Sunday, August 06, 2006

When will Pamela Smith and Felicia Starr talk about the money missing from the Castle Park Elementary PTA?

To: Don Sevrens
Editor, San Diego Union Tribune

I enjoyed your July 20, 2006 editorial about the Chula Vista Ethics Board.

I could tell it was you who wrote it because of the way you described Felicia Starr without even a hint of irony.

Felicia Starr was a member of the Castle Park Elementary site council, with oversight over the school, when $20,000 went missing from the PTA in 2005. Not a word of that apparent felony was whispered in your paper, the San Diego Union Tribune, although you printed many stories, letters and editorials about Castle Park Elementary. When Felicia wanted to assert her personal power, she brought the teachers union president, Gina Boyd, to observe the Castle Park School Site Council.

Felicia and the PTA president were joined at the hip, as was obvious from the stories the Chula Vista Star News wrote about them. Felicia was the immediate past president of the PTA in 2004, when the 2004-2005 PTA president was chosen. It appeared that she was chosen because she did what Starr told her to do.

I remember one school board meeting when the PTA president took pictures of me, and then Felicia and Gina huddled together over the digital camera, whispering about the pictures, as the board meeting progressed.

I was flattered by the attention. Do you think they were trying to intimidate me?

I think you and I are going to have an interesting election season. You’ll be telling lies with a straight face, and I’ll be telling the truth. I don’t think I’ll be able to keep a straight face when talking about the antics of your friends at Castle Park Elementary.

P.S. I wonder when mayoral candidate Cheryl Cox will talk about the $20,000 missing from the Castle Park Elementary PTA?

When money recently went missing from Valhalla High School, the East County Edition of the San Diego Union Tribune wrote about it. How come the South County edition of the paper keeps stories covered up? $2,000 also went missing from the Castle Park Elementary PTA in 1998! Do we have a trend here?

The Union Tribune never mentioned that Chula Vista Elementary School District had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend or represent members of the "Castle Park Five" in a lawsuit. Don Sevrens wrote about Robin Donlan, Peggie Myers, and Nikki Perez as if they were innocent teachers that were being picked on by the principal.