FFFF supports causes that promote intelligent, responsible and accountable government in Fullerton and Orange County
Category: Fullerton School Board
The Fullerton School District is governed by an elected board of five trustees: Hilda Sugarman, Beverly Berryman, Ellen Ballard, Minard Duncan and Lynn Thornley.
This group currently provides cover for something called The Fullerton Collaborative and is known for forcing parents to by overpriced laptops to avoid having their kids sent to other schools by the educrats.
One of Chris Thompson’s first challenges on the Fullerton School Board may be to oppose the approval of a resolution by the Fullerton School District to support the extended tax increases in California.
The district typically has supported anti-taxpayer, pro-union resolutions like this forwarded by self-serving organizations like the California School Boards Association. With the highest state taxes and entitlement expenses in the nation, let’s see if this 5 of 5 Republican School Board has nerve to insult our intelligence with this resolution.
Beginning tomorrow, Fullerton School Board member Chris Thompson will be co-hosting a radio show with Martha Montelongo every Saturday night on KRLA 870AM.
You can listen in on AM 870 or at krla870.com on Saturday night from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am. Montelongo and Thompson will be discussing all things political, including education, unions, taxes, limited government and freedom.
Chris Thompson is a newly elected trustee for the Fullerton School Board, a longtime advocate for education reform as well as a member in good standing of both Friends for Fullerton’s Future and the Fullerton Association of Concerned Taxpayers.
Martha Montelongo is a long-time broadcast and internet radio host, writer, blogger and stay-at-home mom. She describes herself as a former Democrat who has seen the light, and now supports limited government and free enterprise.
The show should be a real kick in the pants, so don’t forget to tune in for the premiere.
The La Habra teachers’ union ended its strike early on Wednesday morning, just a few hours before some Fullerton Friends were set to launch an all out counter-attack on behalf of all La Habran children who have been victimized by union members for nearly a week.
Yes, it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to strut our stuff for the crowd. But we did end up with a great Christmas card for our loyal FFFF readers! Enjoy:
And Friends, hang on to those signs. They may come in handy sooner than you think.
Maybe our La Habran neighbors to the north do. Their school board is now facing a strike by the La Habra Teachers’ Association, a body of both the CTA and the NEA unions. The issue? Their school board has given them a minuscule 2% pay cut and then refuses to call it “temporary.”
Negotiations had failed after several months and so the board was forced to impose increases in health care contributions as well as a reduction of 2 instructional days in order to deal with a 22% budget shortfall.
Amazing. A 22% budget hole and the teachers only had to take a 2% pay cut, and yet the union still plays the strike card.
Back in Fullerton, Superintendent Mitch Hovey has already articulated grave concern about pending negotiations, and Fullerton is in essentially the same financial straights as La Habra. It will be very interesting to see how our illustrious teachers’ union and our new school board deal with these issues.
Even before they were elected, the superintendent let the Fullerton School Board candidates know that tickets had been reserved for them at the 2010 CSBA conference in in the Bay Area, which starts today.
No peeking.
Presumably the California School Boards Association will introduce the new adherents to the ways of the educational bureaucracy. Topics will include unconditional respect, union coddling, collaborating, achievement gapping, revenue generation, tax enumeration and the proper operation of trite awards ceremonies.
It’s loaded with ads for lobbyists and political consultants eager to help young board members navigate the challenges of passing new school bonds and local property taxes.
So will our new school board members drink in the delicious Kool Aid of California’s educational establishment? Or will they withstand the temptation of vacuous adoration from their new group of friends, holding their promises of independence above the cheap thrill of being “liked” by their peers.
Here’s what happens when your school board doesn’t stand up for kids:
There are now only 14 school days in November. Why? Because the school union demanded days off instead of pay cuts. Sadly, your elected trustees didn’t have the spine to go against them.
Here’s the funny part: the school closures were negotiated by our fainthearted board to prevent some sort of union strike.
So we traded days off due to a strike for… days off.
No. That can't be right.
But rest assured, undereducated children… it was all done in the spirit of “working together,” and only in an effort to do “what’s best for the kids.”
Just when I thought it would be a good idea for me to hang it up from Fullerton politics, this sign showed up in and around Fullerton.
Good grief! Someone really took the time to make and plant these comical things. And that got me to re-thinking my role in Fullerton. Geez, thinks I, if these people believe I’m so powerful that they are willing to give me this sort of free publicity, maybe I should leverage that celebrity in the future.
And so I have decided that I must and will stay involved. There’s too much at stake and my gang and I are having too much fun. I guess it’s a calling!
Oh, and just a reminder: Chris Thompson was the #1 top vote getter in all Fullerton races including city council.
Although it’s a bit late, I want to add my voice to the chorus congratulating Chris Thompson and Bruce Whitaker for their impressive elections to the Fullerton School District Board and the Fullerton City Council, respectively.
Chris Thompson out-polled every other candidate in Fullerton by a mile, despite his opponents’ support from the teachers union.
The Fullerton School District Board of Trustees has been a sinkhole for years, poulated by liberals and Ed Royce RINOs. And of course the Fullerton City Council…well the less said about that the better, but Whitaker will be running that show in no time.
I expect good things and real, effective change from both of them. I know I won’t be disappointed.
The only reason FFFF sprang into existence was because the people who pretended to be professional reporters stubbornly and steadfastly refused to do their jobs.
Their jobs. The jobs to which they accrete a professional aura, a sanctimony, self-righteousness, and institutional importance that demands as a concomitant an objectivity that is exercised in the public interest.
Of course all that stuff is pure bullshit. Oh, yeah, these people want to be treated as if they actually performed a function that allows them to claim an official title: “Fourth Estate.” But in reality their work is almost never objective, never diligent, and often downright incompetent. And the closer you get to tour own community the worse it gets.
The Great Unwind.
But back to FFFF. We started in the fall of 2008 because F. Richard Jones, the Braying Donkey of Raymond Hills, the man for whom no issue could not be used to spin off, dervish-like, on an insane rant, was getting a free pass. Twelve years of insulting people from the dais, weird, barnyard rantings and raving, backtracking on key issues, and generally insulting the collective intelligence of the City was ignored.
And this being Fullerton very little has changed. Consider 2010.
The chicken was ready for plucking.
Does “the press” inquire into how candidate Roland Chi got rung up on criminal charges by the DA for serially ignoring health inspection failures? Or ask why he is using a 501(c)(3) to prmote his political ambitions? Or even ask this miscreant how long he has actually lived in Fullerton?
Hey, that vest was not designed on company time.
Does “the press” ask Pat McKinley about his $215,000 pension payout – far more than he ever made actually working – and his ability to make rational pension decisions?
Aw, Hell. Close enough.
Does “the press” ask Aaron Gregg why a guy who skipped out on $75,000 in back taxes and stiffed local creditors though bankruptcy is qualified to manage the city’s $100,000,000+ budget?
The Mayor's Prayer Breakfast took longer than anticipated...
Does “the press” inquire into what appears to be Don Bankhead’s increasingly diminished capacity to participate in, let alone conduct, a public hearing?
Of course our local reporters never said boo about the carpetbaggery of Hirsute Sidho or Linda Ackerman, either.
For some reason people who work for the Times and the Register would rather look the other way than admit that the emperors have no clothes on. What are they afraid of?
