Monday, June 28, 2010

Avoiding the Public Scrutiny - Part 2




Click on the image for a closer look.








This image is all the information that was available for item 8.07 on the June 22nd Adelanto Elementary School District Board meeting agenda. The title of the item is Board of Trustees - Potential Misuse of District Email System. The public, from this agenda, could not possibly have any idea going into that board meeting what this item was about.

It turns out that the board president put this item on the agenda to have a discussion regarding the district not having an existing board policy that addresses the use of email by trustees. Board members are among the few with access to district wide options in the district email system. It has been used to send out happy holidays and have a great summer type messages. So why is there a need to have a cryptic board agenda item on the subject?

Apparently, the whistle blowing emails I sent district wide brought the issue to the forefront. I include this board item in my Avoiding The Public Scrutiny series because it is directly related to the subject.

I sent out two whistle blowing district wide emails a few days after the June 1st board meeting. In them I revealed that the superintendent and the board president signed a binding no opt-out memorandum of understanding agreement for the Race to the Top grant without prior board approval and public discussion. Nor was the action publicly called out (announced) in the next board meeting after signing the agreement. Legal opinions opined that board action was not required to sign the agreement. Regardless, they committed the district to mandatory requirements that should have been publicly reviewed and discussed prior to signing the agreement. And prior to my actions – the public didn’t know anything about it.

Board agenda item 8.07 was tabled to allow time to draft guidelines for trustees’ use of the email system. It seems, because of the whistle blowing emails I sent, that the intent of this board agenda item is to draft a policy that will curtail the use of the district email system by board members. You couldn’t get that from reading the board agenda item.

Ironically, I am not opposed to a policy on board members’ use of the district email system. Written properly it could be a wise thing. I just find it irresistible to point out that it will be about keeping board members quiet.

Board agenda item 8.07 is not an example of transparency in governance.

Below is my public board comment on that item.

Further AESD Board Comments from Carlos Mendoza III – Board Clerk

June 22, 2010

This comment is directed at board item 8.07 Board of Trustees – Potential Misuse of District Email System (at least it was item 8.07 online – it may be different in the printed agenda).

Board item 8.07 on the online agenda is totally blank of information. There is absolutely no information on what it is about. I sent an emailed request to the superintendent and board president to fill in the blanks – I hope that was not a misuse of the district email system. I sent the emailed request to them because they are both in charge of putting the board agenda together. And even though I’m sure they put together the agenda with the advice of attorneys – it’s not right to keep the information from the public.

I suspect that this board item has to do with the whistle blowing district wide email I sent out to the teachers. In that email I blew the whistle on the superintendent, Mr. Darin Brawley, and board president, Mrs. Lisa Marie Garcia, for signing and submitting a binding Race to the Top memorandum of understanding agreement without official board approval and without public discussion. Prior to my actions – the public was not made aware of their actions. Of course, I can be mistaken and it could be about something else (we would know if the agenda was clearer).

If the board item is about the whistle blowing email, then I suggest we bypass the district email system for future communication. I created a new (just for education issues) Facebook page. I have links to it on my blog – Educator Musing (http://educatormusing.blogspot.com/). I encourage everyone to friend me, so we can interactively communicate as a group without potential misuses of the district email system.

Also, traditional email is old. Web 2.0 technologies provide better methods of interactive communication. More and more associations are creating invitation only professional online communities for their membership. The online communities provide chat, video, forum discussions and other methods of communication. I urge ADTA and CSEA to create their own online communities to also avoid any future potential misuses of the district email system.

Please visit me at Facebook: Carlos Mendoza

Avoiding the Public Scrutiny - Part 1

I have the privilege of serving as the board clerk of the Adelanto Elementary School District (AESD). The following is one of my public board comments for the June 22nd AESD Board meeting. What is at issue for me is the manner in which The superintendent and board president committed the district to a binding no opt-out agreement without prior board approval and public discussion. In response, I will be writing a series of blogs called Avoiding the Public Scrutiny.

Synopsis: The U.S Department of Education has $4.35 billion dollars in a competitive grant called Race to the Top. States must apply for the grant and agree to the sweeping mandates it requires. California, in this 2nd round of applications, if awarded, is eligible for up to $700 million dollars in a one time grant payout. School districts to participate in the application had to sign a binding no opt-out memorandum. Legal opinions opined that board action was not required to sign the agreement, but the California School Boards Association advised local school districts to secure board approval in order to comply with state law. The superintendent and the board president signed the binding agreement without prior board approval and public discussion. The Race to the Top grant was never placed on an agenda for discussion prior to the memorandum of understanding agreement. Nor was the action publicly called out (announced) in the next board meeting after signing the agreement. This action is not an example of transparency in governance.

AESD Board Comments from Carlos Mendoza III – Board Clerk

June 22, 2010

The superintendent of the Adelanto Elementary School District, Mr. Darin Brawley and board president, Mrs. Lisa Marie Garcia, signed and submitted a binding Race to the Top memorandum of understanding agreement without official board approval and without public discussion. This signed agreement, if the grant is received, commits the district to requirements never previously discussed nor approved by the board in an official public meeting.

The duration and termination of the MOU is defined in section V of the agreement.

“This Memorandum of Understanding shall be effective, beginning with the date of the last signature hereon and if a grant is received, ending upon the expiration of the grant project, upon termination for non-compliance, or upon written, duly authorized mutual agreement of the parties, whichever occurs first.”

The signatures on the memorandum of understanding denied the board of ever having the final say in the termination of this agreement. If the grant is received, the only way out of the agreement is through termination for non-compliance or with permission from the state and federal government in a mutual agreement.

Also, the California Department of Education (http://www.caracetothetop.org) put out a statement under the link Clarification – No Opt-Out provision for round 2 that it was incorrect to believe that LEAs (school districts) could opt-out after signing the MOU.

We are therefore in a situation in which there is now no action the board can take that definitively and with finality terminates the MOU agreement. The final say is now ultimately up to agencies in state and federal government.

The public was denied the opportunity to see transparency in governance. There are untested mandatory requirements attached to Race to the Top that should have been fully discussed with opportunities to hear comments and answer questions from the public before entering into the MOU agreement.

I believe that Race to the Top has radical mandates that will hurt public education. I also strongly disagree with the manner in which the superintendent and board president signed the memorandum of understanding agreement without official board approval and public discussion. It should be encoded into our institutional DNA that such behavior even if ever legal will never be tolerated. Therefore, my intention, should the grant be received, is to remind the public of this outrage and relentlessly vote no on every radical mandate of the Race to the Top that comes before the board until the agreement is actually terminated.

Please visit me at Facebook: Carlos Mendoza

Friday, June 25, 2010

I remember Quby

Yes, I know Quby.

I’ll point her out the next time we see her.

She sang in the church choir with my wife.

I was one of her teachers when she was in high school.

You remember high school.

It’s the place teachers tell you to sit down, be quiet, put away your ipods and phones, and do work.

Qubaniece wasn’t like that in high school.

She wasn’t one of the good kids that we tend to forget is in the room.

Everyone knew when she was in the room.

Everyone noticed when she was absent.

Everyone at her memorial was there because we noticed she was absent.


I used to tease her that I was going to tell her foster mother how loud she is in school when I see them at church. Quby wasn’t worry. She knew my wife wouldn’t let me.

My wife says that church is a sanctuary. We have more important things to talk about than the stuff that happens in school.

My wife is right. She usually is.

We have more important things to talk about; like God’s Grace, God’s Love and God’s Acceptance.

Especially now that Qubaniece is with Jesus.


I’m sure Jesus doesn’t want to talk about the stuff that happened in this life.

There are more important things to talk about, like His Grace, His Love, and His Acceptance.

Qubaniece wasn’t perfect but she loved Jesus.

Shouldn’t that be the message in our lives?

The next teacher referral I write on Qubaniece will be in heaven. I’m sure they have rules against flying too fast and for being too loud in the hallways.

And, of course, Qubaniece would be the one doing that.

Yes, she would be that one.


Qubaniece Velasquez Miller was shot and killed in Los Angeles. She was 19 years old.

Don’t wait until you are a good kid to know Jesus. It doesn’t work that way. Jesus loves you now.


I wrote this soon after her funeral. I came across it today while organizing my stuff in the garage. It’s not a poem. It’s not a eulogy. I don’t know what it is, but I had to write it. Now I have to publish it.

Qubaniece Velasquez Miller: July 29, 1989 – January 15, 2009


Please visit me at Facebook: Carlos Mendoza

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Whatever Happened to Transparency in Government?

"It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do for which we are accountable."
- Moliere

"As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence."
- Benjamin Franklin

In California, the Brown Act is the first thing new school board members learn about school board governance.

The preamble of California Government Code 54950

In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.

The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants, the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.

This chapter shall be known as the Ralph M. Brown Act.

It becomes worrisome when new legislation and contracts are crafted to bypass the accepted rules of governance. What good then is something like the Constitution of the United States?





Click on the image to read the article.








http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/adelanto-19878-member-act.html


Please visit me at Facebook: Carlos Mendoza

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Race to the Top: A Memorandum of Understanding

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but no vision.
- Helen Keller

California on June 1st submitted a second application for the U.S. Department of Education Race to the Top fund. It has done so without much fanfare or discussion. Why?

How many school boards up and down the state have agreed to the requirements of the Race to the Top fund through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the California Department of Education without giving the public opportunity to comment on them?

Money should not be the motivator. If California is selected it may be awarded only up to 700 million dollars – that’s about 4 cents to the dollar compared to the 17 billion dollars already cut from California schools. Even then that pittance has to be applied toward the requirements of the fund and not to fill in the gaps created by budget cuts.

What are the requirements? Most of them are what educators have accepted as common sense good practices.

· An efficient system of collecting and sharing of student data.

· Formative assessments to guide instruction.

· Time during the school day for professional educators to meet as interdependent teams to collaboratively review the data to raise the level of learning for students.

· And the development of rigorous Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses.

There are other requirements however that needs closer scrutiny and a lot more discussion before acceptance. The scrapping of the California Content Standards to implement the Common Core Standards is one.

The National Governors Association Center (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) coordinated the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Its adoption is a requirement for the Race to the Top fund.

The Common Core State Standards is an attempt to have a national set of education standards. Standards from the standards-base movement clearly defines what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each school year. This is actually a good idea – that is why California and other states have their own set of content standards.

Some states unfortunately do not have what may be considered high-level rigorous academic standards. Expectations for students in those states are lower than in other states. It is therefore unfair to hold all states to the same level of accountability by the federal government. And so the U.S. Department of Education is pushing for a form of national standards.

The Common Core State Standards may be everything as advertised by its supporters but the school districts that signed the MOU agreement to accept them do not know that. The final version of those standards was not released until a day after California submitted its application to the federal government. How could school district leaders have possibly formed an opinion on the Common Core State Standards without having ever read them? It seems that that is the way legislation gets passed these days.

Federal government take over of industries seems the way of things too. Under Race to the Top, school districts will provide their data to the U.S. Department of Education for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of instructional materials, strategies, approaches, and to help drive educational decisions and policies. Apparently, education will eventually no longer be the responsibility of the states but totally under the province of the federal government.

We need look no further than No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to see the unintended consequences of direct federal involvement in education. NCLB’s original purpose to expand the core curriculum and close the gap between different groups of students was welcomed by many educators. Its implementation, however, created a different result. NCLB essentially destroyed standards-based education to replace it with test-based education. The curriculum was narrowed to just what would be measured in a once a year fill in the bubble standardized test. And closing the achievement gap seems to mean teaching to the test so that all students will give the same answer. If not, at least we know the purpose of erasers.

Race to the Top will not only extend that misfortune in education, but make it worse. Whereas No Child Left Behind penalized school districts for not making its goals – Race to the Top will directly go after teachers and principals. One can imagine the unintended consequences that will have on an industry already hard press to attract and retain the best of the best because of comparative low compensation.

Under Race to the Top districts will generate a teacher effectiveness rating for each teacher and a leader effectiveness rating for each principal. Effectiveness ratings will also be made public consistent with the requirements of the Race to the Top grant. Quantitative student growth shall constitute 30 percent or more of the overall teacher and leader effectiveness measures. Additional measures used in the calculation of effectiveness ratings may include student and parent surveys, student grades, teacher attendance, student attendance, and student graduation rates.

No Child Left Behind had the unintended consequence of narrowing the curriculum by forcing educators to teach to a test. Race to the Top will not only exacerbate that misfortune, but will also encourage the inflation of grades, the social promotion of failing students, and promote popularity contests.

And what have educators done to be treated as pedophiles under California’s Megan Law? What other professions are required to publicly publish effectiveness ratings? This requirement will not be a boost for a profession that cannot retain 50% of new teachers after five years.

Educators in California are handicapped with little resources. California is the worse in the nation not only in student to teacher ratio but also in total school staff. It spends less per student than most states do for their students. Apparently the profession, especially in California, that has done so much with so little is now expected to do the impossible with nothing or will be punished.

The school district leaders who agreed to the requirements of Race to the Top by signing the Memorandum of Understanding with the California Department of Education without a public discussion should have their effectiveness rating made public as unfit for duty.

Link to the Memorandum of Understanding - http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/el/le/documents/yr10jtltr0517att.pdf

Link to list of California districts that submitted the signed MOU http://www.caracetothetop.org/cs/rttt/print/htdocs/intent2.htm

Link to California Race to the Top http://www.caracetothetop.org/cs/rttt/print/htdocs/home.htm

Common Core Standards. http://www.corestandards.org/

Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) http://www.ccsso.org/

The National Governors Association Center (NGA) http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.b14a675ba7f89cf9e8ebb856a11010a0


Please visit me at Facebook: Carlos Mendoza