Good Morning Florida Keys

Navy SEALS

Two School Board meetings in Key West ago, I heard freshman Board member Robin Smith-Martin drive home his point that the School Board and the School District and its employees must be unified in doing what is best for the School District; they must do all they can to get the .5 mil school operations tax extended in the January referendum. That was my very first School Board meeting. I didn’t know much about the referendum or School District finances. I then learned a bit after that and became convinced failure of the .5 mil referendum to pass will be Armageddon for the School District, and said so during citizen comments at the more recent School Board meeting in Key West. Robin Smith-Martin, time, and cold facts had won me over. Imagine, therefore, my shock to read the following two Keynoter articles, in which Smith-Martin sure looked to me like he tried to cause the .5 mil referendum to be defeated by holding forth if it did not pass, there could be a .5 mil reduction in taxes. I provided the highlighting.

By SEAN KINNEY

skinney@keynoter.com
Posted – Wednesday, November 23, 2011 10:15 AM ESTA routine annual organizational meeting of the Monroe County School Board on Tuesday turned into a question-and-answer session with board member Robin Smith-Martin grilling returning Chairman John Dick on his long-term plan for schools operations.
Meeting in Key West, Andy Griffiths was elected to retain his role as vice chairman; board members Duncan Mathewson and Ron Martin were absent.
Smith-Martin focused his questions on what the plan would be if a Jan. 31, referendum asking voters to allow the district to continue transferring more than $9 million from capital to operating funds fails.
“What’s your vision for leadership this time next year come hell or high water?” Smith-Martin asked. “Some of the parents are starting to get worried and some of the employees are starting to get worried about this referendum and where the district is going.”
He repeatedly pressed for “assurance” from Dick that the district could take the financial blow if the referendum fails.
“If you’re not happy with me,” Dick said, “you can vote no. You don’t have to support me as chairman. I’m not giving assurance to anybody.”
Smith-Martin also showed an apparent misunderstanding of the referendum issue and underlying tax mechanism, which, regardless of whether the referendum passes or fails would neither add nor remove any portion of a Monroe County resident’s tax bill.
“If the referendum doesn’t pass,” Smith Martin said, “the capital millage will not be carried over,” so there’s “no need to maintain that level of millage to voters.”
“That’s not right,” Dick came back. “That’s a fallacy.”
He said if the referendum doesn’t pass, the capital money would be used to take the burden off operations by purchasing machinery to replace employees and handle the infrastructure demands of consolidating schools, a likely result of a nearly $10 million budget hit.
“You are punishing the children in the classrooms by voting no on it,” he said. “Nobody’s tax bill is going to change.”

By SEAN KINNEY
skinney@keynoter.com
Posted – Saturday, November 26, 2011 10:33 AM EST
Much has been made of the financial damage the Monroe County School District would incur if a Jan. 31 referendum allowing the transfer of $9.8 million from capital to operating accounts doesn’t pass.
However, if the measure does fail, Keys property owners’ tax bills could decrease slightly — while district finances would have to be slashed for the second straight year.
Superintendent Jesus Jara has said he’s already planning for at least a $4 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that starts July 1 — and that includes counting on the $9.8 million transfer to operating expenses.
The current budget is $80 million — down about $9 million from last year.
The account transfer would be valid for four years. The money is raised through a .5 mill levy, which is 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed taxable property value.
If voters don’t approve the move, the School Board would have the option of killing the capital tax — or raising it as high as 1.5 mills.
Board member Robin Smith-Martin broached the subject at a Tuesday board organizational meeting, and clarified his point on Friday.
“If the referendum doesn’t pass, there’s the possibility of a decrease in millage levied as a result,”he said, — adding the caveat that a failed referendum “would only harm students in the classroom.”
Board Chairman John Dick said if the referendum fails, there would be a need to raise capital money to pay for infrastructure related to the consolidation of schools, and to purchase equipment that could replace personnel.
Smith-Martin said that’s true, but the expenses probably would not correspond to the money raised through a maxed-out capital millage.
“It’d definitely need to be scrutinized to develop a potential millage because the uses of the capital money are limited. There’s not a need to maximize the capital millage but we may need to adjust it to compensate.”
Dick said introducing into the dialogue the notion of lower taxes through a failed referendum does not serve the district’s goal of obtaining voter support for the capital transfer.
“That is being irresponsible,” he said, “and I think that’s an attempt to sabotage the half mill. We could change the capital millage down to nothing but no board member came forward and said that.”

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Smith-Martin’s remarks re the .5 mil tax perhaps not carrying foward if the referendum fails are about the same as what I heard Audit & Finance Chairman Stuart Kessler and AFC member Larry Murray say at the last AFC meeting in Marathon. I said to the entire meeting that such talk was reckless and could put the referendum in jeopardy if the public got wind of it. I said if the referendum is defeated, there will be no need for an AFC. If I had to hazard a guess, Smith-Martin has been talking with Kessler and Murray. If the referendum fails, Smith-Martin, Kessler and Murray can stand proudly before the public and take their bows.

When John Dick told me about the two Keynoter articles on the phone yesterday, he was seriously upset. When I later spoke with School Board Vice Chairman Andy Griffiths, he was seriously upset. He said he had talked several times with Stuart Kessler, and had tried get Stuart to understand if the referendum does not pass, there will be no tax reductionn because the School Board will convert the .5 mil back to the capital fund, where the .5 mil had gone until John Paget brought the first referendum that was overwhelmingly passed by the voters.

When I later spoke with Todd German yesterday, he was seriously upset and said former School Board John Paget, who got the .5 mil for operations overwhelmingly passed to begin with, was not happy either. The referendum came up again and was overwhelminngly passed. Now it is up again, and this time might be in serious jeopardy.

I told Todd I had called Robin Smith-Martin deadwood in a post recently and to that I now added peckerwood. I said I saw plenty of Smith-Martin at candidate forums last year. I saw he was a self-centered 2-year-old whose image was the most important thing to him. I saw he would say anything he felt would advantage him. I said his tongue should be cut out so he cannot say anything, and his fingers should be cut off so he cannot write or type. Todd knew I had done all I knew to get Barbara Bowers elected last year, and that I remain convinced Barbara would have been elected if a friend of hers, on the eve of the election, had not alienated just enough voters against Barbara to allow Smith-Martin to narrowly win that race.

Let me back up to Andy Griffiths. Here’s part of something I wrote to him yesterday before we talked on the phone.

You seem forted up in defense of the school sports programs.

You want the referendum to have the best chance of passing, you tell everyone you know, if the referendum fails, adios sports programs. That’s the first thing to go. You will get a true sense of Armageddon if you tell them that.

How, Andy, does any educated person, which you are, promote cutting teacher’s salaries if the .5 referendum fails, but keeping sports programs? I can’t wrap my mind around that, and I’m at least as big a sports fan as you are.

And how to you say Keys teachers are the highest paid in Florida, without saying their costs of living are the highest in Florida, and on balance, they probably aren’t paid any better than, if as well as, mainland teachers? And if they get those level of salary cuts you predict, they will keep teaching in the Keys, where their high living expenses will stay the same?

The very last thing that needs to happen is to lose good teachers, or to put good teachers under financial stress, which will bleed straight into their classroom teaching and relations with their students, and into their personal lives, and back into their classrooms. Protect the good teachers, they are easy to spot: look at their students’ behavior and learning statistics. Let the other teachers go

When Andy called me about that, he said how important band and swimming had been to his children. I said I understood that, but teachers are more important. Teachers are the lifeblood of the school system. You cut their pay last, after all other possible cuts have been made. And you lead off promoting passage of the .5 mil referendum by telling everyone you know that school sports, football and every other sport, will be the first to go if the .5 referendum does not pass. I said that needs to be in the newspapers. The public needs to have all the information to know what the consequences of their vote will be. The same full-disclosure argument Robin Smith-Martin, Stuart Kessler and Larry Murray are using to justify their position.

I then gave the same sermon to John Dick on the telephone, and the same sermon to Todd German. I said it is dirty, but this is a football game and either you win or lose it. There is no way to play nice and win. Fear of their hearts being ripped out must be instilled in the voters, so if they defeat the .5 mil referendum, the only people they came blame are themselves, Robin Smith-Martin, Stuart Kessler and Larry Murray. I told Todd, if I were John Dick and the .5 mil referendum failed, I would resign from the School Board because my services no longer were needed or appreciated. Then, I said I would go even farther than that if I were John Dick. I would tell the voters now, if they don’t pass the .5 mil referendum, I will resign from the School Board. Before pulling the lever, the voters need to know the full consequences of voting against the referendum. Imagine a School Board without John Dick looking after things. Imagine a School Board with Robin Smith-Martin looking after things.

Todd was Special Forces. He got involved in some pretty rough stuff in Central America. Outside, he is gentlemanly. Inside, I imagine he is a stone killer, in the jungle. It’s different in the city and county, where cultural upbringing and social and business friendships and alliances influence thinking and behavior. However, Todd agreed the School Board needs to tell the public: if the .5 mil referendum fails, starting with school sports, everything unnecessary to educating children will go before teachers’ pay is cut; teachers’ pay cuts will be minimized to the extent possible. Todd seemed to have more trouble with John Dick announcing he will resign if the referendum fails. John Dick might have a problem with that. He might have a problem with school sports being the the first to go. He will have a hell of a lot bigger problem if the referendum fails. He will have a school system full of very upset teachers looking after children, which any mental health worker will tell you is a really bad idea.

If you can’t make those kinds of tough calls, if you cannot play dirty to protect the school system and the teachers and the kids, you should not be on the School Board. If you are worried about losing friends and business alliances, you should not be on the School Board. If you are not a stone killer, you should not be on the School Board. If you are against the .5 mil referendum, you are an idiot or a heartless bastard, or both. Better to home school kids, than send them to a school where their teachers are enraged thanks in no small part to Robin Smith-Martin, Stuart Kessler and Larry Murray. And thanks to School Board members and school officials not being willing to make school sports the first to go if the .5 mil referendum failed. On the School Board’s and the Superintendent’s heads it all will fall if they don’t play dirty to get the referendum passed for the kids. That’s right, folks – it’s the kids, not the adults, not even the teachers, who will bear the real brunt of the referendum failing. The people who do not play dirty to protect the kids should be run out of town with pitchforks after being tarred and feathered and set on fire.

Sloan Bashinsky

I usually can be reached at keysmyhome@hotmail.com, but today I’m in Arizona searching for arrowheads.

 From School District Audit & Finance Committee member Larry Murray yesterday, re the rumor someone started that I might take over Key West the Newspaper (kwtnblue.com).

The pen is mightier than the sword, thus the sword defends the pen.

But if I was, editor-in-chief, I would try to persuade Dennis to keep writing the kind of stuff he is good at. I would try to get Rhonda Linesman-Saunders to go back to writing like she wrote as Deer Abby for bigpinekey.com’s Coconut Telegrah – she was a stitch. I like Kimberley Denney’s salty style. I would hope Naja Giarad would continue to contribute environmental articles. I probably would not let Mick Barnes, whom I know personally and like, continue to use the blue paper to drum up business for his law practice. I have not kept up with the other writers in that stable, and don’t know how that would go.

Wisteria Island and Sunset Key

Two pieces of Florida Key$ intrigue today.

First, I suggested to the Coconut Telegraph’s adoring readers, if they really don’t want Deer Ed to fold the CT after this year, they should start sending him money each month.

Me to Deer Ed:

Morning, Phil.

Below, text of my email this morning to Larry Murray, member of school district Audit & Finance Committee, and Todd German.

Hope your and yours holiday season goes well.

Sloan

Hi again, Larry.

Sorry, I just don’t agree. Kinneer [School District CFO] was pretty fixed that there will be a $4-6 shortfall, even if the referendum passes. There was no disagreement from the AFC members, nor from Jesus Jara. I don’t need to see any income projections to say Kinneer and Jara need to come up with $6 million in cuts now. Not $4 million, but $6 million, as the school district’s history is famous for understating costs and overstating revenues. There is nothing that can be done on the revenue side until the outcome of the referendum is known. I don’t like that, nor do you, but that’s how it is. If the referendum doesn’t pass, and that $9 million in revenue is lost, that’s another $9 million that will have to be cut, on top of the $6 million. That’s Armageddon. Schools closed. Mass firings. No school sports. Surely, we don’t keep school sports, instead of teachers and schools? Surely we don’t do that? The main goal of everyone in the school district, including the AFC, should be to do all possible to get the referendum passed. That means getting out and stumping, like John Dick is doing. A snowbird Republican friend told me over lunch yesterday that, if they have not yet done so, the local Republican and Democratic Parties need to formally endorse the referendum, and that needs to get into all the newspapers. I said I agreed, and would follow through on that. Todd is seriously connected to the local Republican Party. I know the head of the local Democratic Party pretty well, he gets all of my ravings, too. Will send him an email just on that point.

From Todd German yesterday:

Good Morning and Happy Thanksgiving.

Wanted to address one of these points and keep things positive on this good day.

At the last Republican meeting I moved and it was unanimously passed, that I coordinate a joint letter between the Republican and Democratic clubs to be signed by the Presidents of each respective organization.

I have not yet reached out to the Democrats but am planning to do so soon. Sloan feel free to give Phil a heads up that I will be contacting him.

Todd German

305 ___-____

My reply:

Morning, Todd. Thanks, good work. Will foward yours to Phil mometarily. Sloan

Phil’s reply:

Hi Sloan,

I’m on this and will wait to hear from Todd.

Hope that you had a very nice Thanksgiving!

My reply:

Thanks, Phil. Nice Thanksgiving to you, too. Todd gets a copy of this. Sloan

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School Board member Robin Smith-Martin’s reply to yesterday’s

school district holiday cheer post:Sloan–

I think you meant to refer to me as hardwood, rather than deadwood.

Two quick points: (1) anyone who believes our school district doesn’t need a plan, with particular focus on financial pro forma, is either an ignoramus or an obfuscator or both. Larry and the AFC have been harping on this for months without satisfaction.

(2) my recollection concerning absentee rates: the 25% figure for the worst performing schools relates to the % of students who missed more than 6 days in a semester. So 6 days out of 90 means a student is chronically absent, and in a few schools 25% of students missed 6 days or more in a semester.

Hope this provides some clarity to the chaos.

Robin

Morning, Robin.

Thanks for your perspective on absenteeism. I hope it is as you describe.

As for financial plan, I agree, there needs to be one. However, after attending the last AFC meeting, and hearing CFO Michael Kinneer tell the seriously bad news about the budget shortfall even if the referendum passes, and after attending three School Board meetings and hearing much the same, I understand the difficulty of having a financial plan when nobody has a clue what the 2012 revenue numbers will look like until after the vote is tallied on the referendum in January 2012.

Sloan

Todd German’s reply to the recent high student absenteeism posts:

 Hey Sloan,

Sloan,

It’s just as high in the upper Keys, and that’s very well known up here. Every place I go, I know or meet people with high school kids who are about to drop out, or already have.

Actually, every time we see statistics up here, we laugh, because they’re skewed – or flat out fictitious – numbers.

So, what’s really behind disguising drop out numbers ?? $$$$$$$$$ aka state aid.

To get the borderline students to stay – they get placed in programs, alternative this or that, then they get an IEP and labeled learning disabled, which eliminates the school’s obligation to actually educate, – only that they go to building, sign in, and then leaving is an option. Did you know that in most cases IEP labeled students are exempt from learing requirements, and do not get a regular HS diploma. Instead they get an IEP diploma, which they earn by meeting the attendance requirement – not any academic achievement requirements.

FYI – as of 5 years ago, military recruiters do not consider IEP a HS diploma, so the kids had to take GED tests and remedial classes. Now that the war is winding down, the process may be reinstated, if it really ever was put aside.

Dealing with the drop out issue is same as dealing with homeless issue. Many layers, many emotions.

To find the real numbers — pick a year – how many were in first grade? Go forward 12 years later – how many graduated? Do that for the last 15 years, for all the high schools. Only other # needed is # of transfers in/out. Actually, cut me a trail to the numbers, and I’ll do the work.

Sue

Hi, Sue.

I disagree, there is no dealing with the homeless issue, in the sense of reducing or eliminating homelessness, other than the US could stop going to war and creating homeless Vets. Forcing homeless people into shelters and other subsidized programs does not really reduce or eliminate homelessness, but only appears to do so for so long as the subsidized programs last. Dealing with the high drop out rate in schools is like dealing with the high absenteeism rate. What are the schools doing wrong? That’s the first place to start looking: the beam in the schools’ own eye. Although I asked John Dick for demographics on the high absenteeism rate, he did not furnish any – perhaps there aren’t any that have been compiled. Re the high drop out rate, maybe a month or perhaps six weeks ago, I asked John how many Keys kids enter high school and make it through graduating? John said such numbers are not available, partially because families with school children move out of the Keys. Same difficulty tracking students from first grade though high school. Even so, it is known that the drop out rate is high, and, like the high absenteeism rate, what that tells me is there is something terribly wrong with how children are being taught, and not just in the Keys. However, that’s a good place to start making needed changes in how children are taught, because that’s where you and I live.

In that vein, consider this from career teacher Mickey Foster today:

~Sloan, I agree 100% with Duncan! [Duncan Matthewson, School Board member]. If classes are made interesting and fun, then kids will attend and learning will take place!!! I have never met him, but every now and then when I am running/walking on LTK I wave.

~On-line high school courses can be a wonderful tool if they are used properly. On-line or computer-based instruction will never surpass a lesson taught by a competent teacher who tries the make the lesson more than “remember what I say and be able to say it back”. I served a stint as an adult school principal, an interesting gig. Our program had a much higher pass-GED rate when there were actual teachers provinding instruction than when our students worked on computers at their own pace.

~I shall give myself an “atta’boy Mick” – always enjoyed having my students write in my yearbooks – I had a kid write, ” Mr. Foster, you are the kind of teacher who makes a kid want to come to school on not a good day.” No where is it written that it can’t be fun.

~I think a lot of absenteeism is caused by state mandates of what is to be taught. The FCAT should be flushed, twice, it is a long way from Tallahassee to Gainesville (the devil made me say that). And, our teachers (most) should be trusted to come up with their own end of course exams. Merit pay should be some kind of bad dream that eventually is forgotten.

~Our law makers are putting education into ever more shrinking confinements, yet we want our students to think outside the box….

~Mick – “afuera de la caja” – outside the box….

I, too, think F-cat, and merit pay, should be flushed, twice. I would add, without any input from the devil, that teachers who do not make their classes interesting and fun should resign and find another line of work, or be fired so they can find another line of work. Not a naturally-gifted student, I always did best in classes where the teacher made the classes and material interesting. Probably the best movie I ever saw was Dead Poet’s Society, about a teacher who actually made a poetry class interesting, although only about half the kids wanted it to be interesting. I taught quite a few adult ed courses in community schools in Birmingham, re how to buy and sell homes and deal with lawyers and legal matters, and I made those classes very interesting. So interesting, sometimes Realtors complained and I was not allowed to continue teaching at some of the schools and Realtors taught instead, like the wolves in sheep clothing I had disrobed when I taught the courses. Children and their families are the the second place to look for the cause of high drop out and high absenteeism rates and poor school performance. Schools are the first place to look.

Sloan

From a staunch Republican, who probably agrees with everything From The Right posts to bigpinekey.com’s Coconut Telegraph:

Sloan,

This is not for publication. I disagree with your suggestion that Keys students should all be required to learn Spanish. This is the United States of America and English is our language. It does not help Hispanics to be taught in Spanish. Many of the European immigrants to our country after 1890, if not most of them, came from impoverished countries. In spite of that, they were required to learn English. Some acquired that skill faster than others; those that did so were much better equipped to compete in our growing economy.

If all kids had to learn Spanish, that would inhibit the assimilation of Hispanics into American society and business. I took Latin and French as languages in high school. I Chose French over Spanish, German was not offered, because it was one of two languages acceptable to PhD programs at the time(German being the other). In retrospect, I wish I had taken Spanish instead of French, mainly because I spend a lot more of my time travelling in Spanish- versus French-speaking countries today.

My reply:

Welcome back to the Keys, which ain’t the Mainland, for lots of reasons, but for one reason, and one reason only, the Keys pretend to let the Mainland think the Keys are part of the Mainland because the Keys love the greedback foreign exchange the Mainland brings to the Keys. But I don’t have to explain that to a dyed-in-the-wool Republican U.S patriot expat snowbird.

I was wondering to myself if you wuz gonna chime pretty much like you went and did it.

I do not think, or advocate, teaching Hispanic kids in Spanish in American schools. They need to become fluent in American English. However, I am convinced school teachers fluent in Spanish and American English have much greater chance of success teaching Hispanic children in American schools, than do teachers only fluent in American English. Mickey Foster, the Anglo several decades career south Florida school teacher, fluent in Spanish, who summers on a sailboat moored off Big Pine Key, is of that opinion.

Perhaps anywhere but the Keys and south Florida, and Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California, I agree, American children should not be required to be fluent in Spanish. But in the Keys and south Florida, and in western states (where the Hispanic culture is older than the American culture), where the Hispanic population is a large part of the total population, where racial tensions can get pretty high, it makes lots of sense to me to require Anglo kids to be fluent in Spanish. Not only for those reasons, but also because it enhances Anglo kids’ business credentials and abilities. Jeb Bush is fluent in Spanish, and he used it well in his political endeavor in Florida.

Did you get a chance yet to watch the video of the incredible dancing Hispanic golden retriever? If not, click on this link:

DANCING COUPLE. .

Sloan

Surely it occurred to him that I would publish what he wrote, if it was on topic.

From the Coconut Telegraph (not From The Right):

[Students] Quoting Larry [Audit & Finance Committee member Larry Murray] in Sloan’s post: “We need to prepare our students for the real world, particularly South Florida and 90 miles from Havana.”90 miles from Cuba? – so what? Is that the new criteria for decisions? Get out of your myopic FL mindset. There is life outside Florida. Actually it’s the opposite that is needed. The closer to Cuba, the more everything verbal and written needs to be in English only. Let them start hearing and learning English as soon as they get here.

If you are really serious about preparing students for the future, all students in the US should be learning Chinese!

But if the students stay in Florida, they can not survive economically without speaking proficient English. What service do we provide them? versus what harm do we cause them? by delaying their learning both English and in English?

I work with 2 first-language-is-Spanish people. They are very pleasant, but can not spell or write English properly. So in addition to doing my job, I have to review all their communications for accuracy, because their mistakes cost my company money.

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Maybe this disgruntled writer lives on Key Largo where maybe year-round Keys residents aren’t salivating over Cuba opening up so American business people and American tourists can freely travel there and Cubans can freely travel to America. You want to do business with a foreign country, you do better if you speak its language, as this writer clearly knows by suggesting American children learn Chinese. No problem, me, with encouraging American school children to be fluent in Chinese in most places in America, but this is the Florida Keys, where a large portion of year-round residents are Hispanic. It makes good sense, socially and businesswise, for Keys kids to be bilingual in American English and Spanish, and the best place to get that done is in pre-school and grammar school, when kids are most able to learn a new language. Then, this disgruntled Anglo maybe could work with Hispanics who read and write American English as well as he/she does, and maybe they could work with an Anglo who can hablas Espanol as well as they do.

As for school district finances, in The Citizen this morning is a report of yerstday’s School Board meeting which was supposed to be organizational, re installion of new officers, but also turned into a mini-debate between John Dick and School Board member Robin Smith-Martin over the school district not having a business plan for next year – Robin is strongly in favor of that, keeps bringing it up at Board meetings. John again said the future is too uncertain to have a business plan, and times are tough, and there will be budget cuts next year, and everyone in the school district and parents should braced for that. John said if the .5 referendum does not pass, it will be much worse financially. Grammar schools will close and those students will attend school in the high schools. I imagine more than that will happen: school sports will be discontinued. John said fiscal responsibility has increased and student achievement has increased. I agree, fiscal responsibility has increased, but needs to increase further. I also agree, the future is too uncertain to have a business plan, which will be just for show when no one knows what financial help, if any, the State of Florida will provide next year; when no one knows if the State of Florida will ask for money back, which it gave the school district for this year; when no one knows what the school districts share of county ad valorem revenues will be for next year, other than it is expected to be lower than this year; when know one knows how the school district’s attempt to renegotiate the totally unafordable 2011 collective bargaining agreement will turn out, required by the school district and School Board not listening to Audit & Finance Committee member Larry Murray’s correct projections of county ad valorem school tax revenue, and relying instead on the school district’s CFO’s $9 million or so too high estimate. How do you come up with a business plan in the face of such financial uncertainty? John Dick was reelected as School Board Chairman, thank God. However, I hope he starts looking at “student achievement” differently. I hope he starts looking at student achievement the way Mickey Foster, who is an expert in that field, looks at it. In the face of high absenteeism and high-drop out numbers in our schools, in the face of 500 Key West High School students failing courses they then make up online, I don’t see improved student achievement.

Meanwhile, from what Deer Ed has posted lately to the Coconut Telegraph, it seems he might be considering shutting down the CT after ten years of busting his cojones to make it what it is today. The cries of protest from loyal CT readers signal just how important the CT is to them, and probably to many people. Perhaps the people who have slammed Deer Ed all along for the way he ran the CT, and not just the Sloan-haters, for Deer Ed was getting slammed before the Sloan-haters hatched, should all step foward take a bow for edging Deer Ed toward the CT’s demise. Perhaps, also, all CT readers should come foward and take a bow, who did not donate money to the CT to show their appreciation to Deer Ed. Perhaps Deer Ed should be given a Citizen’s Award of Merit for putting up with some of what he has to wade through, which is submitted to the CT. Perhaps someone who reads the CT would like to buy it from Deer Ed and keep him on as a distinguisned editorial adviser. However, returning to the earlier suggestion, I imagine the best way to persuade Deer Ed to keep the CT going is to start sending him money every month. You do believe in capitalism and free enterprise don’t you? Or are you a welfare type? On the bright side, if you let the CT fold, you will be left with my goodmorning websites, the sheriff’s who’s been arrested lately page, and various other no count blogs in the Keys you can bitch and moan about to your heart’s content. Don’t even go there; I wrote this without talking with Deer Ed about it.

Further meanwhile, it was reported in The Citizen yesterday that Anne Moorkill, who heads up the US Fish & Wildlife Service office on Big Pine Key, is not exactly thrilled to hear the Bureau of Land Management of US Department of the Interior has dumped Wisteria Island onto USF&W, thus onto her. Anne was reported as saying she is not even sure Wisteria Island lies inside the federal wildlife sanctuary she oversees, and she’s not sure she’s willing to take Wisteria on, and all that’s still being looked at. I was not surprised to read that and had already told several people instrumental in trying to save Wisteria Island, including Naja and Arnaud Giarard – Naja found the old title documents indicating BLM holds Wisteria for the US Government – to look for continued struggle before the final outcome is decided.

Hopefully, the final outcome will be Wisteria becomes federal conversation land, but perhaps it might be almost as good and would make BLM, USF&W and Anne Moorkill happy, if the City of Key West offered to take title to Wisteria Island as conversation land in perpetuity. The island lies only a few hundred yards westerly of Key West. After invasive vegetation is removed and native vegetation takes over, Wisteria and its natural beaches around most of it will make a wonderful public park. The Navy gave the spoil land now Ft. Zacharay Taylor to the State of Florida. The Navy gave the spoil land now Truman Waterfront to Key West. Maybe BLM will give the spoil Wisteria Island to the City of Key West, as conversation land in perpetuity.

First, though, BLM will have to decide it does own Wisteria Island, and if that happens, then BLM probably will be sued by the Bernsteins, who claim they own the island. That suit would be in Federal Court, and the final decision would be made not by BLM nor by the Bernsteins, but by a United States District Judge, and then, I imagine, by the 11th Circuit United States Court of Appeals, and perhaps even the United States Supreme Court. That might take 5 years, or longer, to be finally decided. I’d hate to think of what the Bernsteins’ legal fees would be, and I’d hate to think of what Monroe County would have to pay back to the Bernsteins in ad valorem taxes, and perhaps interest, if the Bernsteins end up not owning Wisteria Island. The more things change, or don’t change, in the Keys, the more juicy stuff there is to bitch and moan and laugh and cry and write about.

I usually can be reached at keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Email back and forth with School Board Chairman John Dick, re ESOL, high student absenteeism, and 500 Key West High School students using an online course to make up courses they failed in class.

This email back and forth with Mickey Foster, south Florida career school teacher, fluent in Spanish, was included in what I sent to John.

From: sloan bashinsky <keysmyhome@hotmail.com>
To: mickey foster < foster_@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 10:07 AM
Subject: RE: ESOL?

Hi, Mickey, thanks again, used your and my back and forth in today’s sent separately … Question: ESOL endorsement, what exactly is that?

School Board member Andy Griffiths’ reply to yesterday’s prejudice againstHispanics in school district? post:  

Well you certainly got this one wrong. But vilify me if it brings you pleasure. It is YOU who assumes that free and reduced lunch students are part of our Hispanic population. I claim poverty is the best predictor of educational outcomes and this is where we need to commit resources such as those in the head start program. There is a near one to one correlation. It always has been and the proof is easy to find. As a matter of fact, you should look up the ethnic group who is most impoverished and you would be very surprised to find out they are NOT Hispanic. I only mentioned free and reduced lunch students and you assume they are Hispanic and you call me prejudiced? Did you know I contribute my salary to Take Stock in Children so these free and reduced students can go to college? I’ll take your arrows Sloan because people who know me know better. You obviously don’t know me. Andy

Here is what Larry Murray of the Audit & Finance Committee had sent to me:

According to today’s Citizen, during a discussion on the abysmal attendance rate in District schools, Andy Griffiths was quoted as saying:

“These are staggering numbers. Most of these numbers come from those free and reduced lunch programs, I’m guessing.”

 

My email reply to Andy:

Brought me no pleasure, Andy. When I turned in last night, I had no thought of writing about that today, or of what Larry had sent to me. All I had seen on my plate for today was to write further about BLM claiming ownership of Wisteria Island. My dreams last night seemed to push me toward what I posted about you.

After putting up both posts today, I took a nap and got seriously roughed up in dreams and awoke thinking I probably had screwed up the post about you. I was seriously not happy to be thinking that, because screwing up posts, especially really serious ones, freaks me out and leaves me in a state of terror and such huge doubt that I wish I had not been born and am reluctant to put up any more posts.

I crawled out of bed and went online and saw nothing. Then, your email came in, which confirmed my worst fears. I apologize and will publish your email and my reply tomorrow.

You told me the night Craig Cates was reelected that you contributed your salary to college scholarships for high school graduates who needed financial help, and you had, when times weren’t so lean, been able to get matching donations from the State of Florida, yes? And from other Keys people, yes? I told you I had not heard of that and commended you for it.I imagine African-American families are the most impoverished ethnic group. They are in Alabama and seem to be in Key West.

Andy’s reply:

Thank you Sloan,
I truly appreciate your reply.
Andy

Further from Andy:

TSIC contributions used to be 4:1 so I was generating an incredible amount of funds and loving it. The local group has stopped their match and now we only get the state match which is 2:1. However they purchase the scholarships when the student is in 7th grade so they beat inflation over the next five years.

Nationally the most impoverished group are WHITES. I am not sure how Monroe County compares but my whole point is that poverty does not have a monopoly on any ethic group. The difference in poverty is that some eat dinner with two parents at the table every night and they may attend church every Sunday. They parents might read to them. So in education we recognize there are differences in the poverty group. Students who come from impoverished families can still have non monetary assets that help them with their education. It is our responsibility (speaking as a Democrat) to assist those without assets. Philanthropy just won’t quite foot the bill. Kids don’t pick their parents so the village has to step up or pay the consequences down the road but you know that.

Audit & Finance Committee member Larry Murray’s reply to yesterday’s post:

Sloan:

Wish you had said something to Andy at the meeting or later. I wouldn’t have known had Gwen not reported it in her last paragraph.

I like your idea of requiring fluency in Spanish of new teachers. I think it’s an idea well worth pursuing.

You certainly are as deservedly proud of your daughter as I am of my two girls. Aren’t we lucky dads?!

Larry

My reply:

Hi, Larry.

Have two daughters. Eye doctor Alice is youngest. They have declined to communicate with me since early 2000, no reasons given. Internet allows me to keep up with them somewhat.

Got clobbered in nap dreams after putting up today’s post, re what I wrote about Andy. The part about requiring fluency in Spanish in Keys school children and Keys teachers was okay.

Only three minutes for citizens to speak at school board meetings. I spoke to the .5 mil referendum and dire consequences of it not being passed, and to the dire need for the school board and school district to rectify next year’s budget shortfall, minimum $4 million, even if the .5 mil referendum passes. I also spoke to the issue of school should be interesting to kids, which it was not for me until my senior year at Vanderbilt. I said every day in grammar school was like being sent to prison as far as I was concerned.

Sloan

Larry’s reply:

Sloan:

I understand. Can’t win ‘em all, but we’ll try. Your blog compensates for time limitations at meetings. Don’t fret about what you said about Andy. He has it coming.

As for daughters, I, too, am estranged from my youngest, an attorney/lobbyist in Tacoma. Fortunately, I have a strong and positive relationship with my oldest.

Larry

Also from Larry yesterday:

 

Mr. Superintendent:Sloan Bashinsky has offered what I think is a good idea. He suggests that all new teachers be required to be fluent in Spanish. 

A requirement may be a bit strong, but a preference should be, at a minimum, mandatory. We need to prepare our students for the real world, particularly South Florida and 90 miles from Havana.

Larry

Larry Murray
Audit & Finance Committee
Monroe County School District

I don’t think Larry’s recommendation to Superintendent Jesus Jara goes nearly far enough. I say again what I said yesterday, all Keys school children should be fluent in Spanish, and the teaching should begain in first grade, and all Keys teacher new hires should be fluent in Spanish, with a goal of all Keys teachers eventually becoming fluent. More on that further along.

Received this reply to yesterday’s post from a career educator in south Florida, whom I met at Looe Key Tiki Bar in 2006. He summers in this area of the Keys and sometimes in the past has contributed his words of wisdom to topics I address in posts:

Sloan – No doubt in my mind that the free and reduced price food programs in schools is an incentive to attend, not a basis to be absent. I have had students tell me that if they didin’t come to school they would not eat….for a board member to make a “guess” in a public forum does not say good things….bottom line – free/reduced price lunch programs have absolutely nothing to do with attendance or lack of attendance…..in my oppinion, based on 39 years in the business, poverty is an incentive to attend, not a deterrant – not sure where Andy is coming from…que bueno que tu hija habla español..es maravilloso tener 2 idiomas, y en nuestra patria hay mucha gente de habla español, especialment en el sur de la Florida y los cayos……Miguelito

After writing that with trepidation yesterday in a draft of this post, I took a drive just to get out of the house, er, trailer. I drove to Looke Key Tiki Bar, where I had met Mickey in 2006. I went there before I had gotten Mickey’s email. En route, I received information along the line that children born into families whose first language is Spanish have trouble learning in American schools, compared to American students whose first language is American English. Moreso, if Spanish children are not encouraged to speak English in their homes. Made sense to me, but I had no way of verifying it, until I returned home and read Mickey’s email.

I have the same problem Spanish kids have, whose families speak Spanish at home. Angel is not my first language, and I have as much trouble with it as I imagine kids from Spanish-speaking homes probably have with being taught in American English at school. However, Spanish kids are not given what I am given to address, and their language difficulties carry different consequences than my language difficulties. Just as Spanish-first-language kids need to be taught by teachers who are fluent in Spanish and in American English, I need to be taught by angels who are fluent in my native toungue – IF THEY WANT ME TO GET IT RIGHT. If that isn’t their aim, then what is their aim – PANDEMONIUM? SOUL DAMAGE?

Let me say it somewhat differently. Imagine you speak only American English. Imagine angels start speaking to you in hieroglyphics (dreams). Now imagine the angels start speaking to you in Spanish instead. Did that help you understand the angels any better? Of course not. How long would you have to study and speak Spanish to understand it in its various idioms? Many years, like happened with my daughter Alice. How many years longer would you have to study and speak hieroglyphics to understand it in its various idioms? Perhaps half your lifetime, or longer.

I still say the angels should find someone smart as them to do their dirty work. LOL. And I still say all teachers in the Keys should be fluent in Spanish and in American English, and all English-speaking Keys students should be fluent in Spanish. LOL. Keys Anglos are more concerned about being Americans than about teaching Anglo and Hispanic school children what will help them get along in life. If that ain’t racial prejudice against Hispanic people, then what is it?

Meanwhile, perhaps Andy Griffiths might wish to consider rerouting his school board salary back to the school district, to insure the district can afford to hire dieticians who know pizza is not a vegegable. In Alabama, the poorest, least-educated black families know pizza is not a vegetable, and if you don’t eat collard and turnip greens regularly, you have bad health.

I usually can be reached at keysmyhome@hotmail.com.