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The 2021/2022 San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) school year opens tomorrow, August 30, 2021.  While some Students will be going back to the same school this year, the Students of many families will be in a new school, and/or have a new Principal, new Teachers, and a new school site Staff.

The hope of those families is that their kids will have a happy, productive school year.  To ensure that the school is prepared to help their kids, the Federal, State and local governments insist that Parents provide a large amount of personal information in order to structure the local educational agency (LEA) system efficiently and and effectively.

Parents are in the same position as the Federal, State and local governments.  They want to be sure that the schools in their school district (the LEA) provide all the personnel, resources and governance to best educate their children.  They also want to be sure all of these public entities equally consider their rights as Parents and Families.

Unfortunately individual Parents and Families are not part of huge organizations that actively define and protect their individual rights.  They are not part of a union that represents them and negotiates their rights every day.  They are not part of an organization with a $1.3 billion budget and a huge staff of in house/outsourced lawyers to enforce their rights.

Parents rely on individual, politically elected officials with hundreds, thousands and millions of constituents to  enforce and protect their rights.  There is no way that an individual politician can represent a million Family’s interests to the same degree a Union or LEA can represent their individual member/organization rights.

Parents and Families have been asking for a seat at the negotiations table in the SDUSD for decades.  In good faith, Parents and Families have willingly provided every shred of personal information required by the SDUSD and the SDUSD has used that information against them with propaganda campaigns and horrible education results.

It is time we level the playing field and provide ALL parents the same private information about the District and personnel that have been created and hired to serve them.

It is up to the individual family to represent themselves when demanding the services legally promised to them though laws and the State/Federal/local education codes.  This Sunday Reads will help individual families to do just that.

Today we are providing the District Deeds Parent Rights Primer – Chapter 1 – Parent Rights and Investigative Resources.  In coming weeks we will provide additional chapters to our Parent Rights Primer on other relevant subjects.

Just as the SDUSD gathers and deploys propaganda strategies using all of your family information, like income, address, education level, etc., this primer will provide your family with the same information (through public sources) about SDUSD, District and Site personnel and organizations to help you develop your own strategy to maximize your kids education.

Enjoy!

Introduction

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary here is the definition of “primer”:

For our purposes, this primer falls under items 2 and 3 in the definition above.

This is a “small introductory book” of Parent Rights for ALL San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Stakeholders (Parents, Teachers, Students, Staff, Taxpayers, etc.) but especially for Parents and Guardians of Students who want to have a seat at the negotiating table.

This is also “a short and informative piece of writing”.  Because of the volume of information, we have tried to keep our commentary to a minimum and highlight the actual resources instead.  To maintain a semblance of brevity, we are limiting this primer to areas that are in direct contact with Families and Students:

  • Teachers
  • Site Personnel
  • Principals and Vice-Principals
  • Area Superintendents
  • Superintendent
  • Board of Education Trustees

There are two sections – “Parent Rights Laws and Codes” and “Investigation Resources for Parents”.

A couple notes:

  • We will be adding this information into a “Parent Rights Primer” link that can be accessed above the title on every page of this blog.
  • Many of the links will include an internet archive link at the Wayback Machine (WBM) website and the actual link from the source.  This will allow our readers to compare the original link from today with any changes made at the source in the future.

PARENT RIGHTS LAWS AND CODES

Public Education Rights for SDUSD Parents are best defined in the State of California Education code enforced by the California Department of Education (CDE):

Here is the PDF: California Department of Education Parents Rights

Here are the links for that document:

There is a main page with other resources from the CDE titled Parent/Family that includes the above link along with others that the CDE claims to be “Information for parents and family members about becoming involved in the education of their children.“:

Here are the links:

This is the most comprehensive amount of Parent Rights information provided at the local or state level.  The major problem is that many of the rights are implied to be already in effect at the local school district.

The document states:

“the parents and guardians of pupils enrolled in public schools have the right and should have the opportunity, as mutually supportive and respectful partners in the education of their children within the public schools, to be informed by the school, and to participate in the education of their children.”

Since SDUSD Parents have no seat at the negotiations table in union, senior staff or departmental decisions, it is virtually impossible for them to be  “mutually supportive and respectful partners in the education of their children”.  SDUSD Parents of wealth are relegated to 2nd class/non voting partner status and placed on impotent “advisory” committees (DAC, DELAC, CAC, etc.) and SDUSD Parents of color or of poverty are not even considered as partners, just as a State/Federal funding source. 

As we mentioned earlier, the SDUSD and its Employees have a vast amount of information about Parents and Students.  That information includes:

  • Full name of parents and their kids
  • Parental status (i.e.: Parent, Legal Guardian. Foster)
  • Race and ethnicity
  • Income (i.e.: Free and Reduced Lunch?)
  • Residence location (i.e.: Affuent or Poor neighborhood?)
  • Military Status
  • Education level of the Parents (i.e.: Not a High School Graduate?)
  • Language spoken in home

Here is the 2021/2022 Enrollment Form that includes all your information accessed by SDUSD employees: 2021.2022 SDUSD Enrollment Form

If the CDE and State legislators insist that Parents must be “mutually supportive and respectful partners in the education of their children” with the Teachers, Principals, Senior Staff Members,  Superintendent, and Trustees then it only makes sense that Parents have the same information about the SDUSD employees as the SDUSD employees have about them.

INVESTIGATION RESOURCES FOR PARENTS

The following is a list of resources that you have available to investigate  Teachers, Principals, Senior Staff Members,  the Superintendent, and Trustees

Transparent California

Good for investigating: All SDUSD Employees including Teachers, Principals and Area Supt. and Trustees

Information Provided: All Pay and Benefits.  The database for SDUSD goes back to 2012

Reason for investigating:  Your teachers pay is usually commensurate with their experience.  For instance, if all of your kids teachers are at the bottom rung of the pay scale since experienced Teachers are choosing not “bidding” to be placed there.  That means your local school could be having a hard time staffing highly qualified Teachers.  Searching for your kids teacher over a number of years also tells you whether they are long term SDUSD employees or a newer hire.

Good for investigating: All SDUSD Employees including Teachers, Principals and Area Supt.

Information Provided:  All areas that the individual has credentials to teach or perform other duties (i.e.: Counselor).

Here is a link to Look-up a Teacher’s Credential, Certificate and/or Permit

Here is a picture of credentials that may be for Interim Supt. Lamont Jackson:

Reason for investigating:  The SDUSD, through emergency waivers and other methods, has allowed Teachers and other district personnel to perform duties without current credentials, especially in the watered down summer school. This gives parents a first glance at what credentials the Teachers, Site Staff and District Staff have that qualifies them to teach or manage their kids.

NOTE:  If you are unable to find the name of your Teacher in this site, you have the right to go to your Principal and request a copy of the current Teaching Credential for that person. 

Good for investigating:  All SDUSD Teachers, Counselors, Special Education and other Members of the SDEA

Information Provided:  All SDEA Union Contracts and Alerts that specifically outline the rights of all union members.

Reason for investigating:  The SDEA has done an excellent job of forcing the politically corrupt and operationally weak SDUSD Board of Education (BOE) members bend a knee to their “Rights”.  That power and authority dominance over the SDUSD BOE has been trumpeted on the SDEA website in a post titled “SDEA WINS NEW AGREEMENT“.  To claim that they “won” obviously and correctly implies that the other side, the parents and community side, has lost.  The primary reason to review this website is the old saying “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.”  If the SDEA can demand specific remedies and rights for their members, Parents and Families should have the same right to do so including a seat at the bargaining table for ALL union contract areas that impact Students.

We urge our readers to compare the vague CDE “Parent Rights” above with the detailed SDEA rights listed below on the SDEA “Contract Resources – Know Your Rights” page:

Your eyes are not deceiving you.

Yes, there are 36 detailed “Know Your Rights” documents that provide specific instructions to allow Teachers to demand their rights within the SDUSD.

By comparison, a search for “Parent Rights” the SDUSD website just regurgitates random parent rights issues from a portion of the State Ed Code, centering primarily on Special Education and English Language Learners mandated by specific laws with penalties for non compliance.  In other words, lots of smoke and mirrors and no substance for Parent Rights.

Another key item on the SDEA website is the SDEA Complete Contract 2017-2020 with Contract Addendum and 2019 Reopeners

It contains the following salary scales for Teachers and other SDEA members.  Here is a sample page for Teacher Pay:

If you are interested in ALL SDUSD contract salaries please go to the following SDUSD link:

SDUSD Salary Schedules

SDUSD Salary Schedules – WBM

Using this information in conjunction with the Transparent California Salaries and Commission on Teacher Credentials will give Parents a good view of where your kids Teacher, Principal, Area Supt. and other employees stand in the SDUSD pecking order.


LinkedIn

Good for investigating: All SDUSD Employees including Teachers, Principals and Area Supt. and Trustees.  Info can be accessed without a “membership”

Information Provided:  All past positions and jobs.  School attended, recommendations by colleagues, organization memberships.

Reason for investigating:  LinkedIn is essentially a business card for SDUSD employees and is a great resource to identify all past jobs and organizations connected to the SDUSD Employee.  Also good for illustrating the attention to detail, accuracy and veracity of the individual profiled.

NOTE:  If you review the profile of an SDUSD employee while logged in to LinkedIn, LinkedIn automatically provides your name to the profiled individual.  Most of the information can be viewed without logging in.

For example, here is the profile of Trustee McQuary without logging in: Dr. (Mike) Michael McQuary – LinkedIn

CLOSING

This is just a short list of places you can go to investigate the backgrounds of all SDUSD employees.   In our investigations of SDUSD employees we have found a wide variety of skills and experience, excellent credentials and proven abilities.  We have also found the complete opposite.  As a Parent our goal is to be diligent in protecting our kids and must be sure that the promises and propaganda being provided to us by the SDUSD as to credentials and background of its employees is the absolute truth.  Hopefully the information provided will help us all achieve that important goal.

As mentioned in the beginning, we will be posting this on a special location above the title on every page of this blog.  Please comment below with any resource links we should add to this list.

On this long trail to achieve the rights of Parents to be equal partners in our children’s education, we present our “Quote of the Week”:

Wisdom is not acquired save as the result of investigation. – Sara Teasdale

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 want to be sure you don’t miss an issue of District Deeds, click the “follow” button below and you will get an email automatically when an article is published on District Deeds.