Superintentendent to Students - "I can't respond unless it's agendized"

In the video below, protesting Tioga High School students, who made extensive public comments during a school board meeting about their dissatisfaction with recent actions by the Board and Superintendent, ask Superintendent Brabbin why she provided no comments. Seems that Superintendent Brabbin was misinformed or did not understand the law when she told students she could not respond unless the item were agendized.

Here is the law:

California Government Code
54954.2. (2) No action or discussion shall be undertaken on any item not appearing on the posted agenda, except that members of a legislative body or its staff may briefly respond to statements made or questions posed by persons exercising their public testimony rights under Section 54954.3. In addition, on their own initiative or in response to questions posed by the public, a member of a legislative body or its staff may ask a question for clarification, make a brief announcement, or make a brief report on his or her own activities.

What is the "Star Testing' incident?

At the September 10, 2009 Board meeting, the BOFG School District Superintendent, also Principal of Don Pedro HS, stated, re recent STAR testing results, "Tioga went up 32 points. Don Pedro increased by 80 points." The Superintendent stated an in-depth report of test score results would be provided in an upcoming Board meeting. As of February, that report has not been given. Requests from the public to add an in-depth report of Star Testing results to future Board agendas have not been honored.

Note in the chart below, the 2008 row for Don Pedro and "Brabbin", Superintendent/Principal for that year, and the number "29" representing the number of test submitted to the State of California.

Title 5, Education, Division 1, Chapter 2. Pupils, Subchapter 3.75. Standardized Testing and Reporting Program, Article 1 General (re STAR testing) states:
§ 851. Pupil Testing.
(a) School districts shall administer the designated achievement test, and standards-based achievement tests ... to each eligible pupil, enrolled in a school district on the date testing begins in the pupil´s school or school district.
(b) School districts shall make whatever arrangements are necessary to test all eligible pupils in alternative education programs or programs conducted off campus, including, but not limited to, continuation schools, independent study, community day schools, county community schools, or nonpublic schools.

The shortfall seemed to stem from not testing independent study students and several others. Lynda Martinez, a teacher at Don Pedro, claims that Brabbin was not at the school during the testing but knew that all eligible students needed to be tested.

Really ... Who Should Be Ashamed?

Recently a family member of someone who resigned from the BOFG board wrote to the Union Democrat suggesting that an unnamed person had trespassed or knocked on the board member's door at night and that people should be "ashamed" of the tone of the recall effort. The students, parents and community members involved in recalling this board are hard-working people who have jobs and kids and have done everything possible to show the highest level of professionalism.

Any of them would call out and condemn one who would do such a thing.

However, let’s talk about who really should be ashamed of themselves in this recall event.

Who should be ashamed?

a) The people who investigated and discovered that the Superintendent/Principal of Don Pedro only turned in only 62% of eligible students' scores for STAR testing to the State of California (compare to 100% for Tioga and 99% for the County)

b) The board who took at face value the excuse received that the discrepancy was due to “independent study” students; the superintendent/Principal of Don Pedro HS who claimed her test scores were greatly improved compared to last year (when the former Principal turned in 97% of tests taken including those for Special Education and Independent Study students)

Who should be ashamed?

a) The students, parents and community members who rallied support for a teacher whose cause for dismissal they knew to be false and unethical, and who knew that the supposed cause was then documented by a California State agency to be false

b) The board members who took at face value everything they were told by the Superintendent, (yes, the same person under-testing students) and listened to nothing they were told repeatedly by the community; the board members who did nothing to investigate the incident themselves; the board members who refused to reinstate the teacher

Who should be ashamed?

a) The community members trying to get real facts on district spending from the school district office

b) The secretary of the Superintendent who made them stand outside for 1 ½ hours and then produced a document said to be board policy saying they must make appointments first, which was proven to be a false document. (The real board policy said the public can come by any time.)

Who should be ashamed?

a) The students, parents and community members outraged when the school board lowers the pay of the Tioga principal after she is told to teach a class in addition to her Principal duties to help the budget, and then outraged further when that board begins deducting money from every lowered paycheck saying that over the summer she was therefore a part-time teacher and as such was overpaid as a Principal over the summer

b) The school board members (including the one who resigned) who claim they knew nothing of these events and once they did know, did nothing; the attorney working for the superintendent who offers the Principal an insulting sum to resign

Who should be ashamed?

a) The community members upset at the cancellation of the very valuable Fire Science program at Tioga

b) The school board who sat in the front of the community just weeks ago and said they had no idea what happened to the Fire Science program

There are many more incidents that could be listed here, pertaining to the lack of understanding of school financing leading to the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the district, refusal to put requested items on the board agendas, talking to newspapers about events in closed sessions, and much more.

Really, who should be ashamed?