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San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cindy Marten, SDUSD Trustee Richard Barrera
25 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 operational mismanagement by ESS Cindy Marten, her crony senior staff or the “Empty Suit” Board of Education after closing SDUSD Schools on March 16, 2020 is 25 lost instructional days…and counting for the ongoing education of 103,000 Students and strong leadership for the over 13,500 employees!
This gross incompetence has led to 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 by LOCAL Reporters (if available) that focus on the SDUSD Sandimic.
Below is an interesting article and other information we received and discovered this past week regarding the Coronavirus impact to K-12 education…
BE WELL…TAKE COVID 19 PRECAUTIONS!
San Diego Unified Says it Reached Almost 90% of Students; Thousands Still Not Connected
Quote from Article:
A few days before San Diego Unified School District officially resumes classes with distance learning, its teachers have reached most, but not all, of its 103,000 students during its “soft launch.”
Superintendent Cindy Marten said during a press call Thursday that 89 percent of students have logged on at least once to an online learning platform over the past three weeks.
That means about 8,100 students have not yet been reached and may lack computer or Internet access.
And…
Distance learning presents equity issues for students who may lack computers or Internet access, or who experience disadvantages such as homelessness or poverty.
Some families can get free Internet from Cox Communications if they sign up by May 15 for Connect 2 Compete, which is for families who have at least one K-12 student and receive government assistance.
San Diego Unified gave Cox a list of 18,000 addresses of families who officials believe may lack Internet access. Cox has connected more than 10,000 of them to the Internet, said Cox spokesman Sam Attisha.
And…
Officially distance learning and graded instruction begin Monday for San Diego Unified. Other districts started earlier this month.
During the soft launch, teachers were not required to provide instruction, but they were expected to connect with students. Many have been providing learning activities, such as Zoom class sessions and suggested assignments.
San Diego Unified, like several other school districts, is leaving it up to teachers to decide how to structure distance learning.
Teachers won’t be taking daily attendance but will instead track online participation weekly, Marten said.
And…
San Diego Unified’s official Chromebook distribution ends on Friday, but students can still pick one up at one of the district’s “exchange centers” that will open Monday, Marten said.
Students also can exchange broken Chromebooks for working ones.
Families that still need a Chromebook can call (619) 260-2460; for technical help they can call (619) 732-1400.
And…
No one knows when students will physically return to school.
“This is gonna depend on the virus, it’s gonna depend on our public health officials telling us when we can go back,” Evans said.
The San Diego County Office of Education has told districts to plan as if physical distancing will continue for the next 18 months, which means districts may have to adapt to distance learning or blend it with in-person instruction over the next school year.
District Deeds Synopsis:
Finally!
After 6 weeks of lies and propaganda by grossly incompetent Elementary School Superintendent (ESS) Cindy Marten and grossly corrupt Board of Education Trustee Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera.
Finally!
After 25 lost instructional days for all San Diego Unified School District SDUSD Students and Families.
Finally!
Six weeks after a highly qualified and experienced Superintendent in another school district with over 130,000 Students was able to launch REAL, GRADED distance learning in THREE DAYS.
Finally!
After a useless 3 weeks of Soft Launch in Quicksand.
FINALLY!
The SDUSD is ready to just BEGIN to DELIVER a “HARD LAUNCH FANTASYLAND MIRAGE” with no standards, accountability and tracking to a drastically reduced portion of 103,000 Students…and wants MILLIONS OF DOLLARS MORE to do it!!!
Here are the “standards” we listed in our 4/19/20 Sunday Reads for the horribly watered down excuse for a K-12 education during this Sandimic:
- No State or Federal Testing to measure amount of educational erosion
- No uniform, published, enforced Teacher performance standards – According to SDUSD/SDEA MOU , no disciplinary action can be taken during this Sandimic.
- No Class Scheduling standards…decisions left up to individual School/Teacher
- No meaningful Student grading – grades can only go up.
- No Student or Teacher attendance standards
- No verified/audited/published financial plan for thousands of frantically distributed Chromebook Laptops and Hotspots to Students including associated financial risk.
- No verified/audited/published Computer/Internet access reports for ALL Students by standard socioeconomic category.
- No verified/audited/published class logon or participation reports for ALL Students by standard socioeconomic category.
- No verified/audited/published plan or attempt to make up lost instructional days.
This week the incompetent ESS Marten and corrupt Tricky Dick Barrera added one internet scam to impose on the neediest families and two items to the Sandimic list.
First the internet scam…
The “free internet” scam by the district included the following:
“Some families can get free Internet from Cox Communications if they sign up by May 15 for Connect 2 Compete, which is for families who have at least one K-12 student and receive government assistance.
San Diego Unified gave Cox a list of 18,000 addresses of families who officials believe may lack Internet access. Cox has connected more than 10,000 of them to the Internet”
“May lack Internet access”?!? This means that the SDUSD DOES NOT KNOW AND HAS NOT POSITIVELY CONFIRMED WITH THE FAMILY and has breached confidentiality of over 18,000 SDUSD Families on government assistance!!!
Could it be that the inexperienced Marten knowingly approved providing Cox Cable with the confidential contact information of 18,000 families and is it possible that she neglected to block Cox Cable from using that list to sell cable TV and pursue these low income families for bill collector activities for bad debt prior to this scheme?!?
WOW!
Does ANY SDUSD Stakeholder believe that Marten is experienced and smart enough to restrict any selling or collection activity from the Cox Cable agreement before providing the contact info of 18,000 families with government assistance?
The simple answer is NO!
This is just another ignorant, ill-advised Sandimic desperation move by Marten due to poor planning that, AGAIN, abuses the neediest SDUSD families.
But the Marten abuse doesn’t stop there…
In the Thursday “press call” ESS Marten spewed propaganda and lies while also pushing responsibility for her obvious leadership failures to Parents and Students:
Propaganda Lie #1:
“San Diego Unified entered this crisis with two strong legs to stand on, our technology and our teachers.”
District Deeds Truth #1:
More like two CRIPPLED legs!
Despite over $7 BILLION (in 2019/20 budget and Prop S & Z funds), the technology was not ready to deploy and the Teachers were NOT trained for Distance Learning because of NO Disaster Planning by $330,000/yr Marten. Marten and Barrera have already started to push any and ALL blame for this Sandimic on the SDUSD implied WEAK “Legs”…Parents, Guardians and Students…especially the NEEDIEST Parents, Guardians and Students.
Propaganda Lie #2:
“88.6 percent of all of our students have connected to school during this soft launch period.”
District Deeds Truth #2:
With no accompanying data, standards or measurements “88.6 percent of all of our students have connected to school” is a great soundbite but means nothing except that Marten is willing to lie and say anything to save her autocrat hide and avoid any level of accountability. When you add the confidentiality betrayal of 18,000 Students this is a total disaster.
And ALL of this current educational disaster has taken place with virtually ZERO organized community input from any SDUSD Parent, Student or other non-SDUSD employee despite the fact that Parents and Guardians and Students have taken on a huge increase in teaching/learning responsibility with ZERO Distance Learning training.
Here is the root of the “NOT MY FAULT” Marten/Barrera logic:
By process of elimination, since “we entered this crisis with two strong legs to stand on, our technology and our teachers” , the ONLY reason we will inevitably fail is because of our WEAK LEGS…Parents, Guardians and Students! In fact, 88.6 percent of all of our students have connected to school one time so Parents, Guardians and Students will HAVE to be the reason for this educational planning failure! This is also an excellent blame shifting strategy since we don’t have to provide any hard data for “88.6 percent”. – District Deeds Assessment
In fact Parents and Guardians have been set up by ESS Marten and Tricky Dick Barrera to take all of the blame for learning losses while Marten and Barrera DEMAND more money for their political cronies.
With this proof District Deeds is able to add 2 more key components to the SDUSD Soft/Hard rollout “Plan” that prevents any SDUSD Superintendent/Trustee transparency and accountability for sub-par School District performance:
- ZERO planning input or involvement allowed from Parent, Guardian, Student or Community Stakeholders.
- ALL Parent, Guardian, Student and Community Stakeholders are to blame for any failures
- No State or Federal Testing to measure amount of educational erosion
- No uniform, published, enforced Teacher performance standards – According to SDUSD/SDEA MOU , no disciplinary action can be taken during this Sandimic.
- No Class Scheduling standards…decisions left up to individual School/Teacher
- No meaningful Student grading – grades can only go up.
- No Student or Teacher attendance standards
- No verified/audited/published financial plan for thousands of frantically distributed Chromebook Laptops and Hotspots to Students including associated financial risk.
- No verified/audited/published Computer/Internet access reports for ALL Students by standard socioeconomic category.
- No verified/audited/published class logon or participation reports for ALL Students by standard socioeconomic category.
- No verified/audited/published plan or attempt to make up lost instructional days.
This total lack of operational, educational and community involvement standards are UNIQUE to the grossly dysfunctional SDUSD as proven by the 3 day deployment of Distance Learning we described in the 3/29/20 Sunday Reads…Here is a segment from a KPBS article in that post that includes a quote from Duval County School District Superintendent Dr. Diana Greene:
“Diana Greene, the superintendent of Duval County Schools where Robin Nelson teaches, sent an email to her staff on Friday, March 20 that illustrates the magnitude of the effort educators around the country are faced with: “It is amazing to me that it was just 3 days ago that we made the decision to close schools. In less than 72 hours, Team Duval moved the entire district to an at-home, virtual instruction model. We have managed to troubleshoot the mobilization of meal programs, lack of technology equipment, online teacher training, and a whole host of issues that come with a change of this magnitude. Three days! “Three days to create, print and distribute about 5 million pages of instructional content. Three days to load classes onto an online platform. Three days to gather online resources so aligned instruction could continue to take place. Three days to train about 8,000 teachers in a whole new way of work. Imagine that! “Three days to conduct a survey of technology needs from 130,000 students and to prepare thousands of computers for student use. Three days to prepare for neighborhood delivery of school lunches and snacks on our buses so children would not go hungry.”
In any case, ALL SDUSD Stakeholders, especially the neediest Students, are now suffering because corrupt Tricky Dick Barrera hired his crony, unqualified ESS Cindy Marten.
Unfortunately the financial success of Barrera is dependent upon keeping that incompetent Superintendent in her job and refusing to understand that she is incompetent.
One word can describe the next step that ALL abused and ignored SDUSD Stakeholders MUST demand from Tricky Dick as soon as possible:
#martensgottago
Now for our Quote of the Week:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair
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ESS Marten Sandimic Motto:
Hardly Work, Act Blind, Lie Big, Make Excuses
#martensgottago
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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 
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