Search committee for the new CVESD superintendent

Here's the search committee for the new CVESD superintendent:


Superintendent Search Committee

Russell Y. Coronado (Board)
Larry Cunningham (Board)
Matt Tessier (Principal)
Peg Myers (CVE)
Ernie Gutierrez (CVCEO)
Lourdes Valdez (Community Leader)
Glendora Tremper (Parent Leader)

An offer to Robin Donlan and Peg Myers

Dear Robin and Peg,
I think we should have a truth and reconciliation meeting. I believe that the truth about what happened at Castle Park Elementary will continue to extend its reach (skeletons have a habit of falling out of closets), so why not let the district and the teachers union quit spending money covering it up, and just deal with it openly and honestly? Everyone would be happier, I believe.
Maura Larkins

Cheryl Cox's supporters will do just about anything to win, it seems; Steve Castaneda cleared of charges

Castaneda cleared of charges
Campaign finance complaints against Chula Vista councilman tossed
By Tanya Sierra
San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 25, 2010

CHULA VISTA — An independent investigation into claims that Chula Vista City Councilman Steve Castaneda violated campaign financing laws dating back six years has found the complaints lacked merit and were politically motivated.

Julia Sylvia, the Los Angeles attorney looking into the matter, deemed the charges against Castaneda “unsubstantiated innuendo, arguments and allegations.”

Angel T. Castillo, a Chula Vista resident who once served on a homeowners association board with Castaneda, filed complaints in November and December alleging multiple campaign violations in 2004, 2006 and 2008. He claimed Castaneda should be prosecuted and forced to pay $472,679 in fines.

Castillo, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, alleged that Castaneda misreported campaign expenses in 2004; violated personal financing limits in 2005; and did not declare postelection expenses in 2006. The allegations also state that contributions from a former business partner exceeded what is allowed under campaign laws.

Castaneda, who is running for mayor in the June primary, said in a City Hall news conference that he knew he would be cleared. He charged Castillo with regurgitating issues that had been settled.

Silva agreed.

“A majority of the allegations in the complaint have been thoroughly investigated by other public agencies; namely the Fair Political Practices Commission,” she wrote. “The FPPC has concluded that there is no conflict of interest and there is not violation of the Political Reform Act by the candidate.”...

Good news for 160 Chula Vista teachers: they're not going to be fired after all !

KPBS reporter Ana Tintocalis




I'm guessing that in the story below Ana Tintocalis meant to say that Jim Groth is on leave from his job as a teacher in CVESD. In fact, Mr. Groth works full time for the teachers union. But perhaps he didn't make this clear to Ms. Tintocalis.

Chula Vista Teachers Keep Jobs But Others Not So Lucky
By Ana Tintocalis
KPBS
May 19, 2010

Chula Vista Elementary School District officials told about 160 of its teachers they were out of a job at the end of the school year. But school officials rescinded all those pink slips on Monday.

School officials say the district's budget improved based on the Governor's May Revise released last week.

Jim Groth is with the California Teachers Association. He's also a teacher in Chula Vista.

"Obviously it's good news for the students of Chula Vista because they will be having their teachers return to the classroom. And that's what we're all about." Groth said.

But other teachers in San Diego County will get official pink slips this month. They were first notified that they could lose their jobs in March.

The California Teachers Association says Oceanside Unified is laying off 60 teachers. The Sweetwater Union High School District in the South Bay will layoff about 30 teachers. And San Ysidro will layoff more than 20 teachers.

Hundreds of temporary teachers around the county will not get their contracts renewed. The CTA reports 112 temporary teachers in the San Diego Unified District will not return.

Who destroyed Castle Park Elementary? It was a cooperative effort by the district and the teachers union

I was shocked and disappointed to learn that the school I attended as a child and worked at as an adult has gone down hill so rapidly since I left it in 2001.

Castle Park Elementary has the lowest API score in Chula Vista Elementary School District. This wasn't always the case.

When I was there, scores were well above the bottom despite the low socio-economic level of the neighborhood. Then current Chula Vista Educators president Peg Myers began clawing her way up the ladder to power with the help of a group of teachers that had been sowing discord before Peg arrived. Peg got lots of help from Jim Groth, who is now a statewide CTA director, and Beverly Tucker, the head legal counsel of California Teachers Association.

Castle Park Elementary Chula Vista Elementary 754

A small group of teachers chewed up and spit out a long string of principals and good teachers. The goal was power for their group, not education for children. The district supported Robin Donlan, Karen Snyder, Peg Snyder and their associates until it realized in 2004 that the teachers were out of control. Then the district ended up hiring lawyers to defend itself against the teachers that it had spent $100,000s of tax dollars defending. Shame on Larry Cunningham and Pamela Smith for knowingly defending teachers who had committed crimes.

I notice that the enrollment at Castle Park Elementary has gone down to 312. It appears that everyone who is able to do so finds another school to go to.

The school had 11 principals in 11 years before the current principal was asked to try to make some sense out of the wreckage. I suggest a Truth and Reconciliation Committee for the school--and the district. Problems need to be fixed, not hidden, as Lowell Billings has done.


Were teachers "blindly-led"?

Here's a quote from an AOL News article about the Tonya Craft case:
"It's divided the community between those who are intelligent and can think for themselves and those who are blindly led," local resident Harmony Lefler told AOL News. "It's horrible to say that, but it is the truth."



THE PROBLEM IS CALLED "BRIGHT-FLIGHT," AND THE ANGRY TEACHERS AT CASTLE PARK ELEMENTARY ACCELERATED IT

'Bright flight' fight
Castle Park Middle School students get help from teachers to stay there
By Chris Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 3, 2007

Smart kids grow up in Chula Vista's Castle Park area, attend the neighborhood elementary schools and then leave for other parts of town for seventh grade.

This academic diaspora is so persistent and troubling that Sweetwater Union High School District educators have given it a name: “bright flight.”

A federal law intended to help low-scoring schools such as Castle Park Middle School appears to have accelerated the brain drain. The No Child Left Behind Act gives parents the option to send their children to higher-scoring schools when their neighborhood school doesn't make the grade.

This school year, the families of 168 students used No Child Left Behind to leave Castle Park Middle School. That coincides with a plunge in the number of students in the school's advanced academic program. There are about one-third fewer seventh-graders in the school's fledgling International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme than there were last year...

Chula Vista cuts nearly 160 elementary teachers

The teachers being laid off at CVESD are not the least-capable teachers. Why not? Because neither the union nor the administration wants to evaluate teachers effectively, which would be the first step in such an endeavor. Shame on the board and Peg Myers, president of Chula Vista Educators for refusing to allow accurate evaluations of teachers' ability and performance.

Chula Vista cuts nearly 160 elementary teachers
FOX 5 San Diego
May 12, 2010

The Chula Vista Elementary School District decided Tuesday night to send pink slips to nearly 160 teachers and will cut pay for the remaining teachers by 3 percent to deal with a $15.2 million budget deficit.

In March, the district issued 422 preliminary pink slips to faculty members across the district. Later, that number was reduced to 218. Tuesday's decision reduced the number of job cuts again. District officials said they must cut positions to balance the budget.

"We're faced with 160 now, that's a 160 too many," said Anthony Millican, a spokesperson for Chula Vista Elementary School District. "However we're put in this position because of the state's budget process."

The people expected to be let go in June are Kindergarten through 6th grade teachers, along with 10 school psychologists and 10 assistant principals.

Peg Myers, the Chula Vista Educators President, asked the board Tuesday night to reconsider saving the remaining 218 pink slipped positions.

"By May 15, they have to have the final layoff notices handed out to the teachers," said Myers.

These jobs may be saved if the district receives more than $7 million in federal stimulus funds...

Top Chula Vista cop, partner in dispute; Police chief co-owns security company

Somebody's being unreasonable here, and it's hard to know who it is. Perhaps Art Moreno figured a huge windfall had ended up in his lap when Bejarano was chosen as Chula Vista's top cop. The new job means Bejarano must give up the company. Bejarano says either his partner pays for his half or the company should be dissolved.


Top Chula Vista cop, partner in dispute
Police chief co-owns security company
By Tanya Sierra
San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE
May 7, 2010

In addition to being Chula Vista’s police chief, where he earns an annual salary of $187,000, David Bejarano is involved in a number of other activities. Among them:

• Chula Vista Elementary School District trustee

• Co-owner of Presidential Security Services

• Vibra Bank board member

• South Bay Community Services board member

• Consultant for personal injury law firm Tatro & Zamoyski

CHULA VISTA — A business partner has accused Chula Vista Police Chief David Bejarano of writing fraudulent checks on the private security firm’s account, an allegation that the city forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office.

City policy prohibits police officers from owning or working for private security firms in Chula Vista, and Bejarano’s efforts to dissociate himself from Chula Vista-based Presidential Security are at the root of the business partners’ dispute.

Bejarano co-owns Presidential Security Services with former Donovan State Prison guard Art Moreno. Bejarano stepped down as president of the company in August when he became police chief. About that time, he also curtailed his duties at the firm and wanted his name removed from advertising, marketing and other public material...

Bejarano’s lawyer, Joseph Casas, said the chief is the victim of a smear campaign. He added that his client’s name was removed from bank records without proper authority...

The corporation’s board of directors is composed of Moreno and his wife, Colleen, and Bejarano and his wife, Esperanza.

Bejarano, a former San Diego police chief, has filed suit in San Diego Superior Court to disband the company. In the suit, Bejarano alleges that Moreno and his wife “repeatedly breached their fiduciary duties and wrongfully acted in their own self-interest.”...

Presidential continues to pay David Bejarano a salary. Last year, he earned $73,820 with the firm and charged about $15,000 on a company credit card, Moreno said.

City Attorney Bart Miesfeld said as long as Bejarano is trying to cut his ties with the company, and as long as his responsibilities there do not interfere with his duties as police chief, he is not violating city policy that prohibits a police officer from working for or having a financial interest in a private police agency in the city.

Simon Mayeski, a member of California Common Cause’s San Diego chapter, questioned that assessment.

“I wonder why the city attorney is trying to write around this regulation, which sounds like a reasonable and necessary restriction,” Mayeski said. “It opens up way too many questions and puts the chief in a less-than-perfect position going about his business.”

Common Cause is a nonprofit that says it strives for an “open, honest and accountable government.”

Presidential Security has a number of contracts to provide security guards for Chula Vista businesses, including two shelters run by South Bay Community Services, where Bejarano serves as a board member.

City Councilmen Rudy Ramirez and Steve Castaneda said Thursday that Bejarano should have left Presidential Security by now.

“There should have been a specific timeline in which he had to divest himself from that business,” Castaneda said.

Mayor Cheryl Cox said she backs Sandoval and Miesfeld.

“I’m confident that the city manager and city attorney have done their due diligence,” she said.

[Due diligence? Does Cheryl Cox have any idea what that means? When she was a CVESD trustee, she helped make sure that no investigation was ever done regarding a 2001 report by two teachers that they believed there might be a mass shooting at Castle Park Elementary. At the same time, the district specifically claimed it had done its due diligence.]

Meanwhile, the future of Presidential Security and its 40 employees remains unclear.

After Bejarano was hired as police chief, he suggested to Moreno that they divide the company, according to an September e-mail exchange provided by Moreno.

“It can be done quickly, with minimal costs and you and your family can operate your share any way you want and my wife will operate our share,” Bejarano wrote to Moreno in a Sept. 28 e-mail.

Moreno said Bejarano should sell his interest in the company.

“Our last offer to him was $50,000, and we never heard back from him,” Moreno said.

Casas, Bejarano’s attorney, said Moreno has not made a serious offer.

“Mr. Moreno can put an offer on the table to us, which he has yet to do in any meaningful way,” Casas said.

A court date on Bejarano’s suit to disband the company has not been set.

CVESD Superintendent Lowell Billings to retire

Photo (left to right): Russell Coronado (new), Superintendent Lowell Billings, Larry Cunningham, Pamela Smith, David Bejarano (new), Doug Luffborough (new)



Chula Vista Elementary School District superintendent Lowell Billings will retire in December of this year. Here is his letter announcing his retirement.

It remains to be seen whether there will be any real changes at the district, or if this is merely a matter of personal preferences. Billings and the long time board members developed a lot of personal loyalty to each other during years when the district was involved in some expensive wrongdoing. But will the new board look for new lawyers and start obeying the law and the contract? That is what reformers hope for, of course, but political office changes people. Officials often start with the best of intentions, but end up protecting their incumbency instead of their principles.

Billings notes that Peter Baron Stark will help in the search for a replacement.

Peter Barron Stark knows CVESD pretty well. He actually was called in to help when teachers at Castle Park Elementary started going out of control in the mid 1990's (before I myself became a teacher at the school).

Mr. Stark failed to bring about any meaningful understanding or system for communication at the school. Within a few years, the district was paying $100,000s in legal bills to defend teachers who decided to destroy the school rather than give up the power their clique had achieved. The clique pretty much wagged the dog. Assistant superintendents Richard Werlin and Lowell Billings agreed to the demands of these teachers even when they demanded that the district violate the contract and the law. Then Billings tried to establish control over the school in 2004, but it was too late. The Castle Park Five got the local media to portray Billings as a power-hungry egomaniac.

Billings will be remembered for his mishandling of the Ana Stover case and the Danielle Cozaihr case, as well as my case, the Maura Larkins case. See web page.

My sympathies to Pamela Smith and Larry Cunningham, board members who worked so closely with Mr. Billings.

Recall against Southwestern College board members started

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.

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...

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

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.

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.

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.]

School Districts Push For Teacher Pay Cuts During Contract Talks

Are teacher unions the same as other unions? No. Public entity unions need to achieve a balance between the wishes of teachers and the wishes of their employers, the public. Most labor unions don't have such a conflict; they are negotiating with private corporations.



School Districts Push For Teacher Pay Cuts During Contract Talks
By Ana Tintocalis
February 17, 2010

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego and Vista unified school districts are trying to negotiate new labor contracts with their teachers unions while they push for teacher pay cuts.

Crowds of teachers have disrupted San Diego and Vista school board meetings recently because of stalled contract negotiations and proposed budget cuts.

Teachers in both districts are angry officials want to cut their salary as their unions struggle to hammer out new labor contracts.

Vista Unified wants teachers to take a 2 percent pay cut and five furlough days. San Diego Unified is calling for an 8 percent pay cut.

The proposed cuts are making contract negotiations even more hostile. In fact, a state mediator is now leading talks in Vista.

Jim Groth is with the California Teachers Association. He says an increasing number of school districts are offering aggressive contract proposals so they can balance their budgets.

“Yes, we (teachers unions) are very aware of the economy and what is going on out there. But we want the districts to look at all options before they are going to make those cuts to the classroom.”

The Chula Vista Elementary School District is also considering pay cuts. All public school districts have to finalize their budgets by summer.

Demoted Sweetwater Schools Official Karen Janney Could Run

See all Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) posts.

Demoted Sweetwater Schools Official Could Run
February 3, 2010
Voice of San Diego

A popular school official who was jilted by Sweetwater Union High School District may vie for a spot on its board -- a move that could put her in charge of the superintendent who demoted her.

Karen Janney, formerly an assistant superintendent in Sweetwater, was demoted to a lower position which she declined, costing her job at Sweetwater last year. Her exit brought an outpouring of anger from longtime employees who praised her as a smart and caring leader and criticized Superintendent Jesus Gandara for the move.

Now she is exploring a run for the school board this fall. Janney filed an official statement of her intent to run at the end of January. She was reluctant to talk about her potential run.

"It's just so early," Janney said. "But I'm very strongly considering it. I feel like I could make a difference."

Sweetwater trustees are elected at large and can choose which seat to run for; Janney said she has not decided which school board member she wants to run against. Board members Jim Cartmill, Arlie Ricasa and Greg Sandoval are up for re-election this fall.

-- EMILY ALPERT

New Years Resolution for Mayor Cheryl Cox

Bonnie Dumanis just got through insisting that the tax dollars wasted on her preposterous prosecution of Steve Castaneda were NOT spent to help her pal Cheryl Cox.

It looks like Cheryl and her friends have decided to use the resources of the City of Chula Vista to try to start a new prosecution. Angel Castillo and Jenna Anderson seem to be the pawns of some mystery person.

TEZOZOMOC SPEAKS
Jan 8, 2010
La Prensa
Es tiempo por New Year’s Resolutions:

For Mayor Cheryl Cox: the resolve to run for re-election based on her accomplishments and not on some out of town attorney digging up dirty on her main opponent… by the way, what is the running total on that bill. The LA attorney has been reviewing those Castañeda files for some time now… what is it, $200 dollars an hour??? Nothing brings a smile to an attorney, or a consultant, like an open check book.



Investigation of Castaneda moves forward
By Tanya Sierra, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 8, 2010

CHULA VISTA — An outside attorney hired to look into allegations that Chula Vista Councilman and mayoral candidate Steve Castaneda violated campaign laws in 2004, 2006 and 2008 said yesterday she has verified proper procedures were followed to file the complaint and will now analyze the merits of the case.

Julia Sylva, who has been investigating the Castaneda complaint since November, said she verified that the man who filed the complaint is a Chula Vista resident.

The Chula Vista municipal code requires that a campaign contribution complaint be filed in writing and by a resident of the city. Now that the Los Angeles attorney has verified those details, she will delve into the allegations.

“It’s pretty complex,” she said yesterday without citing specifics. “I’m going to need at least a month.”

On Nov. 18, Angel T. Castillo, who once lived in the same Chula Vista condominium complex as Castaneda, filed a thick complaint against him.

Castillo has not returned multiple calls seeking an interview about his complaint, and the city has not released a copy.

Castaneda said he has not spoken with Castillo since 2003 and does not know why six years later he would file a complaint. “I don’t think I’ve even ever run into him since I moved out of that place,” Castaneda said.

He said he and Castillo were at odds over landscaping of the condominium complex they both lived in.

According to the city, there is no record of Castillo ever having made a public records request for Castaneda’s campaign statements or for any other public documents on file with the city.

One name that popped up seven times this year seeking information on Castaneda is Jenn Anderson of Chula Vista.

The only Anderson in Chula Vista of similar name in the same ZIP code is 23-year-old Jenna Anderson. When reached by phone yesterday, she denied that she was the one who made records requests.

“I’m just a college student,” she said.

Peg Myers makes interesting claims; CTA continues to oppose use of scores to evaluate teachers

What is Peg Myers talking about? She relied on a tiny group of parents to justify the power of a tiny group of teachers to control principal after principal at Castle Park Elementary. CVESD Superintendent Lowell Billings reported at a board meeting that when he transferred Peg Myers, Robin Donlan, Nikki Perez and other members of the "Castle Park Family" out of the school, scores went up greatly.

Local Schools Weigh In On Reform Bill
January 6, 2010
Channel 10 News

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego school system could be getting a major overhaul as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign a bill that would give parents more power to control what happens in their child's school.

While the state Senate approved a bill that could qualify the state for $700 million in federal stimulus money, some educators and experts feel the changes may not be worth the money.

At a glance, Lincoln High School does not measure up to other schools in San Diego County. The school's overall academic performance rating is at 587.

"It's not until you crack the 750, 800 mark can you be considered one of the elites in the city," said Lincoln High School Principal Mel Collins.,

Lincoln High could be one of the schools targeted by a new bill aimed at reworking state schools. The bill would give parents the power to petition to make sweeping changes, including having a principal removed or closing a school if its performance is not up to certain standards.

Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent Jesus Gandara told 10News, "If you give one group all that power to say, 'we want this principal out,' without teachers having a say, without management having a say, there's a problem there."

"It should be a collective decision made by a number of different entities," said Collins.

Peg Myers of the California Teachers Association said, "We actually have great results in our schools, and that's because we do work with the parents."

The California Teachers Association opposes the state's plan, which would also make it easier for parents to transfer their children to another school...

Ex-Chula Vista Elementary Aide To Be Sentenced For Molestation

Ex-Chula Vista Elementary Aide To Be Sentenced For Molestation
Channel 10 News
Jan. 4, 2010

A former instructional aide with the Chula Vista Elementary School District who pleaded guilty to molesting a teenage girl was scheduled to be sentenced Monday.

Vincent Matthew Lopez, 47, is expected to be sentenced to a year in jail. The defendant was arrested in February after a 15-year-old relative called police to report that Lopez had sexually assaulted her.

Lopez was subsequently also charged with molesting another girl of similar age, said Deputy District Attorney Vanessa Duvall. Last month, he pleaded guilty to one count of committing a lewd act on a child.

Lopez, a part-time employee for the school district, was placed on administrative leave following his arrest. There were no indications that any of the assaults occurred at Halecrest and Tiffany elementary schools, where Lopez worked, authorities said.

In addition to 365 days in jail, Lopez will be ordered to have no contact with either victim for five years, Duvall said.

Jim Groth and Peg Myers avoid Castle Park Elementary when they welcome CTA vice president Dean Vogel to Chula Vista

Dean Vogel

Former Chula Vista Educators president Jim Groth (now on CTA board of directors), and current CVE president Peggy Myers avoided Castle Park Elementary, where they had been involved in illegal actions that cost CTA a lot of money to cover up, when they took CTA vice president Dean Vogel on a guided tour of CVESD schools.

I met Dean Vogel a few years ago at Asilomar. He seems like a nice guy, but then Jim Groth also is a nice guy. In CTA, unfortunately, nice guys have to do what head counsel Beverly Tucker wants them to do, and that sometimes involves some pretty nasty stuff.

Who's in charge at CTA? Not the elected officials. I had to laugh a few years ago when Barbara Kerr, president of CTA, was named as the third most powerful person in California. Barbara ran herself ragged doing what she was told. She even changed her political party registration. It should have been Beverly Tucker who got the title. By contrast, the California Federation of Teachers actually has democratic elections for top officials.

At the October 20, 2009 board meeting Superintendent Lowell Billings thanked Peg Myers for conducting the limited-purpose tour.