Clayton Community Meeting (MDUSD) - Saturday JUNE 7th

All are welcome to attend an informal meeting for the entire community interested in what is happening at MDUSD. School Board Members Gary Eberhart and Paul Strange have been invited to speak and participate in this Q&A session open to parents, teachers and all concerned community members. (All are welcome, not just those in Clayton.) Below is the text of a flyer being circulated to parents (if you'd like a copy of this emailed to you so you can pass out to parents please email: mdusdparents@gmail.com and, tell a friend!) :

Community Meeting
Mt Diablo Unified School District
School Board Members
Gary Eberhart & Paul Strange

· Concerned about your child’s education?
· Questions about highly qualified teachers?
· Concerned about the current leadership?

Saturday
June 7, 2008
2:00-4:00pm
Skipolini’s Pizza
Clayton

(Thanks to Skipolini's for allowing us the use of their patio during their closed hours. We appreciate it!)

The community is talking ...

Below are just a sampling of comments from the online petition.. .the community, parents and teachers have a lot to say about this petition effort, just read up (oh, and sign the petition if you haven't already: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/MDUSD/):

Great job with the petition! Thanks!

Things have to change

Time for a change. We need someone who knows how to implement changes.

Follow the example of John Swett's responsible administrator. Do what is best for this district that you profess to care about so much and let us begin anew.

For the betterment of the community as a whole, I urge the Superintendent to resign.

My mother-in-law is a teacher and it upsets me that not only are the children not being looked after in a worthy way but the people that are entrusted with their learning are not being rewarded for their precious jobs.

I have two children about to enter kindergarten and I teach high school. Mr. McHenry's tenure should be ended. He has lost all support from teachers. We work still without a contract, and spent a 18 months of the last contract cycle without a settlement. His mismanagement and double dealings should be stopped and new leadership found.

We mourn the death of communication and trust between district and their employees.

This administration is broken and needs to be fixed. It is alwful that PTAs/PFCs need to raise so much money to pay for basics that the district should be coverning.

No Comment Needed

Good.-Northgate Student

Life is a matter of making the right choices and picking the right priorities. Apparently Mr. McHenry is not capable of understanding the most important priorities of the school district and the community.

Please help the children of the district by removing him from his position and hire a more competent Super Int.Thank you.

I am a 1st grade teacher in Hayward Unified School District and believe that it is detrimental for ALL Kindergarteners to have access to the 20:1 ratio. Too many children never have an opportunity to attend a preschool and for some children, Kindergarten is their first experience with being in a formal school setting. Why not make this easier on them, the most important part of education, by allowing them to have access to the 20:1 ratio?

Where is the petition to remove the board as well?

MDUSD conditions/results are painfully obvious. No need to be redundant. Change is painful and long overdue. Perfection is not expected but neither is abysmal failure. Corporations are subject to change - sizing, personnel change, concessions by all to move forward. MDUSD is no different. Future advancement and improvement for the students is paramount...and has been a relegated priority in the past. Union and non-union interests have to concede a bit if the new, albeit temporary Dist Superintenedant is to succeed. Solutions have to consider resizing/restructuring MDUSD - which translates into special interest groups having to adapt as well. Those that are thwarting change with retirement in mind also need to adapt. No one should be insulated or isolated from economic reality at the expense of our students. The students have suffered way too long. We need to get a State level official involved. I've long favored a parcel tax...and amazed that there isn't one.

I am disappointed that Mr. McHenry feels he can hold Northgate area residents hostage.

MDUSD is stifling the progress of students at Walnut Acres, Foothill Middle and Northgate. Any success enjoyed by these schools cannot be attruibuted to the district, but instead to the dedication of parents, teachers and volunteers. Under McHenry's leadership, Northgate has become overcrowded, with fewer advanced placement offerings and more and more parents are pulling their support and heading off to private schools. The expectations at other middle and high schools in MDUSD, are FAR BELOW these Walnut Creek schools. For example, at El Dorado Middle, there is no homework required and teachers are reprimanded if they fail students. Yet at Foothill Middle, my student completes 3 hours of homework every night. MDUSD, under McHenry's poor leadership, now has an average teaching experience level of only 6 years! Yet I see no evidence of any professional development offerings for teachers over the summer at all. Teachers are overworked, expected to conference with parents during their prep times, not given a prep period for each subject (middle and high school), not supported by administrators with behavior problems, larger class sizes than ANY neighboring districts, NOT GIVEN ANY MEDICAL BENEFITS OR THE SALARY TO PURCHASE THEM, not paid for any of the time it takes to set a classroom up, close a classroom for summer, report grades, progress reports, conference with parents, grade papers, create lesson plans and they are given only $1.00 per student to pay for classroom materials per year!

Our current superintendant is lazy, rude to our community members, unappreciative of our teacher's and employees rights, and careless with our delicate budget situation.. For sure we need a new one.

Yeah, this isn't working out.

Time for a change!!! Change (in this case) can only be good!

How long does he need to prove he can't do the job? Do you think it's a coincidence that the entire teaching staff gave him 11 F's and a D in job performance?

get rid of him. his dishonesty is surpassed only by his incompetence.

Nothing but a downward spiral has occurred in this district in the past 10 years under the leadership of McHenry. He has not fullfilled the duties of his position and should be terminated as Superintendent. The district would be better off without a superintendent in the interim, than we are with McHenry.

It's about time!

District needs to put teachers first by settling a contract that starts to build toward full benefits. McHenry does not support this way of thinking.

It's time...

Gary McHenry does not listen to teachers, parents, or community members. He is defensive about his opinions and does not cooperate to make changes.

I think it is noble that McHenry's son stood up but still think we as a community need better leadership asap.

I'd like to see students/parents start a "penny" drive at schools to buy out McHenry's contract.

I understand that Gary McHenry really, really wants to be superintendent, but it's time for him to put the parents' and students' and teachers' needs before his own. He is an incompetent administrator, and simply put, far too many students have received a less adequate education because of him.

Re: McHenry not aware of budgetSee: Contra Costa Times July 15, 2005McHenry " I literally live or die by the budget"

We need a parcel tax

Do you have anything to add? Feel free to do so here?

AND by the way... have you signed the petition yet? There's been over 25 signatures added just this morning to the online petition - pass it on.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/MDUSD/

Petition presentation - get your signatures in...

This just in:

The next MDUSD Board meeting will be held Tuesday, June 3, during which we (parents) will be presenting the board with signed petitions letting them know that we are unhappy with our superintendant, since he is ultimately responsible for the the district; nine years is sufficient time to fix issues and not create any more.

Additional signatures and completed hard copy petitions will be collected in the next few days so that there is enough time to get a count before the next board meeting.

Friday 5/30 - 8:30am - 9:15am Starbucks Concord/Landana (near Concord HS)
Friday 5/30 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm Newhall Park Bocce Court #8
Monday 6/2 - 8:30 am - 10 am Starbucks Concord/Landana

If you or anyone you know may want to set up pre-designated times and locations for collecting, please let me know so that we can get the information out there. I'd really appreciate any help I can get.

And of course, the easiest way to do this would be to sign the petition electronically. As you can see from the signature counts, we're at almost 150 electronic signatures.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/MDUSD/

Did you sign the petition yet??

Did you sign the petition yet? ONLINE or a hard copy version? DOWNLOAD HERE

Well, here's your chance to talk about it, get the word out and to tell others why they should sign it:


Denisen Hartlove, a reporter from The Concordian newspaper, is looking for information on the Petition to oust Superintendent McHenry. She's hoping to hear from someone who's signed the petition and is willing to speak publicly about same for an article. Denisen can be reached at 925-408-7901 or at denisen@myconcordian.com, and thanks anyone who contacts her in advance.

MDUSD releases new Negotiation News

There have been some new developments in the MDUSD/MDEA mediation process. For those new to the blogs and what is going on in our district, these are the negotiations between our district (MDUSD) and our Teachers (MDEA).

You can also see negotiation news at the district website - click HERE.

From the District Negotiation News today:


"Bargaining teams for the Mt. Diablo Education Association (MDEA) and the District met on May 16 in their continued effort to reach a settlement in the current contract negotiations."


The headlines were as follows:

Local Schools having some fun!

For Friday, we thought we'd highlight some of the great things going on around us... in hopes that it will spur you to action... to keep the good things happening. The assembly today at Woodside Elementary was something many kids have never seen before, and maybe will never see again. This came from a reader of the blog, and if you have good things happening in your school, please send it in for the next Friday feature: mdusdparents@gmail.com

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Full armour, full contact jousting ON HORSEBACK! Yes, horses on the field! 3 of them in fact. The Knights of Avalon came to Woodside as the featured guest performers at a celebratory assembly honoring the students' efforts in their recent spell-a-thon fundraiser. They showed off some amazing riding skills and featured some medieval games on horseback. They are also performing this weekend in Livermore at the Scottish Games and perform at the Renaissance Faire in Gilroy.

Absolutely amazing, and one of the great things about the schools in our district. The PFC came together to pull this assembly off, the parents and students worked hard and the site administration supported it - everyone had a fabulous time together today.

Flunk the Budget Not Our Kids! - Update

See Contra Costa Times article posted, "Schools spared worst, but budget cuts still loom" by Shirley Dang, covering the California budget May revise announcement and the 11am press conference today in Walnut Creek HERE

Here are a few photos of the 4pm rally at Civic Park. In attendance were MANY teachers, parents, community members, MDUSD Board Members Paul Strange and Linda Mayo and a few kids too. Featured speakers were Mike Noce (MDEA), Contra Costa Superintendent of Schools Joe Ovick, Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier, Assemblyman Guy Houston, a rep from Senator Tom Torlakson's office and speakers representing local PTAs, teachers and other nearby districts. You can relive the rally and speakers, thanks to Tom Torlakson's office, HERE.

From CTA's website:

"The six-week, statewide CTA bus tour against proposed state budget cuts will make four stops in the Bay Area on Wednesday, May 14"

Here are the details for Walnut Creek's activities today:

Bus Stop Walnut Creek, 11 a.m. -- Civic Park, near District Offices of Assemblyman Guy Houston in Walnut Creek.

A huge 4-6 p.m. protest rally is planned with speakers including teachers, parents, administrators, plus Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier and state Senator Tom Torlakson. Location is Civic Center Park.

Several of us are planning to attend the 4pm rally in Civic Park. Will you be there? If you want to go, and want to join up with us, let us know!

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The California Revised budget (aka the May Revise) is due today. We're holding our collective breath to see if our budget troubles will get even worse. Schwarzenegger is now proposing borrowing against future lottery revenue to ease the budget deficit. See KTVU's report.

Board Meeting Running Late ?

Hi all, are you at home listening for the board meeting like I am? Its 8:00pm and it seems they are running behind in their closed door session? Must be a good one! I called KVHS to be sure it wasn't a technical difficulty but they are standing by. GOOD JOB KVHS!

That means its not too late to listen in if you're just getting here:

http://www.kvhs.com/main.htm


Update: Well, its 8:45pm... still no meeting on KVHS... maybe I'm the only one listening ... :)

(will probably have to see how it ends up in the morning!)
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Having a little extra time on my hands this evening, I added a new widget to the side bar over there ------> to show some recent comments. Hope you find it useful. Its especially nice when folks comment on older posts, it keeps the conversation going.

Times blogger comments on McHenry's Ouster Effort...

Jackie Burrell of the aPARENTly Speaking blog at the CCTimes has commented on the recent events surrounding the Mt. Diablo School district:

The big news out of Mt. Diablo last week was the parent petition to oust superintendent Gary McHenry. The anonymous petition began circulating on a number of blogs first, now it’s up on iPetitions.com, where people can sign it electronically. This has been a tough year for McHenry, one that included a no-confidence vote by the 1,900-member teachers union, a call for McHenry’s ouster by two board members, and a secession attempt by families at the district’s top-ranked Northgate High and its feeder schools. Now, the union is stepping up its protests over still-stalled contract negotiations. It’s got to be pretty tough on McHenry, but we’ve got to say, he’s not making this any easier. Apparently at the board meeting last week, McHenry told teachers that board meetings are for parents, not teachers. Actually, Gary, they’re for taxpayers - the folks who pay your salary and whose hundreds of millions you’re spending.

Read the entire post by clicking here

'Work to Rule' and what's up with the teachers

This coming week is the "Week of the Teacher" and the teachers are ramping up their show of solidarity by conducting a "Work to Rule" action thru-out the district. MDEA's organizing team has asked the teachers to talk to parents this week and to explain the Work to Rule action with a statement similar to:

“... teachers will be demonstrating their solidarity with each other by entering campus as a group at 7:30 and leaving together at 2:30. We will also be participating in solidarity activities.

There will be no club meetings at lunch or after school and no tutoring at lunch or after school. Teachers will not be meeting with parents outside of the school day.

Working to rule highlights the many unpaid duties teachers perform. It lets the Board and the community know that they are in danger of losing this valuable asset.”

“We appreciate the support of informed parents in these difficult times.”

I know of at least one school who's staff has met and decided NOT to implement the work to rule action this week due to open house schedules and other events. Many though, are implementing this action. But regardless of whether your school is participating, it is important to recognize all the teachers do for our children, our schools and for our families outside of regular school hours. The teachers as stated above, have been asked to begin informing parents as they want the parents to be educated as to what is happening in our district now with our teachers.

Further, From the Contra Costa Times tonight: ". . . , teacher union activity has ramped up in protest of unsettled contract negotiations.

Starting today, members of the Mt. Diablo Education Association are expected to refuse to perform any unpaid duties such as advising clubs or tutoring after or before school.

Dan Reynolds, a teacher at Mt. Diablo High School, said he will stop advising the Class of 2010, suspend his lunchtime lecture program and boycott the honors English courses he teaches during zero period, the hour before school officially begins.

"I'm definitely conflicted," Reynolds said.

He wants to help his students but said that he needs a raise and district-paid medical benefits.



On top of all this, the Mt. Diablo School district is contemplating more cuts which could be announced as early as this Tuesday night's board meeting.