Don Sevrens and the SDUT help Bertha Lopez hide wrongdoing

On August 30, 2008 the San Diego Union Tribune published a sorry excuse for an editorial in its south county edition that includes the following statement:

"We have criticized from time to time Bertha Lopez, a busy individual, for failing to respond to media and public inquiries. We have never criticized her integrity."

This editorial appears to me to be the work of Don Sevrens, who regularly manages to avoid logical consistency in his opinions. In fact, Don Sevrens and the SDUT have been kept well-informed about Bertha Lopez' wrongdoing, but they have kept her secrets for many years. Even when writing about the "Castle Park Five," Sevrens and the SDUT kept quiet about the concurrent court case that involved wrongdoing by Bertha Lopez and the rest of the CVESD board as well as several members of the group of five teachers transferred out of Castle Park Elementary.


Photo taken at Castle Park High School candidate forum October 1, 20008. Bertha Lopez is at right, and candidate Stephanie Alcaraz is at left.


Jaime Mercado and Pearl Quinones October 1, 2008.

Why doesn't city manager Dave Garcia claim executive privilege?

The legislative body of Chula Vista (the city council), spent the evening a couple of days ago examining what they suspected (hoped?) were pictures of Pamela Anderson and other women downloaded from the Internet by the executive branch of Chula Vista, specifically city manager Dave Garcia.

Why didn't Chula Vista's executive branch refuse to turn over the documents? Mayor Cheryl Cox is an expert at keeping secrets, a skill she developed at Chula Vista Elementary School District.

Perhaps Cox needs a review course in how it's done, so I offer the following:


Palin Claims Executive Privilege
Think Progress
Sept. 10, 2008

The Washington Post reports that Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) is “being asked by a local Republican activist to release more than 1,100 e-mails she withheld from a public records request, including 40 that were copied to her husband, Todd.” Invoking a favored practice of the Bush administration, Palin has claimed executive privilege to keep the e-mails secret — despite the fact many of them were sent to Todd, who is not an elected official.

What’s more, Palin and her staff intentionally use her personal Yahoo e-mail account, perhaps to avoid document release requests:

Palin also routinely does government business from a Yahoo address, gov.sarah@yahoo.com, rather than from her secure official state e-mail address, according to documents already made public...

The lawyer filing the request pointed out that the point of government e-mail is to ensure “security and encryption.” “She’s running state business out of Yahoo?” he asked...

Palin’s move is eerily reminiscent of Bush administration ploys to dramatically increase secrecy in government, such as when White House aides switched to personal e-mail accounts to avoid subpoenas during the investigation into U.S. Attorney scandal last year:

"But just a week after E-mails in the U.S. attorneys case became a main focus of congressional Democrats probing the firings, several aides said that they stopped using the White House system except for purely professional correspondence..."

As Josh Marshall pointed out at the time, if the White House was using personal e-mails, “they can’t have even the vaguest claim” to executive privilege [regarding the emails that used the government email]...

Southwestern College administrators Arthur Lopez and Greg Sandoval in sexual harrassment lawsuit

School attorneys in San Diego county don't settle claims. They love the money they get from lawsuits.
By Chris Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE
September 2, 2008

A student services assistant at Southwestern College has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against three administrators, including a vice president.

Martha Jimenez alleges in a suit filed in San Diego Superior Court late last month that she “involuntarily accepted” demands for sex from Arthur Lopez, the director of financial aid. Lopez resigned in June.

According to the lawsuit, Lopez would tell Jimenez during their sexual encounters to remember that her evaluation was coming up and who got Jimenez her job.

Lopez's attorney has denied Jimenez's accusations against his client.

Greg Sandoval, vice president of student affairs, is also named in the suit...

Why was a mild essay about Patrick Judd blanked from my website?

Patrick Judd has a lot of control over the media. He succeeded in keeping the story of my lawsuit against CVESD out of the Chula Vista Star-News (above) and the San Diego Union Tribune.

Now, it seems, he's managed to GET A PASSAGE REMOVED FROM MY PRIVATE WEBSITE!

I have long wondered how sentences, paragraphs and entire pages have suddenly disappeared from my Yahoo website from time to time. Attorney Ljubisa Kostic told me recently (when he was deposing me) that all someone has to do to get something removed is to complain to Yahoo. My guess is that the "someone" has to be a lawyer threatening a lawsuit for defamation. Yahoo hasn't admitted this to me, but Mr. Kostic could be right.

So the question becomes: Why did a particular paragraph or page disappear? Was it offensive? Illegal? Defamatory?

No, apparently that's not necessary. Take for example the following passage that disappeared from my "Seven Happy Clowns" page recently:

Judd says that having even one member
on the board who supports teacher unions
would destroy the board’s “collegiality.”

But what does “collegiality” mean?

In this case, it means that the current
board has agreed to hide its conflicts
from the voters. Important
differences exist between Judd and
the two board members who respect
teachers, Cheryl Cox and Bertha
Lopez. Judd's opponent, Jill Galvez,
would bring MORE collegiality to the
board because she shares the
positive attitudes of the board’s two
most forward-thinking members, Cox
and López.

[Blogger's note: Cheryl Cox and
Bertha Lopez, as it turned out, joined
Judd, Pamela Smith and Larry Cunningham
in a long series of unanimous and
irresponsible decisions. They were not
as forward-thinking as I had imagined.]

School boards who keep secrets DO
NOT benefit taxpayers or children;
they only benefit incumbents.

They conduct trade-off diplomacy: I'll
vote for yours if you'll vote for mine,
and the public will never know what
our disagreements were.

Why not do the RIGHT THING EVERY
TIME??

Probably Mr. Judd genuinely believes
in what he is doing, but his rigidity is
an obstacle to progress in Chula Vista
Elementary School District.

The five-member school board is not
smarter than all the people of Chula
Vista put together.

The decision-making process needs
to become open to all. Does
disagreement result in worse
decisions? No! It results
in BETTER decisions because more
ideas are considered. We need to
hear from educators who DON’T
PLAY POLITICS!

I honestly can't figure out how anybody could convince Yahoo to remove this mild opinion piece.

So I'm back to wondering if friends of Patrick Judd have been hacking my website.

P.S. A few months ago, part of my California Teachers Association webpage was blacked out, as opposed to being blanked out.

A note to Patrick Judd: Teachers play politics with education just like you do. They need leadership to learn collaboration. I suggest you read "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team."

Jaime Mercado, board member of Sweetwater Union High School District

ELECTION UPDATE: NOVEMBER 5, 2008
SWEETWATER UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

JAIME MERCADO v. BERTHA LOPEZ

SWEETWATER UNION HIGH SEAT NO. 4
Precincts Reporting: 100.0%
JAIME MERCADO - 36.29%
BERTHA J. LOPEZ - 42.99%
TRINA LOPEZ - 7.08%
STEPHANIE M. ALCARAZ - 13.64%

Patrick Judd's obedient servant Bertha Lopez will apparently carry the torch to Sweetwater Union High School District. This will give Bertha Lopez' cronies on the CVESD board the opportunity to appoint her replacement, instead of allowing the voters to choose. Obviously, the voters' top choice is ARCHIE MC ALLISTER. The board should either appoint Mr. Mc Allister or hold a new election.






ORIGINAL POST:


I am well-acquainted with Jaime Mercado's most serious opponent in the upcoming SUHSD election, and that familiarity causes me to support Jaime Mercado's candidacy. Bertha Lopez has proven that she can be controlled by those in power, even to the point of agreeing to violate the law with them.

Sweetwater would do well to keep Mr. Mercado.

February 25, 2005
By Pablo Jaime Sainz
Board member says he’s ‘student-oriented’


In January, Jaime Mercado began his first term at Sweetwater School District Board

Jaime Mercado knows the Sweetwater Union High School District right to its core.

He is a former student, teacher’s aid, teacher, assistant principal, principal, and, after winning a tight election in November, a board member...

But it is his new role as a board member what he considers to be his most important period at the district, because he said he now can take part in the decisions being made...

Mercado has always been critical of the district’s administration, and during his campaign he said he would always vote in favor of the interests of students, even if it meant going against the current...

Mercado said that he has three main points he would like to tackle during his term:

1. District is top-heavy with administration: Mercado proposes the reorganization of administration in order to achieve positive changes in the district.


2. Classroom space: Mercado said the district needs more classrooms, so he is in favor of building more. “I’m very vocal about this issue,” he said.


3. L Street District headquarters: Mercado said he is completely against the proposed building of the District headquarters on L Street. “As long as students don’t have a proper environment for learning and teachers don’t have the right resources for teaching, the district’s leadership doesn’t deserve the privilege to have new offices,” Mercado said. “I don’t believe it’s right to take money away from the classrooms and invest it in office space.”

Lowell Billings on board of Accelerated Charter School that hired Patrick Judd as consultant

Patrick Judd and Lowell Billings: old friendships never die?

For many months school districts all over southern California have been doing Google searches for mysteriously retired superintendent Pat Judd of Mountain Empire School District. They all decided against him--except for a small charter school in Los Angeles.

It seems there's always a charter school with interesting board members who will give a job to a guy who has left his job under suspicious circumstances.

Judd is now a consultant at Accelerated Charter School in Los Angeles.

I looked at the school's web page and was taken aback to see that one of the trustees is none other than Lowell Billings, who is superintendent of Chula Vista Elementary School District in San Diego county, where Patrick Judd sits on the board.

What is Lowell Billings doing on the board of a charter school in Los Angeles, you may ask? It turns out that the world of education is a small one, which helps explain a lot of things, including the lack of new ideas.

I was chagrined, but not surprised, to also find that Charles Oppenheim, of the law firm Foley & Lardner, is on the board. Education attorney firms are given huge amounts of money to protect the status quo in education.

Judd is being paid as a consultant, and he's acting the only way he knows how to act: lots of hostility, little insight. Judd once memorably stated that we've known for a hundred years how to educate kids. This is a man firmly planted in the early 1900's. Apparently he hasn't noticed that kids have changed.


Reports have already started coming out of Accelerated Charter School about Patrick Judd's shenanigans.

Patrick Judd causing problems at Accelerated Charter School in Los Angeles

Thank you to Jill who answered my question about Pat Judd:

"Patrick Judd has moved on to The Accelerated Charter School in Los Angeles. Quite obviously they were not one of the many who did a google search on him.

"In the first week so far he has made a horrible environment for everyone, using a strong arm approach and blaming teachers for all previous problems. He has made it clear that things will be very negative this year, and that teachers are the main cause of any problems at a pretty good school. Everything he does sets a tone for an angry staff, and I do foresee new lawsuits to arise from his inappropriate behavior.

"They must have been nuts to let this guy into another school. He is pulling a consulting fee so that he still gets his retirement package. He has no business around any school, at any time."

I was wondering how Judd got this job, and I quickly found the answer.

No laptops, just lapdogs, for Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox

Cheryl Cox’s May 28, 2008 memo to City Manager David Garcia is chock-full of pettiness and hypocrisy. Her directives make no sense, except as an effort to harass Mr. Garcia:

Cheryl Cox: “Do not use your personal laptop in your office.”

This is nitpicking, overbearing interference. Cox sounds like she’s reverted to her days as an elementary school teacher. But was she that unreasonable when dealing with children? Show some respect, Mrs. Cox.


Cheryl Cox: “While we appreciate that you often work long hours and you are entitled to take time off, this time off should primarily be spent out of the office.”

That directive is harmful to the City of Chula Vista, Ms. Cox. When the City Manager spends time in the office when he could rightfully be on the beach, he is available to deal with emergencies and routine questions and issues that come up, whether from another employee or a member of the public.

HERE’S WHERE CHERYL COX’S HYPOCRISY GOES TO THE TOP OF THE CHART:

Cheryl Cox: “You are reminded that retaliation against any City employee... is a violation…”

Cheryl Cox is a big fan of retaliation, particularly that carried out by the Director of Human Resources as directed by the public entity’s attorney. As a Chula Vista Elementary School District board member, she violated California Labor Code 1105.2 by firing an employee for filing grievances and a lawsuit.

Cheryl Cox: “However, you should understand that your failure to abide by [the rules]… may result in the termination of your employment.”

If Cheryl Cox were held responsible for her violations of the laws of California, she’d be out of a job. Yet she wants to fire the City Manager for using his personal laptop computer in his office?

Cheryl Cox: “We share your hope that these steps will bring these matters to a close.”

I don’t believe Cheryl is telling the truth here. I think she wants to fire Garcia because he’s too honest and open, two traits she neither shares nor approves of. It seems Cheryl wants to replace a laptop with a lapdog.

When Teachers Abuse Power by Heather Johnson

When Teachers Abuse Power

"Teaching is a noble profession, one that demands a great deal of patience and flexibility. A teacher plays different roles in the lives of students; besides giving them an education, they also act as guides and mentors. Children spend most of their waking hours at school, which is why it’s important for teachers to be accessible to the students not just as educators but also as a friend. While there are some teachers who live in your memory as the ones that did make a huge positive impact, there are others who are remembered for reasons that are both shameful and a disgrace to the field of education as a whole.

"Teachers are given a degree of power over the students they teach – they are trusted by both the school authorities and the children’s parents to use that power judiciously and for the general good of the children. But there are some bad eggs who give the entire teaching fraternity a bad name; they’re the ones who use their position and authority for their own purposes, some more horrendous than others.

"We routinely hear of teachers sexually abusing children in their care; some of them are so perverted that they film their dirty deeds and sell them for profits. As if this were not enough, they hold the threat of bad grades over their students’ heads if they tell anyone what happened. Statistics state that around 5 percent of teachers and coaches abuse minors, but this is not a true reflection of the state of events. The number of incidents that are unreported are much more than those that are. Most students are afraid to come out in the open fearing the repercussions – the ostracism from their peers, the future of their education and the effect the media impact would have on their lives and that of their loved ones.

"Abuse need not be sexual to be detrimental to the well-being of students – some teachers send children on the wrong path by encouraging them to smoke, drink and do drugs. Others play favorites in a blatant manner, with the students who are affected being powerless to do anything to bring the offenders to book.

The reason that such incidents are widespread is that most students look up to their teachers and are willing to go to any lengths so that they are not disappointed in them. A subtle word here and a small hint there are enough to make these immature minds fall prey to the more cunning brains of their educators. The only way to prevent this from happening to your child is to educate him/her in the ways of the world and warn them of the dangers that could befall them if they are not careful. Parents must play an active role in every aspect of their children’s lives and encourage them to report any untoward incident, no matter how trivial it may seem."


This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who writes on the subject of BestCollegesOnline.com. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

Education in Chula Vista is a game for insiders like Greg Sandoval

The story excerpted below comes from Southwestern College, but there was a story recently in Voice of San Diego about a similar situation at San Diego Unified School District. It seems that education is lucrative for insiders all over San Diego county.

3 college trustees boycott over Sandoval agenda item
By Chris Moran
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 15, 2008

"Greg Sandoval, the college vice president, resigned after an employee filed a sexual harassment claim against him. He tried to rescind his resignation days later but was rebuffed by the community college district's superintendent and president, Raj Chopra.

"A proposal to extend a Southwestern College vice president's job through January – which would qualify him for lifetime medical benefits – was rushed onto the board's agenda this week so quickly that the college president wasn't informed.

"While Chopra was out of town last weekend, board President David Agosto put an item on Wednesday's agenda that, if approved, would have extended Sandoval's job through January, after he turns 55, and would qualify him for lifetime medical benefits from the college.

"The extension was not acted on because three trustees boycotted the meeting at which it was to be discussed over concerns about how the item made it on the agenda. They asked for a formal report on the matter by next month.

"“In my 35 years as an administrator, I have not seen one time an agenda item changed the way (this) did,” Chopra said.

"Sandoval has worked for Southwestern for 32 years, and he resigned in June after he was accused of sexual harassment in a claim filed against the college by an employee. The board rejected the claim. Sandoval's resignation is effective Sept. 30...

"College policy calls for the superintendent/president to prepare the agenda in consultation with the board president..."

Parents wrestled control of Locke High School away from the teachers union

Los Angeles Unified School District and the UTLA teachers union fought hard against Green Dot charter schools taking over Locke High School in Watts.

But the parents won.

Locke will open its doors this fall as a Green Dot charter school.



Parents Force Charter Takeover of L.A. High School
by Claudio Sanchez
Morning Edition
December 17, 2007

Locke High School is, by all accounts, among the worst high schools in Los Angeles. It's in Watts, one of the city's most treacherous, gang-infested neighborhoods. The school is overcrowded and on the brink of an academic melt-down.

Earlier this year, parents and half of the school's faculty revolted, forcing the school district to do something it has never done before: turn over Locke High to a private group of reformers. When that takeover happens next summer some teachers know they won't be rehired. Others don't plan to stay...

A loss for Beverly Tucker and California Teachers Association: child-molesting teachers lose credentials

The California Teachers Association's efforts to protect child molesting teachers from losing the right to teach have come to nothing. Beverly Tucker, the chief counsel for CTA, has lost her long battle.

Calif. lawmakers close teacher license loopholes
By JULIET WILLIAMS - Associated Press
August 12, 2008
SACRAMENTO

The state Assembly approved two bills Tuesday designed to close loopholes in California's teacher licensing laws that had allowed some teachers accused or even convicted of serious crimes to remain in the classroom.

The legislation would allow the state to revoke licenses from teachers who plead no contest to certain sex crimes or drug offenses or have had their licenses revoked in another state.

The bills by Sen. Bob Margett, R-Arcadia, and Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, were prompted by an Associated Press investigation last year into sexual misconduct by teachers.

The AP's investigation in California confirmed at least 313 cases in which teachers were punished for sexual misconduct from 2000 to 2005.

That included dozens involving pleas of no contest, a common legal agreement that allows a defendant to avoid a trial or civil liability but still leads to conviction.

An analysis by the California Teacher Credentialing Commission following AP's report found that about two-thirds of the educators who face revocation or other serious action are convicted following a plea of no contest to a serious offense.

That triggered a discretionary review by the commission rather than the mandatory loss of teachers' licenses, a process that can sometimes take two or three years.

Margett's bill also targets another problem. Under current law, the results of misconduct allegations are sealed by the credentialing commission after one year. That restricts the ability of school administrators to confirm a teaching candidate's complete record if they learn later that the applicant lied about his or her background.

Margett's legislation makes the records available for five years instead of one...

Some light reading for Lowell Billings: Teachers who bully

For many years CVESD superintendent Lowell Billings has known that bilingual students at Castle Park Elementary were abused by a group of teachers that was hostile to the bilingual program.

Billings has covered up the truth about those teachers.

A new study by Alan McEvoy comes to a worrisome conclusion:

"Perhaps the most troubling finding of this investigation is perceived institutional collusion through inaction when bullying incidents are known. The apparent absence of policies and procedures to address the problem should give us pause. The many caring educators who must tend to the casualties of abusive colleagues whose egregious conduct goes unchecked can only place a serious damper on school climate and morale..."

China, CVESD and Stutz law firm have similar ideas about freedom of speech

As I have explained elsewhere in this blog, CVESD and Stutz, Artiano Shinoff and Holtz are trying to hide the truth about themselves. So is China:

Journalists Say China Is Not Living Up To Openness Pledge

By Maureen Fan
Washington Post

Sunday, August 3, 2008;
"...Chinese authorities and the Western news media apparently have different understandings of "complete freedom." Sun Weida, a spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee, and Liu Jianchao, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, suggested recently that reporters did not actually need to visit blocked Web sites to do their jobs. Sun was surrounded by a mob of reporters after a news conference, and when he insisted that the Internet was free and open in China, some of them shouted, "That's not true!" ...

Is Pat Judd coming or going?

Someone at the San Diego County Office of Education asked yesterday, "Where did Pat Judd go?"

The answer seems to be "nowhere," although it's not for lack of trying. At the same time that Judd claims to be preparing to run for yet another term as CVESD trustee, he seems to be applying for jobs in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Would he commute from Bonita if he got one of those jobs? Not likely.

Today the folks in Trabuco Canyon were checking up on him. Trabuco Canyon is in Orange County, and is served by Saddleback and Capistrano school districts. Maybe these folks are considering Judd for this position:

Capistrano Unified School District
Executive Director I, Fiscal Services
Posted: 6/20/2008 - Deadline: Until Filled
Classified Staff
6/20/2008 Capistrano Unified, San Juan Capistrano
Orange County $103,385 to $125,665 depending on experience and background

Whoa! I just went back to the job posting, and it's been removed! Maybe they decided on Pat Judd as soon as they read all about his exploits. Who wouldn't love an administrator who spends $100,000s of tax dollars to cover up wrongdoing? This is a man who will protect the status quo and the people in power come hell or high water. And whose business is it why he stopped working at his old job? Pat Judd is too discreet to go around passing out that kind of information. Good luck on the pay scale, Pat. We're rooting for you.

CVESD teachers who are lawyers want to know: "Can I use esquire after my name?"

Mary Elizabeth "Mimi" Carr had no trouble deciding that she would sign her name with an "Esquire" at the end, but other CVESD teacher-lawyers aren't so sure. Here's some authoritative information for them.

The Straight Dope Science Advisory Board says:

ESQUIRE

Now you might ask: what allows one to use this title? Is there a ceremony? Is it conferred by a university? Is it just some affectation that snob-nosed folks use? Can I be Joe Blow, Esq. just because I like the ring to it? Or do I need to get authorization, and if so from what? from where?

The answer is that any snob in the world (or at least in the U.S.) can use the title...

Now of course in England there's this whole business about hereditary nobility and getting knighted and all that, so it might be a little risky to start calling yourself esquire there. (Although what's going to happen? The Snob Cops arrest you?)

But we're not in England, we're in America! The land of the free, the home of the brave! You can call yourself anything you want ... although you do take the risk that you will be thought a snooty jerk.

Since this has never bothered lawyers, they have gotten into the habit of calling each other esquire. This is a little like elected officials addressing each other as "honorable," which to me seems a classic case of advertising something after it's gone. But I digress.

Among lawyers, it's thought pretentious if you sign yourself "Esq." in written communications but you are supposed to dignify other lawyers with the appellation... even if you never saw the inside of a law school there's nothing to prevent you from calling yourself esquire ... except the fact that you might be thought a lawyer.

CVESD still using illegal tactics to silence critics?

"...When you work for the public, as I have, you are required to be honest and serve the public..."
By Flo Samuels, Hayward, July 24, 2008 Voice of San Diego


I recently discovered what appears to be a connection between Chula Vista Elementary School District and the lawsuit by their lawyers (Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz) to stop me from publishing my website.

It is illegal for a public entity to sue for defamation.

I suspect that CVESD superintendent Lowell Billings (at left in above photo), and (next to Billings in above photo) board members David Bejarano, Pam Smith, Patrick Judd, Bertha Lopez and Larry Cunningham know this very well. So why don't they operate in an above-board manner, and file a lawsuit against me as individuals?

First, I imagine they don't want to give me a chance to prove my allegations in court.

Second, they are accustomed to having the taxpayers foot the bill for their legal representation.

Stutz attorney Ljubisa Kostic denied that he made an uncustomary and lengthy visit to my website and blogs the day after I participated in a meeting at Castle Park Elementary school. Unfortunately for Mr. Kostic, I was able to match the IP address of his laptop, which he used during my deposition, to the May 28, 2008 visit. That same laptop had made very rare, and usually very short, visits prior to that date.

To top it all off, Kostic issued a Notice of Deposition to me on the very next day (May 29, 2008). He could have done this at anytime during the previous 8 months, and there is no reason to think he would have done it on that day except to retaliate on behalf of CVESD for my public appearance.

This appears to be yet another case of illegal involvement by CVESD in the justice system (see also CVESD's bizarre and successful effort to protect Stutz law firm from obstruction of justice claims), and an effort by CVESD to use intimidation to interfere with my right to free speech.

JULY 2008: New board members for Chula Vista Educators

Chula Vista Educators Board of Directors
JULY 2008
(Here is list of members of the board that was replaced.)


President 07-09
State Council 06-09
Peggie Myers
cvepresident@yahoo.com
Full-Release CVE Office 427-1063


Vice President 07-09
Monica Sorenson
Liberty Elementary School 397-5225
VP Monica Sorenson has taken over the remainder of Allan Insko's term as PAR chair (see below).

Treasurer 07-09
Nancy Potts
npotts@cox.netValley Vista Elementary
479-7171 Ext. 5339


State Council 07-10
CTA Board
JAMES GROTH
jgroth@cta.org


Secretary 07-09
Barbara Dunwoodie
monagin@cox.net
Hilltop 422-8323 Ext.3333


State Council 08-11--NEW!!
Jennefer Porch
Juarez-Lincoln 269-3620


PAR Chair 06-09
VP Monica Sorenson
took over for Allan Insko in the middle of this term
(appointed?)


Area Director A 08-10--NEW!!
Maureen Mcnair
Veterans 479-0571


Area Director B 07-08
Norma Pacheco-Davis
pachecodavis@yahoo.com
Los Altos 690-5880 Ext. 3848


Area Director C 08-10--NEW!!
Tim Kriss
Salt Creek 397-5494


Area Director D 08-10
OPEN

Area Director E 08-10--NEW!!
Jena Ritchey
Juarez-Lincoln 269-3620


Bargaining Chair 07-09
OPEN

Executive Director Mary Ellen Berumen
[New executive director]
mberumen@cta.org
427-1063 Ext 205
[Berumen replaced Tim O'Neill, who worked closely with Jim Groth and Gina Boyd to cover up crimes at Castle Park Elementary School.]

CVESD lawyers Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz v. Maura Larkins trial February 2009

Stutz law firm asked the court on July 25, 2008 to delay the trial for their lawsuit against me for defamation.

One would think they'd be in a hurry to stop me if I'm truly defaming them.

Either my site isn't really hurting them, or Stutz law firm is tacitly admitting that what I say is true.


The November trial date selected by the court was changed to February 6, 2009.

The Stutz lawyer also said that a court-ordered settlement conference "would not be fruitful." The judge looked at him and said, "Well, then you'll just have to work it out yourselves."

CVESD case discussed in "White Chalk Crime"

A new book mentions CVESD's illegal actions against Maura Larkins.

From "White Chalk Crime" by Karen Horwitz (page 596)

"California NAPTA member Maura Larkins corroborates this point when she commented on my legal case and discussed the abuse used to silence her: If you had done what I did, which was to refuse to come back to work until there was an investigation, I guarantee you would have been dismissed for refusing to come to work. They were delighted that I wasn't at work for an entire year--UNTIL I FILED SUIT.

"Then they claimed they had wanted me to be at work for that entire year. In fact, my dismissal specifically stated that by filing grievances, tort claims and a lawsuit, I had shown myself to be "unforgiving," an "irremediable character defect"!

"Once they target you, neither the truth nor the law matters. I love having the above statement about why I was fired in writing. It's a clear violation of the Constitution as well as state law. Can you believe that they openly and brazenly fired me for filing grievances, tort claims, and a lawsuit?"

CVESD paid $100,000s of tax dollars to obtain this decision and cover up the truth in the case. Attorney Daniel Shinoff, who was in charge of litigation for CVESD in San Diego Superior Court, wanted the case decided in the Office of Administrative Hearings. Attorney Mark Bresee pulled the job off with the help of phony documents.