Posted by: thepinetree on 12/21/2013 12:10 PM
Updated by: thepinetree on 12/21/2013 12:10 PM
Expires: 01/01/2018 12:00 AM
:
Bullying In The Board Room ~Letter To The Editor by Darren Spellman
San Andreas, CA....To CUSD Superintendent Campbell, County Superintendent Northington & State Superintendent Torlakson. I am sending this message regarding multiple grievances with Calaveras Unified School District on behalf of my constituents as their elected representative in the hope corrective measures can be taken. I make this request as an individual county supervisor, not speaking for or in behalf of the county board of supervisors...
It is my understanding that an increased amount of bullying has been going on in open as well as closed session discussion during CUSD board meetings, some of which are available on line at the district website in audio form.
I am reminding you that bullying or acts of retribution have no place in a public education forum and should not be tolerated.
The district is skating on very thin ice in many respects, not the least of which are current grand jury investigations being conducted regarding Calaveras Unified School District and the many problems exposed, some of which have been made public on the local educational advocacy website;
sacredschoolgrounds.com
I am attaching a link below to a news story yesterday on KCRA 3 news in Sacramento about the repercussions of an investigation that started with accusations of bullying of district staff that ended in the superintendents removal.
Allowing public comment period at your meetings to become an opportunity for ad hominem attacks on an elected school board trustee's personal character is lacking in the type of civility that our elected county superintendent of education and county board of supervisors have actively attempted to foster by example, not to mention it is just not professional.
You may have the opinion that my own recent comments to the CUSD board meet this definition but I assure you there is a difference. I never made reference to a trustee's personal character, but rather made a prepared statement of irrefutable fact, prepared under the direction of legal counsel, that a trustee had indeed made false comments on a candidate statement with the intent to deceive the public, (27,000 county residents) which is a crime under multiple government codes and said trustee should be formally censured by the CUSD board if not removed entirely.
As for my comment on the boy, now in custody for supposedly murdering a family member, it is known by district staff that he had been identified as having acute emotional issues and had acted with severe cruelty upon animals which is a textbook psychological sign of a propensity to act on humans in a like manner if not correctly dealt with and my point being that CUSD just recently, despite criticism, hired an inner district non (PPS) credentialed teacher to function in the role of a professional counselor in complete disregard of acceptable "best practices" from an educational administrativeperspective which I am personally, specifically, educated to make comment on via my state certified educational administrative credential.
When will
CUSD stop trying to stifle any attempts by citizens, many of which are in fact local educators or former educators like myself and classified district employees who want to see our local education system enhanced to serve the whole community and not just the special interests of a few egocentric bullies?
My suggestion is to start today by keeping the critical after school program "kids place" running until the end of the school year to give adequate time for alternatives to be found for struggling parents many of which are single parents , stop the bullying condoned in practice by your implied consent through lack of action to stop it by the public and members of CUSD administrative staff members at your board meetings and take a stand of some sort on a known violation of ethics (false educational attainment statements) by one of your trustees.
Those are some good starting points for showing any future judge or jury that this may come before, let alone the members of our community, that CUSD has listened to and made a good faith effort to address grievances that have quantifiable merit.
Thanks,
Darren
Spellman
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