Here's something you might be interested in.
So is anyone out there? Is anyone within the district following what is going on? Tonight's blog will focus on two issues - 1) Open boundaries; 2) Melo Roos. Did you know that the district now has open boundaries - this means your kids can go to any school in the district that they want, regardless of where you live. Just submit transfer paperwork and chose your school. In some instances, the district may even bus your children to that school. You can probably guess which 3 or 4 schools in the district are getting heavily impacted by this. On the second issue, those of us that live within the 17 Community Facilities Districts (Melo Roos districts), did you know your Melo Roos tax just got raised by 2% for the 2012-2013 tax year? Yea the District Trustees voted at the July 2012 board meeting to raise those taxes. So, what are your thoughts on these issues?
So is anyone out there? Is anyone within the district following what is going on? Tonight's blog will focus on two issues - 1) Open boundaries; 2) Melo Roos. Did you know that the district now has open boundaries - this means your kids can go to any school in the district that they want, regardless of where you live. Just submit transfer paperwork and chose your school. In some instances, the district may even bus your children to that school. You can probably guess which 3 or 4 schools in the district are getting heavily impacted by this. On the second issue, those of us that live within the 17 Community Facilities Districts (Melo Roos districts), did you know your Melo Roos tax just got raised by 2% for the 2012-2013 tax year? Yea the District Trustees voted at the July 2012 board meeting to raise those taxes. So, what are your thoughts on these issues?
bvagency: when brand calls a meeting with the ut to discuss concerning media coverage, and then all of a sudden the paper is virtually silent - well there goes one source of info. at this point The Reader is the only written source for facts, and believe it or not word of mouth is the second source. sooooooooo, what does that tell you?
why is brand still here? why was mccann not held accountable for giving 'the gandara' the golden parachute by holding back the second opinion regarding the fact that the legal opinion stated 'the gandara' could be fired for cause (which would have saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands), why haven't quinones and ricasa taking the honorable road and left their board seats i mean they have been indicted and will be going to trial early next year, why is cartmill not being held accountable for all of those campaign donations (mccann and ricasa received them as well) - illegal, no unethical? you be the judge (check the san diego registrar of voters)????
why are board members allegedly reaching out to like minds (my opinion) and asking them to run for the board? why do they care, why do they feel the need to influence and promote MORE OF THE SAME????? reporting in the north county seemed to indicate that brand was allegedly involved in such strategy - now we have one of the persons he has met with several times running against lopez. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm allegedly mccann and cartmill were hitting the 'find a board member that is of the same mind as they and brand road HARD, REAL HARD. again, hmmmmmmmmmm.
i could go on and on, but that would take far too much space.
because the masses are failing to hold them accountable thus far. but the tiger is being shaken - and we know what happens when you shake the sleeping tigher.
we saw what happened during the last elections - SOUTHWESTERN board members were voted out. are we hoping for the same - YES..............
Unfortunately the District doesn't give the new public relations lady anything to publish except things that show them in a positive light. This is the first time that the public has been notified I bet. Well you are correct the four schools you are referring to are impacted so completely that they didn't have enough food or classes to put them in. The dist has been stretching the truth about the capacity of the schools. Nothing has changed. Change will only come when the hen house is cleaned. Hopefully the mella- roos parentss will get motivated to make change.
This school district is in shambles. Now they have increased the Mello Roos taxes. Ed Brand was said to have had the help of John Lynch who is now co owner of the UT when he was the superintendent up north; north county newspapers reported that Lynch had donated monies to a certain candidates campaign pot in an effort to assist Brands efforts as superintendent. No laws are broken if a board member seeks candidates; I agree the reasoning behind such action is highly questionable. However, for a superintendent to do it I believe is illegal. Perhaps someone might want to contact the authorities and ask for an investigation into this years election. Especially if any of those candidates have been meeting with individuals looking to influence the process. Whatever happened up north was big for them to give Brand all of that money to just go away.
That does explain why the U-T has been silent on this situation for the past couple of months.
And with the Voice of San Diego now being connected with others who have been reported to 'pull strings' from time to time, it looks like those of us who are taxpayers and parents in the Sweetwater District might need to get very organized.
It almost looks like we are becoming a community of overlords and underlings, with the underlings paying for all of the overlords' fun and games.
eastlaker, I agree you would think that the people would be upset about having their Melloroos increased without public notice. Someone needs to get people organized.
Any ideas on getting the word out?
I will be attending the Board Meeting this Monday night to speak on these two issues. I also anticipate giving the board and supt a letter from a number of Eastlake residents that are very concerned about these two issues. If anyone wants to join our effort please let me know. I've also run for school site council at Eastlake High; if I make it I will be able to apply pressure from the inside.
The responses are interesting. I agree with them but would like to add more information.
One can hold the school board members who voted for layoffs and the superintendent responsible for this.
I would also like to direct your attention to the SEA union for being responsible as well. They are enforcing that the district follows all stipulations of the contract. The results are that it's taking longer for the district to place teachers. The SEA also represents several bad teachers throughout the district that are not effected by the budget cuts due to their senority date.
Because of this, the losers in all of this are the recently hired or layed off teachers, the effective veteran teachers, the schools, students and parents in the community, and the administrators who can't get who they want teaching at their school.
The public needs to be informed. The board is responsible as well as the SEA.
Noticed 2 people have given this a thumbs up already.
The public needs to be aware. Again, all the issues in the district listed in the latest 3 articles in the Reader about the district are probably true. Add the SEA leadership team of people responsible to the list for making it more difficult for the district to place teachers as well as representing the bad ones.
This is for the good of the teachers effected by budget cuts, the principals who want them at their school sites, the students, the parents, especially the ones who volunteer at schools, and the community. The majority wants the right thing done. Please call out the minority who is responsible for this mess, whether they are from the district or from the SEA leadership team.
First of all, I give my appreciation to those parents and residents who spend countless hours doing the work and research into these issues. I have been attending some of the board meetings and have been shocked by the lack of involvement from our board.
As a property owner I am also very interested in the Mello Roos issue. If anyone has more background information (like which areas have it, how long does Mello Roos actually last, etc.), please post links or information. I would like to add any links to my blog:
www.forcusonchulavista.wordpress.com
Speaking of Mello Roos, is it just one of the districts that raised the MR tax or all?
Cv Issues, we have been studying the mello Roos issue the last few weeks. They are primarily in eastern chula vista in the newer communities including rancho del Rey, Otay ranch, San Miguel ranch, rolling hills ranch and eastlake. The Sweetwater Union High School District has 17 communities facilities districts (mello Roos districts) within its boundaries, again in the eastern chula vista area. We pay mellos Roos tax for various infrastructure items including schools. There are limitations that govern what this tax can be used for - primarily school construction/infrastructure and items that have a useful life of over 5 yrs. All 17 mello Roos districts are being assessed the 2% increase. please email me at [email protected] and I can share more info with you.