Heather Brooke

San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Superintendent has proven over and over again that she is not very good at her job.

Her total lack of management credentials and skills have led the SDUSD into one disaster after another, at one school site after another, up to and including a $116 million budget deficit.

The one thing that Marten IS really good at is “at worst” Public Relations described by Heather Brooke as “evasion and outright deception“.

Lincoln High School has unfortunately been a frequent victim of the Marten “at worst” PR and the latest Middle College disaster is a microcosm of that fact.

To recap the most recent Lincoln High disaster, in the Fall, 2016 semester, 96 students were enrolled in the Supt. Cindy Marten version of the Middle College program according to a Voice of San Diego article.  Although in previous semesters Students were given a choice of classes, in Fall, 2016, they were forced to take one class only…Math 96, a remedial class that would satisfy Graduation requirements.  30 Students immediately dropped the class bringing the total active Students in Middle College to 66.

We would like to see Marten and Hibbeln try that “force the students to take a class and eliminate all others”, strategy at La Jolla High or Scripps Ranch High….especially a REMEDIAL college class. In the Marten administration, that insult is only pushed on Title 1 schools south of Highway 8. 

In the Marten administration, that insult is only pushed on Title 1 schools south of Highway 8. 

According to emails to the SDUSD central office from the Lincoln PTO, Cheryl Hibbeln (SDUSD Executive Director, Secondary Schools) at a Lincoln PTO Meeting, “spoke of how Math 96 would prepare our students for the next level and assured us that the resources are in place to make sure that happens.” – District Deeds

This ended up being classic Marten “at worst” PR.

According to District Deeds sources, in the Fall 2016 semester, some Lincoln Middle College students didn’t have textbooks and the professor left in the middle of the semester and was replaced by one that had no lesson plan.  Although many Students had A’s and B’s at mid-term, they got D’s and F’s in the class.

Obviously, despite the Marten and Hibbeln assurances,  no “resources are in place” and no one was watching or monitoring the class in the District office to be sure the Middle College Program was handled correctly and that all terms of the agreement with the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) were being enforced.

Marten and Hibbeln didn’t have a clue that any of this was happening to the Students entrusted to their care at Lincoln, the same type of Students they were so happy to use as props in their PR Photo-Ops.

And also, like Marten and Hibbeln, the Interim Principal assigned by Marten doesn’t have a clue about Middle College.  She told “Voice of San Diego “:

“I don’t have all of the history of what happened regarding the [course] offerings or why.” – Current Interim Lincoln High Principal

It was just classic Marten “outright deception” carried out by one of her Administration cronies for PR purposes thinking the Lincoln Community was too stupid to notice.

Ultimately only 17 Students passed and the remaining 49 got the following letter from the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) telling them that they failed to meet standards:

District Deeds calls these Students the “Lincoln 49”.

Apparently an agreement has been brokered between SDUSD and the SDCCD to provide the “Lincoln 49” a “Withdrawal” from the class so the D’s and F’s don’t show up on their High School or College transcripts.

The SDCCD semester ended in December so now the students are sitting in a classroom at Lincoln with a substitute teacher doing nothing.

This “solution” still leaves the “Lincoln 49” without the credits needed to graduate and a wasted semester due to negligence by Marten and her administration.

Neither Marten or anyone in her administration has admitted responsibility for the harm done to these Students…or even offer a reason for their obvious negligence.  This again resembles the Brooke quote above…“What it is never about is a free flow of information.” 

For the good of ALL the SDUSD Students she has harmed through her negligence, District Deeds believes that Marten should resign especially for the damage she has done to the “Lincoln 49”.

The Lincoln Community plans to be at the SDUSD School Board Meeting Tuesday with a list of issues and demands.

Here are a few of the topics they will be bringing up to the SDUSD Board of Education Trustees on Tuesday, January 24, 2016 at 5:30 pm:

District Deeds urges all SDUSD Stakeholders to support the Lincoln Community by attending the Board Meeting and sending emails to the District to take action in support of the “Lincoln 49”.

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