The horrible error in judgement by the new Biden administration to nominate incompetent, corrupt Superintendent Cindy Marten for the position of United States Deputy  Secretary of Education has been slowly unraveling nationwide.  The REAL Marten record is being exposed and there is a groundswell of support to deny the grossly unqualified Marten the position.

A couple of articles crystalize the objections about Marten.

Here is a Opinion piece from The 74 titled “As Biden Signs Orders Addressing Systemic Racism, Why Isn’t He Listening to What Black Parents Have to Say About His No. 2 Ed Department Pick? where they say:

Marten has a truckload of complaints, not from the education reform community, but from parents, students and employees in her own school district.

And from the Black Wall Street Times in an article titled “Black Civil Rights activists respond to Cindy Marten’s nomination to the Department of Education“:

Education advocates and activists across the US are calling the Biden-Harris Administration out for selecting Ms. Marten. On Talk Dat Real Sh*t, a podcast under the Brightbeam education advocacy group, which aired on The Black Wall Street Times, Naomi Shelton, the secretary for the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said,

“We asked for these specific things and the leadership of the department of education Y’all have demonstrated that you did not hear us and so we oppose the nominee for the deputy assistant secretary of the department of education.” Adding “ you’re going to give us one thing and show that to the world in picking this person that flies under the radar is that there are still going to be problems.” 

As superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, Ms. Marten was a key player in covering up alleged civil rights violations, including fiscal corruption, manipulating school achievement data, discrimination, and sexual assault of students. But Ms. Marten, who maintained both an attorney and a Private Investigator on her staff to fight these allegations, continued to receive support from Linda Darling Hammond, past president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Ms. Darling Hammond, a close friend of Ms. Marten’s, served on President Biden’s educational advisory committee during his campaign. 

And here is a San Diego Voice and Viewpoint Letter to the Editor-The Dangerous Selection of Supt. Cindy Marten  from the February 4, 2021 edition:

Layered on top of the ill-advised nomination of Marten by President Biden is the corrupt actions of San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Board of Education President/Trustee Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera to continue his dictatorial regime and replace Marten with a hand picked, equally unqualified, Middle School Superintendent puppet.

This past Tuesday, January 2, 2021, the SDUSD BOE and incompetent, in transit, Superintendent Cindy Marten again manipulated the Principal selection process using the testimony of SDUSD employee sycophants to ensure that another grossly unqualified Superintendent will be improperly appointed via the 2021 Superintendent Selection Scam (SSS)!

This Sunday Reads features an article describing that Board Meeting from the San Diego Union Tribune.

We have selected the most relevant portions of the article for our reader but District Deeds strongly urges our readers to click on the title (in red) and read the full article for themselves in the San Diego Union Tribune.

BE WELL…TAKE COVID 19 PRECAUTIONS…

A local Committee Will Help Choose San Diego Unified’s Next Superintendent

Supporters said a local committee will know district better than an outside search firm

QUOTES FROM ARTICLE:

The San Diego Unified School Board will appoint a local committee to vet applicants for the district’s superintendent position, the board decided unanimously Tuesday.

And…

Last month the San Diego school board appointed Area Superintendent Lamont Jackson to serve as interim superintendent until the end of the 2021 calendar year. Meanwhile the board will conduct a search for Marten’s permanent replacement over the course of 2021.

The board opted for a board-appointed committee of locals rather than paying for an external search firm to find and screen applicants.

And…

Some parents objected to using a board-appointed committee, saying the board has not always represented their interests in the past. A coalition of several community groups, including Parents for Quality Education, the Association of African American Educators, NAACP San Diego and the local ACLU, called for the board to use an external firm to find the best superintendent candidate.

“Parents have too much experience, unfortunately, in this district in participating in town halls, think tanks and feedback committees only to find it was an exercise San Diego Unified used to check boxes rather than gather meaningful input,” said Courtney Duthie, a parent, during Tuesday’s board meeting. “Only an independent placement firm can instill confidence that all stakeholders will be heard and will be heard equally.”

And…

“No one voted for the role of this board to be outsourced to consultants or those from outside of the community who cannot be held accountable and who have no real connection to the San Diego Unified community,” said Kisha Borden, president of the San Diego Unified teachers union, during Tuesday’s meeting.

Board President Richard Barrera said any candidates need to understand that the district is looking for somebody who will continue the progress the district has made over recent years, not try to change everything.

“You’ve got to come to the table not expecting that you’re going to reinvent the wheel,” Barrera said. “You’ve got to come to this table ready to understand the work that this district has made, the clarity that this district has about where it’s trying to go, and what do you bring to get us to move to the next step in the development of our vision.

“We’re not looking for a savior; we’re not unclear about what we want.”

Each of the six San Diego Unified School Board members, including Student Trustee Zachary Patterson, will get to choose three representatives for the committee, Barrera said. The board is expected to confirm committee members at its Feb. 23 meeting.

The committee will solicit a third-party organization to conduct town halls, public forums and other community engagement efforts during the late spring and early summer. The point of those efforts is to collect community feedback on what the vision of the district for 2030 should be and what qualities the next superintendent should have to achieve that vision, Barrera said.

The committee will then use that feedback to write a job posting. Candidates from around the world will be able to apply.

The committee will screen the applicants and recommend up to 10 people to be interviewed by the board in September.

By October, the school board will narrow the pool down to three finalists. In early November, the committee will hold more public forums to introduce the finalists to the public and collect input on the candidates.

Finally, the board will select the permanent superintendent by early December to allow for a month-long leadership transition.

Here is the list of organizations that will get a representative on the committee (including but not limited to):

• Administrators Association of San Diego (district’s administrators union)
• California Charter Schools Association
• California School Employees Association (district’s classified employees union)
• Community Advisory Committee for Special Education
• District Advisory Council on Compensatory Education
• District English Learner Advisory Committee
• Parent Teacher Association
• San Diego Community College District
• San Diego County Board of Supervisors
• San Diego Educators Association (district’s teachers union)
• San Diego Mayor’s Office
• San Diego Schools Police Officers Association (district’s police union)
• San Diego State University
• San Diego Unified sub-districts A, B, C, D and E
• San Diego Workforce Partnership
• Student Advisory Board/Associated Student Body
• University of California San Diego
• Visual and Performing Arts Foundation

DISTRICT DEEDS SYNOPSIS AND COMMENTARY:

As expected, like the results of the previous unilateral appointment of incompetent Cindy Marten, the board voted on a corrupt, undefined Superintendent selection plan stacked with cronies and sycophants that will again deliver the unilateral appointment by Barrera of another incompetent candidate for SDUSD Superintendent

The quotes from Parents and Community members provided the unbiased truth about what constitutes a fair Superintendent selection process:

“Parents have too much experience, unfortunately, in this district in participating in town halls, think tanks and feedback committees only to find it was an exercise San Diego Unified used to check boxes rather than gather meaningful input,” said Courtney Duthie, a parent, during Tuesday’s board meeting. “Only an independent placement firm can instill confidence that all stakeholders will be heard and will be heard equally.”

From the Board meeting video, here is what another SDUSD Stakeholder had to say with key phrases highlighted in blue:

I have served on several of your advisory committees lately and had have watched how others operate. the described process to select a superintendent sounds a lot like the boards advisory committee on school board elections from a year and a half, two years ago.  And like that committee by appointing the members of the Superintendent selection committee, the board members are seeking to control that process just as you did with appointees to that committee. 

The proposal is clearly unequitable.   Parents and students are by far the largest stakeholders but represent less than a quarter of the proposed committee participants. 

Hiring an independent reputable professional executive hiring firm allows for town halls and stakeholder input in the process and just ensures an open and transparent process that allows all stakeholders to be equally engaged in the process not a select committee of appointees to control the process.  The students deserve the best candidates the nation has to offer and a national firm is in the best position to find these candidates please vote no on this proposal

The Board of Education realizes that if the selection process is transparent and independent a new Superintendent will expose the ongoing financial corruption and  educational malpractice.  That is why Tricky Dick Barrera is desperate to stack the selection committee with District employees and political cronies he can control…not with the parents and families being educationally, physically and emotionally damaged daily in the SDUSD.

The main thing REJECTED was an independent, impartial Executive Search firm that would complete a professional,  world class search as outlined in the services offered by the California School Board Association:

Instead, here is the corrupt process that is currently being followed by the Board of Education for the Superintendent selection:

1. Come up with a plan with no Stakeholder input.
2. Line up Union, political/business cronies and other compromised supporters that will publicly agree to your plan in trade for annual raises/payoffs (political and/or contractual)
3. Distribute key uniform “Talking Points” to supporters and have them testify en masse for Board Meeting public comment. Be sure that Board secretary assigns the supporters to the beginning of the public comment section
4. Relegate Parent and community input randomly as to minimze impact. When possible have the opposition Public Comment experience “no audio” or other “glitches” that prevent their testimony.
5. At the end of the Public Comment, negate all opposition views with lies that neither the viewers or media can quickly refute during the meeting (i.e. The executive search process failed in the past).
6. Vote on the vague “plan” and proceed to waste thousands of trusting Stakeholders hours to identify criteria and select the Superintendent that has already been identified by Tricky Dick and Union/Political Cronies.
7. When appointing the pre-determined new Superintendent, claim that all Stakeholders have spoken.

The purpose of this 2021 Superintendent Selection Scam (SSS) is to trick thousands of SDUSD families into thinking that they are part of the selection process while actually setting up a structure completely controlled by massively corrupt Trustee Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera.  His benefactors are the Unions, especially the trade and SDEA Teachers Union, that spend thousands of dollars to get him re-elected, and business/Democrat political cronies that are either directly or indirectly receiving a paycheck from the SDUSD.

Creating a huge committee with all members having an equal vote is the perfectly corrupt way to negate the huge number of Parent and Community Stakeholders that nake up the huge majority of Stakeholders overall.

The numbers are simple.

There are over 200,000 Parents and Students.

There are 12,000 SDUSD employees and 9 non parent/student organizations:

Here is the breakdown by voting block:

12,000 SDUSD Employees – 9 votes 

• Administrators Association of San Diego (district’s administrators union)
• California School Employees Association (district’s classified employees union)
• San Diego Educators Association (district’s teachers union)
• San Diego Schools Police Officers Association (district’s police union)
• Trustee Barrera
• Trustee Beiser
• Trustee Payne
• Trustee Bazzo
• Trustee McQuary

SDUSD Leadership Cronies – 9 Votes

• Parent Teacher Association
• San Diego County Board of Supervisors
• San Diego Community College District
• San Diego Mayor’s Office
• San Diego State University
• San Diego Workforce Partnership
• Student Advisory Board/Associated Student Body
• University of California San Diego
• Visual and Performing Arts Foundation

Outside K-12 Leadership Groups – 1 Vote

• California Charter Schools Association

SDUSD Parent/Community Groups – 4 Votes

• Community Advisory Committee for Special Education
• District Advisory Council on Compensatory Education
• District English Learner Advisory Committee
• San Diego Unified sub-districts A, B, C, D and E

Total Votes: 23 Votes

Crony Votes (Employees and 9 cronies) representing 12,009 individuals: 18 votes representing 78% of the available vote

Votes representing 200,000 Parents and Students: 4 votes representing 7% of the available vote

Outside K-12 Organizations: 1 votes representing 4% of the available vote1

One of the more disgusting portions of the BOE Meeting was string of SDUSD employees kissing of Tricky Dick’s ring just like the President Trump cabinet meetings.

Remember this:

 

The orchestrated section of the Tuesday BOE meeting followed a familiar pattern with Union employees of the SDUSD spouting duplicated Union talking points at the beginning of the items Public Comment.  Next came SDUSD front organizations and random individuals spouting duplicated Union talking points.

There were 3 key talking points used by the Marten/Barerra SDUSD Employees and cronies:

1. Suck up to current boss Marten

Marten may not get the grossly under deserved Deputy Secretary of Education and return to the SDUSD.  No harm in hedging your bets by kissing her *** on her way out the door.

2. Suck up to future boss Lamont Jackson

It’s good politics, albeit immoral, to suck up to grossly underqualified Lamont “Middle School Breakdown” Jackson.  He is the odds on pick for SDUSD Superintendent and the SDUSD is completely satisfied in wallowing in the current systemic racist educational damage with no changes to the status quo. Keeping the existing power structure at the educational expense of thousands of Students is clearly the primary goal of Tricky Dick, Union leadership and political/construction cronies.

3. Suck up to the BOE

By accepting the corrupt, vague, unethical Superintendent Selection plan, the Union/Employees/Cronies that get a check and can be fired for disagreeing use huge membership numbers on the “Selection Committee” to choose Lamont “Middle School Breakdown” Jackson, or someone else that is equally unqualified and willing to betray thousands of Students, like Marten did, for personal financial and career gain.

From Barrera, the District Employees and sycophants, there is no need to take the risk of actually being held accountable by an outsider that may discover widespread corruption.  It’s better to participate in the 2021 SSS Scam and continue to run the SDUSD as a financial benefit to employees and political cronies rather than for the thousands of vulnerable Families and Students.

Three ridiculous justifications for the sucking up talking points from Unions and Cronies were used:

1. We don’t want to “outsource” to an Executive search firm, that is why we elected the BOE.

The Board of Education already outsources millions of dollars of services each year including legal defense firms to destroy poor families and employees in court, professional development to teach teachers how not to be racist in a systemic racist district and inexperienced Harvard Grad students to create useless studies and programs.

The BOE actually wants to OUTSOURCE the management of the Selection Committee and Community process to a subcontractor to run the Town Hall Meetings!

But, according to the Union/Cronies we must DRAW THE LINE and stop nationally accredited Executive Search firms for arguably the most important decision since 2013.

It is just another lie that McQuary, Payne and the rest of the corrupt BOE are better suited for this effort than professional recruiters.

That makes no sense, it just serves their unethical, self serving financial desires.

2. We elected the BOE so we have a mandate.

Union members and cronies used this “justification”.  In other words, we bought your election with our union dues and now we expect to be paid off…or else.   The opinions of families, students, and taxpayers who voted, or didn’t vote, obviously don’t deserve the mandate of education to ALL compared to the need of Unions and Cronies.

For some reason the Union/Cronies think that getting the Board Members elected places those members above taking direction from the thousands of families they serve.  Total nonsense.

3. Finally the BIG LIE from Tricky Dick to negate all Parent, Student, Community influence:   “You’ve got to come to the table not expecting that you’re going to reinvent the wheel,” Barrera said. “You’ve got to come to this table ready to understand the work that this district has made, the clarity that this district has about where it’s trying to go, and what do you bring to get us to move to the next step in the development of our vision.  “We’re not looking for a savior; we’re not unclear about what we want.”

District Deeds Translation: No need to reinvent the SDUSD square wheel.  YOU’VE GOT to believe Tricky Dick Barrera’s unending string of lies, corruption and coverups so he is not exposed by an ethical, effective outsider Superintendent that will turn him in!!!

It is much better to hire a compromised Lamont “Middle School Breakdown” Jackson in the distorted view of Tricky Dick.

Here are the current 19 SDUSD Square Wheels created by incompetent Supt. Cindy Marten that Barrera and his 17 other sycophants insist don’t need reinventing…these are JUST FROM THE PANDEMIC:

• ZERO SDUSD Standards Based Grading Plan Transparency, Accountability and Community Collaboration
• ZERO SDUSD 2020/21 Reopening Plan Transparency and Community Collaboration
• ZERO Operational Budget Transparency used to hide TOTAL Operational Budget Mismanagement.
• ZERO Transparency of SDUSD performance BEFORE and DURING the Coronavirus Pandemic.
• ZERO Accountability for SDUSD LACK of performance since BEFORE and DURING the Coronavirus Pandemic.
• Phase 1 Educational Supports denied to tens of thousands of the most disadvantaged Students
• OPTIONAL Boot Camp Professional Development for Teachers – FAIL.
• Individualized “disadvantaged Student” supports with NO Equity Rules, Standards or Tracking.
• Every Cluster, School, Principal, Teacher and Student for themselves “custom” school site “strategy” by incompetent Supt. Marten creating gross inequities from classroom to classroom.
• Only 3 hours per day vs 5 hours per day of live teaching.
• Only 3 periods per day vs 5 periods per day of live teaching.
• No Teacher Evaluations.
• No Smarter Balanced tests in Math and English language arts.
• No California Science Test
• No Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP)
• Minimal California (ELPAC) for English learners
• Minimal California School Dashboard
• Dysfunctional Standards Based Grading
• Disorganized Four Phase School Reopening Scam/Plan

And this not even counting the BIG lie that SDUSD has a clear vision of the next ten years and we are doing great right now.

The BIG lie to

• Students and families of color who experience a huge gap in test performance every year since 2003.
• Special Education Students that have the district ignore IEPs and other supports while allowing sexual molestation.
• English Language Learner (ELL) Students that are either rushed through testing or ignored/flunked completely
• All Students suffering through disastrous, poorly deployed distance learning with minimal grading, attendance and testing standards and no Teacher evaluations.

 

And finally, we want our readers to play a game with the following names and tell us which one doesn’t match:

1. Dr. Carl Cohn
2. Dr. Terry Grier
3. Dr. Lamont Jackson
4. Dr. Nellie Meyer
5. Dr. Alberto Carvalho

If you can’t pick the one that doesn’t match, you must be a Tricky Dick Sycophant or crony and your organization/group MUST BE REMOVED from the selection committee.

The quote of the week is dedicated to Tricky Dick Barrera who has obviously mentored remotely with this individual:

“You’re saying it’s a falsehood and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.” – Kelly Ann Conway

#NoMarten

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