MiraCosta is losing its most courageous board member

Miracosta Trustee Judy Stratton

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I'm afraid there's not much chance now of MiraCosta trustees having the courage to resist the control of the SDCOE-JPA and its executive director, Diane Crosier. Daniel Shinoff and/or equally ethically-deficient lawyers will continue to direct board members to take actions that are in the best interest of lawyers, not students, employees or taxpayers.

Strattan to step down from MiraCosta post
North County Times
By PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer
February 13, 2009

...MiraCosta College Trustee Judy Strattan is resigning her post effective March 31...In an unpublished interview in mid-December, Strattan told the North County Times that she needed to purchase a home outside the community college district for personal reasons.

A statement released to college staff this week said: "I know that I'll be leaving the district soon and some personal matters with family and friends have come up that need my attention..."

...A career educator, Strattan was president of Barstow Community College from 1993 to 1997 and served as dean of students at MiraCosta from 1978 to 1987. During her 2006 campaign for a seat on the board, Strattan took some incumbents to task for having a "rubber stamp mentality." She also openly questioned the leadership of then-college president Victoria Munoz Richart...

As Strattan departs, MiraCosta administrators are recommending that trustees fill her vacancy by appointment, rather than a special election...

MiraCosta demonstrates how California's education system thwarts voters and their elected officials

This is how you end up with a Victoria Richart in charge of your school.

MiraCosta College's bizarre search for a president demonstrates how schools are run--by powerful committees behind the scenes, not by board members.

Most board members simply rubberstamp the decisions made for them by lawyers and committees.

Good for Judy Stratton and Greg Post for objecting to a system where many excellent candidates--very likely including the best candidates--are eliminated for political reasons.

Who exactly was on the MiraCosta committe that eliminated 36 candidates and expected the board to choose between only two candidates? Was there a lawyer on the committee, by any chance? Daniel Shinoff, maybe?

OCEANSIDE: MiraCosta College trustees want details on search
By PAUL SISSON
May 6, 2008

...Though the board did not make any firm decisions Tuesday, the trustees expressed concern that they did not receive enough information on the pool of candidates interviewed by MiraCosta's presidential search committee earlier this year.

Trustee Judy Strattan noted that each participant in the college's previous 21-member search committee signed a confidentiality agreement prior to beginning its work, which produced only two candidates from a pool of 38 applicants. Strattan said committee members refused to divulge anything about the candidate pool before selecting the two candidates, and added that she found so little information unacceptable.

"This is definitely a board decision," Stratton said.

Trustees Greg Post and Jacqueline Simon agreed.

Simon said the board should not be in the dark about how many candidates applied, what types of general qualifications they possess, and perhaps a bit about the pool's ethnic diversity and ratio of male and female applicants.

"It seems to me there are still things you can tell us without breaking confidentiality," Simon said.

Post said the board received similar information during its search for Richart.

"We had all that information," Post said. "I too was taken somewhat aback when we couldn't even have how many applicants there were..."

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/07/news/coastal/oceanside/93102afec90999e6882574420018833d.txt

Judy Stratton and Jaqueline Simon are right--meetings are a waste of time if you don't talk about important issues

Judy Stratton

PHILIP K. IRELAND writes in the North County Times:

"MiraCosta College Trustees voted 5-2 to hire the Center for Dispute Resolution for $16,000 to help trustees resolve their disputes.

""Two members of the board -- Judy Strattan and Jaqueline Simon -- voted against the expenditure. Both trustees said they opposed spending more money on dispute resolution until the other board members agree to talk about the problems that led to the divide.

"'I am unlikely to change as long as we continue to do workshops, (but) never get to the issues that caused the split,' Strattan said. "Workshops have not made a difference with this board.'"

http://nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/20/news/coastal/2_04_182_19_08.txt

Jaqueline Simon