I have cut and pasted the views of Oglethorpe who wrote online comments answering Guffanti's ridiculous blather in Guffanti's first "education" column in the North County Times found here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/22/opinion/guffanti/z7361df8a254d6174882575380069869e.txt
Here is how Oglethorpe responds for your enjoyment:
Oglethorpe January 22, 2009 1:53PM PST
January 22, 2009Dear editor:I was dismayed to notice that the North County Times has hired Stephen Guffanti as their “expert” editorialist for education, and that he will be writing a series of articles about education. The reader should know that this man is a physician, not an educator, who was a board member at VUSD. He was recently defeated in his reelection attempt; apparently the people of Vista have had enough of him. I think the community could make a big mistake by considering him an expert on education. He is not. He is a slick media manipulator with an anti-public-education agenda. In his first article he throws out opinions as if they were fact and completely misapplies data. One big piece of propaganda that Guffanti gives us in his first article is the concept that “home schooling is a high performer year after year.” Not so. The fact is that when children are home schooled, they miss out on day-to-day interaction with other children and often become socially retarded. But more importantly, they miss out on competing with the best students, causing them to slide woefully behind academically when the parent actually thinks that the child is learning at a greater pace. Don’t get me wrong, if you don't want your child to be in a competitive environment, then home schooling might be for you. But if you want your child to be able to compete in this global environment in the way that Guffanti suggests at the beginning of the article, then you should have your child in a competitive system. Often home schooling parents will send their kids to public high school with a “4.0 G.P.A.” (These parents want their kids to get acceptance to college and realize too late that home schooled credits are worth less to colleges) and find that their children cannot adjust to the work load (nice kid, though!). The student becomes a “C” student and, of course, public education is blamed for his lower grades. Home schooling is really a form of deregulation. Basically, the parent may teach most anything. Home schooling, like other deregulated things, is often abused; when you go to Albertsons at 10 AM on Tuesday and see a 9-year-old boy with his mother, rest assured, he’s home schooled. The home schooled kid is the one sitting on the chair at the salon waiting for mom to finish getting her hair done. There are many parents out there who have no aptitude for teaching that are out there giving it a try. Private education? If you pay out of pocket for your child’s education, then you can be sure your child will get an “A.” After all, would you pay for an “F” ? If you want the honest truth about your child’s work habits and scholastic aptitude, put him in with all the other kids, not just a select few who have parents who can pay for it. Both the NCTimes and Guffanti have, in the past, been in favor of school vouchers. Vouchers have been slammed every time they have come up for vote. It is a tactic of those like Guffanti to run down public education. If he can just show how bad public education is, then people will want to turn to another system (like vouchers).
Oglethorpe January 24, 2009 9:03AM PST
Guffanti quotes a 26-year old report that blames our society more than the educational process. That report blames our parents' blase attitude toward education and acceptance of mediocrity from our society itself. It also blasts ourselves as producing far too many Masters of Business Education majors and not enough science based majors at the college level. Check out the quote he gives. It never singles out public education. To quote: "...the educational foundations of our society." This is just one of the examples of how this slick guy, Guffanti, misapplies statements and data. Are you actually reading that article and saying that Guffanti is not slamming public education? It appears to me that public education is the direct object of his "Schools' lackluster results" theme," as he sings the praises of home schooling and private schools. The truth is that, while public education can always be improved, home schooling and private schools are no better. And, again, it does no good to anyone to try to undermine confidence in a system that most of us send our kids to. It actually hurts the system, and Guffanti is smart enough to know it, and that's what he's trying to do. And I think you know it too. I visited Sierra Vista High School a few years ago. It used to educate all of the "special needs" kids of North County. There was a child there who won all arguments with other special kids because his mother taught him all the states and state capitols. Memorizing things is something that even those kids can do. Memorizing facts, while important, is not an education, and I'm not impressed with home schooling just because it produces some good memorizers. While all of our schools are doing their best to produce students who can think at high levels, our free society itself seems to encourage a mediocre level of achievement. However, there are areas where, according to studies, America is far ahead of all other nations (Guffanti will never tell you this): The areas of originality of thought and inventiveness. The rest of the world looks to the United States for new ideas and inventions. I repeat, Guffanti is not an expert. The people of Vista, after a few years, saw through him and voted him out. Now the NCTimes is promoting him as an expert. It is deceiving and it should stop. Let him continue his diatribe, fine. But he should be put on the same field as I: He gets his 200 words in the "Letters" column or he can join this forum. Again, the promoting of him as an expert is deceiving to the people of our community.
Oglethorpe January 23, 2009 7:06PM PST
Think4yourself- Did you read Guffanti's article? It is a direct slam on public education. As a father of two children with a public school education that was fantastic, I was able to easily see the propaganda. I have met Guffanti and have been a recipient of his emailings, all slick propaganda. All were meant to give the public a feeling of mistrust in the public education system(and implying that he was the only one with any sense in all of VUSD); all were meant to undermine confidence in the system in which most parents have enrolled their children. What is the purpose of that? And what good does it do for anybody except for those who want to tear down the system? I would much rather hear someone's opinion about what to do about improving the schools. This is not a liberal versus conservative thing. I do not wish to discuss with you my political beliefs.You are also attacking the public school teachers. Many are conservative and are offended by your lumping them in with the liberal ones.I don't have a problem with someone having a different opinion than I, and I have never written a comment in a forum like this before. But I do have a problem with someone like Guffanti purporting to be an expert, being promoted by the NCTimes as an expert, and then pushing his agenda on the public. I feel the public is being duped when such a thing happens, and it lessens the trust that people have in the media to report the unbiased truth. I stand by my statements. He is not an expert on education. Sorry, he's not. And he shouldn't be put up as one.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Jeff Ropes responds to Guffanti's column
In todays North County Times, Jeff Ropes responded to Guffanti's fact challenged column. The words published in the NCTimes and attributed to Jeff Ropes are printed in blue below:
Home schooling another form of deregulation [Vistaschools editor Note: I just spoke with Jeff Ropes by phone--(12:30pm 1/23/09). The title of this article was created by the NCTimes staff not Jeff Ropes. Also note that the NCTimes editor censored several sentences from Jeff's letter. Censorship of comments and letters critical of Guffanti and Gibson is routine at the NCTimes. Many others including myself have repeatedly been censored.]
I was dismayed to notice that the North County Times has hired Stephen Guffanti as a columnist and that he will be writing a series of articles about education. The reader should know that this man is a physician, not an educator, who was a board member at Vista Unified School District.
He was recently defeated in his re-election attempt; apparently the people of Vista have had enough of him.
I think the community could make a big mistake by considering him an expert on education. He is not. He is a slick media manipulator with an anti-public-education agenda.
In his first article, he throws out opinions as if they were fact and completely misapplies data.One of his contentions in his article, that home schooling is better than public schools, is just plain wrong ("Schools' lackluster performance," Jan. 22).Home schooling is just another form of deregulation. Of course, abuses that are spawned by such deregulation are plentiful, and parents who can't teach are out there in great numbers trying.I have rebutted his article online, where more space is permitted.
Jeff RopesFallbrook
Home schooling another form of deregulation [Vistaschools editor Note: I just spoke with Jeff Ropes by phone--(12:30pm 1/23/09). The title of this article was created by the NCTimes staff not Jeff Ropes. Also note that the NCTimes editor censored several sentences from Jeff's letter. Censorship of comments and letters critical of Guffanti and Gibson is routine at the NCTimes. Many others including myself have repeatedly been censored.]
I was dismayed to notice that the North County Times has hired Stephen Guffanti as a columnist and that he will be writing a series of articles about education. The reader should know that this man is a physician, not an educator, who was a board member at Vista Unified School District.
He was recently defeated in his re-election attempt; apparently the people of Vista have had enough of him.
I think the community could make a big mistake by considering him an expert on education. He is not. He is a slick media manipulator with an anti-public-education agenda.
In his first article, he throws out opinions as if they were fact and completely misapplies data.One of his contentions in his article, that home schooling is better than public schools, is just plain wrong ("Schools' lackluster performance," Jan. 22).Home schooling is just another form of deregulation. Of course, abuses that are spawned by such deregulation are plentiful, and parents who can't teach are out there in great numbers trying.I have rebutted his article online, where more space is permitted.
Jeff RopesFallbrook
Could Guffanti be a Psychopath?
As I think about Guffanti and his complete lack of awareness or acknowledgement of the damage he has done to our VUSD schools and children, I cannot help but wonder if he has some kind of mental condition. Psychopath may sound very harsh. Even as I type the word it feels over the top, but I read a sentence in the New York Times today in an article analyzing Bernie Madoff (of the 50 billion dollar Wall Street Ponzi scheme) that seemed to not only describe Madoff but also Guffanti as well. The sentence made me consider the possibility that Guffanti's mental problems might actually fit into the category of psychopath. Here is the sentence:
“Some of the characteristics you see in psychopaths are lying, manipulation, the ability to deceive, feelings of grandiosity and callousness toward their victims,” says Gregg O. McCrary, a former special agent with the F.B.I. who spent years constructing criminal behavioral profiles.
Guffanti lies. He manipulates the truth. (for instance claiming the built more schools than any other trustee in VUSD history when what he did was to reflexively oppose and impede the construction of schools at every turn).
Guffanti deceives. Jill Parvin, Dan Piro and a small band of credulous believers repeat every lie Guffanti comes up with as though it were Gospel. They are still deceived by his lies.
Guffanti definitely has feelings of grandiosity. He once told me that his unique treatments of his mother in law saved her life when no other physician in the country could have. He constantly says he built a record number of schools in VUSD (that number keeps going up--last time I believe he claimed to have built 12). He believes that only his views of schools are correct. He has special knowledge that public schools are failures and all unions are made of evil thugs. Any school board member endorsed by school teachers is owned by the union. He knows this because he has some special mind reading power that allows him to discern the motives of others. He believes he is more special than any one else.
He is also completely callous to his victims the students of the district. Our students were kept in two very over crowded high school campuses at least a decade longer than necessary largely because of his unceasing opposition to a local bond issue not to mention his opposition to all state school construction bonds that might have helped. In his last term on our school board, he and Gibson refused to be the NECESSARY fourth vote to acquire land to build the third high school. Their refusal cost the district between 17 and 25 million dollars which dried up our school bond funds. Yet Guffanti does not care. He never apologizes. He is completely callous to his victims.
Could Guffanti be a psychopath?
Addendum at 12:50pm 1/23/09, I just spoke with my youngest son who has a BS in psychology and Cognitive Science from UCSD. He told me that psychopath is not a clinical term. It is a broad and general term. It is so general that some people who can be described as psychopaths might actually feel remorse after the fact. Guffanti never expresses remorse or guilt or accepts responsibility for his actions, therefore, the general term psychopath does not fit him. However there is clinical term for those who cannot feel remorse or guilt, that term is sociopath. So let me end with the more appropriate psychology question, could Dr. Stephen Guffanti be a sociopath?
“Some of the characteristics you see in psychopaths are lying, manipulation, the ability to deceive, feelings of grandiosity and callousness toward their victims,” says Gregg O. McCrary, a former special agent with the F.B.I. who spent years constructing criminal behavioral profiles.
Guffanti lies. He manipulates the truth. (for instance claiming the built more schools than any other trustee in VUSD history when what he did was to reflexively oppose and impede the construction of schools at every turn).
Guffanti deceives. Jill Parvin, Dan Piro and a small band of credulous believers repeat every lie Guffanti comes up with as though it were Gospel. They are still deceived by his lies.
Guffanti definitely has feelings of grandiosity. He once told me that his unique treatments of his mother in law saved her life when no other physician in the country could have. He constantly says he built a record number of schools in VUSD (that number keeps going up--last time I believe he claimed to have built 12). He believes that only his views of schools are correct. He has special knowledge that public schools are failures and all unions are made of evil thugs. Any school board member endorsed by school teachers is owned by the union. He knows this because he has some special mind reading power that allows him to discern the motives of others. He believes he is more special than any one else.
He is also completely callous to his victims the students of the district. Our students were kept in two very over crowded high school campuses at least a decade longer than necessary largely because of his unceasing opposition to a local bond issue not to mention his opposition to all state school construction bonds that might have helped. In his last term on our school board, he and Gibson refused to be the NECESSARY fourth vote to acquire land to build the third high school. Their refusal cost the district between 17 and 25 million dollars which dried up our school bond funds. Yet Guffanti does not care. He never apologizes. He is completely callous to his victims.
Could Guffanti be a psychopath?
Addendum at 12:50pm 1/23/09, I just spoke with my youngest son who has a BS in psychology and Cognitive Science from UCSD. He told me that psychopath is not a clinical term. It is a broad and general term. It is so general that some people who can be described as psychopaths might actually feel remorse after the fact. Guffanti never expresses remorse or guilt or accepts responsibility for his actions, therefore, the general term psychopath does not fit him. However there is clinical term for those who cannot feel remorse or guilt, that term is sociopath. So let me end with the more appropriate psychology question, could Dr. Stephen Guffanti be a sociopath?
Saturday, January 24, 2009
He's Back! Guffanti Resurfaces!
The well deserved sending of Dr. Stephen Guffanti into political oblivion has ended. His political coffin lid has been pried open by the folks who run the NCTimes. They are ANTI middle class and ANTI union just as he is. They have give Guffanti a regular column in their less and less relevant "news" paper.
Why such a hateful and uniformed person like Guffanti would be given a column, I can only speculate about. Perhaps the NCTimes is trying to get more hits on its website as the irrational rantings of Guffanti always spark controversy and lots of comments. Or it could simply be that the anti Public Education, anti union editorial staff just sees Guffanti as a fellow traveler who needs support. Who knows? What ever the reason, it is bad news for our VUSD students and public education in the North County to let a person who has a visceral dislike of real teachers and real schools to be given space to vent his inaccuracies and bile.
Guffanti lies and cherry picked "facts" leading to false conclusions and deceptions can be found here: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/22/opinion/guffanti/z7361df8a254d6174882575380069869e.txt#nctcomments
If you hate FACT based public education as Guffanti does, then his skewed views are for you. If you like students having all relevant facts and information in science, history and sex education for living safe and sane lives in the twenty first century then Guffanti's views are not yours.
For the moment I will not comment on the old cherry picked data he is using in his attack on public schools.(Doesn't he ever get tired of beating the same horse?Wouldn't he like to be a 9/11, JFK or UFO conspiracy theorist for a while?)
I first want to comment on three of the lies that he and his supporters spread about him and his recent well deserved forced retirement from our VUSD school board.
LIE 1 "PLAIN TRUTH" at 7:10 AM wrote "Nearly half the schools in Vista Unified were built while he was on the board." Yes, and there were more than four thousand sunrises and sunsets during the same twelve years. Guffanti had no more to do with building schools in VUSD than with the rotation of the earth giving us sunrises and sunsets.
In fact Guffanti wrote numerous letters to the editor and was given Community Forum space to OPPOSE our three failed school bonds before we finally passed Prop O WITH NO HELP FROM GUFFANTI. He was on the school board when the PTA, the Vista Business community and the VTA got the bond passed but he did not lift one finger to help, not one phone call, not one letter, not one time did Guffanti help not even to come out to encourage volunteers. Other school board members did help, BUT NOT GUFFANTI or his political ally Jim Gibson either.
Trying to give Guffanti credit for schools being built in VUSD is a 100% reversal of his true position. At the time we were trying to pass bonds and build schools, he was in complete public opposition in letters to the editor and editorial in local newspapers. Instead of new schools for our kids he wanted to use the old K Mart building and parking lot on Sycamore in Shadowridge as a school, even though it had no playground area and was not built to earth quake safe standards. he thought a broken down retail building was good enough for our VUSD kids instead of building a new school for them.
Guffanti and his friends and associates do not care about our kids or our kids' schools because none of them ever had students in any of our VUSD schools. That is why he and his ilk are so dangerous to our schools. If they are ever in charge of VUSD again and make decisions that destroy educational opportunities for our VUSD children, they will not care because their children and the children of their fellow travellers are "educated" elsewhere. They are conspiracy theory nuts who fear "gummit" schools.
LIE 2--The blogger Plain Truth asks, Since Guffanti and Gibson were in the minority, how could they have held up the construction of any schools? This lie is always asked in the form of a question since the blogger Plain Truth knows the implied answer is a lie. It is very FOX NEWS--"I did not lie because I only asked a question." But Plain Truth knows that by California State Law it took FOUR VOTES to acquire land for the new high school. Guffanti and Gibson REFUSED to be that fourth vote for several years. Finally just before a school board election in which he was running, Gibson caved and became the fourth vote for acquiring the land on Highway 76. Sadly that land cost between 17 and 25 million more dollars in actual land cost, increased construction and site preparation costs and construction delays than the original site on Strawberry Hill would have.
LIE 3--Samuel at 10:39 am says Guffanti lost the election because of a "hit piece" "two weeks before the election."
How ridiculous. This is the pot calling kettle black. Guffanti and Gibson perfected the art of hit pieces except they put out their trash in expensive mailer which arrived in the mail just a day or two before the elections in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. The tens of thousands of dollars in production costs and postage used for their inaccurate mailers NEVER came from people in VUSD. Guffanti and Gibson big money always came from outside interests with agendas other than the best possible education of our VUSD children. Gufanti and Gibson slickly produced mailers always came out so that there was NO TIME to rebut them. Since they were never accurate, it was a real shame. Many VUSD voters were deceived by these mailers in the past.
Yet the so called "hit piece" that Samuel complains about came out WEEKS before the election. There was plenty of time for rebuttal. The NCTimes has always allowed Guffanti as much space in the paper as he asked for to run with any accusation he can think of against public schools, the PTA or the VTA. He has had free and frequent access to the Community Forum on the editorial page. He also could have written letters to the editor correcting any misinformation. He did not. Guffanti had plenty of time to tell his side during the weeks after the hit piece and before the election, yet Guffanti never publicly rebutted any of the info in the so called "hit piece" I read the information in the "piece" and found nothing inaccurate in the copy I saw apparently neither did Guffanti.
Instead I saw information in the piece that the NCTimes refused to print not because it was not true or of community interest, but because the NCTimes has always been "in the bag" for Guffanti. He is an ideological twin of the editors as far as hating unions is concerned.
Obviously the facts in the information piece that 'Samuel" is complaining about must have been true. Otherwise why would Guffanti not try to rebut it? He had PLENTY of time to rebut any part of it but he did not. The "hit piece" can be assumed to be accurate due to Guffanti's lack of response unlike the cowardly lies he and Gibson disseminated just days prior to each of the previous elections. (I have those mailers in a file. On another day, I will share Guffanti's extremely expensive and slick fliers containing the despicable lies with you if I can figure out how to reproduce them on this blog.)
Here is the real truth about why Guffanti lost. Here are the top 17 reasons he lost.
(1) He made enemies so easily. He said horrible things about and to people e.g. calling a concerned parent with a legitimate question about school site councils a "meddling mom", or calling hardworking classroom teachers "union thugs"
(2) His complete disregard and disrespect for all parents at the board meetings when they asked reasonable questions about school site councils or any other subject.
(3) His black and white approach to everything. Any one who does not agree with his hatred for FACT based education is evil in his weird world.
(4) His "dissing" of the PTA by refusing to attend the BIGGEST forum of the campaign season.
(5) The refusal (of both he and his team) to show up for the NCTimes editorial interview. The NCTimes gave him their endorsement as they have every time he has run for office. (He and they both share a hatred for unions and the middle class). But they did not give him huge front page articles to spew lies about teachers and parents and his opposition as they have in the past.
(6) His lies and deceptions caught up with him. People of the district were on to his games. He no longer was able to claim to have built schools, be pro education, or care about our students without those darn inconenient facts from his past coming up showing him to be a hypocrite
(7) His "Governor Blagojevich crazy talk" style of dealing with his own inconsistencies and lies and the people who reminded him of both.
(8) His poor attendance record at board meetings. I believe his absent percentage was higher by far than any VUSD board member in the district's eighty year history.
(9) His absolute refusal to support the building of new schools and his total opposition to bonds for building those schools
10) His puposeless obstructiveness when the bonds were passed delaying the building of a third high school for years for no reason.
11) His irrational obstructionism costing our district millions in wasted Prop O money. He refused to be the fourth vote for acquiring the Kawano Strawberry Hill site. A property that would have cost 1 million dollars instead of 17 million for the Highway 76 site that the district finally had to settle for. He forced our kids to be in two over crowded high schools for an additional five years at a cost to our district of between 17 and 25 million dollars.
12) His remarkable ability to constantly acquire new political enemies with his rude actions and words
13) His support of creationism and a six thousand year old earth
14) His support for the denial of basic human rights to large groups of people
15) His support for denying our kids FACT based science, history and sex education
16) His mercurial temperament that had him challenging audience members at board meeting to fight him.
17) His utter disregard for any viewpoint but his own
For these reasons and others Guffanti generated a great deal of unnecessary political heat for himself. He motivated HUNDREDS of parents, business owners, community members and VUSD employees from custodians to principals to actively work to put him out of office.
The sign rallies against him and for PRO education candidates in downtown Vista were huge. They were unprecedented. Even during the 1994 recall, their were not rallies of that size. The one thing Guffanti is good at is generating at lot of opposition to himself and his political views.
Why such a hateful and uniformed person like Guffanti would be given a column, I can only speculate about. Perhaps the NCTimes is trying to get more hits on its website as the irrational rantings of Guffanti always spark controversy and lots of comments. Or it could simply be that the anti Public Education, anti union editorial staff just sees Guffanti as a fellow traveler who needs support. Who knows? What ever the reason, it is bad news for our VUSD students and public education in the North County to let a person who has a visceral dislike of real teachers and real schools to be given space to vent his inaccuracies and bile.
Guffanti lies and cherry picked "facts" leading to false conclusions and deceptions can be found here: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/22/opinion/guffanti/z7361df8a254d6174882575380069869e.txt#nctcomments
If you hate FACT based public education as Guffanti does, then his skewed views are for you. If you like students having all relevant facts and information in science, history and sex education for living safe and sane lives in the twenty first century then Guffanti's views are not yours.
For the moment I will not comment on the old cherry picked data he is using in his attack on public schools.(Doesn't he ever get tired of beating the same horse?Wouldn't he like to be a 9/11, JFK or UFO conspiracy theorist for a while?)
I first want to comment on three of the lies that he and his supporters spread about him and his recent well deserved forced retirement from our VUSD school board.
LIE 1 "PLAIN TRUTH" at 7:10 AM wrote "Nearly half the schools in Vista Unified were built while he was on the board." Yes, and there were more than four thousand sunrises and sunsets during the same twelve years. Guffanti had no more to do with building schools in VUSD than with the rotation of the earth giving us sunrises and sunsets.
In fact Guffanti wrote numerous letters to the editor and was given Community Forum space to OPPOSE our three failed school bonds before we finally passed Prop O WITH NO HELP FROM GUFFANTI. He was on the school board when the PTA, the Vista Business community and the VTA got the bond passed but he did not lift one finger to help, not one phone call, not one letter, not one time did Guffanti help not even to come out to encourage volunteers. Other school board members did help, BUT NOT GUFFANTI or his political ally Jim Gibson either.
Trying to give Guffanti credit for schools being built in VUSD is a 100% reversal of his true position. At the time we were trying to pass bonds and build schools, he was in complete public opposition in letters to the editor and editorial in local newspapers. Instead of new schools for our kids he wanted to use the old K Mart building and parking lot on Sycamore in Shadowridge as a school, even though it had no playground area and was not built to earth quake safe standards. he thought a broken down retail building was good enough for our VUSD kids instead of building a new school for them.
Guffanti and his friends and associates do not care about our kids or our kids' schools because none of them ever had students in any of our VUSD schools. That is why he and his ilk are so dangerous to our schools. If they are ever in charge of VUSD again and make decisions that destroy educational opportunities for our VUSD children, they will not care because their children and the children of their fellow travellers are "educated" elsewhere. They are conspiracy theory nuts who fear "gummit" schools.
LIE 2--The blogger Plain Truth asks, Since Guffanti and Gibson were in the minority, how could they have held up the construction of any schools? This lie is always asked in the form of a question since the blogger Plain Truth knows the implied answer is a lie. It is very FOX NEWS--"I did not lie because I only asked a question." But Plain Truth knows that by California State Law it took FOUR VOTES to acquire land for the new high school. Guffanti and Gibson REFUSED to be that fourth vote for several years. Finally just before a school board election in which he was running, Gibson caved and became the fourth vote for acquiring the land on Highway 76. Sadly that land cost between 17 and 25 million more dollars in actual land cost, increased construction and site preparation costs and construction delays than the original site on Strawberry Hill would have.
LIE 3--Samuel at 10:39 am says Guffanti lost the election because of a "hit piece" "two weeks before the election."
How ridiculous. This is the pot calling kettle black. Guffanti and Gibson perfected the art of hit pieces except they put out their trash in expensive mailer which arrived in the mail just a day or two before the elections in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. The tens of thousands of dollars in production costs and postage used for their inaccurate mailers NEVER came from people in VUSD. Guffanti and Gibson big money always came from outside interests with agendas other than the best possible education of our VUSD children. Gufanti and Gibson slickly produced mailers always came out so that there was NO TIME to rebut them. Since they were never accurate, it was a real shame. Many VUSD voters were deceived by these mailers in the past.
Yet the so called "hit piece" that Samuel complains about came out WEEKS before the election. There was plenty of time for rebuttal. The NCTimes has always allowed Guffanti as much space in the paper as he asked for to run with any accusation he can think of against public schools, the PTA or the VTA. He has had free and frequent access to the Community Forum on the editorial page. He also could have written letters to the editor correcting any misinformation. He did not. Guffanti had plenty of time to tell his side during the weeks after the hit piece and before the election, yet Guffanti never publicly rebutted any of the info in the so called "hit piece" I read the information in the "piece" and found nothing inaccurate in the copy I saw apparently neither did Guffanti.
Instead I saw information in the piece that the NCTimes refused to print not because it was not true or of community interest, but because the NCTimes has always been "in the bag" for Guffanti. He is an ideological twin of the editors as far as hating unions is concerned.
Obviously the facts in the information piece that 'Samuel" is complaining about must have been true. Otherwise why would Guffanti not try to rebut it? He had PLENTY of time to rebut any part of it but he did not. The "hit piece" can be assumed to be accurate due to Guffanti's lack of response unlike the cowardly lies he and Gibson disseminated just days prior to each of the previous elections. (I have those mailers in a file. On another day, I will share Guffanti's extremely expensive and slick fliers containing the despicable lies with you if I can figure out how to reproduce them on this blog.)
Here is the real truth about why Guffanti lost. Here are the top 17 reasons he lost.
(1) He made enemies so easily. He said horrible things about and to people e.g. calling a concerned parent with a legitimate question about school site councils a "meddling mom", or calling hardworking classroom teachers "union thugs"
(2) His complete disregard and disrespect for all parents at the board meetings when they asked reasonable questions about school site councils or any other subject.
(3) His black and white approach to everything. Any one who does not agree with his hatred for FACT based education is evil in his weird world.
(4) His "dissing" of the PTA by refusing to attend the BIGGEST forum of the campaign season.
(5) The refusal (of both he and his team) to show up for the NCTimes editorial interview. The NCTimes gave him their endorsement as they have every time he has run for office. (He and they both share a hatred for unions and the middle class). But they did not give him huge front page articles to spew lies about teachers and parents and his opposition as they have in the past.
(6) His lies and deceptions caught up with him. People of the district were on to his games. He no longer was able to claim to have built schools, be pro education, or care about our students without those darn inconenient facts from his past coming up showing him to be a hypocrite
(7) His "Governor Blagojevich crazy talk" style of dealing with his own inconsistencies and lies and the people who reminded him of both.
(8) His poor attendance record at board meetings. I believe his absent percentage was higher by far than any VUSD board member in the district's eighty year history.
(9) His absolute refusal to support the building of new schools and his total opposition to bonds for building those schools
10) His puposeless obstructiveness when the bonds were passed delaying the building of a third high school for years for no reason.
11) His irrational obstructionism costing our district millions in wasted Prop O money. He refused to be the fourth vote for acquiring the Kawano Strawberry Hill site. A property that would have cost 1 million dollars instead of 17 million for the Highway 76 site that the district finally had to settle for. He forced our kids to be in two over crowded high schools for an additional five years at a cost to our district of between 17 and 25 million dollars.
12) His remarkable ability to constantly acquire new political enemies with his rude actions and words
13) His support of creationism and a six thousand year old earth
14) His support for the denial of basic human rights to large groups of people
15) His support for denying our kids FACT based science, history and sex education
16) His mercurial temperament that had him challenging audience members at board meeting to fight him.
17) His utter disregard for any viewpoint but his own
For these reasons and others Guffanti generated a great deal of unnecessary political heat for himself. He motivated HUNDREDS of parents, business owners, community members and VUSD employees from custodians to principals to actively work to put him out of office.
The sign rallies against him and for PRO education candidates in downtown Vista were huge. They were unprecedented. Even during the 1994 recall, their were not rallies of that size. The one thing Guffanti is good at is generating at lot of opposition to himself and his political views.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
More sour grapes and babble from the ANTIs
Many observers feel that the NCTimes blogger who posts under the name Vista Watchdog 1 is in reality Dr. Stephen Guffanti. Whoever the blogger is, he is bitter about Guffanti's well deserved retirement and wrong about his facts. His latest post can be found on line here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/17/news/coastal/vista/zb1ebc045a9f35c0c882575400061c355.txt
I have also copied it down below along with corrections. Vista Watchdog's ramblings will be written in brown. Corrections and accurate info will be written in blue.
Vista Watchdog1 January 17, 2009 11:54PM PST
According to the County Assessor’s office the property upon which VUSD desires to place a lien was valued at the time of transfer to Cadence Homes at approximately $14M. . [The VUSDistrict was forced to pay this 14 million (Wasn't the correct number 17 million?) rather than the 1 million dollars for the far easier to build on and more centrally located Kawano Strawberry Hill site because Guffanti and Gibson both refused to be the fourth vote needed to acquire Kawano's land. Their three years of stubborn opposition to the building of a third VUSD high school at Strawberry Hill site cost our district somewhere between 13 and 25 million dollars in increased construction costs, litigation, and extra site preparation needed at the current Highway 76 site. In this first sentence, Guffanti again fails to take responsibility for forcing VUSD into paying million more for a lesser site or admitting that if he or Gibson had lived up to their fiduciary responsibilities as trustees that a new third VUSD high school would be in either its second or third year of full time operation at Strawberry Hill right now.] However, research indicates that value was based upon the assumption the property was developable (sic) and would have homes built to a certain set of approved designs. Considering the current housing market Cadence homes has clearly indicated they have no plans to develop the property at any time in the near future and the current approved plans are very likely to change by the time they do decide to build. Therefore, if we also account for the devaluation of property over the past year (approximately 30%) it can be derived that the current value of the property is less than $9.8M. When you add the encumbrance of $7.5M liens against the property it is highly doubtful that anybody would be willing to offer $9.8M for the property, or even $7.5M. Therefore, the total liens against the property would be greater than the value of the property and recovery of the loan to Cadence Homes would become unenforceable.(If any of these numbers pulled out of his backside are correct, whose fault it that the district is forced into this tough and expensive decision? Guffanti's and Gibson's fault of course but they will never admit it. They are psychologically incapable of introspection or admitting error.) If we also consider the number of developers (including local developers) who have declared Bankruptcy in the recent housing crisis, and add the current credit and looming economic crisis to the picture we can easily see the risk of Cadence homes going under is also quite significant (anyone want to venture a guess why no banks would loan the $5M to Cadence Homes?). Thus, we are looking at a very high probability of default on the loan, and necessity to cover the COPs using redevelopment funds (actually developers' fees). Since these funds are derived from charging developers when they build new property (or when current home owners add new space to their homes), and since the current glut of vacant homes is such that most in the real estate and building industry predict a minimum of 5 years before any building is needed, and since projections show the future growth to be slow to start, it is quite unlikely that enough funds would be generated from the developers' fees to cover the costs of the COPs. (Actually much of what he just wrote is true but again if Guffanti and Gibson had cared about VUSD and our students the third high school would be already built and full of students at Strawberry Hill. Prop O money would have easily covered the cost of the Strawberry Hill site. The district would not be in such dire straits. I keep waiting for Guffanti and Gibson to apologize, but of course they will not. They are ANTIs and do not believe in free and fair public education. Access to such education for VUSD children threatens to decimate the ranks of those who might otherwise grow up with Gibson/Guffanti hate-filled world view.)Furthermore, the payments on the COPs would prevent any of these funds from being available for use on the maintenance or expansion of any of the currently existing schools within VUSD. (True. So when will you apologize for putting us in this situation?) Add to all this the current state of the State, and the financial state of VUSD and it can be seen that the risk in participating in (or buying) a COP would be extremely HIGH! So, any COPs would have to be offered at a rate of return to the investor that would be between 15% and 20% minimum. Such rates are too high for the taxpayer to be forced to cover, and it is highly unlikely that a Bond would ever pass with rates that high. So, if these COPs are issued, and the district does not have funds to cover them, then Educational programs and teachers will have to be cut in order to make good on these debts. Legally speaking the holders can force the District to make good and pay, even though it negatively impacts the operations of the schools. In other words, any additional debt taken on by VUSD at a time such as this is ground for charges of gross negligence against those Board members who would knowingly place the District at risk in such a manner. (The goal of Guffanti and Gibson is to never build a new public school especially a full service high school. Any complaint and excuse to stop construction will do.)---- Welcome to the world of high finance Ms. Jaka, and Ms. Chunka. Don't you wish you lost the election last November? (Poor Guffanti he just can not get on with his life.Talk about bitter. Perhaps he can get some grief counseling to help him past his lost of an election, self esteem and difficulty in facing the reality that VUSD voters were sick of his treatment of our children and teachers.) Remember, everything you do financially will have an impact upon what your children (Guffanti and Gibson never had to worry about destroying the district financially as then NEVER had children in any of our VUSD schools. They did not care what happened. Isn't it nice that our two new trustees do have children in our schools?) will receive in the classroom, and it will be you who are to blame when parents start getting upset about all the cuts, and when the teachers are placed on notice before March 15th about their pending lay-offs! Good luck!
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/17/news/coastal/vista/zb1ebc045a9f35c0c882575400061c355.txt
I have also copied it down below along with corrections. Vista Watchdog's ramblings will be written in brown. Corrections and accurate info will be written in blue.
Vista Watchdog1 January 17, 2009 11:54PM PST
According to the County Assessor’s office the property upon which VUSD desires to place a lien was valued at the time of transfer to Cadence Homes at approximately $14M. . [The VUSDistrict was forced to pay this 14 million (Wasn't the correct number 17 million?) rather than the 1 million dollars for the far easier to build on and more centrally located Kawano Strawberry Hill site because Guffanti and Gibson both refused to be the fourth vote needed to acquire Kawano's land. Their three years of stubborn opposition to the building of a third VUSD high school at Strawberry Hill site cost our district somewhere between 13 and 25 million dollars in increased construction costs, litigation, and extra site preparation needed at the current Highway 76 site. In this first sentence, Guffanti again fails to take responsibility for forcing VUSD into paying million more for a lesser site or admitting that if he or Gibson had lived up to their fiduciary responsibilities as trustees that a new third VUSD high school would be in either its second or third year of full time operation at Strawberry Hill right now.] However, research indicates that value was based upon the assumption the property was developable (sic) and would have homes built to a certain set of approved designs. Considering the current housing market Cadence homes has clearly indicated they have no plans to develop the property at any time in the near future and the current approved plans are very likely to change by the time they do decide to build. Therefore, if we also account for the devaluation of property over the past year (approximately 30%) it can be derived that the current value of the property is less than $9.8M. When you add the encumbrance of $7.5M liens against the property it is highly doubtful that anybody would be willing to offer $9.8M for the property, or even $7.5M. Therefore, the total liens against the property would be greater than the value of the property and recovery of the loan to Cadence Homes would become unenforceable.(If any of these numbers pulled out of his backside are correct, whose fault it that the district is forced into this tough and expensive decision? Guffanti's and Gibson's fault of course but they will never admit it. They are psychologically incapable of introspection or admitting error.) If we also consider the number of developers (including local developers) who have declared Bankruptcy in the recent housing crisis, and add the current credit and looming economic crisis to the picture we can easily see the risk of Cadence homes going under is also quite significant (anyone want to venture a guess why no banks would loan the $5M to Cadence Homes?). Thus, we are looking at a very high probability of default on the loan, and necessity to cover the COPs using redevelopment funds (actually developers' fees). Since these funds are derived from charging developers when they build new property (or when current home owners add new space to their homes), and since the current glut of vacant homes is such that most in the real estate and building industry predict a minimum of 5 years before any building is needed, and since projections show the future growth to be slow to start, it is quite unlikely that enough funds would be generated from the developers' fees to cover the costs of the COPs. (Actually much of what he just wrote is true but again if Guffanti and Gibson had cared about VUSD and our students the third high school would be already built and full of students at Strawberry Hill. Prop O money would have easily covered the cost of the Strawberry Hill site. The district would not be in such dire straits. I keep waiting for Guffanti and Gibson to apologize, but of course they will not. They are ANTIs and do not believe in free and fair public education. Access to such education for VUSD children threatens to decimate the ranks of those who might otherwise grow up with Gibson/Guffanti hate-filled world view.)Furthermore, the payments on the COPs would prevent any of these funds from being available for use on the maintenance or expansion of any of the currently existing schools within VUSD. (True. So when will you apologize for putting us in this situation?) Add to all this the current state of the State, and the financial state of VUSD and it can be seen that the risk in participating in (or buying) a COP would be extremely HIGH! So, any COPs would have to be offered at a rate of return to the investor that would be between 15% and 20% minimum. Such rates are too high for the taxpayer to be forced to cover, and it is highly unlikely that a Bond would ever pass with rates that high. So, if these COPs are issued, and the district does not have funds to cover them, then Educational programs and teachers will have to be cut in order to make good on these debts. Legally speaking the holders can force the District to make good and pay, even though it negatively impacts the operations of the schools. In other words, any additional debt taken on by VUSD at a time such as this is ground for charges of gross negligence against those Board members who would knowingly place the District at risk in such a manner. (The goal of Guffanti and Gibson is to never build a new public school especially a full service high school. Any complaint and excuse to stop construction will do.)---- Welcome to the world of high finance Ms. Jaka, and Ms. Chunka. Don't you wish you lost the election last November? (Poor Guffanti he just can not get on with his life.Talk about bitter. Perhaps he can get some grief counseling to help him past his lost of an election, self esteem and difficulty in facing the reality that VUSD voters were sick of his treatment of our children and teachers.) Remember, everything you do financially will have an impact upon what your children (Guffanti and Gibson never had to worry about destroying the district financially as then NEVER had children in any of our VUSD schools. They did not care what happened. Isn't it nice that our two new trustees do have children in our schools?) will receive in the classroom, and it will be you who are to blame when parents start getting upset about all the cuts, and when the teachers are placed on notice before March 15th about their pending lay-offs! Good luck!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Eileen Fernandez letter to NCTimes, January 2009
Below is the letter that Eileen Fernandez had published in the NCTimes today, January 7, 2009. It is a thank you to her supporters and a list of excuses for why she and her ANTI-public education candidates were so soundly defeated in November. She blames severe medical challenges, extreme adversity, and lack of funds.
We should be grateful she did not write any anti- teacher or anti-union screeds a la Dr. Guffanti or lies about personal attacks on her pets and daughter a la Patti Anderson. By the way when will Patti Anderson finally decide what name she will use in her NCTimes letters to the editor? Will she be Patricia Johnson? Pat Johnson? Patty A. Johnson or will she decide to publish letters under the name she uses to run for political office--Patty Anderson? It must be tough to keep track of everything with so many aliases.
I fear that Eileen's letter today means that VUSD unified is not done with Eileen? Sounds to me like she wants to run again in two years. We know that the ANTI public education crowd will run two candidates. One will obviously be Jim Gibson--that boy just cannot get enough of his name on ballots. How many public offices has he unsuccessfully run for now? Four? Five?
I am guessing that Eileen wants to be the number two person on the ANTI ticket in 2010. I wonder if Guffanti will let that happen? His weird brand of crazy windmill tilting might force him to run again. With an ego like his, not running might not be an option.
I also wonder if Gibson wants a Guffanti albatross around his neck. Guffanti has published so much and has so many delightful quotes to use against him that old Jim, the money man and the "brains" behind the ANTI attacks on our VUSD schools, might not want Guffanti on his ticket. But would he want Eileen? She was a really poor campaigner and candidate.
What will Jimmy Gibson do for a partner in the crime in 2010?
Here is the URL of Eileen's letter:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/07/opinion/letters/z9366c396029a3b3188257536007c8ed3.txt
And here is the full letter:
Thanks to all who helped with campaign
To everyone who worked on my campaign when I ran as a Vista school board candidate in 2008, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's such a great feeling to know that even when people were having difficulties, including severe medical challenges in some cases, they still rose up in determination for a cause they believed was worthy.
I am very humbled by volunteers who went out of their way to contribute time and other valuable resources. Much deserved credit goes to Dr. Stephen Guffanti and Patty Anderson, my co-candidates, for not giving up in the face of adversity that at times was extreme in their own lives ��“��“ or when funds were limited, or when volunteers were scarce because their personal challenges became too daunting.
I am very proud of those of you who kept forging ahead with us; each of you deserves recognition for outstanding ethics, fortitude, diligence and patience. I am sincerely and forever grateful. Also, I would like to offer my appreciation to all who cast their vote for me.
Eileen Fernandez
candidate, 2008 Vista school board
We should be grateful she did not write any anti- teacher or anti-union screeds a la Dr. Guffanti or lies about personal attacks on her pets and daughter a la Patti Anderson. By the way when will Patti Anderson finally decide what name she will use in her NCTimes letters to the editor? Will she be Patricia Johnson? Pat Johnson? Patty A. Johnson or will she decide to publish letters under the name she uses to run for political office--Patty Anderson? It must be tough to keep track of everything with so many aliases.
I fear that Eileen's letter today means that VUSD unified is not done with Eileen? Sounds to me like she wants to run again in two years. We know that the ANTI public education crowd will run two candidates. One will obviously be Jim Gibson--that boy just cannot get enough of his name on ballots. How many public offices has he unsuccessfully run for now? Four? Five?
I am guessing that Eileen wants to be the number two person on the ANTI ticket in 2010. I wonder if Guffanti will let that happen? His weird brand of crazy windmill tilting might force him to run again. With an ego like his, not running might not be an option.
I also wonder if Gibson wants a Guffanti albatross around his neck. Guffanti has published so much and has so many delightful quotes to use against him that old Jim, the money man and the "brains" behind the ANTI attacks on our VUSD schools, might not want Guffanti on his ticket. But would he want Eileen? She was a really poor campaigner and candidate.
What will Jimmy Gibson do for a partner in the crime in 2010?
Here is the URL of Eileen's letter:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/07/opinion/letters/z9366c396029a3b3188257536007c8ed3.txt
And here is the full letter:
Thanks to all who helped with campaign
To everyone who worked on my campaign when I ran as a Vista school board candidate in 2008, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's such a great feeling to know that even when people were having difficulties, including severe medical challenges in some cases, they still rose up in determination for a cause they believed was worthy.
I am very humbled by volunteers who went out of their way to contribute time and other valuable resources. Much deserved credit goes to Dr. Stephen Guffanti and Patty Anderson, my co-candidates, for not giving up in the face of adversity that at times was extreme in their own lives ��“��“ or when funds were limited, or when volunteers were scarce because their personal challenges became too daunting.
I am very proud of those of you who kept forging ahead with us; each of you deserves recognition for outstanding ethics, fortitude, diligence and patience. I am sincerely and forever grateful. Also, I would like to offer my appreciation to all who cast their vote for me.
Eileen Fernandez
candidate, 2008 Vista school board
Friday, January 2, 2009
NCTimes Opinion Piece that defends unions! Pigs do fly.
Today a North County Times opinion piece refers to the VUSD unions which includes both the Vista Teacher's Association and CSEA. Surprise, the opinion piece was not the usual virulent anti union diatribe so favored by the editorial staff. It was actually decrying the anti union hate speech of our opponents. Read the article here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/02/opinion/riehl/z0ca4f502b777eef588257530005f3f24.txt
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/02/opinion/riehl/z0ca4f502b777eef588257530005f3f24.txt
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