All for the Children
The Colorado Springs Education Association is a major player in keeping D11 in the hands of inept, do-nothing school board members. This labor union has purchased school boards in D11 since the labor union first came into existence over 30 years ago. The exception, of course, was in 2003 when the docile business community aroused from its long slumber and helped to elect 4 reform candidates, myself included. The labor union leadership literally went crazy since they feel that they are the only people authorized to select school boards across the country. The result was that they spent 3 years creating an image of "chaos" within the community in an attempt to discredit any and all board members who were not chosen by them.
One of the favorite lines of the labor union leadership was that the fighting on the school board was distracting from the education environment in D11 and that the board should stop the fighting and focus on "the children." As it turns out, the labor union leaders, all of whom are teachers by trade, are spending a fair amount of time focusing on fighting themselves. Here is what is being said about the current dispute.
CSEA labor union leader Irma Valerio has been accused by fellow labor union activists of improperly reimbursing herself for expenses that she did not incur. She has also been accused of forging official documents to receive an unauthorized payment of over $2,000.
For some bewildering reason, Terry Bishop decided to give responsibility for a D11 program called "Grow Your Own" to the labor union. The program was the idea of ex-board member Sandy Shakes. The idea was for D11 to pay for future teachers to receive their teaching degrees, and in exchange for the payment, the teachers would "owe" D11 a certain number of years of teaching in the district as repayment. The idea was to provide new teachers with a working knowledge of D11 and to give them more stability in the district before they decided to move elsewhere. Why the labor union was given the responsibility of running this program is baffling. The labor union has nothing to do with education, so other than providing its leadership a chance to indoctrinate new teachers, this move did not make sense and could only lead to trouble. The CSEA labor union is a political organization, so its leadership could not have any idea how to run a grow your own teacher program.
Valerio is accused of improperly receiving reimbursement for expenses related to this program. It appears that she is accused of embezzling these funds from D11 rather than the labor union since D11 would be funding the program and paying the labor union to run it. One of the problems is that there is a lot of infighting occurring within the labor union at this time. Valerio claims that there is an organized effort to "set her up" because certain labor union activists do not like her. Her accusers claim that they have evidence of forged documents to prove their case.
The document in question is a reimbursement request. Valerio signed the document, and the signature of labor union member Diane Ciccerella also appears on the document. Ciccerella, who is no ally of Valerio's, claims that she never signed the document and that Valerio forged her signature. The challenge here is deciding who to believe. To become a labor union leader, one must disavow any loyalty to honesty as a guiding principle. Labor union activists must be totally willing to destroy critics of our mediocre education system, and honesty is a major detractor from this requirement.
The D11 administration and board have been anxious to keep this story of possible embezzlement under wraps. John Gudvangen and Tami Hasling have been telling their supporters that they are more concerned about preventing the public from learning about this labor union squabble than they are about determining if a felony has been committed. Both of them have been urging the administration to quietly drop the issue, while CFO Glenn Gustafson has been asking for an investigation. Should he prevail, don't expect the investigation to be either thorough or public. "Cover-up" will be the term-of-the-day. Labor union sweetheart Dave Schenkel claims that there has been no wrong-doing whatsoever, and he wants to brush the whole incident under the rug per the wishes of the labor union's school board members (which is everyone except Willie Breazell).
Supporters of Valerio claim that there has not been a thorough investigation of the charges against her. A vote of "no confidence" has already been taken by the executive board of the CSEA. This vote has not yet been taken to the full labor union membership. Valerio claims that she is being unfairly and untruthfully targeted by her enemies within the labor union.
If not for the felony implications involved here, this whole situation borders on amusing in a sad sort of way. Here you have opposing members of one of the most dishonest organizations in existence accusing each other of being dishonest and untruthful about each other. The reality is that both sides are correct when they accuse each other of dishonesty. Those of us who have had to deal with labor union leaders know this to be true. Is it believable that Irma Valerio could have embezzled $2000? Absolutely. Is it believable that her opponents in the labor union could be making up stories to rid themselves of Valerio? You bet. Nothing is below these people (except spending time in the classroom, which I will address again in the near future).
While the D11 community sleeps, the true seedy underbelly of the school district continues to fester under corruption and mismanagement, just as it has done for decades.
One of the favorite lines of the labor union leadership was that the fighting on the school board was distracting from the education environment in D11 and that the board should stop the fighting and focus on "the children." As it turns out, the labor union leaders, all of whom are teachers by trade, are spending a fair amount of time focusing on fighting themselves. Here is what is being said about the current dispute.
CSEA labor union leader Irma Valerio has been accused by fellow labor union activists of improperly reimbursing herself for expenses that she did not incur. She has also been accused of forging official documents to receive an unauthorized payment of over $2,000.
For some bewildering reason, Terry Bishop decided to give responsibility for a D11 program called "Grow Your Own" to the labor union. The program was the idea of ex-board member Sandy Shakes. The idea was for D11 to pay for future teachers to receive their teaching degrees, and in exchange for the payment, the teachers would "owe" D11 a certain number of years of teaching in the district as repayment. The idea was to provide new teachers with a working knowledge of D11 and to give them more stability in the district before they decided to move elsewhere. Why the labor union was given the responsibility of running this program is baffling. The labor union has nothing to do with education, so other than providing its leadership a chance to indoctrinate new teachers, this move did not make sense and could only lead to trouble. The CSEA labor union is a political organization, so its leadership could not have any idea how to run a grow your own teacher program.
Valerio is accused of improperly receiving reimbursement for expenses related to this program. It appears that she is accused of embezzling these funds from D11 rather than the labor union since D11 would be funding the program and paying the labor union to run it. One of the problems is that there is a lot of infighting occurring within the labor union at this time. Valerio claims that there is an organized effort to "set her up" because certain labor union activists do not like her. Her accusers claim that they have evidence of forged documents to prove their case.
The document in question is a reimbursement request. Valerio signed the document, and the signature of labor union member Diane Ciccerella also appears on the document. Ciccerella, who is no ally of Valerio's, claims that she never signed the document and that Valerio forged her signature. The challenge here is deciding who to believe. To become a labor union leader, one must disavow any loyalty to honesty as a guiding principle. Labor union activists must be totally willing to destroy critics of our mediocre education system, and honesty is a major detractor from this requirement.
The D11 administration and board have been anxious to keep this story of possible embezzlement under wraps. John Gudvangen and Tami Hasling have been telling their supporters that they are more concerned about preventing the public from learning about this labor union squabble than they are about determining if a felony has been committed. Both of them have been urging the administration to quietly drop the issue, while CFO Glenn Gustafson has been asking for an investigation. Should he prevail, don't expect the investigation to be either thorough or public. "Cover-up" will be the term-of-the-day. Labor union sweetheart Dave Schenkel claims that there has been no wrong-doing whatsoever, and he wants to brush the whole incident under the rug per the wishes of the labor union's school board members (which is everyone except Willie Breazell).
Supporters of Valerio claim that there has not been a thorough investigation of the charges against her. A vote of "no confidence" has already been taken by the executive board of the CSEA. This vote has not yet been taken to the full labor union membership. Valerio claims that she is being unfairly and untruthfully targeted by her enemies within the labor union.
If not for the felony implications involved here, this whole situation borders on amusing in a sad sort of way. Here you have opposing members of one of the most dishonest organizations in existence accusing each other of being dishonest and untruthful about each other. The reality is that both sides are correct when they accuse each other of dishonesty. Those of us who have had to deal with labor union leaders know this to be true. Is it believable that Irma Valerio could have embezzled $2000? Absolutely. Is it believable that her opponents in the labor union could be making up stories to rid themselves of Valerio? You bet. Nothing is below these people (except spending time in the classroom, which I will address again in the near future).
While the D11 community sleeps, the true seedy underbelly of the school district continues to fester under corruption and mismanagement, just as it has done for decades.
posted by Craig Cox | 7:14 PM
13 Comments:
So close, and yet so far. I give you a unsatisfactory in investigation, and an advanced in creative fill-in-the-blanks.
You criticize that there is no policing in unions and then degrade the process when there is. Your flip-flopping is showing again. This is being investigated by the district and the association. No cover-up, no secretive-behinds-the-scenes deals. Your facts are off and let's leave it at that.
The association supports Teachers Coaching Teachers and the National Board Certification processes. We've never heard of or been a part of "Grow Your Own" anything.
I know that the urge to dump on the association is over-powering at times, but give this time. The truth always shakes out and I know that the association will do the right thing. Most of the voting public does not see us the way that you do or the history as you've rewritten it.
Thanks, Watsons, for clearing that up. For the record, I will take "almost correct" over "intentionally deceptive" any day. The "intentionally deceptive," of course,
is the manner in which you run your labor union. I alreaady showed the email that you wrote to the Doherty teachers about the 2005 pro-parent
school board candidates, correct? That is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to your lack of integrity.
My sources for this article were your colleagues. Fellow labor unionites would not pass along false information, would they?
If you read the blog again, you will notice that I offer no criticism of the labor union policing itself. I did offer amusement
at the fact that both sides of your dispute are claiming that the other is using dishonest tactics, as if either side should
be surprised. When you have to deal with the type of people who make up your leadership, including the 2 of you, what else do
you expect?
The reality is that this is not about "policing your own." You would have no concern over an embezzlement issue within
your labor union if the accused was one of your buddies. This is about your internal politics. Someone wronged someone else
and now it is payback time. It is certainly not about education, is it? You in the union leadership are alledgedly teachers (minus the 30+ days that
you skip each year, not including your summers off). Why are you spending time with this fighting instead of focusing on the
children? How does this acrimony among teachers help the students?
Your reply solidifies a point that some of us have always made about your little group. You feel that you have some right to
influence public policy in the district, yet you go out of your way to operate in the dark like rats. You claim that my account of
your scandal is not completely accurate, yet you have not yet publicly detailed your version of "reality." Why not? What are
you trying to hide?
Let's face it - your labor union is a corrupt organization, starting with you labor union board members at the local level and
leading straight to your socialist leader Reg Weaver.
Oh, this is priceless! You actually have union leaders quibbling over whether the facts are "exactly correct" while both factions in this dispute are running around smearing each other with tall tales a mile deep. I am a teacher in the district, Mr. Cox (non-union, thank God), and although I have heard slightly different accounts of what is happening, your account is not that far removed from what is being said in the teacher lounge chatter. Not being a union member myself, I am sure that I am not hearing the full truth. As you have pointed out very clearly, there will be no full airing of the truth in this matter. Sorry, Anonymous, we both know that an administration investigation will be meaningless, as will a union investigation. The union investigation will surprisingly turn out however it benefits you politically, period. You want to run around criticizing people for not having the story exactly right when those of us who work in the district don't even know which version is exactly correct ourselves. Secrecy above all else. That is the way it has always been in this district, and that won't change anytime soon.
Andrea, it is not all that traumatic for me to have my "facts" questioned by labor union activists. You can go back through this blog and you will notice that they challenge everything that I write but never offer anything "factual" to counter what I write. What a surprise from this crowd. Also shocking is the fact that you are not given full insite to union activities since you are not a union member. I thought that the contract promises that all teachers will be treated equally. These honest union leaders wouldn't mislead about that, would they?
With all the bad press, you are adding fuel to the fire. So is it really about the kids or exposing the people who are on the board? I just wish that the little battles would stop and each side would focus on the children. I am a teacher in D11 and I am tired of all of it. Our parents watch the news each day and learn something new and horrible about our board or whatever. Each side is pushing our parents away. Does this really have to deal with my teaching, or my students learning? What district has no problems? D20, D49. . . Can't wait to be on the 10 o'clock news again.
*Tired of the lies on both sides!!!!
Actually the press has been missing in action with the current school board and labor union board. I am not adding fuel to the fire, just discussing the issues.
The title of the article was actually meant to be tongue-in-cheek. As a teacher, you are well aware that the union used to always criticize the school board for fighting and not "focusing on the children." My point is that the factions of the union are guilty of the behavior for which they criticized the school board.
I will not concede that there are lies on "both sides' unless you are specifically speaking of both sides in the internal union spat. If you are going to talk about lies, be specific as I have been with the labor union lies. Some of your colleagues claim that this post is not "exactly correct," but they don't correct the record. They prefer to live in the dark. The difference between me and them is that as I get more information, I will post it and correct the record if necessary. The union leadership never admits that its propaganda machine is full of lies, and therefore the leadership never corrects the record. They have done untold damage, not only to the students of D11, but to school kids all across the country.
I hope that more teachers like you have the guts to tell them to stop their nonsense.
I am not sure if you are truly unbias. I guess I question your "Exposure" of the district. You seem to be on a crusade. So if you had your way what would need to happen to D11 to make it successful?
Are you doing the D11 exposure for the parents?
Many parents could care less about downtown. They are more worried about the classroom and what opportunities their students are learning. The board has not affected my teaching or relationships with parents this year.
All in all I guess you'll keep posting and the district will have some problems.
When you wonder if I am unbiased, it would be helpful if you would state the perceived bias. If I have a “bias” because I do not believe that D11 is doing anywhere near as well as it could, then I meet your definition of having a bias. Public education seems to be the only publicly funded entity that is not allowed to be criticized, and that is why it is in decline.
Just out of curiosity, did you express concern over the past three years as your labor union continuously and publicly fomented hatred against those of us on the school board who were not given permission by them to serve on the board? Did the constant disinformation that your union spread around the district a bout us bother you? Did it help either the district or the academic environment? No, I’m not on any type of crusade. This is a public school district. The taxpayers deserve to fully understand what is happening with the $500 million that they turn over to the district each year. Public entities have no business operating in the dark, especially when it comes to something as important as education. The “exposure” is absolutely for parents and tax payers.
I am not surprised that your classroom duties are not effected by the school board, and I assume you mean that your day to day concerns are not school board related. Keep in mind, though, that your union kept telling the public that the school board (when I was on the board) was interfering with the teachers in the classroom. That was blatantly false.
The happenings downtown, unfortunately, have a huge impact on your classroom. There are many things that I would like to see changed, and I was part of implementing many of those changes. The current board, which was purchased by monies from the union (talk about bias), has begun the process of turning back the clock on everything.
One thing that I would love to see change is the ‘we are as good as average districts around the state” attitude that is so prevalent. “Average” is not OK when we are talking about educating kids. Our math scores are atrocious, and our reading levels are below par. Our graduation rates are way too high, and patting ourselves on the back for being average doesn’t help. In fact, it causes people to run away in fear when we discuss needed change.
We implemented a site based management system wherein tax payer money would first be doled out to the school sites before central admin took its cut. The current board just nixed that system. Although this would have greatly benefitted your building, your union has not said a word about what the board has done. We implemented a pay for performance system to reward those of the schools who met certain performance criteria. I’ll bet you anything that you don’t know where that policy stands right now.
A huge shortfall in D11 is a total lack of accountability at all levels. Students should not walk at graduation unless they meet graduation requirements. Students should not move on to the next grade if they are not capable of performing the work of their current grade. Students should not go unpunished when they constantly disrupt your class, yet they do go unpunished. The teachers with whom you work who are simply not cut out for teaching should not be teaching. They should not be moved to another building, they should not be teaching. Administrators who are ineffective should be fired, period. Why are we giving incompetent people free reign to negatively effect the futures of thousands of kids? Your union is directly responsible for much of the incompetence be cause it will fight to keep incompetent people in the district as long as they are paying union dues. Politics trumps competence, and that is wrong.
Downtown forces curriculum on you in your classroom whether you agree with the curriculum or not. Site based would have addressed that issue. You know what works best for your kids better than some 6-figure bureaucrat downtown, but you are not the person who gets to make the call on what you teach. We need to encourage entrepreneurship in the district, but we don’t. We quash new ideas and claim that people who offer them are trying to destroy our schools. Anything that appears to threaten union power is deemed fatal to public education. The lethargy being expressed by the current board is the type of attitude that will ultimately prove to be fatal to the district.
We have no rigor in the district. We don’t place high expectations on our kids from day-1 in kindergarten, and this lack of expectation hurts these kids all through their K-12 journey. We should expect to be top notch in D11, but we don’t. We make excuses for mediocre or average performance, and then pretend that everything is as good as it can get. The district loves to keep secrets so incompetent administrators can keep their jobs. As a D11 employee you know first hand that cronyism is a huge problem in the district. The system is a good ole boy system that has no oversight and that uses strong arm tactics to keep information from the public. That is wrong.
I could keep going, but those are some answers to your question.
Problems are nothing to ignore just because other districts might have problems. Average is not good enough when thousands of kids are not receiving the best education possible each year. D11 is nowhere near the district that it should be with the size of budget that it has. Standardized tests are not the cause of D11’s mediocrity, nor are new ideas. Criticism of the status quo is also not the problem. The bureaucracy, both administration and labor union, are the main problems. They stifle innovation and progress, and there are no leaders in either of them who inspire employees to greatness.
The CSEA board and CEA forced Valerio's resignation tonight. She'll stay on until this summer, then she's out. Now she'll have to make an honest living, teaching. And that's just so much below her standard of living. Boo freakin' hoo
Thank you for passing that on. Based on today's article, I will post corrections to my blog entry on the topic.
Just fyi, because some of your facts seem a bit off, as if you aren't getting all the facts from whoever your source is.
The dollar amount was $1000. The money was a payment from the district PROGRAD funds to reimburse CSEA for a CSEA leader training that the president attended. Embezzlement has never been at issue because it clearly didn't happen. I think the district investigation is over and the results are supposed to be reported tomorrow that there is no evidence that anything wrong took place.
Also, the Grow Your Own had nothing to do this, the committee involved was the PROGRAD committee, which has now been gotten rid of.
Tom Watson resigned from the board effective July. Scott Noller and Brian Kachel were asked to resign to, I heard, but refused. There are rumors that there is a recall petition on them.
Irma also resigned effective July, and she really came out looking like the one who took the upper hand at the ratification meeting and the state leaders clearly supported her, including the lawyer, while some on the other side looked vindictive, malicious, and selfish.
Thank you, again, anonymous. My facts were off, and I posted a new entry wherein I corrected most of them based on today's article.
The Watson resignation is brand new news. I did not know that he was one of the accused, although today's articel did suggest that there were others.
I am going to take this reply from you and also post it in my newest entry to make sure that the facts are correct.
Thanks.
For the record, in my reply to Anonymous above where I list several things that I believe should change for an improved D11, I made the comment that "our graduation rates are too high." What I meant to write was that "our dropout rates are too high."
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