This just arrived from one of our intrepid Friends via Facebook.
Mr. Oates is running for Fullerton High School Board.
What’s wrong with this picture?
A recent Register feature story “ASB Election Rigged” raises a lot of troubling questions.
Bottom Line: The advisor who rigged this year’s ASB election (and possibly those of earlier years—no way to know) remains on staff. The student who proved the wrongdoing—Jacob Bigham–was suspended, stripped of the Vice Presidency he legitimately won and banned from future ASB participation.
Huh?
Since accessing the advisor’s database was the only way to prove fraud, why is he punished? Without his vigilance, how many future ASB elections would be rigged without anyone knowing?
If the whole purpose of student elections is to inculcate democratic values, what message does this send to students?
If an ASB advisor does not trust the electoral judgment of Troy High School students —ranked consistently among the nation’s highest performing—at what other schools are such elections routinely overruled without anyone knowing?
Is the sanctity of student elections protected by law? While the State Education Code is vague, the Elections Code is very specific in defining “election fraud” as applying it to “all elections.” No distinction is made. Just last spring, an arrest was made in a case of election in a student election at Cal State San Marcos.
The unilateral, secretive, intentional nullification of an election is as fundamental abuse of power as can be committed against democratic values. And exposing such an abuse is as high a service as a citizen can perform. Thank you, Jacob Bigham. You are one true Troy Warrior.
We fielded all sorts of bitter accusations from teachers when FFFF handed out our list of teacher and administrator pay at this week’s teacher rallies. Responses ranged from the simple “the list is garbage” and “my brother does not make that kind of money” all the way to “the District distorted the figures because they’re against us.”
Yes, we explained that the numbers came straight from district HQ (Here are details, in case you’ve missed it: FJUHSD Salaries over $90,000 and FSD Salaries over $90,000.) But some of the chanting unioneers could not be swayed.
Teachers of the list, here is your challenge:
Show us your pay stubs from the 2009-2010 school year! If you can prove that your salary was overstated in our flier, we’ll go back to district HQ and take them to task on your behalf.
Otherwise, we’ll just go with what we already know: this list is 100% true and correct.
In the midst of a teachers’ union protest for higher taxes the other day, we handed out a list of 585 Fullerton teachers and administrators who make over $90,000. Our camera captured their reaction:
This afternoon the teachers’ union will be at it again, this time on Harbor Blvd. in Downtown Fullerton. John and Ken will be there too, and so will FFFF.
I also heard that the teachers’ unions are planning some kind of “surprise” in response to the conservative radio duo. Come on down, it might be fun.
Last week we looked at the number of FSD employees who make over $90k. Now let’s see the salaries of Fullerton Joint Union High School District teachers and administrators for the 2009-10 school year.
[iframe_loader width=”100%” height=”650″ frameborder = ‘0’ marginheight=’0′ marginwidth=’0′ click_words=” click_url=” scrolling=’auto’ src=’https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0AiyL667gfsw9dHB5STJxdC1NXzlCeUVJY3E2REhueXc&single=true&gid=0&output=html&widget=true’]
Wow. Four hundred and thirty-two of them earn over $90,000 per year. Some of them teach a little extra summer school while others get stipends for CERT training, coaching badminton or being a leader. There’s also a secretary and a couple of custodian supervisors who earned over $60k in overtime alone.
You can look at this data any way you want, but it’s hard to deny that Fullerton’s educators are very well compensated. The myth of the “poor, underpaid teacher” is crushed.
Bonus Trivia
Which FFFF blogger spent several years molding the young minds of Fullerton’s high schoolers back in the 1980’s?
Updated Thursday, 5:00 pm.
There are an unknown number of absentee ballots yet to be counted.
CITY OF FULLERTON Member, City Council, Full Term
| Vote Count | Percentage | |
| * DON BANKHEAD | 9,391 | 21.1% |
| DOUG CHAFFEE | 8,068 | 18.1% |
| PAT MCKINLEY | 8,038 | 18.1% |
| GREG SEBOURN | 4,907 | 11.0% |
| BARRY LEVINSON | 4,722 | 10.6% |
| MARTY BURBANK | 4,305 | 9.7% |
| JESSE LA TOUR | 3,678 | 8.3% |
| JOHNNIE ATKINSON | 1,393 | 3.1% |
CITY OF FULLERTON Member, City Council, Short Term
| Vote Count | Percentage | |
| BRUCE WHITAKER | 9,021 | 37.7% |
| ROLAND CHI | 7,076 | 29.6% |
| AARON GREGG | 5,552 | 23.2% |
| ANTHONY N. (TONY) FONTE | 2,255 | 9.4% |
FULLERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT Governing Board Member
| Vote Count | Percentage | |
| CHRIS THOMPSON | 12,728 | 28.1% |
| JANNY CATLIN MEYER | 12,252 | 27.1% |
| * BEVERLY BERRYMAN | 10,992 | 24.3% |
| AARUNI THAKUR | 9,257 | 20.5% |
FULLERTON JOINT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT Governing Board Member
| Vote Count | Percentage | |
| * ROBERT A. “BOB” SINGER | 19,800 | 23.7% |
| * ROBERT N. “BOB” HATHAWAY | 19,531 | 23.3% |
| * MARILYN BUCHI | 19,115 | 22.8% |
| VICKI R. CALHOUN | 15,594 | 18.6% |
| NADIA SANCHEZ | 9,656 | 11.5% |
M – Fullerton, Term Limits
| Vote Count | Percentage | |
| Yes | 21,252 | 79.8% |
| No | 5,380 | 20.2% |
View the complete results at the Orange County Registrar’s website. The next update is scheduled for 5:00 pm tomorrow.
Last week the LA Times released an in-depth analysis of LAUSD teacher performance data which shows a wide variance in teacher quality that can greatly detract from a child’s education.
The analysis angered the teachers unions, who have spent decades lobbying to hide teacher performance data from the public in order to protect bad teachers. As retribution for the LA Times’ disclosure of public information, the unions are attempting to organize a boycott of the newspaper.
State Assemblyman Chris Norby, who was a teacher himself for 17 years, sent out an email blast encouraging these disclosures and asking the public to pay attention to this story.
“Shielding poor-performing teachers hurt both the kids and the teacher. Recognizing and emulating high performers will help us all,” wrote Norby. He also highlighted another major find in the report: the discovery that the educational disparity between teachers within a given school is much greater than disparities between schools, suggesting that education can best be encouraged by holding teachers more accountable, rather than just pouring money into under-performing schools.
Perhaps someone will attempt disclosure and analysis of teacher performance in Fullerton school districts, although the unions would probably fight it every step of the way. For the good of the children, of course. What we really need are school boards and state legislators who will fight union efforts to coddle bad teachers.
Despite their enormous operating budgets, school boards rarely receive the attention and oversight they deserve. Perhaps the public is disheartened by the realization that school boards operate under behemoth state bureaucracies that leave little room for local input and control.
But in the next few years our schools will have a good shot at making serious improvements that affect the classroom. While they will continue to be challenged with budget cuts, there will be new opportunities to renegotiate bad union agreements and eliminate wasteful programs in favor of putting resources directly into the classroom.
Let’s hope voters decide to make some changes. Here are the starting lineups:
Fullerton School District – vote for 3
Board members Minard Duncan and Ellen Ballard decided not to run, which means there are three available seats and only one incumbent in the race. The candidates are:
- Beverly Berryman, Incumbent
- Janny Catlin Meyer, Retired Teacher
- Aaruni Thakur, Children’s Court Attorney
- Chris Thompson, Fullerton Businessman/Parent
Fullerton Joint Union High School District – vote for 3
All three incumbents are running for reelection. The candidates are:
- Marilyn Buchi, Governing Board Member, Fullerton Joint Union High School District
- Vicki R. Calhoun, Educator/Scholarship Administrator
- Robert N. “Bob” Hathaway, Governing Board Member, Fullerton Joint Union High School District
- Nadia Sanchez, Student/Care Provider
- Robert A. “Bob” Singer, Governing Board Member, Fullerton Joint Union High School District
Parents, the PTA that you all belong to is behind trying to raise your property taxes by reducing the threshold for passage of parcel taxes.
The California State PTA has endorsed the “Local Control of Local Classrooms Funding Act” which reduces the voter approval requirement to raise taxes from 2/3rds down to 55%. This will make it much easier for local school districts to place new property taxes on local homeowners to benefit the teachers’ unions.
QUIT THE PTA. It is a bad lobbying organization disguised as an innocent thrower of classroom ice cream parties. It hurts children, families, the state and the country.
Moms and dads can help in the classroom, support schools and be great parents without supporting this organization which is stabbing you in the back as a pawn of teachers unions.
Last month we warned you that CalSTRS (California teachers’ pension fund) was in a bad spot and they were hoping that nobody would notice.
Yesterday CalSTRS announced that investment losses have left the fund with a $42.6 billion dollar shortfall.
Even more worrisome: the fund will be completely wiped out shortly after today’s young teachers enter retirement. To counteract that problem, the fund will need to start sucking in major contribution increases almost immediately.
Naturally the pension system wants to resolve the situation by sending more Sacramento lobbyists to persuade legislators to “take action”. And by “take action” they mean increase contributions to the fund. Since a majority of teachers’ pension contributions come from taxpayers… Well you know what that means.