Showing posts with label BECON. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BECON. Show all posts

Saturday, October 8, 2011

More bad reporting on education at Miami Herald -Tell you about meetings the morning of them rather than in advance so you can attend; Supt. Runcie

Above and below, July 13, 2010 photos by South Beach Hoosier, looking south at the Broward County Schools HQ, 600 S.E. Third Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.


More bad reporting on education at Miami Herald -We'll tell you about meetings the morning of them rather than in advance so you can attend them ...

We'll tell you about govt. meetings the morning of them rather than in advance, like on Sunday, so you know in advance and can maybe plan to attend.
The same reason we run our "Week Ahead" calendar on Monday instead of Sunday like most normal newspapers would do.
And if Broward School Board members engage in questionable personal behavior, we'll tell you about it MONTHS after-the-fact.
That is, if we do at all.

Love,
The Herald

They did the same thing for the Broward Courthouse Task Force meetings, only quoting -parroting- judges and selected courthouse workers and never interviewing anyone in depth who was knowledgeable and AGAINST the construction of a new County Courthouse, despite the fact that a clear majority of the county's taxpayers were/are against it.

Not that you'd ever have known it from what the Herald wrote at the time.
They could never find the opposing P.O.V. because they never honestly looked.

Was Thursday's story in the Herald by Laura Figueroa,
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/06/2441742/broward-school-district-hosts.html, a preview of the Herald's sleepwalking plans for covering new Supt. Robert Runcie?
(*Friday night postscript: Actually, the Herald has changed the story that used this URL on Thursday afternoon, wherein Figueroa talked about the meeting being held that night, and then used the same exact URL on Friday on that meeting. I checked the Herald's archives and they completely deleted the original story I complained about in an email I sent to about 6-7 dozen people around South Florida. Surprise!)
If so, Runcie would be better off telling the Herald not to even bother sending anyone to meetings -not that they always were, just like the Broward County Ethics meetings they rarely attended- and that henceforth, he'll call their bluff, and make arrangements for his public comments to be videotaped and placed on the school's website or a new YouTube page within 24 hours for the public to see for themselves.
If only...

Oh, and in case you forgot, in the year 2011, the Herald STILL doesn't have an Education blog, either!

Predictably, NOT mentioned in Thursday's Herald story -why wasn't this meeting with Runcie being televised on taxpayer-owned BECON, which is on both satellite and cable systems in Broward County?
Is it the same reason that the three-headed Integrity meetings -none of whose meetings were ever held south of Downtown FTL- were also NOT aired on BECON?
Plain old-fashioned incompetency!

See my January 10, 2001 post on the topic of the complete under-utilization of BECON to communicate with shareholders, Monday night's public meeting of Notter's Three Amigos -Bring hand warmers! Where are BECON's TV cameras?

Supt. Runcie needs to take the initiative ASAP and make an example out of some highly-paid people in the school system, who can't even conceive of the simple idea of putting that meeting on TV and having an email address that questions could be sent to from Broward parents and taxpayers, and give them their unconditional release.

The only forum being held in south Broward will be on October 20th at McArthur High School, 6501 Hollywood Blvd. from 7-9 p.m.
Here's the website: http://www.broward.k12.fl.us/pctf/


As for Monday, on the Broward Schools website...

newsBCPS to Host Broward Legislative Delegation Public Hearing
Broward County Public Schools will host a Broward Legislative Delegation public hearing to receive testimony concerning issues related to education and cultural affairs on Monday, October 10, 2011 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Collins Elementary School, 1050 NW 2nd Street, Dania.


My previous posts on the James Notter-appointed Integrity Committee:

Nov 04, 2010
Oh yeah, and be sure to ask Integrity member Bob Butterworth what he thinks -on camera, too- about the very idea of the present School Board members voting on this before the new members are sworn-in. Yet another nail in Broward Schools ...

Jul 15, 2010
Rather ominously for concerned Broward citizens and taxpayers who hoped for more diligence and speed on their part, panel member Bob Butterworth said "he is confident Broward School Board members "want to do right" and will take the ...

Feb 17, 2010
The three members of the independent commission – Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, attorney W. George Allen, and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth — are donating their time. But the school district agreed to pay for ...

Feb 07, 2010
previously that the January 10th Butterworth & Company public meeting could've been and should've been televised on the Broward School Board's own cable channel, BECON-TV, using the very TV cameras that Broward taxpayers have ...

Jan 11, 2010
To serve on the commission, Superintendent Jim Notter chose former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth; Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, a former state legislator; and attorney W. George Allen, who filed the lawsuit that forced ...

Dec 01, 2009
Does PR guru Bob Butterworth know about this meeting in secret? And when, specifically, is he going to meet with Broward parents and taxpayers in public and answer their questions? Just wondering. Or is that too much to ask? ...

Nov 27, 2009
1st Sun-Sentinel column about FP&L and Notter both turning to Bob Butterworth to lend some assistance, In Sticky Situations, Just Add Mr. Butterworth http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-butterworth-mayocol-b103009,0,2880202.column ...

Thursday, July 15, 2010

A 'Gentleman's F' for Effort for laggard School Board Integrity Czars Butterworth, Seiler & Allen

Above and below, July 13, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier looking south at the Broward County Schools HQ, 600 S.E. Third Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.


So, did you see or hear anything in the newspapers or on TV about the long list of qualified applicants hoping to succeed Ed Marko for the General Counsel's position with Broward County Schools?
The man who has held that position since... well...

BEFORE Don Shula was ever the Dolphins head coach; BEFORE microwave ovens were common in every home; BEFORE the Florida Turnpike's Homestead extension was completed and trips to The Everglades on non-air conditioned school buses from North Miami Beach took HOURS while you slowly melted into the plastic seat you sat in; and back when attending the New Year's Eve Orange Bowl Parade was nationally televised on NBC-TV from downtown Miami, and was one of the real entertainment highlights of the year for many South Florida kids?

See BrowardBeat's June 24th post Bar Brawl Expected When Lawyers Fight For Ed Marko’s School Board Job by Buddy Nevins,
http://www.browardbeat.com/school-board-will-discuss-ed-markos-fate-big-money-legal-job-could-open/

I mean the depth and breadth of their professional educational experience, the cultural diversity of the backgrounds of the applicants, blah, blah...


Actually, since I chose not to attend the screening meeting Wednesday and no South Florida print or TV reporter apparently had the time or inclination to attend, either, judging by the complete lack of stories I'm finding anywhere on it at 2 a.m., you and I and the rest of the taxpayers in Broward County have no earthly idea who these applicants are.


Speaking of a story that South Florida reporters have largely slept on, did you happen to notice this story the other day in the Sun-Sentinel -below- about the latest news with the so-called three-legged ethics panel appointed by Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter last October, the group that Broward NewTimes columnist and Daily Pulp blogger Bob Norman accurately called the School Board Integrity Czars?

Guess what? They missed their soft deadline of May for delivering a public report full of recommendations, school ended in June and we're now a week past the Fourth of July.
And school starts again in six weeks.


The working deadline now is.. well, Butterworth & Co. don't want to be pressed for deadlines or mileposts, which is interesting since that's sort of the shifting attitude that's allowed things down here with the school system to snowball to the point where his panel was necessary in the first place: insufficient personal or professional accountability by elected officials or administrators to the public, and a perfect willingness to kick the can further down the road.

Seriously, how many times did I (accurately) use that 'can' analogy to describe the very
unprofessional working ethic I saw from Hallandale Beach City Hall and its employees the first two years of this blog?
(Not that this has changed.)

Rather ominously for concerned Broward citizens and taxpayers who hoped for more diligence and speed on their part, panel member Bob Butterworth said "he is confident Broward School Board members "want to do right" and will take the integrity commission's recommendations seriously."
WTF?
For such an accomplished man, Butterworth often seems awfully naive to the grim realities of what his local universe is composed of besides hydrogen, water and sunshine.

He seems not to have learned anything about the fact that in Broward County, and especially in the School Kingdom, where unicorns and rainbows and promises to do better abound, it's much more than just a few people in power or authority who will do whatever they think they can get away, it's probably closer to a good third, and that is pretty reflective of all city, county and state government employees in Broward and Miami-Dade.
The reality all around us seems to accurately reflect that central fact.

One of the reasons that Broward is so corrupt is, simply put, because so many honest, talented and accomplished people with something positive to contribute to society, want NOTHING to do with government.
NOTHING.
This, of course, only increases the odds of success for the crooked folks to make their deals. Chicken or egg?

If you happen to be reading this post from some other part of the U.S. or from overseas, where I'm happy to say I've made a few fans, please understand what I'm saying here.


People here in South Florida don't just say that this area is more corrupt than the rest of the United States because it's a throwaway line and a form of self-deprecation, they say it because it is all-too-true.

Perhaps not to Nigerian email corrupt exactly, but if Transparency International paid a visit and audited local governments and state agencies in Broward and Miami-Dade counties using the standards they use to judge these things for their reports, the truth is that they would fit right in with the low-achieving countries that make Scandinavia look so good in comparison.
http://www.transparency.org/

The World's Most Corrupt Countries

http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/17/haiti-somalia-afghanistan-business-most-corrupt-countries.html


Here in South Florida, the bribery and back-scratching as it were, is always right near the surface, and is practically built into the institutional framework of the organizations, like sitting Broward County Commissioners getting to give input on purchasing decisions, or weighing-in on very important land use/zoning decisions on multi-million dollar development projects while serving on other government panels simply because they are Broward County commissioners, as was discussed repeatedly at the Broward Ethics Commission meetings I attended over the past year that South Florida TV stations completely ignored.

Not that those early morning meetings helped woo TV cameras down to downtown Fort Lauderdale, since South Florida TV reporters are not generally early risers.

-------
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Panel prepares ethics report for Broward schools
Two months behind schedule, volunteer commission readies list of recommendations

By Rafael A. Olmeda, Sun Sentinel
6:26 p.m. EDT,
July 11, 2010


The volunteer panel created to develop ethical reforms for the Broward school district is finally planning to finish its work. But the three-member commission has yet to issue a timetable.


Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, attorney W. George Allen, and former Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth were tapped last October to make up the Commission on Education Excellence through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency. While no deadline was ever set, they had hoped to put a set of recommendations before the School Board sometime in May.

The school year ended June 9 without a report.


Now, Butterworth said the panel will set a meeting this week to develop a timetable for issuing its report.


Butterworth offered no explanation — or excuse — for the delay other than the busy schedules maintained by the three commission members, all of whom are volunteers with a full-time workload.


"We've had good input from the community, from meetings that we've held and from people who've weighed in online," said Butterworth. "In retrospect, May was an ambitious date, one we were not able to meet."


Without going into specifics, Butterworth praised the School Board for addressing some ethical issues while contending with an academic year that began with School Board members Beverly Gallagher and Stephanie Kraft being under scrutiny for ethical conflicts.


Gallagher pleaded guilty in March to a federal bribery charge, admitting to receiving $12,500 in illegal payments. She is serving a 37-month prison term.


Kraft revealed in October that her husband's business had ties to School Board lobbyist Neil Sterling. Her failure to disclose the relationship sooner was a lapse that carried no penalty until the board later tightened its rules. Now both lobbyists and board members will face sanctions for failing to reveal such ties.


Kraft announced earlier this year she is not running for re-election in August. The Sun Sentinel reported last month she is under investigation by prosecutors in a corruption investigation that recently snagged Tamarac City Commissioner Patricia "Patte" Atkins-Grad, who was removed from office.


Butterworth said he is confident Broward School Board members "want to do right" and will take the integrity commission's recommendations seriously.


"When you're a public official, you have to operate in a way that considers not only the reality of wrongdoing, but the perception of it as well," Butterworth said. "The School Board can do what it wants with our recommendations. It's not a commission mandated by law or by the voters. But they want to do right, and I think in the end they will."


--------

Elsewhere, take a look at this press release page from the Broward School Board's official website. http://www.browardschools.com/press/

Tell me where you see anything about the Screening Committee that met on Wednesday afternoon, or anything announcing the time and date of the two scheduled meetings for parents about Hollywood's Beachside Montessori Village K-8 school not being open for students on time on August 23rd, the day before the primary election?

Or on the School Board's listed web page for the school, http://www.browardschools.com/schoolsplash1/schoolsplash.asp?infoid=2041?

Let me save you the trouble of looking -the pertinent information is NOT there.

Hmm-m-m... not there.
Sort of like how the three public meetings of the preposterously named Excellence through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency panel weren't televised or taped for later broadcast on the Broward School Board's own cable TV channel, BECON even though Broward taxpayers have already paid for all the equipment. http://www.becon.tv/

And did you ever happen to take a look at the feeble Integrity website for Butterworth & Company, http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/ which features two news articles for two of their five bits of information "In the News," just as was true many months ago?

How terribly, terribly underwhelming and uninspiring, and when you throw into the mix their lack of use of the TV station and their NEVER having a single meeting in southern Broward County, how can any honest person say that it's not just business as usual,
par for the course?


In case you're somewhat new to the blog, I often wrote about that typical lack of logic and common sense with this particular gang earlier in the year when it was happening, even while everyone else with a blog was ignoring the answer to greater communication right in front of them, so just use my blog's search box at the top left and type in Butterfield to find those earlier posts.

The correct information about the two meetings at South Broward High School on Thursday night and on July 21st is at http://www.beachsidemontessori.org/index.cfm, but tell me, if it isn't mentioned on the School's Board's main page and the first web page the website gives for the school -and it isn't- why would people necessarily think there's yet another website with that info for a school that hasn't even opened yet.
Can you riddle me that?

Once again, someone in authority has dropped the ball and not used logic or common sense, always South Florida's fatal flaw regardless of the issue.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Broward School Board prepares for their TV close-up tonight; Does Bob Parks have a good side?; Wither CBS4 News?

Above, the Broward County School Board paid ad that
ran in last weekend's Herald but which did NOT appear
on the Herald's website online ad directory, just like
the ad for last Monday night's meeting at Deerfield Beach
Middle School on school security never appeared, hence
my reliance on this so-so snapshot I took.

I've been sitting on this for an entire week now, waiting
to see
something -anything- in the Herald or
Sun-
Sentinel
about the meeting Monday night, but since
they don't seem inclined on mentioning it, here's the deal.


The Broward School Board is going to finally do what they

should've done last year upon the creation of the so-called
Integrity ethics committee, their feeble attempt to allay
the very real and legitimate
fears and concerns of Broward
taxpayers and parents that
the whole school system is
in free-fall -which has proven to largely be an
insulting
PR fiasco of
an effort if you ask me;
have you seen their
laughably bad website at
http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/
?-
and take my oft-given free advice here over
the past
few months.

They are going to air the problems on the School Board
TV station that taxpayers have already paid for, BECON,
starting tonight.

That Integrity website hasn't added anything in ages
and is a perfect example of the mess that rests with
James Notter & Company: the perfect marriage
of myopia and incompetency
.

See also:

Back To The Future At The School Board: Parks Wants Marko To Stay
By Buddy Nevins
http://www.browardbeat.com/back-to-the-future-at-the-school-board-parks-wants-marko-to-stay/

And pay attention to what Karnack says in their reader
comment!

Speaking of using TV to illuminate the inner
workings
of dysfunctional and ineffectual government that
squanders
millions, despite the fact that many Miami TV
stations
used the LIVE feed of
The Florida Channel
http://www.wfsu.org/tfc/
to show Gov. Charlie Crist's
veto of S.B. 6 this past week,
have you ever seen any of
them actually air a single story
on efforts in Tallahassee
to cut their funding and make it
harder for the public to
keep an eye on things up there?

Didn't think so.
Neither have I.


That's how it goes in Miami these days with the present

cast of media characters, excepting the 'exceptional few.'
They leave all the heavy-lifting to others and then swoop in
afterwards to do the all-too-predictable human interest
angle stories we've all seen a million times before.

It explains so much of what goes on in South Florida, and

why people here are so thoroughly dis-satisfied with current
news media
coverage of local, regional and state news, both
print and electronic.

And as I've mentioned a time or two here, that includes
WIOD Radio, too, which is lazy in the extreme and seems
dead-set on reporting old news all day, word-for-word,
from 10 a.m. -6 p.m., despite what new updates I've heard
and seen elsewhere.

It's like they are stuck in a worm-hole, destined to repeat
themselves over-and-over, constantly getting it wrong.
But they don't have Captain Picard or Data to figure
a way out of their dilemma, so the pattern continues,
day-after-day.

The lack of a rhyme or reason to local media is the very
rhyme itself.


Speaking of a bad sense of foreboding about the future
of local news coverage, guess who NEVER mentioned
during their 11 p.m. newscast, the day of Crist's veto,
that President Obama was at Cape Kennedy making
an extremely important speech on NASA's future,
before coming to Miami and spending time Estefans?

I ask because all their Obama coverage was on his trip
here, not his controversial policy pronouncements.

Well, to answer my own question, it was CBS4 News.

They didn't mention it once.

I taped their newscast and double-checked the next morning.
Nope, they didn't.

I'll have more to say about Channel 4 News in a day or two.

-----------
FloridaThinks.com
Budget Cuts Limit TV Eye on Legislature, Mission to Inform
Posted on April 18, 2010, 11:01 pm.

By John Kennedy, Associate Editor


Amid a legislative session marked by leaders touting transparency, the Florida Channel, the eyes and ears on Tallahassee for many Floridians, is on the chopping block — again.
The broadcasting service, which covers everything from gavel-to-gavel floor sessions to obscure committee hearings, faces as much as a 10 percent cut in its almost $3 million budget – the third straight year of reductions that have already eliminated one-quarter of its staff.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://floridathinks.com/florida-issues/florida-issues/budget-cuts-limit-tv-eye-on-legislature-mission-to-inform/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FloridaThinks+%28FloridaThinks%3A+The+Forum+for+Civil+Debate%29

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Monday's Broward School meeting at Deerfield Beach Middle School on countywide security procedures -more incompetence!


Below, an email I sent tonight to South Florida
blogger extraordinaire
Chaz Stevens of
Deerfield Beach,
http://www.myactsofsedition.com/
Saturday April 10th, 2010 9:55 p.m.

Dear Chaz:

While at
Panera Bread late this afternoon,
while doing some reading and writing,
I noticed
the ad on page 5B of the Herald
-
above- regarding an official Broward School
meeting
at Deerfield Beach Middle School
Monday night
at 7 p.m.

I made a note to myself that when I got home,

I'd go to the Herald's online advertising page,
make a copy and send it along to you for you
to post or mention to your readers, since your
city has sadly become the Ground Zero for
this contemptible behavior at schools.

But when I checked the
Herald's advertising
website as I have in the past,
http://newspaperads.miami.com/ROP/Categories.aspx
,
the ad did
NOT appear for some reason,
so I've gone ahead and snapped a photo of it

with my own camera -with predictable
results
.

Still, I think it's legible enough for you to
make out okay.


So, guess who doesn't have anything about
this meeting
on their own website?

Correct.

Broward County Schools.

http://www.browardschools.com/

The same
geniuses that have at their
disposal,
a Cable TV station with TV cameras
that taxpayers
have already paid for,
http://www.becon.tv/ but which,
somehow, over the course of the past

few months, could never be used to
televise
LIVE or tape any of the
so-called
Integrity meetings by
Butterworth & Company,
http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/
have now decided to run a paid advertisement

in the newspaper while neglecting
to mention
it on their own website.

Geniuses, that is, if by geniuses you
mean clueless, incompetent morons.


Notter & Company
are some kind
of
role models for the kids, huh?

Just more proof, as if needed, that all
the
Broward School Board incumbents
running
this Fall have to go buh-bye.

This is just more evidence that they're
part
of the problem, not part of the
eventual solution.

Adios!


-----

So faithful readers, here's the current list
of announced Broward
School Board
candidates, which I'll be
discussing again
by Monday night:

http://www.browardsoe.org/electioncandidates.aspx?eid=89

Did you notice whose name is conspicuous
by
its absence?
I did.
Rhymes with brook.


I actually saw her VERY SWEET decked-out
'campaign' bus
rolling north up U.S.-1 past
Gulfstream Park nine days ago, but I got my
camera out too late to
actually snap a shot of it
and run it here.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Broward Schools' incompetency: reductio ad absurdum. Writ large! Lack of Integrity!

On Monday, I will have for you here the official
answer
why this particular meeting will NOT
be televised on
the Broward School Board's
own channel, BECON-TV, Channel 63.

Just like the last meeting I wrote about before
and after
it took place.

Here's what's scheduled to run on
BECON instead:
http://www.becon.tv/becon-tv-schedules
6:00 pm Historic Hotels of America : Jefferson, The
6:30 pm Broward School Beat : Episode 45
7:00 pm Celebrate South Florida! : Farewell Show
7:30 pm Dateline Health Nsu : Dh#257 Emergency Medicine/M. Campbell & K. Nugent

At some point, you have to wonder why they

even bother with the pretense of caring.

No, not just the
BTU, James Notter, the
Broward School Board, their bureaucracy
and the Integrity Trio, but the local
reporters
in South Florida as well, especially
TV reporters,
who do stories on them that,
to varying degrees
of clarity and professionalism,
don't so much
illuminate as obfuscate the
larger issues here:
integrity, or rather the
lack thereof.


This is reflective of the great thinking that
led
to the 1977 AMC Pacer, below.


How many of those do you see on the road
these
days?
How many people rhapsodize about them?

Do you know of any museum that trumpets
their collection of Pacers?
No, instead, every time you see one featured
in a TV show
or film, it's designed to serve as
comic relief about that era.

There's a very good reason for that, isn't there?

In my opinion, the current education system

in Broward County is a 1977 Pacer.

Earlier this week I wrote about the paid ad

the BTU, Broward Teachers Union,
ran in the Miami Herald and, apparently,
since I didn't see it that day, the South Florida
Sun-Sentinel
as well.

An ad that was precipitated by a
Wall Street
Journal
article in early January about special
education funding and which specifically
mentioned what Broward Supt. James Notter
was doing with that money here.

The Wall Street Journal
EDUCATION
JANUARY 6, 2010

Special-Ed Funds Redirected
School Districts Shift Millions of Dollars to General Needs After Getting Stimulus Cash
By ANNE MARIE CHAKER

Florida's Broward County Public Schools saved as many as 900 jobs this school year. Nevada's Clark County School District just added more math and tutoring programs. And in Connecticut's Bloomfield Public Schools, eight elementary- and middle-school teachers were spared from layoffs.

These cash-strapped districts covered the costs using a boost in funding intended for special education, drawing an outcry from parents and advocates of special-needs children.
Read the rest of the column at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126274303415617219.html
Reader comments at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126274303415617219.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments

Let's be clear on one point: WSJ reporter
Anne Marie Chaker did a great job of bringing
this story to light.
She deserves to take a bow,

But nobody in South Florida's news media ever

bothered to pick up the ball and follow-up that
well-written and informative WSJ story with
the sort
of necessary connect-the-dots story,
column or TV investigative piece that should've
appeared shortly
afterwards
Nobody.

Surprise!
Except it is no surprise at all, is it?
Nope!
It's what we've come to expect from our local
media -nothing.

Since then, all manner of people have written

about the paid ad and some related matters,
but in my opinion, improbably, they have all
have managed to miss the forest for the trees.

They never wrote about
a.) special education and
b.) they never ask a very simple question:

Why is the BTU, having already repeatedly
failed
over two years to do their not-so-clever
mass email
as planned, continuing to repeat
their mistake,
over-and-over?
Plain and simple, it doesn't work.


What don't they understand about that?


At some point, as an organization, when you
continually fail, you have to admit that your
particular strategy
doesn't work and you
either need a new strategy
or a new general
Which one is it?

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/18/1485927/btu-ads-blast-superintendent-notter.html
Broward teachers, superintendent escalate hostilities
By Hannah Sampson
February 17, 2010

Long-simmering tensions between the Broward Teachers Union and the school district's superintendent escalated publicly Wednesday in morning newspaper ads and an afternoon news conference.

The union bought half-page ads in local newspapers accusing Superintendent Jim Notter of misusing school district money.

The allegations touch on use of stimulus money intended for kids with disabilities; job perks for Notter; rehiring of retired administrators and unnecessary travel on the taxpayer's dime.

They're all accusations the union has made before, but for the first time, Notter responded. He was appaled, he said, about the photographs of children that were used in the ad.

''When in fact you look at a paid ad and what looks back at you are children who clearly do not know and understand the untruths that I just shared with you, I will tell you that is wrong,'' he said, calling the children ''exploited.'' The ad, which cost up to $1,000 to run in each paper, features a picture of seven angry-looking children posing with their hands on their hips. They are the children of union members, a BTU spokesman said.

If not for the picture of the children, Notter said he would have ''maintained what leaders maintain, and that's taking the high road.''

Later, union spokesman John Ristow countered: ''It's time for Superintendent Jim Notter to stop misleading taxpayers and playing the blame game or take the high road out of Broward County.''

Teachers are working without a contract this school year as the union and district continue negotiations. The union wants raises for teachers, while the district says it could only afford to cover increases in the cost of health insurance for members. Negotiations last school year hit an impasse.

BTU spokesman John Ristow said Wednesday's ad was unrelated to the ongoing talks, however.

''Some things rise above contract negotiations,'' he said.

Some of the claims in the ad allege that Notter:

• Wasted $32 million intended for special education students;

• Got free health insurance for his wife while dependent insurance for employees went up 45 percent;

• Receives gas money for his ''new Corvette;''

• Rehires ''administrator friends'' who earn large paychecks;

• Took a non-essential trip for himself and other officials to an award ceremony;

• Has expense accounts for top administrators that exceed the yearly take-home salaries of many support professionals.

In the news conference, Notter addressed each accusation.

• He said the $32 million in stimulus money was used to pay part of the cost for special education that the district had paid for from its general fund.

• As part of a $26,000 reduction in compensation, he pays for his wife's health insurance and for gas for his 2002 Corvette, which he bought used.

• Since he became superintendent, 10 previously retired administrators have been rehired, with five making less money than before and the largest increase being $4,000 a year.

(However as retirees they still collect a pension).

• He traveled at the expense of the Broad Foundation to accept a prize of scholarship money.

• No one but him has an expense account, which amounts to about $260 per pay period.

Wednesday's ad wasn't the first one taken out by the union. It was just the latest volley in a series that has included baseball-themed protests, press events featuring piglets and fax, phone and e-mail campaigns.

''The ad is only one method that employees are using to try and educate the public about what's happening in Broward schools,'' Ristow said. ''They want the public to know that while Superintendent Notter cries poverty every day, he is wasting tens of millions of their tax dollars.''


Reader comments at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/18/1485927/btu-ads-blast-superintendent-notter.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1


Above, the Hot Wheels representation of the
1969 General Motors Corvette


South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-btu-suit-20100218,0,7445770.story
Teachers union files suit against Broward School Board for blocking e-mails
By Akilah Johnson
February 18, 2010


The battle between the Broward Teachers Union and the Broward School District is heading to court for the fourth time in the last year. This latest round is focusing on Internet free speech and a mass email campaign.

The case involves an electronic campaign by teachers seeking a pay raise. The union urged teachers to email administrators and the School Board, but 1,860 messages sent via a union website in March 2009 were blocked.

District officials told the union it blocks "mass emails or volume spam…which flood or cripple the School District website or e-mail system."

According to the lawsuit filed in the Broward Circuit Court on Wednesday, that "violates the civil rights" of the teachers. The district has "intentionally engaged in a continuing pattern or practice that limits Plaintiff's speech on a matter of public concern," the suit says.

School District Spokesman Eddie Arnold declined to comment Thursday, saying "we don't discuss lawsuits at all."

The relationship between the district and union began to sour in 2008 during contract negotiations and have continued to deteriorate. The teachers are now working without a contract and demanding a 4 percent pay raise, which the district says it can't afford to pay.

The three other suits and injunctions involved rising insurance costs, access to public records and district layoffs. Two of those cases have been settled out of court while the other is still active, the union said.

Union President Pat Santeramo admits the frequent legal action "is rather extreme. We have not in the history of the BTU had to pursue any issue as vigorously as we've had to since Superintendent [ James] Notter is here."

The union says this latest court case has far-reaching implications that could affect the ability of the public-at-large to contact elected officials in this electronic age.

"If district officials within Broward schools can block e-mails of constituents to elected School Board members, what would prevent a staff member of a U.S. representative from doing the same thing or the staff of a governor from deciding ‘we don't want the governor reading this because they come in too quickly or there is too many of them,' "said union spokesman John Ristow.

Lawyers from the state and national union as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that defends digital rights, are helping with the latest lawsuit.

There's no dollar amount on how much this most recent legal battle will cost, but the tab is being paid by the dues of union members nationwide. If the union wins, it plans to ask the district to pay legal costs.

Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-btu-suit-20100218/10


Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/20/1491665_teachers-unions-smear-campaign.html
Teachers union's smear campaign misses target
By Fred Grimm
February 21, 2010

J
ust an ordinary news story: Young hackers penetrated Broward school district computers and altered grades. You've read so many variations of the Feb. 12 piece that such stories hardly register.

Until the sixth paragraph of the Sun Sentinel story. Up pops a startling bit of vitriol: ``Union officials said teachers and principals knew about the alleged grade tampering, but didn't report it for fear of retaliation by district officials.''

Apparently, educators privy to the computer-hacking scheme at the four affected Broward schools were so terrified of the potential wrath of Superintendent Jim Notter they shrank away from exposing a cheating conspiracy.

The statement, of course, carried as much credibility as a Scott Rothstein testimonial. But the Broward Teachers Union proudly posted the story on its website. No one at union headquarters seemed to notice the collateral damage caused by the union attack on Notter, smearing teachers and principals as cowards.

ANOTHER NOTTER ATTACK

Last week, the BTU went after Notter again. The union purchased half-page ads in The Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel charging Notter, among other sins, with ripping off special-education students and using school funds to gas up his ``new'' 2002 Corvette. The advertisement featured a goofy photo of Notter and the headline: ``Did Superintendent Jim Notter really take money from special education students?''

Well, not really. But Notter barely had time to respond to the accusations before the union slapped the district with a lawsuit in Broward District court. The union, citing criminal wiretap statutes, charged Notter and the district ``have intentionally engaged in a continuing pattern or practice that limits plaintiff's speech on a matter of public concern.''

The school district's server apparently intercepts mass e-mailings -- not an uncommon policy, designed to keep the e-mail system from crashing down. But last year, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday, the union's mass e-mails protesting the stalled salary negotiations failed to reach the School Board. As if board members, robbed of an e-mail basket stuffed with several thousand identical protestations, never knew teachers were upset.

The lawsuit claims a violation of free speech. (Leaving the door open, I suppose, for a spammer to claim a constitutional right to peddle natural Viagra across the district). But the suit is really about union frustration with contract negotiations that have been at an impasse since the fall of 2008.

LEGISLATURE TO BLAME

Teachers want a raise. Deserve a raise. But it was the budget-slashing Florida Legislature, falling property values and the state's erratic tax base that left per-pupil funding at less than $6,900 a year. With more cuts coming. The union, going after Notter, ignores the very politicians who have failed to sustain education funding. Instead of going after actual villains, the union suggests the superintendent wasted and misappropriated the mythical millions required to cover a four percent teacher raise.

This was the same union leadership that claimed racinos would save Florida schools. That hit the streets in 2006 to protest ``attacks on Sheriff Jenne'' a few months before Jenne was hauled off to federal prison.

The union that vouched for Jenne now attacks Notter with all the dignity of a middle school grudge. The super might find solace in the absurdity of his enemies. Reader comments at: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/20/1491665_teachers-unions-smear-campaign.html?commentSort=TimeStampAscending&pageNum=1


Above, taxpayers paying for the one on the left
and actually getting the one on the right instead.

The long and short of it is that Broward taxpayers

uniformly have buyer's remorse with education.
They know they've been had, but how badly have

they been conned, they're really not quite sure.
But they also know that a day of accounting is

approaching.

It's a similar strain to the infuriating anger
felt in
Hallandale Beach, where citizens feel
that the results of huge spending
and incompetent
policy by the geniuses at HB City Hall to help their
friends and developers are NOT what they
want.

That
point is driven home -I couldn't resist!-
most clearly by Assistant City
Manager
Mark Antonio, who actually tools around
town in a blue
Corvette.

Taxpayers feel like they have generally paid
enough over the years, and that the Broward
education bureaucracy is sufficiently large
enough,
that there ought to be Corvette
results more
than once in a while.

But instead, as far as their eyes can see,
the
results they see in exchange for their
taxes
are almost uniformly AMC Pacers.

Pacers that aren't safe, aren't reliable
and
which fare quite poorly when compared
to
results in other parts of the country,
regardless
of awards that the Broward
school system
establishment and their
educrat acolytes crow about,
even
throwing a party for themselves to celebrate.


And
Pacers which are always in need of
repairs or construction.
But it never seems quite enough, does it?

We need both a new model, a new strategy

and new generals, because the current
system
is broken with the current people
in charge.

That day of accounting is fast approaching...