This week the corrupt San Diego Unified School District senior leadership is still pretending to pursue new candidates for the pre-identified/pre-ordained Superintendent position within the dishonest, secretive and opaque SDUSD management bubble.
Today Sunday Reads features an article from San Diego ABC 10 News regarding the ongoing SDUSD substitute staffing blunder despite millions of additional dollars from the State and Federal governments.
The article features our response to the president of the San Diego Education Association (SDEA – teachers union) offering lots of excuses for the ongoing staffing blunders and the supporting lies spread by the SDUSD propaganda department.
We have featured the complete San Diego ABC 10 News article but we strongly urge our readers to click on the title (in red) and read the full dispatch for themselves.
San Diego County school districts face serious substitute teacher shortage
SAN DIEGO (KGTV)– School districts across San Diego County are experiencing a substitute teacher shortage caused by the pandemic.
Return to in-person teaching is not as simple as pre-COVID-19 teaching.
“It’s really difficult,” San Diego Education Association [Union] president Kisha Borden said.
Borden said the San Diego Unified School district is facing a critical substitute teacher shortage. Before COVID, there were about 1,500 names on the substitute teachers list. But during last school year, the need for substitute teachers dipped significantly.
“If you’re only out a day, give your students asynchronous work. Maybe check-in if you are able, but there wasn’t a need to call in a substitute teacher for the full day,” Borden explained the protocol.
Borden said many subs were taken off that list, or for health reasons, did not wish to return. But with quarantining protocols, substitute teachers are needed more than ever. The district foresaw this. So at the end of August, it signed an agreement with the union to create a “Resident Visiting Teacher” position at every school: essentially, a sub who is always on standby.
“They would report to that school every day for the remainder of the year to cover any unexpected absences,” Borden explained.
Borden said they modeled the system to mirror Chula Vista Elementary School District and raised the pay to $285/day, compared to a regular sub’s $170/day rate. But Borden said that is still not enough to cover all the absences. She said there have been cases where principals supervise classes, or students are split up and added to other classrooms, which are both non-ideal situations.
“It is our hope that they are working to hire as many people as possible to get through the applications as quickly as possible,” Borden said.
The San Diego Unified School District sent ABC10News a statement in response to this story:
“We continue to recruit substitute teachers, as well as teachers in hard-to-staff subjects, such as special education. We have offered hiring bonuses and other incentives to continue attracting the best teachers. So far the substitute shortage has not impacted operations, but with the fall flu season ahead and the continued presence of Covid-19 in our community, we are not taking any chances. That is why, in addition to recruiting, we are doing everything possible to focus on the health and wellness of our staff and community. The vaccine mandate passed last week was an important step in this regard. We have also invested heavily in safety protections at every school. These measures appear to be working well and data from other states seems to show the effectiveness of vaccine mandates. However, we are not taking anything for granted, and the health and safety of our school communities continues to be our highest priority. Despite these very challenging conditions, we will continue to maintain our commitment to small class sizes and the right of every student to learn from an outstanding educator.” – Maureen Magee, SDUSD Communications Director
District Deeds Synopsis
Wow! What a complicated mess of excuses and fabricated propaganda regarding the current SDUSD Substitute Teacher disaster.
At least no SDUSD sycophants in the article declared there was a lack of funds. The SDUSD has been provided an additional $302 million in ESSER III funds according to a chart in a recent San Diego Union Tribune propaganda article:
But despite the $302.8 million. there are still a wealth of excuses for why the SDUSD has failed miserably to educate students with the appropriately credentialed teachers.
Here are 2 of the weak excuses provided by the SDEA
- “It’s really difficult”
ANYTHING without a REAL plan is “difficult” As we said a year and a half ago on March 29, 2020, “San Diego Unified School District Betrays Over 200,000 Students, Families, Employees by Disaster Recovery/Educational Continuity Planning Negligence”
There have been 20 MONTHS since our post to develop a REAL staffing disaster plan.
As consultants, we know that developing a staffing disaster plan in a 20 month time frame IS NOT “really difficult” unless you are absolutely incompetent and corrupt…like the SDUSD senior leadership.
In fact another large California school district actually planned for the staffing shortage during the pandemic and now is serving all students with fully credentialed teachers.
An article in the Associated Press (AP) exposed the SDUSD and other California staffing whiners:
Long Beach Unified obviously developed and implemented a staffing disaster recovery plan during the previous school year and throughout the summer.
During that same period of time the corrupt and incompetent SDUSD provided lots of propaganda statements, pay raises to their SDEA cronies and a ridiculous non-educational summer school “Summer Experience” that pretended that summer camp activities and a 3 week group learning scam with zero accountability were equivalent to actual 6 week credit recovery summer school classes taught by fully credentialed Teachers.
Disgraceful.
- “It is our hope that they are working to hire as many people as possible”
The SDEA is “hoping”?!?
Does the SDEA really NOT KNOW whether the SDUSD is “working to hire as many people as possible”?!?
Let’s get real.
The SDEA TELLS the corrupt Board of Education and Empty Suit Interim Superintendent what to do on a daily basis with their words, votes and massive election campaign money.
Is it the truth that the President of the SDEA does not know?
Now for 2 outright lies from the multi-million dollar SDUSD Propaganda Department:
- “So far the substitute shortage has not impacted operations”
And…
- “These measures appear to be working well”
How about warehousing students?
District Deeds has received information from multiple sources in multiple SDUSD High Schools that Students from “absentee teacher” classrooms are being thrown together in auditorium “warehouses” for multiple subject class study halls with incorrectly credentialed Teachers and staff members.
Warehousing Students like cattle in an all subject study hall with no credentialed Teachers is no different than detention
This overt dereliction of duty by the SDUSD and the SDEA deference generates a list of EIGHT new questions with easily researched answers:
- How many SDUSD schools have warehoused Students?
- How many SDUSD Students have been warehoused?
- How many hours/days of SDUSD Student lost learning this year is due to the absentee warehousing.
- Is warehousing SDUSD Students with uncredentialed babysitters considered “working well” with the corrupt SDUSD senior leadership?
- Is warehousing SDUSD Students and replacing SDEA Teachers with uncredentialled babysitters considered “working well” and fulfilling the “hope” of SDEA leadership?
- Is warehousing SDUSD Students and replacing SDEA Teachers with uncredentialled babysitters a violation of the SDEA and other union contracts and the mandated state and federal Student attendance and instructional hour mandates?
- Does the corrupt SDUSD senior leadership and the apparently oblivious President of the SDEA actually know the answer to each of these questions
- Is the truthful answer to these questions what the corrupt SDUSD senior leadership and the apparently oblivious President of the SDEA actually fear and what they are trying to hide from all SDUSD Stakeholders, the rank and file SDEA and other union members, the California Department of Education and the United States Department of Education?
The true answer to many of these questions is obvious to District Deeds. The actual number of Students damaged is obvious and available to the SDUSD and the SDEA.
We think is is time for the SDUSD to do the research and tell the truth about the Student warehousing damage they have done and continue to do.
It would help the SDEA
It would help ALL other Stakeholders.
THAT would be just the start of the corrupt, incompetent SDUSD senior leadership “working well”!
“Lies are complicated. The truth is simple.” ―
IF
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