Comments on: MDUSD 8-20-12 meeting

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:24:02 +0000

@139 I guess Roger got her another job. She was pretty outspoken about being passed over several times in SASS while other people were selected for the Director positions.

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 03:04:27 +0000

Here’s a blog post about the special education update, which includes more information from Lorrie Davis and another document I got from FCMAT: http://bit.ly/PaqFHl

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 02:47:07 +0000

This is unrelated to this thread, but WCPD has arrested a man on suspicion of lewd activities at WC Elem. School: http://bit.ly/PDHetZ
Video surveillance assisted in the arrest. Do all MDUSD schools have video cameras?

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 01:34:50 +0000

Regarding the Susan Hukkanen rumor, a search of the Butte County Office of Ed. website turns up her name, with no job specified: http://web.bcoe.org/staff/index.cfm

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 00:59:59 +0000

Here are two blog posts about Monday’s meeting:

- one about the KVHS vote: http://www.contracostatimes.com/twitter/ci_21395395/mt-diablo-school-board-decide-fate-kvhs-radio

- and one about virtually everything else: http://bit.ly/OARTUo

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 22:03:34 +0000

Here’s a blog post that shows how MDUSD compared to other districts in the county on the CAHSEE results (as well as how it improved from 2011 to 2012): http://www.ibabuzz.com/onassignment/2012/08/24/contra-costa-county-sophomores-varied-widely-in-performance-on-california-high-school-exit-exam/

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:22:34 +0000

I don’t think Ms. Patton understands what “Stakeholders” really are. She will continue to work with Rolen and the CAC but she has not reached out to the parents (with exception to the ill planned letters)

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:03:07 +0000

@Jim#133 Nice pick-up Jim. The W-9 says its an “S Corp” with a California address but apparently incorporated in Nevada. I will rely on your analysis.

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 20:55:58 +0000

Lawrence’s District Goals were approved Sept 28, 2010, and never updated. http://esbpublic.mdusd.k12.ca.us/public_itemview.aspx?ItemId=3070&mtgId=274
Lawrence’s proposal sor “Superintendent’s Evaluation Targets 2012-2013″ to be considered by the Board on August 27, 2012 differ as follows:
Eliminated Elementary Target 4 for schools under 800 API to “implement benchmark assessments in language arts and math and develop intervention plans based on the quarterly common assessment results.
WHY ? DIDN’T HE DO THIS BEFORE ? DIDN’T IT WORK ?

Eliminated Middle School Target 3 for schools under 800 API to “implement benchmark assessments in in each core subject area and develop intervention plans based on the common assessment results. Hmmm. Doing assessment testing in middle schools ??
WHY ? DIDN’T HE DO THIS BEFORE ? DIDN’T IT WORK ?

Lawrence left Target 3 “blank” for High School Graduation Rates — another great proof reading job Steve and others who “signed off” on this agenda item.

Prior High School Target 4 for schools under 800 API to “implement district benchmark assessments in each core subject area and develop intervention plans based on the common assessment results.” Hmmmm. Since you were in a High School District in Roseville, I am not sure why you put that in.
WHY ? DIDN’T HE DO THIS BEFORE ? DIDN’T IT WORK ? WHAT IS YOUR PLAN FOR HIGH SCHOOLS BELOW 800 — WHICH IS MOST OF THEM !!

New Target 4 [formerly Target 5] for High Schools: Added new B to list — others remained the same.

So Steve, how did you do for your first two years on your performance targets ?

Other targets:

Dumbed down internal communications from School Support and Personnel from weekly updates to monthly to board members.

Dumbed down external communications from “twice monthly” to parents and staff to “during school year monthly newsletters”

Eliminated creation of Board calendar with all events posted.

For all of those many hours of “Superintendent’s Evaluation” in Closed sessions, I wonder what took so long ?

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 20:55:32 +0000

@126 — Dr. J, small point, but I don’t believe that Catania — or rather Doctor Catania (keep forgetting that!!) — is the actual vendor. The vendor is Strategies of Success, which is domiciled in NV, where it books its revenue from contracts like the one with MDUSD and where it pays taxes. If that company decides to pay procedes out to Dr. Catania, then she’ll have to pay CA taxes on whatever is paid out to her. But my guess is that she leaves the money in the company to the extent possible. (People love to speculate about Mitt Romney’s taxes, but in my experience during 10 years in corporate finance, working with lots of high net worth individuals, it is usually the smaller business owners who play games on their taxes. They operate well below the radar, compared to all the household name multi-millionaires, who need to be pretty careful.)