There are two common scenarios in schools, and one that is about as rare as a perfect SAT score:
1) The principal does whatever the teachers want, or
2) The teacher and principal are always at each others' throats, or, in rare instances,
3) The principal is a strong leader who is able to give direction to teachers and keep them happy at the same time.
Sadly, this story reveals the truth about how principals and teachers commonly behave. It's not a pretty picture. Teachers in the four schools I taught at during my career were very aggressive toward their principals. More often than not, the principals just caved in and gave them what they wanted. One principal tried so hard to please the teachers that he ended up $14,000 over budget and got fired. After he left, the staff talked about how nice he was. I spent years at one school watching staff members yell at the principal for two hours straight at staff meeting after staff meeting. I remember those teachers were upset when I left to pick up my son when his daycare closed. They were going to yell, and we were all going to listen.
My last school, Castle Park Elementary, recently had eleven principals in eleven years.
Trustee's Relationship Complicates School's Principal Saga
July 31, 2011
by Emily Alpert
Voice of San Diego
When Gwendolyn Kirkland took over Fulton, the interim principal immediately stepped into controversy.
...Before Kirkland came, it had had the same principal for seven years. Former Principal Caroline King made a point of keeping her door open and once treated her teachers to massages and manicures.
Gwendolyn Kirkland was a different kind of leader. Teachers complained she was hard to reach and unwilling to compromise. They rattled off a litany of concerns from scheduling things at the last minute to breaking union rules.
"It just seemed like she wanted to do it her way or no way," said Sherie Edwards, a Fulton parent who also works there as a special education technician.
Some parents thought Kirkland was a welcome change. Nikena Carter felt like the last principal just wanted to be friends with everyone, but Kirkland was willing to challenge teachers to help kids. Kirkland said she was worried by "toxic types of behavior" on campus, unprofessionalism and rudeness.
"She always wanted to know what our issues were," said Carter, who has two children at Fulton. "She even cared what our children had to say."...
Several parents lodged complaints about a teacher who had spoken up in front of the school board. Principal Kirkland had been sympathetic to their concerns.
"The teacher said my child wouldn't go to college. That she'd work at Burger King or McDonald's," said Veronica Muñoz, another mother who backed Kirkland. "But Ms. Kirkland helped me a lot."
Some teachers saw the complaints as mere retaliation for questioning Kirkland and Campbell...
[Maura Larkins' comment: I know that many, if not most teachers, are frightened and hostile when a parent complains. Why not just listen to the parents? If their complaint is justified, do something to fix things. If it's not, the least a teacher can do is show respect and concern for the parent and child.]
Showing posts with label SDUSD Trustee Shelia Jackson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SDUSD Trustee Shelia Jackson. Show all posts
Monday, August 01, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The Shelia Jackson brouhaha makes me ask: Which newspaper is better, the San Diego Union-Tribune or the Voice of San Diego?
UPDATE: July 29, 2011
Here are my latest comments on the Jackson story in Voice of San Diego:
To VOSD:
You guys are doing something wrong. I don't think your decisions are motivated by race, but the unbalanced racial makeup of the people you choose to attack exposes a problem. I'm not talking about the top elected officials. I am talking about how VOSD chooses which of the other 3 million people in San Diego to attack, protect, or discuss. There's something wrong with your methodology when so many of the people attacked are black women. There is something arbitrary and inequitable about your methods. The law of probability indicates that you are somehow pulling some of the cards out of the deck before the game begins.
You are exposing your methods unintentionally. The same thing happens with people who cheat on their taxes. The IRS spots them by looking for certain numbers that tend to pop up more frequently in the tax filings of people who are cheating. They use statistics to spot the fraud, without even looking at the reasons given for deductions.
VOSD has stepped gingerly around some stories, and stepped heavily into other stories.
The people that get the gentler treatment from VOSD tend to be white, not because VOSD is racist, but because, I suspect, the people whom Buzz Woolley and the rest of the top dogs at VOSD want to protect happen to be white. People high up on the food chain in San Diego schools are treated gently (and the superintendent there is a black man), while people who rank lower take the heat. Also, people down at SEDC get harsh handling.
Obviously, commenter "bigfan" doesn't like Shelia Jackson, and doesn't want to question VOSD's motives for choosing to attack Jackson while staying silent on more important issues in schools.
My point is that I think VOSD chooses stories for the wrong reasons, but not necessarily for racial reasons. But one must suspect that something is wrong when there is such a surfeit of black women being attacked. The laws of probability are being violated. The choices seem arbitrary. It appears that people are attacked if they are not on the protected list.
Let's look at the facts. When Regina Petty at SEDC wouldn't turn over public records, VOSD went after her with a vengeance. We were treated to 13 "Petty Watch" posts. It took two months of "almost constant hounding" to get SEDC to release public records.
But VOSD reported that when it asked for records from the County Office of Education "that would show if the trips were given to the agency rather than the employee, it didn't provide any." VOSD didn't begin an aggressive "Crosier Watch." No constant hounding. The difference in treatment was not due to the fact that the SEDC lawyer was black and Diane Crosier, the lawyer in charge of keeping public records out of public view at the County Office of Education, was white. It's because Petty had no friends at VOSD, and Crosier apparently does. I call it friendship when you meekly accept a "no" answer to a public records request instead of doing all you can to shame Diane Crosier into turning over the records.
I'm not saying VOSD shouldn't cover the Jackson story. I'm saying that we can clearly see that there is a problem when racial patterns emerge so clearly in VOSD stories. I'm saying VOSD needs to start telling the whole truth about schools in San Diego. And it should start with a "Crosier Watch."
ORIGINAL POST:
My opinion of the San Diego Union-Tribune has been on the rise since it covered the Dan Puplava story about financial company kickbacks to an employee of San Diego County Office of Education.
On the other hand, the SDUT has kept the secrets of lots of powerful people in San Diego Schools.
For this reason, I never expected the SDUT to cover the story when school attorneys managed to get Judge Judith Hayes to issue an injunction saying I couldn't mention them on my website--or even speak their name. I wasn't surprised that no one from the SDUT was there on July 11, 2011 when USD law professor Shaun Martin spoke on my behalf before the California Court of Appeal in San Diego. He did a great job. On the other hand, when the presiding justice asked the opposing attorney if he had any case law to support his position, he said he couldn't find any cases. "I tried! Believe me, I tried!" he whined.
While I had no expectations of the SDUT, I was surprised and disappointed that Voice of San Diego would keep this story quiet. My only explanation is that Buzz Woolley, the chief financial supporter of VOSD, is very much a supporter of school administrators, and this support apparently extends to their attorneys. VOSD apparently wants to protect the secrets of those attorneys even when (or especially when) they obtain unconstitutional injunctions that violate the right to free speech. It also seems to want to protect them when they help schools keep secrets from voters.
Just a few weeks ago I complained to editor Andrew Donohue and CEO Scott Lewis that VOSD had repeatedly protected powerful white men while going after less-powerful black women in the same organization. In each case, the more powerful person knew or should have known what was going on, but VOSD didn't hound them with public records requests. It went after Regina Petty at SEDC with a vengeance, but never took such a stance with Diane Crosier at SDCOE. Instead of an aggressive campaign like the "Petty Watch" against SEDC attorney Regina Petty, VOSD meekly reported, "But when VOSD asked for records that would show if the trips were given to the agency rather than the employee, it didn't provide any. Instead, the County Office argued that in the past, it just wasn't required to report gifts given to the agency. Despite repeated questions, the agency gave no further explanation of why it wouldn't have to report those gifts."
SEDC Chairman of the board Chip Owen had to notice that huge amounts of money were being saved because employees left without being replaced. How did he explain that the agency kept coming in barely under budget? Why is it only his subordinate Carolyn Smith (and her finance director Dante Daycap) who are facing criminal charges? Owen was in charge, for heaven's sake! He was responsible for oversight! Everyone says he's sharp and effective. If that's true, he knew.
The case was similar to the problems in another redevelopment agency across town, where Nancy Graham (a white woman) took all the heat, and her boss, Fred Maas, resigning discreetly about a year after the excitement had passed
VOSD has also been very polite in its public records requests to SDCOE. In addition, it has found no reason to write about Dan Puplava and Diane Crosier's legal issues, and has gone silent on the story of Diane Crosier's odd relationship with the attorney to whom she gives millions of dollars worth of work. Meanwhile, VOSD triggered a state investigation of a lower-level SDCOE employee who recommended that a tiny fraction of the legal work be given to her husband's firm. You guessed it,Crosier is white, the other employee is a black woman.
When I complained, VOSD assured me that it was just a matter of chance that it so aggressively attacked black women. But black women are just 5% of the population. How does VOSD manage to find so many of them to pursue?
Still, I was willing to believe that VOSD wasn't racist. I figured it was simply protecting the powerful, and, of course, the powerful tend to be white and male.
Then I learned that VOSD has been following Shelia Jackson around. Now I'm really wondering what is going on over there on Historic Decatur Road. Did I mention that the law firm that obtained the injunction against me is the next-door neighbor of VOSD? Is there something in the water in Liberty Station?
[I should also mention that NBC reporter Rory Devine, mentioned prominently in the VOSD story below, also decided to keep mum about the school attorneys who got Judge Hayes to protect their secrets from exposure.]
Five Possible Problems on Jackson's Residency
July 27, 2011
by Emily Alpert
We teamed with NBC7 San Diego to do a television version of our story about questions swirling over where San Diego Unified school board member Shelia Jackson lives. Here it is:
Reporter Rory Devine did a good job breaking down this complicated story. She explained that there are three possible problems here:
• Whether or not Jackson lives in the area of the school district she was elected to represent.
We saw Jackson coming to a Kearny Mesa apartment complex late at night or leaving in the morning four times in a week, raising questions about whether she lives there. Jackson says she does not. The apartment belongs to her daughter and Jackson says she stays there a few nights a week. The schools trustee, however, also used that address as hers when registering a business in August last year.
• Whether it is appropriate for her to accept free rent from a San Diego Unified employee.
Jackson says she lives rent-free in her district at a home owned by Gwendolyn Kirkland. Jackson voted with the rest of the board to approve choosing Kirkland as an interim principal last year.
Jackson and Kirkland both argue that she was not swayed by the free rent; Jackson also said she had no role in the selection process that led up to Kirkland being presented to the school board...
Remarks on this subject:
Frances O'Neill Zimmerman
Well, thank goodness the voice, in its zeal to uncover the truth about School Board member Shelia Jackson's legal domicile, mentioned that back in the day it was deemed perfectly okay for School Board President Ron Ottinger to live outside his District D at Coronado Quays and to send his youngest child to Coronado High School.
But Ottinger was rich and Anglo and could maintain a condo in the Gaslamp to keep up the fiction that he was a resident of District D. Ottinger also was the linchpin on the School Board threesome that kept Alan Bersin in business, so there was no way he was going to be sacrificed to some legal nicety that people are supposed to live where they are elected from. That residency rule was proved by Ottinger to be highly flexible.
In contrast, Shelia Jackson is African-American and working-class...
Here are my latest comments on the Jackson story in Voice of San Diego:
To VOSD:
You guys are doing something wrong. I don't think your decisions are motivated by race, but the unbalanced racial makeup of the people you choose to attack exposes a problem. I'm not talking about the top elected officials. I am talking about how VOSD chooses which of the other 3 million people in San Diego to attack, protect, or discuss. There's something wrong with your methodology when so many of the people attacked are black women. There is something arbitrary and inequitable about your methods. The law of probability indicates that you are somehow pulling some of the cards out of the deck before the game begins.
You are exposing your methods unintentionally. The same thing happens with people who cheat on their taxes. The IRS spots them by looking for certain numbers that tend to pop up more frequently in the tax filings of people who are cheating. They use statistics to spot the fraud, without even looking at the reasons given for deductions.
VOSD has stepped gingerly around some stories, and stepped heavily into other stories.
The people that get the gentler treatment from VOSD tend to be white, not because VOSD is racist, but because, I suspect, the people whom Buzz Woolley and the rest of the top dogs at VOSD want to protect happen to be white. People high up on the food chain in San Diego schools are treated gently (and the superintendent there is a black man), while people who rank lower take the heat. Also, people down at SEDC get harsh handling.
Obviously, commenter "bigfan" doesn't like Shelia Jackson, and doesn't want to question VOSD's motives for choosing to attack Jackson while staying silent on more important issues in schools.
My point is that I think VOSD chooses stories for the wrong reasons, but not necessarily for racial reasons. But one must suspect that something is wrong when there is such a surfeit of black women being attacked. The laws of probability are being violated. The choices seem arbitrary. It appears that people are attacked if they are not on the protected list.
Let's look at the facts. When Regina Petty at SEDC wouldn't turn over public records, VOSD went after her with a vengeance. We were treated to 13 "Petty Watch" posts. It took two months of "almost constant hounding" to get SEDC to release public records.
But VOSD reported that when it asked for records from the County Office of Education "that would show if the trips were given to the agency rather than the employee, it didn't provide any." VOSD didn't begin an aggressive "Crosier Watch." No constant hounding. The difference in treatment was not due to the fact that the SEDC lawyer was black and Diane Crosier, the lawyer in charge of keeping public records out of public view at the County Office of Education, was white. It's because Petty had no friends at VOSD, and Crosier apparently does. I call it friendship when you meekly accept a "no" answer to a public records request instead of doing all you can to shame Diane Crosier into turning over the records.
I'm not saying VOSD shouldn't cover the Jackson story. I'm saying that we can clearly see that there is a problem when racial patterns emerge so clearly in VOSD stories. I'm saying VOSD needs to start telling the whole truth about schools in San Diego. And it should start with a "Crosier Watch."
ORIGINAL POST:
My opinion of the San Diego Union-Tribune has been on the rise since it covered the Dan Puplava story about financial company kickbacks to an employee of San Diego County Office of Education.
On the other hand, the SDUT has kept the secrets of lots of powerful people in San Diego Schools.
For this reason, I never expected the SDUT to cover the story when school attorneys managed to get Judge Judith Hayes to issue an injunction saying I couldn't mention them on my website--or even speak their name. I wasn't surprised that no one from the SDUT was there on July 11, 2011 when USD law professor Shaun Martin spoke on my behalf before the California Court of Appeal in San Diego. He did a great job. On the other hand, when the presiding justice asked the opposing attorney if he had any case law to support his position, he said he couldn't find any cases. "I tried! Believe me, I tried!" he whined.
While I had no expectations of the SDUT, I was surprised and disappointed that Voice of San Diego would keep this story quiet. My only explanation is that Buzz Woolley, the chief financial supporter of VOSD, is very much a supporter of school administrators, and this support apparently extends to their attorneys. VOSD apparently wants to protect the secrets of those attorneys even when (or especially when) they obtain unconstitutional injunctions that violate the right to free speech. It also seems to want to protect them when they help schools keep secrets from voters.
Just a few weeks ago I complained to editor Andrew Donohue and CEO Scott Lewis that VOSD had repeatedly protected powerful white men while going after less-powerful black women in the same organization. In each case, the more powerful person knew or should have known what was going on, but VOSD didn't hound them with public records requests. It went after Regina Petty at SEDC with a vengeance, but never took such a stance with Diane Crosier at SDCOE. Instead of an aggressive campaign like the "Petty Watch" against SEDC attorney Regina Petty, VOSD meekly reported, "But when VOSD asked for records that would show if the trips were given to the agency rather than the employee, it didn't provide any. Instead, the County Office argued that in the past, it just wasn't required to report gifts given to the agency. Despite repeated questions, the agency gave no further explanation of why it wouldn't have to report those gifts."
SEDC Chairman of the board Chip Owen had to notice that huge amounts of money were being saved because employees left without being replaced. How did he explain that the agency kept coming in barely under budget? Why is it only his subordinate Carolyn Smith (and her finance director Dante Daycap) who are facing criminal charges? Owen was in charge, for heaven's sake! He was responsible for oversight! Everyone says he's sharp and effective. If that's true, he knew.
The case was similar to the problems in another redevelopment agency across town, where Nancy Graham (a white woman) took all the heat, and her boss, Fred Maas, resigning discreetly about a year after the excitement had passed
VOSD has also been very polite in its public records requests to SDCOE. In addition, it has found no reason to write about Dan Puplava and Diane Crosier's legal issues, and has gone silent on the story of Diane Crosier's odd relationship with the attorney to whom she gives millions of dollars worth of work. Meanwhile, VOSD triggered a state investigation of a lower-level SDCOE employee who recommended that a tiny fraction of the legal work be given to her husband's firm. You guessed it,Crosier is white, the other employee is a black woman.
When I complained, VOSD assured me that it was just a matter of chance that it so aggressively attacked black women. But black women are just 5% of the population. How does VOSD manage to find so many of them to pursue?
Still, I was willing to believe that VOSD wasn't racist. I figured it was simply protecting the powerful, and, of course, the powerful tend to be white and male.
Then I learned that VOSD has been following Shelia Jackson around. Now I'm really wondering what is going on over there on Historic Decatur Road. Did I mention that the law firm that obtained the injunction against me is the next-door neighbor of VOSD? Is there something in the water in Liberty Station?
[I should also mention that NBC reporter Rory Devine, mentioned prominently in the VOSD story below, also decided to keep mum about the school attorneys who got Judge Hayes to protect their secrets from exposure.]
Five Possible Problems on Jackson's Residency
July 27, 2011
by Emily Alpert
We teamed with NBC7 San Diego to do a television version of our story about questions swirling over where San Diego Unified school board member Shelia Jackson lives. Here it is:
Reporter Rory Devine did a good job breaking down this complicated story. She explained that there are three possible problems here:
• Whether or not Jackson lives in the area of the school district she was elected to represent.
We saw Jackson coming to a Kearny Mesa apartment complex late at night or leaving in the morning four times in a week, raising questions about whether she lives there. Jackson says she does not. The apartment belongs to her daughter and Jackson says she stays there a few nights a week. The schools trustee, however, also used that address as hers when registering a business in August last year.
• Whether it is appropriate for her to accept free rent from a San Diego Unified employee.
Jackson says she lives rent-free in her district at a home owned by Gwendolyn Kirkland. Jackson voted with the rest of the board to approve choosing Kirkland as an interim principal last year.
Jackson and Kirkland both argue that she was not swayed by the free rent; Jackson also said she had no role in the selection process that led up to Kirkland being presented to the school board...
Remarks on this subject:
Frances O'Neill Zimmerman
Well, thank goodness the voice, in its zeal to uncover the truth about School Board member Shelia Jackson's legal domicile, mentioned that back in the day it was deemed perfectly okay for School Board President Ron Ottinger to live outside his District D at Coronado Quays and to send his youngest child to Coronado High School.
But Ottinger was rich and Anglo and could maintain a condo in the Gaslamp to keep up the fiction that he was a resident of District D. Ottinger also was the linchpin on the School Board threesome that kept Alan Bersin in business, so there was no way he was going to be sacrificed to some legal nicety that people are supposed to live where they are elected from. That residency rule was proved by Ottinger to be highly flexible.
In contrast, Shelia Jackson is African-American and working-class...
Friday, February 12, 2010
Four SDUSD Democratic board members find the courage to stand up to the teachers union
John De Beck always had the courage to criticize the teachers union; citizens can rejoice now that Richard Barrera, John Lee Evans and Shelia Jackson have done the same.
Camille Zombro and Jim Groth of the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) might want to pull their heads out of the ground and realize that its time to acknowledge the real world: there's a limit to how long citizens will continue to bow to the arbitrary demands of CTA.
Pressing Labor for Cuts Triggers 'Surreal' Shakeup on School Board
Voice of San Diego
Feb 11, 2010
By EMILY ALPERT
After another plan failed to dig up enough savings, San Diego Unified is now under even more pressure to squeeze employees to balance its budget.
The prolonged budget crisis has put some board members at odds with the same unions that helped to elect them -- and jumbled the usual dynamics of the politicized board.
Longtime labor ally Richard Barrera is seeking deeper concessions from the teachers union, along with John Lee Evans, who was elected on a pledge to protect teachers. John de Beck and Shelia Jackson, who have often disagreed on labor issues in recent years, are both pushing the idea of progressive salary cuts that fall harder on employees who earn more...
Camille Zombro and Jim Groth of the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) might want to pull their heads out of the ground and realize that its time to acknowledge the real world: there's a limit to how long citizens will continue to bow to the arbitrary demands of CTA.
Pressing Labor for Cuts Triggers 'Surreal' Shakeup on School Board
Voice of San Diego
Feb 11, 2010
By EMILY ALPERT
After another plan failed to dig up enough savings, San Diego Unified is now under even more pressure to squeeze employees to balance its budget.
The prolonged budget crisis has put some board members at odds with the same unions that helped to elect them -- and jumbled the usual dynamics of the politicized board.
Longtime labor ally Richard Barrera is seeking deeper concessions from the teachers union, along with John Lee Evans, who was elected on a pledge to protect teachers. John de Beck and Shelia Jackson, who have often disagreed on labor issues in recent years, are both pushing the idea of progressive salary cuts that fall harder on employees who earn more...
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Shame on Shelia Jackson for thwarting Gompers Charter High School
Gompers’ protest over district’s latest scheme
By Marsha Sutton, SDNN
June 29, 2009
“HELP US STOP SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT FROM TAKING AWAY GOMPERS PROPERTY!”
The headline screamed out at me from my computer screen. Gompers Charter, the Little School That Could, needs help once more.
Against all odds, this neighborhood charter school in southeast San Diego - in partnership with the University of California, San Diego - has taken over where the San Diego Unified School District left off. And that fact apparently infuriates some school board members, particularly board president Shelia Jackson, who represents the Gompers sub-district on the board.
Gompers became a charter school in 2005 after years of chronic failure and indifference by San Diego Unified. In a move that garnered national attention, proponents rallied together and managed to persuade a reluctant school board to approve a Gompers charter unanimously.
What made this charter unique is that it transformed itself from a shell of a school battered by neglect and constrained by union-dominated policies and people, to a neighborhood charter school serving neighborhood kids’ needs with the full support and involvement of parents and the community.
Today, under the leadership of charismatic Gompers principal Vince Riveroll and an enthusiastic staff, achievement has improved, detentions and suspensions have declined, and belief in future success has replaced hopelessness and apathy.
A crumbling educational environment has been converted into a middle school that offers promising outcomes at last.
After four years of steady middle school success, Gompers and its board of directors petitioned the school board earlier this year to approve a Gompers charter high school. A unanimous school board once again voted to support the petition, so Gompers will expand this fall and open a high school that will eventually serve students in grades 9-12.
You’d think, given the unanimity of the charter vote, that all five school board members would be supportive of the school, right? Wrong.
Just after approving the high school charter, it became clear that Jackson had plans to construct a bus turn-around in the area where Gompers has its heart set on building athletic fields for its kids.
Obliterating athletic fields so integral to high school success is a back-door entry to derailed dreams and is yet another blow in a long series of attacks against the school. Even after she heard how strongly the school and community opposed the turn-around, Jackson persisted.
The desperate message from Riveroll lays out the problem:
“The San Diego Unified School District is placing buildings on Gompers sports fields starting in July 2009. We must stop this from happening! The San Diego Unified School District is placing a bus station on Gompers property. We must stop this from happening!”
As Riveroll and his board of directors see it, the destruction of the fields in order to provide a bus turn-around for a nearby magnet school that imports 70 to 80 percent of its students from outside the Gompers area is “unfair treatment” of neighborhood kids - especially when there are other viable options for the magnet school’s buses.
“The district is taking away the Gompers field of dreams and giving it to Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School,” Riveroll says.
Jackson has managed to do this virtually unilaterally, and privately. She has not brought the matter before the full school board, perhaps because not all members support her efforts to thwart Gompers’ progress...
UPDATE FROM VOICE OF SAN DIEGO
by Emily Alpert
June 30, 2009
The charter school is planning a rally Wednesday to protest school district proposals to place classrooms and build a bus turnaround on part of its site...
I finally caught up with school board President Shelia Jackson and bond czar Stuart Markey today to get their thoughts on the plans.
"I'm not sure what all the hullabaloo is about," Jackson said. "The bungalows are a necessary part of the [Millennial Tech] school. They won't interrupt [Gompers'] P.E. program." She argued that contrary to claims made by critics, she had nothing to do with the plans personally. "Whatever has been planned, has been planned by our facilities department."
School board member Katherine Nakamura begged to differ. "This is Ms. Jackson" behind the plan, she said. "And her community is coming to her and telling her in no uncertain terms that this is something they don't want. Does this need to be smack dab in the middle of the athletic fields?"
Stuart Markey, who is overseeing the facilities bond that would help to fund the new classrooms...[said] buildings would be placed no earlier than August if the plans go through. Markey said the issue will go to the school board later in July for a vote.
[Maura Larkins' comment: Usually I give Katherine Nakamura a hard time, but I believe she's on the side of the community here, and I believe she's telling the truth. Shelia, please don't sell out to sweet-talking supporters. Do what's right for the kids. All the kids.]
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-06-29/news/politics-city-county-government/marsha-sutton-gompers-protest-over-district%e2%80%99s-scheme#ixzz0JxFZlhdj&C
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/07/01/education/schooled/766gompers063009.txt
By Marsha Sutton, SDNN
June 29, 2009
“HELP US STOP SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT FROM TAKING AWAY GOMPERS PROPERTY!”
The headline screamed out at me from my computer screen. Gompers Charter, the Little School That Could, needs help once more.
Against all odds, this neighborhood charter school in southeast San Diego - in partnership with the University of California, San Diego - has taken over where the San Diego Unified School District left off. And that fact apparently infuriates some school board members, particularly board president Shelia Jackson, who represents the Gompers sub-district on the board.
Gompers became a charter school in 2005 after years of chronic failure and indifference by San Diego Unified. In a move that garnered national attention, proponents rallied together and managed to persuade a reluctant school board to approve a Gompers charter unanimously.
What made this charter unique is that it transformed itself from a shell of a school battered by neglect and constrained by union-dominated policies and people, to a neighborhood charter school serving neighborhood kids’ needs with the full support and involvement of parents and the community.
Today, under the leadership of charismatic Gompers principal Vince Riveroll and an enthusiastic staff, achievement has improved, detentions and suspensions have declined, and belief in future success has replaced hopelessness and apathy.
A crumbling educational environment has been converted into a middle school that offers promising outcomes at last.
After four years of steady middle school success, Gompers and its board of directors petitioned the school board earlier this year to approve a Gompers charter high school. A unanimous school board once again voted to support the petition, so Gompers will expand this fall and open a high school that will eventually serve students in grades 9-12.
You’d think, given the unanimity of the charter vote, that all five school board members would be supportive of the school, right? Wrong.
Just after approving the high school charter, it became clear that Jackson had plans to construct a bus turn-around in the area where Gompers has its heart set on building athletic fields for its kids.
Obliterating athletic fields so integral to high school success is a back-door entry to derailed dreams and is yet another blow in a long series of attacks against the school. Even after she heard how strongly the school and community opposed the turn-around, Jackson persisted.
The desperate message from Riveroll lays out the problem:
“The San Diego Unified School District is placing buildings on Gompers sports fields starting in July 2009. We must stop this from happening! The San Diego Unified School District is placing a bus station on Gompers property. We must stop this from happening!”
As Riveroll and his board of directors see it, the destruction of the fields in order to provide a bus turn-around for a nearby magnet school that imports 70 to 80 percent of its students from outside the Gompers area is “unfair treatment” of neighborhood kids - especially when there are other viable options for the magnet school’s buses.
“The district is taking away the Gompers field of dreams and giving it to Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School,” Riveroll says.
Jackson has managed to do this virtually unilaterally, and privately. She has not brought the matter before the full school board, perhaps because not all members support her efforts to thwart Gompers’ progress...
UPDATE FROM VOICE OF SAN DIEGO
by Emily Alpert
June 30, 2009
The charter school is planning a rally Wednesday to protest school district proposals to place classrooms and build a bus turnaround on part of its site...
I finally caught up with school board President Shelia Jackson and bond czar Stuart Markey today to get their thoughts on the plans.
"I'm not sure what all the hullabaloo is about," Jackson said. "The bungalows are a necessary part of the [Millennial Tech] school. They won't interrupt [Gompers'] P.E. program." She argued that contrary to claims made by critics, she had nothing to do with the plans personally. "Whatever has been planned, has been planned by our facilities department."
School board member Katherine Nakamura begged to differ. "This is Ms. Jackson" behind the plan, she said. "And her community is coming to her and telling her in no uncertain terms that this is something they don't want. Does this need to be smack dab in the middle of the athletic fields?"
Stuart Markey, who is overseeing the facilities bond that would help to fund the new classrooms...[said] buildings would be placed no earlier than August if the plans go through. Markey said the issue will go to the school board later in July for a vote.
[Maura Larkins' comment: Usually I give Katherine Nakamura a hard time, but I believe she's on the side of the community here, and I believe she's telling the truth. Shelia, please don't sell out to sweet-talking supporters. Do what's right for the kids. All the kids.]
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-06-29/news/politics-city-county-government/marsha-sutton-gompers-protest-over-district%e2%80%99s-scheme#ixzz0JxFZlhdj&C
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/07/01/education/schooled/766gompers063009.txt
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Shelia Jackson plays the religion card
Democrats have been wondering for years how Republicans were able to claim both religion and patriotism as their exclusive domains. Shelia Jackson paid attention and learned.
Prayer proposal placed on school board agenda
By Maureen Magee
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
February 10, 2009
The San Diego school board will discuss today whether to open its public meetings with prayer, at the suggestion of President Shelia Jackson.
Jackson placed the matter on the school board agenda with no written explanation or formal proposal. She was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Although vague, the scheduled discussion is almost guaranteed to stir controversy, said board member John de Beck.
“I won't pray with them, though I will pray for them,” said de Beck, referring to the board's emerging voting bloc of Jackson and trustees Richard Barrera and John Lee Evans. “I can't understand any reason for prayer at our meetings. Why add controversy?”...
Prayer proposal placed on school board agenda
By Maureen Magee
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
February 10, 2009
The San Diego school board will discuss today whether to open its public meetings with prayer, at the suggestion of President Shelia Jackson.
Jackson placed the matter on the school board agenda with no written explanation or formal proposal. She was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Although vague, the scheduled discussion is almost guaranteed to stir controversy, said board member John de Beck.
“I won't pray with them, though I will pray for them,” said de Beck, referring to the board's emerging voting bloc of Jackson and trustees Richard Barrera and John Lee Evans. “I can't understand any reason for prayer at our meetings. Why add controversy?”...
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Terry Grier says SUHSD principals not properly evaluated
I agree that school districts need to find a good way to evaluate principals. However, I suspect that the $250,000 the SDUSD board has authorized for this effort will be wasted on people who will simply look for ways to make it legal to continue making arbitrary personnel decisions. I used to have hope that Superintendent Terry Grier would be an agent of change, but his association with the Aspen Group International makes me think he's getting lazy and just wants his job to be easy.
Voice of San Diego
Seeking New Ways to Evaluate Principals
EMILY ALPERT
November 18, 2008
The San Diego Unified school board approved a proposal Tuesday night to hire an outside group to help craft evaluation criteria and procedures for school principals, despite complaints about its cost and objections from the principals association.
The proposal to craft new ways to evaluate principals gained more poignancy on the heels of a San Diego Unified report that found the district delinquent in evaluating its principals and administrators. Evaluating staffers has proved thorny in the past: San Diego Unified has twice fended off lawsuits in recent years about improper firings or evaluations of principals, said school board president Katherine Nakamura, who estimated that some administrators had not been evaluated in over a decade.
Superintendent Terry Grier attributed the problem to vague language in the school district agreement with principals that made it unclear how to evaluate principals without avoiding legal peril, and said those agreements need to be renegotiated. Grier said the $250,000 contract with a Colorado-based group would help solve the problem.
"In the long run, if you want us to hold principals accountable," Grier said, "... there has to be a different instrument."
Several stakeholders found the $250,000 contract objectionable in light of the budget crisis looming ahead for San Diego Unified. Administrators Association Executive Director Jeannie Steeg said that the amount was excessive, even though a new evaluation system was "desperately needed." Her comments were echoed by school board member Shelia Jackson, who called the proposal "irresponsible" and insulting to district staffers who Jackson believed could do the same work at a lesser expense...
[Blogger's note: District staffers clearly cannot do the job. Sadly, I don't think the people collecting $250,000 can do the job, either. What is needed is a change in culture.]
Voice of San Diego
Seeking New Ways to Evaluate Principals
EMILY ALPERT
November 18, 2008
The San Diego Unified school board approved a proposal Tuesday night to hire an outside group to help craft evaluation criteria and procedures for school principals, despite complaints about its cost and objections from the principals association.
The proposal to craft new ways to evaluate principals gained more poignancy on the heels of a San Diego Unified report that found the district delinquent in evaluating its principals and administrators. Evaluating staffers has proved thorny in the past: San Diego Unified has twice fended off lawsuits in recent years about improper firings or evaluations of principals, said school board president Katherine Nakamura, who estimated that some administrators had not been evaluated in over a decade.
Superintendent Terry Grier attributed the problem to vague language in the school district agreement with principals that made it unclear how to evaluate principals without avoiding legal peril, and said those agreements need to be renegotiated. Grier said the $250,000 contract with a Colorado-based group would help solve the problem.
"In the long run, if you want us to hold principals accountable," Grier said, "... there has to be a different instrument."
Several stakeholders found the $250,000 contract objectionable in light of the budget crisis looming ahead for San Diego Unified. Administrators Association Executive Director Jeannie Steeg said that the amount was excessive, even though a new evaluation system was "desperately needed." Her comments were echoed by school board member Shelia Jackson, who called the proposal "irresponsible" and insulting to district staffers who Jackson believed could do the same work at a lesser expense...
[Blogger's note: District staffers clearly cannot do the job. Sadly, I don't think the people collecting $250,000 can do the job, either. What is needed is a change in culture.]
Friday, October 24, 2008
Shelia Jackson finds her voice
See all Shelia Jackson posts.
The post about Emily Alpert is HERE.
Shelia Jackson, board member of San Diego Unified School District, says things that need to be said. Why is she the only one?
And why did I think her name was Sheila? Sorry, Shelia, that I garbled your name. I always liked the name Sheila; maybe that had something to do with it. But I must say that Shelia is perfect. It takes a small step away from a European name, and the result is something that perhaps sounds even better, and more importantly gives an African-American woman her own identity. Your parents did a good job on naming their baby.
SAN DIEGO SCHOOLS
Jackson Settles in as Chief Dissident
School board member Shelia Jackson... is running for reelection against Xeng Yang, has become a firebrand whose statements have earned her both hostility and respect.
By EMILY ALPERT
Oct. 23, 2008
School board member Shelia Jackson was disappointed when former Superintendent Carl Cohn threw in the towel at San Diego Unified last year. She blamed another board member for berating Cohn, praised the superintendent for gradual and cautious reforms, and stayed mum on the scandal that ejected one of his top appointees.
"You can't have someone who is constantly undermining your authority at every turn," Jackson said last September. "And that's what some board members have done."
Now Jackson is being accused of -- and praised for -- doing the same. Under a new superintendent, Terry Grier, Jackson has become a firebrand whose bold statements have earned her both hostility and respect. Her voting record has long pitted Jackson against her peers on teacher layoffs and spending equity across the school district, but her role has shifted under Grier, a newcomer who has quickly made waves with new projects and made enemies in the teachers union. Now, Jackson has become the school board's chief dissident.
"We're not elected to support the superintendent," Jackson said in an October interview. "We're elected to hold him accountable."
[Blogger's note: YES!!!!!]
Her opponent in the coming election, Xeng Yang, complains that she criticizes Grier in public; Jackson fought a policy that would bar her and other trustees from publicly criticizing the superintendent and his staff, something she rarely did to Cohn. She called for an investigation of Grier and fellow board member Katherine Nakamura after a campaign meeting with principals became a political hot potato; she has hinted publicly that other board members should be ousted in the coming elections.
Yang argues that his opponent is beholden to the teachers union. "I don't think she wants to keep the superintendent. She goes along with the teachers. She was elected by the people to represent students, not a group of adult teachers," he said, adding, "She seems like she doesn't get along with other school board members."
[Blogger's note: And whom does the majority of board members represent? Developers, self-serving politicians, and insurance companies? Insurance is a multi-million dollar industry in many local school districts, and these companies wield power through their lawyers, paid by taxpayers to instruct and direct board members. Insurance companies do not care about kids. I have problems with the teachers union, too, but I think the union is needed to keep a balance in decision making.]
The race between Yang and Jackson has been quiet compared to other contests. Yang, a computer teacher, has fumbled in public forums and netted only a few endorsements, most notably from the county Republican Party and the conservative-leaning Lincoln Club...
[Blogger's note: It seems that Voice of San Diego has also found its voice. Reporter Emily Alpert finds the story behind the story, revealing schools as hotbeds of political intrigue and financial and legal shenanigans. For far too long, school officials were able to keep the truth about themselves hidden, hiding behind a sea of smiling children whom they pretended to care about.]
The post about Emily Alpert is HERE.
Shelia Jackson, board member of San Diego Unified School District, says things that need to be said. Why is she the only one?And why did I think her name was Sheila? Sorry, Shelia, that I garbled your name. I always liked the name Sheila; maybe that had something to do with it. But I must say that Shelia is perfect. It takes a small step away from a European name, and the result is something that perhaps sounds even better, and more importantly gives an African-American woman her own identity. Your parents did a good job on naming their baby.
SAN DIEGO SCHOOLS
Jackson Settles in as Chief Dissident
School board member Shelia Jackson... is running for reelection against Xeng Yang, has become a firebrand whose statements have earned her both hostility and respect.
By EMILY ALPERT
Oct. 23, 2008
School board member Shelia Jackson was disappointed when former Superintendent Carl Cohn threw in the towel at San Diego Unified last year. She blamed another board member for berating Cohn, praised the superintendent for gradual and cautious reforms, and stayed mum on the scandal that ejected one of his top appointees.
"You can't have someone who is constantly undermining your authority at every turn," Jackson said last September. "And that's what some board members have done."
Now Jackson is being accused of -- and praised for -- doing the same. Under a new superintendent, Terry Grier, Jackson has become a firebrand whose bold statements have earned her both hostility and respect. Her voting record has long pitted Jackson against her peers on teacher layoffs and spending equity across the school district, but her role has shifted under Grier, a newcomer who has quickly made waves with new projects and made enemies in the teachers union. Now, Jackson has become the school board's chief dissident.
"We're not elected to support the superintendent," Jackson said in an October interview. "We're elected to hold him accountable."
[Blogger's note: YES!!!!!]
Her opponent in the coming election, Xeng Yang, complains that she criticizes Grier in public; Jackson fought a policy that would bar her and other trustees from publicly criticizing the superintendent and his staff, something she rarely did to Cohn. She called for an investigation of Grier and fellow board member Katherine Nakamura after a campaign meeting with principals became a political hot potato; she has hinted publicly that other board members should be ousted in the coming elections.
Yang argues that his opponent is beholden to the teachers union. "I don't think she wants to keep the superintendent. She goes along with the teachers. She was elected by the people to represent students, not a group of adult teachers," he said, adding, "She seems like she doesn't get along with other school board members."
[Blogger's note: And whom does the majority of board members represent? Developers, self-serving politicians, and insurance companies? Insurance is a multi-million dollar industry in many local school districts, and these companies wield power through their lawyers, paid by taxpayers to instruct and direct board members. Insurance companies do not care about kids. I have problems with the teachers union, too, but I think the union is needed to keep a balance in decision making.]
The race between Yang and Jackson has been quiet compared to other contests. Yang, a computer teacher, has fumbled in public forums and netted only a few endorsements, most notably from the county Republican Party and the conservative-leaning Lincoln Club...
[Blogger's note: It seems that Voice of San Diego has also found its voice. Reporter Emily Alpert finds the story behind the story, revealing schools as hotbeds of political intrigue and financial and legal shenanigans. For far too long, school officials were able to keep the truth about themselves hidden, hiding behind a sea of smiling children whom they pretended to care about.]
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Shelia Jackson says Katherine Nakamura and Terry Grier played politics
See all Shelia Jackson posts.
School Trustee Calls to Investigate Peer
Voice of San Diego
...Last night, board member Shelia Jackson publicly requested an independent investigation of a campaign meeting called by school board president Katherine Nakamura and Superintendent Terry Grier to inform principals of volunteer opportunities for Proposition S, the $2.1 billion facilities bond slated for the November ballot. E-mails about the meeting from supervisors told principals either "please attend" or that the meeting was mandatory.
Bond opponent John Stump later argued that the meeting, held at no charge at the Girl Scouts Headquarters in Balboa Park, violated a city policy that prohibits city-subsidized facilities to be used for political activities.
Jackson said Nakamura might have violated another section of the governance policies that requires trustees to serve the interests of the school district above other advocacy or interest groups, and that Grier might have failed to prevent an activity that "endangers the organization’s public image or credibility," in violation of another policy.
Jackson’s request follows a public kerfuffle over a back-to-school conference championed by Jackson. The conference did not have board approval, but Jackson had used a district procurement card to buy supplies for the event. She later reimbursed San Diego Unified. Grier had requested an investigation of the expenditures, but didn't announce it publicly.
-- EMILY ALPERT
October 15, 2008
School Trustee Calls to Investigate Peer
Voice of San Diego
...Last night, board member Shelia Jackson publicly requested an independent investigation of a campaign meeting called by school board president Katherine Nakamura and Superintendent Terry Grier to inform principals of volunteer opportunities for Proposition S, the $2.1 billion facilities bond slated for the November ballot. E-mails about the meeting from supervisors told principals either "please attend" or that the meeting was mandatory.
Bond opponent John Stump later argued that the meeting, held at no charge at the Girl Scouts Headquarters in Balboa Park, violated a city policy that prohibits city-subsidized facilities to be used for political activities.
Jackson said Nakamura might have violated another section of the governance policies that requires trustees to serve the interests of the school district above other advocacy or interest groups, and that Grier might have failed to prevent an activity that "endangers the organization’s public image or credibility," in violation of another policy.
Jackson’s request follows a public kerfuffle over a back-to-school conference championed by Jackson. The conference did not have board approval, but Jackson had used a district procurement card to buy supplies for the event. She later reimbursed San Diego Unified. Grier had requested an investigation of the expenditures, but didn't announce it publicly.
-- EMILY ALPERT
October 15, 2008
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Shelia Jackson is right--San Diego Unified School District has not figured out how to teach black and brown kids
See all Shelia Jackson posts.
SDUSD trustee Sheila Jackson has come under attack for stating the obvious: our schools don't know how to teach black and brown kids.
Jason Robertson, a San Diego Union Tribune reader, says this can't be true because SOME black and brown kids graduate, so that proves the teachers do their jobs.
Then he says that it's the parents fault that the others don't graduate.
You can't have it both ways, Mr. Robertson. It seems to me that you've got to give the credit to the parents, not the teachers, of the kids who succeeded, if you're going to give the blame to the parents of the kids who failed.
Actually, I believe that SOME people know how to teach black and brown kids, and are caring and creative and intelligent, but the majority of our teachers are not up to the task. Far too many of the people who are responsible for teaching black and brown kids don't know how to do their jobs. They react with too much anger and judgment to children's failings, and thus create life-long problems out of obstacles that should be temporary. Some teachers of black and/or brown kids are out-and-out racists, intentionally or unintentionally undermining the very people whom they are paid to educate.
I've corrected the spelling of Shelia Jackson's name; I had spelled it Sheila.
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