The following is part of a back and forth set of comments following an article in North County Times saying that the school board decided not to combine Olive and Washington at this time. The 69 comments following the article are a microcosm of the the battles here in VUSD from both sides. They say little about the proposed school merge but a lot about the kind of politics we have here. You can read all the comments here: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_2747ca42-c442-59bb-bd3a-2ebf5485020a.html?mode=comments
The cheap level Kawano property at Strawberry Hill was appraised at 1 million dollars by a professional real estate appraiser. There is a legal process for this. Sometimes the land owner disputes the appraisal and takes it to court. There also are no bids whatsoever. It is not a negotiation. It is not like buying a house where you negotiate with the seller. The price is fixed in a fair legal manner with independent appraisers.
But Kawano was AGRICULTURAL land whereas the Melrose property was zoned for housing making it much more expensive. Land zoned agricultural is far cheaper than land zoned for single family homes.
The cheap level fully graded one million dollar Kawano property as agricultural land would never have been valued at the 18 million the taxpayers were forced to pay for the secondary site at Melrose when the primary site was denied them by Jim Gibson and Dr. Stephen Guffanti.
ANTIs say they are proud that Gibson and Guffanti did not use eminent domain
You say you are proud that Gibson and Guffanti did not give the needed support for eminent domain at Kawano but you say nothing about eminent domain at Melrose that took four votes--Jim Gibson being the fourth.
In 2002 the taxpayers had a chance at cheap land and immediate construction of a dual magnet high school projected to cost between 49 and 52 million dollars. Gibson and Guffanti said no. Now seven years later the dual magnet high school costs 100 million and is still not done.
Jim Gibson made the decision to run the anti cheap level Kawano high school campaign "stop the 10,000 car mega high school" Now he has to run on his record in 2010 which includes that terrible costly decision.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
VUSD--Flu sweeping district, widespread absences
Flu is rampant in our VUSD elementary classrooms this week.
In some school classrooms as many as one third of students are absent with “the flu.” Symptoms are high fever, debilitating headache, cough, and sometimes nausea.
According to an article in the LATimes if you have the flu now, chances are its H1N1 (swine flu). The only good news in that in classrooms that were hardest hit a couple of weeks ago, now seem to have almost no one ill.
This “flu” that is sweeping our district hits fast and hard, sickening many students all at once, but then it is gone. Let’s hope we get through it with no hospitalizations or deaths.
Will VUSD chance its policy of leaving sick children in class simply to increase ADA money in the short term?
Read:
http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2009/10/will-bales-push-to-maximize-ada-put-our.html
Here is the LATimes article:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/11/questions-with-answers-about-h1n1-aka-swine-flu.html
Booster Shots
ODDITIES, MUSINGS AND NEWS FROM
THE WORLD OF HEALTH
Questions, with answers, about H1N1 (swine flu)
November 3, 2009 11:19 am
Who should get the H1N1 vaccine?
Pretty much everyone, health officials say, assuming a person hasn't already had the H1N1 flu. But don’t go elbowing to the front of the line just yet. With limited vaccine supplies available, some groups get priority because the virus poses greater risk to them than it does to most healthy adults. So if you’re not pregnant, a healthcare worker, age 6 months to 24 years, live with or care for an infant under 6 months, or have a compromised immune system, hold off. As difficult as it may be, you need to wait until there’s enough vaccine available for all.
I’m at high risk – honest, I am. Where can I get the vaccine?
Go to your county health department’s website for a list of clinics and dates. In Los Angeles County, that’s lapublichealth.org.
Is the vaccine safe?
It would certainly seem to be. As one infectious disease specialist put it recently: "This H1N1 vaccine is made just like all the flu vaccines we have been making for 60 years, which have an extraordinary record for safety."
Why are young people more likely to be affected?
The short answer is, no one is sure. Some scientists blame a lack of exposure to similar strains of the flu; some suggest young people's immune responses go into overdrive. Regardless, a better understanding of this flu will be crucial to developing ways to fight it in the future. Here's a closer look at the mysteries of this flu strain.
Are pregnant women really more at risk?
Yes, yes, yes. Many of them are young, so they're more likely to be affected. And their immune systems are operating at lower capacity than usual so their bodies don't reject the fetus.
Should I get a seasonal flu vaccine?
Again, health experts recommend it for most people. They say that, just because the swine flu strain is the predominant -- by far -- strain in the community at the moment, that could change as we approach traditional flu season.
What's so special about the swine flu?
Many things, not the least of which is its refusal to follow the standard cold-weather transmission patterns. The virus made a splash in the late spring, at the end of the traditional flu season, lingered through the summer and resurged well before the start of flu season in the winter. It's also easily spread. Very easily spread, affects young people more than old, and is a previously unseen combination of viruses found in pigs, humans and wild birds. Interesting, no?
How do I know if I have the flu?
If you have a fever, chills, head and chest congestion, assume that you do. If you simply feel a little peaked or have the sniffles, assume that you don’t.
How do I know which flu I have?
If you have the flu, you can pretty much bet it's the novel H1N1 strain. Don’t be fooled by the limited number of “confirmed” flu cases in your school or office. Health officials aren’t even bothering to test in most suspected flu cases because, right now, that virus is pretty much the only game in town.
Have more questions?
Head to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You could spend days there, exploring and learning about the H1N1 strain. And the news is always changing, so stay tuned here too.
-- Tami Dennis
In some school classrooms as many as one third of students are absent with “the flu.” Symptoms are high fever, debilitating headache, cough, and sometimes nausea.
According to an article in the LATimes if you have the flu now, chances are its H1N1 (swine flu). The only good news in that in classrooms that were hardest hit a couple of weeks ago, now seem to have almost no one ill.
This “flu” that is sweeping our district hits fast and hard, sickening many students all at once, but then it is gone. Let’s hope we get through it with no hospitalizations or deaths.
Will VUSD chance its policy of leaving sick children in class simply to increase ADA money in the short term?
Read:
http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2009/10/will-bales-push-to-maximize-ada-put-our.html
Here is the LATimes article:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/11/questions-with-answers-about-h1n1-aka-swine-flu.html
Booster Shots
ODDITIES, MUSINGS AND NEWS FROM
THE WORLD OF HEALTH
Questions, with answers, about H1N1 (swine flu)
November 3, 2009 11:19 am
Who should get the H1N1 vaccine?
Pretty much everyone, health officials say, assuming a person hasn't already had the H1N1 flu. But don’t go elbowing to the front of the line just yet. With limited vaccine supplies available, some groups get priority because the virus poses greater risk to them than it does to most healthy adults. So if you’re not pregnant, a healthcare worker, age 6 months to 24 years, live with or care for an infant under 6 months, or have a compromised immune system, hold off. As difficult as it may be, you need to wait until there’s enough vaccine available for all.
I’m at high risk – honest, I am. Where can I get the vaccine?
Go to your county health department’s website for a list of clinics and dates. In Los Angeles County, that’s lapublichealth.org.
Is the vaccine safe?
It would certainly seem to be. As one infectious disease specialist put it recently: "This H1N1 vaccine is made just like all the flu vaccines we have been making for 60 years, which have an extraordinary record for safety."
Why are young people more likely to be affected?
The short answer is, no one is sure. Some scientists blame a lack of exposure to similar strains of the flu; some suggest young people's immune responses go into overdrive. Regardless, a better understanding of this flu will be crucial to developing ways to fight it in the future. Here's a closer look at the mysteries of this flu strain.
Are pregnant women really more at risk?
Yes, yes, yes. Many of them are young, so they're more likely to be affected. And their immune systems are operating at lower capacity than usual so their bodies don't reject the fetus.
Should I get a seasonal flu vaccine?
Again, health experts recommend it for most people. They say that, just because the swine flu strain is the predominant -- by far -- strain in the community at the moment, that could change as we approach traditional flu season.
What's so special about the swine flu?
Many things, not the least of which is its refusal to follow the standard cold-weather transmission patterns. The virus made a splash in the late spring, at the end of the traditional flu season, lingered through the summer and resurged well before the start of flu season in the winter. It's also easily spread. Very easily spread, affects young people more than old, and is a previously unseen combination of viruses found in pigs, humans and wild birds. Interesting, no?
How do I know if I have the flu?
If you have a fever, chills, head and chest congestion, assume that you do. If you simply feel a little peaked or have the sniffles, assume that you don’t.
How do I know which flu I have?
If you have the flu, you can pretty much bet it's the novel H1N1 strain. Don’t be fooled by the limited number of “confirmed” flu cases in your school or office. Health officials aren’t even bothering to test in most suspected flu cases because, right now, that virus is pretty much the only game in town.
Have more questions?
Head to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You could spend days there, exploring and learning about the H1N1 strain. And the news is always changing, so stay tuned here too.
-- Tami Dennis
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Retired Teachers top volunteers in state
Our fact free ANTI friends love to demonize teachers, even retired teachers. Roxy and other bloggers in the North County Times have said that our retirement pay is 100K a year that our pensions are bankrupting school districts, etc.* Of course our ANTI friends disparately need evil straw men to fight so that their sad little lives have meaning.
It seems contrary to the hate and bile our ANTI friends spew that actually California Teachers are champs when it comes to volunteering. I wonder if our ANTI friends ever voluntarily help anyone but themselves? At least we know teachers do. In fact this last weekend, I know a group of teachers at a public school here in VUSD that VOLUNTEERED between nine and ten hours of their free time Friday Oct 30 and Saturday October 31 for Halloween carnivals. Parents with children in those schools, repeatedly thanked those teachers. Of course our ANTI friends will never know about those self sacrificing teachers as their children do not attend our good VUSD schools.
Here is the article:
FALLBROOK: Retired teachers lead state in volunteer hours
By MORGAN COOK - mcook@nctimes.com Posted: Friday, October 30, 2009 9:35 pm
Even after retirement, Fallbrook-area teachers are working hard to improve their communities.
About 75 members of the Fallbrook Avocado Division 81 chapter of the California Retired Teachers Association volunteered a combined total of 58,284 hours in Fallbrook and Bonsall last year, division 81 spokesperson Lenora Sears this week.
The 149-member division is one of eight divisions in the county, which led the state in reported volunteer hours last year with a total 2.7 million, according to an association report on volunteer hours.
The report was released earlier this month in advance of California Retired Teachers Week, which begins Sunday, as a way to underscore the value teachers have in their communities in dollars and cents.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit association organizes volunteer work, awards scholarships and reaches out to lawmakers on legislation that could affect public education or retirement benefits for teachers, officials said.
The association has more than 52,000 members statewide.
Sears said retired teachers volunteer at schools, hospitals, libraries and anywhere else they're needed, giving them an opportunity to provide the kind of community service that drove many of them to become educators in the first place.
"Many of us have worked in the classroom for over 35, 40 years," Sears said. "We see the need to be of help. We all feel that what we can give is very much needed, so we give where it's needed."
The report said that each volunteer hour is worth $20.25, an estimate of what volunteers would earn if they were paid for their volunteer work, Sears said. By that measure, volunteer hours by Division 81 members last year would amount to more than $1.1 million.
Contact staff writer Morgan Cook at 760-740-3516.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/fallbrook/article_cbb8e3fd-a919-5009-b196-36d5f9a136ba.html
*I am a retired teacher who gets 25K a year after 25 years in the public school classrooms with four different kinds of teaching credentials. I learned to speak Spanish while a California public school teacher and in Spanish for several years to classrooms of non English speakers. I was also a superintendent/teacher for a tiny two classroom, single school district in southern Tulare County, California.
I have driven a school bus and been a custodian.
For all of that service, every bit of it in California for public schools, my retirement with NO medical benefits whatsoever, NONE, not even Medicare, I make 25K a year.
All of my retirement pay comes from the State Teacher's Retirement System, not one cent comes from our local district.
It seems contrary to the hate and bile our ANTI friends spew that actually California Teachers are champs when it comes to volunteering. I wonder if our ANTI friends ever voluntarily help anyone but themselves? At least we know teachers do. In fact this last weekend, I know a group of teachers at a public school here in VUSD that VOLUNTEERED between nine and ten hours of their free time Friday Oct 30 and Saturday October 31 for Halloween carnivals. Parents with children in those schools, repeatedly thanked those teachers. Of course our ANTI friends will never know about those self sacrificing teachers as their children do not attend our good VUSD schools.
Here is the article:
FALLBROOK: Retired teachers lead state in volunteer hours
By MORGAN COOK - mcook@nctimes.com Posted: Friday, October 30, 2009 9:35 pm
Even after retirement, Fallbrook-area teachers are working hard to improve their communities.
About 75 members of the Fallbrook Avocado Division 81 chapter of the California Retired Teachers Association volunteered a combined total of 58,284 hours in Fallbrook and Bonsall last year, division 81 spokesperson Lenora Sears this week.
The 149-member division is one of eight divisions in the county, which led the state in reported volunteer hours last year with a total 2.7 million, according to an association report on volunteer hours.
The report was released earlier this month in advance of California Retired Teachers Week, which begins Sunday, as a way to underscore the value teachers have in their communities in dollars and cents.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit association organizes volunteer work, awards scholarships and reaches out to lawmakers on legislation that could affect public education or retirement benefits for teachers, officials said.
The association has more than 52,000 members statewide.
Sears said retired teachers volunteer at schools, hospitals, libraries and anywhere else they're needed, giving them an opportunity to provide the kind of community service that drove many of them to become educators in the first place.
"Many of us have worked in the classroom for over 35, 40 years," Sears said. "We see the need to be of help. We all feel that what we can give is very much needed, so we give where it's needed."
The report said that each volunteer hour is worth $20.25, an estimate of what volunteers would earn if they were paid for their volunteer work, Sears said. By that measure, volunteer hours by Division 81 members last year would amount to more than $1.1 million.
Contact staff writer Morgan Cook at 760-740-3516.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/fallbrook/article_cbb8e3fd-a919-5009-b196-36d5f9a136ba.html
*I am a retired teacher who gets 25K a year after 25 years in the public school classrooms with four different kinds of teaching credentials. I learned to speak Spanish while a California public school teacher and in Spanish for several years to classrooms of non English speakers. I was also a superintendent/teacher for a tiny two classroom, single school district in southern Tulare County, California.
I have driven a school bus and been a custodian.
For all of that service, every bit of it in California for public schools, my retirement with NO medical benefits whatsoever, NONE, not even Medicare, I make 25K a year.
All of my retirement pay comes from the State Teacher's Retirement System, not one cent comes from our local district.
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