The question remains: After two years of SASS “reforms” that haven’t worked, what will be the future of “one size fits all” and “test, test, test and more testing” ? Unless we see a substantial gain in the API district score of at least 50 plus points [that's only a two year average of 25 points] who will tell Lawrence he has failed again ? Will the newly elected School Board have the guts to tell Lawrence to “pack his bags” and eat the buy-out under his contract ?

Here is what the CDE announced on July 17 about the release of the STAR test results: “Consequently, your district will receive STAR Student Reports no later than August 22, 2012. The public release of the 2012 statewide STAR Results will be August 31, 2012.”

Many of us who listened to the staff reports and Board discussions of the issue were surprised to hear Gary Eberhart publicly blame the Superintendent and chastise his fellow Board members about it. There were some attempts to counter his comments, but if you recall, Eberhart’s voice was beginning to drown out all others at that time. He and Paul Strange were presenting themselves as the only independent thinkers on the Board, the only ones willing to challenge the Superintendent’s thinking and recommendations. They were the “common men” rising up to fight the “establishment.” Who doesn’t love that story? A majority of voters certainly did. Those of us who tried, in vain, to counter the accusations and support the Superintendent and the three other Board members were ridiculed on the Strange Eberhart blog; most have since left the district.

It’s all water under the dam now, but there is a lesson to be learned: Sometimes the loudest voice is not the one to heed. Listen carefully–and skeptically–to the voices of all the candidates who run for a Board seat in November. Base your vote on information, not rhetoric.

“A half truth is a whole lie.”

On another note, I also just came across an old 2008 Northgate HS blog post, which criticized the former Eberhart/Strange MDUSD blog for allowing “posts that were reminiscent of a lynching mob rather than a place where people with common issues come together to discuss ideas and viewpoints”: http://nghsblog.blogspot.com/

It is somewhat ironic that Eberhart and Whitmarsh (who ran on a slate with Eberhart) have since criticized other blogs.

Like the Northgate blogger, I urge blog readers to make constructive comments and reserve the right to edit or remove comments or portions of comments.

I also found an MDUSD blog entry blasting former Superintendent Gary McHenry for the $833,000 IRS penalty. Recently, when Bryan Richards announced that most of this penalty was dismissed, Eberhart commented that he hoped the press would give the dismissal as much attention as it gave the original IRS investigation. I thought that this was ironic, since it was Eberhart who had made a big deal out of it in the first place.

Here’s what he wrote in his Sept. 2008 blog post, before Whitmarsh was elected:

“What was truly amazing was that there was not a single question or comment on this issue from our Board majority. How can they continue to blindly support the superintendent with these types of continual mistakes being made? This type of costly mistake truly upsets me. We are supposed to be spending our dollars educating our students, not paying for administrative incompetence. If this didn’t wake the Board majority up, nothing will. I hope that the voters are awake enough to replace April (Treece) with Sherry Whitmarsh. Please don’t put April back on the board with me. I need someone there that will help fix these ridiculous problems.”

It turns out there was not a problem after all and his allegations of incompetence by McHenry were unfounded. But, when Richards recently announced that the penalty was minimal, Eberhart did not apologize for his previous lambasting of the former superintendent. Instead, he chose to imply that the press had somehow blown the IRS penalty out of proportion.

The May 4, 2009 memo is chock full of timely information about the latest swine flu outbreaks, employee recognitions, end-of-the-year activities, the summer CARES program and the district’s layoff hearings.

Nicoll ended his memo with pithy quotes, including this one from nutritionist Adelle Davis, who died in 1974: “Thousands upon thousands of persons have studied disease. Almost no one has studied health.”

In contrast, superintendent Lawrence has not released one of his News Updates since April 10, when he wanted to persuade the public to support the Measure C tax rate increase: http://www.mdusd.org/NewsRoom/Pages/SuperintendentNewsUpdate.aspx

On another note, the district is encouraging parents who want to volunteer at schools to make fingerprint appointments now, to avoid the fall rush: http://bit.ly/MBDfeu

This message is not a superintendent’s update, however. It appears to be in the form of a district bulletin.

I also came across board minutes from 2008 regarding the “Mt. Diablo Achievement Team” that piloted Professional Learning Communities at Holbrook Elem., Sun Terrace Elem. and Glenbrook MS, focused on building a “community of schools.” Now, only one school is left in that community.

Finally, I came across a January 2008 story I wrote about the board’s legal department reorganization after Whitmarsh was elected. Mayo and Allen voted against the move, which made the general counsel report to the board instead of to the superintendent.

The story also said that Whitmarsh said one of her top priorities was to overcome the mistrust that had developed in the district.

“The first thing that’s very important is to rebuild our relationships and open lines of communication to where people feel like they’re being listened to,” she said.

Do you believe that Whitmarsh has accomplished this goal?

Remember Chevron Sherry has shown herself to be a …