School Consultants Say Link Teacher Pay To Student Performance

$6 Million Nexus Partners Lets Their Bigotry Show

Opinion

It's official: the Emery Unified School District thinks we need to bust the Teacher's Union and strongly consider tying teacher's pay to student academic achievement.   Oh, and never mind the fact that child poverty has been proven beyond a doubt to negatively effect their academic achievement.   

The anti-teacher message can be found at the Emeryville Center of Community Life blog and an entry about Education Secretary Arne Duncan posted by Nexus Partners, the moderators of the website.  Perhaps it should be further pointed out that we, the Emeryville taxpayers paid $6 million for the Nexus Partners' expertise to, among other things, allow us to hear this missive about teacher pay and academic achievement.

The toxic message about busting the union and holding teachers responsible for their student's parent's income comes courtesy of this group the Nexus Partners, the architecture / city planning consortium of  firms that the School Board hired several years ago to push forward the Center of Community Life.  That in mind, the Emery Unified School District also, is responsible, by extension, for this outrageous anti-teacher message.  

The Nexus Partners thinks Emeryville is best served by forwarding the anti-teacher message without any counter message in support of teachers, it should be noted.

It's hard to know where to refute this absurdity, but a good place to start is the idea that tying teacher pay to academic performance will somehow work to improve academic performance.  A good analogy is the idea that we should tie police pay to crime rates to  bring down crime, something the Emeryville Chief of Police Ken James said would bring the opposite results.

The teacher pay thing is especially egregious for a School District to float since not only does it bear no allegiance to reality, one only needs to consider the downward spiral  it would engender: As the pay rate goes down, down goes the ability to attract good teachers to the district, creating a negative feedback loop.  Plus it runs roughshod over the truism that children raised in poverty, a high percentage of Emery's demographic it must be noted, are scholastically disadvantaged from the start.

We are so tired of all the right wing attacks on teachers the last few years.  Why, precisely should teachers be held accountable for their students' disadvantaged home life?  Why is it teachers are expected now to solve the problems of poverty and student learning; that intractable problem of disadvantaged children's inherent disadvantaged academic achievement?  Are there any other fields where the workers are expected to produce results for things outside their control?  How about if we started blaming soldiers on the field of battle for how the war is going?  Instead of looking to the top brass, let's blame the soldiers.  How about if we dock their pay if the war starts going badly?

We have to ask, why would a school district, entrusted with children's educational welfare be enabling such an obviously false and disruptive narrative as tying teacher pay to academic performance?  The district has known about their consultants, the Nexus Partner's posting of this anti-teacher, anti-student piece of nastiness since it's inception but they have done nothing to remove it.  At this point we have to assume it meets with the District's approval.  
This has not been a worthwhile spending of $6 million of taxpayer's money, to put it mildly.  How about if we get a little pro-teacher, pro-children message for that substantial sum of money?

UPDATE / CORRECTION:

Friday May 4, 2012

The Nexus Partners have been revealed to be a consortium of three architecture / city planning firms plus the Emery School District.  Nexus Partners exists exclusively to forward the Center of Community Life and there is no web presence associated with the partners.  

Nexus Partners made changes to their blog and as of today, readers may now read the 'teacher pay' article for free.

The architecture/ city planning firms that comprise Nexus Partners are: mkThink, dsk architects, and Concordia.

City To The Poor: You People Are "Not A Good Fit"

City: "We've "Invested Millions Of Dollars On The Improvement Of The San Pablo Area", We Don't Want Poor People Mucking It Up

Opinion
The City Council agrees with the staff: poor people are not a good fit at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and 38th Street in Emeryville...especially since they've spent a lot of money fixing up the area.

A Christian outreach organization to the poor called Ohana Community Outreach, expressed interest in expanding the former Emeryville Community Action Program (ECAP) emergency support for the poor by purchasing a building at 3800 San Pablo Avenue (sometimes called the MAZ building) to be used as the outreach central location.  ECAP and now Ohana have been dispensing help for the poor in a cramped building a couple of blocks south of the Maz site but they want to expand.  And that's where the trouble arises.
In an April 3rd memo from Emeryville City Manger Pat O'Keeffe to the city council, the council is reminded about the sizable investment the city has made to that part of San Pablo Avenue, specifically that intersection, called the Star Intersection.
Summing up the recalcitrance for having poor people congregate in the new proposed building use, Mr O'Keeffe reminded the council the Community Development Commission (formerly called the Redevelopment Agency and comprised of the city council members) had set a development path for the area and it's incompatible with poor people.
The memo asserts, "With respect to [Ohana's] use of the space at 3800 San Pablo Avenue, the city council concurred with staff that this location is not a good fit with the Commission's plans for the Star Intersection.  The City and the Commission have invested millions of dollars of redevelopment funds on the improvement of this area."

Ohana for its part has pledged to not use any public funds to engage in any religious proselytizing or other such activities, instead using those funds for emergency help for the poor only.

Outraged over proposed city cuts to funding for the poor through ECAP/Ohana, former councilman Ken Bukowski has been taking it to City Hall: The city needs to continue it's modest support for the poorest among us by continuing to fund emergency food and clothing aid instead of cutting it he says.  It's a basic question of priorities; after all City Hall gives lavishly to favored developers, millions in subsidies for development projects, some with questionable returns.  He has been calling on the city to continue the funding at the approximately same rate the city has historically paid ECAP: $50,000 per year.  We agree with Mr Bukowski. 

But the city's attempt to thwart Ohana's legitimate purchase of the Maz building is a bridge too far.  This April 3rd memo, while we admire its naked transparency in revealing City Hall's behind-the-scenes anti-poor organizing principles, is outrageous.  We call on City Hall to reveal their real intentions regarding our collective responsibilities towards the poor in our midst's.

Blast From The Past

Apparently, There Were Some Pretty Lively Debates In The Council Chambers In Years Past


The San Francisco Chronicle printed a story Sunday highlighting lost landmarks from the Bay Area past.  Among the Emeryville notables was the old Doggie Diner on San Pablo Avenue.  In the accompanying story there was a news clipping from the Emeryville files, re-printed forthwith:

San Francisco Chronicle

Thursday June 18, 1970

By Paul Avery

Two deadly shrapnel bombs- apparently designed to blow up police officers who frequent the place- exploded yesterday at the Doggie Diner in Emeryville, injuring two customers.

An Army demolition squad later found and disarmed two other bombs that had failed to go off.

Investigators said they were checking the possibility the bombing was linked to “threats against (Emeryville) police officers made the night before at a City Council meeting.

Emeryville’s Deputy Police chief John LaCoste said it seems likely that he and Patrolman William Hart were the intended victims of the blasts.  That drive-in restaurant is a popular “coffee stop for cops” he said.

Cop magnet-
Shrapnel bombers knew where to
find cops: Under the doggie head.

Emeryville Property Owners Association Launches New Website

Former councilman Ken Bukowski announces the launch of a website meant to support a new grassroots organization; the Emeryville Property Owners Association.  The Association has primarily attracted business owners concerned about a lack of representation from the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce.  The new website will report on the interests of all property owners in town.  The site can be accessed HERE.

Civil Rights Leader Speaks To Emery Students

John Lewis; American Patriot, Venerable Civil Rights Leader Speaks In Emeryville

Congressman John Lewis

Georgia Congressman John Lewis addressed enthralled Emery High School students Friday, telling them to "get into trouble" in their lives, "good trouble, necessary trouble" he added. Mr Lewis was convinced to speak at Emery by Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Emery School Superintendent Debbra Lindo during a planned California trip.
The venerable Georgia lawmaker told a standing room only crowd in the Emery Theater that students today must agitate for justice, calling it a duty for Americans.  He called on them to get into "good trouble", indicating that the ruling elite establishment must be forcefully challenged by protest, to achieve equity and justice. Some students in the overflow crowd may have thought of local protest worthy things such as the recent announcement of plans to lay off teachers by the Emery School Board and the looming Occupy movement's May 1st General Strike in Oakland's downtown Oscar Grant Plaza.

Congressman Lewis was a Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader in the civil rights era and was instrumental helping to organize Martin Luther King's epic 1963 March on Washington.  He lead more than 500 peaceful protesters across Alabama's infamous Pettus Bridge where he was severely beaten by the police and vigilante racists.  He told enraptured Emery students he thought he would likely die there and in numerous SNCC Freedom Rides he orchestrated across the Jim Crow South.  He was arrested 24 times as a result of his activism and had his skull fractured in one of many beatings by racist police.

The Emery School District failed to record the speech but local Chanel 7 News offers a snippet HERE.

The young John Lewis: American hero & patriot

Job Opening In City Of Atherton: Emeryville City Manager Encouraged To Apply

Opinion
The City of Atherton California, located on the peninsula halfway between San Francisco and San Jose and home to "some of the most beautiful estates in the country"  has announced it is seeking a new city manager.
Atherton, primarily a bedroom community is notable with 96% of its homes valued at a million dollars or higher.  The city boasts a high percentage of Republicans and includes eBay CEO Meg Whitman among its notable denizens.
The expectations of the populace in Atherton and the culture at the city hall there would likely dovetail nicely with the policy preferences of Emeryville's own city manager Pat O'Keeffe and the Tattler would like to extend to Mr O'Keeffe this invitation to apply for the prestigious Atherton city manager position.
Pat, we think you'd do very well in this position and the pay scale would probably be an improvement over  Emeryville; we think you should check it out.  We'll give you a glowing recommendation if it will help you get the job.   Good luck.

Tattler Poll On Anna Yates Elementary School Inverses Measure J

More Than 70% Flip Their Opinion?

The Tattler conducted a two week reader's poll, finished today, on the imminent closure of Emeryville's Anna Yates School.  The question put to the readers was "Should Anna Yates Elementary School be closed?"  The final vote was:

•  No 46 (76%) 
•  YES 12 (20%)
•  NO OPINION 2 (3%) 

The total was 60 votes. The vote as it turns out, was almost a perfect inversion of the 2010 Measure J vote that mandated the building of a new Kindergarten-12th grade school on San Pablo Avenue that the School District says necessarily means the abandonment of Anna Yates.  The Measure J vote was YES 74% and NO 26%.

Several parents of Anna Yates students have publicly noted a great deal of ignorance about the closure of the elementary school among their fellow parents despite Measure J and a decade of work on the Center of Community Life, of which the new school is a part.  Some have indicated the ignorance of the school closure on the part of some parents is due to a (possibly purposefully) inadequate community engagement and disclosure on the part of the School District.

Some citizens are calling on the School District to reconfigure the Center of Community Life to allow Anna Yates to be saved.

Santa Fe Elementary Parents File Lawsuit

Re-Posted from the Oakland Tribune:

Oakland parents file lawsuit to keep their school open

By Katy Murphy
Oakland Tribune

Posted:   04/06/2012 05:57:58 PM PDT

Updated:   04/06/2012 05:57:59 PM PDT

OAKLAND -- Parents and students from Oakland's Santa Fe Elementary School have filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court to prevent the closure of their school.

Santa Fe is one of five Oakland elementary schools which the Oakland school board voted to close at the end of the school year as part of a plan to downsize the district. More than half of the 130-some students currently in grades K-4 were placed at Emerson or Sankofa, elementary schools about a mile away, according to Oakland Unified.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, from the firm Siegel & Yee, claim that the closure violates the rights of North Oakland African-American students to an equitable education; that the school board is wasting public money by closing the school, which recently underwent improvements; and that the school board failed to consider the cumulative impact of closing five schools in North Oakland during the last eight years.

Last week, the school board approved a plan to lease the Santa Fe building to the Emery Unified School District for $500,000 a year.

, 

Pixar Reins In Emeryville Schools Funding

Pixar Cuts School Funding

Pixar has severely curtailed its corporate support for Emeryville schools over the last two years according to officials at the Emery Education Fund.  The Fund, a local non-profit tasked with shepherding donations to the schools, said  Pixar had for several years held pre-release screenings of its new movies as a fundraiser for the Emery Unified School District. Pixar, now a subsidiary of Disney Inc., discontinued these screenings two years ago, yet it now pre-screens films as charitable benefits for other school districts and non-profits outside of Emeryville.

Brave New World?
Nothing for Emeryville's schools
again this year.

Phillip Powell, Emery Ed Fund's Interim Executive Director told the Tattler the pre-screenings have historically been a large part of the Emery Ed Fund, netting over $100,000 for Emeryville schools in 2010, the last time Pixar cooperated.  "Normally Pixar pre-releases happen in May" Mr Powell said after he acknowledged it appears Emery has been skipped again.  For its part, this year Pixar has offered a charity pre-screening of its new film, Brave for the educational non-profit corporation College Track.  Emery's School Superintendent, Debbra Lindo, sits on the Board of Directors of College Track.

In addition to ending its charitable giving to Emeryville Schools, Pixar is seeking a reduction in how much it owes in property taxes---a large portion of which normally flows into our classrooms.  Reducing the company's tax liability is a goal being sought on various fronts by the company's corporate leaders in Burbank and their brigade of tax attorneys.  City council members have noted that Pixar managed to sharply trim its business taxes that also accrue to Emeryville. Disney/Pixar reported $1.46 billion in profits in the first quarter of this year. Granted, Pixar is now just one division a conglomerate. Disney, which paid about $7 billion for Pixar, was billed a total of $8000 in business taxes on its Emeryville campus and all Pixar operations.  A low tax take for City Hall is courtesy of a cap on business taxes, established thanks to the effective lobbying efforts of the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce. The cap is a massive annual gift to Emeryville's largest companies from City Hall making any profits above the cap tax free.  Its a scheme that enables Pixar to pay Emeryville at a far lower rate than other businesses here, essentially forcing small businesses to subsidize Disney's tax cut

Sadly, Disney/Pixar isn't alone in dialing back its commitment to the community that welcomed them with open arms. Another large firm, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis set up an annual $5000 scholarship to help cover college tuition for science majors graduating from Emery High School.  Novartis donated $100,000 for the scholarship fund in 2006.

Emery was shut out of last year's Pixar film pre-screening, Cars 2.  The Park Avenue corporation instead offered the film as a philanthropic fund raising device elsewhere.

The Walt Disney Corporation bought Pixar in 2006 in an all stock transaction worth $7.4 billion and is said to be worth in excess of $75 billion.

Teachers Union "Bumping Rights" Challenged

The Teachers Union Should Be Supported

Opinion/ News Analysis

Living as we do, in an America carefully crafted over 35 years by right wing think tanks, sometimes the pervasive propaganda seems as if it were some collective a priori knowledge, even perhaps simply our own common sense.  The 'frame' of the public policy debate has been seized long ago by these right wing interest groups to such an extent that it now seems perfectly reasonable to large numbers of non-wealthy people that labor unions work against the common good, that they are greedy and controlled by "bosses".  The Teachers Union has been especially vilified by anti-public education interests, pilloried in the public square for their "greed" and their "standing in the way of children's education".

As our own School Board votes to cut the budget and lay off teachers, right wing derived memes are rising up in the public debate even here in Emeryville.  Some parents are using the budget crisis to assail the Teachers Union for the use of "bumping rights", the union's policy of protecting their senior members as they're hit with lay-offs.

These parents say that teachers should not behave in a protectionist manner and instead simply concern themselves with educating the children.  The "bad" teachers should be layed off, not the least senior they say.  It's only common sense after all.  They're only interested in the welfare of the children, these parents sanctimoniously state.

This kind of talk enables the anti-public education meme and pushes down reasoned education policy debate.

In fact real common sense tells us that teachers do care about educating children. They're the ones in the educational trenches as it were.  Teachers should be deferred to.  They have the ability and the motive through the Union to rid their ranks of any "bad" ones among them, all the hyperbolic right wing claims to the contrary.

"Bumping should be seen as 

a necessary thing to 

protect the profession 

for professional teachers"

The anti-bumping crowd gets it all wrong.  The teaching profession needs to be valued.  Teachers need to be better paid with better job security to attract the best and the brightest to the profession.  It's not rational to continue relying on "do gooders" to fill out the ranks of teachers, as is often the case, if we really want to provide our children with the best educational prospects.  Teaching is a profession and should be treated as such with at least as much deference as management administrators receive.

A would be great teacher is less likely to enter a field where there's low pay and low job security.  The Teachers Union should be supported by parents as allies in the work to educate their children.

Emeryville parents should not take the right wing bait.  They should see bumping as a necessary thing to protect the profession for professional teachers, to snatch them away from other higher paid careers.  Teachers shouldn't have to go through what our society puts them through to assuage their desires to teach children.  They should be afforded at least a modicum of job security.

As the Emery School Board goes on its budget cutting spree, we need to realize the Union is critical to providing what it takes for education to happen here.  Instead of turning on the Teachers Union, we should fight the lay-offs.  We should fully support the teachers.