Comments on: School Board Relations: 101

By: Hell freezing over

Hell freezing over — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:27:04 +0000

A district board president who doesn’t listen to anyone else who has differing ideas or opinions and has no concern about the communities and businesses his poorly thought out last minute proposal will impact.

A city manager who doesn’t live in the city and drive the streets thinks traffic issues can be mitigated if the mega-middle school happens. No real answer regarding how that mitigation will happen when the city itself has budget and staffing issues of it’s own (sorry, we’re closed today – city furlough). Good luck getting past that crosswalk at the 4 way stop while the teens take their own sweet time crossing while holding up their sagging pants.

A new police chief who just started in this city thinks all concerns about gangs if this mega-middle school happens can be addressed by meeting with two principals. No mention of
private and public property concerns with the addition of 400+ more cars and teens in the neighborhoods affected. Oh wait – we don’t have the funds to pay for school site resource officers, let alone officers to direct traffic and give out tickets to the parents who let their kids out of the car in the middle of the street in front of the school or block the driveways and city bus stops while their kid takes their time getting out of the car.

Terrific.

By: ANON1

ANON1 — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 06:23:59 +0000

Wait a minute

His mommy? Another interesting story?

By: wait a minute

wait a minute — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 05:34:18 +0000

On the subject of all these consultants being hired by the MDUSD, forgot to mention that Lawrence started his tenure at his last district by trying to hire his mommy as a consultant!

By: wait a minute

wait a minute — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:22:21 +0000

So Eberhart is now giving legal advice to fellow board members? That’s scary!
He must be hearing footsteps.
What you have here is a classic case of the blind leading the blind.
The shame of it all is there are plenty of good people in the MDUSD who if the narcissists would only listen to, could help lead these people out of the corner that they have painted themselves into.
Its more likely though that these narcissists will lead the MDUSD off a cliff just like lemmings.
I knew the good people of this district were in big trouble the moment they hired Lawrence. My only surprise is that he has lasted this long.

Unfortunately, by the time he and his buddies are done the MDUSD will be out a lot of (squandered) money.

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:37:20 +0000

Let’s add SIGGATE to Lawrence’s list of accomplishments.

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:34:26 +0000

Just 3 months ago !!! Pure incompentence by staff. Right in the middle of the school closure meetings. What were Lawrence, Locke and Rolen thinking ? Oh, “thinking” perhaps that is too much to expect.

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 23:18:35 +0000

Actually, the final application was submitted Nov. 10.
It states: “The applicant will repay any funds which have been determined through a federal or state audit resolution process to have been misspent, misapplied, or otherwise not properly accounted for, and further agrees to pay any collection fees that may subsequently be imposed by the federal and/or state government.”
Shortly, I’ll post the Glenbrook SIG budget so you can see exactly what the district committed to.

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:52:39 +0000

Its a 3 ring circus: Eberhart, Lawrence and Locke all trying to talk to different people at the Calif Dept of Ed to get the answer they want on how to get around the Federal requirements. Lets take a deep breath. Weren’t these SIG applications filed in September 2010 ? Is Gary, Steven or Rose going to say they didn’t know in September they would be closing schools ? Ah, “school closure” is option no. one. If this didn’t severely impact our school communities and children, it actually would be comical. I guess giving the money back is not an option since they already spent it. This is better than watching reruns of the “Three Stooges”. Which one is Moe ?

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:18:18 +0000

According to the federal requirements, there are only four reform options:

1: School Closure: Close a school and enroll students in other schools that are higher-achieving. The other schools should be within reasonable proximity. (This is what moving Glenbrook students to El Dorado would be doing.)

2: Transformation (What Glenbrook’s grant is for): Implement a series of required school improvement strategies, including replacing the principal who led the school prior to implementation of the transformation model and increasing instructional time.

3: Turnaround: replace principal and no more than half the staff, adopt new governance, implement research-based instructional program that is aligned from one grade to the next, as well as aligned with state standards.

4: Restart: Close and reopen as a charter school or under an educational management organization.

“LEA’s (Local Education Agencies) and school districts are responsible for ensuring that one of the four school intervention models is implemented at each school identified as persistently lowest achieving,” according to the California State Department of Education.

There is no mention of starting one reform, then switching to another that includes a large student population in a school that is not identified as persistently lowest achieving.

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:05:45 +0000

There goes Gary again playing the role of Supt. instead of letting Lawrence do his job. Gary just can’t stop micromanaging. No one in the Calif Dept of Education is going to go on record to approve a modification in advance — these are federal grants with federal requirements. Lawrence allowed each school to make up their own applications [only 4 of 6 did] and he made up the district’s to fund his new SASS department. No plan. No purpose. The Board approved it. What are they complaining about ? This was just a few months ago — not like they didn’t know this was coming. Lets see, we pay Lawrence $250k a year, and the Asst Supts about $175k a year — and they can’t figure this out ? Ask Sherry — how long would that last at Chevron ?