Contentious School Board Meetings Yield Higher Attendance, Plus a Vocabulary Lesson

Every cloud has a silver lining. Even the contentiousness that has characterized Santa Clara Unified School District Board meetings since the new board was seated in December -- although that may be hard to believe for those unfortunate enough to have endured those marathon meetings. 

The upside is that that many more people are attending board meetings and actively participating. And that, after all is what democracy is all about.

Another upside is that the community is getting to know some people, who are clearly articulate and informed about education, and, refreshingly, aren't connected with the usual suspects in Santa Clara politics. 

Let's hope that some of them come forward to run for Santa Clara Unified school board in 2014. Who knows, we may even see a new face from the South of Forest neighborhood if that area is successful in its fight to rationalize* district boundaries in this town. 

*Per Merriam-Webster, there are several meanings for the verb 'rationalize' besides "providing plausible but untrue reasons for conduct." These include: 

• To bring into accord with reason 
• To apply the principles of scientific management for a desired result
• To substitute a natural for a supernatural explanation
• To free from irrational parts (mathematical)

It seems to me that all of these apply to California's crazy quilt of school districts. They defy reason, are extremely costly and inefficient, are zealously defended by the High Priests of the Status Quo as divine directives, and need to be purged of irrelevant baggage that obstructs proper decision-making. 

ON TAP FOR THE BOARD: Bond Updates, a New Superintendent, and Public Access

On Tap for the Board is a short summary of what you can expect at the next regular meeting of the Santa Clara Unified School District's Board of Trustees

DETAILS: 

January 10, 2013 at the District Office Board Room, 1889 Lawrence Rd.  Santa Clara, CA 95051

Call to Order – 5:30 pm; Open Session – 6:30 pm

RECAP:

Following a marathon 7 hour meeting last December 13^th, which featured the swearing  in of two newly elected Board members and ended with the announced retirement of the District Superintendent, and two special meetings called on short notice on the 18^th and 19^th, tensions on the Board and between Board and District Staff have rarely been higher.  The December 13^th meeting ushered in a new Board majority, consisting of newly selected Board President Christine Koltermann, Ina Bendis, and two new trustees: Michelle Ryan and Chris Stampolis, who survived substantial opposition to handily win his seat.

Following the meeting, marked by disagreement and occasional outright hostility between members of the new majority and the rest of the Board and Staff, Superintendent Bobbie Plough announced her retirement, effective this June, citing family issues.  The December 18^th special meeting was found to be in error due to mistakes in the announced agenda, preventing any board action – which did not stop the meeting for lasting over an hour, picking up on the 19^th with a contentious discussion over beginning the search for a new superintendent.

ITEMS OF NOTE:

(To view the full agenda, visit the District's website here)

As has become practice, expect another long meeting of the Santa Clara Unified School District Board of Trustees this Thursday.  Reports are expected from the Citizen Oversight Committees for the Measure J and Measure H Bond Measures.  Expected to draw longer discussion is item G.7., which will cover the approval of reference checking and further board action on the hiring of a search firm to find candidates to replace the retiring superintendent.  Given the extensive time previously spent on this normally simple matter, expect this item to draw Board and public input.

Finally, several topics concerning public access to Board meetings and records are expected to draw substantial, if not heated, contributions from the Board and public: Item H.4. will discuss increased availability of past Board agendas and minutes on the District Website, I.2. will discuss increasing access to Board meetings after complaints from the Board and public over difficulty hearing and getting into crowded meetings, and Item I.3.  will discuss the possibility of videotaping meetings, including airing them on the public Channel 26.

OTHERWISE OF INTEREST:

The retirement of Superintendent Plough means that the board will face a very different staff come this Fall compared to that found less than a year ago.  Of the primary Staff members the Board deals with, only Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Brad Syth remains; Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Lisa Cesario left in May to accept a position outside the District, Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Jim Luyau recently announced his retirement, and Board Secretary Cathy Van Pernis plans to retire, after 14 years in her position, this Fall.

School Accountability Report Cards, Public Access to Meetings On the Agenda for Jan. 10 SCUSD Board Meeting

The Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) has another full agenda for its first meeting of 2013.

Interim annual reports about current bond projects are on the agenda. Both bond issues – 2004's Measure J ($315 million) and 2010's Measure H ($81 million) – are for capital improvements to school facilities and both have a clean bill of health.

The district is also opening a request for bids to provide travel services for the district for the rest of the school year for multi-day field trips, athletic competitions, band performances, educational study trips, and special events.

The board will also be asked to approve hiring an Interim Assistant Superintendent, Business Services Division, Dana Taylor, at $85.00 per hour for up to 960 hours, for the remainder of the school year. This follows the retirement of the former Asst. Superintendent, Jim Luyau, after a 2012 extraordinary audit (report and analysis)  by the County Office of Education found questionable accounting practices on the part of district employees who were handling bookkeeping for two other county education agencies. Dana Taylor has experience in Moreland School District and was recommended by the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

Discussion Items:

School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs). These are detailed analyses of each school in the district, including: physical plant, materials, per-pupil spending, teacher salaries, demographics, and student performance. One observations: teacher salary and per-pupil spending doesn't predict student performance, but – no surprise – the percent of economically disadvantaged students does.

This item could be an opportunity for en encore of the Dec. 13th out-of-the-blue proposal made by Board Member Ina Bendis to make Bracher a K-6 – or K-8 – school. Making such a proposal through a routine Board Agenda, and without prior investigation or discussion is highly unusual, and provoked a tsunami of criticism from district teachers and parents, and accusations of hidden agendas and conflicts of interest. Board Member Chris Stampolis' children attend Bracher. Bendis has donated to Stampolis' political campaigns and provided him with pro bono legal advice. 

Posting Past Board Agendas and Minutes on the District Website, Video-Recording Board Meetings, proposed by Board President Christine Kolterman. There has been discussion over the years about bigger online archives, video-recording (instead of just audio-recording) and TV broadcast of board meetings. In the past the board majority ruled that the additional equipment, data storage and staff costs weren't justifiable. 

The irony here is that two sitting board members who opposed these moves lost re-election campaigns arguably because of the opacity of board proceedings. In the past, the Board kept detailed minutes of discussions. Baord Member Bendis objected, claiming that the minutes were biased, and the Board now keeps an action-only summary. 

Update from the Superintendent regarding the District's Extraordinary Audit Report: The Superintendent will present the district's 3-part plan to prevent similar abuses in the future:

·      Internal Control Structure: e.g. documentation

·      Hard Controls: signing authorities, monitoring

·      Soft Controls: social, i.e. employee roles

Public Access to Board Meetings.

Expect plenty of discussion on this topic, precipitated by the last three board meetings (Dec. 13, 18, and 19) which saw overflow crowds and audience behavior more familiar in the context of a sports competition than a school board meeting. A change of venue as well as rotating meeting locations will be discussed.

Board Members Ina Bendis and Christine Koltermann are trying to frame this as a civil rights issue on the grounds that the people who didn't get seats – some of whom may not speak English and at least one of whom was apparently disabled – were denied access to public meetings. As these meetings also were the setting for harsh criticism of the actions of the board's new majority – Bendis, Koltermann, Michele Ryan, and Stampolis – Bendis and Koltermann also allege that the their critics have suppressed other points of view by taking up all the seats.

Bendis previously set the tone for this discussion of civil rights and public decorum by referring to those who had reserved seats as an "exalted class." Over her 6-year tenure on the Board, Bendis has contributed to the lack of decorum she now bemoans with other similarly sarcastic remarks belittling other board members and district employees. She has also the subject of two harassment complaints brought against SCUSD. And last year she filed a police complaint (subsequently dismissed) against former Board Member Pat Flot, claiming that Flot had physically threatened her. Flot claims this was aimed at intimidating Flot from running for the board seat that opened up when long-time board member Don Bordenave retired.

Bendis also has claimed special privileges for herself, including speaking beyond the two-minute limit and a private office, on the grounds that she has ADHD, a disability that must legally be accommodated. Despite her ADHD, in the course of her 60+ years Bendis managed to earn a Ph.D.,, M.D.,  J.D. and admission to the California Bar.

Also under discussion

• A process for qualifying search firms for finding a new Superintendent to replace Bobbie Plough who announced her retirement following Dec. 13's chaotic, 7-hour board meeting. This makes the third time SCUSD has hired a new Superintendent in 6 years. At the Dec. 19 meeting, Bendis proposed a subcommittee appointed by Board President Koltermann to research search firms. This was voted down 6-1 by the board. 
• New instructional materials/resources for AP Foreign Language
• New editions of handwriting and literacy intervention – who guessed that penmanship was still taught in school? You certainly couldn't prove it by my son's writing.
• New Construction and Engineering Program Teacher position
• Scheduling an SCUSD Board Governance Retreat

No indication about whether there will be a report from the Stampolis and Ryan about their recent trip to China, sponsored by the Hanban Institute of the Chinese Ministry of Education. 

The Empire Strikes Back

At the Dec. 13 meeting the SCUSD board of trustees, the comrades of the politburo had to hear from critics. So Ina Bendis and Christine Koltermann are taking action to remedy what they are renaming a "civil rights violation" with a "process to improve access to board meetings."

(It's curious that this agenda memo was prepared on Sunday, but the special board meeting wasn't announced until Monday -- and less then 72 hours mandated by the Brown Act and without a majority of the board voting that it was an emergency. Plus, Koltermann and Bendis apparently wrote it together, which sounds like a serial meeting.)

Bendis and Koltermann also compained about the audience decorum, saying they would like to see "role models for conduct that supports [sic] decorum and affirmatively demonstrates respect for all."

Bendis should know, as has been faithfully reported at the Santa Clara Weekly. When it comes to affirmative demonstrations of respect for all, Bendis is the how-not-to-do-it exemplar.

At a July 30, 2012 meeting she remarked, "I'd be thrilled to know which of the many groups that were solicted widely was the group in which Pat Flot was the only person who decided she wanted to serve!"

At the same meeting she also told acting chair Albert Gonzalez -- the sole Latino on the board -- that "maybe the chair [Gonzalez] would like to go out and get himself a copy of Robert's Rules,"adding that reading it required no more than a tenth grade reading level.

In March 2012 Bendis accused trustee Elise DeYoung of perjury and/or stupidity - take your pick. "She unwittingly allowed herself to be manipulated by city officials," said Bendis. "Ms. DeYoung signed two letters she knew would be conveyed with false information," and further accused the board of "secretly colluding with an adversarial party" -- i.e. the City of Santa Clara.

In 2009 she was reportedly overheard at a public event telling a congressional aid that "A mentally challenged 9th grader could do your job better."

And that's not even talking about employee harassment complaints that were filed against the district because of her and the ensuing censure by her colleagues.

Still, board meetings ought to be conducted in rooms where everyone can fit. But until recently, SCUSD's board meetings rarely drew standing room-only audiences -- something that no doubt worked to Bendis' benefit. Now that she has the spotlight, she may soon be pining for the good old days.

Here's the entire memo:

TO: Dr. Bobbie Plough, Superintendent

FROM: Dr. Christine E. Koltermann, SCUSD Board President

PREPARED BY: Dr. Christine E. Koltermann, SCUSD Board President

                               Dr. Ina K. Bendis, SCUSD Trustee

SUBMITTED: December 16, 2012

MEETING DATE: December 18, 2012 (Special Meeting) 

TITLE: Approval for the SCUSD Board of Education to initiate a process

to improve access to Board Meetings by all members of the public.

ADMINISTRATIVE SUBMISSION

The Board President has received complaints that the December 13, 2012

Regular Meeting of the SCUSD Board of Education was not equally

accessible to members of the public, including members of protected

classes. The following is a non-exhaustive list of the kinds of

complaints received.

[1] Seating in the district Board room was almost exclusively reserved

by staff for other staff members, forcing parents and other community

members to stand in the lobby and the hall.

[2] The volume and clarity of the sound system available in the lobby

and hall was insufficient to enable mew~ers of the public who could not

enter the Board room to hear the proceedings;

[3] The background noise level in the lobby and hall due to private

conversations precluded even members of the public who stood within

what normally would have been hearing distance of the speakers, to hear

the proceedings;

[4] Disabled members of the public who could not stand for long periods

of time due to their disabilities, were unable to remain long enough to

listen to the Board's discussion and exercise their right to address

the Board on matters of interest to them, because they did not have

access to the seating they required due to their disabilities;

[5] Latino members of the public who lack proficiency in English, and

whose "protected class" ethnicity comprises more than 30% of District

residents, could not understand the proceedings or contribute their

input to the Board, regardless of whether they were among the fortunate

few non-employees to achieve seating within the Board room.

[6] The repeated outbreaks of applause, hand waving and spontaneous

oral outbreaks by District employees who'd obtained preferential access

to seating in the boardroom compared to members of the public who'd

been excluded from the boardroom due to "Reserved" signs on seats,

denied the physically-excluded individuals equal access to similarly

communicate their own support for views expressed by others, outside of

the time reserved for public comment and, in addition, may have

violated Govt. Code 54957.9 and SCUSD Policy 7370. In addition to this

specific civil rights concern, the refusal of those engaging in this

conduct to cease it when requested by the Board President also

subverted the purpose of Board Policies designed to encourage parent

and community participation at Board meetings; enable the Board's

access to all points of view without minority view-holders' fear of

intimidation or embarrassment; and provide students with Employee role

models for conduct that supports decorum and affirmatively demonstrates

respect for all.

RECOMMENDATION:

The board will take action to initiate a process through which SCUSD

will ensure equal access to all individuals who wish to attend our

Board meetings, with particular attention to ensuring the civil rights

of all Constitutionally-protected classes, to creating an atmosphere of

decorum conducive to the Board carrying out its business as efficiently

as possible; and to proactively avoid an atmosphere that would tend to

suppress expression of minority views. Unless the Board chooses an

alternative approach, the President will appoint a three-Trustee task

force charged with researching the constitutional issues in play;

inviting/receiving input from parents, community members, employees,

bargaining units, and other stakeholders; and formulating an action

plan to ensure civil rights protection, for presentation to the Board

at a later meeting.

Postcards from Beijing

After a mind-blowing effort to condense a 7-hour school board meeting into less than 1200 words, I came down with a bad case of cliche-itis. Leading to this:

Why the unseemly haste to conduct non-stop SCUSD board meetings between now and Christmas? Superintendent Bobbie Plough is leaving in six months -- not six days. Although, Plough makes the 3rd -- or is it 4th? -- Superintendent to retire since Ina Bendis was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2006. (Correlations are not causes, but they do merit attention).

The reason is, according to talk around town, several members of the SCUSD board jet off for a week in China, all-expenses-paid thanks to the Chinese Hanban Institute. They're slated to return in time to ring in the new year.

We don't know if any other county educators are going along, as the COE hasn't yet returned a call asking for more information.

The invite came from the Chinese Hanban Institute. Here's the County Office of Education agenda item from a few weeks ago:

"Hanban is sponsoring a trip to China on December 21-29, 2012 and has extended an invitation to 20 educational administrators from Santa Clara County. Hanban will be covering the cost of international travel, accommodations and meals while in China. The purpose of the trip is to share educational practices. Administration recommends approval of roundtrip airfare [for board members] from the Bay Area to LAX and VISA cost."

The Hanban Institute is an arm of China's Ministry of Education. Its stated mission is promoting and enabling the teaching of Chinese languages outside China.

Hanban is part of a larger entity, the Confucious Institute, which promotes Chinese culture and Confuscian principles and world-view through international educational activities – a similar analogy would be the way the Jesuit Order promotes Catholic principles and world-view through its international educational activities. (Jesuits were active missionaries in China since Fr. Matteo Ricci landed in Macau in 1582). In fact, Belvedere College, a Jesuit secondary school in Dublin, hosts an expanding Hanban language and culture immersion program.

James Rowen suggests that we should beware of Greeks bringing gifts, labeling the trip a Manchurian Junket.

SCUSD Staff Opposes Proposed Boundary Change to Include City Residents South of Pruneridge

Note: In the interests of full disclosure, I live in the south-of-Pruneridge neighborhood. I have no school-age children.

On Sept. 22, the Santa Clara Unified School District Board is holding a special meeting to take up a request by Santa Clara residents in the south of Pruneridge neighborhood to move from the CUSD and CUHSD districts to SCUSD. The question was tabled at the Sept. 10 meeting based on the fact that although SCUSD staff opposed the change on financial grounds, they couldn't provide any analysis to support this.

In August, a petition signed by 276 voters -- out of 593 tax parcels -- in the neighborhood was submitted to the Santa Clara County Office of Education, which ultimately decides on the request. The proposed change would potentially add about 150 students to SCUSD.

Campbell Union School District has gone on record opposing the change, claiming that proponents of the change were motivated by residents' desire to increase their property values. (Someone in the audience observed that if this were the case, the neighborhood would be trying to join Cupertino school district.)

Santa Clara Unified staff opposes the change on the grounds that it would hurt SCUSD financially and, because there are no schools in the parcel, would over-tax the district's facilities. "We're in trouble facilities-wise in the near future," said SCUSD Business Administrator Roger Barnes. "It would be a significant impact on facilities. The amount per student we'd get from this area is less than we're getting from other property."

But despite this assertion SCUSD did not, in fact, have information about the area's property values to back this up. "You're really not sure what that would bring us in terms of educating students," observed Board Trustee Ina Bendis. "So it could be that, as we're sitting here now, we could be passing up a windfall. We don't know."

If the parcel joined the SCUSD, property owners would be accountable for general obligation bonds and the proposed parcel tax. "What would the average debt per parcel that this section of town would assume if they come onboard?" asked trustee Andy Ratermann. "Who knows? They may end up paying for the majority of it."

Further, Bendis said, "The proponents of this [change] point out 140 students. Fairfield [Gallery on Central Park], the impact was 130 to 180 students and we didn't kvetch about it. I would like to know why we're kvetching about this – we don't even know if that's going to hurt us."

"We have negotiated with the developer [Fairfield] for $6,000 in developer fees per student," replied Barnes.

"So it sounds like everything would be equalized if they were willing to pay us $6,000 per unit," Bendis shot back. "The problem is the developer fees for those units went to someone else and we can't get it. So we're not talking apples to apples."

Noting that he'd never heard from this neighborhood before, trustee Don Bordenave observed that, "Those houses are 40 years old. The facilities issue is a big issue and the reason we should turn it down."

Other unknowns come into play as well. "If we did end up with that parcel, would it affect relations [with the teachers union]?" asked Trustee Pat Flot. "Basically we have to make this decision without information."

Other board members saw the question as going beyond dollars and cents.

"This is not a territorial issue," said trustee Andy Ratermann. "I don't see it that way. I don't see it as an issue about money. I don't buy the argument that it's going to be a big loss to Campbell and it's going to be a big cost to us. It's a small area with a high amount of retail on Stevens Creek and the property values are fairly high.

"[The issue is,] What is the effect on the kids?" he continued. [Students in the CUSD] go a long way to school, it's somewhat disenfranchising for those kids, they feel like they're not part of Santa Clara. What I don't want to see us doing is making a very short-term decision. What is the right thing long term for the kids? And if it turns out that the right thing to have them in our district, then that's what we should do and figure out the details."

Trustee Albert Gonzalez reminded the Board that the students in questions were Santa Clara residents. "A month ago we were talking about Adult Ed," which serves people outside the City of Santa Clara. "These people are in Santa Clara. They want to be part of Santa Clara. I can't see how we could vote against allowing them in the district."

Because the Board's vote on the question isn't binding on the county Office of Education, trustee Jim Canova suggested avoiding needless contention. Suppose, he said, the county approves the change. Being on record opposing it "is an awkward way to go forward. It seems like the neutral option is something worthy of consideration."

While hours of deliberation are needed to consider whether Santa Clara's residential neighborhoods should be part of the SCUSD, it takes no time, it seems, to decide whether areas without residents should be annexed. The next item on the September 20 agenda was an agreement with San Jose to transfer a parcel of North 1^st Street in Alviso into the SCUSD.

"There are no residences here and absolutely no chance of residences here. [But] we would get the property tax from those buildings," explained Business Administrator Barnes. The Board voted unanimously to approve the change.

The SCUSD Board is holding a special meeting on this question, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 at 4:30 p.m. at the Santa Clara High School Theater, 3000 Benton St. For more information visit www.santaclarausd.org or call (408) 423-2000.

California School District Boundaries – Legacies of a Land Grab Era

Today's Santa Clara County school district maps are byproducts of the Bay Area's post-WWII municipal land grab era – a time when population was growing quickly and cities were swallowing up smaller towns and unincorporated areas. As San Jose annexed property, those rural districts didn't want to be part of San Jose Unified.

Leaving annexed property in the original school districts sweetened the deal and reduced potential opposition according to former City Council Member Frank Barcells, because districts retained their tax base.

"State law was changed to say that school districts didn't have to be contiguous," says County Supervisor Ken Yeager. "There was no connection where the cities grew and where the school districts were."

While the much of the south-of-Pruneridge neighborhood is within a short walk of Westwood elementary school, there are no CUSD or CUHSD schools within walking distance or on a safe biking route. Students must travel across Kiely, Stevens Creek and Highway 280 – and, for some high school students, Winchester, Bascom and Highway 880 as well.

In addition, Santa Clara students in Campbell schools won't benefit from tax revenues generated by the proposed 49ers stadium.

Carolyn Schuk can be reached at cschuk@earthlink.net.