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Rankled by Sweetwater district meeting cancellation
I'm proud to be an SEA member and cannot wait until the day that I can once again say that I am proud to be a Sweetwater teacher.— March 19, 2014 4:49 p.m.
Sweetwater district meeting marked by chaos
Mayor Cox recommends new leadership for the district. Teachers are organizing for a strike vote. Did these "leaders" really think they'd get away with destroying our district without a fight? What hubris!— February 27, 2014 4:50 p.m.
Castle Park Middle School principal punches back!!
We teach our students to read critically and question the credibility of what they read, especially on the internet. It is obvious that studentsfirst in NOT a member of SEA's Facebook group because there is NO foul language or nasty comments about parents and students. There is, however, a chorus of criticism of the culture of corruption that has compromised our ability to meet the needs of our kids. When people don't have valid criticism they throw out red herrings. Community members and parents should be PROUD of brave teachers that are fighting this battle. These unfounded, personal attacks against those very teachers are occurring because our corrupt leaders are feeling threatened. Question these attacks and do your homework. Attend board meetings and talk to the teachers in the audience. It won't take long for you to understand who are the heroes and who are the villains.— February 8, 2014 6:57 a.m.
Castle Park Middle School principal punches back!!
Teachers who speak out against the culture of corruption are targeted in SUHSD. There are at least two pending cases right now. Responsible journalists, such as Ms. Luzzaro, do not place her sources in a position where they could face retribution. Employees in this district are grateful to her for publicizing the out of control wrongdoing and share information because they trust her integrity and concern for the welfare of employees and students. These emails are pretty condemning evidence to use against this principal if this brave teacher is involuntarily transferred or harassed.— February 6, 2014 6:04 a.m.
Classroom shenanigans in Sweetwater school district?
I know Ms. Lopez initially supported Jesus Gandara, but realized the error of her ways and has been trying to rectify her mistake in judgement ever since. People need to realize how hard and consistently she fights against the culture of corruption in our district. Time after time, she is the lone voice of integrity and reason standing up to a shameless, bloated giant out to steal from our kids.— January 29, 2014 5:30 a.m.
Picket at Sweetwater trustee Cartmill's home
28 paid days of vacation? Teachers receive ZERO paid days of vacation and NO OVERTIME for the hours we work in the evening and on weekends. We have not had a pay raise since 2007 and have agreed to furlough days and increased class size during the recent lean years. However, money, a lot of it, is coming to our district and Brand and his board STILL want to keep class size at 182 student contacts per teacher each day and they STILL refuse to share money provided by the State with the teachers. What are they planning to DO with this money? Buy an expensive new district office? Pay for the legal bills of the indicted members of the Board of Trustees? Hire more of Brand's cronies as consultants?— January 19, 2014 8:46 a.m.
No process yet to replace Sweetwater trustee Ricasa
How does this travesty of justice continue to occur? When will it end? How are we ever going to rebuild our district? Why aren't more people showing up at these board meeting in order to demand that the corruption end? I just don't understand. I will never understand...— January 15, 2014 5:56 p.m.
Few details on Sweetwater district's student-data-sharing deal
Teachers are pressured into sending students to school on Saturday. These "interventions" are called by different names at different sites and students are almost bribed to attend. For example, if a student receives a punitive Saturday School, s/he can choose to go to an intervention class. Not only does the student receive extra academic credit, but s/he can clear truancies and 12 tardies by attending. When teachers assign detention and warn a student that she/he will receive a Saturday School for non-attendance, a common response is, " I don't care. I have to go to intervention anyway." The quality of teaching varies. When the actual classroom teacher prepares material and teaches that sixth day, I do believe the kids benefit, but when teachers are pressured to prepare even more curriculum for a substitute, that effort is time and energy taken away from the classroom. Sometimes, substitutes with little knowledge in the subject area teach the classes and science and math students receive the wrong information. Students, who are natural procrastinators, are developing a mind set that they don't need to do their work or even attend class for that matter because they can go hang out with their friends at the Saturday intervention program and with minimal effort earn extra-credit points while they clear tardies, truancies and punitive assignments. This program is hurting our students, not helping. I hope that the attendance for these Saturday interventions won't be used as evidence of how wonderful this Promise Neighborhood program is working. I know the attendance data is already being used to determine attendance rates at the sites, so the principals who pressure their teachers the most to send students are the principals with the best attendance rates.— December 30, 2013 6 a.m.
Few details on Sweetwater district's student-data-sharing deal
I'd love to see the data that shows whether this program is effective. I know at my site we are starting to question if the kids are benefiting because we see a lot of adults on the payroll, some of whom act like the teachers at the site are nothing more than an annoyance, and don't quite know what these adults do. I see recruiting but very little interest from the students. I'd like to see the number of students who are involved divided by the cost of the salaries for all of those adults employed to run the program. I know the teachers who teach the classes after school aren't being paid much and participate because they have a hobby they want to share with our students. Those teachers don't need anyone to administrate, and they recruit their own students and their friends as they have always done with after school clubs. Our counselors do a great job with scholarships and preparing kids for applying for college, so what exactly do these Promise Neighborhood employees do? Do they even have college degrees?— December 29, 2013 6:24 a.m.
Former South Bay schools officials have day in court
I hope the judge makes an example of the Sweetwater defendants. Our almost prostrate district cannot survive another round of corrupt self-serving leaders. This judge needs to send a clear message to all of the crooks and greedy wanna be players that they cannot continue to use our kids with impunity. God help us all if the judge shows any compassion or ambiguity in dealing with these monsters for they are symbols of the culture of corruption in the South Bay that must be dealt with severely so that we never face this type of sinister influence again. (Thank you Robert H. Jackson.)— December 7, 2013 6:46 p.m.