The ANTI-union, ANTI middle class troika at the North County Times are again attacking those who want the best possible education for our children. This time they are highlighting a San Jose Mercury editorial attacking teachers and our determination to give K-3 children the best possible start to their education by keeping class sizes at a maximum of 20.
There will be cuts in education. Of that there is no doubt. ANTI education forces have more than 1/3 of our state legislative seats. Thanks to the worst provision in Prop 13 that requires a 2/3 majority to pass a budget or raise taxes on the wealthy, this ANTI crowd will never allow a budget through that requires their wealthy benefactors to pay what they really should for the services we and they all benefit from. The wealthy only need to buy 1 in 3 legislature in Sacramento to make sure that they never have to pay their fair share of the burden to keep up "the commons"--state roads, infrastructure and education. All very sad.
But why the North County Times editorial staff piles on too, I cannot figure out. How does it benefit them to be so ANTI-union and ANTI middle class? Who will buy their paper, when there are no more people left who have middle class wages in union jobs?
Read the latest ANTI union garbage reprinted in the NCTimes below. Notice the nasty ANTI language used to describe us--"trying to stir up the parents" "harping on". Also note that the term "maximum flexibility" for class size is a neutral sounding term for the absolute end of small class size in K-3.
The ANTIs always use carefully crafted language like "maximum flexibility" to use in their deceptive lies in describing the evisceration of benefits that a state government should give its people. Where do they come up with the it? Oh that's right, they use the unlimited amounts of cash given in campaign bribes by the super rich to hire Madison Avenue type folks to do 'focus groups' so that they can find the most innocuous sounding language to use in hoodwinking John Q. Public.
By the time the parent's find out that 'maximum flexibility' means destruction of class size reduction, their children will be languishing in classes with forty children. No joke.
Soon after Prop 13 passed, I was teaching sixth grade and was assigned 42 students in my classroom with only 34 desks. At the time there were no middle schools with sixth graders. They were all in elementary schools and they stayed in our classrooms all day long. No switching classes. Eight children of my students were forced to sit at large tables with comfortable room for maybe three students.
The room was so crowded there was virtually no space for aisles. Trying to get the students out for fire drill was a real mess.
I did not have a single class set of 42 text books except a more than thirty year old set of health books marked "Discard Los Angeles City Schools." The books were from the early 1950's and the information was hopelessly out of date. Yet that was the only book that every student in my class could have a copy of in his/her desk. My students had to share all the other textbooks during the various instructional times during the day. They had to share their math, spelling reading, language books, etc. Two to a book. For most subjects I had between 20 to 30 class copies of the text. I had one subject with so few books some students had to read it three students to a book. NO books could be taken home at night for homework. That was my teaching situation in 1977-78 school year.
It can get that bad again. There are a group of dark and angry people who have no sympathy for our students. They loathe public education because it provides free and FACT based education. Their children do not go to our FACT based public schools. These are the ANTIs. They lurk in the shadows waiting to again seize power. If the ANTIs have their way, we will soon be back to the funding crisis we found ourselves in during the worse days of low and no school funding following the passage of Prop 13. The NCTimes editors seem to advocate for ANTI positions, who knows why?
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/02/07/opinion/editorials/z09e21d49a022829d882575550065b407.txt
Teachers union off base in fight
The state teachers union is driving an odd stake in the fast-eroding ground of state spending on education. The California Teachers Association is trying to stir up parents by harping on changes to the program that preserves small classes in lower grades. ...K-12 schools face losing billions of dollars. The severity of the proposed cuts is real; however, the distress over the class-size reduction program is misguided.To temper the impact of cuts, (Gov. Arnold) Schwarzenegger is proposing to give school districts maximum flexibility over how they spend $16 billion on designated state programs, which make up about a third of state K-12 money.The $1.3 billion class-size reduction program ... would be among those that could be shifted to the general budget. ...Small classes are popular with parents and teachers for good reason. ... But in many districts, the state subsidy doesn't cover costs. And schools that exceed the 20-student cap by even a fraction of a student over the year face penalties. ...For years, districts have clamored for flexibility. While fighting the magnitude of the cuts that seem likely, this is one change they should welcome.---- San Jose Mercury News
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Herrera, Jaka and Chunka do their jobs
Only three board members attend VUSD budget meetings
Guess which three school board member are showing up at all the budget meetings? In a time when terrible decisions will have to be made wouldn't you think every school board member would be interested enough to show up and ask questions? Our ANTI friends tell us that Jaka, Chunka and Herrera are union puppets who never think for themselves. Weird then that it is ONLY Jaka, Chunka and Herrera who are coming to the district budget meetings and asking very good and very pointed questions about expenses.
The hero of our ANTI friends Jim Gibson does not show up at these meetings just like he never visits our schools or classrooms. Jimmy doesn't need to. Facts and information don't matter to Jim as long as he has feelings and prejudices. Facts might upset is reality challenged world view.
But none of us really ever expected Jimmy to care enough to show up at the budget meetings. It has been clear for years that the only reason Jimmy ran for our VUSD school board was to use the position as a stepping stone to higher office. How many times has he run for Oceanside City Council or State Assembly while sitting as a VUSD board member? Four times? Five times?
If Jimmy would just try doing his job as VUSD Board member, he might finally get enough support to meet his political dreams of glory. But of course he won't. Jimmy hates work and he hates schools so why would he ever do any school work?
Answer truthfully and get scolded
I have heard that the district office has asked site principals what can be cut at the sites with the least effect on learning. Principals have learned to never mention the most expensive, least productive program---Lindamood Bell. District admin has made it quite clear that anyone who criticizes LmB risks a dressing down and perhaps losing their jobs. The principals have now learned never to be critical of LmB.
Privately the unanimous consensus among all the elementary site principals is that Lindamood Bell is the greatest waste of money in this district. It is no better than other much cheaper programs.
Besides the results from the LmB folks is skewed as the LmB trainers only help students on the cusp. The students who are the most likely to need only a little help to get better scores.
The students who are the most in need of reading help are deliberately excluded by the trainers. See my blog in October called "The Fix is In".
Guess which three school board member are showing up at all the budget meetings? In a time when terrible decisions will have to be made wouldn't you think every school board member would be interested enough to show up and ask questions? Our ANTI friends tell us that Jaka, Chunka and Herrera are union puppets who never think for themselves. Weird then that it is ONLY Jaka, Chunka and Herrera who are coming to the district budget meetings and asking very good and very pointed questions about expenses.
The hero of our ANTI friends Jim Gibson does not show up at these meetings just like he never visits our schools or classrooms. Jimmy doesn't need to. Facts and information don't matter to Jim as long as he has feelings and prejudices. Facts might upset is reality challenged world view.
But none of us really ever expected Jimmy to care enough to show up at the budget meetings. It has been clear for years that the only reason Jimmy ran for our VUSD school board was to use the position as a stepping stone to higher office. How many times has he run for Oceanside City Council or State Assembly while sitting as a VUSD board member? Four times? Five times?
If Jimmy would just try doing his job as VUSD Board member, he might finally get enough support to meet his political dreams of glory. But of course he won't. Jimmy hates work and he hates schools so why would he ever do any school work?
Answer truthfully and get scolded
I have heard that the district office has asked site principals what can be cut at the sites with the least effect on learning. Principals have learned to never mention the most expensive, least productive program---Lindamood Bell. District admin has made it quite clear that anyone who criticizes LmB risks a dressing down and perhaps losing their jobs. The principals have now learned never to be critical of LmB.
Privately the unanimous consensus among all the elementary site principals is that Lindamood Bell is the greatest waste of money in this district. It is no better than other much cheaper programs.
Besides the results from the LmB folks is skewed as the LmB trainers only help students on the cusp. The students who are the most likely to need only a little help to get better scores.
The students who are the most in need of reading help are deliberately excluded by the trainers. See my blog in October called "The Fix is In".
Gecewicz Imperial Edict--ALL FIELD TRIPS ARE BANNED
February 3, 2009 Sandy Gecewicz email to all principals in VUSD:
"The budget issue has not yet resolved. As such, we are continuing to deny travel, purchases and even field trips. Many of you have been very creative in maintaining your field trip activities, but having parents pay for everything has created a new set of issues on equity for the district. In some instances children whose parents cannot pay for a field trip are placed in classrooms with other teachers while classmates travel. (No, place I have heard of. But if this happens why not just ban this practice? Why ban all field trips?)This is not an acceptable practice. (We all agree here. So again, why ban ALL field trips?) Parents and children feel they are being discriminated against because of financial limitations.
Additionally, we are now receiving complaints (How many Sandy? One? Two? Did you talk to the site principals or teachers that were being complained about? Did you do the minimum investigation to find out if the allegations of the complaint were even true? Or was it easier for you, and so much more personally satisfying, to just imperiously ban all field trips?) from parents at schools where funds for field trips cannot be paid for by the parents as their budgets are too tight. This has created inequity within the district. For the purpose of equity and fairness, we are asking that schools stop scheduling fieldtrips (sic) for the students where parents pay for everything to include subs.(Putting aside the question of when are subs ever needed for field trips, does this statement mean other field trips, for which no subs are hired, would be allowed?) We are a unified district and the budget burden should be shared by everyone. Please have the courage to share this with your parents and staff. (Those cowardly principals that are just not as brave as Sandy. How can we get those site principals to have the same back bone and moral fortitude as Gecewicz? Perhaps we can post her picture in every site principal's office.)VUSD cannot afford to be divided by families who can and cannot fund a field trip. Once the financial picture is clear, we will once again look at travel opportunities for all children. (Not approved mind you, but looked at. Gee thanks Sandy.) This is prime learning time now that the holidays are over. (Field trips are not learning opportunities? They are just fun days for teachers to shirk their duty of actually teaching the children? Is that what Sandy is saying? Does she have any idea how much MORE work and stress a field trip is than a regular day of school? Does she have any idea why teachers go to all the extra work of planning a field trip?) Our children need as much time in the classroom as possible with their teachers. (Yes, that is what she is saying. Gecewicz thinks that field trips do not benefit our children. I guess she has never considered, how many of our kids ever would ever have the opportunity to go whale watching if not on a school field trip, or see Rancho Guajome and better understand early European settlement in Vista. Oh yes, Sandy you are right, a book and a hand out will be much better than actually seeing the adobe buildings and making adobe bricks.)If we all tighten our belts and share the burden equally, we will survive and we will be stronger as a district. Please accept the denials when are returned to your site. ( Here Sandy's message is clear. All field trips will be denied no matter how many pages of Gecewicz garbage forms the teacher fills out. Gecewicz does not even care how the field trip is funded. Money could fall from heaven but Sandy will still just stamp "denied" on any request. Remember the old days when VUSD principals were considered grown up enough to make these decisions by themselves for their own site? We are all so glad that our great invisible parent on the hill now makes field trip decisions for us instead of the poor pathetic and incompetent site principals. Hey Sandy, why don't you come visit a school site some time? You could see what really is happening at the sites instead of imaging it from your $2000 office desk in your fine private air conditioned office.) Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation in this matter."
"The budget issue has not yet resolved. As such, we are continuing to deny travel, purchases and even field trips. Many of you have been very creative in maintaining your field trip activities, but having parents pay for everything has created a new set of issues on equity for the district. In some instances children whose parents cannot pay for a field trip are placed in classrooms with other teachers while classmates travel. (No, place I have heard of. But if this happens why not just ban this practice? Why ban all field trips?)This is not an acceptable practice. (We all agree here. So again, why ban ALL field trips?) Parents and children feel they are being discriminated against because of financial limitations.
Additionally, we are now receiving complaints (How many Sandy? One? Two? Did you talk to the site principals or teachers that were being complained about? Did you do the minimum investigation to find out if the allegations of the complaint were even true? Or was it easier for you, and so much more personally satisfying, to just imperiously ban all field trips?) from parents at schools where funds for field trips cannot be paid for by the parents as their budgets are too tight. This has created inequity within the district. For the purpose of equity and fairness, we are asking that schools stop scheduling fieldtrips (sic) for the students where parents pay for everything to include subs.(Putting aside the question of when are subs ever needed for field trips, does this statement mean other field trips, for which no subs are hired, would be allowed?) We are a unified district and the budget burden should be shared by everyone. Please have the courage to share this with your parents and staff. (Those cowardly principals that are just not as brave as Sandy. How can we get those site principals to have the same back bone and moral fortitude as Gecewicz? Perhaps we can post her picture in every site principal's office.)VUSD cannot afford to be divided by families who can and cannot fund a field trip. Once the financial picture is clear, we will once again look at travel opportunities for all children. (Not approved mind you, but looked at. Gee thanks Sandy.) This is prime learning time now that the holidays are over. (Field trips are not learning opportunities? They are just fun days for teachers to shirk their duty of actually teaching the children? Is that what Sandy is saying? Does she have any idea how much MORE work and stress a field trip is than a regular day of school? Does she have any idea why teachers go to all the extra work of planning a field trip?) Our children need as much time in the classroom as possible with their teachers. (Yes, that is what she is saying. Gecewicz thinks that field trips do not benefit our children. I guess she has never considered, how many of our kids ever would ever have the opportunity to go whale watching if not on a school field trip, or see Rancho Guajome and better understand early European settlement in Vista. Oh yes, Sandy you are right, a book and a hand out will be much better than actually seeing the adobe buildings and making adobe bricks.)If we all tighten our belts and share the burden equally, we will survive and we will be stronger as a district. Please accept the denials when are returned to your site. ( Here Sandy's message is clear. All field trips will be denied no matter how many pages of Gecewicz garbage forms the teacher fills out. Gecewicz does not even care how the field trip is funded. Money could fall from heaven but Sandy will still just stamp "denied" on any request. Remember the old days when VUSD principals were considered grown up enough to make these decisions by themselves for their own site? We are all so glad that our great invisible parent on the hill now makes field trip decisions for us instead of the poor pathetic and incompetent site principals. Hey Sandy, why don't you come visit a school site some time? You could see what really is happening at the sites instead of imaging it from your $2000 office desk in your fine private air conditioned office.) Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation in this matter."
Big Financial Problems for all our California Schools
The state deficit has to be addressed. there will be a big impact on our VUSD schools. There are lots of rumors floating around.
Field trips already are out whether or not the classroom teacher finds a way to finance the field trip without using VUSD funds. Sandy Gecewitz's illiterate directive via principal email made that "clear" in her own unique Gecewitz version of English. I will try to post the email. It is a hoot to read. Sandy was the best that Bales could find for a number 2 at the district office?
Guffanti and Gibson love to pretend that VUSD teachers are the worst in the country and lazy to boot. What about Sandy's high school English teachers? Who were they? Did they have credentials? Was she home schooled? So many questions. So few answers.
Will the school year be shortened by a week and pay cut by the same amount? Probably not. Gov. Schwarzenegger already tried to float that trial balloon but it was shot down. Another week off might not have been too bad. However I am sure that that the loss of compensation would have been based on the greater and more unfair 5 days of salary lost out of 180 school days taught rather than the more fair cut figured for the entire year that teachers have to live on their salary. Good news is that it appears that parents and others will not put up with this cut.
Will class size reduction be eliminated? I hope not. But I think this possibility is more likely.
Have no false hope, education funding will be cut. No question. There will be no tax increases. Prop 13 requires 2/3 of legislature to approve any tax increase. With ANTIs controlling slightly over 1/3 of the seats in Sacramento, there is no way that even the fat cat CEOs and bankers that got us into this mess will have to pay a dime more.
Here is the latest idea from our governor in an article in the LATimes:
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-classsize2-2009feb02,0,4627910.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Bid for flexibility in use of class-size reduction funds criticized
Unions and activists say Schwarzenegger's proposal would mean bigger classes in poor and minority schools. Administrators say adding a few more pupils per class could save the program.
By Seema Mehta
February 2, 2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal to allow school districts to use state class-size reduction funding any way they choose is alarming teachers unions and community activists, who say it will inevitably lead to ballooning classrooms in the state's neediest communities.
"What's most offensive is that eliminating class-size reduction won't save the state one dime," said David A. Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Assn., which is launching a television ad blitz this weekend urging Californians to call Schwarzenegger and their legislators to oppose the proposal. "Districts will continue to receive that funding from the state but won't have to spend that money on class-size reduction, or, frankly, even in the classroom."
Activists say the proposal will take the greatest toll on minority and poor districts.
"I can assure you that the districts in poorer neighborhoods will be the first to increase classroom sizes, [which] means the achievement gap will widen," said Alicia Gaddis, board chairwoman of the Sacramento branch of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now. "That is a tragedy."
The proposal is among many aimed at dealing with California's deep financial crisis. The state is facing a projected deficit of nearly $42 billion by the middle of next year. The 2009-10 budget is far from finalized, and it is unknown whether the class-size reduction proposal will survive negotiations in Sacramento. But education will probably face major cuts, because it makes up about 40% of the state budget.
A Schwarzenegger spokesman called the CTA's claims "misleading."
"If a school district believes class-size reduction is one of the highest priorities, nothing in the governor's proposal will prevent them from being able to carry it on," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance.
He said the suggestion for greater flexibility in how districts can spend nearly $15.7 billion next year in so-called categorical funds, including $1.3 billion for kindergarten through third-grade class-size reduction, came last fall from district superintendents as a way to address the impending state-funding cuts.
"The governor is proposing basically to tear down the fences that restrict how these dollars can be spent in order to give local school districts the greatest flexibility possible to allocate these dollars where they are needed the most," Palmer said.
Class-size reduction, which became law in 1996, pays districts $1,071 yearly per student in kindergarten through third-grade classes with an average of 20 students or fewer per teacher. Several studies have shown that smaller class sizes lead to academic gains.
But several California district officials said that without greater flexibility, class-size reduction, which is subsidized with other district funds, will be on the chopping block as districts make tough decisions.
"Flexibility is always a good thing for a school district because we have a better and more intimate understanding of what our own district needs are," said Leslie Crunelle, assistant superintendent of educational services in the San Gabriel Unified School District.
Alice Petrossian, chief academic officer in the Pasadena Unified School District, said cutting class-size reduction could save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, but allowing the district to add a couple of students to each class would help keep smaller classes intact.
"The flexibility in class-size reduction is crucial to saving class-size reduction," Petrossian said. "Here's what the option is: If we don't get some level of flexibility to move up to 22 or 23 [students], the next option for districts who are cutting it will be [class sizes of] 30 or 31."
She said school boards that try to summarily eliminate class-size reduction and spend the money on other costs, particularly if they are not in the classroom, will face parental revolt.
The governor's proposal could also ease a move being considered for next year by Los Angeles Unified to increase class sizes in kindergarten through third grade and decrease sizes in fourth- and fifth-grade classes to meet a ratio of 25 students per teacher across those grades.
But other educators, such as state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who wrote the class-size reduction legislation in 1996 while a member of the state Senate, say the governor's proposal will lead to a dismantling of class-size reduction and an increase in the achievement gap.
"It's a sad day for all of California," he said. "This would be a major step backward. We know class-size reduction works. To address the dropout rate, we need more class-size reduction at more grade levels."
seema.mehta@latimes.com
Field trips already are out whether or not the classroom teacher finds a way to finance the field trip without using VUSD funds. Sandy Gecewitz's illiterate directive via principal email made that "clear" in her own unique Gecewitz version of English. I will try to post the email. It is a hoot to read. Sandy was the best that Bales could find for a number 2 at the district office?
Guffanti and Gibson love to pretend that VUSD teachers are the worst in the country and lazy to boot. What about Sandy's high school English teachers? Who were they? Did they have credentials? Was she home schooled? So many questions. So few answers.
Will the school year be shortened by a week and pay cut by the same amount? Probably not. Gov. Schwarzenegger already tried to float that trial balloon but it was shot down. Another week off might not have been too bad. However I am sure that that the loss of compensation would have been based on the greater and more unfair 5 days of salary lost out of 180 school days taught rather than the more fair cut figured for the entire year that teachers have to live on their salary. Good news is that it appears that parents and others will not put up with this cut.
Will class size reduction be eliminated? I hope not. But I think this possibility is more likely.
Have no false hope, education funding will be cut. No question. There will be no tax increases. Prop 13 requires 2/3 of legislature to approve any tax increase. With ANTIs controlling slightly over 1/3 of the seats in Sacramento, there is no way that even the fat cat CEOs and bankers that got us into this mess will have to pay a dime more.
Here is the latest idea from our governor in an article in the LATimes:
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-classsize2-2009feb02,0,4627910.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Bid for flexibility in use of class-size reduction funds criticized
Unions and activists say Schwarzenegger's proposal would mean bigger classes in poor and minority schools. Administrators say adding a few more pupils per class could save the program.
By Seema Mehta
February 2, 2009
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal to allow school districts to use state class-size reduction funding any way they choose is alarming teachers unions and community activists, who say it will inevitably lead to ballooning classrooms in the state's neediest communities.
"What's most offensive is that eliminating class-size reduction won't save the state one dime," said David A. Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Assn., which is launching a television ad blitz this weekend urging Californians to call Schwarzenegger and their legislators to oppose the proposal. "Districts will continue to receive that funding from the state but won't have to spend that money on class-size reduction, or, frankly, even in the classroom."
Activists say the proposal will take the greatest toll on minority and poor districts.
"I can assure you that the districts in poorer neighborhoods will be the first to increase classroom sizes, [which] means the achievement gap will widen," said Alicia Gaddis, board chairwoman of the Sacramento branch of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now. "That is a tragedy."
The proposal is among many aimed at dealing with California's deep financial crisis. The state is facing a projected deficit of nearly $42 billion by the middle of next year. The 2009-10 budget is far from finalized, and it is unknown whether the class-size reduction proposal will survive negotiations in Sacramento. But education will probably face major cuts, because it makes up about 40% of the state budget.
A Schwarzenegger spokesman called the CTA's claims "misleading."
"If a school district believes class-size reduction is one of the highest priorities, nothing in the governor's proposal will prevent them from being able to carry it on," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance.
He said the suggestion for greater flexibility in how districts can spend nearly $15.7 billion next year in so-called categorical funds, including $1.3 billion for kindergarten through third-grade class-size reduction, came last fall from district superintendents as a way to address the impending state-funding cuts.
"The governor is proposing basically to tear down the fences that restrict how these dollars can be spent in order to give local school districts the greatest flexibility possible to allocate these dollars where they are needed the most," Palmer said.
Class-size reduction, which became law in 1996, pays districts $1,071 yearly per student in kindergarten through third-grade classes with an average of 20 students or fewer per teacher. Several studies have shown that smaller class sizes lead to academic gains.
But several California district officials said that without greater flexibility, class-size reduction, which is subsidized with other district funds, will be on the chopping block as districts make tough decisions.
"Flexibility is always a good thing for a school district because we have a better and more intimate understanding of what our own district needs are," said Leslie Crunelle, assistant superintendent of educational services in the San Gabriel Unified School District.
Alice Petrossian, chief academic officer in the Pasadena Unified School District, said cutting class-size reduction could save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, but allowing the district to add a couple of students to each class would help keep smaller classes intact.
"The flexibility in class-size reduction is crucial to saving class-size reduction," Petrossian said. "Here's what the option is: If we don't get some level of flexibility to move up to 22 or 23 [students], the next option for districts who are cutting it will be [class sizes of] 30 or 31."
She said school boards that try to summarily eliminate class-size reduction and spend the money on other costs, particularly if they are not in the classroom, will face parental revolt.
The governor's proposal could also ease a move being considered for next year by Los Angeles Unified to increase class sizes in kindergarten through third grade and decrease sizes in fourth- and fifth-grade classes to meet a ratio of 25 students per teacher across those grades.
But other educators, such as state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who wrote the class-size reduction legislation in 1996 while a member of the state Senate, say the governor's proposal will lead to a dismantling of class-size reduction and an increase in the achievement gap.
"It's a sad day for all of California," he said. "This would be a major step backward. We know class-size reduction works. To address the dropout rate, we need more class-size reduction at more grade levels."
seema.mehta@latimes.com
Monday, January 26, 2009
Another View of Guffanti
I have cut and pasted the views of Oglethorpe who wrote online comments answering Guffanti's ridiculous blather in Guffanti's first "education" column in the North County Times found here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/22/opinion/guffanti/z7361df8a254d6174882575380069869e.txt
Here is how Oglethorpe responds for your enjoyment:
Oglethorpe January 22, 2009 1:53PM PST
January 22, 2009Dear editor:I was dismayed to notice that the North County Times has hired Stephen Guffanti as their “expert” editorialist for education, and that he will be writing a series of articles about education. The reader should know that this man is a physician, not an educator, who was a board member at VUSD. He was recently defeated in his reelection attempt; apparently the people of Vista have had enough of him. I think the community could make a big mistake by considering him an expert on education. He is not. He is a slick media manipulator with an anti-public-education agenda. In his first article he throws out opinions as if they were fact and completely misapplies data. One big piece of propaganda that Guffanti gives us in his first article is the concept that “home schooling is a high performer year after year.” Not so. The fact is that when children are home schooled, they miss out on day-to-day interaction with other children and often become socially retarded. But more importantly, they miss out on competing with the best students, causing them to slide woefully behind academically when the parent actually thinks that the child is learning at a greater pace. Don’t get me wrong, if you don't want your child to be in a competitive environment, then home schooling might be for you. But if you want your child to be able to compete in this global environment in the way that Guffanti suggests at the beginning of the article, then you should have your child in a competitive system. Often home schooling parents will send their kids to public high school with a “4.0 G.P.A.” (These parents want their kids to get acceptance to college and realize too late that home schooled credits are worth less to colleges) and find that their children cannot adjust to the work load (nice kid, though!). The student becomes a “C” student and, of course, public education is blamed for his lower grades. Home schooling is really a form of deregulation. Basically, the parent may teach most anything. Home schooling, like other deregulated things, is often abused; when you go to Albertsons at 10 AM on Tuesday and see a 9-year-old boy with his mother, rest assured, he’s home schooled. The home schooled kid is the one sitting on the chair at the salon waiting for mom to finish getting her hair done. There are many parents out there who have no aptitude for teaching that are out there giving it a try. Private education? If you pay out of pocket for your child’s education, then you can be sure your child will get an “A.” After all, would you pay for an “F” ? If you want the honest truth about your child’s work habits and scholastic aptitude, put him in with all the other kids, not just a select few who have parents who can pay for it. Both the NCTimes and Guffanti have, in the past, been in favor of school vouchers. Vouchers have been slammed every time they have come up for vote. It is a tactic of those like Guffanti to run down public education. If he can just show how bad public education is, then people will want to turn to another system (like vouchers).
Oglethorpe January 24, 2009 9:03AM PST
Guffanti quotes a 26-year old report that blames our society more than the educational process. That report blames our parents' blase attitude toward education and acceptance of mediocrity from our society itself. It also blasts ourselves as producing far too many Masters of Business Education majors and not enough science based majors at the college level. Check out the quote he gives. It never singles out public education. To quote: "...the educational foundations of our society." This is just one of the examples of how this slick guy, Guffanti, misapplies statements and data. Are you actually reading that article and saying that Guffanti is not slamming public education? It appears to me that public education is the direct object of his "Schools' lackluster results" theme," as he sings the praises of home schooling and private schools. The truth is that, while public education can always be improved, home schooling and private schools are no better. And, again, it does no good to anyone to try to undermine confidence in a system that most of us send our kids to. It actually hurts the system, and Guffanti is smart enough to know it, and that's what he's trying to do. And I think you know it too. I visited Sierra Vista High School a few years ago. It used to educate all of the "special needs" kids of North County. There was a child there who won all arguments with other special kids because his mother taught him all the states and state capitols. Memorizing things is something that even those kids can do. Memorizing facts, while important, is not an education, and I'm not impressed with home schooling just because it produces some good memorizers. While all of our schools are doing their best to produce students who can think at high levels, our free society itself seems to encourage a mediocre level of achievement. However, there are areas where, according to studies, America is far ahead of all other nations (Guffanti will never tell you this): The areas of originality of thought and inventiveness. The rest of the world looks to the United States for new ideas and inventions. I repeat, Guffanti is not an expert. The people of Vista, after a few years, saw through him and voted him out. Now the NCTimes is promoting him as an expert. It is deceiving and it should stop. Let him continue his diatribe, fine. But he should be put on the same field as I: He gets his 200 words in the "Letters" column or he can join this forum. Again, the promoting of him as an expert is deceiving to the people of our community.
Oglethorpe January 23, 2009 7:06PM PST
Think4yourself- Did you read Guffanti's article? It is a direct slam on public education. As a father of two children with a public school education that was fantastic, I was able to easily see the propaganda. I have met Guffanti and have been a recipient of his emailings, all slick propaganda. All were meant to give the public a feeling of mistrust in the public education system(and implying that he was the only one with any sense in all of VUSD); all were meant to undermine confidence in the system in which most parents have enrolled their children. What is the purpose of that? And what good does it do for anybody except for those who want to tear down the system? I would much rather hear someone's opinion about what to do about improving the schools. This is not a liberal versus conservative thing. I do not wish to discuss with you my political beliefs.You are also attacking the public school teachers. Many are conservative and are offended by your lumping them in with the liberal ones.I don't have a problem with someone having a different opinion than I, and I have never written a comment in a forum like this before. But I do have a problem with someone like Guffanti purporting to be an expert, being promoted by the NCTimes as an expert, and then pushing his agenda on the public. I feel the public is being duped when such a thing happens, and it lessens the trust that people have in the media to report the unbiased truth. I stand by my statements. He is not an expert on education. Sorry, he's not. And he shouldn't be put up as one.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/22/opinion/guffanti/z7361df8a254d6174882575380069869e.txt
Here is how Oglethorpe responds for your enjoyment:
Oglethorpe January 22, 2009 1:53PM PST
January 22, 2009Dear editor:I was dismayed to notice that the North County Times has hired Stephen Guffanti as their “expert” editorialist for education, and that he will be writing a series of articles about education. The reader should know that this man is a physician, not an educator, who was a board member at VUSD. He was recently defeated in his reelection attempt; apparently the people of Vista have had enough of him. I think the community could make a big mistake by considering him an expert on education. He is not. He is a slick media manipulator with an anti-public-education agenda. In his first article he throws out opinions as if they were fact and completely misapplies data. One big piece of propaganda that Guffanti gives us in his first article is the concept that “home schooling is a high performer year after year.” Not so. The fact is that when children are home schooled, they miss out on day-to-day interaction with other children and often become socially retarded. But more importantly, they miss out on competing with the best students, causing them to slide woefully behind academically when the parent actually thinks that the child is learning at a greater pace. Don’t get me wrong, if you don't want your child to be in a competitive environment, then home schooling might be for you. But if you want your child to be able to compete in this global environment in the way that Guffanti suggests at the beginning of the article, then you should have your child in a competitive system. Often home schooling parents will send their kids to public high school with a “4.0 G.P.A.” (These parents want their kids to get acceptance to college and realize too late that home schooled credits are worth less to colleges) and find that their children cannot adjust to the work load (nice kid, though!). The student becomes a “C” student and, of course, public education is blamed for his lower grades. Home schooling is really a form of deregulation. Basically, the parent may teach most anything. Home schooling, like other deregulated things, is often abused; when you go to Albertsons at 10 AM on Tuesday and see a 9-year-old boy with his mother, rest assured, he’s home schooled. The home schooled kid is the one sitting on the chair at the salon waiting for mom to finish getting her hair done. There are many parents out there who have no aptitude for teaching that are out there giving it a try. Private education? If you pay out of pocket for your child’s education, then you can be sure your child will get an “A.” After all, would you pay for an “F” ? If you want the honest truth about your child’s work habits and scholastic aptitude, put him in with all the other kids, not just a select few who have parents who can pay for it. Both the NCTimes and Guffanti have, in the past, been in favor of school vouchers. Vouchers have been slammed every time they have come up for vote. It is a tactic of those like Guffanti to run down public education. If he can just show how bad public education is, then people will want to turn to another system (like vouchers).
Oglethorpe January 24, 2009 9:03AM PST
Guffanti quotes a 26-year old report that blames our society more than the educational process. That report blames our parents' blase attitude toward education and acceptance of mediocrity from our society itself. It also blasts ourselves as producing far too many Masters of Business Education majors and not enough science based majors at the college level. Check out the quote he gives. It never singles out public education. To quote: "...the educational foundations of our society." This is just one of the examples of how this slick guy, Guffanti, misapplies statements and data. Are you actually reading that article and saying that Guffanti is not slamming public education? It appears to me that public education is the direct object of his "Schools' lackluster results" theme," as he sings the praises of home schooling and private schools. The truth is that, while public education can always be improved, home schooling and private schools are no better. And, again, it does no good to anyone to try to undermine confidence in a system that most of us send our kids to. It actually hurts the system, and Guffanti is smart enough to know it, and that's what he's trying to do. And I think you know it too. I visited Sierra Vista High School a few years ago. It used to educate all of the "special needs" kids of North County. There was a child there who won all arguments with other special kids because his mother taught him all the states and state capitols. Memorizing things is something that even those kids can do. Memorizing facts, while important, is not an education, and I'm not impressed with home schooling just because it produces some good memorizers. While all of our schools are doing their best to produce students who can think at high levels, our free society itself seems to encourage a mediocre level of achievement. However, there are areas where, according to studies, America is far ahead of all other nations (Guffanti will never tell you this): The areas of originality of thought and inventiveness. The rest of the world looks to the United States for new ideas and inventions. I repeat, Guffanti is not an expert. The people of Vista, after a few years, saw through him and voted him out. Now the NCTimes is promoting him as an expert. It is deceiving and it should stop. Let him continue his diatribe, fine. But he should be put on the same field as I: He gets his 200 words in the "Letters" column or he can join this forum. Again, the promoting of him as an expert is deceiving to the people of our community.
Oglethorpe January 23, 2009 7:06PM PST
Think4yourself- Did you read Guffanti's article? It is a direct slam on public education. As a father of two children with a public school education that was fantastic, I was able to easily see the propaganda. I have met Guffanti and have been a recipient of his emailings, all slick propaganda. All were meant to give the public a feeling of mistrust in the public education system(and implying that he was the only one with any sense in all of VUSD); all were meant to undermine confidence in the system in which most parents have enrolled their children. What is the purpose of that? And what good does it do for anybody except for those who want to tear down the system? I would much rather hear someone's opinion about what to do about improving the schools. This is not a liberal versus conservative thing. I do not wish to discuss with you my political beliefs.You are also attacking the public school teachers. Many are conservative and are offended by your lumping them in with the liberal ones.I don't have a problem with someone having a different opinion than I, and I have never written a comment in a forum like this before. But I do have a problem with someone like Guffanti purporting to be an expert, being promoted by the NCTimes as an expert, and then pushing his agenda on the public. I feel the public is being duped when such a thing happens, and it lessens the trust that people have in the media to report the unbiased truth. I stand by my statements. He is not an expert on education. Sorry, he's not. And he shouldn't be put up as one.
Jeff Ropes responds to Guffanti's column
In todays North County Times, Jeff Ropes responded to Guffanti's fact challenged column. The words published in the NCTimes and attributed to Jeff Ropes are printed in blue below:
Home schooling another form of deregulation [Vistaschools editor Note: I just spoke with Jeff Ropes by phone--(12:30pm 1/23/09). The title of this article was created by the NCTimes staff not Jeff Ropes. Also note that the NCTimes editor censored several sentences from Jeff's letter. Censorship of comments and letters critical of Guffanti and Gibson is routine at the NCTimes. Many others including myself have repeatedly been censored.]
I was dismayed to notice that the North County Times has hired Stephen Guffanti as a columnist and that he will be writing a series of articles about education. The reader should know that this man is a physician, not an educator, who was a board member at Vista Unified School District.
He was recently defeated in his re-election attempt; apparently the people of Vista have had enough of him.
I think the community could make a big mistake by considering him an expert on education. He is not. He is a slick media manipulator with an anti-public-education agenda.
In his first article, he throws out opinions as if they were fact and completely misapplies data.One of his contentions in his article, that home schooling is better than public schools, is just plain wrong ("Schools' lackluster performance," Jan. 22).Home schooling is just another form of deregulation. Of course, abuses that are spawned by such deregulation are plentiful, and parents who can't teach are out there in great numbers trying.I have rebutted his article online, where more space is permitted.
Jeff RopesFallbrook
Home schooling another form of deregulation [Vistaschools editor Note: I just spoke with Jeff Ropes by phone--(12:30pm 1/23/09). The title of this article was created by the NCTimes staff not Jeff Ropes. Also note that the NCTimes editor censored several sentences from Jeff's letter. Censorship of comments and letters critical of Guffanti and Gibson is routine at the NCTimes. Many others including myself have repeatedly been censored.]
I was dismayed to notice that the North County Times has hired Stephen Guffanti as a columnist and that he will be writing a series of articles about education. The reader should know that this man is a physician, not an educator, who was a board member at Vista Unified School District.
He was recently defeated in his re-election attempt; apparently the people of Vista have had enough of him.
I think the community could make a big mistake by considering him an expert on education. He is not. He is a slick media manipulator with an anti-public-education agenda.
In his first article, he throws out opinions as if they were fact and completely misapplies data.One of his contentions in his article, that home schooling is better than public schools, is just plain wrong ("Schools' lackluster performance," Jan. 22).Home schooling is just another form of deregulation. Of course, abuses that are spawned by such deregulation are plentiful, and parents who can't teach are out there in great numbers trying.I have rebutted his article online, where more space is permitted.
Jeff RopesFallbrook
Could Guffanti be a Psychopath?
As I think about Guffanti and his complete lack of awareness or acknowledgement of the damage he has done to our VUSD schools and children, I cannot help but wonder if he has some kind of mental condition. Psychopath may sound very harsh. Even as I type the word it feels over the top, but I read a sentence in the New York Times today in an article analyzing Bernie Madoff (of the 50 billion dollar Wall Street Ponzi scheme) that seemed to not only describe Madoff but also Guffanti as well. The sentence made me consider the possibility that Guffanti's mental problems might actually fit into the category of psychopath. Here is the sentence:
“Some of the characteristics you see in psychopaths are lying, manipulation, the ability to deceive, feelings of grandiosity and callousness toward their victims,” says Gregg O. McCrary, a former special agent with the F.B.I. who spent years constructing criminal behavioral profiles.
Guffanti lies. He manipulates the truth. (for instance claiming the built more schools than any other trustee in VUSD history when what he did was to reflexively oppose and impede the construction of schools at every turn).
Guffanti deceives. Jill Parvin, Dan Piro and a small band of credulous believers repeat every lie Guffanti comes up with as though it were Gospel. They are still deceived by his lies.
Guffanti definitely has feelings of grandiosity. He once told me that his unique treatments of his mother in law saved her life when no other physician in the country could have. He constantly says he built a record number of schools in VUSD (that number keeps going up--last time I believe he claimed to have built 12). He believes that only his views of schools are correct. He has special knowledge that public schools are failures and all unions are made of evil thugs. Any school board member endorsed by school teachers is owned by the union. He knows this because he has some special mind reading power that allows him to discern the motives of others. He believes he is more special than any one else.
He is also completely callous to his victims the students of the district. Our students were kept in two very over crowded high school campuses at least a decade longer than necessary largely because of his unceasing opposition to a local bond issue not to mention his opposition to all state school construction bonds that might have helped. In his last term on our school board, he and Gibson refused to be the NECESSARY fourth vote to acquire land to build the third high school. Their refusal cost the district between 17 and 25 million dollars which dried up our school bond funds. Yet Guffanti does not care. He never apologizes. He is completely callous to his victims.
Could Guffanti be a psychopath?
Addendum at 12:50pm 1/23/09, I just spoke with my youngest son who has a BS in psychology and Cognitive Science from UCSD. He told me that psychopath is not a clinical term. It is a broad and general term. It is so general that some people who can be described as psychopaths might actually feel remorse after the fact. Guffanti never expresses remorse or guilt or accepts responsibility for his actions, therefore, the general term psychopath does not fit him. However there is clinical term for those who cannot feel remorse or guilt, that term is sociopath. So let me end with the more appropriate psychology question, could Dr. Stephen Guffanti be a sociopath?
“Some of the characteristics you see in psychopaths are lying, manipulation, the ability to deceive, feelings of grandiosity and callousness toward their victims,” says Gregg O. McCrary, a former special agent with the F.B.I. who spent years constructing criminal behavioral profiles.
Guffanti lies. He manipulates the truth. (for instance claiming the built more schools than any other trustee in VUSD history when what he did was to reflexively oppose and impede the construction of schools at every turn).
Guffanti deceives. Jill Parvin, Dan Piro and a small band of credulous believers repeat every lie Guffanti comes up with as though it were Gospel. They are still deceived by his lies.
Guffanti definitely has feelings of grandiosity. He once told me that his unique treatments of his mother in law saved her life when no other physician in the country could have. He constantly says he built a record number of schools in VUSD (that number keeps going up--last time I believe he claimed to have built 12). He believes that only his views of schools are correct. He has special knowledge that public schools are failures and all unions are made of evil thugs. Any school board member endorsed by school teachers is owned by the union. He knows this because he has some special mind reading power that allows him to discern the motives of others. He believes he is more special than any one else.
He is also completely callous to his victims the students of the district. Our students were kept in two very over crowded high school campuses at least a decade longer than necessary largely because of his unceasing opposition to a local bond issue not to mention his opposition to all state school construction bonds that might have helped. In his last term on our school board, he and Gibson refused to be the NECESSARY fourth vote to acquire land to build the third high school. Their refusal cost the district between 17 and 25 million dollars which dried up our school bond funds. Yet Guffanti does not care. He never apologizes. He is completely callous to his victims.
Could Guffanti be a psychopath?
Addendum at 12:50pm 1/23/09, I just spoke with my youngest son who has a BS in psychology and Cognitive Science from UCSD. He told me that psychopath is not a clinical term. It is a broad and general term. It is so general that some people who can be described as psychopaths might actually feel remorse after the fact. Guffanti never expresses remorse or guilt or accepts responsibility for his actions, therefore, the general term psychopath does not fit him. However there is clinical term for those who cannot feel remorse or guilt, that term is sociopath. So let me end with the more appropriate psychology question, could Dr. Stephen Guffanti be a sociopath?
Saturday, January 24, 2009
He's Back! Guffanti Resurfaces!
The well deserved sending of Dr. Stephen Guffanti into political oblivion has ended. His political coffin lid has been pried open by the folks who run the NCTimes. They are ANTI middle class and ANTI union just as he is. They have give Guffanti a regular column in their less and less relevant "news" paper.
Why such a hateful and uniformed person like Guffanti would be given a column, I can only speculate about. Perhaps the NCTimes is trying to get more hits on its website as the irrational rantings of Guffanti always spark controversy and lots of comments. Or it could simply be that the anti Public Education, anti union editorial staff just sees Guffanti as a fellow traveler who needs support. Who knows? What ever the reason, it is bad news for our VUSD students and public education in the North County to let a person who has a visceral dislike of real teachers and real schools to be given space to vent his inaccuracies and bile.
Guffanti lies and cherry picked "facts" leading to false conclusions and deceptions can be found here: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/22/opinion/guffanti/z7361df8a254d6174882575380069869e.txt#nctcomments
If you hate FACT based public education as Guffanti does, then his skewed views are for you. If you like students having all relevant facts and information in science, history and sex education for living safe and sane lives in the twenty first century then Guffanti's views are not yours.
For the moment I will not comment on the old cherry picked data he is using in his attack on public schools.(Doesn't he ever get tired of beating the same horse?Wouldn't he like to be a 9/11, JFK or UFO conspiracy theorist for a while?)
I first want to comment on three of the lies that he and his supporters spread about him and his recent well deserved forced retirement from our VUSD school board.
LIE 1 "PLAIN TRUTH" at 7:10 AM wrote "Nearly half the schools in Vista Unified were built while he was on the board." Yes, and there were more than four thousand sunrises and sunsets during the same twelve years. Guffanti had no more to do with building schools in VUSD than with the rotation of the earth giving us sunrises and sunsets.
In fact Guffanti wrote numerous letters to the editor and was given Community Forum space to OPPOSE our three failed school bonds before we finally passed Prop O WITH NO HELP FROM GUFFANTI. He was on the school board when the PTA, the Vista Business community and the VTA got the bond passed but he did not lift one finger to help, not one phone call, not one letter, not one time did Guffanti help not even to come out to encourage volunteers. Other school board members did help, BUT NOT GUFFANTI or his political ally Jim Gibson either.
Trying to give Guffanti credit for schools being built in VUSD is a 100% reversal of his true position. At the time we were trying to pass bonds and build schools, he was in complete public opposition in letters to the editor and editorial in local newspapers. Instead of new schools for our kids he wanted to use the old K Mart building and parking lot on Sycamore in Shadowridge as a school, even though it had no playground area and was not built to earth quake safe standards. he thought a broken down retail building was good enough for our VUSD kids instead of building a new school for them.
Guffanti and his friends and associates do not care about our kids or our kids' schools because none of them ever had students in any of our VUSD schools. That is why he and his ilk are so dangerous to our schools. If they are ever in charge of VUSD again and make decisions that destroy educational opportunities for our VUSD children, they will not care because their children and the children of their fellow travellers are "educated" elsewhere. They are conspiracy theory nuts who fear "gummit" schools.
LIE 2--The blogger Plain Truth asks, Since Guffanti and Gibson were in the minority, how could they have held up the construction of any schools? This lie is always asked in the form of a question since the blogger Plain Truth knows the implied answer is a lie. It is very FOX NEWS--"I did not lie because I only asked a question." But Plain Truth knows that by California State Law it took FOUR VOTES to acquire land for the new high school. Guffanti and Gibson REFUSED to be that fourth vote for several years. Finally just before a school board election in which he was running, Gibson caved and became the fourth vote for acquiring the land on Highway 76. Sadly that land cost between 17 and 25 million more dollars in actual land cost, increased construction and site preparation costs and construction delays than the original site on Strawberry Hill would have.
LIE 3--Samuel at 10:39 am says Guffanti lost the election because of a "hit piece" "two weeks before the election."
How ridiculous. This is the pot calling kettle black. Guffanti and Gibson perfected the art of hit pieces except they put out their trash in expensive mailer which arrived in the mail just a day or two before the elections in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. The tens of thousands of dollars in production costs and postage used for their inaccurate mailers NEVER came from people in VUSD. Guffanti and Gibson big money always came from outside interests with agendas other than the best possible education of our VUSD children. Gufanti and Gibson slickly produced mailers always came out so that there was NO TIME to rebut them. Since they were never accurate, it was a real shame. Many VUSD voters were deceived by these mailers in the past.
Yet the so called "hit piece" that Samuel complains about came out WEEKS before the election. There was plenty of time for rebuttal. The NCTimes has always allowed Guffanti as much space in the paper as he asked for to run with any accusation he can think of against public schools, the PTA or the VTA. He has had free and frequent access to the Community Forum on the editorial page. He also could have written letters to the editor correcting any misinformation. He did not. Guffanti had plenty of time to tell his side during the weeks after the hit piece and before the election, yet Guffanti never publicly rebutted any of the info in the so called "hit piece" I read the information in the "piece" and found nothing inaccurate in the copy I saw apparently neither did Guffanti.
Instead I saw information in the piece that the NCTimes refused to print not because it was not true or of community interest, but because the NCTimes has always been "in the bag" for Guffanti. He is an ideological twin of the editors as far as hating unions is concerned.
Obviously the facts in the information piece that 'Samuel" is complaining about must have been true. Otherwise why would Guffanti not try to rebut it? He had PLENTY of time to rebut any part of it but he did not. The "hit piece" can be assumed to be accurate due to Guffanti's lack of response unlike the cowardly lies he and Gibson disseminated just days prior to each of the previous elections. (I have those mailers in a file. On another day, I will share Guffanti's extremely expensive and slick fliers containing the despicable lies with you if I can figure out how to reproduce them on this blog.)
Here is the real truth about why Guffanti lost. Here are the top 17 reasons he lost.
(1) He made enemies so easily. He said horrible things about and to people e.g. calling a concerned parent with a legitimate question about school site councils a "meddling mom", or calling hardworking classroom teachers "union thugs"
(2) His complete disregard and disrespect for all parents at the board meetings when they asked reasonable questions about school site councils or any other subject.
(3) His black and white approach to everything. Any one who does not agree with his hatred for FACT based education is evil in his weird world.
(4) His "dissing" of the PTA by refusing to attend the BIGGEST forum of the campaign season.
(5) The refusal (of both he and his team) to show up for the NCTimes editorial interview. The NCTimes gave him their endorsement as they have every time he has run for office. (He and they both share a hatred for unions and the middle class). But they did not give him huge front page articles to spew lies about teachers and parents and his opposition as they have in the past.
(6) His lies and deceptions caught up with him. People of the district were on to his games. He no longer was able to claim to have built schools, be pro education, or care about our students without those darn inconenient facts from his past coming up showing him to be a hypocrite
(7) His "Governor Blagojevich crazy talk" style of dealing with his own inconsistencies and lies and the people who reminded him of both.
(8) His poor attendance record at board meetings. I believe his absent percentage was higher by far than any VUSD board member in the district's eighty year history.
(9) His absolute refusal to support the building of new schools and his total opposition to bonds for building those schools
10) His puposeless obstructiveness when the bonds were passed delaying the building of a third high school for years for no reason.
11) His irrational obstructionism costing our district millions in wasted Prop O money. He refused to be the fourth vote for acquiring the Kawano Strawberry Hill site. A property that would have cost 1 million dollars instead of 17 million for the Highway 76 site that the district finally had to settle for. He forced our kids to be in two over crowded high schools for an additional five years at a cost to our district of between 17 and 25 million dollars.
12) His remarkable ability to constantly acquire new political enemies with his rude actions and words
13) His support of creationism and a six thousand year old earth
14) His support for the denial of basic human rights to large groups of people
15) His support for denying our kids FACT based science, history and sex education
16) His mercurial temperament that had him challenging audience members at board meeting to fight him.
17) His utter disregard for any viewpoint but his own
For these reasons and others Guffanti generated a great deal of unnecessary political heat for himself. He motivated HUNDREDS of parents, business owners, community members and VUSD employees from custodians to principals to actively work to put him out of office.
The sign rallies against him and for PRO education candidates in downtown Vista were huge. They were unprecedented. Even during the 1994 recall, their were not rallies of that size. The one thing Guffanti is good at is generating at lot of opposition to himself and his political views.
Why such a hateful and uniformed person like Guffanti would be given a column, I can only speculate about. Perhaps the NCTimes is trying to get more hits on its website as the irrational rantings of Guffanti always spark controversy and lots of comments. Or it could simply be that the anti Public Education, anti union editorial staff just sees Guffanti as a fellow traveler who needs support. Who knows? What ever the reason, it is bad news for our VUSD students and public education in the North County to let a person who has a visceral dislike of real teachers and real schools to be given space to vent his inaccuracies and bile.
Guffanti lies and cherry picked "facts" leading to false conclusions and deceptions can be found here: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/22/opinion/guffanti/z7361df8a254d6174882575380069869e.txt#nctcomments
If you hate FACT based public education as Guffanti does, then his skewed views are for you. If you like students having all relevant facts and information in science, history and sex education for living safe and sane lives in the twenty first century then Guffanti's views are not yours.
For the moment I will not comment on the old cherry picked data he is using in his attack on public schools.(Doesn't he ever get tired of beating the same horse?Wouldn't he like to be a 9/11, JFK or UFO conspiracy theorist for a while?)
I first want to comment on three of the lies that he and his supporters spread about him and his recent well deserved forced retirement from our VUSD school board.
LIE 1 "PLAIN TRUTH" at 7:10 AM wrote "Nearly half the schools in Vista Unified were built while he was on the board." Yes, and there were more than four thousand sunrises and sunsets during the same twelve years. Guffanti had no more to do with building schools in VUSD than with the rotation of the earth giving us sunrises and sunsets.
In fact Guffanti wrote numerous letters to the editor and was given Community Forum space to OPPOSE our three failed school bonds before we finally passed Prop O WITH NO HELP FROM GUFFANTI. He was on the school board when the PTA, the Vista Business community and the VTA got the bond passed but he did not lift one finger to help, not one phone call, not one letter, not one time did Guffanti help not even to come out to encourage volunteers. Other school board members did help, BUT NOT GUFFANTI or his political ally Jim Gibson either.
Trying to give Guffanti credit for schools being built in VUSD is a 100% reversal of his true position. At the time we were trying to pass bonds and build schools, he was in complete public opposition in letters to the editor and editorial in local newspapers. Instead of new schools for our kids he wanted to use the old K Mart building and parking lot on Sycamore in Shadowridge as a school, even though it had no playground area and was not built to earth quake safe standards. he thought a broken down retail building was good enough for our VUSD kids instead of building a new school for them.
Guffanti and his friends and associates do not care about our kids or our kids' schools because none of them ever had students in any of our VUSD schools. That is why he and his ilk are so dangerous to our schools. If they are ever in charge of VUSD again and make decisions that destroy educational opportunities for our VUSD children, they will not care because their children and the children of their fellow travellers are "educated" elsewhere. They are conspiracy theory nuts who fear "gummit" schools.
LIE 2--The blogger Plain Truth asks, Since Guffanti and Gibson were in the minority, how could they have held up the construction of any schools? This lie is always asked in the form of a question since the blogger Plain Truth knows the implied answer is a lie. It is very FOX NEWS--"I did not lie because I only asked a question." But Plain Truth knows that by California State Law it took FOUR VOTES to acquire land for the new high school. Guffanti and Gibson REFUSED to be that fourth vote for several years. Finally just before a school board election in which he was running, Gibson caved and became the fourth vote for acquiring the land on Highway 76. Sadly that land cost between 17 and 25 million more dollars in actual land cost, increased construction and site preparation costs and construction delays than the original site on Strawberry Hill would have.
LIE 3--Samuel at 10:39 am says Guffanti lost the election because of a "hit piece" "two weeks before the election."
How ridiculous. This is the pot calling kettle black. Guffanti and Gibson perfected the art of hit pieces except they put out their trash in expensive mailer which arrived in the mail just a day or two before the elections in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. The tens of thousands of dollars in production costs and postage used for their inaccurate mailers NEVER came from people in VUSD. Guffanti and Gibson big money always came from outside interests with agendas other than the best possible education of our VUSD children. Gufanti and Gibson slickly produced mailers always came out so that there was NO TIME to rebut them. Since they were never accurate, it was a real shame. Many VUSD voters were deceived by these mailers in the past.
Yet the so called "hit piece" that Samuel complains about came out WEEKS before the election. There was plenty of time for rebuttal. The NCTimes has always allowed Guffanti as much space in the paper as he asked for to run with any accusation he can think of against public schools, the PTA or the VTA. He has had free and frequent access to the Community Forum on the editorial page. He also could have written letters to the editor correcting any misinformation. He did not. Guffanti had plenty of time to tell his side during the weeks after the hit piece and before the election, yet Guffanti never publicly rebutted any of the info in the so called "hit piece" I read the information in the "piece" and found nothing inaccurate in the copy I saw apparently neither did Guffanti.
Instead I saw information in the piece that the NCTimes refused to print not because it was not true or of community interest, but because the NCTimes has always been "in the bag" for Guffanti. He is an ideological twin of the editors as far as hating unions is concerned.
Obviously the facts in the information piece that 'Samuel" is complaining about must have been true. Otherwise why would Guffanti not try to rebut it? He had PLENTY of time to rebut any part of it but he did not. The "hit piece" can be assumed to be accurate due to Guffanti's lack of response unlike the cowardly lies he and Gibson disseminated just days prior to each of the previous elections. (I have those mailers in a file. On another day, I will share Guffanti's extremely expensive and slick fliers containing the despicable lies with you if I can figure out how to reproduce them on this blog.)
Here is the real truth about why Guffanti lost. Here are the top 17 reasons he lost.
(1) He made enemies so easily. He said horrible things about and to people e.g. calling a concerned parent with a legitimate question about school site councils a "meddling mom", or calling hardworking classroom teachers "union thugs"
(2) His complete disregard and disrespect for all parents at the board meetings when they asked reasonable questions about school site councils or any other subject.
(3) His black and white approach to everything. Any one who does not agree with his hatred for FACT based education is evil in his weird world.
(4) His "dissing" of the PTA by refusing to attend the BIGGEST forum of the campaign season.
(5) The refusal (of both he and his team) to show up for the NCTimes editorial interview. The NCTimes gave him their endorsement as they have every time he has run for office. (He and they both share a hatred for unions and the middle class). But they did not give him huge front page articles to spew lies about teachers and parents and his opposition as they have in the past.
(6) His lies and deceptions caught up with him. People of the district were on to his games. He no longer was able to claim to have built schools, be pro education, or care about our students without those darn inconenient facts from his past coming up showing him to be a hypocrite
(7) His "Governor Blagojevich crazy talk" style of dealing with his own inconsistencies and lies and the people who reminded him of both.
(8) His poor attendance record at board meetings. I believe his absent percentage was higher by far than any VUSD board member in the district's eighty year history.
(9) His absolute refusal to support the building of new schools and his total opposition to bonds for building those schools
10) His puposeless obstructiveness when the bonds were passed delaying the building of a third high school for years for no reason.
11) His irrational obstructionism costing our district millions in wasted Prop O money. He refused to be the fourth vote for acquiring the Kawano Strawberry Hill site. A property that would have cost 1 million dollars instead of 17 million for the Highway 76 site that the district finally had to settle for. He forced our kids to be in two over crowded high schools for an additional five years at a cost to our district of between 17 and 25 million dollars.
12) His remarkable ability to constantly acquire new political enemies with his rude actions and words
13) His support of creationism and a six thousand year old earth
14) His support for the denial of basic human rights to large groups of people
15) His support for denying our kids FACT based science, history and sex education
16) His mercurial temperament that had him challenging audience members at board meeting to fight him.
17) His utter disregard for any viewpoint but his own
For these reasons and others Guffanti generated a great deal of unnecessary political heat for himself. He motivated HUNDREDS of parents, business owners, community members and VUSD employees from custodians to principals to actively work to put him out of office.
The sign rallies against him and for PRO education candidates in downtown Vista were huge. They were unprecedented. Even during the 1994 recall, their were not rallies of that size. The one thing Guffanti is good at is generating at lot of opposition to himself and his political views.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
More sour grapes and babble from the ANTIs
Many observers feel that the NCTimes blogger who posts under the name Vista Watchdog 1 is in reality Dr. Stephen Guffanti. Whoever the blogger is, he is bitter about Guffanti's well deserved retirement and wrong about his facts. His latest post can be found on line here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/17/news/coastal/vista/zb1ebc045a9f35c0c882575400061c355.txt
I have also copied it down below along with corrections. Vista Watchdog's ramblings will be written in brown. Corrections and accurate info will be written in blue.
Vista Watchdog1 January 17, 2009 11:54PM PST
According to the County Assessor’s office the property upon which VUSD desires to place a lien was valued at the time of transfer to Cadence Homes at approximately $14M. . [The VUSDistrict was forced to pay this 14 million (Wasn't the correct number 17 million?) rather than the 1 million dollars for the far easier to build on and more centrally located Kawano Strawberry Hill site because Guffanti and Gibson both refused to be the fourth vote needed to acquire Kawano's land. Their three years of stubborn opposition to the building of a third VUSD high school at Strawberry Hill site cost our district somewhere between 13 and 25 million dollars in increased construction costs, litigation, and extra site preparation needed at the current Highway 76 site. In this first sentence, Guffanti again fails to take responsibility for forcing VUSD into paying million more for a lesser site or admitting that if he or Gibson had lived up to their fiduciary responsibilities as trustees that a new third VUSD high school would be in either its second or third year of full time operation at Strawberry Hill right now.] However, research indicates that value was based upon the assumption the property was developable (sic) and would have homes built to a certain set of approved designs. Considering the current housing market Cadence homes has clearly indicated they have no plans to develop the property at any time in the near future and the current approved plans are very likely to change by the time they do decide to build. Therefore, if we also account for the devaluation of property over the past year (approximately 30%) it can be derived that the current value of the property is less than $9.8M. When you add the encumbrance of $7.5M liens against the property it is highly doubtful that anybody would be willing to offer $9.8M for the property, or even $7.5M. Therefore, the total liens against the property would be greater than the value of the property and recovery of the loan to Cadence Homes would become unenforceable.(If any of these numbers pulled out of his backside are correct, whose fault it that the district is forced into this tough and expensive decision? Guffanti's and Gibson's fault of course but they will never admit it. They are psychologically incapable of introspection or admitting error.) If we also consider the number of developers (including local developers) who have declared Bankruptcy in the recent housing crisis, and add the current credit and looming economic crisis to the picture we can easily see the risk of Cadence homes going under is also quite significant (anyone want to venture a guess why no banks would loan the $5M to Cadence Homes?). Thus, we are looking at a very high probability of default on the loan, and necessity to cover the COPs using redevelopment funds (actually developers' fees). Since these funds are derived from charging developers when they build new property (or when current home owners add new space to their homes), and since the current glut of vacant homes is such that most in the real estate and building industry predict a minimum of 5 years before any building is needed, and since projections show the future growth to be slow to start, it is quite unlikely that enough funds would be generated from the developers' fees to cover the costs of the COPs. (Actually much of what he just wrote is true but again if Guffanti and Gibson had cared about VUSD and our students the third high school would be already built and full of students at Strawberry Hill. Prop O money would have easily covered the cost of the Strawberry Hill site. The district would not be in such dire straits. I keep waiting for Guffanti and Gibson to apologize, but of course they will not. They are ANTIs and do not believe in free and fair public education. Access to such education for VUSD children threatens to decimate the ranks of those who might otherwise grow up with Gibson/Guffanti hate-filled world view.)Furthermore, the payments on the COPs would prevent any of these funds from being available for use on the maintenance or expansion of any of the currently existing schools within VUSD. (True. So when will you apologize for putting us in this situation?) Add to all this the current state of the State, and the financial state of VUSD and it can be seen that the risk in participating in (or buying) a COP would be extremely HIGH! So, any COPs would have to be offered at a rate of return to the investor that would be between 15% and 20% minimum. Such rates are too high for the taxpayer to be forced to cover, and it is highly unlikely that a Bond would ever pass with rates that high. So, if these COPs are issued, and the district does not have funds to cover them, then Educational programs and teachers will have to be cut in order to make good on these debts. Legally speaking the holders can force the District to make good and pay, even though it negatively impacts the operations of the schools. In other words, any additional debt taken on by VUSD at a time such as this is ground for charges of gross negligence against those Board members who would knowingly place the District at risk in such a manner. (The goal of Guffanti and Gibson is to never build a new public school especially a full service high school. Any complaint and excuse to stop construction will do.)---- Welcome to the world of high finance Ms. Jaka, and Ms. Chunka. Don't you wish you lost the election last November? (Poor Guffanti he just can not get on with his life.Talk about bitter. Perhaps he can get some grief counseling to help him past his lost of an election, self esteem and difficulty in facing the reality that VUSD voters were sick of his treatment of our children and teachers.) Remember, everything you do financially will have an impact upon what your children (Guffanti and Gibson never had to worry about destroying the district financially as then NEVER had children in any of our VUSD schools. They did not care what happened. Isn't it nice that our two new trustees do have children in our schools?) will receive in the classroom, and it will be you who are to blame when parents start getting upset about all the cuts, and when the teachers are placed on notice before March 15th about their pending lay-offs! Good luck!
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/17/news/coastal/vista/zb1ebc045a9f35c0c882575400061c355.txt
I have also copied it down below along with corrections. Vista Watchdog's ramblings will be written in brown. Corrections and accurate info will be written in blue.
Vista Watchdog1 January 17, 2009 11:54PM PST
According to the County Assessor’s office the property upon which VUSD desires to place a lien was valued at the time of transfer to Cadence Homes at approximately $14M. . [The VUSDistrict was forced to pay this 14 million (Wasn't the correct number 17 million?) rather than the 1 million dollars for the far easier to build on and more centrally located Kawano Strawberry Hill site because Guffanti and Gibson both refused to be the fourth vote needed to acquire Kawano's land. Their three years of stubborn opposition to the building of a third VUSD high school at Strawberry Hill site cost our district somewhere between 13 and 25 million dollars in increased construction costs, litigation, and extra site preparation needed at the current Highway 76 site. In this first sentence, Guffanti again fails to take responsibility for forcing VUSD into paying million more for a lesser site or admitting that if he or Gibson had lived up to their fiduciary responsibilities as trustees that a new third VUSD high school would be in either its second or third year of full time operation at Strawberry Hill right now.] However, research indicates that value was based upon the assumption the property was developable (sic) and would have homes built to a certain set of approved designs. Considering the current housing market Cadence homes has clearly indicated they have no plans to develop the property at any time in the near future and the current approved plans are very likely to change by the time they do decide to build. Therefore, if we also account for the devaluation of property over the past year (approximately 30%) it can be derived that the current value of the property is less than $9.8M. When you add the encumbrance of $7.5M liens against the property it is highly doubtful that anybody would be willing to offer $9.8M for the property, or even $7.5M. Therefore, the total liens against the property would be greater than the value of the property and recovery of the loan to Cadence Homes would become unenforceable.(If any of these numbers pulled out of his backside are correct, whose fault it that the district is forced into this tough and expensive decision? Guffanti's and Gibson's fault of course but they will never admit it. They are psychologically incapable of introspection or admitting error.) If we also consider the number of developers (including local developers) who have declared Bankruptcy in the recent housing crisis, and add the current credit and looming economic crisis to the picture we can easily see the risk of Cadence homes going under is also quite significant (anyone want to venture a guess why no banks would loan the $5M to Cadence Homes?). Thus, we are looking at a very high probability of default on the loan, and necessity to cover the COPs using redevelopment funds (actually developers' fees). Since these funds are derived from charging developers when they build new property (or when current home owners add new space to their homes), and since the current glut of vacant homes is such that most in the real estate and building industry predict a minimum of 5 years before any building is needed, and since projections show the future growth to be slow to start, it is quite unlikely that enough funds would be generated from the developers' fees to cover the costs of the COPs. (Actually much of what he just wrote is true but again if Guffanti and Gibson had cared about VUSD and our students the third high school would be already built and full of students at Strawberry Hill. Prop O money would have easily covered the cost of the Strawberry Hill site. The district would not be in such dire straits. I keep waiting for Guffanti and Gibson to apologize, but of course they will not. They are ANTIs and do not believe in free and fair public education. Access to such education for VUSD children threatens to decimate the ranks of those who might otherwise grow up with Gibson/Guffanti hate-filled world view.)Furthermore, the payments on the COPs would prevent any of these funds from being available for use on the maintenance or expansion of any of the currently existing schools within VUSD. (True. So when will you apologize for putting us in this situation?) Add to all this the current state of the State, and the financial state of VUSD and it can be seen that the risk in participating in (or buying) a COP would be extremely HIGH! So, any COPs would have to be offered at a rate of return to the investor that would be between 15% and 20% minimum. Such rates are too high for the taxpayer to be forced to cover, and it is highly unlikely that a Bond would ever pass with rates that high. So, if these COPs are issued, and the district does not have funds to cover them, then Educational programs and teachers will have to be cut in order to make good on these debts. Legally speaking the holders can force the District to make good and pay, even though it negatively impacts the operations of the schools. In other words, any additional debt taken on by VUSD at a time such as this is ground for charges of gross negligence against those Board members who would knowingly place the District at risk in such a manner. (The goal of Guffanti and Gibson is to never build a new public school especially a full service high school. Any complaint and excuse to stop construction will do.)---- Welcome to the world of high finance Ms. Jaka, and Ms. Chunka. Don't you wish you lost the election last November? (Poor Guffanti he just can not get on with his life.Talk about bitter. Perhaps he can get some grief counseling to help him past his lost of an election, self esteem and difficulty in facing the reality that VUSD voters were sick of his treatment of our children and teachers.) Remember, everything you do financially will have an impact upon what your children (Guffanti and Gibson never had to worry about destroying the district financially as then NEVER had children in any of our VUSD schools. They did not care what happened. Isn't it nice that our two new trustees do have children in our schools?) will receive in the classroom, and it will be you who are to blame when parents start getting upset about all the cuts, and when the teachers are placed on notice before March 15th about their pending lay-offs! Good luck!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Eileen Fernandez letter to NCTimes, January 2009
Below is the letter that Eileen Fernandez had published in the NCTimes today, January 7, 2009. It is a thank you to her supporters and a list of excuses for why she and her ANTI-public education candidates were so soundly defeated in November. She blames severe medical challenges, extreme adversity, and lack of funds.
We should be grateful she did not write any anti- teacher or anti-union screeds a la Dr. Guffanti or lies about personal attacks on her pets and daughter a la Patti Anderson. By the way when will Patti Anderson finally decide what name she will use in her NCTimes letters to the editor? Will she be Patricia Johnson? Pat Johnson? Patty A. Johnson or will she decide to publish letters under the name she uses to run for political office--Patty Anderson? It must be tough to keep track of everything with so many aliases.
I fear that Eileen's letter today means that VUSD unified is not done with Eileen? Sounds to me like she wants to run again in two years. We know that the ANTI public education crowd will run two candidates. One will obviously be Jim Gibson--that boy just cannot get enough of his name on ballots. How many public offices has he unsuccessfully run for now? Four? Five?
I am guessing that Eileen wants to be the number two person on the ANTI ticket in 2010. I wonder if Guffanti will let that happen? His weird brand of crazy windmill tilting might force him to run again. With an ego like his, not running might not be an option.
I also wonder if Gibson wants a Guffanti albatross around his neck. Guffanti has published so much and has so many delightful quotes to use against him that old Jim, the money man and the "brains" behind the ANTI attacks on our VUSD schools, might not want Guffanti on his ticket. But would he want Eileen? She was a really poor campaigner and candidate.
What will Jimmy Gibson do for a partner in the crime in 2010?
Here is the URL of Eileen's letter:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/07/opinion/letters/z9366c396029a3b3188257536007c8ed3.txt
And here is the full letter:
Thanks to all who helped with campaign
To everyone who worked on my campaign when I ran as a Vista school board candidate in 2008, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's such a great feeling to know that even when people were having difficulties, including severe medical challenges in some cases, they still rose up in determination for a cause they believed was worthy.
I am very humbled by volunteers who went out of their way to contribute time and other valuable resources. Much deserved credit goes to Dr. Stephen Guffanti and Patty Anderson, my co-candidates, for not giving up in the face of adversity that at times was extreme in their own lives ��“��“ or when funds were limited, or when volunteers were scarce because their personal challenges became too daunting.
I am very proud of those of you who kept forging ahead with us; each of you deserves recognition for outstanding ethics, fortitude, diligence and patience. I am sincerely and forever grateful. Also, I would like to offer my appreciation to all who cast their vote for me.
Eileen Fernandez
candidate, 2008 Vista school board
We should be grateful she did not write any anti- teacher or anti-union screeds a la Dr. Guffanti or lies about personal attacks on her pets and daughter a la Patti Anderson. By the way when will Patti Anderson finally decide what name she will use in her NCTimes letters to the editor? Will she be Patricia Johnson? Pat Johnson? Patty A. Johnson or will she decide to publish letters under the name she uses to run for political office--Patty Anderson? It must be tough to keep track of everything with so many aliases.
I fear that Eileen's letter today means that VUSD unified is not done with Eileen? Sounds to me like she wants to run again in two years. We know that the ANTI public education crowd will run two candidates. One will obviously be Jim Gibson--that boy just cannot get enough of his name on ballots. How many public offices has he unsuccessfully run for now? Four? Five?
I am guessing that Eileen wants to be the number two person on the ANTI ticket in 2010. I wonder if Guffanti will let that happen? His weird brand of crazy windmill tilting might force him to run again. With an ego like his, not running might not be an option.
I also wonder if Gibson wants a Guffanti albatross around his neck. Guffanti has published so much and has so many delightful quotes to use against him that old Jim, the money man and the "brains" behind the ANTI attacks on our VUSD schools, might not want Guffanti on his ticket. But would he want Eileen? She was a really poor campaigner and candidate.
What will Jimmy Gibson do for a partner in the crime in 2010?
Here is the URL of Eileen's letter:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/07/opinion/letters/z9366c396029a3b3188257536007c8ed3.txt
And here is the full letter:
Thanks to all who helped with campaign
To everyone who worked on my campaign when I ran as a Vista school board candidate in 2008, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. It's such a great feeling to know that even when people were having difficulties, including severe medical challenges in some cases, they still rose up in determination for a cause they believed was worthy.
I am very humbled by volunteers who went out of their way to contribute time and other valuable resources. Much deserved credit goes to Dr. Stephen Guffanti and Patty Anderson, my co-candidates, for not giving up in the face of adversity that at times was extreme in their own lives ��“��“ or when funds were limited, or when volunteers were scarce because their personal challenges became too daunting.
I am very proud of those of you who kept forging ahead with us; each of you deserves recognition for outstanding ethics, fortitude, diligence and patience. I am sincerely and forever grateful. Also, I would like to offer my appreciation to all who cast their vote for me.
Eileen Fernandez
candidate, 2008 Vista school board
Friday, January 2, 2009
NCTimes Opinion Piece that defends unions! Pigs do fly.
Today a North County Times opinion piece refers to the VUSD unions which includes both the Vista Teacher's Association and CSEA. Surprise, the opinion piece was not the usual virulent anti union diatribe so favored by the editorial staff. It was actually decrying the anti union hate speech of our opponents. Read the article here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/02/opinion/riehl/z0ca4f502b777eef588257530005f3f24.txt
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/01/02/opinion/riehl/z0ca4f502b777eef588257530005f3f24.txt
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Guffanti's Sour Grapes
I read the article in the San Diego Union Tribune today regarding the magnificient victory of the PRO-public education parents and teachers over Guffanti and his group of ANTIs. You will not be surprised to know that Guffanti left our VUSD board spewing bitterness and nastiness. What else would we expect? A scorpion is a scorpion is a scorpion. Here are his final words to Bruce Lieberman the fair-minded, Union Tribune reporter,
“What I think the voter doesn't understand is the teachers union is not the classroom teacher . . . and that their purpose is not to educate kids,” Guffanti said. “Their (the union) purpose is to get more money for their teachers for less work.”
Isn't Guffanti a lovely man. According to Guffanti all the work we did to save public education from the fringe political agenda of the his group of ANTIs was just for money.
I am retired. I will make a lot more money by saving public education in VUSD. Yeah Guffanti it was all about me getting more money, the six hours I spent on the phone calling more than three hundred VUSD, voters the scores of hours I put in on this blog--all of that was about me making more money. Right! What a jerk!
The parents who supported us by the hundreds will get a lot more money, too. Right Guffanti?
Dr. G has never been gracious in victory, so who would expect him to be gracious in defeat?
He cost our district tens of millions of dollars and years of over crowded schools with his stubborn and purposeless delaying tactics whenever the majority wanted to pass a bond or build a new school. We could have had a new high school in town at least three years ago and perhaps as much as a decade ago if Guffanti had supported building new public schools instead of organizing opposition. So yes, Guffanti your devastating and humiliating defeat was a bit about money. It was about the money YOU WASTED that could have educated our children.
The comments after the UT article are even more revealing about the nasty and hateful ANTI education views of Guffanti and his supporters. Read them below and you will again see why the decent and good folk of this district fought so hard to keep Guffanti and his small gang of malcontents out of power and off our VUSD board.
Here are the Guffanti Gang's ugly and false comments:
“What I think the voter doesn't understand is the teachers union is not the classroom teacher . . . and that their purpose is not to educate kids,” Guffanti said. “Their (the union) purpose is to get more money for their teachers for less work.”
Isn't Guffanti a lovely man. According to Guffanti all the work we did to save public education from the fringe political agenda of the his group of ANTIs was just for money.
I am retired. I will make a lot more money by saving public education in VUSD. Yeah Guffanti it was all about me getting more money, the six hours I spent on the phone calling more than three hundred VUSD, voters the scores of hours I put in on this blog--all of that was about me making more money. Right! What a jerk!
The parents who supported us by the hundreds will get a lot more money, too. Right Guffanti?
Dr. G has never been gracious in victory, so who would expect him to be gracious in defeat?
He cost our district tens of millions of dollars and years of over crowded schools with his stubborn and purposeless delaying tactics whenever the majority wanted to pass a bond or build a new school. We could have had a new high school in town at least three years ago and perhaps as much as a decade ago if Guffanti had supported building new public schools instead of organizing opposition. So yes, Guffanti your devastating and humiliating defeat was a bit about money. It was about the money YOU WASTED that could have educated our children.
The comments after the UT article are even more revealing about the nasty and hateful ANTI education views of Guffanti and his supporters. Read them below and you will again see why the decent and good folk of this district fought so hard to keep Guffanti and his small gang of malcontents out of power and off our VUSD board.
Here are the Guffanti Gang's ugly and false comments:
- The teacher's union does not care about quality of education... the teachers union does not care about test scores...the teacher's union does not care about your kids
- What the teacher's union wants is money. Money for their members, money for their political action committee, money, money, money...........That's it!
- We keep throwing good money into bad schools, bad because the teachers would rather be the students (sic) buddy than teacher
- bad schools because these teacher's students cannot pass tests aimed at testing the most basic of knowledge
- Teachers make more than most of us already. They make more than those of us who work 12-months each year while they work 8-months each year. They have better benefits than most of us; they have better retirement than most of us.
- the three "winners" of this election will make sure the rest of us are losers with higher taxes so they can pay off their buddies who sponsored them
Guffanti and his gang do not have children in our VUSD schools or any public schools so they have no point of reference. They only hear how evil teachers are. They do not know any. They have never visited our schools or seen our classrooms. Except for passing out campaign literature on campus or barging into a classroom unannounced causing a security alert, can anyone name any other time Guffanti (or Gibson) or any of the other Gang members ever came to any public school any where? NO! All Guffanti and the Gibson Gang can do is hate and spew lies.
Let's take the six lies above that either Guffanti or one of his Gang associates wrote about our good district, wonderful teachers and incredible teacher's union.
- We do not care about children, right. That is why we take low paying, high work jobs with virtually NO chance of promotion and no chance of advancement. How could someone who was not a caring giving person survive in a classroom full of needy students? The attrition rate for teachers is OVER FIFTY PERCENT in the first five years!** The highest for ANY profession. The attrition rate for peace officers and fire fighters is not as high.
- The union is about money? Then why did we organize four different times to pass school bonds. We spent time and money trying for twenty years to pass those bonds. Finally we passed Prop O on the FOURTH attempt. When new schools are built in a district, there is never enough bond money and teacher's salaries ALWAYS go down. We accepted the probable loss of pay and still acted as the PRIME MOVERS in getting Prop O passed. Secondly our salaries and benefits have consistently been reduced compared to the San Diego County average over the last 16 years that we have backed school board candidates. With board majorities backed by our union, our salaries went from third highest unified district in the county to second lowest! Our fight for decent school board candidates was always about getting folks who supported PUBLIC EDUCATION and who believed in FACT BASED education especially in science, health, history and sex ed. Guffanti was one of the first members of a nationwide organization dedicated to the DESTRUCTION of PUBLIC EDUCATION. Read the year 2000 NCTimes articles about the organization and Guffanti's involvement here: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2000/10/20/export19941.txt and here: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2000/10/21/export20028.txt and here:http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2000/10/24/export20272.txt
- Again Guffanti's Gang only reads inaccurate reports about teachers on hate sites. The Gang has no idea what really happens in public schools. Teachers that are "buddies" with their students and do not exert authority do not last in a classroom, not even as a substitute. I wish Guffanti's Gang Associates would try "sub"bing for a few days. It would give them a bit of perspective. But then again learning new ideas in foreign to the Gang.
- The tests that are given in public schools do not test the most basic of knowledge anymore. I am betting that most of Guffanti's Group could not pass the third grade benchmark test. The math alone would floor them. examples here:
- No public school teacher now or ever worked only eight months. When I started over thirty years ago it was 9 and 1/2 months. Today it is a full ten months of ten and twelve hour days. Teachers put in more hours over those ten months then eight hour factory workers do in twelve months and we are paid about half as much as high school graduate makes in a factory.
- The good and noble victors in the VUSD school board race Jaka, Chunka and Lilly CANNOT RAISE TAXES. That is correct. They have NO POWER TO RAISE TAXES. A school board can vote to put a bond measure on a ballot but the state strictly limits the use of the money raised by a bond to the construction related costs. BY LAW BOND MONEY CANNOT BE USED FOR TEACHER SALARIES. Guffanti knows this. He also knows that over 90% of VUSD operating budget comes from the state of California and not from the residents of this district. Prop 13 transferred the cost of running schools from local districts to the state. The only other way to raise money locally for VUSD is to raise developer fees on new home construction. The state of California strictly limits the percentage that can be charged to a VERY LOW amount after successful lobbying by home builders. However it does not matter as there is almost no free land left for development in Vista and if there was a bit of land some where, there is no money for construction loans in this economy.
To read the entire article in the San Diego Union Tribune with the comments that follow go here:http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20081106-9999-1mc6skuls.html
Note that Bruce Lieberman wrote the article for the UT. He is good and fair reporter that many of us remember from the great VUSD Evolution and Recall Wars of 1992-1994. He worked then for a now defunct North County newspaper. (was it the Blade Tribune?) We are glad he landed on his feet at the Union Tribune.
**From the book, "Relentless Pursuit," by Donna Foote.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
No Child Left Behind gets an "F" from Professor
'No Child' law gets an 'F' from education professor at Illinois
11/5/08
Phil Ciciora, News Editor217-333-2177;pciciora@illinois.edu
Sarah J. McCarthey, a professor of language and literacy in the department of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education, says the controversial No Child Left Behind law has forced teachers in low-income school districts to craft a curriculum that marginalizes writing at the expense of teaching to the test.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The controversial No Child Left Behind law has forced teachers in low-income school districts to craft a curriculum that marginalizes writing at the expense of teaching to the test, resulting in educators who feel straitjacketed by a high-stakes test, according to a U. of I. education professor who has studied the issue.Sarah J. McCarthey, a professor of language and literacy in the department of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has studied the impact of the 7-year-old law on teachers’ writing instruction in both high- and low-income schools. She discovered that teachers, especially those in low-income schools, are increasingly jettisoning writing from their language arts block in favor of reading comprehension, one of the subjects along with mathematics used to benchmark a school’s progress through an annual battery of federally mandated tests administered by the states. The federal government then uses the test score data to either reward states with federal education funds or to impose punitive measures.
McCarthey, who published her findings in an article titled “The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Teachers’ Writing Instruction” in the October issue of Written Communication, said that because the federal government uses only math and reading scores to measure a school’s progress, there’s little incentive for schools to teach students non-tested subjects such as writing, music, art and science.
“Writing instruction has been neglected at the expense of teaching to the test,” McCarthey said, noting that from a pedagogical standpoint, that strategy is somewhat counterintuitive, considering that reading and writing are complementary cognitive activities.
“Being able to write well can make a student a better reader,” she said. “But only teaching reading isn’t going to make that student a better writer.”
The effect on writing instruction has hit underperforming lower-income schools the hardest. In those schools, teachers often had pre-packaged teaching materials foisted upon them by their district, McCarthey said.
“Because they were deemed an underperforming school based on the test results, the district had to legislate the curriculum they were using in both reading and writing. So when they taught reading and writing, they had to use this canned material.”
For teachers in struggling schools, the imposition of a district-mandated, one-size-fits-all curriculum turns all the fun and spontaneity of learning into a forced march.
“Both teachers and students became so tired of focusing on and preparing for the test that by test time, they were mentally exhausted,” McCarthey said.
“For teachers still on probation or in their first three years of teaching, that loss of control over curriculum inevitably leads to a loss of morale and, in some cases, turnover.”
McCarthey found that younger teachers in low-income schools felt more pressure to teach to the test than their more experienced counterparts in high-income schools.
“Young teachers in low-income schools are monitored to a greater degree than teachers in high-income schools,” she said. “When that happens, there’s that much more pressure to perform. Veteran teachers have the latitude to be a little more cavalier, but younger teachers felt much more beholden to the test because the stakes were so high for them.”
The problem is compounded because the best veteran teachers invariably end up in higher-income schools, leaving the least prepared and least experienced teachers disproportionally assigned to schools with the greatest needs and challenges.
“Our most-qualified veteran teachers are not ending up where they’re needed most,” McCarthey said. “They’re typically in the higher-income schools because they can afford to pay them more money.”
For all of its negatives, McCarthey did note that one positive consequence of No Child Left Behind was that teachers were forced to lavish attention on low-achieving students.
“This is actually one of the benefits of the law, that teachers are thinking a lot more about their low achievers,” she said.
But even that benefit has a downside that is symptomatic of the unintended consequences brought about by the law.
“The flip-side is that average and high-achieving students in high-income schools don’t receive the attention they deserve,” she said. “So we’re undermining their educational progress by not challenging them enough.”
11/5/08
Phil Ciciora, News Editor217-333-2177;pciciora@illinois.edu
Sarah J. McCarthey, a professor of language and literacy in the department of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education, says the controversial No Child Left Behind law has forced teachers in low-income school districts to craft a curriculum that marginalizes writing at the expense of teaching to the test.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The controversial No Child Left Behind law has forced teachers in low-income school districts to craft a curriculum that marginalizes writing at the expense of teaching to the test, resulting in educators who feel straitjacketed by a high-stakes test, according to a U. of I. education professor who has studied the issue.Sarah J. McCarthey, a professor of language and literacy in the department of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has studied the impact of the 7-year-old law on teachers’ writing instruction in both high- and low-income schools. She discovered that teachers, especially those in low-income schools, are increasingly jettisoning writing from their language arts block in favor of reading comprehension, one of the subjects along with mathematics used to benchmark a school’s progress through an annual battery of federally mandated tests administered by the states. The federal government then uses the test score data to either reward states with federal education funds or to impose punitive measures.
McCarthey, who published her findings in an article titled “The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Teachers’ Writing Instruction” in the October issue of Written Communication, said that because the federal government uses only math and reading scores to measure a school’s progress, there’s little incentive for schools to teach students non-tested subjects such as writing, music, art and science.
“Writing instruction has been neglected at the expense of teaching to the test,” McCarthey said, noting that from a pedagogical standpoint, that strategy is somewhat counterintuitive, considering that reading and writing are complementary cognitive activities.
“Being able to write well can make a student a better reader,” she said. “But only teaching reading isn’t going to make that student a better writer.”
The effect on writing instruction has hit underperforming lower-income schools the hardest. In those schools, teachers often had pre-packaged teaching materials foisted upon them by their district, McCarthey said.
“Because they were deemed an underperforming school based on the test results, the district had to legislate the curriculum they were using in both reading and writing. So when they taught reading and writing, they had to use this canned material.”
For teachers in struggling schools, the imposition of a district-mandated, one-size-fits-all curriculum turns all the fun and spontaneity of learning into a forced march.
“Both teachers and students became so tired of focusing on and preparing for the test that by test time, they were mentally exhausted,” McCarthey said.
“For teachers still on probation or in their first three years of teaching, that loss of control over curriculum inevitably leads to a loss of morale and, in some cases, turnover.”
McCarthey found that younger teachers in low-income schools felt more pressure to teach to the test than their more experienced counterparts in high-income schools.
“Young teachers in low-income schools are monitored to a greater degree than teachers in high-income schools,” she said. “When that happens, there’s that much more pressure to perform. Veteran teachers have the latitude to be a little more cavalier, but younger teachers felt much more beholden to the test because the stakes were so high for them.”
The problem is compounded because the best veteran teachers invariably end up in higher-income schools, leaving the least prepared and least experienced teachers disproportionally assigned to schools with the greatest needs and challenges.
“Our most-qualified veteran teachers are not ending up where they’re needed most,” McCarthey said. “They’re typically in the higher-income schools because they can afford to pay them more money.”
For all of its negatives, McCarthey did note that one positive consequence of No Child Left Behind was that teachers were forced to lavish attention on low-achieving students.
“This is actually one of the benefits of the law, that teachers are thinking a lot more about their low achievers,” she said.
But even that benefit has a downside that is symptomatic of the unintended consequences brought about by the law.
“The flip-side is that average and high-achieving students in high-income schools don’t receive the attention they deserve,” she said. “So we’re undermining their educational progress by not challenging them enough.”
Final Results--Clean sweep for the PROs
From http://www.sdvote.com/ at 9:10 am. Dr. Steve Lilly, Elizabeth Jaka, and Angela Chunka are in. Dr. Stephen Guffanti is no longer a member of the VUSD school board. Neither of his political allies, Patty Anderson or Eileen Fernandez were elected either.
The only ANTI-public education board member left is Jim Gibson. Gibson remains on our board because he was rejected by Oceanside Voters for Oceanside City Council. This was his second attempt at getting on the Oceanside City Council. He was also rejected in his run for State Assembly several years ago. His attempt to use our VUSD school board as a springboard for higher office has failed again.
Gibson now will sit on our VUSD board ALONE! Four nice, normal, rational people will occupy the other school board seats. Fringe political issues and obstructionism will no longer dominate our school board. The new high school will be built! In two years we have a chance to retire Jim Gibson to the same porch where Guffanti will be seating.
Here are the final results of the 2008 VUSD School Board Election:
VISTA UNIFIED SCHOOL
Precincts: 102Counted: 102Percentage: 100.0%
Vote for: 3
STEVE LILLY
19825
21.35%
ELIZABETH JAKA
18980
20.44%
ANGELA D. CHUNKA
18931
20.39%
-----------------------------------------
STEPHEN GUFFANTI
14558
15.68%
PATTY ANDERSON
11822
12.73%
EILEEN FERNANDEZ
8723
9.40%
The only ANTI-public education board member left is Jim Gibson. Gibson remains on our board because he was rejected by Oceanside Voters for Oceanside City Council. This was his second attempt at getting on the Oceanside City Council. He was also rejected in his run for State Assembly several years ago. His attempt to use our VUSD school board as a springboard for higher office has failed again.
Gibson now will sit on our VUSD board ALONE! Four nice, normal, rational people will occupy the other school board seats. Fringe political issues and obstructionism will no longer dominate our school board. The new high school will be built! In two years we have a chance to retire Jim Gibson to the same porch where Guffanti will be seating.
Here are the final results of the 2008 VUSD School Board Election:
VISTA UNIFIED SCHOOL
Precincts: 102Counted: 102Percentage: 100.0%
Vote for: 3
STEVE LILLY
19825
21.35%
ELIZABETH JAKA
18980
20.44%
ANGELA D. CHUNKA
18931
20.39%
-----------------------------------------
STEPHEN GUFFANTI
14558
15.68%
PATTY ANDERSON
11822
12.73%
EILEEN FERNANDEZ
8723
9.40%
Clean Sweep
It is 5:12 am. With over 85% of the ballots counted, it looks like a clean sweep. Steve Lilly, Elizabeth Jaka and Angela Chunka appear to have an unbeatable lead. I am finding it difficult to type. I do not want to jinx the outcome, but I cannot see how any of Guffanti's gang can make up the ground on our Pro-public education candidates. Guffanti in fourth place trails Chunka in third by over 3700 votes. Amazing!
Many, many thanks to all of VUSD's Education Heroes who saved our district. Congratulations to the students and staff of VUSD! You have a PRO-PUBLIC EDUCATION MAJORITY FOR AT LEAST FOUR MORE YEARS!
We now appear to have a 4 to 1 school board majority of trustees who will get the new high school built and put educating our children as the number one priority. Fringe issues, stalling new school construction, purposeless obstruction, and putting personal political views over the welfare of our students, are all finished in VUSD for the foreseeable future.
These next four years for our newly elected trustees will be very tough. Guffanti and Gibson incessant delaying tactics and stubborn refusal to support a third high school managed to waste somewhere between 16 and 25 million dollars of our Prop O school bond funds. The LindaMood Bell program has taken millions more from our school site councils and district funds. The California budget is billions in debt. I see virtually no chance that the state can bail out our district. We will all have to tighten our belts. We need to support our new Pro-education trustees in the upcoming difficult financial decisions forced on them by Guffanti and Gibson's irresponsibility. I do not envy our four brave and good board members their jobs or the agonizing decision they will have to make.
But still, I am so happy! In the difficult financial times ahead, our district will be lead by four decent and rational people who will make the "Sophie's Choice" decisions ahead with wisdom and compassion.
Many, many thanks to all of VUSD's Education Heroes who saved our district. Congratulations to the students and staff of VUSD! You have a PRO-PUBLIC EDUCATION MAJORITY FOR AT LEAST FOUR MORE YEARS!
We now appear to have a 4 to 1 school board majority of trustees who will get the new high school built and put educating our children as the number one priority. Fringe issues, stalling new school construction, purposeless obstruction, and putting personal political views over the welfare of our students, are all finished in VUSD for the foreseeable future.
These next four years for our newly elected trustees will be very tough. Guffanti and Gibson incessant delaying tactics and stubborn refusal to support a third high school managed to waste somewhere between 16 and 25 million dollars of our Prop O school bond funds. The LindaMood Bell program has taken millions more from our school site councils and district funds. The California budget is billions in debt. I see virtually no chance that the state can bail out our district. We will all have to tighten our belts. We need to support our new Pro-education trustees in the upcoming difficult financial decisions forced on them by Guffanti and Gibson's irresponsibility. I do not envy our four brave and good board members their jobs or the agonizing decision they will have to make.
But still, I am so happy! In the difficult financial times ahead, our district will be lead by four decent and rational people who will make the "Sophie's Choice" decisions ahead with wisdom and compassion.
Monday, November 3, 2008
HUGE RALLY---HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS ATTEND
Today's rally was incredible.
Hundreds and hundreds of PRO-public education supporters came together today. It was by far the biggest bunch yet. People just kept coming and coming. There were babies in strollers and teachers and folks with backpacks and gray haired folk. Every segment of our VUSD community joined in one massive demonstration for PUBLIC EDUCATION!
Thank you heroes!
Who knew that there were so many good people in our community ready to support our public schools? After months and months of vicious lies told about our good public school district teachers and schools by Gufanti and his ANTI followers, the community still overwhelmingly supports public education.
The forces of good are on the rise in VUSD. No matter what happens tomorrow in the election, we have made Guffanti and his nasty team of liars eat their lies and fear the ability of the good descent folks in our district to fight back against their unfounded smears against our good public schools and teachers.
I remain hopeful of a clean sweep tomorrow. All three PRO-public education candidates elected and Guffanti shown the door.
There is still a lot to do. First vote. Second get your (PRO) friends to vote as well.
AGAIN:
(1) MAKE SURE YOU VOTE
(2) HELP BRING IN PRO VOTERS TOMORROW.
(3) JOIN THE GET OUT THE VOTE CAMPAIGN AT THE VTA OFFICE 10AM-7;30PM TOMORROW, 1717 East Vista Way, Vista.
COME FOR AS LONG AS YOU CAN.
EVEN A HALF AN HOUR VOLUNTEERED TOMORROW COULD BRING IN A HALF DOZEN MORE PRO-PUBLIC EDUCATION VOTES.
Hundreds and hundreds of PRO-public education supporters came together today. It was by far the biggest bunch yet. People just kept coming and coming. There were babies in strollers and teachers and folks with backpacks and gray haired folk. Every segment of our VUSD community joined in one massive demonstration for PUBLIC EDUCATION!
Thank you heroes!
Who knew that there were so many good people in our community ready to support our public schools? After months and months of vicious lies told about our good public school district teachers and schools by Gufanti and his ANTI followers, the community still overwhelmingly supports public education.
The forces of good are on the rise in VUSD. No matter what happens tomorrow in the election, we have made Guffanti and his nasty team of liars eat their lies and fear the ability of the good descent folks in our district to fight back against their unfounded smears against our good public schools and teachers.
I remain hopeful of a clean sweep tomorrow. All three PRO-public education candidates elected and Guffanti shown the door.
There is still a lot to do. First vote. Second get your (PRO) friends to vote as well.
AGAIN:
(1) MAKE SURE YOU VOTE
(2) HELP BRING IN PRO VOTERS TOMORROW.
(3) JOIN THE GET OUT THE VOTE CAMPAIGN AT THE VTA OFFICE 10AM-7;30PM TOMORROW, 1717 East Vista Way, Vista.
COME FOR AS LONG AS YOU CAN.
EVEN A HALF AN HOUR VOLUNTEERED TOMORROW COULD BRING IN A HALF DOZEN MORE PRO-PUBLIC EDUCATION VOTES.
Last Rally Today 4pm-5:30pm Meet at Chili's
I found a Barbara Franklin email in my inbox. I thought I would share it.
Barbara Franklin is our great VUSD hero and organizer of the Community Resistance to the Intolerance of the ANTIs. Her official title is VTA PAC chair person. We should all thank her every time we see her for her months of 18 to 20 hour days dedicated to saving the children of our district.
Please remember the following:
Today is the LAST RALLY! Vista Village Dr. At Chili's 4pm -5:30pm
(note earlier meeting time due to daylight savings time change)
Tomorrow is the last and perhaps the most important campaign event--GET OUT THE VOTE. VTA office 1717east Vista Way 10AM to 7:30pm
We need to get every one of our supporters to the polls. Any time you can contribute is helpful. Each volunteer could get another dozen PRO-education voters to the polls and another dozen nails in the coffin of Guffanti's political career. Bring family and friends.
Let's get a sweep--all PRO public education candidates in office on Wednesday and Guffanti a well deserved boot off our board.
Dear Colleagues,
This Sunday finds us in the last push for the election. We had several members work today to get the last of the signs up in time for the election. We have only a few more events scheduled.
Monday is our last rally. The rallies have been a great strategy for the campaign. We have gotten a lot of positive feedback from people about how visible we have been.
Our last rally will be at a different time because of the time change. We will meet from 4-5:30 on Vista Village Drive by the Chili's Restaurant. You can park anywhere in the lot by Staples.
We would love to have a couple of hundred people show up wearing their T-shirts(if you don't have one yet we have extras). Please come and bring family and friends, it is important that this last rally is the biggest and makes a statement to the community that we are behind our candidates.
After the rally we will all head over to Lamppost Pizza by the Krikorian Theater for Pizza and beverages. Please come and join the celebration, we have worked hard on this campaign.
Tuesday we will meet at the VTA office for Get Out the Vote (GOTV) activities. We will call supporters and conduct some poll watching to make sure every vote counts. If you would like to join us come over when you can, we will have someone at the office from 10:00 AM until 6:30-7:00 PM.
Thank you for all you have done, we could not have accomplished all the work we have without your support.
Hopefully when we all wake up Wednesday we will have the results we need to make the Vista School Board again one of the best in County!
See you tomorrow,
Barbara Franklin
VTA PAC Chairperson
Barbara Franklin is our great VUSD hero and organizer of the Community Resistance to the Intolerance of the ANTIs. Her official title is VTA PAC chair person. We should all thank her every time we see her for her months of 18 to 20 hour days dedicated to saving the children of our district.
Please remember the following:
Today is the LAST RALLY! Vista Village Dr. At Chili's 4pm -5:30pm
(note earlier meeting time due to daylight savings time change)
Tomorrow is the last and perhaps the most important campaign event--GET OUT THE VOTE. VTA office 1717east Vista Way 10AM to 7:30pm
We need to get every one of our supporters to the polls. Any time you can contribute is helpful. Each volunteer could get another dozen PRO-education voters to the polls and another dozen nails in the coffin of Guffanti's political career. Bring family and friends.
Let's get a sweep--all PRO public education candidates in office on Wednesday and Guffanti a well deserved boot off our board.
Dear Colleagues,
This Sunday finds us in the last push for the election. We had several members work today to get the last of the signs up in time for the election. We have only a few more events scheduled.
Monday is our last rally. The rallies have been a great strategy for the campaign. We have gotten a lot of positive feedback from people about how visible we have been.
Our last rally will be at a different time because of the time change. We will meet from 4-5:30 on Vista Village Drive by the Chili's Restaurant. You can park anywhere in the lot by Staples.
We would love to have a couple of hundred people show up wearing their T-shirts(if you don't have one yet we have extras). Please come and bring family and friends, it is important that this last rally is the biggest and makes a statement to the community that we are behind our candidates.
After the rally we will all head over to Lamppost Pizza by the Krikorian Theater for Pizza and beverages. Please come and join the celebration, we have worked hard on this campaign.
Tuesday we will meet at the VTA office for Get Out the Vote (GOTV) activities. We will call supporters and conduct some poll watching to make sure every vote counts. If you would like to join us come over when you can, we will have someone at the office from 10:00 AM until 6:30-7:00 PM.
Thank you for all you have done, we could not have accomplished all the work we have without your support.
Hopefully when we all wake up Wednesday we will have the results we need to make the Vista School Board again one of the best in County!
See you tomorrow,
Barbara Franklin
VTA PAC Chairperson
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Desperate Guffanti, Dirty Tricks for our Children
Poor Guffanti, he just cannot figure out appropriate behavior for dealing with others. He reminds me of Sheldon on the Big Bang show on TV. Normal human interactions are just so difficult for him. This time the poor dufus used the trick or treat baskets of our children as waste receptacles for his campaign literature.
Yes, that is correct. Our happy lovely children came to the door of Guffanti and a few others in his ANTI education gang and were given an ugly trick in their basket. He and his tiny band of extremists put a half sheet of Guffanti Garbage printed on orange paper in the baskets of the poor unsuspecting, innocent children of our district that showed up at their doors.
The paper contained Guffanti's usual rants about evil unions and teachers, that goes like this, 'if you hate teachers and unions the way I hate teachers and unions, then you should vote for me and my fellow ANTI education co-conspirators.' How sad, and how pathetic is poor Guffanti!
I cannot help but wonder how many parents were angered by his inappropriate use of their children. Imagine ruining a bit of our children's fun at Halloween by putting political garbage in their Halloween baskets! Well that is Guffanti for you.
He well earns his nick name: "NO RULES FOR ME, GUFFANTI"
Yes, that is correct. Our happy lovely children came to the door of Guffanti and a few others in his ANTI education gang and were given an ugly trick in their basket. He and his tiny band of extremists put a half sheet of Guffanti Garbage printed on orange paper in the baskets of the poor unsuspecting, innocent children of our district that showed up at their doors.
The paper contained Guffanti's usual rants about evil unions and teachers, that goes like this, 'if you hate teachers and unions the way I hate teachers and unions, then you should vote for me and my fellow ANTI education co-conspirators.' How sad, and how pathetic is poor Guffanti!
I cannot help but wonder how many parents were angered by his inappropriate use of their children. Imagine ruining a bit of our children's fun at Halloween by putting political garbage in their Halloween baskets! Well that is Guffanti for you.
He well earns his nick name: "NO RULES FOR ME, GUFFANTI"
Jaka corrects another Guffanti email
Vistaschools blog spot editor note: I found the post below in my inbox. I felt it needed to be shared with more people so I am posting it on the blog today. It contained both a Guffanti disingenuous and self serving email along with corrections by Elizabeth Jaka, one of our courageous PRO-public education candidates. As before what Guffanti wrote is in brown. The correct information written by Elizabeth Jaka is in blue.
Still working backwards on these. This one's almost two weeks old and, depending on how busy I am for these next couple of days, may be the last "old" g-mail I get around to correcting.
I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been anything new in the past couple of days. I HAVE heard that his supporters passed out fliers with candy for Halloween. I still feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it's getting a little late for them to pull anything.
;-D EJ
From: Stephen Guffanti [mailto:sguffanti@cox.net] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 To: sguffanti@cox.netSubject: FW: Please Read and Forward
Hi,
I was asked to respond to a young man's video on youtube about the school board race.
[Here's the link to the video. It's the one that made the rounds not long ago, and was the first of the two videos created by a VUSD student. http://webmail.west.cox.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.youtube.com%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DoWVKleR22LY]
The child has three reasons why you should not vote for me. His logic seems to be if you are not going to vote for me you must then vote for Lilly, Jaka and Chunka. Perhaps, he forgot about Hernandez and Anderson.
[At the forums, Fernandez and Anderson-Johnson just parroted statements found in DocG's e-mails. If you're not going to vote for DocG, then you won't want to vote for Fernandez or Anderson-Johnson either, since it appears they think exactly the same as he does.]
His reasons are:
1. Lmb cost 9 million for only 3% of the children. For some reason even though Lilly, whom he is promoting, has voted for LmB I am the only one accountable. Not logical, but attached is the documentation. Bottom line LmB is for 17% of the students and the cost was about $2.1 million per year or 1% of the budget. (75% of the $2.1 million goes to teacher training not students at all.)
[The district spent $3.5M the first year, and $3.4M last year on LmB.The numbers were shared with the Budget Advisory Committee. I don't have a breakdown handy for two years ago, but I'm attaching a copy of the Budget Committee handout for last year's figures. The committee was also told that the district had planned to spend $3.6M on LmB this year, but because of budget cuts they cut back by 6.9%, to $3.4M.
LmB Intensive is only used for about 3% of the students. The numbers go back and forth, and sometimes the figures include the same kids twice. There is a push to use some facets of LmB more widely, but while some of the tools may in some cases, it's of little benefit to students who already read at or above grade level, or to students who speak little or no English.
The district's budgeted General Fund for 08-09 is $211.0M. Of that amount, $161.8M (82%) goes to salaries and benefits. That leaves about $49M for books, supplies, operating costs, capital expenses, etc. AND the state required 3% reserve. The district has actually budgeted $34M of that for those things, which means the $3.4M budgeted for LmB represents about 10% of that part of the budget. However, (and to be fair) even that's an oversimplification of the entire budgeting issue. For one thing, LmB is partially paid for from Title 1 funds, which aren't part of the general fund. So, LmB's place in the budget is far too complex to just state that it only represents "1% of the budget." And even if 75% is for teacher training, it's STILL part of the cost of the program.]
2. He seems to think that a 16% test score gain is insignificant because we had an 18% test score gain before Bails. Actually, he is talking about API which is a state rating system somewhat correlated with test scores, but not test scores. See attached scores. Students reading at proficient or Advanced are considered at or above grade level. You will notice that the percentage of students reading at or above grade level are consistently moving up. It is literacy, not API that our children really need. This turnaround started with the teachers and the superintendent has worked with the teachers to help them sustain it, which is why 75% of LmB goes to teacher training.
[The young man never says that a "16% test score gain is insignificant." He simply points out that DocG has been claiming that the district's scores did not increase for 8 years before Dr. BaLEs came to VUSD, when in fact we had an 18 POINT (not percent) increase the year before she came to the district. And yes, that is API. He never attached the scores, but the fact is that the API goes up because we have better test scores, and a big part of that is literacy. Our scores had the biggest jump when the district moved away from the bilingual program they were using, to Structured (or Sheltered) English Immersion (SEI). The turnaround not only started with the teachers, they have perpetuated it.]
3. Honor students don't use Lmb why are the other 97% of the students being ignored?
Well the other 97% aren't ignored they just use other programs like Gate for the gifted, etc. our district gets $42 million set aside for special issues like staff development, gifted and talented, special ed, poor performing students and low income students. It is illegal to use these funds on the general population. Why would an honor student need a remedial reading program?
[This is all fine, except that money for other programs is being pulled and reallocated. In most cases it's not going directly to LmB (it can't), but it's being applied to areas that previously used other funding. THAT funding is then freed up for LmB. That's actually the nature of education funding: Fund X can't be used to pay for Item A, but it can be used for Item B. Since Fund Y has more flexibility, we'll use it for Item A instead. The issue is whether or not the funds are being allocated in a way that allows the district to get the greatest possible benefit.
He uses "honor student" interchangeably with GATE student, but GATE students aren't always honor students, and there are many honor students who are not GATE. However, to answer his question, an honor student probably wouldn't need remedial reading, but they often need support in other areas, and they need to be challenged.]
Here is the kicker. Lilly, Chunka and Jaka know these things already. Lilly saw this video and states as far as he knows it has nothing to do with his campaign. Chunka and Jaka have actively promoted this misunderstanding. At the same time they are asking for better communication.
[He's right, we do know those things. And while we all heard about the video - and even shared it with people on our e-mail lists - not one of us had anything to do with its production. Speaking for myself, I'm honored to have the young man's support.
Yes, we're still asking for better communication - something more accurate than the déjà moo (same old bull) that DocG puts out, and more informative than anything the district puts out.
I hope you will look at this documentation and ask me any follow-up questions that you wish.
Your servant on the board, Your eyes and ears at the board,
Stephen Guffanti, MD Elizabeth Jaka, parent and observer
Still working backwards on these. This one's almost two weeks old and, depending on how busy I am for these next couple of days, may be the last "old" g-mail I get around to correcting.
I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been anything new in the past couple of days. I HAVE heard that his supporters passed out fliers with candy for Halloween. I still feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it's getting a little late for them to pull anything.
;-D EJ
From: Stephen Guffanti [mailto:sguffanti@cox.net] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 To: sguffanti@cox.netSubject: FW: Please Read and Forward
Hi,
I was asked to respond to a young man's video on youtube about the school board race.
[Here's the link to the video. It's the one that made the rounds not long ago, and was the first of the two videos created by a VUSD student. http://webmail.west.cox.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.youtube.com%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DoWVKleR22LY]
The child has three reasons why you should not vote for me. His logic seems to be if you are not going to vote for me you must then vote for Lilly, Jaka and Chunka. Perhaps, he forgot about Hernandez and Anderson.
[At the forums, Fernandez and Anderson-Johnson just parroted statements found in DocG's e-mails. If you're not going to vote for DocG, then you won't want to vote for Fernandez or Anderson-Johnson either, since it appears they think exactly the same as he does.]
His reasons are:
1. Lmb cost 9 million for only 3% of the children. For some reason even though Lilly, whom he is promoting, has voted for LmB I am the only one accountable. Not logical, but attached is the documentation. Bottom line LmB is for 17% of the students and the cost was about $2.1 million per year or 1% of the budget. (75% of the $2.1 million goes to teacher training not students at all.)
[The district spent $3.5M the first year, and $3.4M last year on LmB.The numbers were shared with the Budget Advisory Committee. I don't have a breakdown handy for two years ago, but I'm attaching a copy of the Budget Committee handout for last year's figures. The committee was also told that the district had planned to spend $3.6M on LmB this year, but because of budget cuts they cut back by 6.9%, to $3.4M.
LmB Intensive is only used for about 3% of the students. The numbers go back and forth, and sometimes the figures include the same kids twice. There is a push to use some facets of LmB more widely, but while some of the tools may in some cases, it's of little benefit to students who already read at or above grade level, or to students who speak little or no English.
The district's budgeted General Fund for 08-09 is $211.0M. Of that amount, $161.8M (82%) goes to salaries and benefits. That leaves about $49M for books, supplies, operating costs, capital expenses, etc. AND the state required 3% reserve. The district has actually budgeted $34M of that for those things, which means the $3.4M budgeted for LmB represents about 10% of that part of the budget. However, (and to be fair) even that's an oversimplification of the entire budgeting issue. For one thing, LmB is partially paid for from Title 1 funds, which aren't part of the general fund. So, LmB's place in the budget is far too complex to just state that it only represents "1% of the budget." And even if 75% is for teacher training, it's STILL part of the cost of the program.]
2. He seems to think that a 16% test score gain is insignificant because we had an 18% test score gain before Bails. Actually, he is talking about API which is a state rating system somewhat correlated with test scores, but not test scores. See attached scores. Students reading at proficient or Advanced are considered at or above grade level. You will notice that the percentage of students reading at or above grade level are consistently moving up. It is literacy, not API that our children really need. This turnaround started with the teachers and the superintendent has worked with the teachers to help them sustain it, which is why 75% of LmB goes to teacher training.
[The young man never says that a "16% test score gain is insignificant." He simply points out that DocG has been claiming that the district's scores did not increase for 8 years before Dr. BaLEs came to VUSD, when in fact we had an 18 POINT (not percent) increase the year before she came to the district. And yes, that is API. He never attached the scores, but the fact is that the API goes up because we have better test scores, and a big part of that is literacy. Our scores had the biggest jump when the district moved away from the bilingual program they were using, to Structured (or Sheltered) English Immersion (SEI). The turnaround not only started with the teachers, they have perpetuated it.]
3. Honor students don't use Lmb why are the other 97% of the students being ignored?
Well the other 97% aren't ignored they just use other programs like Gate for the gifted, etc. our district gets $42 million set aside for special issues like staff development, gifted and talented, special ed, poor performing students and low income students. It is illegal to use these funds on the general population. Why would an honor student need a remedial reading program?
[This is all fine, except that money for other programs is being pulled and reallocated. In most cases it's not going directly to LmB (it can't), but it's being applied to areas that previously used other funding. THAT funding is then freed up for LmB. That's actually the nature of education funding: Fund X can't be used to pay for Item A, but it can be used for Item B. Since Fund Y has more flexibility, we'll use it for Item A instead. The issue is whether or not the funds are being allocated in a way that allows the district to get the greatest possible benefit.
He uses "honor student" interchangeably with GATE student, but GATE students aren't always honor students, and there are many honor students who are not GATE. However, to answer his question, an honor student probably wouldn't need remedial reading, but they often need support in other areas, and they need to be challenged.]
Here is the kicker. Lilly, Chunka and Jaka know these things already. Lilly saw this video and states as far as he knows it has nothing to do with his campaign. Chunka and Jaka have actively promoted this misunderstanding. At the same time they are asking for better communication.
[He's right, we do know those things. And while we all heard about the video - and even shared it with people on our e-mail lists - not one of us had anything to do with its production. Speaking for myself, I'm honored to have the young man's support.
Yes, we're still asking for better communication - something more accurate than the déjà moo (same old bull) that DocG puts out, and more informative than anything the district puts out.
I hope you will look at this documentation and ask me any follow-up questions that you wish.
Your servant on the board, Your eyes and ears at the board,
Stephen Guffanti, MD Elizabeth Jaka, parent and observer
Sign Committee Heroes, GRAINGER AND ROBINSON
GRAINGER AND ROBINSON--COMMUNITY HEROES
I just talked to Randy Weins. contrary to what I have posted on this site, Randy is NOT the chairman of the Sign Committee. He is working on the Community Rallies.
Randy says the credit should go to CHRIS GRAINGER and MARK ROBINSON for the plethora of Pro-public education signs.
KUDOS TO CHRIS, MARK and the other HEROES on the sign committee. You folks have kept our pro-public education candidates names in the public eye!!
You have turned JAKA, LILLY and CHUNKA into household names in the VUSD.
TOUGH, DANGEROUS, and DAILY
For those of you who have never been on the sign committee, you need to know that it is a tough dangerous and daily job.
ROCK HARD GROUND
It is tough because the ground is hard. Wooden stakes do not go in easily. Pre-holes need to be made with a piece of iron bar (re-bar is good). Only then can one attempt to get a wooden stake into the ground. It still does not always go in. After seven months with no rain, the ground can be absolutely as hard as a rock. Sign committee members pray for rain to soften the soil.
SLEEP DEPRIVED
It also costs sleep. Good sign viewing (posting) locations are grabbed up a short time after the City of Vista sign ordinance allows campaign signs to be first posted. Sign Committee members have to show up early in the morning between 2-4am on the first day to get those locations. Then the locations have to be defended. Our signs are the most frequent target of stealing of any campaign signs. Committee members have to constantly monitor are prime locations and be ready to replace stolen signs.
PILES OF SIGNS, HAMMER AT THE READY
You can identify a vehicle of a sign committee member by the pile of signs inside. A sign committee member goes nowhere without extra signs ready to post. He/she also always has a hammer. Downed signs must be put back up. So many of our signs have been knocked over by wind or our ANTI friends.
THANK A HERO
If you see a vehicle in your school's parking lot with a hammer on the seat next to the driver and signs pile up in the back seat, leave a thank you note on the windshield. You are thanking a Public Education HERO.
DANGEROUS
It is also dangerous job. Sign committee members are stopped by the side of the road with cars whizzing by at 50 to 60 miles and hour. One sign member out posting signs came within an inch or two of grave bodily injury when a car speeded up and swerved toward him. He was barely missed as he jumped back. That was four years ago. He has still not told his wife. Hope she does not read this blog.
DAILY PATROL
Did I mentioned it is daily job lasting the better part of two months. Every day the sign committee member patrols his string of signs looking for missing or down signs. If more than a day or two goes by without defending our signs, our ANTI friends can steal or destroy hundreds of them. So all sign committee members learn the routine of the 'daily patrol.'
OUR HEROES
Now you know a few more reasons why the actions of CHRIS GRAINGER and MARK ROBINSON and the others on the signs committee make them all PUBLIC SCHOOL HEROES.
I just talked to Randy Weins. contrary to what I have posted on this site, Randy is NOT the chairman of the Sign Committee. He is working on the Community Rallies.
Randy says the credit should go to CHRIS GRAINGER and MARK ROBINSON for the plethora of Pro-public education signs.
KUDOS TO CHRIS, MARK and the other HEROES on the sign committee. You folks have kept our pro-public education candidates names in the public eye!!
You have turned JAKA, LILLY and CHUNKA into household names in the VUSD.
TOUGH, DANGEROUS, and DAILY
For those of you who have never been on the sign committee, you need to know that it is a tough dangerous and daily job.
ROCK HARD GROUND
It is tough because the ground is hard. Wooden stakes do not go in easily. Pre-holes need to be made with a piece of iron bar (re-bar is good). Only then can one attempt to get a wooden stake into the ground. It still does not always go in. After seven months with no rain, the ground can be absolutely as hard as a rock. Sign committee members pray for rain to soften the soil.
SLEEP DEPRIVED
It also costs sleep. Good sign viewing (posting) locations are grabbed up a short time after the City of Vista sign ordinance allows campaign signs to be first posted. Sign Committee members have to show up early in the morning between 2-4am on the first day to get those locations. Then the locations have to be defended. Our signs are the most frequent target of stealing of any campaign signs. Committee members have to constantly monitor are prime locations and be ready to replace stolen signs.
PILES OF SIGNS, HAMMER AT THE READY
You can identify a vehicle of a sign committee member by the pile of signs inside. A sign committee member goes nowhere without extra signs ready to post. He/she also always has a hammer. Downed signs must be put back up. So many of our signs have been knocked over by wind or our ANTI friends.
THANK A HERO
If you see a vehicle in your school's parking lot with a hammer on the seat next to the driver and signs pile up in the back seat, leave a thank you note on the windshield. You are thanking a Public Education HERO.
DANGEROUS
It is also dangerous job. Sign committee members are stopped by the side of the road with cars whizzing by at 50 to 60 miles and hour. One sign member out posting signs came within an inch or two of grave bodily injury when a car speeded up and swerved toward him. He was barely missed as he jumped back. That was four years ago. He has still not told his wife. Hope she does not read this blog.
DAILY PATROL
Did I mentioned it is daily job lasting the better part of two months. Every day the sign committee member patrols his string of signs looking for missing or down signs. If more than a day or two goes by without defending our signs, our ANTI friends can steal or destroy hundreds of them. So all sign committee members learn the routine of the 'daily patrol.'
OUR HEROES
Now you know a few more reasons why the actions of CHRIS GRAINGER and MARK ROBINSON and the others on the signs committee make them all PUBLIC SCHOOL HEROES.
TWO DAYS TO CHANGE OUR DISTRICT
What can I do? With two days left there is still a lot left to do to help.
(1) WEAR YOUR JAKA, LILLY, CHUNKA SHIRTS when in public, shopping, getting gas, going to the theater, anywhere and everywhere the public can see you. Those who have been wearing them have gotten tremendous amounts of POSITIVE feedback. There are a lot of people in VUSD who want to be done with the negative and nasty excesses of Stephen Guffanti and his ANTI friends. Also wearing the shirts gives potential voters an opening to ask you about the election. We have gotten many votes for PRO-public education candidates JAKA, LILLY, and CHUNKA just by people remarking on our shirts and asking us questions.
(2) SIGN PARTY—last one meet at VTA office 4pm Sunday 1717 East Vista Way to put up the last of the campaign signs. We will be replacing the hundreds stolen by our ANTI friends.
(3) COMMUNITY RALLY—Monday from 4pm to 5:30pm (earlier time due to time change) near Chili’s at Vista Village Way. We will ROCK the town. It is the last and biggest rally. Our rallies have changed the way this district will vote. They are the talk of the town. No campaign of any kind for any office has been able to duplicate our success. Do not be left out. Show up Monday.
HEARD ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Lilly, Jaka and Chunka Local Celebrities!
Someone came up to Steve Lilly and ask him how it felt to be a celebrity. He knew Steve must be a celebrity because there were so many signs with his name all around our district! Good job sign committee—Randy Weins, et. al (Luke? Goologaly?) I may not know all your names but you all are doing a great job.
One Stolen Sign, Twenty Replace It!
One local teacher had his PRO-Public Education candidate sign stolen from his front yard last week. He was so incensed that one of our ANTI friends would come onto his property and take his sign that he went down to VTA office and got twenty more. Then he went up and down his street for a quarter mile in each direction and put up all twenty signs. Of course our ANTI friends came back and took a few more and knocked down most of the others. But now our local teacher hero checks “his” signs every day and puts up the knocked down signs and replaces the stolen ones.
Moral of the story for our ANTI’s friends: steal one sign and get twenty more in its place!
NCTIMES TREMBLES!
The ANTI-public education, anti-union, anti-middle class editors at the NCTimes that have done so much to try to elect ANTI-education candidates to our VUSD school board have been so inundated by protests that they have not run their every two year ‘hit piece’ editorial or news story attacking our candidates or campaign in the days before the election.
Today even the in the editorial by the delusional Jim Trageser, who sees ‘conspiracies”**
everywhere, there were no lies about us! His editorial today (Sunday) decried campaign sign stealing. He did not mention that Jim Gibson, our VUSD board chairman who is also running for Oceanside city council, was caught stealing campaign signs for other Oceanside city council candidates. But then no one really expects an editorial from the extremist editors of the NCTimes to be completely fair.
The big news is he did not lie about us! Had we not called and called and called demanding fairness from the editors at the NCTimes, I am sure that Trageser would have put in a paragraph of lies accusing the good and honest PRO-public education campaign of stealing the signs of Trageser’s ANTI allies. For the last 18 years, the editors have always run a lying hit piece about us just before the election, but not this time. Neither was there a front page story of falsehoods about us! You folks have really put fear into the hearts of the partisan editors of the NCTimes. Good job!
I am betting that Trageser, partisan nut case that he is, probably had a paragraph in the draft of today’s editorial ripping us, but his publisher, worried about you folks, decided to take it out. Of course I am speculating, but this I know, for the first time ever the editorial staff of the NCTimes has not done anything blatant to swing the election to their ANTI friends.
The only reason NCTimes did not run a hit piece has to be because you folks held the NCTimes accountable this election. We know their tricks and we called them on those tricks. They trembled. They held back. A victory for the good guys! A victory for public education in VUSD! Pat yourselves on the back.
NCTIMES STILL IN THE TANK for the ANTIs
Where are our thirty letters?
The NCTimes still has not printed our thirty campaign letters in favor of PRO public education candidates. Where are they? Will they publish them all at once in tomorrow’s paper? Or will they never publish them? The editors at the NCTimes are still trying to get Guffanti back in office. His extremism and nastiness warms their hearts. They love the hate he spews at unions, teachers, and parents. It helps them sell papers. So they have held back our letters. One more day until the election, will we see the letters ever? Who knows? Keep calling if your letter has not been published. Demand that it be in the paper BEFORE the election.
--------------
Jim Trageser, Delusional Editorial Writer for NCTimes
**For a view into the paranoid and delusional thinking of Trageser read about his fantasy that there was a nationwide secret conspiracy against Christians running for office. You must read the comment section after his article to see how fully delusional he is. See his editorial of lies about unions particularly the VTA and read his paranoid follow up comments after the article here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/08/10/opinion/trageser/z354f6144e8d0282d8825749f0060debd.txt
In the body of the above "editorial", he makes a series of demonstrably false allegations about our good Vista Teachers including the out right lie that we disrupted board meetings (There are recordings of all board meetings proving this allegation to be false) and that our disruptions caused the national media including the New York Times to cover our local school board meetings. Yes it is nuts, but he wrote it in his "editorial". According to Jim Trageser, the New York Times, LATimes, SF Chronicle, CNN, FOX NEWS all came to our VUSD district to cover noisy teachers at a board meeting. I told you he was delusional. See my reply to his series of nutty paranoid rantings that the NCTimes published as an editorial! in my blog of September 4, 2008 entitled "Jim Trageser editorial, a reply."
How weird and nuts does he have to be to believe the nonsense he wrote? We all know that 95% plus of all candidates for all offices in the US for all of US history have been Christians. A few Jews and an agnostic or two get elected somewhere and Trageser thinks there is a conspiracy against Christians. Does he demand 100% of all candidates elected be Christian? How did he get and hold a job of importance at the NCTimes? What does that say about the hiring and retention policies at the NCTimes?
(1) WEAR YOUR JAKA, LILLY, CHUNKA SHIRTS when in public, shopping, getting gas, going to the theater, anywhere and everywhere the public can see you. Those who have been wearing them have gotten tremendous amounts of POSITIVE feedback. There are a lot of people in VUSD who want to be done with the negative and nasty excesses of Stephen Guffanti and his ANTI friends. Also wearing the shirts gives potential voters an opening to ask you about the election. We have gotten many votes for PRO-public education candidates JAKA, LILLY, and CHUNKA just by people remarking on our shirts and asking us questions.
(2) SIGN PARTY—last one meet at VTA office 4pm Sunday 1717 East Vista Way to put up the last of the campaign signs. We will be replacing the hundreds stolen by our ANTI friends.
(3) COMMUNITY RALLY—Monday from 4pm to 5:30pm (earlier time due to time change) near Chili’s at Vista Village Way. We will ROCK the town. It is the last and biggest rally. Our rallies have changed the way this district will vote. They are the talk of the town. No campaign of any kind for any office has been able to duplicate our success. Do not be left out. Show up Monday.
HEARD ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Lilly, Jaka and Chunka Local Celebrities!
Someone came up to Steve Lilly and ask him how it felt to be a celebrity. He knew Steve must be a celebrity because there were so many signs with his name all around our district! Good job sign committee—Randy Weins, et. al (Luke? Goologaly?) I may not know all your names but you all are doing a great job.
One Stolen Sign, Twenty Replace It!
One local teacher had his PRO-Public Education candidate sign stolen from his front yard last week. He was so incensed that one of our ANTI friends would come onto his property and take his sign that he went down to VTA office and got twenty more. Then he went up and down his street for a quarter mile in each direction and put up all twenty signs. Of course our ANTI friends came back and took a few more and knocked down most of the others. But now our local teacher hero checks “his” signs every day and puts up the knocked down signs and replaces the stolen ones.
Moral of the story for our ANTI’s friends: steal one sign and get twenty more in its place!
NCTIMES TREMBLES!
The ANTI-public education, anti-union, anti-middle class editors at the NCTimes that have done so much to try to elect ANTI-education candidates to our VUSD school board have been so inundated by protests that they have not run their every two year ‘hit piece’ editorial or news story attacking our candidates or campaign in the days before the election.
Today even the in the editorial by the delusional Jim Trageser, who sees ‘conspiracies”**
everywhere, there were no lies about us! His editorial today (Sunday) decried campaign sign stealing. He did not mention that Jim Gibson, our VUSD board chairman who is also running for Oceanside city council, was caught stealing campaign signs for other Oceanside city council candidates. But then no one really expects an editorial from the extremist editors of the NCTimes to be completely fair.
The big news is he did not lie about us! Had we not called and called and called demanding fairness from the editors at the NCTimes, I am sure that Trageser would have put in a paragraph of lies accusing the good and honest PRO-public education campaign of stealing the signs of Trageser’s ANTI allies. For the last 18 years, the editors have always run a lying hit piece about us just before the election, but not this time. Neither was there a front page story of falsehoods about us! You folks have really put fear into the hearts of the partisan editors of the NCTimes. Good job!
I am betting that Trageser, partisan nut case that he is, probably had a paragraph in the draft of today’s editorial ripping us, but his publisher, worried about you folks, decided to take it out. Of course I am speculating, but this I know, for the first time ever the editorial staff of the NCTimes has not done anything blatant to swing the election to their ANTI friends.
The only reason NCTimes did not run a hit piece has to be because you folks held the NCTimes accountable this election. We know their tricks and we called them on those tricks. They trembled. They held back. A victory for the good guys! A victory for public education in VUSD! Pat yourselves on the back.
NCTIMES STILL IN THE TANK for the ANTIs
Where are our thirty letters?
The NCTimes still has not printed our thirty campaign letters in favor of PRO public education candidates. Where are they? Will they publish them all at once in tomorrow’s paper? Or will they never publish them? The editors at the NCTimes are still trying to get Guffanti back in office. His extremism and nastiness warms their hearts. They love the hate he spews at unions, teachers, and parents. It helps them sell papers. So they have held back our letters. One more day until the election, will we see the letters ever? Who knows? Keep calling if your letter has not been published. Demand that it be in the paper BEFORE the election.
--------------
Jim Trageser, Delusional Editorial Writer for NCTimes
**For a view into the paranoid and delusional thinking of Trageser read about his fantasy that there was a nationwide secret conspiracy against Christians running for office. You must read the comment section after his article to see how fully delusional he is. See his editorial of lies about unions particularly the VTA and read his paranoid follow up comments after the article here:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/08/10/opinion/trageser/z354f6144e8d0282d8825749f0060debd.txt
In the body of the above "editorial", he makes a series of demonstrably false allegations about our good Vista Teachers including the out right lie that we disrupted board meetings (There are recordings of all board meetings proving this allegation to be false) and that our disruptions caused the national media including the New York Times to cover our local school board meetings. Yes it is nuts, but he wrote it in his "editorial". According to Jim Trageser, the New York Times, LATimes, SF Chronicle, CNN, FOX NEWS all came to our VUSD district to cover noisy teachers at a board meeting. I told you he was delusional. See my reply to his series of nutty paranoid rantings that the NCTimes published as an editorial! in my blog of September 4, 2008 entitled "Jim Trageser editorial, a reply."
How weird and nuts does he have to be to believe the nonsense he wrote? We all know that 95% plus of all candidates for all offices in the US for all of US history have been Christians. A few Jews and an agnostic or two get elected somewhere and Trageser thinks there is a conspiracy against Christians. Does he demand 100% of all candidates elected be Christian? How did he get and hold a job of importance at the NCTimes? What does that say about the hiring and retention policies at the NCTimes?
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