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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

School Superintendent Testifies in Support of Union Busting Lawsuit

Emery Unified School District Superintendent Debbra Lindo, now on unexplained leave, provided testimony last fall in support of a Los Angeles union busting lawsuit tying teacher pay to student test scores and giving unelected and unaccountable administrators dictatorial power in firing of teachers without due process, the Tattler learned.  The suit, Veraga vs California, bankrolled by Silicon Valley tycoon David Welch seeks to break teachers unions, leaving schools to draw from less professional grade instructors willing to work for non-living wages.   Ms Lindo filed a declaration on October 30th Emery teachers said, in support of the lawsuit and David Welch, a deep-pocketed billionaire ideologue without educational experience.
Debbra Lindo
Willing to give succor to

 anti-teacher ideologues in 
Los Angeles but not available 
to talk with Emeryville 
parents and citizens. 

Ms Lindo was not alone in her testimony in support of the lawsuit.  Former Emery Superintendant Tony Smith also provided testimony as did Republicans from up and down the state that teachers must be disempowered "to defend children's fundamental right to have an equal opportunity to access public education", attorneys representing the case said.

 The California Teachers Association said of the lawsuit, "It will make it harder to attract and retain quality teachers in our classrooms and it ignores all the research that shows experience is key factor in effective teaching.  The lawsuit further destabilizes the teaching profession, targeting the very rights that help keep teachers in the profession in the long haul."

The testimony disempowering teachers provided by Ms Lindo and the support of her over the last two years by the School Board has caused some to question if there is a (not so) hidden agenda in place.  The Board, the public agency responsible for selecting Ms Lindo, noted the vetting process in her selection was extremely rigorous after the very public embarrassment in their selection of Stephen Wesley, a 2008  Emery superintendent pick who had padded his resume and wound up in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The trial is to begin on January 27th in Los Angeles.

Ms Lindo could not be reached and no one from the School District, including the School Board would comment for this story.

7 comments:

  1. Well isn't this interesting? This lady sure has a lot of different irons in the fire doesn't she? I'd like to find out more about her non-profit now as well. The air around her is really starting to smell fishy. The other thing that is apparent is that this town is still being yanked around by the common thread Tony Smith . I also think the EUSD parents need to do a little more digging into the lawsuits brought against the district. If anyone is taking a trip to the courthouse you can find out what civil suits have been filed against the district. We as parents have to take it upon ourselves to find out what's going on in this district since the Board finds it so distasteful to keep us informed.

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    1. What EUSD parents need to do is elect a new school board.
      But that never happens. So, here you are, still.

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  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. The comment above was deleted because we determined it was too much of a personal attack on Ms Lindo. Let's not make it personal, people.

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  3. Stop moving the soap dispenser !!!!

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  4. If anyone would like a perfect example of how this District is operating right now I urge you to go watch the video of the last City Schools meeting. It is downright embarrassing. You only need to pay particular attention to the beginning and the end:

    http://emeryville.org/MediaCenter.aspx?CID=City-%2f-School-Committee--1

    The fact the Board didn't even open with any acknowledgment about the Supervisor issue until Nora had to dig into it was astounding. I really found the confusion and obfuscation and non-answers from the Board members disturbing but this was hardly the least embarrassing moment of the meeting.

    At the 29:44 time mark Ruth Atkin brings up the last agenda item which is the Community Task Force. The Board members all look at each other like nobody knows what the heck this is all about and finally Melody Dice suggests maybe (since no one knows what the heck this is about) they should put this agenda item off. They all shrug their shoulders in agreement and just as Ruth is about to make the motion, THE CONSULTANT THE BOARD HAS PAID FOR and had been patiently sitting through this whole mess of a meeting, and who was asked by Debra Lindo IN DECEMBER to attend and present at this meeting, gets up and explains to the City Schools committee what this agenda item is about. Kudos to him for just presenting what he came to present regardless of the committee's rudeness. Here are the things; They paid for this guy's services and for him to come and present. This is all about community outreach; presumably one of THE most important issues they should be discussing during a this time of transition and just watch for yourselves how they handle it.
    Look the last thing I want to do is bash the Board, I know they are doing the best they can, I know they are working hard and they are people who I like and respect. But I urge each and every Board member to go back and watch this. Can see how the ECCL and running the schools are outside of your bandwidth? It's apparent to me.

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  5. The people attacking teachers fail to mention the many success stories that come from public education. There is a reason public education exists. One only read a little history to learn that education used to favor the "haves" and the rest of society went to work....for them.
    A closer look at these people will reveal that they are about self-interest not students.

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