In with the Old
After a very brief attempt at pretending that they were responsible citizens, the D11 labor union members have turned back to their true colors by giving the reigns of their private organization back to those who supported ex-president Irma Valerio's theft of over $1,000 from the district coffers.
Last year, after labor union members ousted Valerio for her theft from the public and from the union itself, they elected labor union board members who claimed that they would put an end to that type of activity. They claimed that they were going to clean up the labor union. Keep in mind, this union is in partnership with the AFL-CIO, so if anyone believed that the union would chart a course away from its Teamster ways, that belief was certainly short lived.
After this year's vote for new labor union bosses, in came the old and out went the new. The labor union is run, once again, by those who remained loyal to Valerio and her ways. After all, there is money to be made off of the public coffers; why turn that spigot off? In addition to apparently being OK with felony levels of theft, this new-old group of leaders is much cozier with the administration than was the last leadership team, meaning once again that the administration will get no heat at all from the union over the lack of leadership being provided by Terry Bishop and his buddies on El Paso Street.
Why, again, is the D11 student population declining?
Last year, after labor union members ousted Valerio for her theft from the public and from the union itself, they elected labor union board members who claimed that they would put an end to that type of activity. They claimed that they were going to clean up the labor union. Keep in mind, this union is in partnership with the AFL-CIO, so if anyone believed that the union would chart a course away from its Teamster ways, that belief was certainly short lived.
After this year's vote for new labor union bosses, in came the old and out went the new. The labor union is run, once again, by those who remained loyal to Valerio and her ways. After all, there is money to be made off of the public coffers; why turn that spigot off? In addition to apparently being OK with felony levels of theft, this new-old group of leaders is much cozier with the administration than was the last leadership team, meaning once again that the administration will get no heat at all from the union over the lack of leadership being provided by Terry Bishop and his buddies on El Paso Street.
Why, again, is the D11 student population declining?
posted by Craig Cox | 1:13 AM
3 Comments:
One has to wonder, Greg, why union officials at the top would seek to protect the defenders of a crooked president. Not only did she take money from the district that she wasn't entitled to, but she also took funds from the state and national organizations and deposited it all into her own checking account. It wasn't until the books were opened, and it was discovered that she had pocketed 5 times the amount that you accuse her of, that she finally paid the organization back and resigned. Neither the facts of the matter or Valerio's written apology were made public to the members that she deceived. Who benefited from this action? Certainly not the members who have now elected 9 of her most ardent supporters back to the board.
The members of the organization that sought to support a check and balances of administration, the Board of Education, and the Association have been quieted once again. The teachers will get a dismal increase in pay and be forced to accept it, while the administration slowly diminishes the power of the organization through its back-door dealings with the new president. He evidently takes his talking cues from Terry Bishop himself since he's made at least three endorsements of administrative ideas (followed by the ESP blind sheep leader) without consulting his members or his Board of Directors. Two of them spoke against charter schools and the other was about the closing of our own district schools when the administration threw them out in a hail Mary pass before the end of the school year. One has to wonder when the administration became the Association leadership instead of the elected leadership.
One saving grace is that many of the positions elected to the Association this round were one year replacements, and they can be rectified by next year with education of the membership. Even the presidency is up for grabs! One of the ironic turns of the campaign was that the Valerio supporters used a page out of your reformer play book and ran as a slate with a flier that appeared to be Association endorsed. They also used district(tax payer funded) email and robo-calls to get it done. One of the voices on the robo-calls was none other than Mark Hampson, former CSEA vice-president and Valerio supporter (and so much more), who appears to be a purple packet employee of the district. I guess a transition year of double payment benefits weren't enough for the former teacher. Then again, the extra duty pay of $23,000 wasn't enough for Valerio either, so you can't blame the guy for trying.
As usual, you have it bass ackwards, Cox. It's not the all-powerful teachers union smiling at the lack of leadership from El Paso Street administration. Bishop and Schenkel are actually leading the union "leaders" by the nose, thanks to their inability and inexperience.
Who gets hurt? Just the teachers, students, and schools.
It doesn't appear that I had anything backwards. Just as I said, the labor union leadership will be silent on the issue of failed leadership on El Paso St. Leading by the nose isn't leadership, is it?
Funny that suddenly you realize that students and teachers are being hurt by this conglomeration of bureacrats, including those from your organization. Too bad that you were so filled with hate a couple of years ago that you denied there was a problem when we pointed it out clearly to your face.
Anony #1, it would be hard to state the situation any better better than you just stated it (with the exception that we didn't use fake fliers in our campaign). Don't feel bad about the union emulation of reformers. The 2005 bunch on the D11 board ran as reformers to get elected, too.
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