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"When I want your opinion I'll give it to you"
No Bad "Board Member" Left Behind!
They say that good journalism always turns on the who, what, when, where, why and how of any given situation. In this particular case, the “when” and the “where” are not in dispute, it is the “what”, “why” and the “how” that continue to be about as clear as mud during the School Board’s last budget fiasco. So, let’s start with the easy parts and work our way towards the incoherent, surreal and obvious. Let’s start with the obvious:
Last Tuesday, June 2, 2009, a regular meeting of the Lodi Unified School Board was scheduled to start at 7:00PM. This particular meeting took place at James Areida Education Support Center, located at 1305 E. Vine, Lodi, California. Unlike the last meeting held at John Muir Elementary there were no hordes of teachers, there was no clapping, chanting, cheering, hooting or hollering. As the Board had calculated, all was quiet on the eastern front.
The June 2nd meeting at James Areida, unlike the previous meeting, was occupied by an under-whelming group of teachers and a vast array of administrators and staff who huddled together like penguins around an open hole ready to jump-in or be pushed at a moment’s notice. These highly compensated administrators (the six-figure variety) were all dressed-up in business attire, relaxed, laughing, smiling and flashing the same conspiratorial smirk that comes with the knowledge that the meeting had already been pre-wired. The teachers who congregated on the right side of the room appeared anxious, frustrated, exhausted, and completely uninspired. Although a handful of the teachers showed their solidarity by wearing all black, compared to the last meeting their numbers were just something short of pathetic.
Unlike the last meeting at John Muir, there was no need to have four armed police officers in attendance as the Board appeared to have no anxiety or fears that the passions of this nervous-looking little group of teachers would ever get out of hand. I mean, why else would the Board make sure they had four armed police officers at the ready anyway? I guess they didn’t assume that their lack of popularity would turn ugly this time. Then again, maybe they thought such a show of force at the previous meeting sent a signal about their control and the level of free speech and democracy they’d allow? I mean, there are limits on freedom of speech, aren't there?
As we were to find out later in the evening those limits were only imposed on non-board members. The Board could speak as long as it wanted, repeat themselves as much as they wished and throw as many sharp elbows as was necessary. All in attendance who needed to be threatened would be threatened, scolded and spanked for not only what they were saying but also what they were thinking. Yes, you heard me right, I said thinking.
One board member who will remain nameless for at least five more paragraphs told all those assembled that “I know who you are and why your shaking your heads.” He never bothered to explain if he was psychic, paranoid or was just speaking-out as a gesture of thought suppression and intimidation with an unmistakable touch of malice and dismissive contempt in his voice. Hey, whatever it takes to put people in their place and insure compliance was the obvious objective. This same school board member used words, tenor and tone that were invasive and predatory and more appropriate to a smoke-filled pool hall than a school board meeting.
Although much of what he said was no more than another ham-fisted threat, the teacher's union rep thanked the Board repeatedly for their time and patience in all these matters. It was surely the stuff that an alternate universe must be made of, words like: surreal, bizarre, and peculiar crossed my mind. I mean really, is the loss of 12% of your membership (the teachers who got fired) something to be thankful for?
We’ve covered the when and the where now lets tackle the “how.” The meeting scheduled for 7:00PM didn’t get gaveled into session by the President of the Board, Mr. Jones, until 7:15... who with blinding speed, reported out some of the business that had just been conducted behind closed doors. Among the general housekeeping pieces of business were the 20 students, give or take, identified only as numbers, who were voted by the Board to be expelled from the District. A few others, again only referred to as a number, were given contingent reprieves. The tone was matter of fact and devoid of any emotional gravity. I mean, after all, isn’t it the Board’s duty to push the undesirables out of the school system?
After the Pledge of Allegiance and some of the more mundane details of parliamentary procedure there was the usual round of self-congratulations in which the Board thanked the Administrators and the Administrators in-turn thanked the Board for all their hard work on the budget. Just pomp, ceremony and legalistic sounding noise. Most of what took place over the next 45-minutes could be accurately referred to as meeting pro-forma with the usual background give-and-take in which all Board members were expected to say something predictable and as close as possible to meaningless. Board member Thompson, Young and Cassel made various speeches at various times the rest of the Board remained mute. Mr. Davis was clearly the designated hitter and remained in a state of hibernation until it was time to go on the attack.
With the exception of Ms. Cassel, who evidently didn’t get the memo or didn’t attend the right rehearsal, everything went as expected. It should be noted, some of Ms. Cassel's unexpected remarks went under appreciated and were successfully drowned out by Mr. Davis who was trying as best he could to truncate Ms. Cassel’s interruption of “business as usual.” Finally, Ms. Cassel found her rightful place as the seventh wheel on a six wheel bike and chose not to kick the can down the road any further; transalation, she was forced to shut up and just listen. At one point, she asked in a very respectful manner whether she had the right to give the superintendent direction. A curious question given the fact she is one of the superintendent’s seven bosses. Maybe she doesn't suspect what we already know, certain members of the Board run "this railroad" the other members are just window dressing.
So, we now know where and when the meeting took place and a little something of how it got started and a smidgen about what was said. However, it’s the what’s and the why’s that remain elusive because the former never really happened and the latter is, for the most part, unknowable. At least a small piece of the what’s (as in, what in the heck just happened) came in the wake of Mr. Barge’s statements. Mr. Barge is advertised as the financial expert who runs the business office. His prepared remarks and endless analogies expressed the Board’s financial frustrations. Mr.Young followed in an effort to explain why the Board can’t plan, why the Board can’t make decisions, and why the Board doesn’t have a locked in budget. For the most part, the why’s about the what’s (as in, what they haven’t done or can’t do) has a hint of credibility but not as much as they were trying to sell the audience.
Yes, it is true for instance that the State of California’s procrastination has made it very difficult to make projections, certainly the financial disaster that now grips the Nation, the State and the County takes rational financial projections and puts them into the realm of precision guessing. And in all of that rhetoric we heard loud and clear, over-and-over again, that making projections before, now or in the future was, is and will continue to be fraught with great peril and the probability of making lots of mistakes. Yep. Got it. But boys and girls you’ve got to start somewhere. Clearly, "somewhere" wasn’t in the cards for this meeting however.
So, aside from the rhetoric of why it is so difficult to guess right about important funding that is at best uncertain…what happened? What was accomplished? What business was settled once and for all? Answer: Absolutely nothing! There was no vote except the vote not to vote for anything that couldn’t be undone at the next regular meeting. Does that make any sense? It is no more convoluted than the last 30 minutes of meeting that started at a place uncertain and ended at a place even more uncertain. The upshot being, the Board has decided to have another public study session before doing anything. Yes, another meeting just like the meetings and study sessions that started last October and have now reached the last two weeks of the fiscal year. Yep, hundreds of hours of planning and hard work with little to show for it. Or, a possible revisionist theory of the state of reality: Maybe this was the plan all along. Maybe the objective was to reach no conclusion, no decision, and no final vote until the very end.
This Board has until June 16, 2009 to vote on a final budget. However, even with that, Mr. Davis promised us that those decisions, solutions, budgets, agreements and compromises would surely need more amendment. So, what has been accomplished? Legally speaking, nothing. Practically speaking, however, the Board has pushed this entire process to the brink of the abyss and that my friends is “where the rubber meets the road.” For those of you that have been paying attention it is the “why?” that is the heart of this little story. Why would the Board want to push this to the bitter end? Is it so there is more time for reasonable minds to come to reasonable solutions? Not hardly. Or, is it so the Board can push through some last minute changes that favor their interests over the interests of the students, parents or teachers? Yep, that sounds like the right shoe size.
The answer may take the form of that intimated tease a few paragraphs back. The answer, the reason, the rationale, the agenda may be part of Mr. Davis’ excoriation and threats… when he told all that were willing or unwilling to listen that “I know who you are, I see you standing there shaking your heads.” In stark contrast to Mr. Young’s comments that this thing isn’t about numbers, it’s about “kids”, Mr. Davis minced no words in the depth of his disagreement in these matters.
Mr. Ken Davis vehemently disagreed about the whole “Kid’s thing” and in that disagreement intended to threaten the audience by saying it’s about your “jobs”. He said, “It’s about keeping you working”. He said, “we don’t have the luxury of time to screw around with this budget”. In other words, shut-up and listen to what I’ve decided to do. His tone was inappropriately aggressive, menacing and extortive. At best, Davis’ words were inartful, and at worst, intentionally provocative. He was ready to pick a fight, as he knew Mr. Jones had been slipped the cue card that effectively cut off public comment so Mr. Davis could rant without fear of interruption.
My take, this entire budgetary process has a lot more to do with politics than it does with sober financial planning. Mr. Davis and the board members voted 7-0 to put off making a decision until the last minute at the last meeting on June 16th. Mr. Davis, and I suspect a few others, know that a lot can happen at the last minute. Mr. Davis knows the teachers that were fired will stay fired. The teacher’s union has already waved the white flag and given up. The Union is now out of the picture and whatever advantage they once had has been given away after an underwhelming and very questionable level of advocacy. Who do they represent anyway?
Now, at the very last minute, certain members of the board know that they can reinstate, bait, switch, posture, threaten, extort, even curse at the people they serve and get away with it. They know that the teachers are on summer break and there is no one left to depose them. There is no time for that anyway. The Board made it clear the time to protest or even be heard has long past. Mr. Davis has already told us that if we don’t pass a budget at the next meeting that the County will close our doors. However, what he didn’t say was, there is plenty of time to make sure pet projects, board cronies and “loyal” personnel can still be protected and promoted. There is still time to save a highly paid fat cat or two; there is still time to insure dubious programs like the Senior Project are fully funded. There is time to serve the Board’s agenda, hidden or otherwise.
Make no mistake about it, Mr. Davis knows exactly what he is doing. He constantly reminds us that he has put in 17 years on this school board. He knows what’s what and he will take on anyone who has the audacity to question his motives or methods. Why he does the things he does is his business not ours. So, fifth and sixth grade band, out! Librarians who are the gatekeepers of all reposed written knowledge at our elementary schools, out! However, there is going to be plenty of money for six figure, top-of-the-line administrators whose job descriptions remain …well, undescribed.
It is painfully obvious that the Lodi Unified School Board draws no distinction between administrator’s dollars and instruction dollars. The Board has no rules, no rubric, no model, not even a well-articulated guess or two. Money is money after all. Money is fungible, portable and offers equal value whether or not it is spent on six-figure administrators or on teachers and librarians who have direct daily contact with students. Isn’t that what they are really saying?
So what is this story about? What is the School Board all about? Is it about the best interests of our children? Or, is it about what is best for the vested few who make decisions for all the rest of us … the trivial many.
However, there remains one inconvenient truth that everyone seems to be missing. The Lodi Unified School Board members are trustees to a Trust. We are the beneficiaries of that Trust. The question that must be asked and answered at this point is... Has the Board breached that trust as well as their fiduciary responsibilities to “us”? Is this public service or self-service? Don’t you (as a teacher, as a parent or as a taxpayer) have any rights in these matters? Taking a position at this late date might be risky, right?
So, if you come to the June 16, 2009, final meeting, do not speak your mind. Do not raise your voice. Do not shake your head. If you do, you may be gaveled down and told that we have heard you before, that the Board is tired of screwing around…you may even hear the word “crap” coming out of one of the Board member’s mouths again. And the crap of which he so "eloquently" speaks is what you think is important for you, your children, or your schools. Remember, these are your children, your schools, and your money they are spending.
At least one Board member has been on the Board 17-years serving the public’s interest, or so he says. And if he doesn’t recognize you or is not willing to hear your voice it’s because he already knows what you’re going to say; and, he’s already heard that “crap” before. [sic] Please pardon me for my choice of words. I guess the culture of gutter language in a public forum is contagious. Mr. Davis has set the standard of discourse and civility. I assume if he embarks upon another fiery tirade at the next meeting there may be a rebuttal.
If I have offended anyone’s sensitivities in these matters I appologize. I am not trying to motivate you, bait you, challenge you or get you to believe that you should be “mad as hell and shouldn't take this anymore”. I am really not trying to do any of that, however, if I have …I can live with that. The questions is: What can you live with?
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