I copied this from the "comment" section of a previous post. Based on the first 3 comments I elevated it to its own area because I believe it deserves a higher profile. Fellow teachers also need to know what administrators just don't play fair. Its the least we can do.
Fellow professionals: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
*****************************************************************************************************************
"It is frustrating to hear about these principals who are intimidating teachers not to attend the Board meetings. They are limiting your free movement around your country.
Why are you afraid to name these principals here on my blog? Your identity is protected - just don't don't post things from school.
It is critical to have first person accounts.
Don't worry about any principal figuring out who "outed" them. They only pretend to be able to do that. Use "Anonymous" or "Other" - in fact type that principal's name in "other"! Face it, they have a lot more to contend with than YOUR POST!
Are you afraid that CTA won't be able to help you? THAT's revealing!
Suzie Creamcheese allows me extraordinary freedom and I pass it on to you. Everyone knows how this district seeks revenge which is why we have "The WALL".
I am still disappointed in the silence of Plant, Robinson, Blake, Durant, Jefferson, Middleton, Riverview, Newsome, and Wharton. Now, granted, I may have missed something so please call me on it and straighten me out.
Let us know you care enough about what's going on. I can accept anything but apathy from my fellow teachers.
I will be able to rationalize to myself if someone is truly fearful of their principal, but consider this:
Can you really be happy at a place that has so little regard for, yet such fear of your thoughts and beliefs?
Can you face your fellow teachers knowing you caved without a fight?
Can you really look at your children as they sit across from you at the dinner table and tell them to "stand up to that bully, you'll feel better."
Can you really look in the mirror next year as you fight the fatigue of the 6 of 7 schedule for a smaller paycheck?
Can you?
Please write."
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48 comments:
Marc Hutek at Armwood has been subtly threatening and bullying teachers. He has specifically warned young teachers to avoid certain older faculty members, i.e. those who have been outspoken about the 6/7 plan. He says the lunch tables are "poioson" because of the malicious and false materials he says is spread there. He even gave a negative oral evaluation to the APC at Riverview about a teacher who was interviewing there for a job, calling her "high maintenance" and "uncooperative." By the way, Riverview hired her anyway, so kudos to that APC. He has mentioned teachers who he considers unprofessional BY NAME during the spring evaluations of other teachers. I can't think of anything more UNPROFESSIONAL than that. He wrote a tacher appreciation letter to the staff thanking us for our "loyalty" to HIM and follows it up with a threat that we'd better be standing at our doors during passing because if something happens out there, we could be held legally liable!!! (BTW -- is that true?) He's a pure joke to a majority of the staff, but since he can make life miserable, we play the game enough to get by. We hope to outlast him since he's upwardly mobile, but it isn't easy. We've lost at least 4 excellent teachers to other schools so far.
May 10, 2007 7:25 PM
Anonymous said...
The teacher who received the negative comments from Hutek had committed the unforgiveable act of writing to the governor about the 6/7 plan. It was kicked back to the district and she was called on the carpet for writing it. The principal claimed that it was because she had some errors like calling it "300 hours" instead of "300 minutes. That letter is what made her "uncooperative."
Anonymous said...
The teachers who were bullied into not speaking at the board meeting last week, were from PCHS and Durant. I came from the Area Director and filtered to the principal, then the teachers. I thanked my AP today for respecting my 1st amendment rights. But, I'm still signing this anonymous.
May 11, 2007 6:55 PM
This makes my blood boil. The teachers who have spoken out about the effects of teaching 6/7, do so because they are concerned about the scaling back of services to students. This will result in a myriad of negative consequences for our students which is yet to be calculated. It is an outrage that we are witnessing colleagues who have been denied their 1st amendment rights.
As professionals, it is not only our right, but our duty, to speak out about the impending catastrophe. I do not want to be with the group that has to defend the effects of this plan or explain why I did not speak up.
Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 21:30:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: "lee decesare"
Subject:The Hulk Marc Hutek of Armwood
To: Tgonzalez@tsg-law.com, jack.lamb@sdhc.k12.fl.us, jennifer.Faliero@sdhc.k12.fl.us, susan.valdez@sdhc.k12.fl.us, april.griffin@sdhc.k12.fl.us, jon.hutek@sdhc.k12.fl.us, amanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com, montolino@aol.com, ma@tampabay.rr.com, mdjean@msn.net, carol.kurdell@sdhc.k12.fl.us, dorthea.edgecombe@sdhc.k12.fl.us, candy.olson@sdhc.k12.fl.us, mbrown@tampabribune.com, ptash@sptimes.com, jhill@sptimes.com, letitiastein@tampatribune.com
www.sdhc.k12.fl.us/~armwood.high/
To: Tom Gonzalez, School Board Attorney
From: Lee Drury De Cesare
Subject: Bullying of Teachers by Mr. Marc Hutek, Principal of Armwood High
Sir:
As School Board attorney, you are, I infer, to be the right person to whom to send a Professional Standards charge against Mr. Marc Hutek, principal of Armwood.
Please consider this a formal charge from a citizen based on the data below from the teacher blog The Wall.
If this sort of unprofessional behavior by a principal does not violate the Professional Standards criteria of the district according to the Board's protocol, I shall protest at such disparate treatment of teachers and fascist principals at next Board meeting. Elia-Kipley crucified Bart Birdsall for the duo's trumped-up charge of misusing the school emails. This guy romps at Armwood at will, bad-mouthing and tyrannizing teachers with apparent impunity, telling them with whom they can associate. Where is the Elia-Kipley Abu Ghraib team when a principal is mistreating teachers in such despicable ways?
This guy should go to La Kipley's cell block for one of her terror sessions.
I urge you to tell your Board bosses that they have to rein this fellow in and tell him that he gets fired if he does not shut down his persecution campaign of teachers at Armwood and recognize that he resides in the United States of America, in which citizen teachers have free speech rights.
Tell Ms. Elia that he is ROSSAC material for one of those buddy-sychophant $100,000-plus jobs she hands out to such characters as Bruiser Hulk Hutek.
Meanwhile, if I run into the teacher-bullying specimen, I will slap him silly. I have never heard of such outrageous deportment by a principal. Does this Hutek guy have no professional principles? How in the world did he get to be a principal?
lee drury de cesare
Furthermore, the Board must teach Le Hutek (he sounds like a wrestler from Podunk) that he cannot go around slandering teachers
Suzie Creamcheese said...
Marc Hutek at Armwood has been subtly threatening and bullying teachers. He has specifically warned young teachers to avoid certain older faculty members, i.e. those who have been outspoken about the 6/7 plan. He says the lunch tables are "poioson" because of the malicious and false materials he says is spread there. He even gave a negative oral evaluation to the APC at Riverview about a teacher who was interviewing there for a job, calling her "high maintenance" and "uncooperative." By the way, Riverview hired her anyway, so kudos to that APC. He has mentioned teachers who he considers unprofessional BY NAME during the spring evaluations of other teachers. I can't think of anything more UNPROFESSIONAL than that. He wrote a tacher appreciation letter to the staff thanking us for our "loyalty" to HIM and follows it up with a threat that we'd better be standing at our doors during passing because if something happens out there, we could be held legally liable!!! (BTW -- is that true?) He's a pure joke to a majority of the staff, but since he can make life miserable, we play the game enough to get by. We hope to outlast him since he's upwardly mobile, but it isn't easy. We've lost at least 4 excellent teachers to other schools so far.
May 10, 2007 7:25 PM
May 11, 2007 8:44 PM
If you use the Florida public-records law, you can get a considerable amount of data about what goes on in the ROSSAC bunker. Anything recorded--even on a piece of toilet paper--belongs to citizens if they ask for it.
Send your requests for data to Linda.cobbe@sdhc.k12.fl.us. Ls Linda is the most efficient in the Public Affairs office. She can be snippy, but we can take snippy if the snipper is efficient.
For instance, Linda has taken umbrage at my calling Linda Kipley's Professional Standards cell block "Abu Ghraib." She also objected to my misspelling "Abu Ghraib." I may still be misspelling it.
If you want to waste time, you can banter with Linda. The Constitution covers banter with public-information people at School Boards. I used to banter, but now I get right to the question. A revolutionary such as I has little time for banter.
Linda is good about keeping a record of one's questions, a vital thing for me since I would forget my nose if it were not attached to my face. All my grandchildren say, "Granny is spacy." My mind is occupied thinking up new epithets for the Board and administration louts, so I am not a good record keeper.
So fire away with your questions to La Linda. If they get numerous enough, the Board will have to give Linda an assistant at $100,000-plus a year. Marc Hutek is in line for the assistant-to-Linda job.
lee drury de cesare
http://leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot.com/
Ms. Cobbe: When will I get the secretary-produced Candy-comment from the last Board meeting. You said a secretary would produce it if I would pay for it. I want to send it around to teachers and mount it on my blog.
Thank you.
lee drury de cesare
lee
http://leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot.com/
Ms. Cobbe: When will I get the secretary-produced Candy-comment from the last Board meeting. I want to send it around to teachers and mount it on my blog.
Thank you.
lee
Suzie—
Check out the last comment on Teacher's
Grievance, which just came in. What do you make of it? The time stamped is 11:05 this morning. I looked up the citations and they are bits buried in the statutes. This person seems to know contract law well to have come up with these arguments.
I know that this will sound silly... and many teachers will not want to do the following. Contact your school board representative, espcially if you are in a teacher friendly district (and you know who I'm referring to). Lets start putting some pressure on the board. They are Elia's bosses and lets face it... we all know this is coming down from Elia. I think if some of our teacher friendly reps knew about this type of behavior they would actively fight to stop it. We need to provide them with specifics as Armwood has done. Don't be afraid! If they try to punish you for speaking out then you have a nice class action lawsuit brewing!
Did you see that The Tampa Tribune has begun a smear campaign on the only two school board members sympathetic to teachers? It's over at April Griffin's blog.
Plant is as unhappy as the rest of the high schools. The problem is that the old-timers are resigned to it and getting out as fast as they can and the newbies don't know any better. There aren't a lot of folks in between. Thus, there is no real action and the morale is very poor.
This is absolutely amazing. The school district is disintegrating right in front of us.
Just when will the Board recognize that Elia is sinking, and now she's taking all of us down with her?
I never, never, ever thought in a million years that I would see principals telling teachers not to speak to the Board.
Elia is using her mouthpiece, the Tribune, to do all her talking. Need to tell the teachers about a change? Write the Tribune. Need to take down Valdes and Griffin? Use the Tribune. Need someone to speak about "fairness"? Use the editorial board of the Tribune.
This is sad, folks. And, the blame lies 100% with Mary Ellen Elia. How much longer will it be before the Board wakes up?
7:25
I'm sorry, being an old timer or a 'tweener does NOT allow you the luxury of standing by KNOWING those younger teachers are getting screwed!
You have an obligation to point out potholes to those younger teachers.
You have an obligation to provide guidance and insight.
If you are too "old and in the way" to contibute to the development of those who you expect to pick up the torch after you: IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON! - like to retirement.
If you go quietly, knowing what you know, it can haunt you forever.
Of course if you don't care then there is nothing anyone can say that will make a difference. Just don't invite me to your retirement party.
If I were a young teacher reading that comment I would be insulted that the experienced teachers had so little regard for my future. It would make me question everything they ever told me.
Those younger teachers need to know that there are places better than Plant to work. Do not be afaid to look. Do not be resigned to a low-morale environment.
If you say nothing then everyone else assumes "all is well". The rest of us just wonder.
The S.O.K.s parents carry a lot of weight in "CandyLand" and its yours for the taking. Use it.
A "quality" teacher can work anywhere.
I am still waiting to hear the panther growl.
Hi Suzie:
Thanks for the kind words over at my blog. I decided not to accept comments so I don't dilute what's being said on the blogs that are already established.
Rest assured, if I win a seat, I will first ask how many "town hall" meetings occurred when a change like this is proposed.
If I hear "none", I will vote no. And if it's a so-called "management decision" like this, I will challenge it.
Thanks again. I'll be at the next Board meeting and will see you all then.
www.fredburns.com
Oh, and just in case, add this...
Political advertisement paid for and approved by Fred Burns, nonpartisan for Hillsborough County School Board District 3...
to the above.
We now need to add that Mushroom Farm has begun to bully the school board members who do not rubber stamp her edicts without question, and uses the press to do so!
Refutation will post on Monday 14th on leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot site of the Rosemary-Goudreau girlfriend-attack on School Board members except Faliera for getting their board certification while Faliera didn't.
Goudreau, in effect, endorses ignorance as opposed to enlightenment for School Board members. The purpose of this Goudreau personal use of the editorial page of the Tribune is to shore up girlfriend Elia's power, to diminish the effectiveness of Griffin and Valdez after the teachers at the 13th meeting called them "heroes" for suggesting that the administration share the pain of the budget crisis, and to attack La Gaceta publisher Patrick Manteiga as a "political activist" who, as friend of Griffin and Valdez, "bashes" Jenifer Faliera for being sole board member not getting her board certification because, according to Goudreau, this certification is trivial and costs the taxpayers too much money (less than $20,000 for the whole board), the which is small change next to Elia's $262,000 salary, $48,000
"bonus" ripped off of teachers' work, opulent perquisites (still waiting for those figures from Linda Cobbe of the public-affairs office), and golden-parachute retirement heist (Cobbe promises retirement package anon).
I see Media General owns the Tribune. I may buy a few shares (MEG) to squawk as a shareholder to the parent company. Do so yourself if you are indignant about the way that Goudreau distorts the use of the editorial page for personal vendettas and fills her editorial essays with primitive grammar-punctuation errors and infelicitous rhetoric that no newspaper corporation should want in its pages.
The two local important women above Goudreau are Janet Weaver and Denise Palmer.
You can complain to the Media General honchos about Goudreau’s use of the editorial page for girlfriend propping up and for bad writing festooned with grammar-punctuation errors to feed her Elia-Faliera girlfriend politics by writing to Lou Ann Nelson, 333 East Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 22329. I shall.
I will also send the two other papers of Media General, The Richmond Times Dispatch and the Winston-Salem Journal copies of my rebuttal of La Goudreau's girlfriend "editorials." (I used to date a boy from Winston Salem when I was in school in Charlotte, NC in the Fifties.)
Those newsroom Virginia and NC folks will chortle at Goudreau’s many grammar and punctuation errors and prance around their newsrooms feeling superior to the grammar-punctuation-rhetoric rubes in the Tampa paper.
My motto is that, if you have a beef, go right to the top of the food chain.
lee drury de cesare
Suzie,
be careful about the difference between Plant and Plant City--the header on your post says Plant City, and then later you refer simply to Plant. At least one teacher from Plant has spoken at Board meetings and attended more than once. SEVERAL teachers from Riverview have spoken at meetings, some more than once. Still many of the schools you mention remain off-line--I DO NOT recall hearing from any one at PLANT. Middleton and Blake might be able to help us, if they would--they are in Edgecombe's district, and she might listen to them. I have a friend at Durant, and that friend says that a) all the teachers she knows there feel helpless, like nothing we do is going to make any difference anyway, and b) she also says the deparments are very isolated and it's almost impossible to try to spread word beyond her own department.
I don't know if you guys heard this, but Jefferson was originally off the charts--district officials went out there to "talk them down," and they made their principal look very bad because they wouldn't listen to what the district considered "reason." So perhaps their principal has clamped down since then, or maybe they hesitate to stick their heads back up. I've made some attempts in that direction and gotten nowhere. I have also made overtures toward Chamberlain and likewise come up empty.
I know a friend of a friend has sent word to Robinson but couldn't say what happened when it got there--how far it went, whether anyone cared, etc.
I just want to give credit where it's due, Suzie--this has indeed been an historic protest: when was the last time there were 10 teachers or more attending a Board meeting to speak on anything???
Also be aware, some principals have certainly felt the lash of MaryEllen's tongue and perhaps discourage their teachers from standing up because THEY are afraid. And so they possibly "warn" their teachers of possible concequences for joining the movement. Given how MaryEllen has a reputation for crucifying people, I kinda don't blame them. All of these situations may not be as simple as Armwood. I only hope the people over there do something about this totally unprofessional behavior on the part of their principal, like maybe inform their area director. After all, next year, all the principals are going to need all their teachers working as a team as much as possible! We'll see what the principal at Armwood gets.
Robinson has been in contact with me a few times. They were also in attendance to the school board meeting with 150+ teachers. After that meeting they fell off and I haven't heard from them since. I'm not sure if they are doing a wait and see or whether they felt pressure.
CC
Thanks for your contribution possum. Believe it or not I welcome being straightened out on points.
The title of the post was meant to call attention to the three schools (Armwood, Durant, Plant City) whose principals reportedly tried to "influence" their teachers into NOT going to the Board meeting. I copied the comments and pasted them into the comment section of "Armwood, Durant, Plant City".
I honestly don't remember the Plant or Riverview teachers and for that I apologize and thank you for the correction (any correction at any time).
I responded to a post (7:25) who commented on Plant's faculty's attitude and that may be where I confused my readers.
Please pass the blog addresses around to any faculty member at any school.
We need to hear from those "fire breathing dragons" - I can just picture their outrage. They need to know they have our support and we need to know who needs it. I'd love a first person account of that meeting.
The Board knows who speaks at the meetings. I'm sure they wouldn't tolerate having their principals being held responsibile for any faculty member exercising their Freedom of Speech.
If Elia's only management style is to berate, belittle, and bully it won't be long until mid management revolts. It is hard to argue with some of the points that are being bantered around and the principal's are beginning to realize that, as you stated, they need a team for this to work. Mrs. Elia will need a larger team.
The principal's will see the disintegration of their staff in real time. They will notice the difference in their school every day. The principal's are the ones that will field the phone calls, etc. They are the one's that will be forced to manage the train wreck.
The Area Directors will be overwhelmed and unable to function under the burden.
Mrs. Elia will be insulated until it reaches critical mass.
FCAT scores, AP scores and college acceptances will all be down. The district will be forced to hire more remedial teachers than AP instuctors.
The Wall is only as good and as accurate as we all make it. Thanks to all of you for keeping this accurate, yet passionate.
Suzie
Is there any way someone can find out what's going on at Wharton? I can't believe they're happy about this.
I'm not too sure of the way Mrs. Elia is given her annual appraisal, but we need to make sure we're there if it's at a Board meeting this summer.
Oh I think this will be a HOT summer.
Look at the facts. Elia has divided the district into camps..those that support her, and those that don't. And, she uses the Tribune to crucify those that don't.
Is that really what parents want? Does it help teachers? Are students best served by her leadership?
No, no, and no.
Congratulations, Board Members. Most of you continue to ignore what's happening. You do so at your own peril. I promise you we will mobilize hundreds of people to oppose you at election time.
Teachers in Area VI (Durant, Plant City, and Newsome ) are meeting tomorrow after school with several district and area administrators. If you know anyone out there, please give a call of support.
I reminded some of the ESE people that we must speak out when we see violations about to occur to our students' rights under the American Disabilities Act (Section 504). It's not much different than ignoring abuse or neglect.
Teachers in Area VI (Durant, Plant City, and Newsome ) are meeting tomorrow after school with several district and area administrators. If you know anyone out there, please give a call of support.
I reminded some of the ESE people that we must speak out when we see violations about to occur to our students' rights under the American Disabilities Act (Section 504). It's not much different than ignoring abuse or neglect.
Suzie--
Good catch on Daggart!
Tom Gonzalez tgonzalez@tsg-law.com wrote:
Ms. DeCesare, if by your charge of professional standards you mean your email of May 12, 2007, I am unaware of any pending investigation of it. Although described as a "formal charge from a citizen, based on the data below," those "data" are contained in a single web log posting attributed to a "Suzie Creamcheese." In fact, the District employs no one by that name. Therefore, what you have forwarded is in fact an anonymous complaint. Such complaints are impossible to investigate and so they are not processed unless a victim is identified by name. Should Ms. Creamcheese choose to file a complaint, or should you wish to identify her (or him) so that the Board's professional standards' investigators can speak to her/him, then I will in fact refer the matter, but please note the following. As it is currently drafted, there is no violation of Board policy noted in the Creamcheese posting. A principal concerned about the actions of his staff may in fact make comments about the dissemination of materials he or she considers to be "malicious and false." A principal may in fact provide a reference in which he refers to a teacher as "high maintenance" or "uncooperative." A principal may in fact mention examples of teachers good and bad during an evaluation session. I infer by your referral of the Creamcheese posting that you believe Mr. Hutek to be acting for a motive other than a benign one. If you have evidence of that, the District will listen. Similarly, if Ms. Creamcheese wishes to describe the "subtle threatening and bullying" of which he or she writes, then that too would be looked at in the context of a complaint attributed to a real person. In answer to Ms. Creamcheese's question as to whether the Board and/or an individual teacher may be held liable for a failure to supervise students during change of class times, the answer is yes, if the failure to supervise results in harm to a student. With respect to your stated intention to "slap [Mr. Hutek] silly" if you encounter him, please see Florida Statute Section 784.081, which provides for enhanced criminal penalties for batteries of school board employees.
Thomas M. Gonzalez
Thompson, Sizemore & Gonzalez, P.A.
One Tampa City Center
201 North Franklin Street, Suite 1600
Tampa, FL 33602
Tel: (813) 273-0050
Fax: (813) 273-0072
tgonzalez@tsg-law.com
Mr. Gonzalez:
I have received your mocking of teachers’ mistreatment using signature linguistic double standard that made Shakespeare advise killing all lawyers.
You have sly sport in twitting in one breath the pseudonymous Susie Creamcheess’s complaints about Hulk Hutek’s harassing teachers and in the next breath exonerating The Hulk and any administrator of blame no matter how vile and intimidating her/his utterance or behavior to a teacher.
This legal chit will doubtless make Hulk venture further into verbal villainy that you will scamper to rescue as mere innocuous metaphor that had a teacher said would be legal fodder.
You well know from Bart Birdsall’s case how hard it is to get anyone to come foreword and complain up front in the school system. The administration abetted by the Board and, of course, backed up by you, who previously provided legal counsel for Saurnon, Gorbag, and Warmtongue, all Lord-of-the- Ring former school administrators who went on to bigger enterprise, runs a snitch system that turns in to Linda Kipley’s Abu Ghraib Cell Block any school employee that lets out a whiff of resistance to the tyranny that Elia mistakes for leadership.
This Elia-Board-backed-lawyer-abetted reign of terror has produced a fearful school populace. I wish its denizens showed more spunk, but they haven’t asked me for how they should conduct themselves to survive in the threatening environment that obtains in the school system that you are part of maintaining.
I note your instant reply to my Hutek complaint in which you exonerate Le Hutek’s bullying conduct as innocuous administrative protocol compares invidiously to your delayed promise of the booklet that lies still aborning in which you promised to outline the rights for teachers railroaded into the Professional Standards gauntlet.
I await that booklet, Mr. Gonzalez. And I will not release you of your promise to produce it.
And as for your threats of dire consequences for an aged, helpless, feeble granny of ten—that would be I—my response is, “Bring it on.” I have lived long but not yet long enough to have gone to jail in defiance of villainy. Jail time for fighting injustice would just tie the bow on my resume.
If slapping Hutek silly gets a Florida Statute citation, tell me what taking a broom to a Board attorney and beating him black and blue would merit. What about horsewhipping if a frail, helpless, aged, etc. grandmother were able to lift one of those horse whips to whip a school board attorney for being irreverent in the presence of age and wisdom? To have the proper degree of reverence for these legal pronunciamento, one must keep in mind that the legislative solons who crafted these cunning statutes can’t make their subjects agree with their verbs.
So the citations, please: An aged, helpless, feeble, weak-hammed, etiolated, upper-body-strength-deprived granny needs a good cackle every once in a while.
You have answered my email with such alacrity that I haven’t had time to send round cc’s of my first missive to you. How was I to know that you would emerge from dormancy to respond in a flash?
Meanwhile, I want you to confess to me whether you gave MaryEllen Elia legal advice about phrases you or she or some villain gleaned from combing through my La Gaceta columns when I wrote there that La Elia used to extort Patrick Manteiga with the threat of cutting off his ad revenue and suing La Gaceta for defamation of character of those two spotless specimens Linda Kipley and Connie Mileto. I thought that was a particularly despicable assault on press free speech by La Elia. The woman is low enough to pull such a trick. Unfortunately, I couldn’t convince Patrick to call in the ACLU. Gallantry is his weakness.
Does the Florida Bar Ethics hoohahs sanction such vile use of the legal talents of its members as you conjure for the administration and Board, by the way? Or do you sin by the book and produce formulae that Shakespeare says is “sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought” to elide Bar punishment for vile ethics?
Let me hear of any more laws I have broken. These data enchant me. I want to parlay a whole bunch of piddling violations into the death penalty. That would be an exit with éclat for an aging, feeble, etc, etc granny.
lee drury de cesare
PS: Add on the Florida law that penalizes wielding a rolling pin against school lawyers and other villains that infest the school system. There has to be a rolling-pin entry in there somewhere. That’s just the kind of statute the Panhandle pygmies would build a career on.
Ha! Ha! Ha! I'll provide the broom if you'll provide the beating! What a hoot :)
Does that guy have a clue?? I don't think he has ANY idea about what is really going on out here. I would be embarrassed to spend as much time as he did trying to scare into silence those people who dare to speak out.
Well, buddy, go for it. Be sure you charge the school district for the time you spend picking through internet postings and old newspapers to see if you can find some little morsel you can use to threaten the good teachers of this school district...teachers who are making this stink because they CARE about their students…teachers who love teaching and are being forced to leave the profession because they have reached their limits.
Hey! I know! Why not suggest to the School Board that they pay your attorney's fees out of all that money the district will be saving next year? What a dandy idea! Awwwww...darn it, I bet you already thought of that.
But PLEASE oh pleeeeese, while you are having your secretary calculate the cost of all those wisely invested hours you spent researching, leave us enough so that we can pay the medical deductibles to our urologists for the bladder infections we will suffer because there is insufficient time to go to the bathroom.
After all, God FORBID, we should fail to be on duty between the changes of classes lest someone gets hurt while we are trying to cram in a quick pee between our six classes.
Just remember, good buddy, what goes around comes around. There are few things more obnoxious than smug lawyers who waste taxpayers' money indulging in petty vendettas.
I'm sitting in a room (since 7:30) monitoring senior exams. I just read the last few comments and I'm truly in pain. The students thought I was having an Epileptic attack as I tried to stiffle my snickering. Now I have to pee so bad... I'll try to flag down a teacher in the hall to step in.May be just saved by the bell.
Boy that lawyer is really looking to know who Suzie Creamcheese is.
The "anonymous" post was only copied from another area and pasted into this one so it really doesn't appear to be Suzie's.
Based on the tone, I'm not sure I could in good conscience encourage anyone to file anything.
I do however have a two word response that should sum up the districts approach to those who raise legitimate concerns:
DOUG ERWIN
It ain't going away!
I don't think that dolt of a lawyer understands how blogs work.
Here, dude, let me try to explain it to you...you see (now I'm speaking VERY slowly and patiently here) it is the name of the POSTING individual that appears at the top of the blog response (i.e. Suzie Creamcheese). It is NOT necessarily the name of the person who wrote the original information. The posting individual might be writing original thoughts, posting comments from other bloggers, forwarding information from other sites, etc. And the most horrible part is that…wait for it…sometimes the posting individual doesn’t use quotation marks!
“But, how can this be?!” you ask. “I ALWAYS had to use correct punctuation and cite my sources when I was in law school!! I still have to do it when I write that boring drivel for the School Board! It’s not fair, I tell you, IT’S NOT FAIR!!!!!!”
Sorry, dude.
If you read the entire blog, you should be able to follow the trail of blogs/comments and get a vague idea of quotes versus original thoughts. Now I realize that's a lot for you city slicker lawyer types to understand but I thought it might be helpful.
Oh, yeah...and I guess I ought to mention that "Anonymous" is actually many DIFFERENT people. That's right! There is not just one guy named "Anonymous"! Whaaaaaaaaaa?????
Now I certainly wouldn't want to enter in a battle of half-wits with a guy who went to law school because I'm just a lowly educator. I just thought before you sent out your snide emails, you might prefer to not look like an idiot when it comes to discussing blog entries.
I'm just a thoughtful guy.
Very truly yours,
Mr. Anonymous
After hearing from "the" attorney on what principals can or cannot do, and what would be considered "bullying", GOSH, DARN, I feel bullied!
Where is my union?
Do you think I can ask for a refund from CTA for the last 20 years? Mr. Gonzales, can you advise me? If you are retained by my employer, can I use you to get this refund?
Marc Hutek should resign. I wonder if he tells his Government teachers to skip the unit about the First Amendment.
Marc, go home. You're a disgrace.
Armwood teachers -- is he really telling you that it's not appropriate to speak to the School Board?
Subject: Status of public-information requests
To: linda.cobbe@sdhc.k12.fl.us
Ms. Cobbe:
From: Lee De Cesare
Surly sufficient time has elapsed to secure Ms. Elia's expense account for a year and her retirement package. May I have those documents, please?
lee drury de cesare
Subject: Fwd: status of public-information requests
To: linda.cobbe@sdhc.k12.fl.us
I also wonder if the secretary has yet typed the comments of Ms. Olson from the last Board meeting in her long commentary to teachers about the inevitability of the added-class change. You said that I could pay for those.
May I hear from you on the status of these three public-information requests? lee
I am posting this here, as well on my blog, because this issue has gone quiet. What's going on? Hopefully it is just everyone too dang busy.
Teacher wins Million dollar suit - caselaw for this issue.
On April 5, 2004, the Ninth Circuit issued a detailed decision, which reversed the Magistrate Judge and reinstated the Jury Verdict and praised the conduct of counsel for Pamella Settlegoode.
The Court discussed the importance of Settlegoode's freedom of speech and criticized the Magistrate Judge, explaining that:
This is just an excerpt:
"Teachers are uniquely situated to know whether students are receiving the type of attention and education that they deserve and, in this case, are federally entitled to. We have long recognized “the importance of allowing teachers to speak out on school matters,” Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 162 (1983), because “ ‘[t]eachers are, as a class, the members of a community most likely to have informed and definite opinions’ “ on such matters, id. (quoting Pickering, 391 U.S. at 572). This is particularly so with respect to disabled children, who may not be able to communicate effectively that they lack appropriate facilities. Teachers may therefore be the only guardians of these children’s rights and interests during the school day. (Emphasis added by Wrightslaw) Whether or not Settlegoode’s assertions were accurate, or were communicated in the best manner possible, it is clear that the subject matter of her expression was of public importance."
I think everybody's taking a break.
Me?
I'm just keeping my powder dry and reloading!
Anyone helping with their school's graduation? May be a good time to collar YOUR board member. Nothing hostile or belligerent mind you but since they won't come to a classroom you just may want to take a little more than THOSE PALTRY 3 minutes.
Your turf now.
During the 2004 Freedom graduaton, Dr. Lamb addressed the group as "Wharton graduates." Twice.
Golly, Jack, don't you only have three high schools in your District? Let's hope you get it right this year.
Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 17:00:47
From: "lee decesare"
Subject: No public-information response yet to my request
To: linda.cobbe@sdhc.k12.fl.us
Ms. Cobbe: it must be at least three weeks since I asked for the Board notes that showed the rationale for the Board's awarding Ms. Elia $48,000 as a "bonus" for the teachers' work in raising student scores.
May I please have that information?
lee drury de cesare
Ps: to comment on the entry of anonymous directly above: I don't advocate being "hostile or aggressive" when teachers confront their School Board members at their graduations. But there is nothing wrong with being up front and frank. There is no reason to walk on eggs when addressing a Board member. None is royal, although they all seem to think so. They are ordinary human beings who have got a little power and are mishandling it by giving it over to Elia along with a ton of money with out her being able to punctuate and with her abusing teachers with all the Board members' collusion--all of them: not one speaks out in defense of teachers on the Board podium. They are a hallelujah chorus for Elia. Until I hear one or several rebuking Elia at Board meetings for her mistreatment of teachers-or better yet firing her--I see no reason to pull punches with these arrogant, stupid, complicit, gutless elected Board members who do not serve students, teachers, or taxpayers but who join themselves voluntarily at the hip with Elia's incompetent, corrupt administration.
ldd
I think those teachers that give their time (and gasoline) to help with the graduation ceremonies have the type of character that successfully guides them in these matters.
I don't believe they will mar the day for the kids. That's NOT to say the board members won't "feel the heat".
I know that Attorney Gonzales will be back here to check out what we are all talking about. I need to correct myself. As a teenager, I always thought that Suzie Creamcheese was a raunchy Zappa reference. Here's an exerpt from a 1974 interview with Zappa.
COQ: Another woman of infamy in your world was Suzy Creamcheese. What's her storv?
Zappa:Suzy Creamcheese was a girl named Jeanme Vassoir. And she is the voice that s on the Freak Out album. The mvth of Suzy Creamcheese, the letter on the album, I wrote myself. There never really was a Suzy Creamcheese. It was just a figment of my imagination until people started identifying with it heavily. It got to weird proportions in Europe, so that in 1967. when we did our first tour of Europe. people were asking if Suzie Creamcheese was along with us. So I procured the services of another girl named Pamela Zarubica, who was hired to be the Suzy Cream cheese of the European tour. And then she maintained the reputation of being Suzy Creamcheese after 1967. The first one went someplace, we don't know where. She's back in town now; I saw her.
COQ: What was the origin of the name Suzy Creamcheese? Is there a sexual connotation?
Zappa: I think it came from a dream.
COQ: A wet one?
Zappa: No, it wasn't even a cheesy one.
A source from Hillsborough told me that quite a few of their teachers who are close to retirement are planning on quitting but not until the first week of school....just to make it harder on Elia and the school board. Sock it 'em.
GREAT idea! Pass that one around.
Teachers that teach "higher level" classes, the ones that REQUIRE a lot of essays and experiments and projects and research, should request the types of classes that can be evaluated with scantrons and pass/fail and complete/incomplete. Chances are the parents of that level student are not going to question the "evaluation" methods, not going to insist on a letter of recommendation, hell, it's been my experience that they never show up at conferences.
There are many ways that our superintendent has made it easier for us. Not right but easier. At the moment we are too focused on what's best for our students.
If it comes down to having this jammed down our throat, then we need to be aware of ALL options at our disposal. We need to use them at OUR convenience.
High school math teacher. Honors/AP.
Next year, no homework grades.
Your grde is 30% quizzes, 70% tests.
Don't do your homework at your own risk.
I will eventually get these data with Ms. Cobbe's perseverence. Don't think I have Alzheimer's because I am absent minded. I have been absent minded all my life. I am always thinking of higher things. My grandchidren say, "Granny's spacy." They don't say, "Granny's dumb." ldd
From: "lee decesare"
Subject: Re: No public-information response yet to my request
To: "Linda Cobbe"
Yes, you did give me an answer; I recall now. But I thought I asked for the reasoning that the Board expressed for this extraordinary privilege: who suggested it, what the Board members said before voting on it, etc. I suppose the Board notes will reflect this discussion. I'd like Lennard's and Elia's. I also want the Board's voting tally--who for and who against--when the Board extended the bonus to Elia.
I will post this discussion on the teacher blog The Wall.blogspot because the teachers are interested in how the $48,000 bonus came about.
Do you have a copy of the newspaper article that said Elia was highly popular with both governors? Somebody told me about it, but I don't get the Tribune. I want to give the governor some balancing information. I think he pays attention to me since I was the person who asked him at Tiger Bay if he were gay. Tiger Bay fuddyduddies have never forgiven me for that. They are afraid such members will spoil the tea-party image of the club. Ms. Ethridge was mine and my husband's lunch guest for that lunch with then AG Crist. She just about fell off her chair in horror. You know how prissy she is about decorum of the ladies' garden-party kind. Despite La Ethridge's lecture to teachers on how bad their manners were for demanding their Constitutional right to free speech at a Board meeting, she still hasn't thanked me and my old man for paying for that Tiger Bay lunch for her at which she had the privilege of a citizen's asking Le Crist if he were gay--a fair question, given that his party was making a major issue of its opposition to gay rights. My mother would say Ms. Ethridge was raised in a barn for ommission of a thank-you to her hosts for the lunch. ldd
Linda Cobbe wrote:
Lee, I've responded to you twice about this (see below: 8:42 a.m. May 10, and 1:43 p.m. April 6, 2007). It was initiated when Earl Lennard was superintendent and the criteria was increased for Mrs. Elia. It was in both his and MaryEllen Elia's negotiated contracts. Do you want the original discussion, or do you want me to see if there was any discussion specifically about Mrs. Elia?
Linda Cobbe
External Communications Manager
Office of Communications
Hillsborough County Public Schools
901 E. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33602
813-272-4602
813-272-4510 FAX
I am a teacher at Tomlin Middle School in Plant City. It used to be a great place to work. Ever since our principal arrived three years ago it has become a very intimidating place. Teachers who speak their minds are run off and those who stay are subjected to subtle intimidation.
I have been asked to account for comments I made to other teachers, comments reported to her by "unnamed" informants. How can one defend oneself against this?
New teachers are intimidated, one actually told me that she wrote derogatory statements about another teacher because she didnt have tenure and the principal backed her into a corner to write the letter defaming the teacher. The teacher in question was given an "administrative transfer" to another school and decided to leave the profession. This man was a fine teacher, he made the mistake of speaking his mind. The rest of us have been intimidated into silence. It is truly a sad place to work now.
Surely I am not the only one at Tomlin to read this blog. I challenge other Tomlin teachers to write of their experiences. Nothing will change if we dont speak up. I would like to identify myself but I am afraid of repercussions if I do.
Intimidation rules the day at Tomlin Middle school as well. Teacher claims to have neen coerced into giving a misleading statement regarding another teacher. Outspoken teachers are harassed. I am afraid to give my name.
I am sure there are others at Tomlin who have something to say.
I had the honor to meet fred Burns in a south resturant recently while I was waiting for my dinner. I was very thrilled that one of our school board candidates took some time to listen to my concerns for our schools and education and the school board. I was very impressed with one of his top issues which is saftey for students and schools . however the most intresting thing to me is I think fred burns would be a great asset on the school board cause of his vast bussiness back ground and I think this could be a great influence on a students future education.fred burns being a special teacher is a great example and a devoted husband and a family member and father. our youth needs a great leader like fred burns who can give them a great future and also show them great bussiness assets and give them a great example to live by. fred burns would make a great school board member www.fredburns.com
sincerly
tom chastain
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