News Roundup

A few bits of news from Claremont and elsewhere:

• If you've got any cans of old paint, used motor oil, used batteries and such taking up garage space, now's your chance to get rid of the stuff. The City of Claremont is holding a Hazardous Household Waste Roundup this Saturday, February 6, from 9am to 3pm at the Claremont Corporate Yard located at 1616 Monte Vista Ave.
  
  
  
• We didn't see it on the City of Claremont's community events calendar, but this Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, which has in the past been the day the City Council sets up its booth at the Farmers Market in the Claremont Village from 8am to 1pm.
  
  We don't know if the council booth is another casualty of City Hall's budget cutting.
  
  
  
• Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona says the annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Gingerbread Sociable is tomorrow from 1pm to 3pm in - where else? - the Laura Ingalls Wilder room of the Pomona Library at 625 S. Garey Ave. in downtown Pomona. There'll be storytelling, gingerbread, cider, and more. Kids of all ages, from one to 100 and older, are welcome.
  
  
  
• The Fresno Bee has an article about Claremont High School track star Kori Carter signing a letter of intent with Stanford University. Carter will be competing in the high school division of the Run For the Dream Indoor Track & Field Invitation at Buchanan High School in Clovis.
  
  While she's there, Kori can give Claremont's regards to former CUSD superintendent David Cash, who left us for Clovis Unified last year.
  
  
  
• The Sacramento Bee's Kevin Yamamura reports that California not only has the worst Standard & Poors credit rating of any of the 50 states, it is also worse than several countries:
  

  At A-, California still has the worst credit rating of all 50 states. Illinois comes closest to California with an A+ rating.
  
  Countries in the Times' chart with the same A- rating as California include Estonia, Libya and Poland. That's better than Thailand and Greece (BBB+) but not as strong as Botswana, the Czech Republic and Israel (A).

  
  Another sign that Claremont's and CUSD's budget woes won't be going away anytime soon.
  
  
  
• Following up our friend Glenn Southard and his sidekick Michael Busch, we read in the Desert Sun that Glenn's retirement includes almost $162,000 for unused vacation days and sick time he's banked in his time at the city of Indio.
  
  Here's what the Sun said about the details of the deal:
  

  Indio's Glenn Southard is the one of the highest-paid city managers in the state, which is part of the reason for his large final payment. He makes more than $300,000 a year.
  
  According to estimates provided by the city Tuesday, Southard has banked 582.35 hours of vacation, 1,118.55 hours of sick leave and 2.5 hours of administrative leave.
  
  Under the terms of his contract, Southard is entitled to all of the vacation time and half of the sick leave when he leaves City Hall.
  
  Administrative leave — a perk relatively common for city managers — cannot be cashed out, so he would have to use it before leaving, according to assistant to the city manager Mark Wasserman.
  
  That means Southard, who makes $148.74 an hour, would be entitled to 1,087.625 accrued hours of leave — worth $161,773.34.

  
  The Desert Sun tells us that Indio's golden handshake did get approved, by the way, and some people in there are not too happy about that, not that they are people who count for anything.
  
  Coincidentally, the Desert Sun also had an article about how to avoid being a scam victim.

City Council Meeting Tonight

The Claremont City Council meets tonight in the council chambers at 225 W. 2nd St. in the Claremont Village. You can watch all the action beginning at 6:30pm on the City's website.

CLOSED SESSION

The council will meet in a special closed session at 5:15pm to discuss the potential purchase of the water utility, currently provided by Golden State Water Co. Before anyone gets too excited, there doesn't seem to be any concrete action planned, though you never know what happens behind closed council doors.

Here's the closed session agenda. The Daily Bulletin had an article on the subject. The article, by Wes Woods II, quoted several councilmembers, including Sam Pedroza:

Councilman Sam Pedroza said the council expects to review several options, such as whether the city should take over its water provider or just continue to fight the water company's rising rates.

Pedroza said he brought the item to the council's attention because residents have been asking him about the increased rates.

In December, Claremont joined San Dimas, Apple Valley and Placentia in hopes of halting rising water rates charged by the water company.

"We've been talking about it for many, many years," Pedroza said. "Because of the water situation we're in and the economy, it's never going to be cheaper than what it is right now. We need to do something."

REGULAR SESSION

The regular session commences at 6:30pm with a couple ceremonial matters: a farewell to Claremont Unified School District Superintendent David Cash and a recognition of the David and Margaret Youth & Family Auxiliary Group's 38th Anniversary.

Tonight's regular session seems light, and the council may get out before 9:30 for a change. Here are a few items of interest:

• A lot line adjustment for three parcels at 101 S. Mills Ave. This property is owned by the Claremont University Consortium. This appears to be the maintenance yard between 1st St. and the Metrolink tracks.
  
  
• Institutional District parking standards. Staff is asking the council to affirm the direction the council has given regarding revisions to the parking standards for the areas in and around the Claremont Colleges. Staff wants to have the Municipal Code amendment and the necessary environmental review prepared by this fall.
  
  
• A resolution in support of the League of California Cities mounting a legal challenge to the state's proposed money grab. We talked about this yesterday. The staff report says that Claremont could potentially lose $600,000 in transportation funds if the state borrows money from the Highway Users Tax Account, money set aside for local governments from the state's gasoline tax. The money is used for local street maintenance.
  
  As we noted yesterday, other area cities have already adopted the same type of resolution.
  
  
• Senior apartment bonds. This is a request for the City to hold a hearing for the Claremont Villas under the federal Tax Equity and Financial Responsibility Act (TEFRA). The owner of the 154-unit senior housing complex, Claremont Senior Partners, LLP, wants to refinance and pay off its existing debt obligations in order to give the property 100% non-profit ownership.
  
  Claremont would bear no financial responsibility. The City simply has to hold the hearing for Claremont Senior Partners to be able to apply for the bonds. The City recently did the same thing for Western Christian Schools, and they have also held TEFRA hearings for Pilgrim Place and Claremont Manor.
  
  
  
  

Farewell and Adieu

Claremont Unified School District said goodbye to CUSD Superintendent David Cash (left) this past Thursday. Wes Woods II covered the fête in in the Daily Bulletin.

Cash, swapping one alluvial fan for another, heads off to the Fresno suburb of Clovis ("Gateway to the Sierras") in the San Joaquin Valley. We wish him the best of luck in his new district when he begins there on July 1.

The Bulletin article said most of the attendees at Cash's farewell party spoke highly of him. However, as any Insider would know, there's always a Debbie Downer in the crowd:

Suzanne Miller, president of the Claremont Faculty Association, was reserved with her comments.

"We're not sad he's leaving," Miller said. "He gives the illusion of transparency, but it's not."

For example, the association found out through a newspaper report earlier this year that K-3 classes would have an increased student to teacher ratio of 24 to one, she said.

"It was not told to us," Miller said.

CUSD Moves On

The Claremont Unified School District will hold a special board meeting 7pm Monday, April 20, to address the departure of CUSD Superintendent David Cash for the Clovis USD.

Cash's resignation is effective July 1, and the Claremont school board will have to move quickly to find a replacement. The agenda for Monday's meeting indicates the board will accept Cash's resignation and then take steps to hire a firm called Leadership Associates to "develop the necessary timeline and facilitate the [superintendent] search."

Leadership Associates is based in Mission Viejo, and their website says this about the company:

As California’s premier executive search firm, Leadership Associates has assisted school boards in their selection of superintendents in over 170 California school districts and organizations since 1994. We have also assisted other educational organizations in the selection of their executive leaders.

Get Me Outta Here! Says CSUD's Cash

The Fresno Bee reports that Claremont Unified School District Superintendent David Cash has been hired in the same capacity by the Clovis Unified School District.

In making his job switch, Cash is moving up in the education world, going from CUSD's enrollment of about 7,000 to Clovis' 37,000. And the change probably can't come soon enough for Cash, who's unlikely to face such things as Claremont's Pilgrim Wars in the Fresno suburbs. The Tule fog and summer Central Valley heat will probably come as a welcome change after the silliness of Our Fair City. Compared to Claremont's odd community, the Fresno weather at least possesses a simple kind of purity.

Cash's appointment was announced Wednesday at the Clovis School Board meeting, the Bee's article said:

During Wednesday's meeting, Cash spoke to an audience of about 150 district staff and pledged to be "a dependable and committed keeper of Clovis traditions."

After a standing ovation, he greeted many in a receiving line.

[Clovis school board president Sandra] Bengel said that when she visited Claremont on Tuesday, she was impressed with the way people felt about Cash.

"He is a very humble man and doesn't say a lot about what he's done," she said.

We don't know how Clovis' district is faring in the face of the state's education budget cutbacks, but we suspect it's probably in better shape than our own CUSD, and the school-age demographic in Clovis is almost certainly in better long-term shape than the graying City of Trees and Ph.D's.

One word of warning to Cash: Those Clovis sports parents obsess over their kids' sports with a rabid fervor that will make Claremont's baseball boosters look absolutely sedate.

The Claremont Courier's Tony Krickl wrote about Cash's appointment on the Courier City Beat blog. Krickl says the Courier will probably cover the the Cash news in more depth Saturday.

Head Turkey Resigns

...Well, maybe it would've been more accurate to say, "Head Pilgrim Resigns", but that headline wouldn't have been so attention-getting.

Recently the Indian tom-toms carried the message that Tim Northrop, principal of Condit Elementary School, had quit effective June 30. For some reason, this was not picked up on the John and Ken show on KFI so it took awhile for the news to make it to us.

Readers will recall that Northrop's school was the "Pilgrim" school and the "Indians" at Mountain View School marched up for a Thanksgiving feast last November. The protests, instigated by Mountain View parent Michelle Raheja, made national news and were the top item on the Drudge Report for a day. See here, with links to most of the coverage we saw.

The Daily Bulletin Claremont Now blog gave a brief rundown last week on Northrop's decision. Read it for an extract of his letter. The whole "family responsibilities" excuse is a little threadbare, but he goes on to gusset it with a little story about his life being baseball, et cetera, et cetera, which at least gives him a C+ for originality.

In related news last week the Courier reported Saturday that the school district has brought forth another "district advisory committee" which is usually cover for getting community buy-in for decisions that have already been taken. This is the Committee that Superintendent David Cash promised last Fall to review district policies et cetera et cetera RE: "Cultural Activities". The Courier provided a list of the 19-member committee. And whaddya know? Michelle Raheja is on it, as well as a couple of local professional activists. No worries though, CUSD employees constitute a solid majority (shown in italics, based upon the best information we have) :

Parent/Community
Leslie Corcoran
Marian Gerecke
Siobhan McVeigh
Socorro Pantoja
Michelle Raheja (right)
Alfonso Villanueva
James Wilbur

Student
Wesley Chang
Ana Tinker Valle

Elementary Staff
Patti Amaya
Karen Kellner
Diane Rus
Kim Sapienza

Secondary Staff
Mike Callahan
Sue Hensley

Claremont Faculty Assn
Ann Hardy

Administrative Staff
Steve Boyd
Judy Daley
Mike Lawshe

CUSD Faces Hard Times

Saturday's Claremont Courier reported on the tough budget choices facing the Claremont Unified School District Board. (The article is not posted on the Courier's website.)

According to the Courier article, the board is eliminating 12 district staff postions in a move that will reportedly save CUSD over $1 million in the next fiscal year's budget.

The article, by Tony Krickl, said:

Among the positions that were let go are the Director of the Adult School Steve Boyd, Director of Child Development Alan Gutman and Director of Secondary Education Carrie Allen, the former principal of Claremont High School.

Mr. Boyd will remain on as principal of San Antonio High School.

In addition, a custodial supervisor, staff accountant, IMC Assistant, education resource specialist, community liaison, instructional assistant, health assistant and 2 campus monitors were cut.

The article also Hilary LaConte:

"Looking at the list makes me feel very sick to my stomach," School Board Member Hilary LaConte said. "I know that there's not a lot we can do about it and I know that our staff is already working full out and will have to put in a lot of extra hours [because of the staff cuts]. To realize that we are helpless in this situation is really awful. So I'm sorry about this."

It is unfortunate, as LaConte said, but CUSD wasn't entirely helpless. CUSD's situation is not unlike home buyers caught up in the speculative housing market bubble. If the board had spent more judiciously in good times, if they had not spent beyond their means, they would have been better positioned to ride out the hard times, and they would not have made false promises, in the form of jobs, to the employees are now being let go. Instead, they just thought the good fiscal times would go on indefinitely. As a result, in a process that was years in the making, CUSD, like virtually every other school district in California, positioned themselves for a big fall.

And, the hard times may just be beginning. The recently approved state budget deal contains $5 billion in cuts to K-12 education, though federal bailout money may offset some of those cuts. Krickl's article went on to say that CUSD Superintendent David Cash said that there may be more job cuts in the future and that the district might have to cut the budget by "several million dollars."

We Believe What We Want to Believe

It's been several days now since Thanksgiving, and more than a week since the five-year-olds from Mountain View Elementary School ran a gantlet of soccer-parents and protesters to join their fellow-five-year-olds at Condit Elementary for punkin pie. And the discussion is running down a bit.

Saturday's Courier had good if belated coverage of the event--one of the problems inherent in a biweekly print newspaper. What especially caught our eye was the disclaimer at the bottom (of the online edition only, curiously) which read,

CUSD superintendent David Cash called the COURIER to clarify the school board’s role in this matter. He said any decision on this event has been made by the Condit and Mountain View school administrations. [our emphasis]This is especially odd since the letter sent to the parents on November 21, following the November 20 School Board meeting where, as we are informed below by member La Conte, no action was taken, but you better believe there was plenty of backroom scuffling, shuffling, backing and filling by District staff, very definitely referred to a wider circle than just the Condit and Mountain View school administrations:
"...In hearing both [?!] views [we are surprised to learn there were only two; the beauty of an educated mind able to synthesize!] and due to the timing of this event and the desire to be sensitive to this issue we (the District Cabinet members and principals) have made the decision to conduct the feast without costume...." [ditto emphasis]
Also, those of you who watch the TV news may remember the memorable clip of Assistant Superintendent Devon Freitas (not, we emphasize, assistant Condit principal, or third deputy office manager at Mountain View) stating,
"Out of respect for the Native-American heritage we have made the decision to ask the children not to dress up."
Again, this is Assistant Superintendent of the Claremont Unified School District, Devon Freitas, saying this in her official capacity. She could have said, "the principals made the decision", but she didn't. [We won't even go into the issue of Chief Cash sending a squaw of his tribe to do battle, rather than coming out and engaging the press himself. If the protesters want an indication of disrespect, this is it. (don't e-mail us; we know that the term "squaw" is considered demeaning in some quarters, even though it is a perfectly serviceable and descriptive word)]

We believe what we want to believe.

The Courier did a good job getting "Viewpoint" pieces from CUSD Superintendent David Cash and CUSD Board member Hilary La Conte.

Cash's piece is online here. We suppose we are missing the whole point again, as usual, but one sentence jumps out at us. Where Cash describes, in the second paragraph, his meeting with Principal Northrop of Condit, he admits, "I did not read the email in its entirety". Certainly this is a statement against interest, but the relevance escapes us except as it is indicative of Cash's propensity to make snap decisions. Or his lack of interest in the goings-on at his schools.

We believe what we want to believe.

Hilary La Conte's "Viewpoint" piece does not appear to be online, appearing only on page 7 of the November 29, 2008 number of the Courier. We will only reproduce her first substantive paragraph, 'cause it contains an obvious misstatement. Buy the paper to read the rest, or get a copy from the School District.
"It became personally stressful as our School Board was lambasted for a decision that we did not make. At our Board meeting on November 20, we heard from many parents about the issue of costuming students for a kindergarten Thanksgiving celebration. The missing fact for most news outlets is that the Board is bound by the Brown Act. Under the Brown Act we cannot have discussion or take action about anything unless it is an agenda item. This was not an agenda item. Had we even thought it appropriate to have a discussion, we could not."
La Conte is right that the school board did not decide to strip the kindergartners of their costumes. Being Certified Claremont Process Wonks we, too, winced when we heard that on TV or radio, or read it somewhere. To be clear: there was no decision by the School Board.

Leave it to the elected official, though, to willfully mis-read and mis-interpret the Brown Act, and, doubtless on advice of counsel, to use it as an umbrella to hide under or behind. In fact, the Brown Act allows brief comments by board members and referral to or comments by staff:
54954.2 (a) (2): No action or discussion shall be undertaken on any item not appearing on the posted agenda, except that members of a legislative body or its staff may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed by persons exercising their public testimony rights under Section 54954.3. In addition, on their own initiative or in response to questions posed by the public, a member of a legislative body or its staff may ask a question for clarification, make a brief announcement, or make a brief report on his or her own activities. Furthermore, a member of a legislative body, or the body itself, subject to rules or procedures of the legislative body, may provide a reference to staff or other resources for factual information, request staff to report back to the body at a subsequent meeting concerning any matter, or take action to direct staff to place a matter of business on a future agenda.
So La Conte quotes the first line of the government code and ignores the rest. This is pretty much in keeping with Cash's "not read[ing] the email in its entirety."

We believe what we want to believe.

But there's more. It turns out, golly, that the Board could have taken action. Section 54952.2 (b) allows the school board to take action on an item, by 2/3 vote, when there is a need to take immediate action and that the need for action came to the attention of the board after the agenda was posted [read the whole section to keep us honest; we are condensing]:
54594.2 (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the legislative body may take action on items of business not appearing on the posted agenda under any of the conditions stated below... [Namely,]

54594.2 (b) (2) Upon a determination by a two-thirds vote of the members of the legislative body present at the meeting, or, if less than two-thirds of the members are present, a unanimous vote of those members present, that there is a need to take immediate action and that the need for action came to the attention of the local agency subsequent to the agenda being posted as specified in subdivision (a).
We believe what we want to believe.

Take It to the Streets, 5-Year-Olds

photo by Kathleen Lucas, Condit parent of Choctaw heritage

Tuesday morning's Los Angeles Times will carry an article on the Claremont Culture Wars. It was posted on the Times website late Monday evening. As discussed in this afternoon's post, the situation comes to a head Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. when the Indians of Mountain View Elementary are scheduled to make the long march up Mountain Avenue to Condit Elementary.

This entire fracas was initiated by a letter sent by Condit parent and UCR professor Michelle Raheja.

The Times had the take that this was a bunch of pointy-headed professors against the hoi-polloi parents. There was some empirical evidence to support this take when the only people the Times could easily find to speak in favor of banning the construction-paper costumes were, well, pointy-headed academics: Besides ringleader Raheja, there was University of Redlands Assistant Professor of Race and Ethnic Studies Jennifer Tilton as well as an instructor at Riverside Community College and a former professor at Pitzer:

Among the costume supporters, there is a vein of suspicion that casts Raheja and others opposed to the costumes as agenda-driven elitists. Of the handful of others who spoke with Raheja against the costumes at the board meeting, one teaches at the University of Redlands, one is an instructor at Riverside Community College, and one is a former Pitzer College professor.

Raheja is "using those children as a political platform for herself and her ideas," Constance Garabedian said as her 5-year-old Mountain View kindergartner happily practiced a song about Native Americans in the background. "I'm not a professor and I'm not a historian, but I can put the dots together."

One aspect of this affair that is entirely despicable is the cowardly cowering by Superintendent David Cash and principals Tim Northrop and Clara Arocha. According to the Times article, "Cash and the principals of Condit and Mountain View did not respond to interview requests." What's the matter? Cat got their tongues? These are public employees, and they ought to be willing and able to defend and explain their decisions.

The action starts tomorrow morning at 8 when the parents send their kids to school. At 9, the kids are scheduled to head up to Condit. We'll see if the teachers have confiscated the contraband construction-paper costumes.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Indian-Pilgrim Wars in Claremont

A battle is brewing that will come to a head at the meeting tonight of the Claremont Unified School District. It seems that a parent, who may be a professor of English at UC Riverside, is protesting the 40-year tradition of the students at Condit and Mountain View Elementary Schools celebrate Thanksgiving by dressing in Pilgrim and Indian garb.

There are petitions flying. This was covered during the 4 o'clock hour on KFI's drive time show, John and Ken.

If you want to see muskets charged and scalps taken, be sure to attend the meeting tonight, 7:00 p.m., at the NEW Kirkendall Center, 170 W San Jose Avenue, Claremont. (This is in South Claremont, not at the former district offices on Baseline.)

There may be a connection to all of this and our post this morning. We are not the sharpest arrow in the quiver and are only now connecting the dots. More later...

Steven Llanusa Speaks from Exile

Very recently, CUSD Board member, Steven Llanusa, spoke out in the Daily Bulletin on his muzzling by the Claremont Unified School District Board. Although the letter appears on the Bulletin website today, it is likely that the editors will replace it with more current material. Hence, we copy it here:

Stifling speech

Your recent article about the Claremont school board's new censure policy touched on some topics that should be explained more fully. (Re: "Claremont board votes to create censure policy," Oct. 1.) What was not mentioned in the article is that the board president and Superintendent Dave Cash have complete control over what can be discussed because they create each agenda for our meetings.

We had "Written Communication" on our agenda for several years. It let board members share written information from constituents. Last July, a letter sent to the board from a high school employee alleged some families and district officials were getting special treatment regarding attendance policies. After that letter was quoted at the July board meeting, "Written Communication" was removed from the agenda.

During public comment at the August board meeting, the superintendent's wife announced she had taken her student out of school without following the policy in the Parent Student Handbook to excuse the absence. While scores of students this semester are denied off-campus privileges for similar unexcused absences last semester, the superintendent's family was given special treatment and no such consequence. Under the "Future Agenda Items" at our next meeting, I requested an investigation into this matter.

After that meeting, Superintendent Cash threatened me with legal action if I didn't drop the subject. However, I continue to believe my role as a board member is to ensure policies are implemented fairly for all students. "Future Agenda Items" has also been removed from our board agendas.

The new bylaw limiting what board members may say during our reports was presented by Superintendent Cash. In the past, I could have shared our constituents' concerns during this time, but not now.

Three avenues of communication have thus been eliminated and a censure policy instituted. Regarding these restrictions, I have never seen so much effort put into stifling opportunities where people could express questions or criticism of the superintendent or the school district.

STEVEN LLANUSA Board member, Claremont Unified School District

* * * * *

We recommend Llanusa get in line at public comment unless the censure policy prohibits that, too. (The censure policy is reproduced below, thanks to the Bulletin. Click on images to enlarge.)