15 LOST INSTRUCTIONAL DAYS…AND COUNTING!!!

After three weeks of ONLY District Deeds publicly shaming Elementary School Superintendent (ESS) Cindy Marten (aka: CINDY-20) and Trustee Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera for neglecting to have any semblance of a Disaster Recovery or Educational Continuity Plan, the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) has FINALLY initiated a sketchy plan to initiate distance learning.  The result of this gross SDUSD mismanagement by Marten, Barrera and their cronies, is 15 lost instructional days…and counting!

The REAL impact, sad fact and huge disappointment for ALL SDUSD Stakeholders is that when schools were closed on March 16, 2020, there was virtually NO DISASTER RECOVERY/EDUCATIONAL CONTINUITY PLAN including REAL, GRADED, remote learning by Elementary School Superintendent Cindy Marten (aka: CINDY-20), her staff or the “Empty Suit” Board of Education for the ongoing education of 103,000 Students and thereby causing the 2020 SDUSD EDUCATIONAL SANDEMIC.

Given the ineffective, inconsistent and erratic educational leadership Sandemic created by CINDY-20 during the COVID-19 Coronavirus shutdown, District Deeds will try and fill a small part of the huge educational gap with articles, news and a special Page dedicated to tools, strategies and  materials for families and employees who are bearing the brunt of CINDY-20 inexperience and incompetence.

The link to the new page (Also listed on the top of the District Deeds blog) is:

San Diego Unified School District “CINDY-2020” Sandimic Educational Resources

As an ongoing feature especially for the Coronavirus Pandemic, we will begin to show the progress, or total lack thereof, of the SDUSD leadership via relevant LOCAL news articles that focus on the SDUSD.  We will also post the name of the reporter (if available).

Below is an interesting local article and other information we received and discovered this past week regarding the Coronavirus impact to K-12 education…

BE WELL…TAKE PRECAUTIONS!

San Diego Unified Pandemic Costs Could Reach $71 Million

The estimate includes technology, Chromebook distribution and up to $52 million for summer school

by San Diego Union Tribune Reporter Kristen Takata

Link to hard copy of article: San Diego Unified pandemic costs could reach $71 million – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Quote from Article:

The COVID-19 pandemic could cost San Diego Unified School District $71 million — $19 million for the rest of this school year and up to $52 million for summer school, to make up for learning lost during school closures, according to new district estimates.

“What we’re concerned about is the number of students who are gonna be falling behind as a result of the distance learning,” said San Diego Unified Board Vice President Richard Barrera.

The $52 million assumes every district student would take summer school, which would not be universally required so the actual cost likely won’t be as much.

These costs are beyond what the district was anticipating prior to the pandemic. Back then the district was planning to make $84 million in budget cuts to make ends meet over the next school year.

And…

San Diego Unified students will have lost five weeks of formal, graded instruction by April 27, which is when the district officially launches its distance learning. Students with disabilities also will have gone five weeks without receiving special education services from the district.

And…

A recent statewide poll of parents by the Education Trust-West found that 46 percent of San Diego parents surveyed had not been contacted by their teacher since schools physically closed, and 71 percent lack the resources they need to keep their children academically on track.

About 86 percent said they are concerned that their children will fall behind academically.

District officials also have said that online learning won’t be able to replace in-person instruction in terms of quality.

And…

The district will spend $19 million on:

• Chromebook distribution, including cleaning of computers and staffing of distribution sites
• Technology, including computers, adapters, headphones and internet hot spots for students, as well as computers for staff to work from home
• Staff training
• Substitutes for teachers unable to work
• Licensing and software
• Education kits for homeless and hospitalized students
• Sanitizing school facilities
• Translation services for remote parent-teacher interaction
• Technology support

The $19 million represents net costs. It factors in $3 million in savings from reduced utilities and bus fuel, Barrera said. It also does not include things for which the district expects to get reimbursed, such as some food distribution costs.

It includes $1 million in lost facilities rental income.

Over the next two weeks, San Diego Unified will continue distributing some 40,000 Chromebook laptops to students who need them.

The district also is distributing 20,000 free meals to children at 19 school sites every weekday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture pays for the meals, but the school district is paying overtime and hazard pay to school employees and school police working at food and laptop distribution sites, Barrera said. The hazard pay, which is one and a half times regular pay, is to compensate for the added risk of interacting with many people.

And…

The district also anticipates shelling out money for a few thousand WiFi hotspots for families who, for one reason or another, are unable to get internet access through Cox or Spectrum, Barrera said.

“We were trying to purchase as many WiFi devices as we can, and it’s a hard thing to do because there’s just not a lot available on the market because everyone’s trying to buy them,” Barrera said. “It’s like our version of ventilators.”

And…

Other technology-related costs include paying for online learning platforms and filters to restrict what students are exposed to on the internet when using district-owned Chromebooks. For example, the district is purchasing a district-wide Zoom licensing agreement that will allow the district to set safety controls for teachers.

And…

The district anticipates losing money on Chromebooks because not all the computers will get returned at the end of the school year; some will be lost or damaged, Barrera said.

San Diego Unified will not penalize students or hold them financially responsible for the Chromebooks.

And…

Summer school would last five to six weeks and would ideally take place in person at schools, Barrera said. But that will depend on whether it is safe enough to return to school by summer.

If not, the district would still want to do summer school online, he said.

The district won’t be able to force students to take summer school, but it would be open to all students and strongly encouraged for students who teachers believe are falling behind, Barrera said.

Kisha Borden, president of the San Diego teachers union, said the union hasn’t been told about any plans to expand summer school.

She doubts that teachers or students would want to participate in more school.

“I don’t know how many people would be up for that. Even families I’m hearing from, families that are just overwhelmed that I don’t know if that would be anything people would take advantage of,” Borden said.

District Deeds Synopsis

This excellent article from the San Diego Union Tribune by Ms. Kristen Takata clearly exposes the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) financially corrupt Coronavirus opportunism “Tricky Dick” Barrera style!

Only the corrupt Barrera would have the guts to ask for an additional $71 million after allowing  his improperly appointed, incompetent Elementary School Superintendent (ESS) Cindy Marten to mismanage THIS YEAR the finances of the SDUSD into an $84 million budget deficit hole despite a 1.4 billion budget and $4.9 billion worth of Prop S and Z funds without any trace of a Remote Learning Disaster Recovery Plan!!!.

It is clear that this $71 million scam by Tricky Dick Barrera is just another way to cover up the 2020 $84 million budget mismanagement by his close, close  buddy ESS Cindy Marten.

The following is the District Deeds Cinnochio rating and Estimated net additional cost “translation” of the $71 million scam spending list provided by Tricky Dick to the Union Tribune to cover up the ESS Marten financial mismanagement:

• Summer School for ALL SDUSD Students  – $52 Million

4 Cinnochios

This $52 Million Summer School scam is directly related to Tricky Dick Barrera hand picking a totally incompetent Superintendent in ESS Cindy Marten.

While other large school districts with highly credentialed and experienced Superintendents are able to roll out distance learning for all Students in as little as 3 days (like the Duval County Public Schools we highlighted last Sunday) Marten is going to take SEVEN WEEKS to provide the very, very, lowest level of Education with no Student (no grades or attendance), Teacher (no lesson plan or class structure requirements), or District (no Student, School or LEA performance measurements) commitment to college or career readiness including a ridiculous “soft launch”…

…that more resembles quicksand for SDUSD Students!

After the “Soft Launch” the “Hard Launch” is not any better with the same minimal educational standards.

The ONLY reason causing Summer School for ALL SDUSD Students is the lack of executive planning by the $330,000 ESS Marten.

Marten has absolutely no clue on how to be a Chief Executive Officer of the SDUSD…no background or credentials and no operational, financial or human resource senior management experience or skills,

As we have said in recent Coronavirus Sandimic posts,  ZERO Disaster Recovery Planning that includes distance learning has caused the 7 week SDUSD educational delay.

This is not only an unforgivable Senior Management error but also an unforgivable offense against ALL SDUSD Stakeholders including SDUSD Employees, Families and Taxpayers.

This Coronavirus Pandemic disaster has exposed Marten as completely unprepared to ensure the CORNERSTONE of the SDUSD mission…

All San Diego students will graduate with the skills, motivation, curiosity and resilience to succeed in their choice of college and career in order to lead and participate in the society of tomorrow. – SDUSD Mission Statement

….and is shockingly obvious $52 million dollars worth of evidence and cause for the immediate termination of Marten.

The Board of Education must DENY Summer School, extend the school year by 5 weeks and INSIST that Marten successfully complete full, required curriculum with full performance standards or be FIRED immediately!

Estimated net additional cost: $0.00 for no Summer School and a savings of $330,000 for Marten salary when she is fired.

—

• Chromebook distribution, including cleaning of computers and staffing of distribution sites

4 Cinnochios

The only justifiable additional expense on this line is the cleaning of computers but  “Chromebook distribution” and “Staffing” are the same thing and should along with the cleaning, be fully covered with existing paid staff…not extra staff.

Estimated net additional cost: $0.00

—

• Technology, including computers, adapters, headphones and internet hot spots for students, as well as computers for staff to work from home

4 Cinnochios

Based on comments from ESS Marten, the SDUSD is a 1:1 Student to computer district.  At least 30,000 students have both access to a computer and the internet.  It is not a stretch to believe that 95% of school site Teachers and Administrators with high five and six figure salaries have a computer and internet they use for school business already.

Subtracting the free internet for 2 months and families/Staff that already have internet, there should be a very minimal need for $29 hot spots

Estimated net additional cost: Less than $1 million

—

• Staff training

4 Cinnochios

Again…this is covered with existing budgeted PAID SDUSD Employees with no additional cost

Net additional cost: $0.00

—

• Substitutes for teachers unable to work

4 Cinnochios

Again…this is covered with existing budgeted PAID SDUSD Employees with no additional cost

Net additional cost: $0.00

—

• Licensing and software

There is no software described by Tricky Dick in the article except forZoom Conferencing.  District Deeds is very familiar with Zoom though our business and the following is the posted price list for Zoom:

As you can see, the largest user package is the Enterprise version that costs $19.99/mo.  In general, if the SDUSD requires 6,000 teachers and 500 other employees to have HOST access to Zoom, that amounts to approx. $130,000/mo.  For 3 months it is around $400,000.  For K-12 School Districts like the SDUSD, Zoom has Zoom for K-12 Education that “Integrate seamlessly with your LMS – Moodle, Canvas, Desire2Learn, Sakai, and Blackboard” and provides “Accessibility for all learners – Ensure that everyone can participate equitably with closed captioning and keyboard shortcuts” as a subset product specifically for special Student groups like English Language Learners (ELL), Special Education and other Students and Families with special requirements including struggling students.

Zoom is a number of hosts pricing model while many other education software models are one cost for enterprise-wide annual pricing.  Since the SDUSD already subscribes to most of these programs and those subscriptions are already built into the existing 2019/20 budget, the incremental cost for 3 months of additional service is minimal.  Our estimate for this category of ADDITIONAL licenses for Distance Learning cloud based software for 3 months is under $1.5 million.

Estimated net additional cost: Less than $1.5 million

—

• Education kits for homeless and hospitalized students

4 Cinnochios

What was not answered by Tricky Dick is what “special” materials make up these “education kits for homeless and hospitalized Students”.

It appears that these kits might include many teaching materials that ALREADY EXIST on each SDUSD school site or ALREADY BUDGETED in each school site budget.  This expense is POSITIVE to the budget when you consider that it covers a March, 2020 through June, 20  (3 month) time period that it takes the place of teaching materials on each campus that ARE NOT being distributed to the vast majority of Students.  This represents MILLONS of dollars for POSITIVE to the existing 2019/20 SDUSD budget.

Estimated net additional cost: POSITIVE impact to budget is MORE than $5 million of SAVINGS

—

• Sanitizing school facilities

4 Cinnochios

District Deeds became very familiar with the Custodial department as Chair of the Custodial Tiger Team.  Every year each campus goes through a “deep cleaning” protocol where each school is cleaned from top to bottom during the summer.  Based on news reports, when the campuses were closed because of the Coronavirus Pandemic and drastically prevented anyone to enter (including Teachers) , Custodians sanitized each campus.  Once the schools were closed and sanitized only limited access to general areas was permitted and required minimal maintenance.  Under a competent Superintendent, School closure should have eliminated the vast majority of Custodial cleaning maintenance over this 3 month period and actually created a POSITIVE impact to the budget.

Estimated net additional cost: POSITIVE impact to budget is MORE than $5 million of SAVINGS

—

• Translation services for remote parent-teacher interaction

This part of the shameless Tricky Dick Barrera scam really cashes in at the expense of the neediest SDUSD Families…English Language Learners (ELL) and Special Education  Students and Families.

It is unconscionable that Trustee Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera would betray the largest part of his voting constituency, ELL Families, to help pay off his political favor debts.

A COMPETENT and EXPERIENCED Superintendent would parlay the distance learning initiative into a communication device that IMPROVES communication with the neediest Students and Families.  Having the Translations Services Department working virtually with all Teachers, Students and Families via Voice to Text/Speech Translation software integrated into ZOOM platform provides a superhighway of communication to ALL Student populations.

Tricky Dick Barrera is a disgrace to his SDUSD Board of Education office and to all his constituents.

Net additional cost: $0.00

—

• Technology support

4 Cinnochios

Through her cuts to technical support that we highlighted in 1 IT Tech for 2,300 Classrooms – MILLIONS of Prop Z/S IT Investment Dollars at Risk Through Severe Layoffs in San Diego Unified Technology Support!!!, Marten has proved that she has no experience or knowledge in Technology Support.

Instead of laying off Technology Support Staff in 2017/18 school year a little over 2 years ago in the midst of the Prop S and Z upgrade, a HIGHLY QUALIFIED Superintendent would have protected that huge financial investment with an education disaster recovery plan that includes a major focus on Distance Learning via the newly acquired technology tools.

Marten did not.

The SDUSD is now stuck with throwing Technical Support in the middle of this disaster hoping for a miracle.

Net additional cost: We know the cost will be more than $0.00 but have no idea how much more this will cost.  This is a category that is familiar to ALL IT professionals…

USER ERROR!

Unfortunately the individual responsible for USER ERROR of the whole Technical Support Department is ESS Marten and she has no idea how to solve the error except by massive spending to cover up her USER ERROR.

Just more operational and financial reasons Marten MUST be fired.

_______________________________________________

So the summary of how Tricky Dick is exploiting the Coronavirus Pandemic through his $71 million scam is as follows:

4 Cinnochios for every expense category

• The district will spend $52 million on Summer School for All SDUSD Students

Budgeted: $52 million by cutting Summer School

Actual: $330,000 savings – Fire Superintendent Cindy Marten

• Chromebook distribution, including cleaning of computers and staffing of distribution sites

$0 cost

• Technology, including computers, adapters, headphones and internet hot spots for students, as well as computers for staff to work from home

$1 Million Cost

• Staff training

$0 cost

• Substitutes for teachers unable to work

$0 cost

• Licensing and software

$1.5 million cost

• Education kits for homeless and hospitalized students

$5 Million Savings

• Sanitizing school facilities

$5 Million Savings

• Translation services for remote parent-teacher interaction

$0 cost

• Technology support

TBD

TOTAL COST including NO Summer School and ESS Marten Termination:

$7.850 Million SAVINGS!!!

We are SURE that ALL the Tech Support required to create a full Distant Learning Disaster Recovery in the middle of this Pandemic Disaster can be paid for out of the $7.850 Million SAVINGS!!!

Quote of the week:

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” ― Abraham Lincoln

______________________________________________________________

ESS Marten Sandimic Motto:  

Hardly Work, Act Blind, Lie Big, Make Excuses

#martensgottago

__________________________________________________________

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!

FIRE San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cindy Marten Immediately!

#martensgottago

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