Broward School Board's poor budget and personnel choices continue to outrage taxpayers and parents alike, esp. the unctuous double dipping

Found the ad above from the Broward School Board in Sunday's Herald about a School Board budget update workshop on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Once again, as is quickly becoming very noticeable to me, the ad in question was NOT available on the Herald's website on their Ads and Special Section webpage. http://newspaperads.miami.com/ROP/Categories.aspx

I just checked again at 2:55 p.m. and it is still not listed on their current list: http://newspaperads.miami.com/ROP/Subcat.aspx?cat=3328

If It wasn't for the Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting in the morning and Hollywood's in the afternoon, I'd be inclined to attend, listen and videotape the odd doings that are 100% likely at the School Board HQ.
Why would tomorrow be any different than any other day?

Hollywood's meeting will include votes on whether to place the Charter Review Comm.'s excellent questions on November's ballot for citizens to decide re term limits and staggered
terms for City Commissioners, and designating November as the only time when regular voting for City Commission races can occur
http://agenda.hollywoodfl.org/cache/00000/992/AGEN%2005-05-10.pdf

But knowing that the HB Commission morning meeting will be where City Hall tries to explain away their strange Special Meeting on Friday that never "officially" happened, seeing Notter and Co. in person has to come in a close second place. There's only so much time to see so much craziness in one day.

Within the past 36 hours, Buddy Nevins of Broward Beat has been all over the Broward School system in a way that reminded me of those heady days when I lived in Chicago in the mid-'80's, under Mayor Harold Washington, and the competitive local TV news scene in Chicagoland was fast and furious.

You honestly never knew what you'd see on TV when you got home, but you knew that it would be assertive and non-apologetic for asking the hard questions.

We need MUCH MORE of that attitude in South Florida journalism, and a lot LESS sycophantic coverage of the Miami-Dade and Broward School systems, esp. on local TV by female reporters
who don't seem very curious, which is, itself, curious.

Keep it coming!

Broward Beat
Principal Retires And Is Back, All In A Month
By Buddy Nevins May 3, 2010

Attention teachers, school staff and legislators: Broward Schools are at it again.

Bob Crawford, who recently retired as principal of Atlantic Technical Center, is on Tuesday’s School Board agenda to be rehired….for the same job he just left.

A School Board member says candidly: “It doesn’t look good.”

That’s an understatement.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/principal-retires-and-is-back-all-in-a-month/


Broward Beat
Widely Distributed E-Mail Attacks Principal’s Rehiring
By Buddy Nevins
May 4, 2010

The following e-mail was sent to dozens of school employees and the School Board on Monday attacking the decision to rehire a principal who just retired. The e-mail rehiring during a financial crisis ”reprehensible and insulting.
It is, in fact, cronyism at its’ worst.”
Strong stuff. Will the School Board listen?

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/public-e-mail-attacks-principals-rehiring/


Broward Beat
Dozens of School Employees Double Dip
By Buddy Nevins
May4 , 2010

They retired from the Broward schools, but didn’t really retire.
At least 35 employees who recently retired were immediately rehired. This allowed them to get their taxpayer-paid pension and a salary – the ultimate double dipping.
And this is the school system that is about to lay off hundreds and is always begging for more money?

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbeat.com/dozens-of-school-employees-double-dip/

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

Just 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...

BTU's ad in today's Miami Herald re Broward County Schools Supt. James Notter and Special Education funding; the so-called Integrity Committee

Published on page 5B of Miami Herald on 2/17/2010

The Broward Teachers Union ad above, which I didn't
notice until this afternoon, directly references my email
and Wall Street Journal article on Special Education
-and James Notter's handling of it- which I shared
with many of you on January 6th as first an email and
subsequent blog post.
I've copied and posted it at the bottom in case you
missed it the first time.

So on this issue, Special Education, where were our
Broward School Board members, Ann Murray or
Chair Jennifer Gottlieb, both of whom live in
Hollywood and both of whom are running for re-election
on August 24th?

Here's their official homepage with contact information,
why don't you ask them that question yourself?

Better yet, while you're at it, ask them why the next
scheduled public Integrity Committee meeting
on Monday the 22nd at Coconut Creek High School,
http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/
isn't currently scheduled to be televised on the
Broward School Board's own cable TV channel,
BECON-TV, and what they're personally doing
to change that decision?

It's the year 2010 and Broward taxpayers have
already paid for those TV cameras of BECON's,
yet the Broward School Board acts like it's 1910,
and rather than properly deploying those cameras,
they insist that you show-up in person to one of
their meetings if you want to know what's going on.
That attitude explains quite a lot,
don't you think?

http://www.browardschools.com/schoolboard/members/gottlieb.htm
754-321-2008

http://www.browardschools.com/schoolboard/members/murray.htm
754-321-2001


My comments are below the article.

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 story at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126274303415617219.html

Reader comments at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126274303415617219.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments

-------

January 6th, 2010
9:40 p.m.

Seriously, what does it show about the lackluster quality
of the majority of South Florida's print/electronic media
that they don't even pick-up on this 'till nearly 5 p.m.?
Exactly.

At least the Sun-Sentinel's Kathy Bushouse was
paying attention to mention it in their blog, so what's
everyone else's excuse?

And in case it had escaped your notice of late, in the
year 2010, the Miami Herald STILL lacks an
Education blog.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/blogs/

Guess they were too busy interviewing people about
the weather, and what was happening to the invasive
iguanas, to see a story that speaks volumes about the
consistently piss-poor judgment of people in power
here.

Say hello again to James Notter, another big reason
why large dynamic companies consciously choose NOT
to relocate to Broward County.
Yes, the sad, tragic but oh-so logical consequences of
having someone like him in charge are all around us.

So what do you think Notter is telling parents of
affected kids, to take one for the team?

As a well-informed person wrote me earlier this
evening about this matter, almost incredulously:
Do you know how many times they’ve told us
they’ve subsidized special ed from the general fund?
This is really outrageous.

Outrageous sure, but if nobody else knows about it
because the press has falling iguanas on the brain...
Aye, there's the rub.

----------

Sun-Sentinel Schools blog

Wall Street Journal: School districts, including Broward, redirecting special ed money

Posted by Kathy Bushouse on January 6, 2010 04:54 PM

The Broward School District is featured prominently in a Wall Street Journal piece on school districts using stimulus money meant for special education for other uses, such as saving teachers' jobs from layoffs.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2010/01/wall_street_journal_school_dis.html

Shortly after I sent most of the above out as an email
late this afternoon, I saw that CBS-4 did a segment on
their 6 o'clock newscast, curiously labeled:
Attack Ad Published Against Superintendent Notter
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=91715@wfor.dayport.com

Not mentioned at all in the segment is the whole issue
of what Notter did with Special Education funding,
which was the subject at hand in the WSJ story almost
six weeks ago.
Naturally, no South Florida reporters have followed-up on
that!

Now about that truly underwhelming and under-performing
Integrity Committee appointed by James Notter
so many months ago, now about to have their second
-yes, just their second!- public meeting...

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-ethics-20100210,0,550836.story
Broward school district takes 2 months to pay ethics panel administrator Questions over contract structuring slowed pay, according to e-mails
By Akilah Johnson, Sun Sentinel
February 10, 2010

The staff administrator of the Broward Schools blue ribbon ethics commission worked for nearly two months without getting paid because the district was not sure how to structure his contract, according to e-mails to and from district administrators.

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 staff and supplies to help the commission reform the district's purchasing practices and ethical training.

On Dec. 14, Paul Falcone, who used to work for Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom, was hired at $1,000 per week plus $433.35 a month for healthcare coverage. He is considered an outside vendor of the school system.

Falcone was finally paid by the district on Friday. Confusion remained regarding exactly how to construct his consultant agreement until Wednesday when Donnie Carter, the district's chief operating officer, sent an e-mail to the School Board.

According to the e-mail, commission costs are not expected to exceed $40,000, which include travel reimbursements, cell phone, computer, printer and $1,245 for the creation of the website, browardschoolsintegrity.org.

Falcone's agreement says his responsibilities include research and follow-up, creating an information book for each panel member as well as "logging public sentiment from public hearings, editorials, blogs and emails."

The fact-finding mission is expected to be completed by June, the e-mail said.

The panel – formally called the Commission on Education Excellence Through Integrity, Public Ethics and Transparency – was created after the Sept. 23 arrest of now-suspended School Board member Beverly Gallagher on corruption charges, including bribery, fraud and extortion.

Panel members say not knowing how to structure Falcone's contract is what happens when a large bureaucracy creates an unprecedented commission.

"I'm glad they actually took the position [of] 'We'll ask questions first and write the check later'," said Seiler. "I would have been more concerned if they cut a check to Paul and said 'Gee, should we have done that?'"

There are "real problems in the district," Seiler said, mentioning spending by the facilities and construction department, misuse and overuse of change orders, and employees too scared to speak on the record for fear of retribution.

The commission is holding a series of public hearings as part of its fact-finding review. The next hearing will be held on Feb. 22 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Coconut Creek High School, 1400 NW 44th Ave., in Coconut Creek.