SDUSD Coronavirus Education Mirage List

After 54 lost instructional days (25 days of delay and 29 days of no accountability/substandard education), here are the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Fantasyland  educational “standards” being represented by incompetent Elementary School Superintendent (ESS) Cindy Marten and backed by the corrupt School Board led by Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera:

• 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 District, 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.

The SDUSD SANDIMIC!!!

PDF Link to List: Coronavirus Education Mirage List 5-10-20

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!

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Prepping to Reopen, California Schools Desperate for Guidance, Money

As California’s public schools near the sunset of a school year upended by a global pandemic, they now enter a frenetic summer of planning.

In Modesto, school officials have signaled that transportation under the age of social distancing would most likely mean school buses limited to 14 students, making it impossible to serve all students reliant on busing under normal times.

And in Los Angeles, guidance from the county’s education office envisions schools with one-way hallways, and class sizes limited to 16 students spaced six feet apart. Hand washing breaks would be squeezed in between lessons. No large gatherings, no assemblies. Recess and lunch would look different, too.

Guidance from Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as from the state Department of Education, is forthcoming. In the coming weeks, California’s educators will try to answer one question: How will schools safely reopen campuses for students and educators in the fall?

And…

Social interaction among peers and teachers, educators say, is just as much an integral part of students’ education as the learning that takes place inside California’s classrooms. This will make social distancing, they say, a tall task, if not nearly impossible, to enforce in school settings, and much more so without guidance and funding.

Across the state, many districts are surveying families, asking them to rate their preferences for on-campus and distance learning, share their health and safety concerns, whether they’d plan to send their child on a school bus and what could be improved under their distance learning offerings.

And…

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said local districts and school boards will ultimately be responsible for determining their own instructional plans for fall. Thurmond said guidance that will be released by the state education department in early June will recommend students and staff wear face coverings at school.

“We’ve got 10,000 schools,” he said. “There is no one-size-fits-all for our schools.”

School leaders say they’re itching for clearer direction from their local public health officials, which are expected to play a pivotal role in guiding schools’ reopening plans. Any guidance, however, will not be helpful if schools are expected to absorb significant funding cuts while tacking on the higher costs that will come with safely reopening schools, officials say.

And…

Los Angeles Superintendent Austin Beutner and San Diego Superintendent Cindy Marten said “opening our schools will not be as easy as separating desks or placing pieces of tape on the floor.”

The leaders of California’s two largest school districts said in a joint statement that it will take more than guidance to safely reopen schools. Schools will need a steady stream of personal protective equipment for students and staff. More personnel will be needed to operate “hybrid” systems of in-class instruction and distance learning that many schools are pondering.

And…

An education coalition representing labor groups, teachers, administrators and school boards estimate that education cuts in Newsom’s revised budget, which includes a 10% cut to schools’ main funding source, would equate to $1,230 less per student. With employee salaries accounting for an overwhelming majority of school budgets, advocates estimate that those cuts could mean upwards of 58,000 teacher layoffs to offset shrinking local budgets.

Those cuts, advocates said, fly in the face of the necessary logistics for physically reopening schools. Many districts are considering using a “hybrid” learning model in the fall to lower class sizes as part of social distancing.

One proposal could mean staggered school schedules in which students would go school for part of the day while completing the other part through distance learning. Another school schedule could mean groups of students alternating between school days spent in physical classrooms and staying at home doing distance learning.

Either scenario will likely require more teachers and personnel to sustain the schedules, and is unlikely to save schools money.

“If you have half the class in person, and half remotely, you can’t clone that teacher to be in both places to be handling both things at the same time,” said Celia Jaffe, president of the California State PTA. “Although some of these practices might be the right thing for the health of the students, there’s still going to be costs and concerns for the families.”

And…

Still, schools are bracing for the likelihood that distance learning will, in some form, remain part of their instructional game plans in the fall — either out of necessity to support hybrid scheduling or because some parents will be hesitant to send their students to physical campuses.

Thurmond, the state superintendent, said the potential enduring role of distance learning heightens the urgency to close a decades-long digital divide. Throughout the spring, many districts bulk purchased computers and hotspots for distance learning, and the state has made pleas to tech companies and philanthropists to chip in with donations.

And…

Beyond technology, the Legislative Analyst’s Office recommended that state lawmakers set minimum standards for distance learning in the event that campuses physically close again next school year. An executive order Newsom signed in mid-March protected schools’ attendance-based funding during distance learning, but did not include detailed guidance on instructional expectations.

That, as well as schools’ and students’ capacity to engage in online learning, resulted in uneven expectations across the state’s school districts on instructional requirements, such as how much, if any, live instructional time students were required to receive from their teachers.

“You have the opportunity to send some clear messages to school districts about what you expect them to do during these closures, and what kinds of distance learning should be put in place if additional closures were to occur,” deputy legislative analyst Edgar Cabral told a panel of lawmakers at a recent budget hearing.

Muratsuchi said there’s “strong interest” among legislators to establish standards for distance learning.

“Going into the fall, who knows how much longer beyond that, we need to make sure that we have some accountability standards to make sure that our school districts are providing quality distance learning as this continues to be, to one degree or another, part of the new normal for the foreseeable future,” Muratsuchi said.

District Deeds Synopsis:

A very interesting article illustrating the dearth of educational leadership, ethics and ability throughout the California educational leadership chain of command.  The following synopsis addresses and solves the two key desperation points of the rudderless SDUSD.

• Desperate for Guidance

This phrase from the title of the Cal Matters article says it all…especially for the incompetent senior leadership of the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD).

Based on public statements on social media and quotes from newspaper/radio/TV, thousands of SDUSD Parents, Teachers, Principals, Staff and Communities recognize that the current “guidance” of incompetent Elementary School Superintendent (ESS) Cindy Marten and her corrupt Board of Education Trustee cronies led by Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera has created this horrible SDUSD Sandimic educational disaster.

Reading through the article, it is clear that the incompetence and political cronyism has risen all the way to the top of the current California Education political hierarchy.

To really understand the implications of this appeal for “guidance, money” we need to dig deeper into the actual quotes of the Superintendents Thumond/Marten/Buetner and PTA President Celia Jaffe…the individuals who are presumed to provide a large degree of that “guidance” for more “money”

“We’ve got 10,000 schools,” he said. “There is no one-size-fits-all for our schools. – Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond

How profound!  Apparently Mr. Thurmond thinks he needs to tell all us ignorant California Education Stakeholders that there is a difference between a 1,500 student urban High School and a 50 student K-12 rural school and a home-school child.

The quote from ESS Marten and Buetner was not any better:

“opening our schools will not be as easy as separating desks or placing pieces of tape on the floor.” – ESS Cindy Marten; Supt. Buetner

That depth of thought ranks right up there with:

“Making a sandwich will not be as easy as simply buying a loaf of bread.”

or

“Driving your car will not be as easy as filling your tank with gas.”

WOW!

Last, but not least, is the quote from California State PTA President Celia Jaffe:

“If you have half the class in person, and half remotely, you can’t clone that teacher to be in both places to be handling both things at the same time,” – Celia Jaffe, California State PTA President

Really?!?  You can’t clone Teachers???  Well that “News Flash” from the PTA President really narrows our options.  Since we look to this “leader” to determine the best path forward, maybe she can answer the following question from SDUSD Stakeholders:

“If you have half the High School in person and half remotely, can we clone the Principal and site staff to be in both places handling both things at the same time?”

Who knows…given her obvious knowledge of cloning, maybe she will say YES!

So now we have:

The state superintendent telling us all schools are not the same.

The superintendents of the two largest California school districts telling us  that the risk of coronavirus cannot be solved by “placing pieces of tape on the floor”.

The California State PTA President telling us we can’t clone Teachers.

DUH!!! 

If those quotes are the best that California school thought “Leaders” can come up with, the full transition to post Covid 19 public education in California is on a ventilator!

• Desperate for More Money

The second part, and everlasting request by all parties in the corrupt California Education political hierarchy is to continuously beg for more money.

SDUSD Trustee Tricky Dick Barrera has turned this ongoing money grab scam into an art form.

Here is a quote from an interview with San Diego KPBS by Tricky Dick using threats and fear to intimidate SDUSD Stakeholders into accepting his money grab scam:

Barrera painted a dire picture in the event the hoped-for funding doesn’t come.

“It’s very unlikely that we could physically reopen at any point during the year,” Barrera said. “More students will fall behind. More students will experience stress and anxiety.”

Without any existing reopening plan or strategy in place, Tricky Dick Barrera is holding the education of ALL Students hostage unless he gets a $250 million dollar PAYOFF to cover up ESS Marten and SDUSD gross financial mismanagement!

Like Mr. Roosevelt Blackmon posted on District Deeds in a recent Open Letter:

This sounds like what the Oxford Dictionary describes as:

The main FALSE premise for the Marten/Barrera Covid 19 money grab scam is that the Sandimic has cost the SDUSD considerably more money operationally than pre-Sandimic. All that the SDUSD has provided publicly through their propaganda are the new Sandimic “costs” like computer tablets and internet service.

In reality there are massive cost SAVINGS through remote learning:

All Schools closed thereby dramatically reducing operational costs in the following areas including but not limited to:

• Gas/electric/water utilities
• All maintenance supplies
• Building maintenance
• Custodial
• Security
• Business Supplies
• Landscaping
• Non-Contractual Support personnel layoffs/terminations
• Contracted services
• All staff support and facility expense of extra-curricular activities eliminated

There is also a massive amount of improper hidden employment expenses that need to be investigated and should be eliminated including GHOST Employees.

The SDUSD website claims that they have 13,559 employees.

 

Based on annual budget documents and public comment, the ACTUAL total number of SDUSD employees in the SDUSD is 10,453 IN 2018-2019 INCREASING TO 10,615 THIS YEAR (2019-2020).

Here is the math:

13,559 Employees on SDUSD website

– 10,615 Employees on SDUSD Budget

= 2,944 GHOST SDUSD Employees

It appears that there are THOUSANDS of SDUSD GHOST Employees.

Some we have discovered and costing MILLIONS of dollars include :

• Dozens of high priced Doctors, Lawyers and other Medical/Legal/Professional Services personnel.
• Thousands of contracted substitute Teachers, aides and other support personnel.
• Thousands of contracted technical, construction,  and facility personnel
• An unknown number of Principals, Teachers and other personnel sitting in empty rooms doing nothing receiving a full paycheck due to legal and contractual losses and disputes.

We suspect that there are thousands of other examples.

Part of the explanation for the employee discrepancy is that the corrupt SDUSD propaganda department will desperately do ANYTHING to hide the SHRINKING enrollment and INCREASING employment of the SDUSD even if it means bloating the data by including Non-SDUSD  information (charter, homeschool, etc) and confusing Stakeholders with conflicting data.

In fact, back in November we highlighted a California State Audit that exposed the corrupt SDUSD of doing virtually the SAME THING earlier this school year in the District Deeds Sunday Reads on November 10th 2019:

The report shows that the disgracefully corrupt Marten, Barrera and their acolytes use every loophole in the California deployment of the LCFF to their corrupt advantage.

NOT spending all the “supplemental and concentration funds” and carrying them over to the following year budget denies the current years neediest students the supports they desperately need and allows the corrupt spending to be covered up.

Complex LCAP’s that are “Hundreds of pages long” reduces readability and transparency.” and punishes ALL Stakeholders who need to keep the corrupt Marten/Barrrera dictatorship accountable.

Not surprisingly for this SDUSD dictatorship, extremely long, complex LCAP documents that allow improper carryover spending is not enough.

The SDUSD was specifically cited for using “jargon that made it difficult to understand how they planned to spend their supplemental and concentration funds.”

The reason for the SDUSD LCAP being misleading is crystal clear.

If they confuse and obfuscate the need for the LCAP funding and they confuse and obfuscate the actual use of LCAP funding, chances are that they will have absolutely ZERO oversight and ZERO accountability for the miserable educational results.

Since  California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, Los Angeles Superintendent Austin Beutner and San Diego Superintendent Cindy Marten and Celia Jaffe, President of the California State PTA are seeking “guidance” and “money”, District Deeds is happy to oblige!

The District Deeds solution is a very simple 4 step process for every California School District requesting more money:

Step 1: Capture

The Districts Create list of NEW Covid 19 expenses.

Step 2: Audit

Deploy a full forensic audit for the District to identify current wasteful and improper spending along with identifying the operational savings of closed schools.  Eliminate any and all wasteful and improper spending and determine net savings.

Step 3: Compare

Readjust the District budget taking into account the massive savings identified in step 2 and compare it with the expense number from Step 1 Covid 19 New Costs

Step 4: Decide

If new savings exceed new costs: Funding problem solved!!!

If new costs exceed new savings, submit request for additional funding: Funding problem solved!!!

Simultaneously while all of this cost analysis is proceeding, create a tiered strategy/tactic list of school reopening best practices approved by local, state and federal health and educational experts to determine best solution for each and every school district, school and virtual/actual classroom.  Have each District make the best precise tiered strategy recommendation for each individual school.

Without a full forensic accounting of every single school district following this 4 step process to establish a baseline of operational education practice and expenditures, the reopening of schools will just devolve into another Tricky Dick and Tricky Dick wannabee attempt at a Covid 19 money grab scam at the expense of all Students, Stakeholders and Taxpayers.

For the sake of ALL California Pre-K, Elementary, Middle and High School Students this hidden money grab MUST NOT happen!

The educational future of ALL our children depends on it!

SOS GOVERNOR NEWSOM!

#martensgottago

#barrerasgottago

Now for our Quote of the Week that reminds us of both ESS Marten and Tricky Dick:

“Never trust a person that tries to sell you by how righteous they are. I’m telling you right now, it’s a scam.”
― Richie Norton

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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!

FIRE San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cindy Marten Immediately!

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