Our ANTI public education friends who post venom laced, fact challenge blogs about our good VUSD teachers and district at the North County Times, have recently taken to charging that VUSD has fewer students(lower ADA) but no fewer teachers (FTEs). Our ANTI friends say it is because the VTA runs the district and does not care about bankrupting VUSD.
I know it sounds crazy but these folks actually seem to believe the nasty lies they make up. Below are a couple of snippets from the blogs of two of the most error filled and hateful ANTI bloggers, Roxy and Vista Watchdog 1.
Oops, sorry I cannot show you Roxy's blog. I just checked for it at the the NCTimes. Roxy's remarks have been removed. Roxy's remarks were similar to Vista Watchdog's below in red except she was a bit more venomous. She wrote something about VTA union thugs not allowing teachers to be laid off when enrollment declines.
Here is what Vista Watchdog 1 wrote on January 29 at 5:10 am:
"VUSD has seen a SIGNIFCANT (sic) decline in enrollment over the past 5 years and it is time for equal cuts in the number of teaches employed by VUSD"
Read his full set of erroneous comments here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5d484135-59db-577e-8f37-22631a428030.html?mode=comments
But first here is proof from the Sacramento Bee that the number of VUSD teachers has declined with the decrease in student attendance (ADA).
http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/995141.html?appSession=037133731095564&RecordID=646&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=2&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=
The Sacramento Bee newspaper compiles statistics on all school districts in the state. According to the Bee, VUSD lost the a little more than 16 teachers last year. The exact total is likely more because all school districts in California report the number of FTEs or Full Time Equivalents rather than the number of people (bodies). One FTE usually means one teacher, however sometimes it does not if two half time teachers lose their jobs, the FTE is reported as ONE even though two people are out of work.
Here is the Sacramento Bee web address showing that VUSD lost approximately 16 FTEs in the last reporting period:
http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/995141.html?appSession=859133727860984&RecordID=646&PageID=3&PrevPageID=2&cpipage=2&CPIsortType=&CPIorderBy=
It should be noted that the Sacramento Bee is known for its ultra conservative editorial rhetoric and is hardly a friend of unions or the middle class pay that unions get for their members.
VUSD average salary ranking in the county has decreased slightly as well. We are now 33rd out of 38 reporting districts in San Diego County rather than last years 22nd out of 29 reporting districts. Note there are not more districts this year, just more districts that reported their statistics to the state.
See the rankings here:
http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/995141.html?appSession=192133727791159&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=1&cpipage=2&CPISortType=&CPIorderBy=
Sunday, January 31, 2010
VUSD new schools are trailer parks with leaky roofs?
Recently our ANTI friends have taken to inaccurately attacking our new elementary schools in VUSD as trailer parks with leaky roofs. Here is an example of ANTI rhetoric from a blogger who calls herself "Roxy"
"You talk about building schools? Which schools? You mean those trailer parks with leaky roofs, and moldy classrooms? These trailer parks look more like prisons, what the heck I guess preparing kids for their future penitentiary is a noble cause right?"
You can read the rest of Roxy's January 29, 2010 comment made at 9:06 pm here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5d484135-59db-577e-8f37-22631a428030.html?mode=comments
Roxy is a venom tongued example of the inaccurate charges and challenges from our ANTI friends that all good taxpayers, teachers and students face.
Let me correct some of her inaccuracies.
Classrooms at the new schools are brand new, state of the art, modular classrooms not cheap trailers. These state of the art buildings have many advantages over traditional stick and mortar schools.
First they are cheaper to build.
Second they contain more bells and whistles--built in AV equipment and a microphone and speaker system for the teachers so that all students are given equal opportunity to hear the instructors voice. Teachers love these modular classrooms and actively compete to be placed in one.
Third, these modular classrooms make more sense for school districts with changing student population centers then do the the old fashioned stick and mortar buildings of schools built decades ago. The modulars allow the district to affordably shift classrooms from one location in the district to another to quickly accommodate student populations changes. Virtually all California districts are using these modular classrooms for new school construction for just that reason.
In the past as neighborhoods aged and student populations declined, the only choice a district had was to close down schools with declining enrollment or bus students long distances from areas of rapid growth to these older schools. With modulars, VUSD will be able to shift classrooms to new sites as the population shifts. This ability to move modulars will reduce the need for bond issues to build new schools.
Modulars are a win win for taxpayers. Cheaper to install now and cheaper in the future when they are moved to existing school sites to accomodate growth rather than the district being forced to build new schools at taxpayer expense.
Our ANTI friends could not be more wrong about the need to use modular buildings.
Roxy was a little bit correct in one area, there was a problem at one of our schools with one contractor who provided and erected some of the modulars. There were leaks. They have been repaired. That happens in construction. Not all workmen and not all contractors work to the standard we all would like to see. When that happens they are required to fix the problems by contract. Who does not expect to see some glitch with new construction?
Our ANTI friends concentrate on one small problem and miss the glorious whole of seven new schools in VUSD and the renovations at several others. (Maybe the number of new schools should be counted as eight if the Mission Meadows is a dual magnet high school?)
Our ANTI friends opposed each of our four school bond attempts, Prop K, Prop L, Prop LL and Prop O. Thankfully we finally crossed the two thirds of the electorate hurtle with Prop O and were able to build new schools in spite of our ANTI friends best attempts to stop all new public schools from being built in VUSD.
Here is a list of new schools built by Prop O bond: Hannalei Elementary School, Major General Murray Raymond High School, Maryland Elementary School, Mission Vista High School, Rancho Minerva Middle School, Temple Heights Elementary School, Guajome Park Academy permanent buildings, and major renovations at Vista Magnet Middle School among others.
"You talk about building schools? Which schools? You mean those trailer parks with leaky roofs, and moldy classrooms? These trailer parks look more like prisons, what the heck I guess preparing kids for their future penitentiary is a noble cause right?"
You can read the rest of Roxy's January 29, 2010 comment made at 9:06 pm here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5d484135-59db-577e-8f37-22631a428030.html?mode=comments
Roxy is a venom tongued example of the inaccurate charges and challenges from our ANTI friends that all good taxpayers, teachers and students face.
Let me correct some of her inaccuracies.
Classrooms at the new schools are brand new, state of the art, modular classrooms not cheap trailers. These state of the art buildings have many advantages over traditional stick and mortar schools.
First they are cheaper to build.
Second they contain more bells and whistles--built in AV equipment and a microphone and speaker system for the teachers so that all students are given equal opportunity to hear the instructors voice. Teachers love these modular classrooms and actively compete to be placed in one.
Third, these modular classrooms make more sense for school districts with changing student population centers then do the the old fashioned stick and mortar buildings of schools built decades ago. The modulars allow the district to affordably shift classrooms from one location in the district to another to quickly accommodate student populations changes. Virtually all California districts are using these modular classrooms for new school construction for just that reason.
In the past as neighborhoods aged and student populations declined, the only choice a district had was to close down schools with declining enrollment or bus students long distances from areas of rapid growth to these older schools. With modulars, VUSD will be able to shift classrooms to new sites as the population shifts. This ability to move modulars will reduce the need for bond issues to build new schools.
Modulars are a win win for taxpayers. Cheaper to install now and cheaper in the future when they are moved to existing school sites to accomodate growth rather than the district being forced to build new schools at taxpayer expense.
Our ANTI friends could not be more wrong about the need to use modular buildings.
Roxy was a little bit correct in one area, there was a problem at one of our schools with one contractor who provided and erected some of the modulars. There were leaks. They have been repaired. That happens in construction. Not all workmen and not all contractors work to the standard we all would like to see. When that happens they are required to fix the problems by contract. Who does not expect to see some glitch with new construction?
Our ANTI friends concentrate on one small problem and miss the glorious whole of seven new schools in VUSD and the renovations at several others. (Maybe the number of new schools should be counted as eight if the Mission Meadows is a dual magnet high school?)
Our ANTI friends opposed each of our four school bond attempts, Prop K, Prop L, Prop LL and Prop O. Thankfully we finally crossed the two thirds of the electorate hurtle with Prop O and were able to build new schools in spite of our ANTI friends best attempts to stop all new public schools from being built in VUSD.
Here is a list of new schools built by Prop O bond: Hannalei Elementary School, Major General Murray Raymond High School, Maryland Elementary School, Mission Vista High School, Rancho Minerva Middle School, Temple Heights Elementary School, Guajome Park Academy permanent buildings, and major renovations at Vista Magnet Middle School among others.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
There are no VUSD graduates that have achieved success?
Our ANTI public education friends like to say that our fine VUSD schools produce only dropouts and illiterates. Of course they speak from ignorance as their own children have never attended FACT based public schools, here or elsewhere.
VUSD had produced students who have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, NASA scientists(Kira Jorgensen), and fine professional athletes-- one of my favorites is Leon Hall.
I remember him as a student in one of my classes. He was a great kid then and a very nice man now. Never once did he mention he was an athlete. He just did the work and made good grades. I did not know until years later what a great athlete he was. He is a good example of the kind of outstanding folks who come from our wonderful schools in VUSD.
Here is an article from today's North County Times (Jauary 30, 2010) regarding the retirement of his football jersey number at Vista High School. Several other professional athletes who graduated from Vista High School are also mentioned.
VISTA: Going Pro
Posted: Friday, January 29, 2010 7:15 pm at the North County Times
Vista High School's head football coach Dan Williams, left, hands former student Leon Hall, who now plays for the Cincinnati Bengals, a Vista High football jersey as a part of a pep-rally and a jersey retirement celebration held Friday morning at the campus. The event honored several former Vista High students who are now professional athletes, including Russell Allen, an NFL player with the Jacksonville Jaguars; and Trevor Cahill, a Major League Baseball player with the Oakland Athletics.
VUSD had produced students who have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, NASA scientists(Kira Jorgensen), and fine professional athletes-- one of my favorites is Leon Hall.
I remember him as a student in one of my classes. He was a great kid then and a very nice man now. Never once did he mention he was an athlete. He just did the work and made good grades. I did not know until years later what a great athlete he was. He is a good example of the kind of outstanding folks who come from our wonderful schools in VUSD.
Here is an article from today's North County Times (Jauary 30, 2010) regarding the retirement of his football jersey number at Vista High School. Several other professional athletes who graduated from Vista High School are also mentioned.
VISTA: Going Pro
Posted: Friday, January 29, 2010 7:15 pm at the North County Times
Vista High School's head football coach Dan Williams, left, hands former student Leon Hall, who now plays for the Cincinnati Bengals, a Vista High football jersey as a part of a pep-rally and a jersey retirement celebration held Friday morning at the campus. The event honored several former Vista High students who are now professional athletes, including Russell Allen, an NFL player with the Jacksonville Jaguars; and Trevor Cahill, a Major League Baseball player with the Oakland Athletics.
Jim Trageser falsely charges VUSD teachers of starting cycle of distrust
According to our ANTI friends teachers in VUSD are greedy thugs interested only in salary, benefits and pensions. They say teachers in VUSD are lousy and do not care that VUSD students do not learn. They also say we have the worst student performances and are the most sanctioned district in the state.
Our ANTI friends are very good at scurrilous charges made to an audience of the uniformed but they really hate facts. They have to hide from facts as facts disrupt their need to hate and demonize others.
In the North County Times Jim Trageser wrote a column in which he falsely accused the VTA of starting the cycle of distrust in our district with the 1994 recall. Trageser is one of our ANTI public education crowd's closest allies and he is factually wrong. The teachers joined an already existing community recall movement MONTHS after it started. The VTA only joined when the three member extremist majority removed life saving curriculum from our sex ed classes and replaced it with a fact light program called Sex Respect which contained racist illustrations and advice like "Pet your dog, not your date."
The split in our district was caused by the take over of our school board by political and religious extremist who hid their true agenda until they were elected. The agenda had nothing to do with helping our VUSD kids get a better education, it had to do with inserting their peculiar, little god version of creationism into our school curriculum, taking out life saving info in sex ed, and refusing millions of dollars of federal government grants that took years of work and tens of thousands of dollars and hours of staff time to apply for.
To get a taste of what to expect if they are successful again in taking over our board I give you Roxy post after the Jim Trageser fact challenged editorial.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/trageser/article_873b4dde-cd22-5004-a04b-e4c1c1bfd356.html?mode=comments
First you can read in RED Roxy's wild eyed and unfounded charges, then my factual response in BLUE. As you read what Roxy wrote it might be fun for you to pick out her lies. Hint there are more than ten.
Roxy said on: January 25, 2010, 4:05 pm
con no more ~~look who is raving you appear to be attacking everyone including the writer of the story. In your mind everyone is wrong and rants except you and you union allies.
First the VTA was involved and bankrolled the recall that is what is important. My personal opinion is that VTA was always behind the recall. Who cares at what point you claim the got involved the bottom line is that they WERE INVOLVED and this is all that matters.
Yes it is correct I said, "Then the voters find out that nothing is about the kids but the enrichment of the salaries, benefits and pensions of union thugs."
Just look at VUSD test scores, illiteracy and drop out rates, add the most sanctioned school in the state. What else do you need? Whether VUSD is the highest or lewest (sic) makes little difference the bottom line is that the state is BANKRUPT!!!! How many times do I have to say there is no money?
When schoolteachers, staff and administration consume over 87% of the student ADA there is a serious problem. Where do you think the money is going to come from to pay the UNFUNDED PENSIONS???? Who is going to pay for them? Some places in California have an over 40% unemployment.
Are you PUBLIC EMPLOYEES out of tough with reality?
You all brought this state to bankruptcy.
GREED
GREED
GREED
Welcome to the real world we pay $10,000 yearly for our family medical insurance, plus co pays. We too pay each year more and more and get less and less benefits. Add to this $ 10,000 in insurance college tuition for two kids and I have another one starting high school. All the thousands and I mean thousands of dollars in taxes we pay per month just in taxes…..
If you or your teachers are so pro public education than why are students at VUSD either marginally literate or fully illiterate? Why does VUSD have a 60% dropout rate? Why so many sanctioned schools? Why are the test scores so low?
this recall made possible by Jan is long overdue and I hope it moves forward.
Where do I sign?
My reply to Roxy.
Roxy, the words of Joe Wilson apply to your every post and virtually every word of the particular post preceding this one.
Not one of the many unfounded charges you made in that post can you substantiate.
As usual Roxy, you and your ANTI fact based public education friends cannot do anything but sling baseless, fact less charges, and hyperbole.
Give us one link to unfunded TEACHER pensions for VUSD or the state, or the most sanctioned 'school' in the state. Show us how terrible our drop out rate and literacy rate is compared to other districts. Oh you can't? Of course not. ANTIs only make charges, they never back them up with facts. The only folks you can convince are the three radical right editors who control this newspaper and the sad and pathetic Jim Trageser who does not believe in fact based opinion pieces.
In fact VUSD was named one of only ten MODEL districts in the state for drop out prevention as reported in the NCTimes. But I guess you do not read the articles in this paper only lobby the extremely biased editorial staff--but what else is new about ANTIs. Facts are so frightening to our ANTI friends.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_b594a65d-1eac-5507-b0ef-792408e088e9.html
I am still waiting for you to give one URL for any of your many false accusations about the good teachers of this fine district. Notice that I did for the article about VUSD being named a MODEL DISTRICT, but then again I believe in using facts unlike you, Roxy, and your ANTI friends.
Also I am sure that better than 50% of the General Fund goes to employee (janitors, secretaries, teachers, principals, superintendent, bus driver, etc) salaries and benefits in VUSD as it does in every single school district in the state of California. Our state legislature set up the system that way.
Salaries and benefits could be set by the state and paid directly by the state and NOT indirectly through school districts' general funds. That is the system in other states for example Iowa and Missouri. California legislature decreed that salaries come out of the same fund that student supplies come from. Dumb, yes, but that is OUR system in this state.
You of course can neither substantiate the 87% number you throw around NOR more importantly show that whatever the percentage that it is any different than the percentage in Oceanside, Escondido, Fallbrook or any other California school district.
Your phony, unsubstantiated, outrageous, falsehoods might work in the small cohort of ANTIs you belong to but they will not work with the general public or taxpayers.
The only way you folks ever win is to hide your real political agenda and unleash over the top charges at your opponents. Those tactics only work if the electorate is uniformed. But here in VUSD we know what happens when you folks take over. We will not let it happen again. We won't be as naive as we were in 1992.
Our ANTI friends are very good at scurrilous charges made to an audience of the uniformed but they really hate facts. They have to hide from facts as facts disrupt their need to hate and demonize others.
In the North County Times Jim Trageser wrote a column in which he falsely accused the VTA of starting the cycle of distrust in our district with the 1994 recall. Trageser is one of our ANTI public education crowd's closest allies and he is factually wrong. The teachers joined an already existing community recall movement MONTHS after it started. The VTA only joined when the three member extremist majority removed life saving curriculum from our sex ed classes and replaced it with a fact light program called Sex Respect which contained racist illustrations and advice like "Pet your dog, not your date."
The split in our district was caused by the take over of our school board by political and religious extremist who hid their true agenda until they were elected. The agenda had nothing to do with helping our VUSD kids get a better education, it had to do with inserting their peculiar, little god version of creationism into our school curriculum, taking out life saving info in sex ed, and refusing millions of dollars of federal government grants that took years of work and tens of thousands of dollars and hours of staff time to apply for.
To get a taste of what to expect if they are successful again in taking over our board I give you Roxy post after the Jim Trageser fact challenged editorial.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/trageser/article_873b4dde-cd22-5004-a04b-e4c1c1bfd356.html?mode=comments
First you can read in RED Roxy's wild eyed and unfounded charges, then my factual response in BLUE. As you read what Roxy wrote it might be fun for you to pick out her lies. Hint there are more than ten.
Roxy said on: January 25, 2010, 4:05 pm
con no more ~~look who is raving you appear to be attacking everyone including the writer of the story. In your mind everyone is wrong and rants except you and you union allies.
First the VTA was involved and bankrolled the recall that is what is important. My personal opinion is that VTA was always behind the recall. Who cares at what point you claim the got involved the bottom line is that they WERE INVOLVED and this is all that matters.
Yes it is correct I said, "Then the voters find out that nothing is about the kids but the enrichment of the salaries, benefits and pensions of union thugs."
Just look at VUSD test scores, illiteracy and drop out rates, add the most sanctioned school in the state. What else do you need? Whether VUSD is the highest or lewest (sic) makes little difference the bottom line is that the state is BANKRUPT!!!! How many times do I have to say there is no money?
When schoolteachers, staff and administration consume over 87% of the student ADA there is a serious problem. Where do you think the money is going to come from to pay the UNFUNDED PENSIONS???? Who is going to pay for them? Some places in California have an over 40% unemployment.
Are you PUBLIC EMPLOYEES out of tough with reality?
You all brought this state to bankruptcy.
GREED
GREED
GREED
Welcome to the real world we pay $10,000 yearly for our family medical insurance, plus co pays. We too pay each year more and more and get less and less benefits. Add to this $ 10,000 in insurance college tuition for two kids and I have another one starting high school. All the thousands and I mean thousands of dollars in taxes we pay per month just in taxes…..
If you or your teachers are so pro public education than why are students at VUSD either marginally literate or fully illiterate? Why does VUSD have a 60% dropout rate? Why so many sanctioned schools? Why are the test scores so low?
this recall made possible by Jan is long overdue and I hope it moves forward.
Where do I sign?
My reply to Roxy.
Roxy, the words of Joe Wilson apply to your every post and virtually every word of the particular post preceding this one.
Not one of the many unfounded charges you made in that post can you substantiate.
As usual Roxy, you and your ANTI fact based public education friends cannot do anything but sling baseless, fact less charges, and hyperbole.
Give us one link to unfunded TEACHER pensions for VUSD or the state, or the most sanctioned 'school' in the state. Show us how terrible our drop out rate and literacy rate is compared to other districts. Oh you can't? Of course not. ANTIs only make charges, they never back them up with facts. The only folks you can convince are the three radical right editors who control this newspaper and the sad and pathetic Jim Trageser who does not believe in fact based opinion pieces.
In fact VUSD was named one of only ten MODEL districts in the state for drop out prevention as reported in the NCTimes. But I guess you do not read the articles in this paper only lobby the extremely biased editorial staff--but what else is new about ANTIs. Facts are so frightening to our ANTI friends.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_b594a65d-1eac-5507-b0ef-792408e088e9.html
I am still waiting for you to give one URL for any of your many false accusations about the good teachers of this fine district. Notice that I did for the article about VUSD being named a MODEL DISTRICT, but then again I believe in using facts unlike you, Roxy, and your ANTI friends.
Also I am sure that better than 50% of the General Fund goes to employee (janitors, secretaries, teachers, principals, superintendent, bus driver, etc) salaries and benefits in VUSD as it does in every single school district in the state of California. Our state legislature set up the system that way.
Salaries and benefits could be set by the state and paid directly by the state and NOT indirectly through school districts' general funds. That is the system in other states for example Iowa and Missouri. California legislature decreed that salaries come out of the same fund that student supplies come from. Dumb, yes, but that is OUR system in this state.
You of course can neither substantiate the 87% number you throw around NOR more importantly show that whatever the percentage that it is any different than the percentage in Oceanside, Escondido, Fallbrook or any other California school district.
Your phony, unsubstantiated, outrageous, falsehoods might work in the small cohort of ANTIs you belong to but they will not work with the general public or taxpayers.
The only way you folks ever win is to hide your real political agenda and unleash over the top charges at your opponents. Those tactics only work if the electorate is uniformed. But here in VUSD we know what happens when you folks take over. We will not let it happen again. We won't be as naive as we were in 1992.
Friday, January 29, 2010
The 2010 Recall-- Jill Parvin rides again
Jill Parvin is heading up the recall. She is a darling of the North County Times radical right, editorial board. Many believe the recall is just an effort to create issues that would allow Dr. Stephen Guffanti to be re-elected to the school board. Parvin has been a long time supporter of Guffanti and his political agenda.
Parvin is also the only person ever to be allowed to violate the North County Times one published forum piece or letter to the editor every two weeks policy. One contribution on October 14, 2008
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/letters/article_b80bcd4d-bdba-5394-b74b-fd587b8759af.html
and another on October 16, 2008
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/article_cb05941a-c809-5d8a-92f5-b58ea84b59e3.html
The editorial staff at the North County Times is always willing to make exceptions to its own rules for those who oppose middle class income and benefits provided by unions.
Here is a link to an article in the Union Tribune about the recall.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/28/three-trustees-in-recall-bid-deny-criticism/
Bruce Lieberman who is a fair minded reporter says that Jill's daughter is in another public high school. I am guessing that is Escondido Charter High School run by a former coach of mine Denny Green who is a very fundamentalist Christian. I doubt that the students there get much in the way of factual science or history classes.
Escondido Charter High School made news last year with a dispute about hand holding by a lesbian couple. Here:http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_03a07bd7-3f92-58cd-80b0-16fd5c58ab3a.html
Parvin is also the only person ever to be allowed to violate the North County Times one published forum piece or letter to the editor every two weeks policy. One contribution on October 14, 2008
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/letters/article_b80bcd4d-bdba-5394-b74b-fd587b8759af.html
and another on October 16, 2008
http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/article_cb05941a-c809-5d8a-92f5-b58ea84b59e3.html
The editorial staff at the North County Times is always willing to make exceptions to its own rules for those who oppose middle class income and benefits provided by unions.
Here is a link to an article in the Union Tribune about the recall.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/28/three-trustees-in-recall-bid-deny-criticism/
Bruce Lieberman who is a fair minded reporter says that Jill's daughter is in another public high school. I am guessing that is Escondido Charter High School run by a former coach of mine Denny Green who is a very fundamentalist Christian. I doubt that the students there get much in the way of factual science or history classes.
Escondido Charter High School made news last year with a dispute about hand holding by a lesbian couple. Here:http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escondido/article_03a07bd7-3f92-58cd-80b0-16fd5c58ab3a.html
Creationism in VUSD schools urged by our ANTI public education friends
Vista Watchdog 1 is one of the most vocal critics of public education who posts at the North County Times. Recently he proposed the teaching of creationism in our science classrooms just as the 1992- 1994 school extremist school board wanted. They were recalled for that among other abuses of good VUSD schools as they tried to insert their narrow political and religious agenda into our fact based public education classrooms.
Vista Watchdog 1 wrote comments in support of "little god" creationism on January 27 at 12:18pm at the following URL :
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_1c99fa50-70cd-5a0a-aae5-f4a4827282b2.html?mode=comments
Here are some of his comments for the entire post see above.
...you would not have wanted the Board to "study" the legality of offering as an optional addition to the curriculum, Creationism. What harm studying? At least there would have been solid data to either support or disprove your argument that such offerings would be a waste. As it stands, since no study has been done, there is no data and only speculation pertaining to this subject. However, considering that so many Private Christian schools in the area do in fact have Creationism as part of their curriculum in addition to Evolution...,
My response to him:
On January 27 at 12:18 pm VWdog demonstrates once again that he does not understand what science is or how it works when he posts the following, "you would not have wanted the Board to "study" the legality of offering as an optional addition to the curriculum, Creationism. What harm studying? At least there would have been solid data to either support or disprove your argument that such offerings would be a waste"
Creationism as commonly used has been defined by our little god Christian friends as a dogma of their radical extremist branch of Christianity. The "little god" Christians believe that the god of the universe is a little tiny 6000 year old god who is a trickster that only makes the earth and universe appear to be older than they really are.
Traditional Christians who respect God and rational folks everywhere know that no one would create annual sedimentation records like the Green River Formation with more than six MILLION undisturbed YEARLY layers one on top of the other to fool us. What purpose in that? We also know that no honest deity would create "light in transit"* coming from sources 10 to 12 billion light years away to just appear to be 10 to 12 billion years old.
We cannot teach little god creationism or any other sort of creationism in our FACT based public school class rooms because there would be religious wars.
Science can only be what is factually observed and the inference those facts lead us to. No science is dogmatic. All science is subject to change as new facts are discovered.
VWdog does not recognize that the greatest excitement in science is generated by folks who disprove or overturn conventional scientific views. These scientists get Nobel Prizes and prestigious jobs at fine universities.
If there were factual evidence for the little god of our creationist friends, this fact would be heralded by scientists and studied by them. They would want to know how the star light was made to look billions of years old when it was really 6000 years. They would want to know exactly when this event happened exactly. Does the light from sources just a little older than 6000 years have different qualities than light from sources less than 6000 years old? Do the yearly sediment records at Green River, Utah suddenly change after 6000 years so that the rest of the yearly layers are different in some way, etc.
*The phrase about god creating light "in transit" to make it appear to be older than 6000 years was given to me by Deidre Holiday one of the three member extremist school board majority from 1992 to 1994 during a discussion I, a fellow Christian, had with her after a special "Common Ground"meeting in about February 1992, organized by then superintendent, Rene Townsend, between VTA leaders and the school board. Friction had already been building between the three member extremists majority and the teachers. Rene was trying to help cool off the situation. This meeting happened a month or so before the VTA joined the recall effort.
Vista Watchdog 1 wrote comments in support of "little god" creationism on January 27 at 12:18pm at the following URL :
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_1c99fa50-70cd-5a0a-aae5-f4a4827282b2.html?mode=comments
Here are some of his comments for the entire post see above.
...you would not have wanted the Board to "study" the legality of offering as an optional addition to the curriculum, Creationism. What harm studying? At least there would have been solid data to either support or disprove your argument that such offerings would be a waste. As it stands, since no study has been done, there is no data and only speculation pertaining to this subject. However, considering that so many Private Christian schools in the area do in fact have Creationism as part of their curriculum in addition to Evolution...,
My response to him:
On January 27 at 12:18 pm VWdog demonstrates once again that he does not understand what science is or how it works when he posts the following, "you would not have wanted the Board to "study" the legality of offering as an optional addition to the curriculum, Creationism. What harm studying? At least there would have been solid data to either support or disprove your argument that such offerings would be a waste"
Creationism as commonly used has been defined by our little god Christian friends as a dogma of their radical extremist branch of Christianity. The "little god" Christians believe that the god of the universe is a little tiny 6000 year old god who is a trickster that only makes the earth and universe appear to be older than they really are.
Traditional Christians who respect God and rational folks everywhere know that no one would create annual sedimentation records like the Green River Formation with more than six MILLION undisturbed YEARLY layers one on top of the other to fool us. What purpose in that? We also know that no honest deity would create "light in transit"* coming from sources 10 to 12 billion light years away to just appear to be 10 to 12 billion years old.
We cannot teach little god creationism or any other sort of creationism in our FACT based public school class rooms because there would be religious wars.
Science can only be what is factually observed and the inference those facts lead us to. No science is dogmatic. All science is subject to change as new facts are discovered.
VWdog does not recognize that the greatest excitement in science is generated by folks who disprove or overturn conventional scientific views. These scientists get Nobel Prizes and prestigious jobs at fine universities.
If there were factual evidence for the little god of our creationist friends, this fact would be heralded by scientists and studied by them. They would want to know how the star light was made to look billions of years old when it was really 6000 years. They would want to know exactly when this event happened exactly. Does the light from sources just a little older than 6000 years have different qualities than light from sources less than 6000 years old? Do the yearly sediment records at Green River, Utah suddenly change after 6000 years so that the rest of the yearly layers are different in some way, etc.
*The phrase about god creating light "in transit" to make it appear to be older than 6000 years was given to me by Deidre Holiday one of the three member extremist school board majority from 1992 to 1994 during a discussion I, a fellow Christian, had with her after a special "Common Ground"meeting in about February 1992, organized by then superintendent, Rene Townsend, between VTA leaders and the school board. Friction had already been building between the three member extremists majority and the teachers. Rene was trying to help cool off the situation. This meeting happened a month or so before the VTA joined the recall effort.
The Philosophy of Citizens for Excellence in Education. Why the ANTIs hate public schools and public school teachers.
The 1992-1994 take over of our VUSD school board was led by a people who were either members of or trained by a group called Citizens for Excellence in Education. CEE is a religious inspire group that favors the complete destruction of public schools. They want to replace all of our traditional FACT BASED public schools with religious schools based on their particular Christian philosophy which I have dubbed "little god" Christianity. I have deep philosophical, political and religious differences with this group.
When I was healthier back in the summer of 1992, I was invited to one of their training programs to show their kind of Christians how to successfully run for and win public office particularly school board elections. The training was held in a church in San Diego. I decided not to attend but heard a bit about it afterwords. I herd enough to know that I did not agree with them or their methods. I especially did not agree with their use of God and the term Christian as a political weapon to get elected.
Below are some quotes from the CEE president's message in 2007. The entire "message" can be found here: http://www.nace-cee.org/prmarch07.htm
According to Citizens for Excellence inn Education:
When public schools are privatized, our students will be receiving a quality academic and Christian moral education that will be unparalleled in U.S. history.
THE CHRISTIAN PARENTS—of these Christian church children to remove their children from the atheist, immoral, faith-destroying public government schools.
CEE parents are now doing that. Christian schools (church schools, independent Christian schools, independent private schools, moral and patriotic classical schools, homeschools) are all having their greatest growth in history, by accommodating all these children that our Christian parents are transferring out of our unconscionable, brainwashing public schools.
The exodus is now reaching rather massive numbers, as I have recently reported. We now have 6.75 million that have transferred into Christian education. It has never been more evident, beloved, that we can now do this. Public schools are being closed across the country. Some of the top ten largest school districts are reported to be near bankruptcy. Loss of students at six to ten thousand dollars a year for each student quickly adds up. No students; no money—because all funding is based upon average daily attendance (ADA).
When public schools are privatized, our students will be receiving a quality academic and Christian moral education that will be unparalleled in U.S. history.
Now, notice the ideas the founder of atheistic evolution—Charles Darwin—taught to public school children in science courses: “It’s no different than a plant, you know.” Sigmund Freud, the immoral homosexual sexologist said, “I didn’t have any guilt feelings.” Theologian, the Rev. Thomas said, “The world would be a lot better off it there were fewer babies in it.” Jean-Paul Sartre, the existentialist philosopher planted his ideas of the “no God” theories. They all hold Christianity in contempt. Another girl said: “It was not a question of morality . . . Or we were killing a (live) fetus, or any of this mythology.” All are ideas taught in public schools and colleges.
Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard promoted the following idiotic idea: “It doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you’re sincere” - a total destruction of the idea that the Bible, and the Bible alone, is man’s moral authority. A Christian child in a Christian school would be taught what the Bible’s Ten Commandments say: “Thou shalt not kill,” and these Tem Commandments of God, alone, are man’s basic moral standard.
Below are some more quotes from their strategy page called Rescue 2010 found here:
http://www.nace-cee.org/ceestrategy.htm
America must not just get vouchers and tax breaks for parents in private schools -- those are good and necessary steps. We must go back to what worked best for America. The only way to do this is to privatize all public education. Secularists, atheists and homosexuals could have their own schools, but they could not force tax- payers to subsidize their schools. Our system would be thoroughly reformed and improved. Double taxation of Christians would cease! The present injustice must stop.
Christian children who most often are too influenced by peer pressure to serve as "missionaries in the snake pit."
We do not blame teachers or administrators -- though God knows they could stop the spiritual rape of innocent children, if they saw clearly what is happening.
Getting the Bible curriculum in all 30,000 high schools (now in 300); and also our "CHRISTIAN/AMERICAN CULTURE" course in all high schools are priorities.
When I was healthier back in the summer of 1992, I was invited to one of their training programs to show their kind of Christians how to successfully run for and win public office particularly school board elections. The training was held in a church in San Diego. I decided not to attend but heard a bit about it afterwords. I herd enough to know that I did not agree with them or their methods. I especially did not agree with their use of God and the term Christian as a political weapon to get elected.
Below are some quotes from the CEE president's message in 2007. The entire "message" can be found here: http://www.nace-cee.org/prmarch07.htm
According to Citizens for Excellence inn Education:
When public schools are privatized, our students will be receiving a quality academic and Christian moral education that will be unparalleled in U.S. history.
THE CHRISTIAN PARENTS—of these Christian church children to remove their children from the atheist, immoral, faith-destroying public government schools.
CEE parents are now doing that. Christian schools (church schools, independent Christian schools, independent private schools, moral and patriotic classical schools, homeschools) are all having their greatest growth in history, by accommodating all these children that our Christian parents are transferring out of our unconscionable, brainwashing public schools.
The exodus is now reaching rather massive numbers, as I have recently reported. We now have 6.75 million that have transferred into Christian education. It has never been more evident, beloved, that we can now do this. Public schools are being closed across the country. Some of the top ten largest school districts are reported to be near bankruptcy. Loss of students at six to ten thousand dollars a year for each student quickly adds up. No students; no money—because all funding is based upon average daily attendance (ADA).
When public schools are privatized, our students will be receiving a quality academic and Christian moral education that will be unparalleled in U.S. history.
Now, notice the ideas the founder of atheistic evolution—Charles Darwin—taught to public school children in science courses: “It’s no different than a plant, you know.” Sigmund Freud, the immoral homosexual sexologist said, “I didn’t have any guilt feelings.” Theologian, the Rev. Thomas said, “The world would be a lot better off it there were fewer babies in it.” Jean-Paul Sartre, the existentialist philosopher planted his ideas of the “no God” theories. They all hold Christianity in contempt. Another girl said: “It was not a question of morality . . . Or we were killing a (live) fetus, or any of this mythology.” All are ideas taught in public schools and colleges.
Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard promoted the following idiotic idea: “It doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you’re sincere” - a total destruction of the idea that the Bible, and the Bible alone, is man’s moral authority. A Christian child in a Christian school would be taught what the Bible’s Ten Commandments say: “Thou shalt not kill,” and these Tem Commandments of God, alone, are man’s basic moral standard.
Below are some more quotes from their strategy page called Rescue 2010 found here:
http://www.nace-cee.org/ceestrategy.htm
America must not just get vouchers and tax breaks for parents in private schools -- those are good and necessary steps. We must go back to what worked best for America. The only way to do this is to privatize all public education. Secularists, atheists and homosexuals could have their own schools, but they could not force tax- payers to subsidize their schools. Our system would be thoroughly reformed and improved. Double taxation of Christians would cease! The present injustice must stop.
Christian children who most often are too influenced by peer pressure to serve as "missionaries in the snake pit."
We do not blame teachers or administrators -- though God knows they could stop the spiritual rape of innocent children, if they saw clearly what is happening.
Getting the Bible curriculum in all 30,000 high schools (now in 300); and also our "CHRISTIAN/AMERICAN CULTURE" course in all high schools are priorities.
Are VUSD teachers selfish 'thugs"?
Our ANTI friends often call school teachers in VUSD union thugs or just thugs. They accuse us of being selfish. They say we are only concerned about our salaries, benefits and retirement. They falsely say student attendance has declined but the number of teacher in VUSD has not. Read the comments of Roxy at 10:31 am or 666 at 5:12 am here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5d484135-59db-577e-8f37-22631a428030.html?mode=comments
Of course we know that their nasty accusations are not true. The fine teachers in our district are among the finest, most self sacrificing found anywhere in America.
Here is my response to our ANTI friends unfounded accusations:
VWDog on January 29 at 5:10 am again writes from ignorance when he posted the following, "VUSD has seen a SIGNIFCANT (sic) decline in enrollment over the past 5 years and it is time for equal cuts in the number of teaches employed by VUSD"
1) Teachers are eliminated every single school year. If students do not show up at the start of the school year, teaching positions are cancelled. VW dog knows this or should know this. VUSD operates no differently than any other California school district.
2) Under the current proposed budget for next year even more teachers will be laid off. Many K-3 teachers will lose jobs as K-3 class size reduction is ended by the budget. Next year under the proposed budget, there will be 30 or more students in every K-3 classroom again instead of 22 there were this year or the twenty last year.
3) Last spring, VUSD teachers agreed to take a UNILATERAL salary reduction to save the jobs of about one third of the k-3 teachers. If that had happened there would have been at least 30 in every K-3 class room instead of the 22 this year. If the the VUSD teachers were selfish "thugs" as alleged by our ANTI friends, then the VUSD teachers would have kept their entire salary this year. Then THIS year class size would have increased and many K-3 teachers would have lost their jobs.
VUSD teachers are among the best in the county. They are also among the most caring. Not only did VUSD teaches sacrifice their own money to keep class size small for the our youngest students last year, Vista Teachers Association is the single largest contributor to college scholarships in VUSD. No other teacher's association in the North County provides as many college scholarships as the VTA members do. This money comes from a voluntary contribution of after tax money by the good teachers of VUSD.
In addition, four different times the VTA led the drive to pass bonds to build new schools. We put our time our money and the seat of our brows into getting these new schools. We lost three times but the fourth time we succeeded with prop O in 2002. Now we can all be proud of the new schools in VUSD. Each time we knew that if a bond passed our salaries and benefits would suffer in the following years as a school bond never pays for the full cost of a new school. We supported the bonds anyway.
The VTA has also led the fight to keep a small group of extremists from returning our district to the NATION wide ridicule it received from 1992-1994 when religious extremists used our district for their own NON-educational, narrow extremist, political agenda.
Read more about that extremist board in the LATimes archives here:
http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/vista-ca-schools
or the NYTimes archives here:
http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&query=creationism+Vista&srchst=nyt&submit.x=13&submit.y=7&submit=sub&hdlquery=&bylquery=&daterange=full&mon1=01&day1=01&year1=1981&mon2=01&day2=26&year2=2010
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5d484135-59db-577e-8f37-22631a428030.html?mode=comments
Of course we know that their nasty accusations are not true. The fine teachers in our district are among the finest, most self sacrificing found anywhere in America.
Here is my response to our ANTI friends unfounded accusations:
VWDog on January 29 at 5:10 am again writes from ignorance when he posted the following, "VUSD has seen a SIGNIFCANT (sic) decline in enrollment over the past 5 years and it is time for equal cuts in the number of teaches employed by VUSD"
1) Teachers are eliminated every single school year. If students do not show up at the start of the school year, teaching positions are cancelled. VW dog knows this or should know this. VUSD operates no differently than any other California school district.
2) Under the current proposed budget for next year even more teachers will be laid off. Many K-3 teachers will lose jobs as K-3 class size reduction is ended by the budget. Next year under the proposed budget, there will be 30 or more students in every K-3 classroom again instead of 22 there were this year or the twenty last year.
3) Last spring, VUSD teachers agreed to take a UNILATERAL salary reduction to save the jobs of about one third of the k-3 teachers. If that had happened there would have been at least 30 in every K-3 class room instead of the 22 this year. If the the VUSD teachers were selfish "thugs" as alleged by our ANTI friends, then the VUSD teachers would have kept their entire salary this year. Then THIS year class size would have increased and many K-3 teachers would have lost their jobs.
VUSD teachers are among the best in the county. They are also among the most caring. Not only did VUSD teaches sacrifice their own money to keep class size small for the our youngest students last year, Vista Teachers Association is the single largest contributor to college scholarships in VUSD. No other teacher's association in the North County provides as many college scholarships as the VTA members do. This money comes from a voluntary contribution of after tax money by the good teachers of VUSD.
In addition, four different times the VTA led the drive to pass bonds to build new schools. We put our time our money and the seat of our brows into getting these new schools. We lost three times but the fourth time we succeeded with prop O in 2002. Now we can all be proud of the new schools in VUSD. Each time we knew that if a bond passed our salaries and benefits would suffer in the following years as a school bond never pays for the full cost of a new school. We supported the bonds anyway.
The VTA has also led the fight to keep a small group of extremists from returning our district to the NATION wide ridicule it received from 1992-1994 when religious extremists used our district for their own NON-educational, narrow extremist, political agenda.
Read more about that extremist board in the LATimes archives here:
http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/vista-ca-schools
or the NYTimes archives here:
http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&query=creationism+Vista&srchst=nyt&submit.x=13&submit.y=7&submit=sub&hdlquery=&bylquery=&daterange=full&mon1=01&day1=01&year1=1981&mon2=01&day2=26&year2=2010
Class size Student Teacher Ratios in VUSD
One of our ANTI friends Vista Watchdog 1 blogged today about student teacher ratios in VUSD. He was confused by classroom teachers saying that they had 30 or more students per class when he figured there were many less by his calculations.
Read here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5d484135-59db-577e-8f37-22631a428030.html?mode=comments
Here was my response to his question:
VWdog writes about a common confusion regarding student teacher ratios when he posted on January 29 at 5:15am the following: "if you take the most recent enrollment numbers and divide by the currently listed number of teaches you arrive at a student/teacher ratio of about 18/1. Yet, I keep hearing teachers claiming they have classes of up to 30 students"
VWdog is making a mistake because he is not taking into account the difference between certificated personnel and REGULAR classroom teachers.
All classroom teachers are certificated but not all certificated personnel are classroom teachers.
Other certificated personnel who are NOT regular classroom teachers are district administration, principals, vice principals, counselors,psychologists, school nurses, teachers on special assignment (junior administrators who are paid as teachers but have no classroom duties), reading specialists, special education teachers with small case loads and class sizes, etc.
Any school district has many more certificated personnel than they have regular classroom teachers. This fact is why dividing up the number of students by the number of certificated personnel does not reflect the true average number of students in a classroom.
In the past many school districts in California did divide the TOTAL number of certificated personnel by the total number of students to try to show they had small classes in their district. Even though their might be 30 to 40 in regular class rooms, districts could claim a 18 to one student to certificated personnel ratio. District admin likes to try to frame their student teacher ratio in the best possible light. Most parents like small ratios, hence the use of the TOTAL number of certificated personnel rather than the actual number of classroom teaches.
Read here:
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5d484135-59db-577e-8f37-22631a428030.html?mode=comments
Here was my response to his question:
VWdog writes about a common confusion regarding student teacher ratios when he posted on January 29 at 5:15am the following: "if you take the most recent enrollment numbers and divide by the currently listed number of teaches you arrive at a student/teacher ratio of about 18/1. Yet, I keep hearing teachers claiming they have classes of up to 30 students"
VWdog is making a mistake because he is not taking into account the difference between certificated personnel and REGULAR classroom teachers.
All classroom teachers are certificated but not all certificated personnel are classroom teachers.
Other certificated personnel who are NOT regular classroom teachers are district administration, principals, vice principals, counselors,psychologists, school nurses, teachers on special assignment (junior administrators who are paid as teachers but have no classroom duties), reading specialists, special education teachers with small case loads and class sizes, etc.
Any school district has many more certificated personnel than they have regular classroom teachers. This fact is why dividing up the number of students by the number of certificated personnel does not reflect the true average number of students in a classroom.
In the past many school districts in California did divide the TOTAL number of certificated personnel by the total number of students to try to show they had small classes in their district. Even though their might be 30 to 40 in regular class rooms, districts could claim a 18 to one student to certificated personnel ratio. District admin likes to try to frame their student teacher ratio in the best possible light. Most parents like small ratios, hence the use of the TOTAL number of certificated personnel rather than the actual number of classroom teaches.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Elizabeth Jaka responds to "secret meeting" libel
Below in blue are the words of Elizabeth Jaka with the perfectly innocent explanation of how three very good and long time friends happened to be in the same place at the same time.
Board member Jaka sent these explanation to the North County Times and to many of her supporters including me after our ANTI friends made a huge deal about a unplanned accidental encounter of three of the school board members.
This accidental, unplanned encounter occurred after a very long and contentious board meeting in which the board decided to cut the popular K-3 class size reduction program at the suggestion of the superintendent financial team as the best way to save money. No similar meeting has occurred since even though such meeting are ENTIRELY legal. The Brown Act specifically EXCLUDES social gatherings from its prohibition of non public meetings by members of governing boards in California. Trustees can meet anywhere anytime for social activities. There is NO prohibition against friends seeing each other. Read: http://ag.ca.gov/publications/2003_Intro_BrownAct.pdf
This is the second time I have published on this blog Elizabeth Jaka's reasonable and believable explanation of what occurred that night.
I have asked for and received her permission to publish her response to the frequent misrepresentation about this chance encounter.
Now from Elizabeth Jaka:
1) No one was "caught" violating state law or ethics. The claim was looked into and found to be without merit.
2) I was not at Mrs. Herrera's house at 1:30 that morning, I was in Oceanside, near the airport, giving a friend a ride home from the meeting (this can be confirmed by contacting Miss P**** at 760-***-****. This is public information, given at the March 5/March 12 board meetings (editor's note: I deleted Miss P****'s name and phone number to prevent prank calls. Contact info can be obtained from Trustee Jaka, if so desired ).
3) The board meeting in question ended at 12:45 a.m., not 9:30 as the blogger claims. This is documented in the board minutes here: http://www.vusd.k12.ca.us/board/Board%20Meetings/2009/02-26-2009.pdf. I didn't get off the site until after 1:00 because so many people wanted to express their dissatisfaction with what had taken place. I doubt that anyone else got out much before 1:00 either.
4) After I dropped Miss P**** at her home, I went by Mrs. Herrera's house to check on her because she was not answering her phone, and I knew her husband was out of town. I knew she was extremely stressed (we all were) and I wanted to make sure she was okay. I was surprised to find her driveway was full of cars, and there were a number of people present. Until I walked in however, I did not realize that Mrs. Chunka was also present and that I would be the third board member. At that point, I started to leave, but Mrs. Herrera left the room, remedying any violation. This obviously cannot be proven, but it is also public information that was given at the March 5 AND March 12 board meetings.
5) No one told me I "misvoted" after I arrived. The bulk of the conversation that I recall was about Read Across America, and the fact that I knew I would be facing some unhappy people when I came to their rooms to read the next day and the following Monday. I stated as much at the board meeting on March 12. Frankly, I was not interested in discussing my vote, nor would I have wanted to talk about undoing what we'd just spent six grueling hours doing (plus another two hours in Closed Session).
How would "VUSD Taxpayer" know what was discussed? He/she was clearly not there since all the statements of "fact" in the blog are incorrect.
6) Mrs. Herrera did NOT immediately call another meeting. The March 5 and March 12 meetings had been set for some time. On March 11, Mrs. Herrera did call for a special meeting to follow the regular meeting on March 12, so that we could vote on the issue one more time. This was a confirmation of the previous vote.
7) I changed my vote on March 5/12 only because the finance department came forward with an alternative to cutting Class Size Reduction. I had been to the finance office on February 27 to ask them to keep looking for other options. Mrs. Chunka did not change her vote. This is also public information, and can be found in the minutes for the March 5 meeting: http://www.vusd.k12.ca.us/board/Board%20Meetings/2009/03-05-2009.pdf On March 12, we voted to cut a buy-back day instead.
8) Although the unions did spend quite a bit of money on our campaigns, we did not receive 10s of thousands of dollars in contributions from them. They spent the money as they saw fit. That may seem like quibbling, but it's important to me. It's just as important to note that David Arnold, who tried to stop construction of our high schools, spent more than $63K on Guffanti's campaign in 2004. Although that is documented, I never see mention of it.
9) There are no secret, illegal meetings taking place. We showed poor judgment in being in the same place at the same time, and we have all publicly apologized for that, twice. Stating "Rumor is that the illegal meetings still take place" is libelous.
As a public figure, I expect to be the target of people who do not like me, and will say unpleasant things about me. However, it is unacceptable for a newspaper to support false, misleading and libelous statements.
Board member Jaka sent these explanation to the North County Times and to many of her supporters including me after our ANTI friends made a huge deal about a unplanned accidental encounter of three of the school board members.
This accidental, unplanned encounter occurred after a very long and contentious board meeting in which the board decided to cut the popular K-3 class size reduction program at the suggestion of the superintendent financial team as the best way to save money. No similar meeting has occurred since even though such meeting are ENTIRELY legal. The Brown Act specifically EXCLUDES social gatherings from its prohibition of non public meetings by members of governing boards in California. Trustees can meet anywhere anytime for social activities. There is NO prohibition against friends seeing each other. Read: http://ag.ca.gov/publications/2003_Intro_BrownAct.pdf
This is the second time I have published on this blog Elizabeth Jaka's reasonable and believable explanation of what occurred that night.
I have asked for and received her permission to publish her response to the frequent misrepresentation about this chance encounter.
Now from Elizabeth Jaka:
1) No one was "caught" violating state law or ethics. The claim was looked into and found to be without merit.
2) I was not at Mrs. Herrera's house at 1:30 that morning, I was in Oceanside, near the airport, giving a friend a ride home from the meeting (this can be confirmed by contacting Miss P**** at 760-***-****. This is public information, given at the March 5/March 12 board meetings (editor's note: I deleted Miss P****'s name and phone number to prevent prank calls. Contact info can be obtained from Trustee Jaka, if so desired ).
3) The board meeting in question ended at 12:45 a.m., not 9:30 as the blogger claims. This is documented in the board minutes here: http://www.vusd.k12.ca.us/board/Board%20Meetings/2009/02-26-2009.pdf. I didn't get off the site until after 1:00 because so many people wanted to express their dissatisfaction with what had taken place. I doubt that anyone else got out much before 1:00 either.
4) After I dropped Miss P**** at her home, I went by Mrs. Herrera's house to check on her because she was not answering her phone, and I knew her husband was out of town. I knew she was extremely stressed (we all were) and I wanted to make sure she was okay. I was surprised to find her driveway was full of cars, and there were a number of people present. Until I walked in however, I did not realize that Mrs. Chunka was also present and that I would be the third board member. At that point, I started to leave, but Mrs. Herrera left the room, remedying any violation. This obviously cannot be proven, but it is also public information that was given at the March 5 AND March 12 board meetings.
5) No one told me I "misvoted" after I arrived. The bulk of the conversation that I recall was about Read Across America, and the fact that I knew I would be facing some unhappy people when I came to their rooms to read the next day and the following Monday. I stated as much at the board meeting on March 12. Frankly, I was not interested in discussing my vote, nor would I have wanted to talk about undoing what we'd just spent six grueling hours doing (plus another two hours in Closed Session).
How would "VUSD Taxpayer" know what was discussed? He/she was clearly not there since all the statements of "fact" in the blog are incorrect.
6) Mrs. Herrera did NOT immediately call another meeting. The March 5 and March 12 meetings had been set for some time. On March 11, Mrs. Herrera did call for a special meeting to follow the regular meeting on March 12, so that we could vote on the issue one more time. This was a confirmation of the previous vote.
7) I changed my vote on March 5/12 only because the finance department came forward with an alternative to cutting Class Size Reduction. I had been to the finance office on February 27 to ask them to keep looking for other options. Mrs. Chunka did not change her vote. This is also public information, and can be found in the minutes for the March 5 meeting: http://www.vusd.k12.ca.us/board/Board%20Meetings/2009/03-05-2009.pdf On March 12, we voted to cut a buy-back day instead.
8) Although the unions did spend quite a bit of money on our campaigns, we did not receive 10s of thousands of dollars in contributions from them. They spent the money as they saw fit. That may seem like quibbling, but it's important to me. It's just as important to note that David Arnold, who tried to stop construction of our high schools, spent more than $63K on Guffanti's campaign in 2004. Although that is documented, I never see mention of it.
9) There are no secret, illegal meetings taking place. We showed poor judgment in being in the same place at the same time, and we have all publicly apologized for that, twice. Stating "Rumor is that the illegal meetings still take place" is libelous.
As a public figure, I expect to be the target of people who do not like me, and will say unpleasant things about me. However, it is unacceptable for a newspaper to support false, misleading and libelous statements.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
VHS graduate Tim Fellars awarded California Medal of Valor
Another former Vista High School graduate who might be more deserving of a special day in his honor than Carrie Prejean. Are you listening Jim Gibson?
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_c79cd643-f68d-5b11-b13e-5100c0185155.html
VISTA: Former resident earns governor's Medal of Valor
Park ranger helped save family of six from drowning
By CIGI ROSS - cross@nctimes.com Posted: Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:00 pm
A former Vista resident was awarded the Governor's Medal of Valor last month for his part in rescuing six people from a boating accident off the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve south of San Francisco.
Timothy Fellars, 41, a 1986 Vista High School graduate, now lives in Half Moon Bay and works as a state park ranger. Fellars was one of 27 people awarded the medal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a ceremony in Sacramento on Dec. 10.
The medal, established in 1959, is the highest honor a state employee can receive. In the past 50 years, more than 400 people have been given the honor for performing extraordinary acts of heroism that saved human lives, according to the state's Web site.
Fellars' mother, Vista resident Mary Fellars, said her son was surprised to be honored for doing his job.
"He's been lifeguarding for years and he's done a lot of rescues," she said. "This one just had particularly hazardous circumstances."
According to the commendation, at about 1 p.m. June 22 state lifeguard James Nothhelfer and Fellars responded to the coastal reserve in Half Moon Bay State Park where a family of six had been tossed from their boat into the choppy, 54 degree water. Nothhelfer was the first to reach the family, including a 6-year-old boy, and was able to keep the victims afloat in the water until Fellars reached them and helped get the family members into a patrol boat.
Five of the family members were taken by ambulance to area hospitals and treated for hypothermia. The 6-year-old was taken by helicopter to an area hospital for severe hypothermia. Both Nothhelfer and Fellars were unharmed.
Fellars' mother said she was proud to see her son honored alongside a highway patrolman who pulled a woman from a burning car, a police lieutenant who was shot in the face trying to apprehend an armed man and a Department of Transportation worker who saved a man from committing suicide.
"They had all done remarkable, exceptional things beyond the call of duty," Mary Fellars said. "(Tim has) impressed me in many ways. He's always been outstanding."
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_c79cd643-f68d-5b11-b13e-5100c0185155.html
VISTA: Former resident earns governor's Medal of Valor
Park ranger helped save family of six from drowning
By CIGI ROSS - cross@nctimes.com Posted: Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:00 pm
A former Vista resident was awarded the Governor's Medal of Valor last month for his part in rescuing six people from a boating accident off the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve south of San Francisco.
Timothy Fellars, 41, a 1986 Vista High School graduate, now lives in Half Moon Bay and works as a state park ranger. Fellars was one of 27 people awarded the medal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a ceremony in Sacramento on Dec. 10.
The medal, established in 1959, is the highest honor a state employee can receive. In the past 50 years, more than 400 people have been given the honor for performing extraordinary acts of heroism that saved human lives, according to the state's Web site.
Fellars' mother, Vista resident Mary Fellars, said her son was surprised to be honored for doing his job.
"He's been lifeguarding for years and he's done a lot of rescues," she said. "This one just had particularly hazardous circumstances."
According to the commendation, at about 1 p.m. June 22 state lifeguard James Nothhelfer and Fellars responded to the coastal reserve in Half Moon Bay State Park where a family of six had been tossed from their boat into the choppy, 54 degree water. Nothhelfer was the first to reach the family, including a 6-year-old boy, and was able to keep the victims afloat in the water until Fellars reached them and helped get the family members into a patrol boat.
Five of the family members were taken by ambulance to area hospitals and treated for hypothermia. The 6-year-old was taken by helicopter to an area hospital for severe hypothermia. Both Nothhelfer and Fellars were unharmed.
Fellars' mother said she was proud to see her son honored alongside a highway patrolman who pulled a woman from a burning car, a police lieutenant who was shot in the face trying to apprehend an armed man and a Department of Transportation worker who saved a man from committing suicide.
"They had all done remarkable, exceptional things beyond the call of duty," Mary Fellars said. "(Tim has) impressed me in many ways. He's always been outstanding."
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