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Letter to the Editor - March 15, 2008
March 15, 2008 - 3:23PM
Hesperia
At the March 10, 2008 HUSD Board Meeting, I spoke regarding the Reduction In Force Notices to the certificated (teachers) employees. After making the statement that evening I felt that my public comment needed to be clarified.
In 2003, during the 12 years I served on the Board, we were under the same state budget reductions that the current school board is facing. Per California state law reductions, layoffs or changes in teacher's contacts must be noticed by March 15 of each year.
My comment at the meeting was that we did not send out layoff notices to all teachers. This fact is true, but I felt that my comment could be misunderstood with the action that the board did take.
In March of 2003, the board did send out notices to all teachers for an up to three day RIF notice. Due to the extreme last minute budget changes that were coming from Sacramento, the board needed to act on this item before March 15, 2003 to have the option available to negotiate the RIF with the HTA bargaining unit. These notices would not lay off teachers, but reduce their salary by up to three workdays with out shortening the school year. At the time this was a heavily misunderstood legal item and was not needed in the end.
The state budget crisis, at that time, forced us to come up with solutions that needed to impact the student's education in the least possible form. The board chose at the time not to cut elective, extracurricular, and enrichment programs (such as music, sports, etc.) that possibly would not be reintroduced, or made available for many years to come.
It is important for today's budget cuts to impact the students in the least harmful way, but any changes in Hesperia School District's budget will affect our children's education in some fashion. We need to keep in sight programs like music that not only help with students' math scores, but also provide enriching development for our children.
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Reader's comments
| has anyone heard how the meeting today went? I wanted to go but forgot until just now. any info on what was discussed and what the outcomes. I would appreciate any and all input. Thanks in advance. |
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| teach - Mar 22, 2008 03:21:33 PM | Remove Comment |
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| HUSD Teacher, you make me laugh. Acrimonious at best? Mark was a principal back then, was his relationship with his staff acrimonious at best? Perhaps it is just your experience that has been bitter with administration. Wonder why? Did you not read the numerous communiques written explaining the furlough days or did you rely on your union rep to tell you? JD, not Bill. |
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| JD - Mar 22, 2008 02:53:45 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Or could it be that most teachers don't attend the board meetings because they are satisfied with the direction the district is going? Anyone criticizing the three for voting for Mark as superintendent? Jovy? George? I am confident that as a district, we are moving in the right direction. But you are right, we should take the time to thank the school board for all of the hard work they do for this district. |
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| HUSD teacher - Mar 21, 2008 01:54:28 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Yes interested people should give up their Saturday to come see the board facilitate a special meeting to develop core beliefs, goals, and objectives. Do you ever remember the previous board actually working at a special meeting to achieve this? |
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| wow - Mar 21, 2008 01:50:06 PM | Remove Comment |
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| I know that very few teachers attend the board meetings. I know that very few HTA union reps have regular meetings at their sites and even fewer teachers attend. During the rep council meetings there is little actual polling of information from sites. There is little specific direction to the reps to improve communication.
Teachers are unaware of the issues. They ignore the situation unless it affects them individually. Their job is a full time committment. Many do not read the paper because they live out of the area. All employees know that the three board members under recall received a feeble response when introduced at the all district August meeting. If you are an educator or a citizen of Hesperia that wants first hand info come to the special HUSD Board meeting on Saturday March 22 at 8 am Annex Building at the District Office on Main Street.
Find out the facts. Watch local govt in action. Decide for yourself. Then take action. Some of the decisions and discussions make me very concerned about the motives of our elected officials. |
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| watcher - Mar 21, 2008 09:53:12 AM | Remove Comment |
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| Do the people who post here obssesively spend as much time with their own children? Are they pushing them away while they just complete and/or post this last thought. Good grief people, forget about who ran over who, who holds what sign and go play ball with your kids, have dinner together as a family, go to a movie. Help them with their homework. Volunteer at your child's school.
Would you rather your eulogy speak about how you recalled the school board or that you were a loved and revered parent. I know my choice. |
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| WOW - Mar 19, 2008 11:29:41 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Bill, Bill uh I mean JD, you stated that over half the teachers supported you and now you say you spoke to many. Define many. Since I am a teacher and interacted with 'many' other teachers I think I can safely say that relationships between teachers and administration were acrimonious then at best. We did not know that these layoff notices were just to get us to give up 3 days as furlough. In fact I didn't know it until I read Lori's letter here. Of course she denied it even happened when she spoke at the board meeting but then she changed her mind. Our morale is up even in these tough times of budget cuts because we have good leadership. That was not the case before. |
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| HUSD teacher - Mar 19, 2008 08:10:20 PM | Remove Comment |
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| JD is right. |
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| Teacher - Mar 19, 2008 08:01:52 PM | Remove Comment |
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| No I did not conduct a poll, just spoke to many teachers at the time. I applaud Mr. McKinney for his leadership but I still stand by what I said before and the union did NOT save the jobs as you stated. Where do you get your information from? It was very well known that the notices were in the effort to have the teachers do the same thing that administration and classified did, give a little to SAVE jobs. |
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| JD - Mar 19, 2008 07:47:48 PM | Remove Comment |
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| JD, what do you base your information on when you say most teachers? Was there a vote taken or even a poll? No,
so it is only speculation on your part. It really doesn't matter that all teachers were rehired because the stress and discouragement and anger were so unnecessary. Mark is handling this the right way by only notifying the minumum number of teachers and then actively working with the union to implement cost savings so that even these jobs will be saved. This has had a tremendous effect of morale. Mark knows how to lead. |
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| HUSD teacher - Mar 19, 2008 04:53:48 PM | Remove Comment |
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| And, no programs were cut or even proposed to be cut. Not even music! |
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| JD - Mar 19, 2008 07:50:30 AM | Remove Comment |
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| HUSD teacher, do you really believe that ALL teachers would not have been rehired? Are you kidding me? Students have to be taught. There are laws governing rehire based on seniority, they couldn't have been replaced. I'm glad you trust Mark, he's a good man, but your point is senseless. The fact is that administrators AND classified gave, the teachers' union did not and most teachers were willing in order to save their colleagues jobs IF IT CAME TO THAT, which it did not and classified got their days back, administration got some back but not all. |
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| JD - Mar 19, 2008 07:49:14 AM | Remove Comment |
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| He is a Mormon and KIRK THEY ALL ARE. ITS A CULT THEY HAVE ties with the church and when your in good with them your a saint just like the High desert star they all hold hand in hand not to say I am against then but they do stick together light glue and thick as thieves so if you do not fit your not part of there click they all have there special things they do in church no family is allowed to be together in church its all worked out in Mintons heard if the others get the boot he moves right into the head spot he is no dumb lawyer and takes Rogers with him its all in the cards you play your card games and he just laughs at you he has the Mormon women the ladies making those cinnamon rolls and putting the money in there church you just did not see it your all wasting your breath they know just what they are doing BRAinwashers when our kids are little thats when it statrts. |
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| THE CULT MORMONS - Mar 19, 2008 01:40:33 AM | Remove Comment |
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| JD sounds alot like Bill Freeman, the administrator who was responsible for the RIFs. Truth is all teachers were given the notices that they would not be rehired for the next year. It was through the efforts of the teachers union that all teaching jobs were saved. This was so unlike what Mark McKinney and his leadership is doing. He has already told us that every effort will be made to keep this far from the classroom. Remember that these 54 notices are preliminary and will not become permanent unless absolutely necessary. I trust Mark at his word. |
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| HUSD teacher - Mar 18, 2008 08:55:50 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Thanks, JD, for straightening that out. I knew Lori wasn't making it up. |
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| Thanks - Mar 18, 2008 07:47:23 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Mrs. Nielson is correct in her basic understanding of what occured. The notices were given to all teachers in the effort to share the financial burden through reducing the number of days ALL employees would work to save jobs of newer hires and to save programs. Administration and classified reduced their days of pay, many of whom continued to work the days anyway. Most teachers were willing to do this as well but the union stepped in and refused to allow this. MANY districts are currently doing the SAME THING. It was not an effort to haphazardly fire employees but an attempt to save jobs and programs. |
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| JD - Mar 18, 2008 12:57:52 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Wow. I am quite embarrassed to be associated with our district at this moment. It matters not with which side I agree. Personal attacks on ANYONE have no place here. Each person has the right to his or her opinion, but no person has the right to attack another. Grow up and be a decent example. It frightens me that some of these postings are likely coming from teachers who work daily with our children. How unfortunate. |
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| HUSD veteran - Mar 18, 2008 08:46:26 AM | Remove Comment |
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| There it is, the racist card. Thrown by God's personal judge on Earth, Ms. Montes, who can see into the hearts of men. If you have no defense against the allegation, hide behind the race card. Let's see, doesn't Mr. Roedell share the ethnicity of the board members in question? I wouldn't want to say, as I believe people should be judged by the content of their character. |
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| HeRE - Mar 18, 2008 08:17:29 AM | Remove Comment |
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| How lucky HUSD is that Lori is no longer on the board. The vast majority of teachers support our new board and realize that a few teachers who actually believe that administrators can do no wrong are in favor of the recall. I will attend the next board meeting and I pray that Charles Roedell does not have his racist posters up. The posters are offensive to everyone I have spoken with. What a shameful way to express his so called freedom of speech. |
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| Maria Montes - Mar 17, 2008 02:00:00 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Yeah right - you should be ashamed of your self. It's very easy to make personal attacks when you get to hide behind an alias. There is no place in a public forum for people like you no matter what you make think. How about publishing your real name. |
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| Dennis Eggers - Mar 17, 2008 01:17:58 PM | Remove Comment |
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