Barbara Kerr is leaving Long Beach teachers under the control of her "deputy"

Former CTA President Barbara Kerr

Teachers in Long Beach got into a power struggle a while back, and that didn't make California Teachers Association (CTA) happy. Instead of allowing the conflict to work itself out democratically and in the courts, CTA took control last October, and still hasn't freed TALB from its control.

Kevin Butler of the Long Beach Press Telegram Long Beach Press Telegram
announced on 06/11/2008 that former CTA president Barbara Kerr will no longer be the official trustee in charge of the local affiliate. After eight months, she is allowing her deputy trustee Jack Cottrell to take over.

Butler writes, "Kerr said she anticipates that the trusteeship will continue through the summer under the leadership of interim executive director and deputy trustee Jack Cottrell...Kerr, a former president of the statewide teachers union, said that the end of the regular school year was a natural time for her to choose to leave voluntarily..."

Good call, Barbara, to leave voluntarily.

The Press Telegram also notes, "Previously, the TALB board hired the executive director. Now, TALB and CTA officials will jointly screen candidates and hire someone..."

The last full time director, Scott McVarish, resigned after an audit that revealed that too much money was spent on politics. Barbara Kerr, however, had nothing but
nice things to say about McVarish.

Ethics Complaints Against CTA-affiliate Presidents and Directors Forbidden

Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) directors really had no choice but to file suit against CTA to get their union back because CTA lawyers have a policy of silencing complaints against the presidents and executive directors of local affiliates, no matter how illegal their behavior is.

When the CTA-chosen executive director of the Teachers Association of Long Beach, Scott McVarish, misused funds in 2007, CTA wouldn't let the TALB board of directors fire him. Instead, CTA paid for a lawyer to defend him when he slandered one of the directors.

Finally CTA realized too much money was being lost, but instead of turning over power to the directors, it took over the union itself and gave control to ex-CTA president Barbara Kerr.

The directors have filed suit to get their union back.

This is all familiar to those of us who know about the actions of Barbara Kerr and CTA head counsel Beverly Tucker in Chula Vista Elementary School District.

Tim O'Neill, the executive director chosen by CTA for South County Teachers United (CTA), informed Chula Vista Educators member Maura Larkins in December 2002 that she was forbidden from making a complaint to her union affiliate Board of Directors or Representative Council about unethical behavior on the part of the president. Why was she forbidden? Because president Gina Boyd herself refused to allow a complaint to be made about her.

You can't expect much in the way of ethics from an organization like this.

Will Barbara Kerr change Long Beach, or will it change her?

Former CTA president Barbara Kerr has taken over as trustee of TALB. Achieving some of the goals on the TALB website will require a change in Barbara's behavior.

DO THESE GOALS REQUIRE A CHANGE FROM BARBARA?

1. "Promote teachers' legal rights"(when crimes committed)--
NO CHANGE REQUIRED
2. "Promote (law-abiding) teachers' legal rights" --
BIG IMPROVEMENT NEEDED
2. "Protect our members" who commit crimes--
NO CHANGE REQUIRED
3. "Protect..." honest, high-performing teachers--
IMPROVEMENT NEEDED
4. "Organize its membership for influence & power"--
NO CHANGE REQUIRED

Covering up teacher misconduct? That's right up Barbara Kerr and Beverly Tucker's alley.

Ah! Now it's clear what the problem is in Long Beach: the Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB)directors take their job seriously.

In this they are polar opposites of the Chula Vista Educators directors, one of whom told me that she didn't know the facts about the lawsuit that she and the rest of the board refused to settle, and that she hadn't seen the lawsuit.


She made it clear that she wanted CVE presidents Gina Boyd and Jim Groth to make authoritative decisions without consulting the rest of the board.

But in Long Beach, according the the www.gazette.com (2/7/2008),

"...in June 2007...several TALB board members voted to fire McVarish, accusing him of misusing union funds and making authoritative decisions without consulting the rest of the board. Several days after the vote, the union's Representative Council met and voted to reinstate McVarish.

www.gazettes.comwww.gazettes.com/mcvarish20720

If he had worked for Chula Vista Educators, McVarish would still have a job. Down here most union affiliate board members appreciate a president who will protect teachers who violate the law and keep Barbara Kerr and Beverly Tucker happy, no matter how much union money is lost in the process.

CTA's Terrifying Twosome (Barbara Kerr/Beverly Tucker) strikes again

Press Telegram Long Beach, California
By Kevin Butler, Staff Writer
03/07/2008
Click here for original article.

"Teachers Association of Long Beach trustee Barbara Kerr Friday denounced a lawsuit filed by members of the teachers union over a takeover by the union's parent organization."

[BLOGGER NOTE:
Kerr is good at denouncing. I'll bet her eyes were spitting fire when she did this.]

"Twenty-two members of the Long Beach teachers union are asking a state court to invalidate the takeover of the local chapter by its state parent union last October.

"The California Teachers Association took over the Teachers Association of Long Beach, then embroiled in an internal leadership struggle, with the aim of restoring "the democratic process" and investigating allegations of financial mismanagement, CTA officials said at the time..."

BLOGGER NOTE:
Since when is a recall not part of the democratic process? Democracy is about leadership struggles. CTA stopped democracy in its tracks.

"TALB is a chapter of CTA, and CTA has the right to impose a trusteeship," she said.

[BLOGGER NOTE:
So why didn't Kerr take over Chula Vista Educators in 2001-2002? She and her lawyer, Beverly Tucker, were informed of criminal actions taken by local union leaders. Instead, she and CTA's head counsel spent teacher dues and obstructed justice to cover up the original misdemeanors and keep the wrongdoers in power.]

"The 22 TALB union members on Feb. 25 filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court alleging that the takeover violated California corporations code...

"The union members in the lawsuit also argue that they were denied a fair hearing before the CTA Board of Directors on Oct. 18 placed TALB in "trusteeship" under the leadership of former CTA president Kerr..."

[BLOGGER NOTE:
Of course they were denied a fair hearing. The board of directors, including Barbara Kerr when she was President, simply does what head legal counsel Beverly Tucker and executive director Carolyn Doggett tells it to do.]

"The lawsuit also asks the court to require to move forward an internal election to recall one TALB board member. Kerr halted the recall process when she took over the union.

"Two of the plaintiffs - Carrie Jones-Brown and Treva Kelly - were vying to replace TALB board member Patria Daliva, who was the target of the recall
effort."

[BLOGGER NOTE:
Ah, yes. Protecting people who are in power is a guiding principle for Beverly Tucker and Barbara Kerr (also known as "Barbarly Kerrtuck").]

"Also at issue in the lawsuit is the upcoming April 8 school board election in
which TALB has endorsed two candidates - Paul Crost and Rosa Diaz - who
each are challenging an incumbent.

"The members in the lawsuit claim that Kerr has refused to implement the union's "political action program" supporting the two candidates..."

[BLOGGER NOTE:
My guess is that these candidates were too independent; Kerr and Tucker and Doggett suspected them of having divided loyalties. In other words, they might put the good of students ahead of the power of the union.]