again by friends of Jim Groth and California Teachers Association

More than 10 years later, hackers are still helping to conceal the 2001 actions of CTA director Jim Groth

HACKED CVESD GRIEVANCE: Who doesn't want you to read what's beneath the black box? (See original image below)

Yes, I've been hacked again, but things are getting better. This time the mysterious black box does not quite cover the targeted image on my related website.

More than 10 years later, hackers are still trying to conceal the 2001-2002 actions of former CVE president and current California Teachers Association (CTA) director Jim Groth, who worked on behalf of disgraced asst. superintendent Richard Werlin and board members at Chula Vista Elementary School District. Or was it the reverse? Were Werlin and CVESD working on behalf of Jim Groth? It's hard to unscramble the egg.

Jim "No response needed" Groth

In 2002 Chula Vista Educators' grievance chair Jim Groth unexpectedly came to a meeting at Chula Vista Elementary School District and announced that Chula Vista Educators did NOT support a grievance that merely asked that the district RESPOND to a teacher's grievance.

Why didn't Jim Groth (now a member of the state board of directors of California Teachers Association) insist that the district respond?

Well, that question seems to answer itself. Obviously, CTA and CVESD were covering up something. It appears that Groth's CTA directorship may be linked to his otherwise inexplicable decision to get in his car and drive to the district office to say that it was fine with him if the district ignored my June 9, 2001 grievance.

Here is what the image looked like before it was hacked:



The CTA website says that Jim Groth "is the past chair of the CTA State Council of Education Communications Committee." Perhaps that committee is in charge of hacking teacher websites?



Teflon trustees?

CVESD board members Pam Smith and Larry Cunningham, who spent tax dollars to cover up crimes, are still on the CVESD board, although the careers of several administrators have ended.

It seems that crime pays, as the saying goes, but only for teachers, union officials and board members--apparently not so much for administrators.

But now that I think about it, I realize that school board members are no longer quite so invulnerable. Bertha Lopez, who went along with the criminal actions of Pam Smith and Larry Cunningham at CVESD, is currently charged with criminal actions by the Public Integrity Unit. Maybe I should say that WASP school board members tend to be teflon.

It should be noted that this same case was investigated by school attorney Daniel Shinoff. A large number of documents he collected at Castle Park Elementary School have gone missing, as Mr. Shinoff and his partner Ray Artiano explained in this deposition.

Were CVESD and Chula Vista Educators negligent in Kinloch child molestation case?

See also "California Teachers Association protects child molesting teacher."
See all posts regarding CVESD teacher John Kinloch.

Updated Jan. 12, 2013

It seems that CVESD and California Teachers Association were more interested in protecting powerful teachers than in conducting serious investigations of extremely urgent allegations. When a teacher was accused of being likely to "come to school and shoot everybody," the district never did an investigation, and the teachers union never insisted on an investigation.

I recall listening to former Chula Vista Educators grievance chair Frank Luzzaro a few years ago complaining that the district had placed a male teacher on administrative leave due to unproven allegations of child abuse.

John Raymond Kinloch might been that teacher--unless perhaps there were TWO suspected child molesters at CVESD at the same time!

(I've been trying to remember exactly what year it was that Frank Luzzaro called me in response to a letter I sent him. I am certain that it was after my 2003 OAH hearing. At first I though that it was around 2003 or 2004, but then I remembered that I had my website going at the time of the call. That would make it more likely that the call was in 2005.)

The District Attorney's office says a child at Feaster was molested in 2004 or 2005. It seems the District Attorney and I are zeroing in on the same time period. Obviously, the school district knows exactly when the teacher was placed on administrative leave, and it knows if the teacher was John Raymond Kinloch.

CVESD HAS LONG HAD A CULTURE OF SECRECY AND CRONYISM

Superintendent Lowell Billings, Asst. Supt. for Human Resources Richard Werlin, and Asst. Supt. Dennis Doyle were in charge when the critical events occurred in the Kinloch case and in other cases in CVESD covered-up wrongful actions and falsified and concealed various documents.

Asst. Supt. Maria Guasp and Superintendent Libia Gil seemed to rubber-stamp whatever the three men decided on. Libia Gil chose covering-up events rather than investigating serious allegations.

Rick Werlin claimed to have "lost" all his notes about a teacher who was accused of being likely to come to school and "shoot everybody." CVESD's lawyer, Dan Shinoff, says he lost about half of the documents he collected at Castle Park Elementary. He lost a few pages here and a few pages there from a single set of about 87 documents. Here are some of the documents that were produced. Those missing pages about a possible mass shooting at Castle Park Elementary would be very interesting to see!

Chula Vista Educators, particularly Jim Groth, who is now on the Board of Directors of CTA, also seemed to support district decisions, especially when the goal was to conceal crimes by teachers who were favored by the administration. (Of course, it was different when one of Jim's pals got in trouble. CVE paid $17,000 in legal fees to contest a district decision to dock Frank Luzzaro one day's pay.)

A 1998 San Diego Reader story revealed Kinloch's connection to an English child pornographer, and Kinloch's admitted attraction to young boys.

An important part of this picture is the fact that California Teachers Association is quite reliable in protecting child molesters such as Albert Truitt.

Obviously, Mr. Kinloch was not fired. CVESD and CVE have a bad habit of protecting the guilty. Perhaps CVESD and CVE don't like effective investigations because facts might interfere with their political goals.

See "California Teachers Association protects child molesting teacher."

DEPOSITIONS PROVED THE TRUTH

At the same time that it flubbed the Kinloch investigation, CVESD administrators, with the approval of CVE's Jim Groth and other CVE officials, flat-out refused to investigate anonymous allegations against another teacher. Depositions later proved that the allegations against the "dangerous" teacher were false, but that teacher had already been fired. Depositions also proved that teachers who made the anonymous accusations were covering up their own crimes!

THE CASTLE PARK FIVE

The district then realized too late that the accusers, who called themselves "The Castle Park Family," had become out of control. The "Castle Park Five" were prominent members of the Family. The Family felt that it, not the administration, should be in charge. They can't be blamed for thinking this since they had successfully demanded that CTA and the district help them by violating longstanding policies as well as the law, to defend Family members in court. The district spent $100,000s of taxpayer dollars on lawyers to conceal the truth.

Coincidentally, both Frank Luzzaro and his wife work for the Reader, which had profiled John Raymond Kinloch in 1998 as a child pornographer. I have noticed that the Reader avoids delving into problems at CVESD. I have provided information directly to Frank Luzzaro and the Reader, but neither has expressed any interest.

Longtime CVESD board member Pamela Smith

Longtime CVESD board member Larry Cunningham

The school board in 2004 consisted of Pamela Smith, Larry Cunningham, Cheryl Cox, Patrick Judd (who was successfully sued for sexual harassment by a female principal) and Bertha Lopez. All five of these individuals supported the hiring and firing tactics of the administrators named above.









Arraignment for suspect in child porn and molestation case
CBS8.com
Dec 06, 2012

CHULA VISTA (CNS) - A South Bay elementary school teacher accused of molesting a student and possessing child pornography to get boys to expose themselves online is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

John Raymond Kinloch, a first-grade teacher at Wolf Canyon Elementary in Chula Vista, was initially arrested last Friday after agents with the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant at his home. He was released on bail that evening.

Authorities began looking into the online activities of Kinloch based on tips received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said San Diego police sex-crimes Lt. Anastasia Smith.

The investigation allegedly showed that the 41-year-old Kinloch, while posing as a girl on a website called "MeetMe," had persuaded boys to disrobe during live one-on-one webcam interactions, according to Smith.

Kinloch, a San Ysidro resident, was re-arrested Wednesday on suspicion of 11 counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child under age 14 after the alleged victim came forward, according to San Diego police.

The accusations involve sexual contact that allegedly occurred several years ago, when Kinloch was teaching at Feaster Charter School in Chula Vista, Smith said.

The defendant was being held in lieu of $1.15 million bail pending arraignment.



Teacher facing porn charges arrested in molestation
Pauline Repard
UTSD
Dec. 6, 2012

CHULA VISTA — A Chula Vista elementary school teacher arrested last week on suspicion of child pornography is facing new charges alleging he molested a student several years ago, authorities said Thursday.

John Raymond Kinloch, 41, was jailed Wednesday on 11 counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14, and one count of an attempted lewd and lascivious act on a child age 14 or 15.

His bail is set at $1.1 million, jail records show.

“This is a case many years delayed in reporting,” said San Diego police Lt. Anastasia Smith. “It appears this victim was previously a student of his.”

She said the student attended Feaster Charter School. Kinloch taught there from 2000 to 2009, then transferred to Wolf Canyon Elementary School, where he was teaching first grade, school district officials said.

Kinloch has been placed on administrative leave, district spokesman Anthony Millican said.

“This new case raises the question of whether there are other students involved,” Millican said Thursday.

Kinloch was investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for allegedly posing online as a girl and soliciting young boys to send him pictures of themselves naked, Smith said. The task force is a joint effort by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Federal authorities arrested Kinloch on Friday on suspicion of possessing child pornography, using a minor in an obscene manner and luring a minor for a sexual offense. He was booked into jail, then released on bail. Authorities said earlier in the week that no Chula Vista students were involved in the pornography.

On Wednesday, a former student reported being molested, and Kinloch was arrested about 9 p.m. as he was leaving his South Bay home.

“Our hearts go out to the child,” Chula Vista Superintendent Francisco Escobedo said Thursday in a statement. “The allegations raised in the charges against Kinloch are appalling. For a teacher to betray a child in this manner is very upsetting. We are very dismayed by this.”

School district officials were upset that a federal background check on Kinloch when he was hired failed to turn up his connection to a 1998 child pornography case in England.

Millican said the San Diego Reader published a story in June 1998 that said Kinloch, then a San Diego State University student, went to England to testify in the criminal trial of a college student accused in trafficking in child pornography. That student’s files contained information that led investigators to Kinloch, and he was offered immunity by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego to testify, the Reader reported. He testified during the trial that he was attracted to young boys, the Reader said.

The district is investigating how the past case was not flagged during Kinloch’s background check and plans to work with the state’s Teachers Credentialing Commission on how to improve the process.

Photo: December 13, 2006 , Chula Vista,- Second grade teacher John Kinloch at the Feaster Edison Charter School in Chula Vista. — John Gibbinsng Commission on how to improve the process.



Teacher accused of child porn, molesting a student in court: John Kinloch pleads not guilty 10 News 12/07/2012

CHULA VISTA, Calif. - A South Bay elementary school teacher accused of repeatedly molesting a former student and possessing child pornography to get boys to expose themselves online pleaded not guilty Friday to 20 charges, including 18 counts of child molest.

John Raymond Kinloch, 41, was ordered held on $1.9 million bail.

Kinloch, a first-grade teacher at Wolf Canyon Elementary in Chula Vista, initially was arrested last Friday after agents with the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant at his home. He was released on bail that evening.

Authorities began looking into the online activities of Kinloch based on tips received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, San Diego police sex crimes Lt. Anastasia Smith said...

The accusations involve sexual contact that allegedly occurred when Kinloch was teaching at Feaster Charter School in Chula Vista, Smith said.

Deputy District Attorney Enrique Camarena told reporters that the first alleged molestation happened around 2004 or 2005, when the student was about 8 or 9 years old.

Camarena said the alleged victim, a boy, had a close relationship with Kinloch, both inside and outside the school.

Some of the molestations occurred on school grounds, the prosecutor alleged.

Besides the child molest charges, Kinloch is charged with one count of attempted child molest of a person 14 or 15 years old and one count of possession of child pornography. The named victim is not the subject of the child pornography charge, Camarena said.

Kinloch faces 43 years and six months in prison if convicted.

"When a teacher commits a crime, especially of this nature on school grounds that is about the most extreme violation we can have," Camarena said.

Defense attorney Dan Greene told South Bay Judge Katherine Bacal that Kinloch had no prior record and had a master's degree, without being specific...

The attorney said community members have come forward to praise Kinloch as a great person and educator...

[Maura Larkins comment: I've noticed that people often say that teachers and parents know who the good teachers are. In fact, they don't. Effective evaluations are needed, but many principals don't bother doing observations, and simply rely on school politics to decide who's good and who's bad.] 10News reporter Michael Chen asked, "If he's attracted to young boys, why did he petition to be a teacher?"

Greene answered, "I can't [answer] that for you right now ... It's unfair to rush to judgment before going through due process."

School district officials said they were upset that a federal background check on Kinloch failed to turn up his connection to a child pornography case in England in 1998.

District spokesman Anthony Millican said the San Diego Reader published a story in June 1998 that said Kinloch, then a San Diego State student, testified in the trial of a fellow college student accused in child pornography trafficking.

Kinloch was granted immunity and testified that he was attracted to young boys, the Reader reported...



God, Gays, and Casey Gwinn

'On Monday of this week in the San Diego Schools, at Pershing Middle School, where my daughter attends, I had to go and file a sexual harassment complaint against children who were harassing my daughter, ... Ky PlaskonSeptember 2, 1999

San Diego Taxpayers Association statement on Proposition 32 is patently false

It's Jim Groth v. Chris Cate in this video from KPBS.

From the interview (and article):

"Groth said union members can choose whether to belong to a union, and if they do belong, they can still opt out of political contributions."...

"Cate said it’s “patently false” that union members can choose whether to be in a union."

Surprise, surprise. Mr. Cate's statement is the one that's patently false.

Teachers don't have to join any union.

If they choose not to join, however, they pay a partial fee because they get salary increases and contract benefits along with all the teachers who pay union dues. This fee does NOT include the part of union dues that goes to political campaigns.

Also, teachers who DO join a union can opt out of fees that go to political efforts.

And, of course, corporations are allowed to use UNLIMITED amounts of money for political purposes thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. They don't need to ask permission from the workers who produce the profits. SuperPACs are also allowed unlimited political expenditures.


Prop 32: Pro, Con And Where The Money Is Coming From
October 29, 2012
By Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh, Peggy Pico
KPBS

...Jim Groth, a Chula Vista teacher and member of the board of directors of the Prop 32-opposing California Teachers Association, told KPBS corporations outspend unions 15-to-1 in political contributions.

“This is really an attack on the middle class, it’s an attack trying to silence to middle class,” Groth said. “It is putting corporate interests first.”

“This proposition is coming from millionaires and billionaires who have exempted themselves from this Proposition 32 so they can write the rules in Sacramento and they can continue with what they’re interested in,” he said... 'What they have to do is fill out within CTA (California Teachers Association), you fill out one form, one card, and that takes care of it,' he said...

New Chula Vista Educators president Jennefer Porch conceals identities of CVE board members just as her predecessor did

The annual CTA Presidents' Conference is taking place at Asilomar State Beach (see photo) near Monterey.

New Chula Vista Educators president Jennefer Porch is up at Asilomar this week at the annual CTA Presidents' Conference, but she left instructions with her staff not to release the names of CVE officers. It's a deeply ingrained habit at CVE. The names have been left off the CVE website for over a year.

Perhaps CTA President Dean Vogel can give Jennefer some tips about how to run CVE. I myself had a nice chat with Mr. Vogel at the conference a few years ago. (I was a lowly CTA member, not a chapter president, but Mr. Vogel was very nice.)

Jennefer replaced Peg Myers as president of CVE when Peg took a job as Director of Human Resources for the same school distsrict, but Jennefer doesn't seem to have replaced Peg's policies regarding secrecy. Furtiveness has been in force since 2001 when former presidents Gina Boyd and Jim Groth and executive director Tim O'Neill decided to cover up crimes by Gina's friend Robin Donlan at Castle Park Elementary.

Jennefer held a meeting on July 10, 2012. It was advertised as the meeting when a decision would be made as to who the new officers would be. Obviously, the job of vice-president was up for grabs. CTA advertises itself as a democratic institution, but it is actually hierarchical, and the power structure is decided through back room politics, not elections. Some locals are democratic, but Chula Vista Educators is obviously not one of those. Secrecy and democracy can't co-exist.

Administrators prevail over teachers and students who follow them to lunchtime trysts

This case interested me because it is somewhat similar to what happened at Castle Park Elementary, except that it was not students, but teachers, who followed a district administrator to a lunchtime tryst in the California case. Castle Park Elementary had a very disturbed culture among the teachers, who wanted to retaliate after several teachers had been transferred out of the school.

The teachers didn't seem to appreciate that the district was in the middle of a court case in which it paid $100,000s to lawyers to defend these very teachers for illegal actions. The teachers styled themselves as "The Castle Park Family", and they were furious.

They caused a big public brouhaha, but the lunchtime stalking incident did not reach the newspapers. The board and the district administrators should have disciplined the teachers at the beginning instead of paying $100,000s of tax dollars to conceal their illegal actions. They became drunk with power, and could not be controlled by any principal. The school had eleven principals in eleven years. Also, one of their leaders, Peg Myers, became the President of Chula Vista Educators, and retains that position today. During the strife at Castle Park Elementary, Peg Myers worked closely with CTA director Jim Groth.

Court Decisions Favor Schools
BY ANDREA BELL
nassp.org
National Association of Secondary School Principals
Nov. 2000

Principal Prevails

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas found in favor of a school principal on legal issues related to the intended use of dubious photographs that could have potentially compromised the principal’s integrity.

In Riggan v. Midland Indep. Sch. Dist. (86 F. Supp. 2d 647 [W.D. Tex. 2000]), Casey Riggan, a senior at Midland (Tex.) Senior High School, along with several o f hi s f r i ends, followed the school’s principal to the house of a teacher and photographed the principal’s car in front of the house. Not long after, administrators investigating rumors of the principal’s sexual impropriety learned that Riggan had photos that might be linked to their investigation. The principal himself also learned of the photos and contacted Riggan’s father for a conference.

Although the parties disputed exactly what was said at that meeting, the principal alleged that Riggan intended to print the photograph on a T-shirt with the statement “I never had sex with that woman” for graduates to wear during graduation to publicly humiliate him.

Additionally, the principal charged that Riggan’s photos were taken in retaliation for prior disciplinary actions and attempted to punish Riggan by suspending him and temporarily assigning him to the Alternative Education Program and requiring him to write apologies or be banned from graduation. Riggan claimed that the photos were absolutely protected under the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of expression and that, as a result, the school could not regulate the photos or their use. The court held that although the photo-bearing T-shirt would be considered an expressive activity, regulation of the photographs in this case would not violate the First Amendment because Riggan did not have the absolute right to publicly humiliate the principal at graduation. Additionally, the court explained that if the p h o t o h a d b e e n p r i n t e d o n t h e Tshirts for graduation, the resulting disruption would have justified Riggan’s punishment by the school.

Associated Calexico Teachers and the Calexico Unified School District in Hopes of an Agreement

Associated Calexico Teachers and the Calexico Unified School District in Hopes of an Agreement
By Mario Conde
Tribune Weekly Chronicle
May 10, 2012

Negotiations continue between the Associated Calexico Teachers and the Calexico Unified School District in hopes of an agreement.

Teachers, parents, and students protested on a rally outside the District office and show support to the negotiating team that was going to meet with district officials Monday evening. The Calexico School Board voted to lay off 86 teachers in order to solve budget deficit. The meeting started at 4p.m. Monday and they were still meeting at 6 a.m. Tuesday. The fact-finding meeting ended round 8 a.m.

At the rally there were teachers from other valley school districts such as Calipatria and Brawley showing support to the teachers and students. The District and the ACT have not come to an agreement for many months and are hoping to reach an agreement at the end of the year.

Members of the California Teachers Association Board of Directors were present at the rally to show support to the negotiating team. Jim Groth, Board member of CTA, said that they are with Calexico teachers and they will be supporting them until all the teachers that were layoff are re-instated.

Mikkie Cichocki, CTA Secretary/Treasurer, said to be proud of Calexico because they always stick together in the hard times.

“It is amazing what this board has done to you but we are here with you until the end and will not leave you alone.” She said.

The teachers union has protested the board’s decision to terminate the teachers and have gone picketing to their houses and their workplaces.

ACT President Enrique Cervantes said it was a typical tactic and let the board know they will not give up the fight.

“We are doing it because we want to tell them that we don’t play games.” He said.

The ACT and the District have not come to an agreement since they don’t see eye to eye on the budget presented, he said.

The next Calexico School Board meeting will take place Thursday, May 10, 2012 at William Moreno Jr. High Multi-Purpose Room and will begin at 6:00p.m.

COMPETITION HEATS UP FOR SCHOOL TAX MEASURES

COMPETITION HEATS UP FOR SCHOOL TAX MEASURES
Analysts say three initiatives could confuse voters
Michael Gardner
Union-Tribune
Feb. 21, 2012

Tax initiatives at a glance

• Brown’s initiative would temporarily increase the state sales tax by a half-cent on the dollar and hike the personal income tax rate for those earning more than $250,000. The money would go to schools, public safety and other services.

• Molly Munger, a wealthy civil rights attorney and Pasadena resident, has collaborated with the California PTA to propose an income tax rate increase for nearly every Californian that would gradually escalate depending on earnings. Those revenues would be sent directly to local boards, avoiding the Legislature’s grasp. Most of the increase is dedicated to K-12 and 15 percent for preschools and child care programs. It would expires in 12 years. Munger actually has two similar measures pending and her team will decide later which one to push.

• The California Federation of Teachers, joined by the California Nurses Association, targets the wealthy by raising tax rates by 3 percent for those earning $1 million and 5 percent for filers with incomes of more than $2 million. Revenues would go to schools, colleges, senior programs, roads and public safety. It, too, bypasses Sacramento by sending the money to school boards and other local governing bodies. The increase would be permanent.

SACRAMENTO - Unless someone blinks, voters could face three competing measures on the November ballot that will ask them to raise taxes in the name of schools.

The individual merits of each have been largely overshadowed by growing warnings that the powerful sponsors — Gov. Jerry Brown, teacher unions and the PTA among them — must either coalesce behind a single initiative or risk having voters turn down all three.

Better one than none is the advice.

“The more measures on the ballot, the greater the chance for voter confusion. And confused voters tend to vote no,” Jack Pitney, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College, said in an email.

Added Larry Gerston, a political scientist at San Jose State University: “The anti-tax folks are going to let the three sides duke it out and take great glee in knowing they will confuse everyone so much that the ‘no’ side won’t have to work very hard.”

So far, admonitions urging compromise have not been heeded by Brown and supporters of the other measures who have deep convictions and, in some cases, deep pockets to finance the looming campaigns.

“The question is what’s best for our kids,” said Bey-Ling Sha, a San Carlos mother of two boys and the executive vice president of the San Diego Unified Council of PTAs who backs an initiative to increase the income tax on almost everyone, but which puts the biggest bite on the wealthy. The measure is being spearheaded by attorney Molly Munger, a civil rights advocate.

“If a deal could be cut that would be better for kids, sure. But I don’t see that happening. At some point, you have to trust the democratic process,” added Sha, a San Diego State University professor.

Jim Groth, the San Diego-based representative on the California Teachers Association board, said there is still time to reach a deal. But Brown’s supporters, such as the CTA, are convinced their measure — which raises the sales and upper income taxes — will have the broadest coalition because it also helps public safety and social services. While the other measures fund programs beyond K-12, Brown’s has the most diverse distribution list...

Call to cut Education Department gets mixed reaction from educators

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...

A new yardstick to measure schools?

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...

Schools' Financial Watchdog Stripped of Powers

Schools' Financial Watchdog Stripped of Powers
Jul 6, 2011
by Emily Alpert

When parents and teachers plead and protest to save beloved programs and people, strapped school districts have had to think twice about whether it is prudent, knowing a higher power is watching.

County offices of education can refuse to sign off on unsound budgets and force school districts to rewrite them if financial projections are flimsy. They can even stop districts from cutting checks. And they have forced school districts to plan two years into the future, explaining publicly how their budgets will be balanced.

Now those powers are on hold.

Schools still have to show the county office that they can get through this coming school year. But this year, the county office cannot judge their budgets for the next year or the year after, the first step that can trigger more intensive interventions to keep school districts solvent. School districts can just disregard their advice on how to keep themselves afloat in the future.

The changes, made with little public discussion, came in an 11th-hour budget passed by Democratic lawmakers last week. They put a pause on oversight powers that were given to county offices of education two decades ago, after several school districts suffered financial meltdowns.

Now the biggest watchdog over school budgets has been pulled back at a time when more and more districts are weighing financial peril against the yearning to cancel painful, unpopular cuts.
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"School districts are under a lot of pressure," said Lora Duzyk, assistant superintendent of business services at the San Diego County Office of Education. "It's hard sometimes to withstand that pressure."

Financial hawks lambasted lawmakers for cutting back on budget oversight and pressed the governor to veto that part of the bill. School Services of California, which advises school districts on finances, argued it would put hundreds at risk of insolvency. The president of the California School Boards Association called it "a statutory invitation to fiscal recklessness."

Teachers unions cheered the move. They argue the decisions should rest solely with the local school board members that voters elect and oust.

County offices tend to be more financially cautious than school boards, a step removed from the political and emotional turmoil of school cuts. While the San Diego County Office of Education does have an elected board, it attracts much less public attention and protest.

"Their budgets are not going to be changed or rejected by someone else," said Jim Groth, a longtime Chula Vista teacher and a board member for the California Teachers Association, the biggest teachers union in the state. "It puts the decision-making back on local districts and local school boards."...

A Battle Over Charter School Freedoms

A Battle Over Charter School Freedoms
Jun 28, 2011.
by Emily Alpert

...Charter schools aren't bound by the rules that restrict other public schools. They get public money but are run independently by their owhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifn boards, with limited oversight from school districts. They are free to choose their own school rules and educational methods. Most hire and fire employees as they wish.

They include some of the brightest stars among San Diego schools — and some of the dimmest.

The tradeoff for that freedom is that charters are supposed to be more accountable. If a charter school mismanages its money, falters academically or runs afoul of its own rules, it can be shut down.

The California Charter Schools Association has argued that the best way to keep charters in check is to beef up rules for shutting bad ones down. It has championed a bill that would ban school districts from letting charters with stagnant scores stay open unless the charters make a case to the state.

But some lawmakers want to seek more regulations to stop problems before schools must be shut down. Labor unions and traditional school groups such as the California School Boards Association have backed many of those bills, arguing that schools that get public money must be regulated more closely. They contend that classroom innovations can continue with the added rules, true to the charter dream.

"They may be laboratories of innovation, but that doesn't mean that employee rights have to stop," said Jim Groth, a California teachers union board member from Chula Vista.

Seven different bills have landed on watch lists for charter schools wary of losing their freedoms. Some are ideas that have been shot down before, vetoed under former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But new Gov. Jerry Brown is a wild card for both sides, a Democrat who helped start up charter schools but has been dubious that they're a panacea...

SAN DIEGO: Thousands gather to rally for more state funding for schools

SAN DIEGO: Thousands gather to rally for more state funding for schools
By GARY WARTH
North County Times - The Californian
May 13, 2011

About 2,000 teachers and other supporters of public education gathered in a bayfront park in downtown San Diego on Friday afternoon to send a message to state legislators.

"Save our schools, save our students!" chanted the crowd gathered on the hilly grass of Embarcadero Marina Park North behind Seaport Village.

"Are you listening, Sacramento?" California Teachers Association board member Jim Groth said from the stage of the park.

Similar rallies were held in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Sacramento and San Francisco on Friday as part of a week of activities organized by the California Teachers Union.

In San Diego, several speakers urged people to tell state lawmakers to put an initiative on the ballot to extend temporary taxes set to expire this year.

Many school districts have said the tax extension would save teaching jobs...





Rallying for Education
NBC San Diego
Rory Devine
May 13, 2011

...The rallies are the culmination of state of State of Emergency Week -- five days of rallies and protests that took place in Sacramento.

But organizers say, with the Governor's revised budget due out on Monday, this is not the end of it.

"Employees have taken furlough days, have taken cuts. We have contributed and we will continue to contribute to help solve in any way we can, but it's up to the legislature to extend those tax revenues so we can move forward while waiting for economy to recover," said Jim Groth from the California teachers Association.

Torlakson: School Survival Depends on Brown Budget

"Once pitched as a lush revenue stream that would augment the state's education budget, the lottery contributes only 1 ½ percent of school funding, said CTA board member Jim Groth."
--(This sentence was removed from the original article. See Google result below.)

Torlakson: School Survival Depends on Brown Budget
By Rebecca Rosen Lum
San Bruno Patch
March 15, 2011

Flanked by students bearing signs that read “Where’s our bailout?” and “Yea in May,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson barnstormed in support of Gov. Jerry Brown's budget in San Bruno Tuesday.

Dubbed “Red Tuesday” because March 15 is the date by which school districts must let teachers know they've been targeted for layoffs in the coming school year, the “day of action” at Portola Elementary School provided a supportive backdrop for Torlakson and other speakers who condemned the 12 preliminary pink slips handed out in the San Bruno Park School District, at least 60 in San Mateo County and nearly 20,000 statewide.

“I urge legislators to act in a bipartisan way,” he said. “They can choose whether we will slide to the bottom of the western industrial world or rise again back to the top.”

The budget, which closes a $27 billion deficit, proposes to raise $12 billion in tax extensions and fee renewals, and by cleaving another $12.5 billion through a variety of cuts. Voters would have to approve the proposal in a special election in June.

Without the extensions, the schools budget could be gutted by as much as $4.5 billion, or 10 percent...



Google result:

Torlakson: School Survival Depends on Brown Budget - San Bruno, CA ...
- 8:16am
Jerry Brown's proposed budget in a press conference at Portola ... Once pitched as a lush revenue stream that would augment the state's education budget, the lottery contributes only 1 ½ percent of school funding, said CTA board member Jim Groth. .... Contribute. + Send us news tips; + Put an event on the calendar ...
sanbruno.patch.com/.../torlakson-school-survival-depends-on-brown-budget

Why the $82,0000 pay overlap at CVESD? And why is the SDUT suddenly interested in conflicts of interest at CVESD?

See all Francisco Escobedo posts.

I have two questions:

1. Who is the mystery person that the San Diego Union Tribune editor Don Sevrens seems to want as superintendent of Chula Vista Elementary School District? My guess: Dennis Doyle, who was ousted as superintendent of National School District.

2. Why did the CVESD board design the bizarre $82,000 overlap between the administrations of current CVESD superintendent Lowell Billings and his replacement Francisco Escobedo? Why on earth would public officials want to waste all this money?

I suspect the board wants the new superintendent to continue business as usual in the backrooms of the district, just as Lowell Billings did when he replaced Liba Gil. The board doesn't want the new guy to find out about past wrongdoing and suddenly say, "We're not going to squander money on covering-up wrongdoing anymore."

So how do you get a clean guy to agree to a culture of secrecy? You taint him by giving him a title for a few months without giving him real authority. That way, he's partially responsible for actions taken by Lowell Billings does during the four-month overlap period. Also, it will give Lowell Billings plenty of time to indoctrinate Escobedo into the CVESD culture.

UPDATE AUGUST 7, 2010: I've thought of another reason for the overlap. Maybe Lowell Billings wanted time to look for another job before the end of his tenure. Perhaps he is the anonymous person who interviewed for the CEO job a few days ago at the Accelerated School (TAS) in Los Angeles. Lowell Billings is a board member at TAS. Billings hired his boss, CVESD board member Pat Judd, for the CEO job at TAS about a year or two ago, but that didn't work out and the school is now without a top administrator. Now that would be something: a board member hiring himself as top administrator!

Why didn't Joanne Marugg complain when Lowell Billings was promoted without a search? Why hasn't she complained about the use of public resources for political purposes at CVESD?

Perhaps Joanne Marugg has a conflict of interest in this matter. Who is the "highly qualified" person she feels was left out in the cold? Why doesn't the San Diego Union Tribune provide this information? Is SDUT editor Don Sevrens, who published a long line of misleading stories about the "Castle Park Five," once again trying to use the San Diego Union-Tribune (and Marugg) to manipulate Chula Vista Elementary School District? Who is the person you want as CVESD superintendent, Mr. Sevrens?

Since Joanne Marugg has brought up the issue of a "web of connections," it's interesting to note that Ms. Marugg is listed in Mayor Cheryl Cox's list of endorsements. Cheryl Cox was a trustee of CVESD before she became major, and she most certainly wants the cover-ups to continue at CVESD. Would the mystery candidate do a better job of covering up wrongdoing?

Martin & Joanne Marugg

[Note to Ashly McGlone: If you want to develop a reputation for journalistic ethics, you need to do an addendum to this story regarding the hiring of former CVESD board member Patrick Judd as executive director at The Accelerated School by his employee Lowell Billings. You need to ask why Patrick Judd did not then recuse himself from decisions about Lowell Billings' employment at CVESD.]


SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STORY

Link to San Diego Union-Tribune story (with all the nasty comments)

Search committee had Escobedo subordinates
Two members of superintendent selection group are employees of the sole finalist
San Diego Union-Tribune
By Ashly McGlone
August 4, 2010

...Joanne Marugg, 70, of Alpine, is concerned about the web of connections, given that the public was not informed about them until The Watchdog report. Marugg taught in the district for 40 years, most recently at Mueller Charter School 10 years ago. She said she and her retired colleagues were outraged to learn about the relationships between Escobedo and the search committee members.

Marugg said she knows one of the candidates who was left out in the cold and says he was highly qualified.

“You’d like to see the district knowing that another person that was a qualified candidate was considered,” she said. “It just seems like this got punched through. This isn’t right.”

According to a timeline posted on the district website, the new superintendent will start work in September, but Billings won’t actually depart until the end of December.

The pay for the new superintendent has not been set, but Billings is paid $247,000 a year. At that rate, he would be paid $82,000 to serve concurrently with his replacement...

[Maura Larkins' comment: Funny, the SDUT never breathed a word about Lowell Billings and CVESD board member Patrick Judd when they were each other's boss at different school districts. Judd was hired as Executive Director of The Accelerated School in Los Angeles, where Lowell Billings was a board member. Will the SDUT at long last make up for this lapse in news coverage now that this issue has been deemed newsworthy?]

When CVESD trustee Patrick Judd retired as superintendent of Mountain Empire Unified School District (after several months on leave, without ever saying why he was on leave except that it was not sick leave), he looked for a job for quite a while. School districts all over the state did searches for him for a long time. I know this because I saw the visits to my site on my web logs. I imagine they did this because he applied for jobs. Apparently he couldn’t find a job, so his pal Lowell Billings got him a job at the Accelerated School, where Billings is a board member.

California Teachers Association head counsel Beverly Tucker used to be a counsel for the ACLU

California Teachers Association head counsel Beverly Tucker used to be a counsel for the ACLU in Northern California. Obviously, she wasn't a true believer in civil rights, or she wouldn't have spent so much money and effort on silly efforts to violate my civil rights. Tucker didn't plan her actions well.

Tucker had no good reason to support the two teachers who said I was going to come to school and shoot everybody. Her reason for doing so? It was an election year for the teachers union affiliate in Chula Vista, and the incumbent (Gina Boyd) was afraid the two teachers might make trouble for her if she insisted on a proper investigation.

I think Tucker was careless. The matter simply wasn't important to her, so she didn't bother to use any energy thinking about it. Only a very tiny amount of brain work was required to reach a sensible solution to the problem. The teachers should have been told to apologize to me. Instead, Tucker has spent years forcing teachers to lie under oath, wildly contradicting each other, among other shameful actions.

Tucker has enormous power. The people who supported her in my case (Gail Mendes, Jim Groth and Peg Myers) are rising fast in CTA. This delights me, because it makes my case more newsworthy and it reveals the politics inside CTA.

Click on the labels below to see older posts about the individuals involved.

JIM GROTH TO CVESD: DON'T BOTHER FOLLOWING THE CONTRACT

See all Jim Groth posts.

Jim Groth didn't always look and sound like a robot as he does in this video. He had a normal level of affect at one time. But apparently there's a price you pay for power. For quite a few years now he's been spouting whatever California Teachers Association (CTA) tells him to say, even if it's illegal or dishonest.

JIM GROTH TO CVESD: DON'T BOTHER FOLLOWING THE CONTRACT

He actually went to the CVESD district office in 2002 to attend a grievance meeting, just to announce that CVE was NOT supporting the grievance. What was the grievance about? (It looks like friends of CTA may have hacked my website again. I notice there's a black box over the grievance on my web page.) It was simply a demand that the district respond to an earlier grievance. Why didn't CTA want the district to even respond to a teacher's grievance? Because the CTA was helping the district cover up crimes against that teacher. After the meeting, Jim said to me that Rick Werlin just kept digging himself in deeper and deeper. I pointed out that Jim was right down there in the hole with Werlin, shoveling as fast as he could.


Link to video: CVESD's Jim Groth talks to Channel 6 News
Helix TA, Jim Groth, John Geary
Stand Up for Schools
Added by Bill Guy on March 4, 2010



Here's a march I might join. California Federation of Teacher is a far more democratic group that CTA:

Marching for California's Future
March 5, 2010 at 10am to April 21, 2010 at 12pm –
Beginning at CSU Bakersfield and continuing north through Central Valley The California Federation of Teachers will be joined by the Community College Association, CTA and a diverse coalition of labor, business, education and faith groups on a 48-day "March for California… Organized by California Federation of Teachers and other labor groups

Bill Freeman is the new president for San Diego Education Association

Bill Freeman spent a few years helping children, and now he is rising in a remarkably undemocratic and secretive organization. It remains to be seen whether this move will be beneficial to children--or to Mr. Freeman himself. Mr. Freeman was elected by a very small number of people to head the San Diego local affiliate of California Teachers Association (CTA), which elects its president and vice president by a group voice vote behind closed doors. It’s a top-down organization in which getting ahead means doing what you’re told and not asking questions. Perhaps this will go well for Mr. Freeman since he has military experience and is therefore accustomed to taking and giving orders without explanations. Mr. Freeman will be working with (and under) local CTA director Jim Groth, who believes all teachers should stay "on message."

Sadly, school administrators are just as adamant as the teachers union that teachers not think for themselves, or, if they do think for themselves, that they not talk to anyone about their thoughts. No wonder students don't learn to think critically, and don't learn to participate fully in our democracy.

New President for Teachers Union
March 26, 2010
Voice of San Diego
Emily Alpert

The San Diego Unified teachers union has a new president-to-be: Bill Freeman, who teaches third grade at Porter Elementary in Lincoln Park and now serves as union treasurer.

Freeman has taught for 12 years in San Diego Unified; he chose to teach in elementary school because he mentored middle and high schoolers while serving in the military and decided that he needed to intervene earlier. He was Elementary School Teacher of the Year in San Diego Unified last year.

Freeman will replace provocative teachers union leader Camille Zombro, who is termed out this August; Zombro will become vice president of the union and return to teaching full time. Both were elected through an online vote that Zombro said was unfortunately low in turnout, though she didn't have exact numbers available this morning.

Like Zombro, Freeman isn't a fan of No Child Left Behind, which he said "will totally eradicate public schools" unless it is seriously revised. But he said he would differ from Zombro by making the teachers union more visible in the community, to improve the public perception of teachers...

Calexico union members join in rally denouncing state budget cuts to education

Calexico union members join in rally denouncing state budget cuts to education
By SILVIO J. PANTA, Staff Writer
Imperial Valley Press Online
March 5, 2010

CALEXICO — Members of the Calexico Teachers Association joined scores of educators statewide Thursday to denounce state budget cuts to education.

Wearing yellow “unity” shirts and listening to impassioned speeches about the need to protect education, the CTA members, along with Calexico Unified School District board members Ruben De La Rosa and Gloria Romo, staged their rally behind the Enrique Camarena Memorial Library.

[Maura Larkins comment: Unity is a good thing, but only when it's organized around a good cause. Unity isn't a virtue in itself; after all, one of the best ways to achieve unity is through a dictatorship in which followers are kept ignorant of many essential facts, and intimidated into agreement. (Hmmm. That sounds like the way Jim Groth and Peg Myers run Chula Vista Educators.) Unfortunately, CTA also invokes the need for unity when the cause is to cover up the illegal actions of a group of teachers acting only for their own personal advancement, such as at Castle Park Elemtary in Chula Vista. CTA director Jim Groth has been involved in covering up the teacher actions that led to a $20,000 PTA embezzlement, $100,000s of tax dollars spent on defending teachers, and then a big scandal when the Castle Park Five were transferred out of the school.]

Carmen Durazo, CTA president, said that California is “at a crossroads” for education and said the statewide call asks people to step up and demand that the cuts to education stop.

“It is cutting into the future of our state,” Durazo said.

Last year, 16,000 teachers were laid off statewide, Durazo said. “This year we anticipate another round of layoffs,” Durazo said.

In the past two years, $17 billion was cut from schools and colleges, eliminating art, music and physical education programs in their entirety, according to literature by the California Teachers Association.

Also, 74 percent of school principals surveyed in a University of California, Los Angeles study said they have seen class sizes increase, said Jim Groth, board president of the California Teachers Association.

“California has to reinvest in education,” Groth said.

[Maura Larkins comment: Jim Groth and I are in 100% agreement on this.]