ANTI say: It's not the teachers, it's the union that is the problem

Come on my ANTI friends, what do you think a teacher's union is? It is the teachers. It is a union or an association of teachers who freely chose to join together. The teachers in the district voluntarily chose in a free and fair election to associate together in a union not once but twice.

At present Jan O'Reilly is the ELECTED president of that union of teachers. In June a new president will take office after another ELECTION.

Jan O'Reilly does not decide what the union is going to do. The teachers through their Site Reps tell her. Jan O'Reilly is not some Machiavellian mastermind manipulating the school board and teachers. She is just an ordinary classroom teacher who volunteered to run for president and then was elected.

Next year another ordinary teacher will take her place. Before she was elected a different ordinary classroom teacher was president, Susie Bristow, and before her Randy Wiens and Tom Conry. All ordinary classroom teachers from various school sites in our district.

In the Vista Teachers Association's nearly twenty year history of political involvement the teachers have elected many, many executive officers including presidents. Jan is at least the fifth president since that time and their have been dozens of different Executive Board members since then as well. Each new VTA president and each new Executive Board member is a completely independent actor. Most of their decisions I agreed with, some I did not. Which is fine. That's the way it is in a democracy, which is what the VTA is.

By the way the teachers of this district NEVER took any political action of any kind until the early 1990's when a group of extremists took over our district in a stealth campaign and then caused so much chaos that their actions on our VUSD school board made NATIONAL headlines and front page news in the New York Times, LATIMES and SFChronicle. The teachers joined a community recall of those extremists who were booted from the school board.

However, their movement did not end with their successful recall. The movement continued and managed to stop several subsequent school bonds which resulted in more delay and increased cost for our new schools. When we finally passed a bond, the extremists had managed by that time to grab back two of our five VUSD school board positions. Those two seats were held by Jim Gibson and Dr. Stephen Guffanti who then stopped the district from building our new third high school for six years because FOUR votes were required to purchase land. One of them either Gibson or Guffanti was needed to side with the board majority and favor the purchase for the purchase to be allowed by state law.

ANTI friend, are you are aware that the teachers of VUSD have had (1)no pay raises nor contract in over two years? The teachers in fact (2)gave up pay this year--that amounted to a little more than a half a percent cut in pay. The teachers have accepted (3)less and less medical coverage at higher and higher prices which has resulted in several percentage points LESS of take home pay. The teachers of VUSD have had (4) no say whatsoever in the search for a new superintendent that resulted in Joyce Bales being hired. They had (5)no say or even a non voting seat at the table when the five superintendent candidates selected were interviewed. They had (6)no say in Joyce Bales contract being extended last fall. If you believe that Jan O'Reilly or any other teacher has control over board actions, then either you are not paying attention or you have been confused by someone with ulterior motives.

Much of the reason for the lack of funds for teachers and much else in our district had to do with the unnecessary EXTRA FIFTY MILLION dollars the taxpayers of this district were forced to pay for the new third high school. None of the four trustees that you mentioned (Jaka, Chunka, Herrera, or Lily caused that colossal waste. Only one trustee left on the board is directly responsible for that massive lost of taxpayer money. His name is Jim Gibson.

All Jim Gibson had to do in 2002 or 2003 was to allow the district to build the third high school on the last large piece of CHEAP, vacant, level, graded land in the district. But he refused. Not just once, but time after time. Without him there were not the LEGALLY required four trustees supporting the purchase of that LAST, cheap, level, piece of property. The taxpayers of VUSD were forced to build the school on a much more expensive, hilly, ungraded site which DOUBLED the cost of the third high school.

So if you are unhappy with spending priorities at VUSD, look closely at who really caused the financial problems. The teachers who now have the THIRD LOWEST PAY in San Diego County had NOTHING to do with it.

For those of you who would like to see all the ANTI comments after the article in the North County Times telling about the Encuentros program, here is the link:

Here is an ANTI comment from that link that induced me to write the above post:

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_60b263fe-df1a-5b91-af87-ad1a53bc7a98.html?mode=comments

Roxy said on: October 25, 2009, 6:42 pm
con no more (that's me) ---- Yeah “plain truth” (another ANTI blogger) is wrong the teachers don’t control the VUSD. It is Jan O’reilley and her teachers union who control the district. They pay the campaign contributions of the VUSD puppets [LILLY, HERRERA, CHUNKA and JAKA].

The puppets rubber stamp Jan’s wishes, it is much like organized crime. Jan is the MADRINA/GODMOTHER. LILLY, HERRERA, CHUNKA and JAKA kiss the ground she walks on. In the meantime the VUSD students get royally screwed!

Yes it is ha, ha, ha, ha, for you but for the VUSD students it is the slammer!!! Thousands of these students end up in jail because VUSD is a feeder into JUVI and state prisons.


Notice that the comment editor at the North County Times has no problem with the factually incorrect and liabelous charges contained in Roxy's post. When our side responds, we are often deleted by that same Comments Editor. There is an obvious bias at the NCTimes and there always has been. We just have to live with it.