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Sweetwater district meeting marked by chaos
I have yet to hear the discussion on the consultant / recruiter, but $ 200,000? Don't we pay the Superintendant $ 240,000? What is the basis for that salary range? What salary range do we pay our counselors, who do the same thing?— February 19, 2014 1:57 p.m.
Castle Park Middle School principal punches back!!
I may be a bit thicker-skinned than you or a few others. What comments here do you consider personal attacks? As for your concern about "cowards" who are hiding behind a laptop, I see the user name you have chosen is a fictitious character who has tyrannical characteristics. I see people here, like anniej, mr Brickley, and BBQ who are regular attendees of the board meetings, who invite others so meaningful conversation can be held about issues in the district. (One such offer was declined by someone else earlier.) That doesn't sound like cowardly people who must resort to personal attacks. So, being only concerned with just the alleged personal attacks, you have no opinion on any of the other issues I've mentioned?— February 15, 2014 9:10 p.m.
Castle Park Middle School principal punches back!!
A school principal is supposed to have better judgement and thicker skin as well. I think Mr. bleisch drug Ms. Galleher into this first by emailing her in an attempt to rally support to set the Record "straight". But this seems childish, like an elementary school playground fight. We are better than this, I hope. Let us be grown up about this and keep to the issues. Why don't you help take some of the first steps back into the Land of the Grown-Ups and tell us how you feel by all this mess in the district. What are your thoughts on the financial mess it's in? Aren't you upset that the district is trying to purchase a very expensive building when they have no money and are deficit spending annually to the tune of 10 million? How about the L Street property and all the other properties? How about all the misspent Mello Roos money? Where do you think it went? How do you feel about the hundreds of fire alarm components? Or, how about the exchange of student contact data in exchange for grant money, and the promotion of an extremely high costing college at our students expense? How do you feel about our indicted board members? Any answers to these questions and more are truly desired by many in the public. Feel free to help us take those badly needed first steps— February 15, 2014 7:11 p.m.
Castle Park Middle School principal punches back!!
Continuing, I do appreciate improvements to the school. I heard a recent example, if you have a restaurant where the food is exquisite, but the place smells of sewage, do you try to make the food better, or clear out the bad smell? Improvements to the environment would make the experience greatly improved. But in this instance, don't try to hide the fact that you aren't trying to impress the VIP instead of making this truly about helping the students. I mean, come on....why didn't the principal make an effort to get the fans in cafeteria working BEFORE Duncan's visit, not because of it?— February 14, 2014 9:48 a.m.
Castle Park Middle School principal punches back!!
Jill has a few good points, I will admit. Trying to get along, getting the story straight from the source instead of trying to "interpret" the story from 400+ emails. (Reminds me of the joke, if a man says something that has two meanings and a woman is offended by one of them, he meant the other meaning.) Sadly, getting the straight story from many in this district leaves something to be desired. Recent examples: Southwest High School dirt pile. District claimed it didn't know where it came from. Brand said so in news interview. Yet they had the documents showing where it came from and who approved it. More recently, fire alarms not working. Public is told that systems are working. 10 News finds out hundreds of devices not working. Public is told we didn't need Fire Watch personnel walking around monitoring sites. Then, lo and behold, yes we did. At Castle Park Middle, the students have made great gains. Teachers and staff made great efforts, and those improvements attracted the attention of Duncan. Bravo CPM! However, District claimed it didn't spend anything extra to improve schools appearance for Duncan's visit. (This is where I first noticed story.) Yet, those emails state otherwise. Thousands for a stage purchase (which could have been rented or borrowed from another location), paint over windows (Why..just why!), etc. Also included was Bleish requesting authorization of data exchange for grant money. How do you feel about these items? Releasing private contact info without parental consent for money. And why was the air circulation in the cafeteria all of a sudden important? Why wasn't this already addressed? As part of the Prop O builds? The students had to suffer until a VIP visit occurred? I appreciate the fact Jill wants to stand up and defend her friends. I notice she claims she has never heard Maria swear. (Not a crime, though teachers are held, sometimes unfairly, to a higher standard.) Though she has never heard Maria swear, why would she assume it was "in jest, to lighten the mood"? It's not as if she did that often. As I have said in other posts, I would love to see that email trail myself so I can see the 'Context' of the conversations.— February 14, 2014 9:28 a.m.
Castle Park Middle School principal punches back!!
Curious. You state that you have not spoken with Ms. Galleher since all this. Yet, you assume that she spoke one strong word in a private conversation to comfort a friend. (And "privately" responding to a public email does not make it private.) How can you know this is what she was intending? While I don't think she should apologize, it would probably be better if she herself stated what she was thinking, instead of having others make that assumption in her place. Of course, it would have been much better if Mr. Bleisch hadn't emailed her and others in an attempt to "rally the troops" to set the Record straight. (What "Record" is he trying to get straight? No added expense for Duncan's visit? Well, maybe those emails asking for help with funding the stage, banners, and T-shirts were taken out of context as well. How about the release of student contact data to SBCS in exchange for grant money? Without parental consent? More emails taken out of context?) Since you're here, how do you feel about those?— February 12, 2014 2:37 p.m.
Castle Park Middle School principal punches back!!
I don't know Ms. Galleher. I'm sure that she is a wonderful person, and a great teacher. She is one of so many that are the backbone of our education system. However, I disagree with you. A person's true character is revealed how they act when they think nobody is watching. Ms. Galleher may have thought she was having a private conversation, but she was responding to a public email, which is subject to scrutiny. I haven't seen a copy of the email trail. (Has one been posted?) I don't know the context of her statement, what she was responding to may hold clues to why she responded this way.— February 12, 2014 2 p.m.
Judge España goes easy on Southwestern College VP
"Calhoun claimed that none of the speakers had children attending SUHSD schools - a blatant untruth" What does it matter if the speakers had children attending any of the schools?? If nothing else, these are tax payers who are concerned with their community and schools. "He then stated that the film showing a building burning was residential, reporter told him twice 'no it was in fact a school'" Another attempt at misdirection. Yes it was a school. You know, kind of like the one Calhoun is supposed to be responsible for. If he can't recognize a school, then why is he in charge of such facilities?? And how was it relevant to the fact that OUR schools have these problems? As for the rest of his "interview", complaining that news reporters gave incorrect numbers of alarms not working, he's splitting hairs on saying it was components that failed. Not much consolation there. Over 300 alarms (I would say these are the actual sounding devices) not working? Over 80 of the visual alarms (strobes) not working? Our children were still safe? That's like saying a trapeze artist was safe because he did not fall, when in fact there was no net.— February 3, 2014 3:31 p.m.
Classroom shenanigans in Sweetwater school district?
Out of curiosity, which posts do you consider as personal attack? Other than a couple posts where someone is assuming another poster is a specific person, I don't see anything I consider a personal attack. As for the "informational" meeting, which is it? "The meeting began with an overhead projection on a screen that stated: “The purpose [of the meeting] is to have a conversation about school ‘choice.’ The idea is to not convince you one way or other but rather to simply give you information so you can make the best decision for your child.” After 50 minutes of YouTube videos favorable to charter schools and Mitchell’s presentation, parent John Molina requested that teachers present in the audience be allowed to speak. Mitchell said “Not this evening because this evening is an informational meeting of the STEAM [science, technology, engineering, arts and math] charter school.”" Was it a conversation about school choice "not to convince you one way or another", or was it a sales pitch, er informational meeting about the Charter? A conversation suggests anybody being allowed to discus their point of view. Even if the choice they make is against the idea of a charter. The "Informational" meeting set-up cancels out one side of the choice.— February 3, 2014 9:44 a.m.
Classroom shenanigans in Sweetwater school district?
I thought Ricasa's seat was one of the 3 that were up for voting.— January 29, 2014 1:41 p.m.