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The piper must be paid
As you ask, Susan, "Have the corruption sentences uncorrupted the South Bay?" I think they have dusted around the edges of the corruption, and tucked in the corners of the massive tarps that cover it up.— June 22, 2014 10:09 p.m.
The piper must be paid
We are in this together to get Sweetwater back on track. Rather than go after each other here, would it help to think about what it is going to take? Yes, anniej, some positives can be celebrated. But the fiscal mess still remains. The real estate messes still remain. Can they be "unraveled"? (To used the Ed Brand phrase)... They must be unraveled--to reveal what? I say we need the full satisfaction of completely transparent books, going back to the second Fast Eddy's influence affected Sweetwater's financial picture. Who knows how many games he has run, and is still running? Why else did the board call him back? **Because he already knew the playbook!!** My personal opinion is that as a community ( or aggregate of communities, if you prefer), we need to know that the poison has been purged--and a complete forensic accounting of all the books and all the real estate deals is the only way.— June 22, 2014 12:40 p.m.
The piper must be paid
Oh, I don't know--maybe someone should run some checks on the Ed Brand/Sweetwater real estate development projects. Perhaps some funds might be found.— June 22, 2014 6:50 a.m.
The piper must be paid
Even though the charges, the pleas and the sentences resemble swatting flies from a raging bull (and leaving the bull in peace), perhaps some lessons are being learned by the type of person who takes a job in public service *because of what they can get from it.* Maybe we will have fewer of those people applying for jobs and/or running for a position on the board in Sweetwater...and San Ysidro and Southwestern College. Yes, there has been a great deal of tip-toeing around the massive problems in Sweetwater. We still can't get to the bottom of the real estate deals--can anyone tell me why a public school district gets to decide to become a real estate development concern? Can anyone tell me why we still have massive amounts of missing Mello-Roos funds? Can anyone tell me why the reportedly $50 million "borrowed" from the Teachers' Retirement Fund 10 - 15 years ago is simply no longer mentioned? Unaccounted for? Who gets away with that type of ineptitude/sloppiness/fraud? Someone with lots of important friends, as in the friends that Ed Brand so much likes to boast about? Sure would be nice to get to the real truth, not the "massaged" truth, not the "improved-upon" truth, not the "truth" that some would like to still sell to the public. The actual truth: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as it were. Does anyone think that we in these school districts are undeserving of that? Why can't we get the full forensic accounting of the entire Ed Brand reign of terror and mega-ego? Who is afraid of what?— June 21, 2014 11:13 a.m.
Don’t trample the streetscape, Santa
Bensoussan's attitude reminds me of the type of school librarian who really doesn't want anyone to check books out--or a recreation coordinator who would rather the facilities stay unused--it is so much more orderly that way!— June 20, 2014 7:56 p.m.
Woes at Bridgepoint, United States University
I feel for the people who may have thought they were actually going to get an education, but who did not. At least, not the sort of education they had intended to get.— June 20, 2014 8 a.m.
Woes at Bridgepoint, United States University
I am very glad that these institutions that claim to be colleges and universities are being exposed for the frauds that they are. This is another example of people trying to turn education into Big Business, with absolutely no thought being given for teaching--and there are so many examples of that right now. Integrity in education used to be taken for granted, but that is no longer the case. Don, what is Michael Clifford's background? What about Oksana Mindyuk Malysheva? Did they approach the field from a background in education, or do you think they spotted the opportunity (because of all the grants offered to students) and got in purely for profit?— June 18, 2014 2:27 p.m.
New Sweetwater boardmembers pitch in to money pit
I propose that SUHSD undergo a name change to "Boondoggles 'R' Us, where your education means more to real estate interests than it does to you!"— June 14, 2014 9:03 a.m.
New Sweetwater boardmembers pitch in to money pit
All the 20 steps no doubt arranged by Fast Eddy with the intent of creating something difficult to unravel. He makes money every which way the deal goes, it seems. We have got to be able to stop that. And stop him.— June 11, 2014 5:12 p.m.
New Sweetwater boardmembers pitch in to money pit
I suspect you are exactly right.— June 11, 2014 4:57 p.m.