Recall against Southwestern College board members started
09 February 2010
Hundreds of Southwestern College employees are uniting against school superintendent Raj Chopra and three board members after years of financial battles between the faculty and superintendent have left the school at risk of losing its accreditation, according to the voiceofsandiego.org. A recall campaign has been started against the three pro-Chopra board members. Recall supporters have until May 3 to collect 20,000 signatures in the community college district for each board member.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Chula Vista candidates talk about jobs, bay front development and Roger Hedgecock
Roger Hedgecock is as much a political activist as he is a media figure. He is not a journalist. He's San Diego's Glenn Beck. He's not the right person to host a candidate debate. Linda Rosas should know that. She damages the Chula Vista Star-News and her own credentials as a serious news publisher with antics like dropping support of a candidate forum just because Hedgecock won't be there.
Chula Vista candidates talk about jobs, bay front development and Roger Hedgecock
BY Rose Creasman
24 March 2010
Though it was ousted moderator Roger Hedgecock who made the biggest news after Chula Vista’s candidate forum last night, the guest panelists who actually appeared made waves of their own.
With Hedgecock’s last-minute withdrawal—the former San Diego mayor said he didn’t want his presence to detract from a public forum—came the dropping out of sponsor Star-News and several panelists, including incumbent Mayor Cheryl Cox. But that didn’t stop other determined candidates from capitalizing on the event’s sudden downsizing.
“If a group of Chula Vistans wants to sit down and talk about their community, I’m going to be there,” said mayoral hopeful and councilman Steve Castaneda, one of three candidates for the office and the only one to show up at the school Monday night. “It never mattered to me whether anyone else was going to be there.”
Without his two opponents present, Castaneda took the stage for an informal, relaxed explanation of his goals in office. The councilman talked about drug violence near the border and accountability, emphasizing Scripps Hospital’s outstanding bill from the city.
“That money is owed to the taxpayers, not the mayor or council members,” he said. “We need to hold people’s feet to the fire when they come to Chula Vista and want taxpayer assistance. Scripps is no different.”
Castaneda's opponents, incumbent Mayor Cox and Southwestern College trustee Jorge Dominguez, did not attend.
City Council candidate Patricia Aguilar dedicated her two-minute opening statement to commending the audience for taking action against Hedgecock, saying that plans for the nationally-syndicated radio talk show host to moderate the forum should never have been made. Hedgecock was brought on board by the Southwest Civic Association, but was ousted hours before the forum after the MAAC Project objected.
“This represents the very best of civic engagement and community activism,” said Aguilar, who is president of the community group Crossroads II. “It gives me a warm feeling because I’ve been part of that.”
Southwest Civic Association president Theresa Acerro told the Union-Tribune in an email that Hedgecock was only invited to ensure Mayor Cox would attend.
Three of four candidates running for outgoing councilman John McCann’s seat debated solutions to Chula Vista’s saga of unfulfilled promises, including the oft-envisioned plans to capitalize on the city’s undeveloped bay front and establish a four-year university. The questions, presented by fill-in moderator and president Ken Wright of the Northwest Civic Association, covered the creation of much-needed jobs and development, lobbying of politicians and medical marijuana dispensaries.
Aguilar kept herself decidedly distinct from opponents Humberto Peraza and Larry Breitfelder throughout the forum, emphasizing her involvement at the community level...
Chula Vista candidates talk about jobs, bay front development and Roger Hedgecock
BY Rose Creasman
24 March 2010
Though it was ousted moderator Roger Hedgecock who made the biggest news after Chula Vista’s candidate forum last night, the guest panelists who actually appeared made waves of their own.
With Hedgecock’s last-minute withdrawal—the former San Diego mayor said he didn’t want his presence to detract from a public forum—came the dropping out of sponsor Star-News and several panelists, including incumbent Mayor Cheryl Cox. But that didn’t stop other determined candidates from capitalizing on the event’s sudden downsizing.
“If a group of Chula Vistans wants to sit down and talk about their community, I’m going to be there,” said mayoral hopeful and councilman Steve Castaneda, one of three candidates for the office and the only one to show up at the school Monday night. “It never mattered to me whether anyone else was going to be there.”
Without his two opponents present, Castaneda took the stage for an informal, relaxed explanation of his goals in office. The councilman talked about drug violence near the border and accountability, emphasizing Scripps Hospital’s outstanding bill from the city.
“That money is owed to the taxpayers, not the mayor or council members,” he said. “We need to hold people’s feet to the fire when they come to Chula Vista and want taxpayer assistance. Scripps is no different.”
Castaneda's opponents, incumbent Mayor Cox and Southwestern College trustee Jorge Dominguez, did not attend.
City Council candidate Patricia Aguilar dedicated her two-minute opening statement to commending the audience for taking action against Hedgecock, saying that plans for the nationally-syndicated radio talk show host to moderate the forum should never have been made. Hedgecock was brought on board by the Southwest Civic Association, but was ousted hours before the forum after the MAAC Project objected.
“This represents the very best of civic engagement and community activism,” said Aguilar, who is president of the community group Crossroads II. “It gives me a warm feeling because I’ve been part of that.”
Southwest Civic Association president Theresa Acerro told the Union-Tribune in an email that Hedgecock was only invited to ensure Mayor Cox would attend.
Three of four candidates running for outgoing councilman John McCann’s seat debated solutions to Chula Vista’s saga of unfulfilled promises, including the oft-envisioned plans to capitalize on the city’s undeveloped bay front and establish a four-year university. The questions, presented by fill-in moderator and president Ken Wright of the Northwest Civic Association, covered the creation of much-needed jobs and development, lobbying of politicians and medical marijuana dispensaries.
Aguilar kept herself decidedly distinct from opponents Humberto Peraza and Larry Breitfelder throughout the forum, emphasizing her involvement at the community level...
Friday, March 19, 2010
CVESD's Jim Groth talks to Channel 6 News
Jim Groth didn't alway look and sound like a robot. He had a normal level of affect at one time. But apparently there's a price you pay for power.
For quite a few years now he's been spouting whatever California Teachers Association (CTA) tells him to say, even if it's illegal or dishonest.
JIM GROTH TO CVESD: DON'T BOTHER FOLLOWING THE CONTRACT
He actually went to the CVESD district office in 2002 to attend a grievance meeting, just to announce that CVE was NOT supporting the grievance. What was the grievance about? (It looks like friends of CTA may have hacked my website again. I notice there's a black box over the grievance on my web page.) It was simply a demand that the district respond to an earlier grievance. Why didn't CTA want the district to even respond to a teacher's grievance? Because the CTA was helping the district cover up crimes against that teacher. After the meeting, Jim said to me that Rick Werlin just kept digging himself in deeper and deeper. I pointed out that Jim was right down there in the hole with Werlin, shoveling as fast as he could.
Link to video: CVESD's Jim Groth talks to Channel 6 News
March 4 Helix TA, Jim Groth, John Geary
Stand Up for Schools
# Added by Bill Guy on March 4, 2010 at 12:47pm
Here's a march I might join. California Federation of Teacher is a far more democratic group that CTA:
Marching for California's Future
March 5, 2010 at 10am to April 21, 2010 at 12pm –
Beginning at CSU Bakersfield and continuing north through Central Valley The California Federation of Teachers will be joined by the Community College Association, CTA and a diverse coalition of labor, business, education and faith groups on a 48-day "March for California… Organized by California Federation of Teachers and other labor groups
Sunday, March 07, 2010
California suspended credential of Lowell Fred Kamper, who was a favorite of Mountain Empire teachers and who was defended by Patrick Judd
(The link below to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing has been fixed. The information on Mr. Kamper is on page 36 of 46 pages for the June 2007 minutes.)
It's amazing how often CTA and Patrick Judd are on the same side when it comes to protecting bad actors, even though CTA and Judd seem to despise each other the rest of the time. Corruption makes strange bedfellows.
Action
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
KAMPER, Lowell F, Jr. Campo, CA. All certification documents under the jurisdiction of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing are suspended for a period of thirty (30) days for misconduct pursuant to Education Code section 44421, effective immediately.
It's amazing how often CTA and Patrick Judd are on the same side when it comes to protecting bad actors, even though CTA and Judd seem to despise each other the rest of the time. Corruption makes strange bedfellows.
Action
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
KAMPER, Lowell F, Jr. Campo, CA. All certification documents under the jurisdiction of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing are suspended for a period of thirty (30) days for misconduct pursuant to Education Code section 44421, effective immediately.
Chula Vista Educators board of directors becomes an ever smaller club; Jennefer Porch is now Secretary
Jennefer Porch, a teacher at Juarez Lincoln Elementary, was already on the board of directors of Chula Vista Educators when Barbara Dunwoodie mysteriously (perhaps on principle?) resigned her position as Secretary of the corrupt organization. Instead of allowing new blood into the secretive group, Jennefer Porch added the position of Secretary of CVE to her portfolio. Porch joined the board as representative to the State Council in 2008.
Jim Groth, who sits on the statewide CTA board of directors, and Peg Myers, his loyal sidekick, seem to be consolidating their power.
The position of director for CVE Area C seems to remain open ten months after the CVE elections. What's the matter, Jim and Peg? Why is democracy not working at Chula Vista Educators anymore? There was a time when CVE elections resulted in a full slate of officials.
Jim Groth, who sits on the statewide CTA board of directors, and Peg Myers, his loyal sidekick, seem to be consolidating their power.
The position of director for CVE Area C seems to remain open ten months after the CVE elections. What's the matter, Jim and Peg? Why is democracy not working at Chula Vista Educators anymore? There was a time when CVE elections resulted in a full slate of officials.
Calexico union members join in rally denouncing state budget cuts to education
Calexico union members join in rally denouncing state budget cuts to education
By SILVIO J. PANTA, Staff Writer
Imperial Valley Press Online
March 5, 2010
CALEXICO — Members of the Calexico Teachers Association joined scores of educators statewide Thursday to denounce state budget cuts to education.
Wearing yellow “unity” shirts and listening to impassioned speeches about the need to protect education, the CTA members, along with Calexico Unified School District board members Ruben De La Rosa and Gloria Romo, staged their rally behind the Enrique Camarena Memorial Library.
[Maura Larkins comment: Unity is a good thing, but only when it's organized around a good cause. Unity isn't a virtue in itself; after all, one of the best ways to achieve unity is through a dictatorship in which followers are kept ignorant of many essential facts, and intimidated into agreement. (Hmmm. That sounds like the way Jim Groth and Peg Myers run Chula Vista Educators.) Unfortunately, CTA also invokes the need for unity when the cause is to cover up the illegal actions of a group of teachers acting only for their own personal advancement, such as at Castle Park Elemtary in Chula Vista. CTA director Jim Groth has been involved in covering up the teacher actions that led to a $20,000 PTA embezzlement, $100,000s of tax dollars spent on defending teachers, and then a big scandal when the Castle Park Five were transferred out of the school.]
Carmen Durazo, CTA president, said that California is “at a crossroads” for education and said the statewide call asks people to step up and demand that the cuts to education stop.
“It is cutting into the future of our state,” Durazo said.
Last year, 16,000 teachers were laid off statewide, Durazo said. “This year we anticipate another round of layoffs,” Durazo said.
In the past two years, $17 billion was cut from schools and colleges, eliminating art, music and physical education programs in their entirety, according to literature by the California Teachers Association.
Also, 74 percent of school principals surveyed in a University of California, Los Angeles study said they have seen class sizes increase, said Jim Groth, board president of the California Teachers Association.
“California has to reinvest in education,” Groth said.
[Maura Larkins comment: Jim Groth and I are in 100% agreement on this.]
By SILVIO J. PANTA, Staff Writer
Imperial Valley Press Online
March 5, 2010
CALEXICO — Members of the Calexico Teachers Association joined scores of educators statewide Thursday to denounce state budget cuts to education.
Wearing yellow “unity” shirts and listening to impassioned speeches about the need to protect education, the CTA members, along with Calexico Unified School District board members Ruben De La Rosa and Gloria Romo, staged their rally behind the Enrique Camarena Memorial Library.
[Maura Larkins comment: Unity is a good thing, but only when it's organized around a good cause. Unity isn't a virtue in itself; after all, one of the best ways to achieve unity is through a dictatorship in which followers are kept ignorant of many essential facts, and intimidated into agreement. (Hmmm. That sounds like the way Jim Groth and Peg Myers run Chula Vista Educators.) Unfortunately, CTA also invokes the need for unity when the cause is to cover up the illegal actions of a group of teachers acting only for their own personal advancement, such as at Castle Park Elemtary in Chula Vista. CTA director Jim Groth has been involved in covering up the teacher actions that led to a $20,000 PTA embezzlement, $100,000s of tax dollars spent on defending teachers, and then a big scandal when the Castle Park Five were transferred out of the school.]
Carmen Durazo, CTA president, said that California is “at a crossroads” for education and said the statewide call asks people to step up and demand that the cuts to education stop.
“It is cutting into the future of our state,” Durazo said.
Last year, 16,000 teachers were laid off statewide, Durazo said. “This year we anticipate another round of layoffs,” Durazo said.
In the past two years, $17 billion was cut from schools and colleges, eliminating art, music and physical education programs in their entirety, according to literature by the California Teachers Association.
Also, 74 percent of school principals surveyed in a University of California, Los Angeles study said they have seen class sizes increase, said Jim Groth, board president of the California Teachers Association.
“California has to reinvest in education,” Groth said.
[Maura Larkins comment: Jim Groth and I are in 100% agreement on this.]
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