Vergara Case: Emery Unified School District, Right Wing Victorious Against Teachers Unions

Emery Plays a Part in the Infamous 

Vergara Case

News Analysis
A Los Angeles judge ruled against California teachers and in support of a Silicon Valley billionaire today in the much watched Vergara Case, a lawsuit with major Emery Unified School District connections.  It's a case that has pitted school privatizers and anti-union right wing forces against teachers and public school supporters.  Emery Unified sent two strong anti-teacher's union supporters, former school superintendents Tony Smith and Debbra Lindo to argue in support of billionaire plaintiff David Welch (57).  The case will have repercussions far beyond California as the plaintiff vows to take the case nation-wide, a prospect that has drawn cheers from all manner of conservative pundits and right wing think tanks across the land.

Both Emery superintendents supplied the plaintiff with 'letters of declaration', using their Emery credentials to bolster their case that teachers are to blame for the poor state of education in Emeryville and in California.

Silicon Valley Tycoon David Welch
The Republican billionaire used
Emery School Superintendent's
help to argue that teachers unions
should be deep sixed. 

The plaintiff used Emery's superintendent's letters of declaration to argue that only the destruction of the teachers union and tying teacher pay with student test scores can save education, something that needs to be done "for the students".  The idea is that well qualified teachers will flock to school districts that offer no job security and pay poorly although neither Emery superintendent nor anyone representing the plaintiff has shown how this will work.  The Vergara plaintiff argued good teachers aren't interested in due process and instead clamor for their job and pay to be dependent upon the capricious whims of superintendents and other things beyond their control like student poverty and associated dysfunctional home life.

Emery Unified: Anti-Teacher Incubator 
Emery, being such a small school district, has played an over sized role in today's victory against teachers.  The district here has long taken an adversarial position against its teachers, most notably when the School Board resolved to support Superintendent Lindo over the teachers in the infamous Teachers Resolution fight.  Tony Smith and his program of shutting down schools, cutting teacher pay and turning over public schools to private charter corporations while he served as Oakland's superintendent is still revered by the School Board here at Emery.
Emery's role in the anti-teacher/ pro-privatization movement has come to be that of an incubator.  The district here collects those with disdain for teachers and elevates them to superintendent.  After attaining superintendent status, Emery sends them out into the world where they can help right wing causes and inflict damage to teachers statewide.
It's a recipe that has rankled teachers here at Emery.  Emery Teachers Association president Dawn Turner told the Tattler today, "We have the dubious distinction of having provided not one but two former superintendents as expert witnesses on the Vergara case.  They are using students to forward a right wing agenda".  Ms Turner echoed her colleagues vow, "We will fight this" she said.

In a tragicomic irony, the ruling in Los Angeles today comes right on the heels of last week's "Teacher Appreciation Week" here at Emery.

John Gooding: A Serious Person Presents a Serious Idea for the Emery School District

What Ideas Get Taken Seriously at 

Emery School District? 

Busting the Teacher's Union

Closing Schools

Quashing Citizen Dissent

And Now, 

Preparing Students to be Good Worker Bees

Opinion
The School District here in Emeryville has to play the role of editor.  With all the various sundry and disparate ideas floating around for how best to teach our children, their job is to edit out the ideas not worthy of consideration and implement the good ones.  This is Step One in public education policy.  Unfortunately they've never publicly explained what they think constitutes a good idea but they've shown they know good ideas come from 'serious people' (with apologies to the economist Paul Krugman)....  people like Emery Education Fund president John Gooding, a man they've put their stock in over the years.  The School Board listens to John Gooding.

John Gooding: Serious Person (on left).
Serious people do things like present awards
to those who help disseminate serious ideas.

The Board again showed this dynamic when they invited Mr Gooding to impart his wisdom about the proper role of a school district in public education at their April retreat.  The Board and District officials sat enraptured nodding their heads up and down in agreement and back and forth in awe as Mr Gooding alerted them to an education crisis at Emery; the District is dropping the ball, falling short of their charge to produce competent worker bees for the private sector he told them.  Corporations need "workers that can add up a column of figures"  Mr Gooding repeatedly said, warning the assembled Emery power players that graduating seniors are not making the cut.  He went on and on reminding the Board their job is to transform students into workers for the corporate hegemony (to drive down wages).  He spiced up his presentation with a few always popular "for the children" cliches for dramatic effect, a perennial favorite of serious people.

Governor Pete Wilson:
Another Serious Person
Illegal children should
not receive benefit of 
a public education.

John Gooding is a businessman who knows business, he knows what businesses want.  He's a member of the Board of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce and he lobbies for corporations through his political consulting firm the Quadric Group.  Whether fighting against Measure C, the 2005 initiative providing for a living wage for Emeryville hotel workers or bundling donations for business friendly candidates for Emeryville City Council elections through EmPac, the Chamber of Commerce's political action committee, Mr Gooding has for years devoted himself to making sure Emeryville City Hall works for business.
As the president of Emery Education Fund (EEF), John serves as the intermediary between the schools and the business community, accepting donations and after skimming off some for EEF expenses, doling out the remainder to the schools.  He's thus has made himself invaluable to the schools in Emeryville.
John's created a nice little eco system with this formula (even as high level corporations have not been co-operating recently as they've scaled back their donations to the Ed Fund).

This serious man with his serious policy proscriptions for Emery is the same John Gooding who donated money to California Republican Governor Pete Wilson to help fight for Prop 187, the 1994 initiative that would have denied public education to the children of undocumented immigrants.  It's the same serious man who brought his lofty position of Emeryville power broker to bear against the workers at Emeryville hotels by attempting to keep wages low and workloads harsh.  He warned us at the time that if Measure C passed, if the hospitality corporations had to pay higher wages, Emeryville hotels would leave our town en masse, a prediction that has not come true...in fact a new hotel is opening in 2015.
Regardless of the Measure C loss (loss for the corporate forces, win for the workers), John Gooding has been a good lobbyist for his business clients.  He's continuing to represent their interests now as he uses his powers of persuasion on the Emery School Board.

Another serious person as seen by this School District is the former Superintendent Tony Smith.  Mr Smith, revered by the Board is a well known practitioner of an Oakland pogrom of "cut, shut and charter", a public school disempowerment vision popular at Emery.  Also seen as serious by this Board of course is former Superintendent Debbra Lindo, who believes school teachers are the problem with education and their union must be destroyed (a sentiment shared by Tony Smith).  Non-serious people here would include citizen dissenters and teachers.


John Gooding is serious but he's wrong.  The School Board is wrong.  We'll risk a lawsuit from Mr Gooding (he's threatened us before) to argue for the real reason why we educate our children.  Public school is meant not to produce compliant workers for corporations.  Rather the proper role of public school is to create good citizens; adults who can think critically and who value the joy of learning.  
These are ideas not associated with money, they're not forwarded by the corporate sector, they're not delivered by a serious man, rather they're embraced by what the Emery School District would characterize as the non-serious among us.  But these are ideas we'd like to see taken seriously at Emery Unified School District.

Former Emery School Superintendant Tony Smith: Teachers Unions Must Be Destroyed

The Long Shadow Cast By Tony Smith

"We're Doing What's Best for the Children"

Opinion

Remember, I only want what's
best for the children.
(Repeat often)

Recently there's been a national debate begun about public education and while charter schools, most operating at the expense of public schools have proliferated and teachers unions have come under attack on many fronts, public education supporters have begun to push back against this concerted push to privatize the nation's public schools.  At Emery Unified School District however, the course was set years ago and Emery has played its own small role in this conservative attempt to cripple public education, especially where that attempt seeks to destroy teachers unions.  To see this one only needs to look to the legacies of former superintendents of its schools Tony Smith and the recently deposed Debbra Lindo.

Even though they had the same goals in mind, of the two former superintendents, the great mentor and architect-in-chief of Emery's slide into it's current anti-teacher state of affairs is inarguably Tony Smith.  His shadow is long and even though he left Emery years ago to command Oakland Unified and has since left there amid a witness tampering scandal, Tony Smith and his school privatization philosophy continues unabashedly to serve as guiding principles for Emery.  The School Board here is quite clear about their tutelage by Tony Smith, proud even.

Ditto.

While at Oakland, Tony's divisive anti-democratic program of cutting, shutting and chartering schools while taking on the teachers caused a massive grassroots citizen's push back.  He is revered nonetheless by the Emery School Board and they have even picked up some of his affectations: think the oft publicly repeated and ever popular "we're doing what's best for the children" as a way of shutting down those who would disagree, as in; what YOU'RE advocating then must therefore be by definition NOT what's best for the children.

After Tony left Emery, the School Board looked to find a permanent replacement and they ultimately found a near carbon copy in Debbra Lindo (except she lacks Tony's easy going and chipper personality).  Tony's influence was evident as Debbra Lindo and her Board surrogates began their siege against Emery teachers following the release of the Teachers Resolution in 2012.

Mega ditttos.

The Emeryville duo Tony 'n Debbra have now very publicly entered the national debate with their support in the Los Angeles Superior Court's infamous Vergara case.  They tell us that everything will be great if we just tie teacher's pay to high stakes 'bubble' test outcomes, kill due process for teacher's employment and make their jobs teeter on the whims of unelected superintendents.  We'll get the best and the brightest apparently if we de-professionalize teaching: sever their job security, cut pay and make their fates dependent on things beyond their control.


Below is a recent letter to the Oakland Tribune from Tony Smith (filled with right wing memes and dog whistles) that might seem sincere to the uninitiated. To those following the Emery School Board (Tony's begats)  however, it's just part of the continuing attack on and privatize of public education.  Here is Tony Smith, the Great Man to Emery Unified continuing to release his toxic brand of divisive politics even as he has decamped to Chicago, some 2000 miles distant:

Guest commentary:  

Let's start protecting all of our students

By Tony Smith, guest commentary © 2014 Bay Area News Group
POSTED:   03/30/2014 04:00:00 PM
California's education laws are currently designed to almost unconditionally protect a group of adults -- teachers -- at the expense of our children.
And students living in poverty -- those most in need of every opportunity our public schools can offer -- are being disproportionately punished by these laws. The system tells them: sorry, teachers' jobs are more important than your education and your future.
Is that right?
No, it isn't, say the nine students who brought the Vergara v. California case, currently awaiting a ruling in Los Angeles Superior Court. The students are suing the state because five state laws are denying them -- and the other 6.2 million California public school students like them -- their constitutional right to a quality education.
If the court agrees, then the dysfunctional statutes controlling teacher tenure, dismissal and layoffs will be struck down, creating a transformational opportunity to design a new system that puts students' needs first, ensures a high-quality teacher in every classroom and helps all Californians see a better future.
Supporting our teachers really matters. Effective teachers are essential for a well-educated California. Under current laws, though, the system fails to make effective teaching a priority, creating an environment that's bad for both hardworking teachers and students.
The tenure law forces administrators to grant lifetime employment to new teachers after less than 16 months in the classroom. I am aware of no other profession where someone is granted protected status in such a short time and without any real evidentiary basis for the decision.
Once permanent employment is granted, it is nearly impossible to dismiss ineffective teachers for any reason other than criminal activity. The dismissal process is so cumbersome and costly that in the past 10 years, only 19 teachers out of California's 1,052 school districts have been successfully terminated through the dismissal process for reasons including unsatisfactory performance.
When funding reductions instigate layoffs, administrators are not allowed to base staffing decisions on the quality of a teacher's service to children. The primary factor that may be considered is how long he or she has been employed by the district, so every year a district has layoffs, children lose passionate, hardworking, effective teachers -- just because they lack seniority.
As superintendent of Oakland Unified School District, I had to explain why excellent teachers were being let go, while parents pleaded and begged, saying, "Please, please keep this teacher. You don't understand what this year has been like for my child. This is one of the most extraordinary educators I've ever seen in my life."
But under the law, there is nothing we can do to keep that extraordinary educator.
Is the system I just described a system focused on what's best for children?
Not to me.
A system that prioritizes meeting the needs of California's students -- as the state constitution demands -- would focus on enhancing educational quality before protecting seniority.
A system that truly puts students' learning first would evaluate how well our students are doing and how much growth they are making.
We would discuss how to help teachers develop their practice, using growth in student learning as the primary data guiding our efforts.
When teachers demonstrate effective work in service of students, we would do everything in our power to enhance that work and reward those teachers. And when a few adults are consistently failing our children in the classroom, we would hold them accountable.
In a district like the Oakland Unified School District, where I served as superintendent for four years, 70 percent of students come from low-income households. Our students face serious challenges outside of school. For many students, the road leads either to graduation or incarceration. Having caring, attentive, effective teachers along the road makes all the difference.
Let's not lose sight of the goal of our public schools: to ensure that every child in the state has access to a good education, so every child can participate and thrive in our society.
I hope the Vergara student-plaintiffs are victorious in court. I hope the Vergara case marks a turning point in the trajectory of public education in California. Let's make a true commitment to current and future students: educational excellence, starting with an effective teacher in every classroom.

Tony Smith is a former superintendent of Oakland Unified School District.

Emery School District Contributes to the Right Wing Anti-Public School Culture

Opinion
Emeryville is trendy.  It seems like with every emerging bad public policy trend, Emeryville is right there at the front of the pack...or at least right behind the trend setters in the Bay Area. With its 'cut, shut and charter' mindset and its virtual war on teachers, the Emery Unified School District is acting the foot soldier in the right wing privatization play for America's public schools.  The Yes Magazine article below tells the sad tale of what's happening nationally, while here in Emeryville the School Board is also playing its part.   

As you read the Yes story, remember how the School District here has shut down the Ralph Hawley Middle School and now is ready to shut down Anna Yates Elementary School.  Both these school campuses could sit idle or underutilized and will be subject to take over by private charter school concerns because the law says that any underutilized surplus school district property is subject to any private charter school moving in by State sanctioned seizure.  There's no way Emery could stop this eventuality even if the District were of a mind to stop it. 
With the EBI private school already in place on San Pablo Avenue right across from the future Center of 'Community' Life and its Kindergarten through 12th grade school, combined with the former school sites as possible sites for charter schools, Emery is primed for ongoing existential threat.  Charter schools and private schools thrive by only accepting the best and the brightest students, culled from the local public schools leaving them with what's left; driving down test scores and further feeding the loop for public school abandonment and disinvestment. 

Adding to this culture of stoking privatization forces, the Emery School Board has entered into a program of wholesale teacher marginalization after the Board last year very publicly abandoned the teachers in favor of former Superintendent Debbra Lindo in the infamous Teachers Resolution dust up.  The School Board willingly destroyed their relationship with the teachers in order to support the now fired Debbra Lindo.  What's left besides teachers feeling used, abused and unsupported is a further cheapening and erosion of public good will towards teachers.  Our School Board told us in a clear and unified voice that teachers are not worth listening to.  

Insofar as the Emery School Board recalcitrance in the Lindo case has added to the chorus of right wing voices about teacher incompetence and irrelevance nation-wide and as far as the Emery School District's part in the right-wing's anti-public school, anti-teacher paradigm has seeped into the collective mind-set of the citizenry here in Emeryville with its anti-democratic school closures,  we cry foul.   Regardless of what's happening nation-wide, we want our public schools valued and our teachers supported.  They're part of the commons and we're protecting the commons from attack, be it from the City Hall/business nexus or from the School Board/cut, shut and charter nexus.  We want the Emery Unified School District to start acting more old fashioned and stop being so trendy.

Here's the Yes Magazine story:  

The Myth Behind Public School Failure

In the rush to privatize the country’s schools, corporations and politicians have decimated school budgets, replaced teaching with standardized testing, and placed the blame on teachers and students.

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by Dean Paton

posted Feb 21, 2014

Photo by hxdbzxy/Shutterstock

Until about 1980, America’s public schoolteachers were iconic everyday heroes painted with a kind of Norman Rockwell patina—generally respected because they helped most kids learn to read, write and successfully join society. Such teachers made possible at least the idea of a vibrant democracy.

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Since then, what a turnaround: We’re now told, relentlessly, that bad-apple schoolteachers have wrecked K-12 education; that their unions keep legions of incompetent educators in classrooms; that part of the solution is more private charter schools; and that teachers as well as entire schools lack accountability, which can best be remedied by more and more standardized “bubble” tests.

What led to such an ignoble fall for teachers and schools? Did public education really become so irreversibly terrible in three decades? Is there so little that’s redeemable in today’s schoolhouses?

The beginning of “reform”
To truly understand how we came to believe our educational system is broken, we need a history lesson. Rewind to 1980—when Milton Friedman, the high priest of laissez-faire economics, partnered with PBS to produce a ten-part television series called Free to Choose. He devoted one episode to the idea of school vouchers, a plan to allow families what amounted to publicly funded scholarships so their children could leave the public schools and attend private ones.

You could make a strong argument that the current campaign against public schools started with that single TV episode. To make the case for vouchers, free-market conservatives, corporate strategists, and opportunistic politicians looked for any way to build a myth that public schools were failing, that teachers (and of course their unions) were at fault, and that the cure was vouchers and privatization.

Jonathan Kozol, the author and tireless advocate for public schools, called vouchers the “single worst, most dangerous idea to have entered education discourse in my adult life.”

Armed with Friedman’s ideas, President Reagan began calling for vouchers. In 1983, his National Commission on Excellence in Education issued “A Nation At Risk,” a report that declared, “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”

It also said, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

For a document that’s had such lasting impact, “A Nation At Risk” is remarkably free of facts and solid data. Not so the Sandia Report, a little-known follow-up study commissioned by Admiral James Watkins, Reagan’s secretary of energy; it discovered that the falling test scores which caused such an uproar were really a matter of an expansion in the number of students taking the tests. In truth, standardized-test scores were going up for every economic and ethnic segment of students—it’s just that, as more and more students began taking these tests over the 20-year period of the study, this more representative sample of America’s youth better reflected the true national average. It wasn’t a teacher problem. It was a statistical misread.

The government never officially released the Sandia Report. It languished in peer-review purgatory until theJournal of Educational Research published it in 1993. Despite its hyperbole (or perhaps because of it), “A Nation At Risk” became a timely cudgel for the larger privatization movement. With Reagan and Friedman, the Nobel-Prize-winning economist, preaching that salvation would come once most government services were turned over to private entrepreneurs, the privatizers began proselytizing to get government out of everything from the post office to the public schools.

Corporations recognized privatization as a euphemism for profits. “Our schools are failing” became the slogan for those who wanted public-treasury vouchers to move money into private schools. These cries continue today.

The era of accountability
In 2001, less than a year into the presidency of George W. Bush, the federal government enacted sweeping legislation called “No Child Left Behind.” Supporters described it as a new era of accountability—based on standardized testing. The act tied federal funding for public schools to student scores on standardized tests. It also guaranteed millions in profits to corporations such as Pearson PLC, the curriculum and testing juggernaut, which made more than $1 billion in 2012 selling textbooks and bubble tests.

In 2008, the economy collapsed. State budgets were eviscerated. Schools were desperate for funding. In 2009, President Obama and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, created a program they called “Race to the Top.”

It didn’t replace No Child Left Behind; it did step in with grants to individual states for their public schools. Obama and Duncan put desperate states in competition with each other. Who got the money was determined by several factors, including which states did the best job of improving the performance of failing schools—which, in practice, frequently means replacing public schools with for-profit charter schools—and by a measure of school success based on students’ standardized-test scores that allegedly measured “progress.”

Since 2001 and No Child Left Behind, the focus of education policy makers and corporate-funded reformers has been to insist on more testing—more ways to quantify and measure the kind of education our children are getting, as well as more ways to purportedly quantify and measure the effectiveness of teachers and schools.
For a dozen or so years, this “accountability movement” was pretty much the only game in town. It used questionable, even draconian, interpretations of standardized-test results to brand schools as failures, close them, and replace them with for-profit charter schools.

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Resistance 
Finally, in early 2012, then-Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott kindled a revolt of sorts, saying publicly that high-stakes exams are a “perversion.” His sentiments quickly spread to Texas school boards, whose resolution stating that tests were “strangling education” gained support from more than 875 school districts representing more than 4.4 million Texas public-school students. Similar, if smaller, resistance to testing percolated in other communities nationally.

Then, in January 2013, teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High School announced they would refuse to give their students the Measures of Academic Progress Test—the MAP test. Despite threats of retaliation by their district, they held steadfast. By May, the district caved, telling its high schools the test was no longer mandatory.

Garfield’s boycott triggered a nationwide backlash to the “reform” that began with Friedman and the privatizers in 1980. At last, Americans from coast to coast have begun redefining the problem for what it really is: not an education crisis but a manufactured catastrophe, a facet of what Naomi Klein calls “disaster capitalism.”

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Look closely—you’ll recognize the formula: Underfund schools. Overcrowd classrooms. Mandate standardized tests sold by private-sector firms that “prove” these schools are failures. Blame teachers and their unions for awful test scores. In the bargain, weaken those unions, the largest labor organizations remaining in the United States. Push nonunion, profit-oriented charter schools as a solution.

If a Hurricane Katrina or a Great Recession comes along, all the better. Opportunities for plunder increase as schools go deeper into crisis, whether genuine or ginned up.

The reason for privatization

Chris Hedges, the former New York Times correspondent, appeared on Democracy Now! in 2012 and told host Amy Goodman the federal government spends some $600 billion a year on education—“and the corporations want it. That’s what’s happening. And that comes through charter schools. It comes through standardized testing. And it comes through breaking teachers’ unions and essentially hiring temp workers, people who have very little skills.”

Meet the New Rebels Taking Back Our Public Schools

If you doubt Hedges, at least trust Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul and capitalist extraordinaire whose Amplify corporation already is growing at a 20 percent rate, thanks to its education contracts. “When it comes to K through 12 education,” Murdoch said in a November 2010 press release, “we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching.”

Corporate-speak for, “Privatize the public schools. Now, please.”

In a land where the free market has near-religious status, that’s been the answer for a long time. And it’s always been the wrong answer. The problem with education is not bad teachers making little Johnny into a dolt. It’s about Johnny making big corporations a bundle—at the expense of the well-educated citizenry essential to democracy.

And, of course, it’s about the people and ideas now reclaiming and rejuvenating our public schools and how we all can join the uprising against the faux reformers.

---

Dean Paton wrote this article for Education Uprising, the Spring 2014 issue of YES! Magazine. Dean is executive editor of YES!

Emery School Board: Citizens Want Some Accountability

"We're Moving On"

School Board Code for

"We're Not Accepting Accountability"

Opinion
The Emery School Board wants it both ways: They want our trust in their selection(s) of our school superintendents but when it all goes wrong they want to "move on"; they don't feel they need to answer to anyone for their bad decisions on the selection.
This is being revealed again as the Board starts up a campaign to derail citizen's requests for an explanation as to the recent disappearance of former Emery Unified School Superintendent Debbra Lindo.  Obviously, accountability isn't their strong suit.  That is clear now but also before when the same crew got hoodwinked by the false resume of former Superintendent Steven Wesley.  A quick look at the resume, riddled with falsehoods according to the San Francisco Chronicle, would have made anybody suspicious except the Emery School Board.  After the story hit the front pages, rather than accept accountability, the Board shifted the blame to the executive search company they had hired.  And don't even get us started on JL Handy, the former Emery Superintendent who  bankrupted the School District and fled town, law authorities in hot pursuit.
There's an M.O. pattern emerging here.

This time, School Board member John Affeldt would only comment, "we're moving on" when asked recently what happened to Ms Lindo.  His colleges refused to comment at all.  The refusal to accept accountability yet again is a mighty bold tactic for a group ready to make yet another superintendent pick.  Something tells us they're going to say the same things about the next superintendent they said about all the previous ones: it'll be a string of hyperbolic superlatives.  It'll be "wonderful" this and "fabulous" that.  But if Ms Lindo is so wonderful, why then is she not still the Superintendent?

School Board member John Affeldt
Speaks for his colleagues when he says
"we're moving on" after Debbra Lindo.
But before, the Board told us she was
 fabulous and not to listen to the teachers
about her.

This Board has chutzpah.
They stood by their superintendent choice in Debbra Lindo to the bitter end.  They stood by her when 93% of teachers wrote their Teachers Resolution explaining how they couldn't work with her shortly after she took office. They stood by her when they wrote a resolution of their own, backing Ms Lindo in response to and at the expense of the teachers.  They stood by her for a year and a half after the impasse by ignoring the teachers concerns as laid out in the Teachers Resolution.
Now Debbra Lindo is suddenly gone....made so by this School Board.  We want to know why.
We understand as an employee of the School District, the Board isn't free to reveal every detail regarding her termination but we also understand the Board can give us more information than they have done, which the totality essentially amounts to 'she's gone.'

This School Board has shown over and over transparency is anathema to them.  We say they can't be trusted with the selection of another superintendent until they tell us what happened to the wonderful woman that according to them, we all should have rallied behind, teachers be damned.

Barring any more information as to the "retirement" of the former Superintendent, we're going to have to assume this Board stands by Debbra Lindo's Declaration submitted to the plaintiffs in an anti-teacher lawsuit now taking place in Los Angeles.  In it, Ms Lindo expressed her desires to link student test scores to teacher pay and her desire to bust the teachers union by removing due process and tenure rights.  We have to assume these are the same sentiments of this School Board.  As they prepare to select yet another  $200,000+ School Superintendent we need to insist teacher's concerns are front and center.

So while "we're moving on" may help them escape an uncomfortable moment at a School Board meeting, it doesn't help us at all.  They may have moved on, but we want to fix what's wrong before endlessly and blindly lurching forward.  Let's start with some transparency and accountability.

Emery School Board "Still Refuses" to Say Why Superintendent No Longer Leading

From the Oakland Tribune:

Our Communities in Brief

POSTED:   01/24/2014 06:10:12 PM PST | UPDATED:   ABOUT 19 HOURS AGO

Emeryville

School district leader set to retire early

The Emery Unified School District still refuses to say why Superintendent Debbra Lindo is no longer leading the two-school district, but the school board confirmed Friday that she is officially retiring as of this month -- six months ahead of the schedule she had announced in October.

The board also announced that it has hired not just one, but two former Emeryville superintendents to guide the city's schools until a permanent replacement is chosen. John Quinn and John Sugiyama will work together to serve as interim superintendent through the end of the 2014 school year.

Lindo's unexpectedly early departure followed an unusual series of closed-session school board meetings that began in December. "We wish her all the best in her future endeavors," said a written board statement Friday that also thanked Lindo for her service.

-- Matt O'Brien, Staff

School Board Releases Superintendent Lindo Letter: Sped Up Early "Retirement" Cited

The Emery Unified School District Board of Trustees sent the following to employees of the entire School District in a late Friday 'news dump'.  This notice, obtained by the Tattler, represents the explanation, such that it is, for what has happened to Superintendent Debbra Lindo who mysteriously went missing late last month.  The Board notice maintains Ms Lindo simply decided to speed up her "retirement" date, nothing more than that.  Ms Lindo announced her early "retirement" last fall and was supposed to serve until June.  This letter explains how the June date was bumped up to January.

Here is the notice:

To All Members of the Emery Unified School District

The Emery USD Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that two former Emery Unified School District Superintendents, John Quinn and John Sugiyama, have agreed to collaboratively serve as the District's Interim Superintendent for the remainder of the 2014 school year.  These two proven, passionate and trusted leaders begin in this role immediately.

Earlier this school year, Dr. Lindo announced her intent to retire on June 30th, 2014 and the Board put in motion the search for our next superintendent.  Earlier this week, Dr. Lindo and the Board reached a mutual agreement that moved her retirement date from June 2014 to January 2014.  We determined that this transition is in the best interest of the organization as we face aggressive and exciting challenges presented by national and state education reforms and local facilities and education projects.  We thank Dr. Lindo for her contributions to our District, and we wish her all the best in her future endeavors.

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.

Local Press Picks Up Emery School Superintendent Dismissal Mystery

The Oakland Tribune picks up on the Emery School Superintendent story.  Readers should know however, that the opening sentence is misleading: the School Board has not told parents that Superintendent Debra Lindo is gone.  There has been no word at all from the School District about this except at a sparsely attended School Board meeting.  Parents have heard that Ms Lindo is on leave from the Tattler.   
From the Oakland Tribune:

Emeryville school superintendent on unexplained leave

By Matt O'Brien
Oakland Tribune

POSTED:   01/14/2014 06:13:30 AM PST | UPDATED:   101 MIN. AGO

EMERYVILLE -- School board members told confused Emeryville parents last week that the superintendent is on leave and the board has brought back a former administrator to guide the tiny, two-school district over the coming months.

The superintendent, Debbra Lindo, announced in late October that she would be retiring, but not until June 30 -- allowing eight months for the Emery Unified School District to search for her replacement.

That schedule suddenly changed after elected school board members held an unusual series of closed-session meetings that began on the Saturday morning before Christmas and continued through Thursday night last week. School officials have refused to explain why Lindo is gone, citing the confidentiality of personnel discussions, but announced that John Quinn, who led the district a decade ago, has been hired as an "administrative adviser" until a new superintendent is selected.

The secrecy surrounding Lindo's departure has angered some parents who demanded more information at a public meeting last week.

"We had a superintendent on Monday. We don't have one tonight," said Marie Henry, a parent at Anna Yates Elementary School who spoke out at a Wednesday board meeting, according to video posted online by the Emeryville Property Owners Association.

"We as parents and community members deserve some sort of an explanation," Henry said.

Lindo could not be reached for comment. A vague statement published on the district's website Thursday said that "in the interest of a smooth transition ... the board is exploring options that impact the timing of Superintendent Lindo's retirement."

She took the helm of the troubled district in 2011, just as it was emerging from a decadelong state takeover. School board members stood behind her in 2012 after the Emeryville teachers' union voted "no confidence" in her leadership in a resolution blaming her for low morale and harmful cutbacks.

A longtime educator, Lindo was the chief executive for four years of an Oakland-based nonprofit group, College Track. She has also been a teacher, principal and a high-level administrator in Palo Alto and Oakland.

Lindo made about $180,000 in gross salary as Emeryville's superintendent last year, and the cost for the district to employ her was nearly $221,000, according to annual salary data the school district released Friday.

Beginning on Dec. 21 and continuing on Dec. 23, 27 and 30 and Jan. 3 and 9, the school board held special closed-session meetings, most of which included an agenda item to "discuss employee discipline/dismissal/release," according to a calendar on the district's website. Also discussed was the appointment of someone who could provide interim services as a "coach/mentor/consultant/adviser" to the board.

Quinn, whose interim role begins immediately, was a state-appointed leader of the Emery school district in 2003 and 2004 while the district was trying to steer itself out of bankruptcy. The district fell under the state's financial control when it was granted a $1.3 million emergency loan in 2001. It returned to local control in 2011 and is now in the middle of a major construction project to build the Emeryville Center of Community Life, an education complex along San Pablo Avenue that will encompass the entire K-12 school district.

For now, with their old school being bulldozed, Emeryville high school students are taking classes in Oakland's former Santa Fe Elementary School building, just a block or so from the Emeryville-Oakland border.

Parents/Teachers Left in the Dark About Dismissal of School Superintendent Lindo

School Board Met Four Times in Closed Meetings to Discuss Employee Discipline/Dismissal/Release 

The Emery Unified School District refused to disclose the reason for the sudden dismissal of Superintendent Debbra Lindo at last night's School Board meeting stating only Ms Lindo is "on leave".  Attending teachers and parents attempted to get the Board to make some comment regarding Ms Lindo whom had recently promised to remain on as Superintendent until the close of the school year in June but the Board balked.  Board President Melodi Dice would only say the Board had "Nothing to share at this time".

John Quinn, the former State of California Department of Education Trustee and State mandated chief of Emeryville schools after the District went bankrupt in 2000 was at the Wednesday meeting and the Board voted to take him on as a temporary replacement for Ms Lindo.  Mr Quinn will serve as an "administrative advisor" until a permanent new superintendent can be found.

Records show the School Board met at least four times in late December and early January, with some Board members conferencing by phone from far flung vacation sites to discuss "public employee discipline, dismissal and release" in closed special executive sessions.

The loss of Superintendent Lindo comes on the heels of the loss of the Center of 'Community' Life project manager Roy Miller, also in January.  The Center of 'Community' Life, the schools rebuild project on San Pablo Avenue is just breaking ground for a two and a half year building project and the School District is now left with no staff institutional memory of the now ten year and more than one hundred million dollar project and none guiding it.

Mr Quinn told the Tattler the School District is not in financial duress as some had speculated after the sudden dismissal of Superintendent Lindo.

Breaking News: Emery Schools Superintendant Forced Out

Rumors were swirling around the Emery Unified School District today as parents, citizens and even teachers tried to confirm that schools chief Debbra Lindo, has been forced out of her position as Superintendent of the Schools.  The School District has not made a statement and they have refused to officially confirm or deny the rumor.  However, a high level District official that wished to remain anonymous told the Tattler today that Ms Lindo is as of now "on leave" and former Emery Superintendent and State of California Department of Education Trustee John Quinn has become interim Superintendent.  Ms Lindo announced months ago after a tumultuous season and a half as the chief, she would leave her position, but not until June.

If Mr Quinn has in fact replaced Ms Lindo as Emery's new Superintendent of the Schools, some have speculated the District could be in financial trouble and the State has taken over the District as they did after fiscal improprieties left the District bankrupt in 2000.  Emery only emerged from State receivership in 2011.

Ms Lindo's early departure could spell trouble for the Center of 'Community' Life, a massive schools rebuild project that has just broken ground last week.  The project Manager for that project, Roy Miller quit his position earlier in the month.   The project is slated for completion in 2015.

Ms Lindo served at the pleasure of the Emery School Board and they would have been directly involved in her removal but no Board members would speak to the Tattler.  The Board had only just begun a search for a replacement for Ms Lindo due to be completed in time for her previously announced June departure.

School Board Offers Residents Rosy Vision

What Should the District Do in Light of Resignations?

If They Won't Act, What Should Residents Do?

Opinion
In recent weeks the Emery Unified School District has been rocked by the resignations of the two key District staff managing the embattled Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL) project.  First came the announcement that Superintendent Debbra Lindo would be retiring at the end of this school year.  Next came the announcement that ECCL Project Manager and District Architect for the last 11 1/2 years, Roy Miller, was retiring within weeks.  These retirements will leave the District with no senior staff with significant knowledge of or involvement in the District's ECCL plans.  How can the District continue this project with no one on staff steering the ship?

One might expect that this would be a moment for the School Board of Trustees to pause and reflect on this situation.  They might stop to wonder:

• Why is every staff member involved with this project running for the exits? 
• Have staff realized the ECCL is destined for failure and want to disassociate themselves from it before they have to wear the blame? 
• Have staff (finally) looked at the financials and realized that there is neither enough money to build the Board's K-12 vision, nor to operate this Taj Majal complex within the realities of our available bond funds and general fund dollars? 

These are not questions raised by the School Board at their recent meeting in which Roy Miller announced his resignation, nor at the recent Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee meeting.  Instead, the School Board has offered the people of Emeryville the same rose-colored glasses that colors their perception of this entire fiasco.  The District proposes to hire even more consultants, spending even more money we do not have.  They suggest hiring an interim project manager, a construction management firm, and a director of full-service Community Schools.  They will, of course, also hire a new Superintendent.  So we will hire three new people and a firm to carry on the work previously done by two people.  This is yet another example of the District's idea of "economies of scale", "efficiency", and "cost savings" that the ECCL was always promised to deliver.

We have heard parents are increasingly looking to move their children to other schools before this K-12 ECCL is completed.  Teachers have become more vocal at recent School Board meetings that their concerns are not being addressed.  Indeed, it now seems that even key District Staff are pushing away the rose-colored glasses offered by our School Board, leaving just these five School Board Trustees in town who see no problems on the horizon for the ECCL.  Unfortunately it is largely these five individuals who can still ruin our City's schools and its finances in a dogged pursuit of their misguided vision.

There are only two plausible ways forward that would enable our City to avert this problem.  First, three members of the City Council could refuse to give the District the $21 million dollars they need to fully pay for the proposed ECCL.  Without these funds, even the School Board would finally be forced to rethink their plans. Unfortunately, so far the City Council also seems unshaken by recent developments.  Readers could write the Council Members and plead with them not to give this Board $21 million to squander  (don't get your hopes up). 

Second, the people of Emeryville could do what they have successfully done before; instigate a recall of the entire School Board.  This is actually more pressing now than ever before.  Regardless of teachers being empowered by the recent resignation announcement of the Superintendent and a would be chastened School Board, if left to their own devices, this Board will hire a replacement Superintendent who has bought into this ECCL debacle and that, like them, will ignore the concerns of parents and teachers.  Only a new Board could shift the direction of this project and hire a new Superintendent that would focus on the needs of the District's students and the teachers that teach them every day.

There is one other alternative: more resignations.  If at least three School Board members would join the Superintendent and ECCL Project Manager as they head for the exits, and if they would commit to appointing new Trustees with different ideas about our District's future, then our City could still avert disaster.  But for this to happen the School Board would have to take off their rose-colored glasses for a moment and recognize the stark reality of where we are in this ECCL process.  They've shown no indication that they are willing to do that and so, practically speaking, this leaves the people of Emeryville with no real alternative: it's time to gather signatures for a recall election.