Tags
San Diego Unified Board of Education, San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cindy Marten, SDUSD Trustee Richard Barrera
Here are some interesting articles we received and discovered this past week…
ENJOY!
After a Year Like 2018, Teachers Can No Longer Stay Silent About Injustice
Quote from Article:
After a year like this one, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting and questioning how so many injustices can still exist in our nation today.
Just think about it. In 2018, we saw two Black men get arrested in Philly for simply waiting up for their friend at a Starbucks. We followed the fallout from Charlottesville, gawked over a viral Kanye tweet that suggested slavery was “a choice,” and jeered as Betsy DeVos recommended the removal of civil rights protection policies for students of color. We even witnessed as thousands of migrant children were separated from their families at the U.S. border and heard horrific tales of ICE taking children’s parents away.
And…
I don’t just mean that teachers should speak up when injustice is obvious, either. There will always be examples that are easy to point to, like the Idaho elementary school staff that made fools of themselves by dressing up in these offensive costumes.
Merely knowing or allowing acts of hatred to go unpunished on our watch makes us complicit. As parent Alana G. Baum put it,
When we give permission to hate, the floodgates open. When sexual predatory behavior is excused, when anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment is promoted…bigoted thoughts become sanctioned opportunities to act. Shameful ideas hidden in the shadows are given microphones, and dangerous behaviors are modeled for our children.
As far as public schools go, teachers are the guardians of those floodgates. And you don’t have to don a sombrero to make them cave in; it’s as simple as keeping your mouth shut.
District Deeds Synopsis:
A very good article by a Teacher who is committed to NOT “keeping your mouth shut” however we believe that ALL SDUSD Stakeholders should follow that advice.
In the SDUSD, Teachers, Principals and Staff have told District Deeds how they are afraid of retribution by the ESS (Elementary School Superintendent) Marten regime if they speak up against abuses. They are afraid of disciplinary action up to and including termination.
And that retribution trickles down to SDUSD Families and Students.
If a Principal or Teacher is afraid to speak up, Students have no protection at school sites against sexual abuse, bullying and racial injustice.
We must NOT allow the ESS Cindy Marten through intimidation tactics to force all of us to keep our mouths shut or to dismiss abuses due to fear of retribution.
The bullying os SDUSD Stakeholders by ESS Marten and her senior staff acolytes cannot be tolerated.
That is one of the main reasons we created District Deeds…to give ALL SDUSD Stakeholders a voice without fear of retribution…and we are only an email away.
If you have a SDUSD story you need to tell, an abuse that needs to be stopped or any information that needs to be exposed we are only an email away.
Just send us the information at districtdeeds@gmail.com – we vow to protect your confidentiality.
Schools to Bus Students Living in Nearby, High-Crime Areas
Quote from Article:
Students living only a short distance from their school can now ride the bus free if there is a pattern of criminal activity in their area after lawmakers voted to override a governor’s veto.
Previously, free transportation for students was provided only to those who lived more than 1.5 miles from school–although there were exceptions made for children whose routes had traffic hazards.
The bill’s author, Rep. LaToya Greenwood, D-East St. Louis, said that providing children with transportation through unsafe areas would help students feel safer and improve school attendance. She noted that after implementing a similar program, Chicago Public Schools saw a 7 percent increase in overall attendance.
“Some students are forced to walk through high crime areas on their commute to and from school and unfortunately this puts our students in unnecessarily dangerous situations,” Greenwood said in a statement. “Our students deserve to feel safe when commuting to school and this legislations aims to provide safe transportation for students in need.”
District Deeds Synopsis:
What a great idea by the Missouri State Legislature!
A perfect example of how statewide control is sometimes needed to enforce equity at the local level.
For instance, when we read this article we were reminded that the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) busing strategy under the budget mismanagement of Elementary School Superintendent (ESS) Marten is to DECREASE the busing budget to save money and prevent families from having a choice of schools outside of their geographic area…FORCING poor families in unsafe areas to attend a NON-quality school in their neighborhood.
Fortunately for many families in unsafe areas, and detrimental to SDUSD enrollment, local Charter Schools are happily providing busing to and from their school site locations.
In other words, the horrible SDUSD busing “strategy” is a three time loser:
- Students in unsafe areas defect to charter schools or avoid attending school
- The SDUSD loses State and Federal funds for those Student defections/absenteeisms
- The loss of funds increase the enormous SDUSD Budget deficit creating more busing cuts.
Just another example of a shortsighted desperate financial management blunder by ESS Marten and her equally incompetent Board of Education Trustee enablers lead by “Tricky Dick” Barrera.
What a mess!
Hard Words – Why Aren’t Kids Being Taught to Read?
Quote from Article:
It was 2015 and Jack Silva, the chief academic officer for the public schools in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, had a problem: Only 56 percent of third-graders in his district had scored proficient on the state reading test.
Reading scores had been low for a while, but for most of the five years that Silva had been chief academic officer, he and other school leaders had been consumed with a severe budget crisis. By 2015, the district had turned the corner financially, and Silva was wondering why the reading scores were so terrible. “It was really looking yourself in the mirror and saying, ‘Which four in 10 students don’t deserve to learn to read?'” he said.
The stakes were high. Research shows that children who don’t learn to read by the end of third grade are likely to remain poor readers for the rest of their lives, and they’re likely to fall behind in other academic areas, too. People who struggle with reading are more likely to drop out of high school, to end up in the criminal justice system, and to live in poverty. But as a nation, we’ve come to accept a high percentage of kids not reading well. More than 60 percent of American fourth-graders are not proficient readers, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and it’s been that way since testing began in the 1990s.
District Deeds Synopsis:
A fascinating article about how to crack the code of Student reading proficiency. The article provides the history and real life examples of the challenges involved including the discovery process of a highly skilled and truly collaborative Superintendent to find the best solutions for his school district.
We recommend this article for anyone who really wants to understand the challenges and opportunities involved in improving Student reading proficiency at all levels.
With all this fantastic information, now all we need is a highly skilled and collaborative Superintendent to replace ESS Marten!!!
Now for our Quote of the Week:
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” – Victor Hugo
Have a great week!!!
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IF
- Your family has been injured by the San Diego Unified School District, go to the District Deeds Complaint Forms page to find instructions to fight for your Civil Rights!
- YOU ARE TIRED OF THE COVER UPS AND LIES BY SUPT. CINDY MARTEN…
Please Click the Link Below and sign the Petition Today and READ the COMMENTS to Support the REMOVAL of Marten by SDUSD Stakeholders!
District Deeds 