Felicita students’ iPods won’t fix problem
By Logan Jenkins,
San Diego Union Tribune
June 20, 2010
A brick — the Smoke, Mirrors and iPods award — to the Escondido school Union School District for moving around the furniture (i.e., the principal and some teachers) at North County’s worst school but failing to change the culture...
To turn Felicita, a model of underachievement, into a model of success, however, requires surgery, not the partial shuffling of district personnel and the promise of high-tech wizardry, like iPods for students.
If we know anything about education in tough circumstances, it’s that charismatic principals and energetic, expert teachers, freed from the mind-numbing orthodoxies of the public educrats, can work wonders with students if — and it’s a profound if — parents buy in to the American dream...
Hope I’m wrong. Afraid I’m not.
But what the heck. The kids will have iPods.
At least they’ll be quiet.
Showing posts with label Logan Jenkins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Logan Jenkins. Show all posts
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Maybe we'll learn the truth about Del Mar USD
A bouquet — the Clearing the Black Cloud award — to Sharon McClain
By Logan Jenkins
San Diego Union-Tribune
June 20, 2010
...A bouquet — the Clearing the Black Cloud award — to Sharon McClain, the fired superintendent of the Del Mar Union School District, for putting her purse where her mouth is and filing a claim against the board members and the attorney who she says done her wrong.
This first step toward a full-fledged lawsuit lays out McClain’s belief that three board members — Katherine White, Annette Easton and Doug Perkins — acted in concert with attorney ...to terminate McClain for cause when, in her view, there was no reasonable cause.
Without prejudging the legal merits of McClain’s claim, this much can be said for certain: The public has not been informed specifically what awful thing(s) McClain was supposed to have done to merit summary firing right before the spring break.
To remove a permanent stain upon her reputation — and, it should be noted, recover the severance she was entitled to if she’d been fired without cause — McClain, 65, is trying to force the board to lay out the charges against her so she can rebut them. She wants her good name back.
To be sure, there’s a political aspect to McClain’s action.
In November, two of the three trustees named in the claim — White and Easton — will be up for re-election.
If the incumbents run, the election will be at least in part a referendum on McClain’s belief that she was fired by a micromanaging board majority that failed to respect the role of the superintendent as the district’s CEO.
With a fresh crop of trustees on the board, a quick settlement with McClain might be likely. If, however, the board majority survives the election, the prospects aren’t so good for McClain.
The last thing she wants is a drawn-out legal war of attrition that could, in the end, drain her purse.
In the end, McClain’s shot across the bow could be more about the ballot box than a jury box.
By Logan Jenkins
San Diego Union-Tribune
June 20, 2010
...A bouquet — the Clearing the Black Cloud award — to Sharon McClain, the fired superintendent of the Del Mar Union School District, for putting her purse where her mouth is and filing a claim against the board members and the attorney who she says done her wrong.
This first step toward a full-fledged lawsuit lays out McClain’s belief that three board members — Katherine White, Annette Easton and Doug Perkins — acted in concert with attorney ...to terminate McClain for cause when, in her view, there was no reasonable cause.
Without prejudging the legal merits of McClain’s claim, this much can be said for certain: The public has not been informed specifically what awful thing(s) McClain was supposed to have done to merit summary firing right before the spring break.
To remove a permanent stain upon her reputation — and, it should be noted, recover the severance she was entitled to if she’d been fired without cause — McClain, 65, is trying to force the board to lay out the charges against her so she can rebut them. She wants her good name back.
To be sure, there’s a political aspect to McClain’s action.
In November, two of the three trustees named in the claim — White and Easton — will be up for re-election.
If the incumbents run, the election will be at least in part a referendum on McClain’s belief that she was fired by a micromanaging board majority that failed to respect the role of the superintendent as the district’s CEO.
With a fresh crop of trustees on the board, a quick settlement with McClain might be likely. If, however, the board majority survives the election, the prospects aren’t so good for McClain.
The last thing she wants is a drawn-out legal war of attrition that could, in the end, drain her purse.
In the end, McClain’s shot across the bow could be more about the ballot box than a jury box.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Logan Jenkins writes about the Leslie Devaney v. Kathleen Sterling confrontation at Tri-City Hospital
LAWSUIT AGAINST TRI-CITY HEALTHCARE BY ATTORNEYS LESLIE DEVANEY AND RAY ARTIANO
Leslie Devaney seems to make it personal against board member Kathleen Sterling.
See the full complaint HERE.
It's Leslie Devaney (left) versus Kathleen Sterling (right). Devaney has targeted Kathleen Sterling in lawsuit against Tri-City Hospital.
S.D. mayor is right on how poorly run state is
By Logan Jenkins
San Diego Union Tribune
July 26, 2009
... A spiky bouquet--the Sterling Silver Tongue award--to the attorneys for seven fired Tri-City executives who are suing four board members, Tri-City Medical Center and its current CEO for illegal termination and defamation.
Without judging the merits of the case, one thing you have to admire about the lawsuit's complaint, fashioned by the law firm of Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz, is the way it focuses like a laser on what it calls, over and over and over, the “Sterling Faction.”
The overriding theory of the lawsuit is that the chain of events that led to the firing of the seven high-level executives, as well as the departure of former CEO Arthur Gonzalez via settlement, was orchestrated exclusively by Kathleen Sterling, a maverick board member with a score of scores to settle against the Tri-City executives and several hostile board members.
Here's an illustrative paragraph from the complaint that lays out the dynamic that the plaintiffs hope will earn them millions of dollars in damages:
“The Healthcare Executives are informed and believe that as soon as elected (in November), the Sterling Faction set out to exact revenge against the Healthcare Executives and then-CEO Gonzalez who had worked for so many years to protect the District and the public from Defendant Sterling's abuses and that the Sterling Faction set out to exact retribution for the Healthcare Executives' perceived anti-union political beliefs. Even before the elections were certified, the union-backed Sterling Faction began meeting as a group to plot the ouster . . . ”
In the plaintiffs' narrative, the other board members of the Sterling Faction – RoseMarie Reno, Charlene Anderson and George Coulter – were mere pro-union stooges under Sterling's decisive thumb.
By focusing the lawsuit on Sterling, the Exiled Seven's attorneys accomplish a couple of things. They create a colorful villain with a well-documented history of odd behavior. Moreover, they posit a highly personal motive for the firings – Sterling's burning desire for vengeance – that dovetails with the allegedly self-interested agenda of the nurses union.
If a jury ever hears this mother of all termination cases – each plaintiff is asking for a minimum of a million dollars, and that doesn't include punitive damages – Sterling will be the alleged conspiracy's ringleader, the star of the show.
And the other defendants? They're just stooges, along for the ride.
Leslie Devaney seems to make it personal against board member Kathleen Sterling.
See the full complaint HERE.
It's Leslie Devaney (left) versus Kathleen Sterling (right). Devaney has targeted Kathleen Sterling in lawsuit against Tri-City Hospital.
S.D. mayor is right on how poorly run state is
By Logan Jenkins
San Diego Union Tribune
July 26, 2009
... A spiky bouquet--the Sterling Silver Tongue award--to the attorneys for seven fired Tri-City executives who are suing four board members, Tri-City Medical Center and its current CEO for illegal termination and defamation.
Without judging the merits of the case, one thing you have to admire about the lawsuit's complaint, fashioned by the law firm of Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz, is the way it focuses like a laser on what it calls, over and over and over, the “Sterling Faction.”
The overriding theory of the lawsuit is that the chain of events that led to the firing of the seven high-level executives, as well as the departure of former CEO Arthur Gonzalez via settlement, was orchestrated exclusively by Kathleen Sterling, a maverick board member with a score of scores to settle against the Tri-City executives and several hostile board members.
Here's an illustrative paragraph from the complaint that lays out the dynamic that the plaintiffs hope will earn them millions of dollars in damages:
“The Healthcare Executives are informed and believe that as soon as elected (in November), the Sterling Faction set out to exact revenge against the Healthcare Executives and then-CEO Gonzalez who had worked for so many years to protect the District and the public from Defendant Sterling's abuses and that the Sterling Faction set out to exact retribution for the Healthcare Executives' perceived anti-union political beliefs. Even before the elections were certified, the union-backed Sterling Faction began meeting as a group to plot the ouster . . . ”
In the plaintiffs' narrative, the other board members of the Sterling Faction – RoseMarie Reno, Charlene Anderson and George Coulter – were mere pro-union stooges under Sterling's decisive thumb.
By focusing the lawsuit on Sterling, the Exiled Seven's attorneys accomplish a couple of things. They create a colorful villain with a well-documented history of odd behavior. Moreover, they posit a highly personal motive for the firings – Sterling's burning desire for vengeance – that dovetails with the allegedly self-interested agenda of the nurses union.
If a jury ever hears this mother of all termination cases – each plaintiff is asking for a minimum of a million dollars, and that doesn't include punitive damages – Sterling will be the alleged conspiracy's ringleader, the star of the show.
And the other defendants? They're just stooges, along for the ride.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tri-City Healthcare urged to "restore control over the administration and attorneys"
San Diego Union Tribune
Calling for award for chatty Kathleen
By Logan Jenkins
January 11, 2009
...Another bouquet – the Clearing the Air award – to Ron Cozad, the Carlsbad attorney representing Dr. John Young, a cardiothoracic surgeon whose bitter dispute with Tri-City administrators and fellow doctors appears to be high on the list of alleged “crimes” committed by the administration in exile.
Cozad's Dec. 11 letter to the board of directors has been cited as a possible road map for the board. But as is clear from Sterling's Dec. 4 voice mail, she already was harboring plans for dramatic changes that would lead to the resignation of loyalist board members.
Still, Cozad's letter, which he furnished to reporters, meshes well with the course the board majority would adopt in private session.
After describing a conspiracy of deception and retaliation against Young in the Dec. 11 letter, Cozad concludes: “Dr. Young respectfully urges this new Board to restore control over the administration and attorneys by exercising its absolute right to remove counsel and to fulfill its obligations to determine through an independent and unbiased forensic audit, whether your administrators complied with all relevant State and Federal laws . . . .”
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