...In the policy VUSD states, "the Board of Trustees strongly supports a risk management program that protects District resources and promotes safety of students, staff and public."
VUSD further pledges that they are going to, "keep its liability at a minimum and its insurance premiums as low as possible while maintaining adequate protection.
...VUSD has the highest premiums in San Diego County and Riverside along with Poway Unified School District. While other school districts pay .19 cents per student DA in premiums. Both VUSD and PUSD pay over .29 cents DA per student in premiums per Joint Power of Authority "JPA."
The more lawsuits and violations the higher the insurance premiums.
What this means is that VUSD spends almost the entire budget in employee salaries and insurance companies [JPA's]! A perfect example of legal advice which VUSD has had for decades is Thursday August 19, 2010 closed session item 37-2009-00057592. VUSD voted to appeal this case.
The case is a simple $ 6, 412.07 dollars which Superior Court Judge Nugent entered judgment against VUSD in favor of California School Employees Association and its Vista Chapter 389. Instead of paying the $6,412.07 Court Judgment.
[Maura Larkins note: The case concerns a bus driver who was injured in a minor accident. Why not just pay the victim? The judge did not even order the district to pay attorney fees.]
VUSD on advice from attorney of record Daniel Shinoff and Lee Patajo advised VUSD to appeal the judgment to the California Fourth Appellate.[10] Churning and churning the billable hours and higher insurance premiums in the Southern Golden State.[11]...
In most districts, the district-wide DELAC committe (District English Learners Advisory Committee) stays under the firm control of the district office. In one school in another district, however, there was a big battle to keep ELAC parents out of the PTA board. The principal, Ollie Matos, was viciously attacked for allowing ELAC parents to attempt to join the PTA board. See news articles regarding Castle Park Elementary in Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD). Mr. Preciado certainly is right not to blame just one of the two major culprits in school problems; he correctly blames BOTH the district and the teachers union. The district and the teachers union oppose each other in many things, but they work together to keep parents out of the decision-making process.
Preciado points out that Hispanic dropout rates are alarming. Scores on an English learners test have bobbled. He lays blame with the teachers union, particularly after it fought off a reading program championed by the superintendent...
Before Eduardo Preciado took over, it was a placid committee where parents gave their input on programs for English learners in Vista schools.
Now the group is embroiled in Vista's struggle to find a voice for a Latino community that has grown in numbers but not in political posts over the last decade.
Preciado has changed the committee on English learners into a platform for a small but passionate group of Latino parents who say it's their only place to speak out on all kinds of issues. Though Latino children are now much more common than white students in Vista schools, the school board is largely white and other Latino groups are scarce. One fan calls his group "the voice of the Latino people."
But not everyone wants him to be that voice. His group has split Latino parents -- and some want the outspoken and impassioned Preciado out. Some take issue with his injection of politics into the committee. Others call him too aggressive and confrontational.
There is fierce disagreement over whether the English learners committee should even play the role Preciado has pushed it to. Such committees are supposed to advise their districts on programs for English learners. Preciado has pushed the group to voice its opinions and seek change on much broader, more controversial debates.
He rails against the teachers union and the school board. He argues that the school district has failed Latino kids, pointing to the sobering dropout rates for Latino teens and decrying cuts to busing and programs...
Comment:
Points that need clarity: (1). The DOJ investigation into the Voting Rights was flawed. Congressman Darrel Issa sat on the DOJ'S Committee. The city of Vista formed a Committee to address the issue and Frank Lopez was the Chair, John Herrera the Vice Chair and other city employees or city Committee members. The city of Vista and SD DA Bonnie Dumanis both knew that dozens of Hispanics complained that Frank Lopez was writing dozens of fraudulent checks in the amounts to thousands of dollars. Yet promised Lopez a seat on the Vista City Council which he now holds. Along with an investigation by the DA and other regulatory agencies into the bad checks felony. The California Voting Rights is completely separate and distinct from the DOJ Voting Rights one is state and the other is federal. Known as the California Voting Rights Act (“CVRA”). (Elections Code §§ 14025, et seq.) The California Voting Rights Act bans at-large voting if there is evidence that it “impairs the ability” of a minority group “to elect candidates of its choice or its ability to influence the outcome of an election.” The CVRA prohibits at-large elections in areas where racial polarization “dilutes” the rights of members of a protected minority class. (Elections Code §§ 14027, 14028; In Madera County Superior Court Judge James E. Oakley concluded that at-large elections for three school board seats put Latino candidates at a disadvantage and should be replaced by elections in which the board is divided into districts. Rey v. Madera Unified School District, Madera County Superior Court Case No. MCV043467.) John Herrera Chair of the Vista DOJ investigation and member of the Encuentros committee is married to Carol Herrera, former VUSD President and now Vice President of VUSD Board. Herrera brought Encuentros to VUSD and carried the motion to vote for Encuentros while her husband sat on the Encuetros Board of Directors. Council Member Steve Gronke running for SD Board of Supervisor to unseat Bill Horn is married to Jan O"Reilly President of the controversial Vista Teachers Association. Gronke also runs a VUSD homeschool. Gabriel Hoosmond has been sitting in VUSD committees for over THREE the VUSD. VUSD bylaws only allow two years. Hoosmond is a public employee and part of the public entrenchment as well working for Del Rio Elementary School. So who truly are the bullies here the people behind the entrenchment the ones with absolute power? The public employees who want to keep Hispanics illiterate picking strawberries, day labors, cleaning houses, janitors, and doing all the work white people don't want to do? Or the people who struggle to feed their kids, come home underpaid and overworked from the remedial jobs? Knowing that under this system the future of their children will be a continued cycle of poverty. Are those who fight to have a voice and a future for their children the bullies?
Updated May 16, 2010 Steve Lilly, president of VUSD board
Carol Weise Herrera VUSD board
At its May 10, 2010 board meeting closed session, the Vista Unified School District discussed...well, we have no idea what they discussed, since two conflicting agendas were posted beforehand, and the board failed to announce afterward what, if any, actions it had taken.
Vista Unified School District has decided to pay $158,000 (plus health benefits, which I believe adds up to $167,000) to Sandra Gacewicz, the person who is perhaps most knowledgeable about what is going on in the district, in return for her resignation. The reason given is "a dispute." See separation agreement.
Why did the board see fit to spend tax dollars in this way? Hmmm. Perhaps they don't want Gacewicz to tell the truth when State investigators turn up this year to investigate VUSD (see list at bottom of this post). VUSD is getting an "On-Site CPM Review" this year.
First, the district posted a meeting agenda at the site where the board meeting was actually held that differed from the real agenda. The fact that the lengthier agenda was followed is supported by the presence of attorneys at the meeting. Public comment was allowed only on the one item mentioned in the abridged agenda.
Second, the board flippantly refused to properly announce its decision(s) made in closed session.
A citizen writes:
The board went into closed session immediately after the vote on the one item. After the board went into closed session, we were kicked out of the cafeteria. The closed session meeting was about an hour and then Gibson came out and said the closed session was over. The board was just in there chatting away. He talked to us for about 20 minutes and the board never came out. Gibson left; after Gibson left three of the board members came out to the parking lot chatting and got in their cars. We asked them where are you going you are suppose to go in open the meeting and announce what you discussed in closed session and then adjourn the meeting.
They said, "What are you talking about. The meeting is over."
We said, "Yes but per Brown Act you are suppose to open the meeting, announce and then adjourn." They giggled and got in their cars and left.
We saw the lady from the human resource the same one who signed the restraining order against Alejandro [a parent activist that VUSD is trying to eject from DELAC meetings and apparently from discussions with state investigators] coming out and told her the same thing. She went back and told President of the Board Lilly that they did not close the meeting. So Lilly comes out into the parking lot and says, "There were no announcements the meeting is adjourned.'
We said, "you cannot do this in the parking lot plus you don't have a quorum, your quorum left."
We again told him that per the Cal. Brown Act the board (quorum) was suppose to go out and officially open the meeting announce what they discussed in closed session and if any decisions were made. Then adjourn the meeting.
Lilly said, "That is not true. I can do this in the parking lot by myself and if you don't like it put it in writing."
Can you believe this? have you even been to a public meeting conducted in the parking lot? Unbelievable!
In the past, VUSD had a dispute with a psychologist, B J Freeman. The district actually sued the doctor because she said a child needed special education. Attorney Dan Shinoff handled that case.
The Gecewicz case is being handled by Fagen, Friedman and Fullfrost, a firm that was put together after Lozano Smith attorneys were ordered by a federal judge to take ethics classes. Howard Fulfrost was a shareholder at Lozano Smith when the firm billed Bret Harte Union High School District $500,000 for a case that could have been settled years earlier for $8,000. Mr. Fulfrost doesn't like to mention the name of his previous firm; here's what he says on his website:
"Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Fulfrost was an associate, and then a shareholder, with another California education law firm. While at that firm, he was co-chairperson of the Special Education Practice Group – leading its growth to California’s largest and most well-recognized special education practice."
Socioeconomic Integration and Achievement Apr 6, 2008 by Jim Horn ... districts have high numbers of students with strong language skills and that can rub off on low-income students, who often start school a bit behind, said Sandy Gecewicz, chief academic officer for Vista Unified School District. ...
REGION 9 - CYCLE A: The following will be added in 2010-11: County: San Diego 3773569 Oceanside Unified 3768296 Poway Unified 3768304 Ramona City Unified 3768312 Rancho Santa Fe Elementary 3710371 San Diego County Office of Education 3768338 San Diego Unified 3768346 San Dieguito Union High 3773791 San Marcos Unified 3768353 San Pasqual Union Elementary 3768379 San Ysidro Elementary 3768361 Santee Elementary 3768387 Solana Beach Elementary 3768395 South Bay Union Elementary 3768403 Spencer Valley Elementary 3768411 Sweetwater Union High 3768437 Vallecitos Elementary 3775614 Valley Center-Pauma Unified 3768452 Vista Unified 3775416 Warner Unified
Dan Shinoff has at last met some school officials that are more aggressive than he is toward parents. But perhaps these particular officials don't count since they may be recalled soon; perhaps Shinoff is merely deserting a sinking ship.
So how aggressive were these officials? They prepared a statement saying that anyone caught recording a school meeting could be fined and jailed, and a second offense could net a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.
