The circus goes on. With more red meat thrown to the Voice.

Wheeler and Coladonato are just pandering for votes in the wake of getting rid of half the principals on false pretense while Rudolph hires his friends from North Carolina. They know their seats are in jeopardy in the fall so it's time for parent voters to cash in on what they want. We could probably get back GATE classes at this point in the fire sale. All the more power to the parents. And very glad to see students not uprooted from schools and Gutierrez getting beat at his own games and rhetoric. He'll be a very lame duck going forward. Blakley's voice is no where to be found thankfully after her terrible treatment and statements about our beloved principals. Her neighborhood must have gotten to her on this issue over that vexing achievement gap that all love to talk about. At least Wilson is willing to stand firm. She appears to be the only one with courage and conviction. The real casualties are the district task forces which are losing any real meaning or bite as they waste participants time and energy.

MV-Voice keeps posting the same article on different days. Example this one was already posted on May. 26, 2018.

P.T. Barnum

Getting rid of Principals to "hire friends". Again, if you're paying attention, the difficulties at each of these schools is well documented. So, I'm unsure why you're clinging to the idea of hanging on to folks that had outlived their effectiveness. Second, I'm not sure you understand how the hiring process happens in this district, but in order to get to the final round, you have to go through a couple of rounds of parent led panels so, it was parents and other community stakeholders who selected the new hires. Finally, the absurdity of this idea that at the company at which you work, you don't hire people with whom you've worked with in the past, or with whom you happen to be friends or acquaintances with now is ultimate circus act. Seriously....in this region, everyone hires people they know. People who speak their language, share their work philosophies and goals. As a manager, I do it and most managers that I know make use of their career network in this fashion. I hesitate to respond to such an asinine comment because I know you're not really involved in our school system and are just here for phony outrage and likely a bit of racism, but I tend to like our school system to know that I support the changes they're making for the good.

Additionally, these grandfathering rules need to be enacted by the Board. I get that they all have political views on the subject. But this process has now gone on for 3 years with no one being able to actually put a fine point on it. The recommendations are the recommendations of parents and staff from each region of the city and every school boundary. We didn't all agree on everything but we all agreed that grandfathering was unnecessary. I hope the district follows this recommendation.

This seems to only prolong the growing pains of an expanding school district. Isnt this how Gerrymandering happens?What happens to these exceptions of siblings are 4, 5, or 6 years apart? 10 years apart? If we give exceptions to second graders, who then have siblings 5 years younger, you've prolonged this re-org for one family for up to 8 years. What about others?

Just keep the lines drawn and stand by them. Students will survive the shuffle - after all, every single student in the district experiences it at 5th and 8th grade. They all live.

The Voice WEBSITE has a well-known quirk, automatically posting duplicate copies of stories on the Town Square forum. One copy appears in connection with the online posting of the original story, the other is triggered by the print version. They have distinct URLs (visible for example if you examine the link appearing on the Town-Square teaser after "Read the full story here"). Voice staff can combine the two copies (and their comments) if someone contacts them to request it, otherwise this duplication is built into the way the stories go online.

This situation has prevailed for many years and been explained countless times, so if someone doesn't know about it, they either are a new reader, or haven't paid enough attention to the website's behavior. (It is remarkable to watch some of those people then proceed to project sundry misinterpretations of their own for the duplicate copies -- "explanations," conspiracy theories, whatever -- each of which reveals something of that reader's thought process.)

What's the point of having these task forces if their recommendations are ignored? Spineless board members. I know who I'm voting out.

@Cleave

"The difficulties at each of these schools is well documented".

Nope. The difficulties are not well documented. Not in the slightest. By the metrics provided, the principals of Crittenden, Castro and Monta Loma should have lost their jobs. The constant missteps by the superintendent
and the board are very well documented.

"In order to get to the final round, you have to go through a couple of rounds of parent led panels so, it was parents and other community stakeholders who selected the new hires."

Wrong again. There was a ridiculously short application window. Ridiculously short. So short a quality pool of candidates could not apply. The District Office screens the applicants and sets up the candidate list. They put their pick in a pool of screened weak picks. There is only one panel of parents et al which can be over ridden by the district office panel member.

"Seriously....in this region, everyone hires people they know. People who speak their language, share their work philosophies and goals."

So which is it? Hire the best from a field of applicants? Or hire your buddies from one of your previous districts who will be loyal to you no matter what?

And then take it one step further. Give yearly contracts to your old boss who is prepping the ground for your next gig.

Let's stop being naive.

My wife and I are foster parents and frequently have to enroll children partway through the school year. We prefer to have all of our children enrolled in a neighborhood school. It would not be right to force at-risk children to trek across town because our neighborhood school is full with grandfathered slots from old zoning boundaries.

(I know our foster kids are lowering test scores and destroying your property values, but I don't think that makes me a bad person)

Thank you Foster Parents. Yours are the types of voices, that are being drowned out, in the way some trustees may 'listen-emote.' It is also required/suggested/hoped that 'trustees think'. Independently and community-wide.

I don't often just copy and parrot another poster, but Mr. Cleave (Task Force member) I agree with:

"The recommendations are the recommendations of parents and staff from each region of the city and every school boundary. We didn't all agree on everything but we all agreed that grandfathering was unnecessary. I hope the district follows this recommendation."

As I posted on 'the other lead', the three ring circus, may yet produce a singe Logical Ring 3 person majority. HOPE.

P. T. BARNUM - you lost your circus man! Closed. ["Well, I did't think the lion would EAT HIM!"]

@ P.T. Barnum,

Yes, actually, they are. The fact that you don’t know about them totally confirms you’re not paying attention or that you’re being emotional about this, that our the other. Steve Nelson has previously on other threads documented these challenges. Everyone somehow thinks that the dismissal of these principals means that they are some how bad people or that someone had a grudge on them. The fact is that the district’s performance metrics are made up of quantifiable data. Things like achievement gaps, test scores, teacher comments and dissatisfaction are all fairly easy to measure if you’re a school district, particularly year over year. You may have missed it, but in this district, we actually collect all of this information and more. In each of these schools, there has bee difficulties of one kind or another. They are not new, and if you had a child at one of these schools, you should be aware of these issues. I had a child at one of the schools and I was completely aware. Further, I saw the results of some of these failures on some of the committees on which I sit.

Yes, actually, candidates for this district do go through a couple of rounds of parent/community/staff led panels. I know because I have participated in them for multiple hires and I know of some of the parents who sat on the boards for the current hires. Apparently, you’ve missed out on this opportunity, likely because you’re busy sowing falsehoods and nonsense here. You should check it out, It takes a day or two but it’s totally worth it, it’s a lot of fun, and deeply engaging. The process isn’t long and drawn out because people have to leave the school they’re in, move their families in many cases to a new location, and dig in. So, they don’t waste a lot of time like we do in the corp world. Academics know what they’re looking for and they typically go to where they know people know how to do what they’re looking for. And here’s a big surprise. If you’re any good at your job, chances are, you know people or you have trained people, or you have come up with people are are also really good at their jobs, too. The fact that you know them doesn’t somehow disqualify their professional skill set. And the older you get in your career profession, the more awesome folks you know. Hopefully, you’re experiencing a similar trajectory in your own career.

So, as I always say, I look forward to seeing you at some of these events and task forces and panels that help keep our district strong.

@Cleave

"Yes, actually, candidates for this district do go through a couple of rounds of parent/community/staff led panels. I know because I have participated in them for multiple hires and I know of some of the parents who sat on the boards for the current hires."

Candidates did not go through more than one rigged parent et al panel. That is a fact. And BTW how is it you are participating on panels for "multiple hires"? Sounds like another form of stacking the deck.

By the metrics provide and stagnant test scores, the principals of Crittenden, Castro and Monta Loma should have lost their jobs. Or will that happen next year when a fresh round of job seekers from North Carolina are ready to make their move?

And then there are those pesky reoccurring $57,000 contracts being shelled out to Rudolph's old boss who is prepping the ground for his next gig. All very quaint and convenient even by SV standards.

The fact that the dismissals of the four educators were first presented as if they were being promoted, and then so quickly, performance metrics were then publicly presented to create a veneer of bad performance, still wounds the culture of our schools.

Can past/present board members and district committee members stop alluding to poor performance. It's neither appropriate nor true without context not possible in a public forum. Lets all celebrate the past work and current transitions of those departing leaders, and welcome our new school leaders. The tact that MVWSD should have stuck with from the beginning.

Mr. Chiang - you are just wrong. After your resigned from the Board, the new Superintendent acted as responsible CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) and started to formally address the performance of site administrators, by having review of their work, documenting these discussions in writing, and paying for individual outside consulting for the deficiencies in the individual performances. THIS INCLUDES if their work had helped reduce the ACADEMIC GAP (White - Hispanic) that is so egregious in this district. You are correct - the PR of the district was entirely deficient in explaining this well - to the community - beforehand.

The circus man - yes Mr. Cleave, it is very apparent that "P.T. Barnum" does not know that he is talking about.

For instance: everyone in California education knows that "the hiring season" for site administrators is the three months of Spring and that anyone remotely interested in a principal position needs to get weekly/daily updates from the on-line job posting board. If a candidate "didn't know that", they are professionally 'snoozing', and really shouldn't even be considered for a position! (IMO) enjoin

https://www.edjoin.org

I remember to good old days where the board paid THOUSANDS of dollars for a study that showed we had plenty of facilities to handle future classes of students.

But hey.. let's build a whole new school anyway. It's only money.

Otto_ There are plenty of PERMANENT classrooms after the existing elementary schools have their Permanent classrooms refurbished AND the 18 new PERMANENT classrooms per elementary are built at 1) Castro, 2) Stevenson and 3) Slater site. That is 3 x 18 new classrooms.

If no or few students are assigned to the new classrooms (per the neighborhood school Boundary policy) ????