Archive for June, 2012

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visual and hearing aids – Obama version, Florida Keys schools version

Saturday, June 30th, 2012

Received yesterday on the Obama political front (more on Keys schools hearing and visual aids further along today, and some suggestions for improvement): 

From: ObamaForAmerica@barackobama.com
To: Finance_info@argusarray.obama.local
Subject: The President wants to talk with you
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:35:05 +0000

Friend –

The President wants to talk with you. I suggest you get on the phone.
At 6:45 p.m. Eastern Time today, President Obama is speaking with some of his earliest supporters — people like you who played a huge part in building this movement from the start.
He’ll speak about the state of the race so far, about how this movement we built together has grown — and where it’s going from here.
He may also talk about some big news you may have heard yesterday.
You should be on this call.
Sign up for it here.
Once you RSVP, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to join the conversation.We’re entering the home stretch of this campaign. We’ve been here before: This is where the rubber meets the road. Four years ago, we came together and made history, building a grassroots organization unlike any the country had ever seen.
There’s no question this campaign has brought new challenges, as well as new opportunities. We’re facing an unprecedented influx of outside money, and we need to close the gap between special interests and ordinary people.
We all need to pull together once again.
This is the President’s last campaign, and he appreciates everyone who has poured their hearts into this work for the past five years. I know he’s looking forward to speaking with you about this work, and what lies ahead.
Join President Obama for a special call at 6:45 p.m. Eastern Time today, Friday, June 29th.
http://my.barackobama.com/Early-Supporters
Thanks,
Obama for America

I opened the link, and saw an alleged simple question: 18+5, I was to answer to prove I was not spam. I finally figured out it was an addition question and entered 23, which would have allowed me to submit this question, if I had figured out the simple question before the deadline:

Will President Obama ever refund my $2,300 contribution made to his campaign in 2008?

23, $2,300 – coincidence? In my numero-cosmology, 2 is Jesus, 3 is The Holy Spirit, 5 is the feminine, which is an emanation of The Holy Spirit.

I made this simple-minded reply to the soliciting email:
Dear who/what-ever you are:

Here’s my landline, if President Obama really wants to talk with me.

305-872-8705, which is different to talking to me.

 
I tried to get candidate Obama to talk with me in the spring of 2008, after he kept saying he wanted a dialogue with his backers. All I got back was replies from artificial intelligences.
Finally, a human called me because, he said, I was one of the early financial contributors ($2,300 worth), to see if how I felt about how Obama was doing? I said I wanted my $2,300 back, and I told him why: I had been promised a dialogue with Obama and it didn’t happen. The human asked if I was serious? I said hell yeah, I was serious. I had been lied to. I wanted the $2,300 back, and I wanted off the artificial intelligence email mailings. The human said he would look into it and would get back to me.Maybe two weeks later, the human called me back, said he had looked into it and he thought I would get the $2,300 back. I didn’t get it back. I kept getting artificial intelligence emails. Finally, I got that stopped by getting another human to reply.

After President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace prize for waging the two insane (should I have said evil?) wars of this predecessor, I had almost no bowel movements for a month. That ended after I had written several articles about him on my blog.

In one article, I wrote I had been told in my sleep that President Obama had the potential to be The Anti-Christ. Sometimes he comes to me in dreams. Usually, I’m dressing him down, or he’s seeking permission about something. Don’t know why we are linked in that way, other than he has $2,300 of my money he got by misrepresentation. Perhaps his ditching Jeremiah Wright is in play. I seriously doubt Wright would have approved the continuation of the Bush wars, or accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, which was unconscionable.A woman acquaintance who read my ravings and still had stars in her eyes for President Obama, and actually had received a personal letter from him, she said, told me I should write to him. So I wrote him a handwritten level explaining all of the above and perhaps more, I don’t remember it all now. I mailed it to President Obama at the White House. Not even an artificial intelligence replied to that letter.

Now here I am getting yet another artificial intelligence email. I wonder if my reply will even be seen by a human, much less read? If it is read, tell the President I still want to talk with him. I’m not one of the dummies he’s trying to persuade. I thought his predecessor worked for the devil, and his entire administration, too. Maybe President Obama and I can have a real conversation, the kind two men have who put aside the posturing and pretensing and simply be real.

Who knows, maybe I will hear or be shown something in my sleep, which might be helpful to America, if President Obama used it. Maybe I will hear or be shown something in my sleep which might be helpful to President Obama politically or personally. I already heard he should have stayed out of the Trayvon Martin tragedy. And US AG Eric Holder should have stayed out of it, too.

Won’t surprise me if America has a civil war, if Zimmerman gets off. Won’t surprise me if whites flee to Romney in the meantime, fearing what will happen to them if President Obama remains in office.

Are you familiar with The Curse of Cain, which the Mormons claim they abandoned in the early 1970s as a doctrine in their theology? If not, you should google and read about it. Right up the KKK and Neo-Nazis’ alley.Sloan Bashinsky
Little Torch Key, Florida
That would be in the Florida Keys, aka The Asteroid Belt

The artificial intelligence sent this back:

Your registration is confirmed for the following conference:
“National Call with President Obama”
Call-In Number: +1 (949) 202-1057
Your PIN: 602871#
Please do not share this PIN; it is unique to you.
Please send your questions, comments and feedback to:

Obama for America
Having trouble getting into your call?
Click here

Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. What you wanna bet I hear from a human?

Down here in so-called Paradise, District 3 school board candidate Larry Murray replied to yesterday’s rock star lands school superintendent job – Florida Keys post:

Sloan:

Considering yesterday’s debacle when the television feed of the School Board meeting failed, I am happier than ever that I pressed for online video streaming. All reports that I have received said that the online transmission was successful. There are a few kinks to work out, but the only place citizens could view the superintendent selection process was on their computer.

Kudos to Matt Gardi for his work in getting the job done. The response from the District to my request for online video streaming was that it was too expensive and too complicated. Matt cut through the b.s. in an hour! I thought it amusing today that John Dick told Bill Becker that he’s been in favor of online video streaming for several years. Begs the question as to why John never made it happen.

My expectation is that the kinks, minor issues will be worked out before the next meeting. The most significant kink is sound and the problem has nothing to do with online streaming. The problem is the same when the telecasting works. The District staff does not know how to properly “mike” the room. Another kink is that the camera never moves. Again, the problem is the same when the telecasting works. You commonly have people speaking who are not on camera. The District staff is too lazy to move the camera whether for telecasting or video streaming. The bottom line is that the IT staff, like so many other District employees, simply doesn’t give a damn. They get paid whether it’s a good job or a bad job.

Larry

I replied:

Hi, Larry.

It always was hard for me to hear what anyone said at school board meetings I attended in person. Every government body known to me in the Keys provides microphones for the elected officials, staff and citizen speakers, except for the school board.

I was unable to hear anything John Dick said during the candidate selection part of yesterday’s school board meeting. During a break, I told him that. He looked at me like I was daff, said he always talked loud. I said I could not hear what he was saying and I doubted many others in the audience could either. He was the hardest to hear at the dais. He made an announcement when they reconvened that they all needed to speak louder, then he continued to speak so low that I could not hear him. So I moved over behind the school board attorney, where John faced somewhat toward me when he spoke to Dr. Shine, who was sitting where Jesus Jara usually sits, next to Robin Smith-Martin. Sitting that close to John, you could hear him okay. Maybe he should get a microphone. Well, he did have one nearby, but it didn’t seem to amply [amplify] what he said.

Yes, Kudos to Matt Gardi. Perhaps the school board will make good use of what he has started. Not holding my breath, for reasons you stated so eloquently. Todd German told me today that a new beginning occurred at yesterday’s school board meeting. I said I truly hoped so. I am darn glad I am not Mark Porter. I did all I could at the last candidate meet and greet to warn him just how really messed up this school district is. I didn’t get the impression he took any of it in. Neither did Thomas Gay seem to take any of it in, when I told him the same thing. Looked to me Dr. Shine had the situation pretty well sized up, though, by the time he went before the school board last night. Maybe Matt can put Shine’s interview, and Porter’s, on a disk and create a link for it on his website. I feel it would be quite valuable to the people of the Keys to be able to watch/hear just those two interviews. Am copying this to Matt.

Sloan

Larry replied, and brought in a heap of other folks, including who appears to be our new schools superintendent Mark Porter.

Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2012 19:22:36 -0700
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: rock star lands school superintendent job
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
CC: robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; andy@fishandy.com; mhowell@keysnews.com; matt@mattgardi.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; news@us1radio.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com; portermj@comcast.net

Sloan:

There is nothing wrong with your hearing. Sitting in the peanut gallery, especially at MHS and CSHS, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to hear what the Board and Superintendent Jara are saying. John Dick, as you note, is the worst offender as you can barely hear him. I become especially annoyed when they talk amongst themselves and the audience is unable to hear the conversation. It almost amounts to a Sunshine violation.

The complaint that you made about not being able to hear the Board and Superintendent Jara is a frequently made complaint. If you recall yesterday, even the audience hollered “We can’t hear you!” and were ignored, much as you were.

It is such a simple thing to provide microphones which, again as you note, is commonplace at other public meetings throughout the County. It is beyond me why the School Board can’t do it. But, as John Dick did, to deny that the problem exists is absolutely absurd.

I guess all we can do is keep complaining until they do something about it. I have found in virtually all of my dealings with the District that the only way you get anything done is to be persistent, persistent, etc. You know from personal experience that the first recourse of the District to anything is to ignore, be they Public Records Requests or whatever. As a service organization, something discussed in yesterday’s Q&A’s, the District’s definition of “service” is the same definition that was explained to me when I attended the agricultural college in East Lansing. I am sure you can translate that analogy.

Larry

Then, Larry sent this just to me:

Sloan:

As you can read, I have shared our exchange with the “world”, including Mark Porter. I thought he would enjoy reading your blog for today. We might as well “bring him up to speed”.

Larry

I replied to Larry:

You are a hard man, Larry. A hard man. I hope God goes easier on Mark than God has gone on me :-)

Here is The Key West Citizen welcome wagon for Mark Porter today:

Porter: I’m on board
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staffgfilosa@keysnews.com
Mark Porter, chosen by the Monroe County School Board as the county’s first hired superintendent, said Friday that he has started contract negotiations with the district and plans to sign a deal by next week.
“We met this morning to begin a conversation,” Porter said a few hours before he and his wife, Jane, were due to return home to Woodbury, Minn.
The board appointed a three-person committee to hash out the contract with Porter: City Attorney Shawn Smith, district Human Resources Director Cheryl Allen and Clerk of Court Danny Kolhage.
The contract negotiations will continue over the phone, said Porter, who plans to return to the Florida Keys at some point in July to begin preparing for his first day on the job in August.
“We have not signed a contract; I don’t know that I was expecting to before I left today,” said Porter, 56, whom the board chose Thursday night in a 4-1 vote. “We’ll have it taken care of in a few days.”
Porter said he plans to start work Aug. 1, just as the board requested when it started a national search in late March. The board set a salary range of between $125,000 and $150,000, plus benefits.
Superintendent Jesus Jara, appointed to the helm in August, said he will stay on the job until November. Jara earns $135,000 a year.
Porter, who became a lawyer after starting out as a schoolteacher, spent 32 years in a South Washington County school district in his native Minnesota, becoming superintendent in 2009.
But in December, his school board voted 5-2 to fire him, later citing disappointment with his communication and leadership skills.
Five board members went after Porter when the district decided not to expand a Spanish “immersion” program serving about 420 non-Spanish speaking students in a system of 17,000 kids, a board member said Friday. The year after the board voted against the expansion — which included moving the students into their own school — a few board members set out to fire Porter.
“He was a very popular superintendent,” said Jim Gelbmann, a 16-year board member who works as deputy secretary of state for Minnesota. “It was a very vocal minority of parents that rallied together.”
Porter rebounded and finished out his contract with the district, which ended Friday. He was a candidate for the superintendent’s job in Seminole County earlier this year.
“In some ways it was an unexpected departure,” said Porter of his dismissal by the board. “It certainly has opened up a tremendous door of opportunity for us. We thought at the time it was unfortunate. Maybe it’s not.”
Asked if he was certain that he would become Monroe County’s superintendent, Porter replied, “There is absolutely no doubt. I’m thrilled with the outcome.”
The School Board chose Porter from a short list of four finalists, the others being: Jara; Thomas Gay, who runs a private school in Broward County; and Ed Shine, a 22-year veteran superintendent.
As a backup in case Porter didn’t take the job, the board made Shine its No. 2 choice, Jara No. 3 and Gay No. 4.
Most of Jara’s tenure was spent closing the budget’s multimillion-dollar shortfalls, with $13 million in cuts over two fiscal years.
Jara said after the vote Thursday that he saved the district from bankruptcy, and that he wouldn’t have changed a single move he made to balance the budget.
“Jara coming in third was not fair treatment to him,” board Chairman John Dick said Friday. “Dr. Jara was doing a tough, tough position in a very tough environment. For the board to abandon him completely like that … .”
Dick said he welcomes Porter as the board’s majority choice.
“I think he will do a great job,” Dick said. “I’m very happy with Mr. Porter.”

_____________________________

Perhaps John Dick should have mentioned the times Jara was caught not being entirely honest about his machinations, and Jara’s dictatorial, retaliatory management style, which alienated him in the administration, teacher and principal ranks.

Perhaps it’s time for a new school board chairman.

Perhaps it’s time a career educator has that position. Someone who has forgotten more about running Keys schools and teaching in them than the other four board members know all put together.

Might help Mark Porter a heap to have someone at the top of the school board heap who actually knows something about running Keys schools and teaching in them. Might help improve principal, staff and teacher morale, too.
Enter Ron Martin.

I believe if he were asked, Ron might say the school district needs to seriously increase its vocational training for students who are not headed off for college, in keeping with the school district’s mission statement: “Career or college ready.”

I believe if he were asked, Ron might say it will be a really good idea for all Keys students to be fluent in Spanish. This ain’t the Minnesota twin cities. This is a school district in which many full-time residents’ native tongue is Spanish.

Seems a bit racist to me that Keys school kids are not required to be fluent in Spanish. And a bit unwise, given how many people in the Keys, and in America, speak Spanish.

Buenos dias, Senor Porter. Habas Espanol? Doctor Shine’s students way up there in Rye, New York are learning Spanish. Wish I could speak it. Darn would that open lots of doors I can’t open because I don’t speak it.

If you don’t believe me, ask Jesus Jara, who is Venezuelan. How do you think he got in so deep with the Conchs? Do you think his being fluent in Spanish helped?

begged, borrowed, stolen, written by Sloan Bashinsky, District 3 write-in school board candidate and otherwise general flunky

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Posted in Today's FlaKey Drivel | No Comments »

rock star lands school superintendent job – Florida Keys

Friday, June 29th, 2012

 

From Rainforest yesterday:

Sloan,

You are so right about the school system – so right about training in trades/ voc.ed/ (alternatives to “college prep”) etc. And our kids need more art, music, theatre, and teachers that challenge them to think for themselves. I could go on and on about it and maybe make some sense but I won’t attempt it as due to an illness & medication I can’t focus too well. Just wanted you to know that you are appreciated. You speak for many of us who for whatever reason, don’t or can’t express our thoughts. Thanks

From Larry Murray yesterday, re my email to the school board members about a gaming method of selecting superintendent candidates; the email was included in yesterday’s
lots of school biz-baz – Florida Keys post.

Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2012 09:37:22 -0700
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: lots of school biz-baz
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
CC: robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; andy@fishandy.com; matt@mattgardi.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; news@us1radio.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com

Sloan:

Thank you very much again for your public service in addressing the variables regarding the voting process for selecting a new superintendent. I am pleased that you exposed the proverbial elephant in the living room as to how the process can be gamed. Hopefully, the Board will take your admonition seriously.

Your time in drafting your email to John Dick and the Board was a much better use of your time than attending a candidate forum where you are asked involved questions and given 60 seconds to answer them! You didn’t miss much. Thank goodness we didn’t have to pay the $27 for the meal which was decidedly mediocre.

It is now 12:30 PM, 90 minutes before the meeting and I just spoke to John Dick. I told John that I had received a number of calls of people complaining that the public input section today is likely to be AFTER the superintendent is selected. I share their concerns and urged John to take public input on the superintendent selection BEFORE the Board votes. While the public may have met and talked with the various candidates at the Meet & Greets, they should be afforded every opportunity at the Board meeting to present their opinions and comments. That presumes, of course, that the public has a say in the selection process and that the Board should listen to what their constituents believe.

Larry

Citizen comments came before the vote on the new superintendent.

Give credit to Todd German, who explained to me how the gaming method of selecting a candidate could be used to create a rigged outcome. Although it looked to me that John Dick perhaps wanted to use the gaming method of voting, the other school board members said they wanted to vote for the first choice, then for the first alternate, then for the second alternate. Dick suggested they do it in writing, and they agreed to that. Other than thanking Jesus Jara for taking on a very tough job he did not create, and doing well at it, there was no board member discussion of the candidates before the votes were taken. I left the school board meeting convinced writing that email the day before was far more important than attending the Chamber of Commerce’s candidate forum in Key West.

Backing up, the candidates were asked if they would go into a room and wait their turn to be questioned by the school board, so they would not hear the other candidates’ interviews? They were told they could not be made to do that. They all agreed to it. Lots were drawn by the school board attorney to determine the order of the interviews.

Dr. Thomas Gay went first. He didn’t seem to hear the questions, because he didn’t seem to answer them. His responses were long and rambling. Over an hour into it, I left and drove to Publix to get something to eat, hoping when I returned Gay would be through. But he took another half hour. He probably took two hours, total. He seemed oblivious to the school board members’ when he answered their questions. He spoke in the we throughout, as if he was already working for and was teaching them.

I would have cut Gay off, made him answer the questions, but perhaps the way it went was best for the viewing audience, who stuck with it. I nearly left because of how long Gay was taking. I told the teachers union representative, if Gay was chosen to be the new superintendent, the union would agree to whatever he wanted just to get the negotiations over with. I told Todd German, I imagined Gay was like that with everyone, he had been like that at the meet and greet the night before in Marathon, and he would be like that with everyone under him and with school board.

Jesus Jara was questioned second. Other than his saying career and college ready meant the same thing to him, which certainly got my attention, I don’t remember anything he said. His time responding to questions was the shortest of the four candidates.

Mark Porter, the fired superintendent of a Minnesota twin cities school district, did very well answering the school board members’ questions. He took about an hour. A teacher, who became a lawyer, who became an educator and a coach, and then a superintendent, Porter apparently lost his superintendent job in Minnesota because he stood up to his school board chairman about something he did not feel was a good thing for the school district. I liked hearing that. It told me Porter is his own man.

Todd German said Porter had hit a home run. Later, Todd said Porter was a rock star. I said Porter really was quite good.

Last but hardly least, Dr. Ed Shine gave the school board members several school district economics 101 lessons, including they needed more revenues coming in to take care of some of their problems no superintendent could fix, and raising money was not the superintendent’s job but was the school board members’ job. I nearly burst out laughing.

Shine told the board there would be no need for charter schools, if traditional schools did their job right. Shine gave the School Board an education in teaching to all of child. He gave them great heaps of other education in being a superintendent and being on a school board, and where the buck stops. It was like watching Jesus Christ speak to high school freshman, and often Shine had them laughing. In about 45 minutes, he taught them more than they ever will learn going to school board education seminars, which was something Andy Griffiths kept promoting during in his questions.

I think Shine was the only candidate Duncan Matthewson did not ask what could be done to make kids who attend traditional schools want to get up in the morning and go to school, and those kids’ parents to want to be involved in their kids’ schools, like happens in charter schools. Maybe Duncan figured Shine had already answered the question when he told them there would be no need for charter schools if traditional schools did their job right. I don’t know how much our school board members’ egos could have taken of Shine. I told Todd German that Shine had hit a grand slam homer and was a seer. Serious Sun-Shine. “…and the greatest shall go last.”

During citizen comments, I apologized, not altogether sincerely, for not understanding career ready meant ready to go to trade school. I said they should change the school district’s mission statement to making students “trade school or college ready”. I said they should vote for the candidate they would want looking out for their own children in school every day, and that should be their only consideration. I said they would need to raise school taxes next year, if they wanted to turn this school district around financially.

If Shine were ten years younger, it might have gone very differently yesterday. As it was, Mark Porter got 4 votes, with John Dick voting for Jara. Shine was voted first alternate, 3-2, with John Dick and Duncan Matthewson voting for Jara. Jara was voted second alternate, 5-0. If they had used the gaming method, Jara very well might have been the first alternate, or the out-right winner.

Friends of Jara told me after the vote that Jara had gotten two job offers on mainland Florida yesterday. I said I was really glad to hear that because I was very concerned for him and his family.

As it is, dethroned former elected superintendent Randy Acevedo’s term is not up until November, and that means Jara legally is the superintendent until then, unless the Governor of Florida appoints Porter to serve out Jara’s term. Porter is due to take over in August. However it goes, I imagine Jara will receive his salary and benefits into November.

I think Porter probably is a rock star and will do well if the school board lets him run with it, and if the school board increases the school district’s revenues, which will require the voters’ cooperation. Alas, a rock star ain’t Jesus Christ.

Here is The Key West Citizen’s report of the affair:

Jara’s out, Minn. educator in

Historic vote makes Mark Porter the Keys’ first hired superintendent

BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff

 
gfilosa@keysnews.com

The School Board chose Mark Porter, a lawyer who spent 32 years working for public schools in Minnesota, as Monroe County’s first-ever hired superintendent in a 4-1 vote Thursday night in Marathon.

Only board Chairman John Dick voted for Jesus Jara, who has run the schools since a governor’s appointment in August.

Porter will meet this morning to begin contract negotiations with a three-member committee appointed by the board, said City Attorney Shawn Smith, who is part of the panel.

“You had three other outstanding individuals to consider,” Porter said. “I’m pretty excited. This is a great opportunity. I thank you for placing your trust in me.”

Porter chose not to stay in the meeting room while the board held a brief discussion before voting. [None of the candidates stayed in the meeting for the voting.] His suggested start date is Aug. 1, and the salary range is $125,000 to $150,000, plus benefits.

In December, a school board in Minnesota’s South Washington voted 5-2 to fire Porter, who agreed to stay on through the end of his contract, June 30.

At issue was his leadership style, according to a final job review by the board and staff members, the South Washington County Bulletin reported June 14.

Porter, superintendent in the Minnesota county since 2009, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in early May that his faith in God would pull him through.

“I believe in a sovereign God who will put us in the right place at the right time,” Porter told the newspaper.

A few days later, a search committee in Monroe County put Porter on a short list of 16 names, and later the final five.

Vice Chairman Andy Griffiths joined members Robin Smith-Martin, Ron Martin and Duncan Mathewson in choosing Porter, whom they have known for four days, over Jara, who has been on board since 2010.

Jara’s tenure lasts until mid-November, according to Dick, since that is when the last elected superintendent would have remained in office.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed,” said Jara, 42, moments after the end of the board meeting, which he had to continue leading after losing out to Porter.

Jara took the district’s helm at a time of painful budget realities, cutting $13 million over two fiscal years. Those cuts included freezing teacher raises and mandating seven furlough days for all employees.

“I firmly believe I saved this district from going under — from bankruptcy,” said Jara. “When you take on the tough things, you don’t make people happy. Last year was the first year that the teachers didn’t receive a raise.”

The voting process was a brief aspect of a lengthy, interview-packed day for School Board members, who this fall will have newfound power in having the superintendent answer to them instead of constituents.

Thursday’s interviews began at 9 a.m. with board members taking turns meeting with each of the final four in private for about three hours. Then, at a meeting that started at 2 p.m., each candidate took turns in the meeting room while the others waited outside.

Under the state’s Sunshine Law, the candidates had the right to sit in on the competition’s interviews. But each agreed to Dick’s request for them to take turns meeting one-on-one for the public meeting.

The board voted for a second and third choice, in case Porter ends up not signing a contract with the district.

The No. 2 choice is Ed Shine, a 22-year veteran superintendent who most recently spent 16 years leading the Rye, N.Y., public schools in Westchester County.

Jara was the board’s third choice, while Thomas Gay, who runs a private school in Broward County, is the fourth choice.

Porter appeared confident during his hour in the spotlight Thursday.

“My job is to create opportunities for excellence, to really clear the way so others can perform and do the job they were hired to do,” Porter said during his public interview when asked to talk about his management philosophy.

During the interviews, each finalist sat in the seat unofficially reserved for Jara at the board meetings.

Thursday was historic territory for the Florida Keys, which until now had always elected a schools chief.

That tradition died in the wake of the 2009 embezzlement scandal that sent former administrator Monique Acevedo to prison for eight years and forced the governor to oust from office her husband, twice-elected Superintendent Randy Acevedo.

Voters in 2010 gave the five-member School Board the power to hire a superintendent. Monroe now is among 26 Florida counties that appoint the top educator rather than elect one.

The public portion of the meeting got under way at 2:25 p.m. in the library at Marathon High School.

Two-term board member Mathewson opened the meeting with an apology to the applicants, students, parents and the taxpayers of Monroe County “for my silliness the night before last.

Mathewson, 73, spent Tuesday night in the Marathon jail following an arrest at Mile Marker 68 on a charge of driving under the influence. His breath alcohol tests came back .067 and .07, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office — below the state’s .08 mark that deems a driver legally drunk. The officer reportedly determined that Mathewson failed physical sobriety tests.

Mathewson is not seeking a third term this fall for the District 3 seat.

About 30 people turned out for the meeting, while the district at the last minute announced it would be streamed live on the Internet in addition to being broadcast live on cable television.

Before leaving the meeting room, Jara shook hands with board members and his small inner circle of administrators.

“I’m fine,” he told several who asked.

Before voting, Dick and Mathewson gave Jara credit for the time he served in Monroe County.

“He wasn’t the greatest communicator, but he took direction from this board,” said Dick.

“I must commend Jesus for all the fine work he has done,” said Mathewson. “He has made mistakes and been very frustrated over the period he was here with us, as we all were.”

Mathewson said that Jara achieved “an awful lot,” and that he has told him before that, “You and your family were so nice that Monroe County didn’t really deserve you.

“You really would better go on somewhere else and let somebody else take the helm.”

—————————–

begged, borrowed, stolen, written by Sloan Bashinsky, District 3 write-in school board candidate
keysmyhome@hotmail.
 

Posted in Today's FlaKey Drivel | No Comments »

lots of school biz-baz – Florida Keys

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

 

This post today covers a lot of school biz baz. A lot. Toward the end, it covers last night’s meet and greet the superintendent candidates in Marathon, which I found revealing. Plenty of intrigue along the way.
 
When Todd German asked me at yesterday evening’s meet and greet the superintendent candidates in Marathon, if I knew yesterday was the Key West Chamber of Commerce candidate luncheon-forum for school board candidates, I felt like an idiot. Then, I felt like shit. I said I had called in my attendance when I got the invitation in the mail. Then, I had entered the forum and date into my hotmail.com calendar, which I had used in many races to remind me of candidate forums. The calendar didn’t remind me, and I didn’t remember it. Todd said maybe it was related to losing my wallet and ID, which I mentioned briefly in yesterday’s post and said it meant some big identity issue is in play for me.
 
Todd said he had gotten called by two school board members, I gathered not two happy school board members, about an email I had sent to them yesterday, quoting Todd on a few things. The email was a response to an email to the board members from Larry Murray asking how the board would go about voting on the superintendent candidates at tomorrow’s school board meeting? I told Todd I had spent a good while writing the response to Larry’s email, and if I had attended the Chamber’s candidate luncheon-luncheon, I wouldn’t have gotten that email out during working hours yesterday, and it needed to get out yesterday to give the school board members time to think about it before tomorrow’s school board meeting in Marathon. Todd said the email I sent to the school board was more important than my attending the candidate forum; the got what I was saying about how the superintendent vote tomorrow could be rigged, if they used the wrong voting method. Maybe so, but I still felt like shit that I had missed the forum.
 
As if to remind me of that, a fellow hosting the candidate meet and greet soon asked me where I was at lunch yesterday? I told him the same thing I had told Todd, but he seemed not to entirely believe me. He said the forum was pretty blah, and he had gone to hear what I would say, because he knew it would be different. I said, yeah, it would have been different. I still feel terrible about missing the forum, but maybe it just wasn’t in the cards, because this below would not have gotten dealt with yesterday, if I had been down in Key West. I spent quite a while writing it, maybe ten drafts, before I let it fly.

 
First, Larry Murray’s email to the school board.
 
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:55:19 -0700
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Procedures For Selecting the Superintendent
To: robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; andy@fishandy.com
CC: keysmyhome@hotmail.com; mhowell@keysnews.com; island@bigpinekey.com; matt@mattgardi.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; news@us1radio.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com

John:

 
Will the Board, prior to Thursday’s meeting, be informing the public as to what procedures it will follow at the meeting for selecting the new superintendent? What I am asking for is public disclosure of the procedures or mechanics as to how the Board will evaluate each candidate and to let the world know before Thursday.
 
Larry
 
Dr. Larry Murray
Fiscal Watchdog and Citizen Advocate
Candidate
Monroe County School Board
District 3
(305) 872-3087
My reply yesterday:
 
From: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
To: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com; robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; john.dick@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com
CC: mhowell@keysnews.com; island@bigpinekey.com; matt@mattgardi.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com; news@us1radio.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com
Subject: RE: Procedures For Selecting the Superintendent
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:38:34 -0400

Larry, Board members, others …

I received no news of nor a reply to your inquiry re informing the public of what procedures the Board will use to select the new Superintendent.

I hope the Board will not use the method I have seen used at Key West City Commission meetings to decide who gets a new city job:

The Mayor and City Commissioners each rank in writing each of, say, 4 candidates: 1, 2, 3 or 4, with 1 being top choice, 2nd second top choice, 3rd third top choice, 4th last choice.

Then, each official’s rankings are counted and aggregated by the City Clerk, and the candidate with the lowest aggregated ranking is the winner, the candidate with the second lowest aggregated ranking is the first alternate, and the candidate with the third lowest aggregated ranking is the second alternate.

It is well known that method of selecting job candidates is inherently rigged.

For example, John Dick could rank Jesus Jara 1, and rank the rest of the candidates in reverse order of John’s true preference, so the strongest alternate ends up on the bottom of John’s list and gets a 4, instead of a 2. I single John out because he has been clear Jesus Jara is at the top of his list, regardless of the Superintendent Search Committee’s recommendations, which the other Board members have not done.

That selection method also allows the scenario of the winning candidate not agreeing to the contract terms offered by the School Board, and a weak, politically-jimmied alternative candidate ends up with the job after all.

I spoke at length this morning with Todd German about that method of selection. He doesn’t like it, either. Todd said, I agree, the Board should vote three times. Once for the top candidate, once again for the first alternate, and once again for the second alternate.

I personally think votes should not be verbal, one at a time, but should be written simultaneously. Then, Sally collects the written votes and reads them into the record.

That method puts Board members to vote without knowing how it is going to end up.

I have seen elected Keys officials vote against an already known majority to make a statement. I have seen elected Keys officials vote with an already known majority to play safe.

This school district does not need any more appearance of impropriety, backroom deals, political maneuvering, cya-ing. It needs a straightforward, fair election of its new Superintendent.

I personally feel Board members who want to state their candidate preferences and reasons therefore should do so after the votes have been cast and read into the record.

The time for politicking, persuading, studying the candidates’ credentials, characters and personalities, and the search committee’s recommendations is past.

Tomorrow is time for each School Board member to vote truly his own conviction, the political, social and other consequences notwithstanding.

Will Duncan Matthewson will be there tomorrow? Last I heard, he might still be locked up for D.U.I. Charged with D.U.I., he might not be able to drive himself to the School Board meeting?

Regards,

Sloan

 
Larry’s reply:
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:31:01 -0700
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Procedures For Selecting the Superintendent
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com; robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; john.dick@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com
CC: mhowell@keysnews.com; island@bigpinekey.com; matt@mattgardi.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com; news@us1radio.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com

Sloan:

 
I guess we will find out tomorrow, just another surprise courtesy of the Monroe County School District. I wrote elsewhere as to how the District ably uses delay as a tactic. Another tactic is not to inform you in advance of what any reasonable person would expect to know.
 
At Monday night’s Meet & Greet, I asked Rob Smith-Martin what the procedure was going to be. He smiled as if he had gas (fortunately he didn’t). I asked if the plan was to throw the resumes against the wall and see which one stuck and he smiled in acknowledgement. Today, at the KW CoC luncheon, I asked Andy Griffiths. His response was “Don’t ask me, I’m not the Chairman.”
 
Larry
 
I replied to all: ha, ha, ha, and I had learned from Jesus Jara at the meet and greet that the select the superintendent item had been moved to the front of tomorrowâ??s school board agenda, right after the executive sessions, before citizen comments. The meeting starts at 2 p.m., in the library of Marathon High School.
 
From yesterday’s Keynoter:
 
 
mathewson Duncan Mathewson
 
Monroe County [District 3] School Board member Duncan Mathewson was jailed Tuesday, charged with driving under the influence.

Mathewson, 73, was arrested by Sheriff’s Office Deputy Michael Claudy a little before 9 p.m. on U.S. 1 in Islamorada. He lives on Little Torch Key.

Mathewson is closing out the second of two four-year terms on the board in District 3, declining to seek re-election this year.
 
———————————————
 
That’s the same school board seat sought by five certified lunatics and one fool who knows better. I heard at the candidate meet and greet yesterday evening that several people had offered Duncan a ride to the school board meeting in Marathon tomorrow afternoon.
 
Moving latterally …

Schools chief of staff witholds info

By SEAN KINNEY

skinney@keynoter.com

Posted – Wednesday, June 27, 2012 09:30 AM EDT

Ken Gentile
Monroe County School District Chief of Staff Ken Gentile, whose professional qualifications are being scrutinized in an internal investigation, has declined to give access to documents confirming his status as certified internal auditor in Florida.
Last week, the Keynoter reported that Gentile does not hold current certified public accounting licenses in Florida or New York despite his representation to the contrary on the resume he gave the district in 2010 before he was hired as chief internal auditor.
Superintendent Jesus Jara says he has not “seen anything on his license.”
The non-governmental International Institute for Internal Auditors administers CIA licenses; licensure documents are not available upon request and Gentile declined to provide them or sign a release making them available to the Keynoter.
He calls the situation “more sizzle than steak. I am reluctant to provide any more personal information than is absolutely required. I have even considered obtaining legal counsel at my own personal expense to stop this personal attack.”
The matter was brought to the attention of Jara last week by Larry Murray, a candidate for the District 3 School Board seat. Gentile said Murray is using the issue for political gain. Murray was a member of the district Audit and Finance Committee and often publicly disagreed with Gentile and other members of the administration.
Jara says that because the nut of the issue is whether Gentile misrepresented himself when applying for the chief internal auditor position — a direct employee of the five-member School Board — the School Board will have final say in how the matter is disposed.
“I genuinely believed that my CPA license in New York was transferable to Florida with not more than a fee, [continuing professional education credit] submission, and change in classification. That is why I put it on my resume.”
“The board will be the one that’s going to kind of look at it,” Jara said. “The board hired him.” Gentile says he is pursuing his Florida CPA license although his job duties do not require the designation.
As for the CIA certification, “I was very active in the IIA chapter in Tampa serving as their chair of education and chapter president.”
He says the scrutiny is fraught with “media hype” and driven by “individuals who misrepresent facts.”
My fool thoughts:
The previous School Board, on which sat current board members John Dick, Andy Griffiths and Duncan Matthewson, indeed did hire Gentile and he is their problem, as is their problem the diligence or lack thereof the previous Board exercised in scrutinizing Gentile’s resume and the report of The Mercer Group, which the Board engaged to vet Gentile’s resume. According to a previous Keynoter article, Mercer reported it verified Gentile was a CPA in New York, but could not verify he was one in Florida.

Even a half-honest School Board attorney will tell the Board Gentile is the Board’s problem, not the Superintendent or the school district’s problem, because the Board hired Gentile to AUDIT the Superintendent and the school district, and to advise the Board what he learned.


Even a half-honest lawyer will tell Gentile, if he put on his 2010 resume that he was a licensed CPA in New York, when his CPA licensed there had expired in 1993, and he was a licensed CPA in Florida, which was not so, that puts a serious crimp in his cause. The same even half-honest lawyer will tell Gentile, if he put on his resume that he was a Certified Internal Auditor but his CIA license was expired, that put yet another serious crimp in his cause, since he was hired by the School Board to be ITS INTERNAL AUDITOR of a school district the Board did not trust any farther than it could THROW IT. Now, wonder of wonders, Gentile is Superintendent of Schools Jesus Jara’s Chief of Staff.

According to a recent article in The Key West Citizen, Gentile accused unnamed persons of having it in for him because he is a Christian and prays at his desk. The Lawyer Jesus of Nazareth I read in the Gospels would tell Gentile he should have told THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH on his resume, and anything else came from evil. The same Lawyer Jesus would tell Gentile to give Sean Kinney ANYTHING HE ASKED FOR, which had to do with Gentile being a CPA or CIA. The same Lawyer Jesus would give Gentile THE LOOK for talking about hiring a lawyer to protect him from his own screw ups, or for any reason.

 
More biz-baz prompted by Gentile:

Subject: RE: Monroe County School District reserve fund balance question
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:44:49 -0400
From: Darla.Davis@fldoe.org
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com

ON BEHALF OF LINDA CHAMPION

Dear Mr. Bashinsky:

Your letter to Commissioner Robinson expressing concerns about the fund balance of the Monroe County School Board was forwarded to my office for response.

Section 1011.051, Florida Statutes (F.S.), provides guidance to school districts on maintaining a general fund ending fund balance that is sufficient to address normal contingencies. A sufficient ending fund balance that is assigned and unassigned in the general fund should be above 3 percent of general fund revenues. The fund balance that is assigned and unassigned is more commonly referred to as the fund balance reserve, which is the term used in the Key West Citizen article.

Section 1011.051, F.S., also provides that if a district school board’s general fund combined assigned and unassigned fund balance falls below 3 percent, the superintendent must provide written notification to the Commissioner of Education. The district did comply with this statute.

Sections 218.39 and 1010.30, F.S., require school districts to have an annual financial audit. The district school board has complied with the statutes by providing for an annual audit. All audits have been performed by the State’s Auditor General and can be found on the district’s website under Archived Information. Since the district has complied with the statutes on reporting fund balance and providing for an annual audit, a legal opinion is not considered necessary at this time.

Mr. Gentile’s statement that fund balances include unavailable money in the form of assets appears to be what is formally identified as “not in spendable form,” meaning that it is not expected to be converted to cash. This portion is not included in the fund balance pursuant to Section 1011.051, F.S., to address normal contingencies.

We encourage you to work with your local school officials to resolve your concerns.

Please let us know if we can assist you further.

Sincerely,

Linda Champion
Deputy Commissioner, Finance and Operations
Florida Department of Education
LC/bp

From: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
To: darla.davis@fldoe.org
Subject: RE: Monroe County School District reserve fund balance question
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:08:32 -0400

My goodness, Darla.

I would not have written to you, if I was able to work it out down here.

 
Monroe County Superintendent of Schools Jesus Jara had already notified the Department of Education in writing that the reserve fund balance had fallen below 3 percent.

Jara’s Chief of Staff Ken Gentile wrote to me basically denying what The Key West Citizen had reported he had said. I subsequently learned School Board member Andy Griffiths and Larry Murray, a former schools Audit & Finance Committee member (voluntary committee of 5 citizens, each selected by a school board member), said thought they had heard Gentile say what was reported in The Citizen.

I wrote to your office because I understand it is your office’s job to investigate complaints against school districts, which my first email was: a complaint againt the Monroe County School District. I am not convinced, and I am not alone, they are not cooking the books to create a reserve fund balance which meets state requirements.

I am not surprised at your office’s response, however. Years ago, I concluded it is a waste of time to try to get Tallahassee to deal with miscreants over which it has authority to regulate and discipline.

Sloan Bashinsky

ex-lawyer (I quit the practice, if such is possible)
 
Last below is the complaint I sent, to which I received this initial reply:
 
Subject: Thank you for contacting the Commissioner
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:24:13 -0400
From: commissioner@fldoe.org
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Thank you for contacting the Commissioner at the Florida Department of Education. Due to the volume of emails received, please understand that there will be a slight delay in response to your correspondence. However, this in no way lessens the importance and seriousness of your issue for the Department.

Sincerely,

Office of the Commissioner

From: sloan bashinsky [mailto:keysmyhome@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2012 1:24 PM
To: Commissioner
Subject: Monroe County School District reserve fund balance question

Dear Commissioner:

This article about the Monroe County, Florida School District was in yesterday’s Key West Citizen, the daily newspaper in the Florida Keys. I highlighted the areas of concern to me and others. A few comments after the article.

 
From The Key West Citizen:

District: Reserve fund OK
Gentile: Schools can use inventory in calculation
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
Monroe County School Board members this week heard some good financial predictions for a change — that the district’s reserve fund will remain high enough to ward off state intervention.
When the 2012 fiscal year ends June 30, the reserve will likely amount to 4 percent of the year’s revenues, or about $3.2 million, Chief of Staff Ken Gentile told the board Tuesday.
The reserve, commonly called the “fund balance,” is a bellwether of a school system’s financial health, so much so that the state Department of Education requires immediate notification if it dips below 3 percent of projected revenues.
Superintendent Jesus Jara sent such a notification letter to DOE in December, when the district’s best numbers showed that the fund balance wouldn’t hit 3 percent.
Although the district’s final numbers for 2012 won’t come in until a couple weeks after June 30, the end of the fiscal year, all signs point to a fund balance that will meet the state’s standard of 4 percent.
The funds are set aside as a reserve for unanticipated expenses, such as meeting state class-size requirements.
“These are the best numbers we have to date,” Jara told the board.
By 2013, the district projects an ending fund balance of 5 percent, which is what the five-man board had practically demanded.
“Things have changed,” said School Board Chairman John Dick. “Some real frugal things have been done by the district since then, and we have been able to enhance our fund balance.”
Jara’s team went after funding that was owed to the district, decided not to fill positions when people quit or retired, and cut back spending, said Dick.
“I would say we’re fine,” he said. “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. The district will survive.”
Gentile’s fund balance figures for 2012 and 2013, however, include some “unavailable” money, in the form of about $2 million in assets the district could tap if necessary.
“Inventories count,” said Gentile. “You could sell it and spend it.”
Once a school system’s fund balance falls below 2 percent, that district must submit to the state a plan on how to rebuild it.
In Monroe County, the fund balance is a touchy subject.
When John Padget left the superintendent’s office in 2004, the fund balance amounted to a flush $12.5 million.
Once voters handed the district’s reins to Randy Acevedo, the schools spent most of that reserve. By 2010, the year after the governor removed Acevedo from office after the financial scandal that sent his wife, Monique Acevedo, to prison for embezzlement, the fund balance was down to $2 million.
But by the end of the 2010 fiscal year, the fund balance had risen to 5 percent of revenues, or about $4 million, according to Gentile’s presentation to the board Tuesday.
 
__________________________________
 
To me and others, reserve fund balance is the difference between revenues and expenditures. Inventories are not factored into it. Would not surprise me, if the State audited this School District, it would find the fund balance at or below 2 percent. That may seem like a fantastical statement way up in Tallahassee, but down here in the Keys, we have come to expect the fantastical out of this school district.

For your information, I am a write-in candidate for one of the School Board seats in this year’s election. Looks to me like my role is showing the voters what is really going on in their school district; can’t imagine getting elected. I am a former practicing attorney, in Alabama. Perhaps your legal department needs to look over this inquiry?

Thank you.

Sloan Bashinsky
1031 Grand Street, Little Torch Key, FL 33042
(305) 872-1705
(305) 407-4285 (cell)

To add to my already terrible horrible no good boring yesterday, Tim Gratz of Keys Coalition sent this:

Foster kids would leave for school, detour to brothel
Authorities called a ring of child prostitutes drawn from foster care the victims of ‘professional predators’ who seek out vulnerable children to become sex workers.
By Carol Marbin Miller

cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
The teenage foster kids called their rendezvous with men who paid for their affections “dates.” Sometimes they had several scheduled each day.
Their alleged handler, whom they called “E-Nasty,” or just “E,” would text the girls on the cell phones he provided them. “You’re gonna have some dates today,” he would say, a source told The Miami Herald.
On days where the girls had a hectic schedule, they’d be driven to school in the morning, but fail to enter. Instead, the teens would call or text their pimps to pick them up. “It was a perfect cover,” the source said. “People thought they were going to school.”
E-Nasty, police and prosecutors say, is 29-year-old Eric George Earle, the head of a group of pimps who preyed on teenage girls in foster care.
“He was the ringleader of this organization,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, “the one who befriended the girls.”
Police and prosecutors say Earle — together with his stepbrother, Anturrel Nathaniel Dean, and two other men — operated a prostitution ring that employed foster children as sex workers. A teenager identified only as S.S. worked for the ring as a prostitute, and “recruited” other girls from her group home to work for the ring.
Earle; Dean, 30; 34-year-old David Zarifi and 65-year-old Willie Calvin Bivins were arrested early Monday. They face charges of racketeering, conspiracy and unlawful sex with underage girls.
At a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Fernández Rundle said the busted ring was part of an ongoing investigation into “predators” who lure vulnerable children into becoming sex workers. Already, the investigation had spawned 50 subpoenas and eight search warrants.
Fernández Rundle gave the girls’ customers a warning: “Watch out,” she said. “We’re coming to get you.”
“Make no doubt about it: these are businesses operating just below the surface in our community,” Fernández Rundle said. “You know what? They’re not operating any longer.”
Also caught up in the investigation, though not involved with the ring Earle allegedly operated, was a Department of Children & Families child abuse investigator, 46-year-old Jean LaCroix, records show.
DCF administrators placed LaCroix on paid administrative leave and seized his government-issued cell phone after one of the girls involved in the ring, identified as M.D., told police she also had maintained a lengthy sexual relationship with LaCroix, who investigated her case when she was placed in foster care, records show.
“The victim advised that while in school she would call or text [LaCroix] and [he] would arrange to pick her up from school and take her to his residence where they would engage in consensual sexual intercourse,” a May search warrant request says.
LaCroix became involved with M.D in September 2011, DCF Regional Administrator Esther Jacobo told the Miami-Dade Police Department. His DCF cell phone showed “considerable phone communication between [LaCroix] and the victim’s cellular phones for several months after October 2011,” records say.
Even after his bosses at DCF took away his cell phone, LaCroix continued to call the teenage foster child with his personal phone, police said in a May search warrant obtained by The Miami Herald.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

I would be seriously naive to think something like this is not already going on in Key West, given its stable of sex dens on and near Duval Street. Maybe Key West High School, Horace O’Bryant K-8 School and Sugarloaf PK-8 School should be offering vocational education and experience to their students, so they can find othertrade jobs in the lower Keys when they graduate from Key West High School.

 
At the candidate meet and greet yesterday evening in Marathon, anyone in the audience was allowed to ask one question to one candidate. I signed up second. When my time came, I said I might be a living example of why higher education is not all that it’s cracked out to be – two law degrees. That brought some chuckles. I said this school district’s mission, creed, prayer for high school graduates is “career or college ready.” I looked at Dr. Ed Shine, said, he was the senior educator there, what was his experience with vocational training, what did he think about it compared to preparing students to go to college?

I heard several people, including Dist. 3 school board candidate Ed Davidson, say that was a good question. I wanted every candidate to answer the question.

Dr. Shine said he started out in education running a trade school, and while he had no trade training, he knew it was really important. He said the high school in his school district in New York sends 90 percent of its graduates to college. However, he noted, that the college drop out rates are well known. He had said during his free time speaking to the audience, before the question period, that he had instituted fine arts and drama into the school curriculums, and a foreign language requirement, Spanish in his schools. He said students need to be educated and think globally.

I laughed to myself, I was sharply criticized for writing in posts last year that fluency in Spanish should be required of all Keys students, and the teaching of Spanish should begin in first grade. Of all places in the US, the Keys certainly need for its students to learn Spanish, due to the very high percentage of Spanish speaking people and the proximity to Cuba and the hope of the Keys cashing in on Cuba opening up some day.

 
During the break between the candidates’ introducing themselves and the question answering, I told Shine privately that my daughters had attended Bryn Mawr, which Shine knew was like attending Princeton. I said one of my daughters majored in and is fluent in Spanish, and is an eye surgeon in private practice and a medical school professor. I said when she started med school, her teachers took her with them on their rounds into the poor communities, so she could interpret for them what their Hispanic patients were saying was wrong with them, and so she could tell the patients what their doctors told them to do about it. Shine smiled.
 
Lots of good questions were asked. Tough questions.
 
Finally, John Dick, who hosted the questions, said questions asked already could be asked of other candidates. A woman who had asked a question of one candidate, asked another candidate the same question. After that was done, I said I wanted them all to answer my question about trades. John said he knew that, and turned to someone else. I said the school district is not graduating high school seniors who are career or college ready. The way John dealt with that told me he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about trade training in high school. Meaning, the school district needs to end the lie and remove “career” from its mission statement, and just have a mission of having all high school graduates “college ready”, a pipe dream.

After watching, hearing and feeling all 4 superintendent candidates selling themselves for several minutes on their feet, answering questions under fire, and in direct close conversation, I saw Ed Shine stood all by himself. Below him was Porter from the Minnnesota twin cities. Gay, from Florida, seemed too revved up, too gushy, too eager to talk and not so eager to listen, too eager to get the job. He did not answer questions well, but wandered all over the place and left me, and I imagine others, wondering what he had really said?

I thought our Governor-appointed superintendent, Jesus Jara, did very well. He was real. Personable. He had his wife and children with him. He said he’d had a horrible time with crashing school district revenues he did not cause or ask for. He said he’d lost sleep over decisions he’d had to make. He said the biggest problem in the school district is low employee morale. I felt for him. Early in the event, I had told Jesus, God be with him. He had said, he will need God with him either way it goes today, either outcome will be steep. I found his candor endearing.

I made darn sure last night that all three mainland candidates heard from someone that this school district is very messed up, and they need to know that. I gave them goodmorningfloridakeys.com business cards and said they should read what I posted there yesterday, and would post there today. I gave Ed Shine’s wife a card and told her the same thing. To my saying I am the local devil, she said she didn’t see any horns. I said I have horns.

A local woman asked me what I would do with the school district? I said I would decapitate the school administration and school board. She asked why I would do that? I said the school system is broken beyond repair. She asked how I would do it? I said it could be done by each school’s principal, teachers and parents getting together and voting their school charter. She said wouldn’t that cost a lot more money? I said the charter schools we have now, the principals and teachers work for less pay, they don’t belong to the union. Parents get involved, pitch in their time and money. My sense was, I had sort of turned her upside down. Maybe she will stay turned upside down. I gave her a goodorningfloridakeys.com business card, told her to read what I posted there yesterday, and would post there today.

That’s what I would have gone for at the Chamber candidate forum yesterday: to turn everyone in the audience upside down, and hope they stayed turned upside down. I am convinced every school going charter is the only way to really fix this school district. Ed Shine has a lot of history with running a decentralized school district. He said what attracted him to apply for this job was he read the district was a school-based management district. He read a lie. Even so, he would be a great turn-around superintendent for a few years.

 
Unlike the other candidates, Ed Shine believes strongly in decentralized school management, with the principals, teachers and parents of each school being involved in decision making. Stretched out as this school district is, decentralized is the only model that makes sense. Ed Shine decentralizing this school district would be a good run-up to our schools going charter. However, I don’t see our school board willing to turn its control over to the schools. I will be surprised if they make Ed Shine their top choice, even though he clearly is the best candidate. I hope they prove me wrong.
 
I feel really old, really tired. I hate politics, running for office. Maybe that’s why my hotmail calendar didn’t work and remind me of the Chamber’s forum. Maybe that’s why Todd German didn’t mention the forum when we talked yesterday morning about the voting method for the superintendent candidates. Maybe that’s why Larry Murray didn’t email to ask if I would be at the forum – he usually inquires if I’m going to attend school-related events. Maybe that’s why the angels didn’t remind me about the forum in a dream night before last. Maybe my soul is rising up in revolt because it knows I am too terrified of the angels to intentionally blow off a candidate forum, or a run for office.

Walk, actually, is what I told the woman last night, who asked how I would decapitate the school administration and school board? No way could run be used to describe this candidacy. That’s what the other candidates are doing. Maybe I was spared the candidate forum because it is time for someone else to make candidate fourms interesting. Maybe I have done enough of that. Making I’m taking on a new identity. I always have felt if I am supposed to be elected and serve, it is not my job to make it happen. It is the public’s job to make it happen. I think it is repulsive to try to get elected to public office.

begged, borrowed, stolen and written by Sloan Bashinsky, District 3 write-in school board candidate
keysmyhome@hotmail.com

The Key West Citizen’s version of last night’s meet and greet:

 
New schools super chosen today
Jara, 3 other candidates make final pitches to crowd in Marathon
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
Low employee morale is the greatest challenge facing the Monroe County School District, Superintendent Jesus Jara told a crowd Wednesday night ahead of today’s board vote on whether he has a future in Florida Keys education.
“As the money is getting better, it’s not getting to the place where we all want it to be,” Jara said, fielding a question from an audience of more than 60.
“How do we provide more support with the limited resources? We have cut $13 million over the last two years. We’ve cut the district, we’ve cut the schools. We are running out of places. It’s been tough.”
Today, the five members of the School Board have scheduled private one-on-one interviews with the four finalists vying to become the county’s first hired schools chief.
Public interviews will take place during the board’s meeting that begins at 2 p.m. in the library at Marathon High School. The meeting will stream live via a free Web service at http://www.ustream.tv//channel/mcsditv, the district announced Tuesday. An alternative link is at http://www.ustream.tv/channel-popup/mcsditv. It also will be broadcast live on Channel 78.
After a financial scandal in 2009, voters handed over the responsibility of selecting a schools superintendent to the board.
On Wednesday night, the four finalists — Jara, Thomas Gay, Mark Porter and Ed Shine — gathered for the last of three consecutive “meet-and-greets” held in bank lobbies across the Keys.
This one, at Iberia Bank in Marathon Shores, was an hour longer than the events held Monday in Key West and Tuesday in Key Largo.
The extra time allowed people to ask questions after each finalist made a brief pitch to the crowd.
“I’ve worked in some of the most impoverished communities in America,” said Gay, who runs a private school in Broward County but previously worked in Detroit, Chicago, schools.. “We need to be able to embrace every single child. Charter schools’ children are Monroe County children. We need to embrace them as well.”
Gay said that money isn’t the answer to every problem — although it helps.
Shine, a 22-year veteran superintendent at age 68, announced a year ago that he would retire in July. But he said Monroe County’s dedication to “school-based management” attracted him to the Keys.
“There aren’t too many things that happen in education that I don’t have experience with,” said Shine.
A native of New Haven, Conn., Shine introduced himself as the son of Irish immigrants whose seven children all graduated college and several earned graduate degrees.
Porter, who practiced law after starting out as a teacher at age 24, said his philosophy is “continuous improvement” no matter where test scores and state ratings rank a district.
The trick is to “create a lack of contentment with where you are,” Porter said. Monroe County students have scored above the statewide average on standardized tests, he noted, but “is that the goal, to simply be above the average in the state of Florida?”
“We need to set strategic goals to be far above the state average.”
Each of the four’s experience and references impressed the 20-member, board-appointed search committee that sifted through a batch of 56 applications that arrived by the May deadline.
Jara earns $135,000 as superintendent, a figure that includes the seven furlough days that he mandated last year and has proposed continuing this school year. He had been hired as a top administrator in 2010 by former appointed Superintendent Joe Burke.
Jara has spent the past year taking heat for making deep budget cuts that have frozen teacher raises and performance pay as the district has faced multimillion-dollar shortfalls for the past two fiscal years.
The teachers union this month declared an impasse after negotiations became contentious — although the state upheld Jara’s cuts in teacher earnings as legal since the district declared a financial crisis.
Appointed by the governor in August, Jara is finishing out the remainder of twice-elected Superintendent Randy Acevedo, who was ousted by the state following an embezzlement scandal that sent his wife, former school administrator Monique Acevedo, to prison for eight years and put him on probation.
Each finalist said he was prepared to make the move to the pricey Florida Keys. Jara has spent the past two years commuting between Key West and his family home in Miami, where his three children attend public schools.
Gay lives in South Florida, while Shine hails from Rye, N.Y., and Porter lives in Woodbury, Minn.
Porter said he and his wife talked to Realtors for a couple hours Wednesday.
“It’s a challenge, I’ll be honest,” he said. “But it’s just the two of us.”
Four of the five board members attended. Missing was Duncan Mathewson, the District 3 incumbent who spent the previous night in Marathon jail following an arrest for driving under the influence. He was released at 3:20 p.m. Wednesday, having registered a .07 blood alcohol content on a breath machine — just under Florida’s .08 level that deems a driver legally drunk. The officer determined that Mathewson failed physical sobriety exercises.

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lumps of coal, and maybe a diamond – Florida Keys school district

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

 

Todd German called in a correction to this that I wrote in yesterday’s post:
 
“[Ed] Shine should have been at the top of the short list of every member of the superintendent search committee.”
 
Todd was on the superintendent search committee. He said they did not use short lists. Each of the 20 members of the committee wrote down their 5 top candidates, and Shine was the only candidate who made all 20 lists. Another candidate made 19 lists. Another made 17 lists, I think Todd said. Jara made the next highest number of lists. And another candidate made the 5th highest number of lists.
 
Todd said a lot of time and energy was expended by the search committee, and not inconsiderable expense was gone to, the candidates’ travel to the Keys was paid for by the school district (taxpayers), and we will find out at Thursday’s school board meeting if it was all worthwhile, or a waste of time, energy and money.
 
From all I have heard, based on resumes and work experience, Jara should not even have made the first cut on the superintendent search committee. He made the short list because some of the school board members put their Jara shills on the search committee. It will be interesting to see how the board members vote in the sunshine Thursday night. For in the sunshine they surely will be.
 
Nashville J replied to yesterday’s post:
 
Sloan:
 
I get up and tiptoe into the living room to see what Santa left me – and this is all I got:
 
 
I wanted an iphone, ipad and powerbook!
 
So, the big bullying meeting that Ward asked you to attend was nothing more than a “circle jerk” for the feel good, pantie waisted, liberal progressives to show that they are “doing something” about bullying. No action, just blah-blah-blah-blah and we will have another meeting in a few weeks. Sorry the angels made you attend and you did not get any of the bills George Burns was passing out.
 
On another subject. Ed Shine, who you liked what he said at the meet and greet. Did he say “why” he retired from the Rye school system after 16 years? And if he was retiring, why is he now interested in jumping back into the burning fires of a dysfunctional school district in Key West?? From what little I have learned about the school system down there, it is NOT a system to RETIRE into. Perhaps we will learn the answer to those questions in the next couple days. Of course you know that in my opinion the answer to the questions does not matter because DICK has the fix in for JARA! tick tick tick
J
 
I replied:
Darn, I forgot to include the lump of coal! Apologies to the poor little dead billion-year-old creatures who gave their lives for the fossil fuel cause.
 
Not only did I not see any of those big bills Burns was passing out end up in my pocket, my wallet went missing yesterday. After lots of trashing about, I got that resolved. New driver’s licence, new debit card, etc., etc.
 
[I told him the whole yarn, which included some intrigue, and what fun it is these days to make Homeland Security Eternally Happy, if you lose your driver's license. Fortunately, I had made Homeland Security Eternally Happy when I moved back to Little Torch in 2010 and had gotten my driver's license renewed to show the address up here.]
 
I wondered myself why Shine wanted to have another go at being a school superintendent. Was unable to copy his photo out of The Citizen, but he seems on up there in years. He did say he and his wife had heard the Keys billed as Paradise, and they had always hoped to get to Paradise and maybe the Keys would be the next step in that direction for them. That brought a laugh. I think the audience understood he meant Paradise in the Kingdom of God sense, but can’t be sure the audience understood him in that way.

If I were Shine and his wife, and if I really wanted to try living in the Keys, regardless of how the superintendent selection goes Thursday at Marathon High School, I’d close out my holdings in NY, and after that is out of the way, I’d move down here and rent a home in this part of the Keys, which still are somewhat okay, half-wayish between Marathon and Key West, for trips to the “city”. If after a year I still liked it, I might look for a home to buy. I might tell Shine that tomorrow at the Marathon High superintendent candidate meet and greet.

We learn Thursday if the superintendent search was genuine, or just a bunch of noise and smoke. You laying off any bets?

 
I will be truly troubled for Jesus Jara and his family if he is not kept on as Superintendent of Schools, even though I do not think he is suited for this school district. Not suited, unless he is what is needed to bring all the problems to an unresolvable head, to the point of galvanizing each school’s teachers, principal and parents to take their school charter. I have yet to hear of any bullying in our charter schools. Maybe that has to do with parent involvement in our traditional schools is low compared to parent involvement in our charter schools.
 
J replied:
Wow, Sloan! Talk about a crappy couple days – but glad you were able to recover and find the stuff they require for license now. Hopefully it will not happen again, it is such a pain in the ass.
 
So, did you file a report with the Sheriff about the young man and the missing wallet? And the probably stolen camera? Weird deal indeed – someone just walking in. Who doesn’t knock or call out before just going in somewhere?
 
[Maybe I'll publish that bizarre tale some day.]
 
I think something you posted had Shine’s age as 68 yo. Probably would not be my choice for the job simply because he just left a position to retire and now he wants to come to Paradise, get a nice paying job and retire in it for a few years. Maybe I am wrong and I will be the most surprised person in all of Tennessee if DICK does not deliver JARA the job. No bets because, to me, it is like shooting fish in a barrell.
 
J
 
I replied:
I ain’t tell nobuddy what I told the sheriff substation, if I called them. Sometimes wondering is the best skunk repellant.

Losing a wallet and all the ID in it has very deep meaning for me. But what deep meaning? I lost my identity, way? I am taking on a new identity, way? I suppose I’ll know sooner or later.Another reason I like Shine is he probably doesn’t need the job, and he probably won’t spend much time worrying about keeping it.

 
Meaning, he won’t probably won’t worry much about what the school board thinks of what he does, and he probably will do only what he thinks is best. He is almost my age. I’d say he’s gone wacko bonkers looking for work again, but then I would have to say I went wanko bonkers running for school board, wouldn’t I? Res ipsa loquitur.
 
J replied:
Good point about his not needing the job and maybe not worrying about what the SB thinks – that could be good – or not! We’ll never know because he is not going to be the choice – JARA all the way – or – DICK is out of the Conchs’ approved list.
 
I replied:
No comprehende Conchs’ approved list. Jara is a mainlander, has been in the school district maybe maybe 3 years. He came with the previous Governor-appointed superintendent, who quit after securing the superintendent job in the Ft. Myers area school district. Jara was his No. 2, so the Governor appointed him to fill out the dethroned Randy Acevedo’s term. Randy was a Conch. Lots of Conchs were pissed he was taken down. Lots of Conchs were so embarrassed over what Randy’s wife had done with his turned blind eye’s help that they wanted him out. That’s what led to the voters approving a referendum 2010 for future superintendents to be hired by the School Board, instead of elected. However, by state law that could not go into effect until Randy Acevedo’s un-served term expired. This is the first superintendent the school district has been able to hire in a long time. Way back, it was that way, and commotion arose and the voters approved a referendum requiring superintendents to be elected instead of hired. Or so I think I recall hearing is how it went. The constant down here, besides this place being insane, is the tides go in and out. Am wondering if the whole school district shebang is not going to come all tumbling down through some way not entirely expected.
 
J replied:
I was not talking about Jara being a conch – I was talking about DICK never being one or being kicked out if he did not deliver JARA as the Superintendent. You know so much more than I do about this stuff – so I will just wait for Friday’s ‘ Cock-A-Doodle-Doo’ to find out whether I am right or totally off base and must place myself in detention for a few days! :-)
J
 
I replied:
I don’t think think most Conchs want Jara to remain here. I think most of them want a Conch superintendent.
 
J replied:
Yeah, but that is not one of the choices on the list is it? So, I figured they had rather have the one that they know they can “WORK WITH” and “UNDERSTANDS” how they want it.
 
I replied:
Something I spaced out, Dick really doesn’t like the Conchs’ hold on this school district and has made that plain in school board meetings. Might be fair to say, Dick has been the Conchs’ anti-Christ. Dick seems to have made a deal with Jara, that if Jara did this and that, then Dick would support him throughout the superintendent selection process.
 
Dick told me back when that he didn’t want to do a superintendent search, have a search committee, etc., but wanted the school board to handle it. I was with him on that. Let the school board put out the request for applications, vet the candidate resumes, interview the candidates. I even felt the new superintendent should have been someone who lived in the Keys, knew the terrain.
 
From Dist. 3 school board candidate Larry Murray yesterday:
 
Sloan:
The Coconut Telegraph is unavailable on county computers?! What b.s.! I assume, correct me if I am wrong, that it is some sort of petty reprisal for some slight, real or imagined, by the CT.

Speaking of what is accessible or not on county computers and School District computers as well, I do believe that management needs to take a close look, and I don’t just mean pornography. I am told, for example, that when there is a School Board or workshop meeting, everything stops in the Henriquez Building as staff watches the TV feed of the meeting. What a waste of time. Does the District provide popcorn? A long time ago, pre-Gentile, when Michael Kinneer was dominating the Audit and Finance Committee, I asked for a building tour, partly to confirm whether or not everyone sits around watching the School Board in action. Kinneer refused to provide the Committee with such a tour, contending that such a tour would violate Sunshine regulations. Do you believe that?!
Larry
 
I replied:
Pretty sure the County has a rule its employees cannot use their work time to surf the web for their personal entertainment, business, etc. Bigpinekey.com’s Coconut Telegraph is the most read site in the Keys, next to the whose-been-jailed page on the Sheriff’s website. I heard years ago the Coconut Telegraph was blocked from the county server, and that wasn’t new news to Deer ED. I think the new news was Ed recently learning only the Coconut Telegraph is blocked.

I told the county commissioners once or twice they each should check the Coconut Telegraph daily, if they really want to stay in tune with what is going on in their backyard.I could say the same for the county attorneys and the county administrator and his department heads. And for the Tax Collector and Tax Appraiser and Mosquito Control Board. And for the executive directors and board of directors and legal counsel of Keys Energy Services and the Aqueduct Authority. Were I George Neugent, given his county commission office is located on Big Pine, I would read the Coconut Telegraph every day, and also the News-Barometer each week. Were I George, I would raise stink about the Coconut Telegraph being blocked from the county server, but other local private-owned-operated websites are not blocked.

If the AFC together toured the Henriquez Building without that being advertised and open to the public and the press to tag along, that probably would be a Sunshine Law violation. Same for the School Board doing something like that together, unadvertised and not open to the public. However, I don’t imagine you could have been stopped from making the tour yourself while a board meeting was underway, too see what was going on. I can see an argument made for it being job-related for school administration employees to watch school board meetings, to hear for themselves what was said and done, rather than be told it second or third or fourth hand by school district employees and/or the news media. They provide free popcorn?

 
Larry replied:
No, Kinneer denied my request for an individual tour of the building.


I replied:
I replied to what you wrote:

“Kinneer refused to provide the Committee with such a tour, contending that such a tour would violate Sunshine regulations.”

I think he was correct, in the context of what you wrote.

The Sunshine Law would not apply to one AFC member going through the Henriquez Building, but Kinneer had no obligation to conduct the tour. You could have done it on your own.

Also re the Coconut Telegraph being blocked on the County server, this on the CT yesterday:

["The Coconut Telegraph is the only website in the world that is blocked on County computers"] Deer Ed – file this under VERY old news – ready – here’s the HISTORY 411 Re “what you did wrong” – County Attorney had you blocked because of all the negative posts county employees were sending you while they were on work time – and other county employees were reading while they were on work time – about Lisa Druckmiller. As I recall, CT readers did a pretty job hatchet job on her. (Kind of ironic now, though, don’t you think? Turns out everything in those posts about her was correct.)
Regarding the block – it never stopped any county employee from communicating, and there’s nothing on CT they should not see. It just forced them to do it on OTHER THAN their paid work time. And that’s fine with me. While I’m paying them – and so are you, by the way, I want them working 100% on what they’re getting paid to do – county work. I am NOT paying county employees to sit around on my paying time to read CT, or type posts to CT. I dearly love CT, and support all who read and post – BUT not while on taxpayer money !!
In case you don’t remember, Commissioner Neugent has posted on CT many times. As to you just found out CT is blocked – actually, maybe you don’t remember now, but you knew this many years ago, because you and I talked about it via email.
And here’s the good news – your CT is NOT blocked on all county employees’ cell phones or Ipads or laptops. Don’t think for a nanosecond that county employees are not reading CT. I talk to a lot of them, and they always know the latest CT, yes, even the county administrator !! So, don’t fret about the county “block” , they’ve all figured their ways around it. As long as they’re not on taxpayer time, I say good for them. They make life here much more gossipy. (Ed: In the real world County employees all surf the web on taxpayer’s dime. There is no way to block that. I want equal time, that’s all.)
 
Just like a crusty old pirate to invoke the 14th Amendment when it suits him. What you wanna bet he wouldn’t have made a peep if all private websites but his were blocked by the county server? Meanwhile, word getting out that the Coconut Telegraph is the only website in the world blocked by the county server has to be about the best grapevine advertising – forbidden fruit – he ever could have gotten, and he didn’t have to pay even one measly doubloon for it!!! What you wanna bet getting all that free publicity wasn’t his sneaky old pirate scheme all along?

 

 


begged, borrowed, pirated and written by Sloan Bashinsky, District 3 school board write-in candidate
keysmyhome@hotmail.com

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I thought maybe in dreams last night I was told to be nice when I wrote today about the bullying and school wings of The State Mental – alas!

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
 
 
 
 
From Nashville J yesterday evening:

It’s like waiting for Christmas morning to wait until the morning to find out how the bullying meeting with Ward went tonight.
Rest well!
 
http://goldtent.org/?attachment_id=46922
 
That would be State Attorney Dennis Ward, the county’s chief law enforcement officer, featured in yesterday’s Florida Keysschool bullying, superintendent and other showdowns post.

My dreams last night left me wondering if I was supposed to nice and polite in what I report today, which in turn left me thinking there would be nothing for me to report today, if I was nice and polite. What a dilemma!

By early afternoon yesterday, I had pretty much decided I wasn’t going to the anti-bullying meeting at Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Key West. Instead, I thought I might attend the school superintendent meet and greet at First State Bank in Key West.

Tired, I lay down and napped. In a dream, George Burns came along and disrupted some other folk, including Kevin Costner, an actor I really like, who weren’t putting up with any shit from anybody. George was promoting a “double tap” and handing out money peeled off a big roll of bills. Waking slowly out of that drama, I figured George had reincarnated from “Oh, God!” and the dream was my cue to head on down to Key West and double tap the MCC meeting, yesterday’s post being the first tap.

So, I dragged myself out of the sack and drove down to what I was pretty sure was going to be just what I had imagined it was going to be at MCC. I got there about half hour into it, as the women leading the powerpoint presentation was talking about cyberbullying, just what I wanted to hear all about. Facebook was her main area of concern. She said kids getting bullying on Facebook keep coming back to Facebook. Why? She got a couple of answers I don’t recall now, which she said were contributing factors, but clearly were not the answers she had in mind. I said, “Addiction.” She said that sometimes is in play. Maybe she thought I meant chemical addiction. I meant cyber addiction. She said it’s because kids being bullied on Facebook want to keep up with what is being said about them. I thought, “Addiction.”

She said she wanted to get past the history lesson and into talking about prevention. Then, she said something, I don’t recall what, but the gist left me feeling it was going to be a longish powerpoint presentation and it would be about cyberbullying, and it would be a while before we got to talking about prevention, which I figured had the typical snowball’s chance in Key West. How do you keep cyber addicts off the Internet? Good luck, with all the fun toys now available to the little darlings, which they get from their parents or wherever and tote in their little pockets or purses – desktop and laptop computers are dinosaurs as far as cyber addicts are concerned. Maybe they are the next step in human evolution. Maybe they start having cyber sex for real and create an artificial intelligence, or they mutate into cyborgs.

I raised my hand and the presenter kept talking. I kept my hand raised until she acknowledged me. I said I had come to the meeting at the invitation of State Attorney Dennis Ward, who earlier had told them I had arrived and was a blogger who was writing about bullying. I said my concern was bullying in our schools. The anti-bullying law is a farce because of how many repititions must happen before it can be enforced. The school district is not interested in stopping bullying, like what happened to the Coral Shores High little kid who got stuffed in a locker by a bigger kid for an hour, while other kids laughed. I said that bigger kid should have been put in the county (jail) and got brought before a judge and enjoined. That’s how you stop that kind of thing. I pointed at Dennis, said he’s the Big Daddy here. He and the Sheriff and Police Departments can get the message across.

Well, you’d have thought a pack of starved rabid foxes had just landed in a hen house, the response that stirred in the presenter and a few in the audience, including a Key West Police Department Captain I know somewhat. Just as I had figured going in, I was in the midst of a bunch of new age yuppie feel gooder do nothingers. Dennis said my suggestion was a way to go at it, but he did not say that was the way he was going to go at it, which I had hoped he was going to say after our lengthy phone conversation the day before, which I described in yesterday’s Florida Keysschool bullying, superintendent and other showdowns post. I said Dennis had invited me to come and speak my views, I had done that, figuring it would be short and sweet, as I got up and walked out, glad to get out of there. I am so very glad I don’t have to worry about people liking me.

From there, I drove over to First State Bank, in time to hear one mainland superintendent candidate wrap up his sales pitch for the job. Then, the last of the four remaining candidates spoke. The fifth candidate, also from the mainland, had dropped out of the “race” by accepting a superintendent job elsewhere. Here’s what The Key West Citizen reported about the fourth candidate:


“Ed Shine, superintendent of schools in Rye City, N.Y., for 16 years who announced a year ago he would retire this July. Shine, 68, said that he favors “school-based management,” and that the Keys’ geography “seems to beg for that kind of a model” used in decision-making.

“Decisions are best made closest to the students, not in the central office,” said Shine, who has 22 years of experience as a public schools superintendent. Districts must do whatever is necessary to protect teachers, Shine said, even in tough economic times.”

Not reported, Shine said, during his long career as an educator, he had been superintendent in two school districts and had been principal of two schools. His credentials and experience were off the chart.

I wanted to speak with Shine, and on the way over to where he stood I passed School Board Chairman John Dick and School Board members Robin Smith-Martin and Andy Griffiths standing side by side, as if in a reception line. They looked really gloomy, like maybe just back from Transylvania for a try out in a new B-grade vampire movie they didn’t get the parts in. I pointed at Shine and said they needed to listen to that candidate. John said he listens to all candidates. I said he needed to listen to that candidate.

I walked over to Shine and waited for him to stop talking with a youngish woman, who wanted to talk about charter schools – her child attended on. Shine he’d had no experience with charter schools, and there were very few in New York. She wanted to keep talking to him, others were lining up. I had no goodmorningfloridakeys.com “business cards” in my wallet, so I walked outside and over to my car to get some cards.

Headed back into the meet and greet, I ran into District # school board candidate Larry Murray, who was outside having a smoke. Larry said he had thought I was going to the MCC meeting. I said I did that, it was terminally fucked; I said my short and sweet, it was pissing in the wind, and then I came over to the meet and greet. Larry said I had lowered my standard. I said, by coming to the superintendent candidate meet and greet? He said no, by pissing in the wind. Just the other day, I was pissing up a rope. I said I was indeed slipping downward and needed to correct my course.

Back inside, I was able to catch Shine’s eye and he turned toward me. I shook his hand, said I am the local devil. I asked if he had investigated this school district the way he was being investigated? He said he had done some reading and knew what most of the issues are. I said he did not know what really is going on in this school district and gave him a goodmorningfloridakeys.com card. He looked at it, looked at me, nodded, put it in his pocket.

I walked over to Todd German and asked if he had heard Shine speak? Todd said he didn’t get there in time. A pitty. Todd was on the superintendent search committee.

I saw District 3 school board candidate Ed Davidson and went over and asked if he’d heard Shine speak? Ed smiled, said yes, he’d heard it: shine liked school-based management, which is Ed’s big ticket item for how this school district should operate. I asked Ed if any of the other candidates had mentioned school-based management? Ed said no.

I thought to myself, no way John Dick, Robin Smith-Martin and Andy Griffiths put a school-based management superintendent devotee in that job. No way they put in that job a superintendent with that much public school experience, which dwarfs the experience of Governor-appointed Superintendent Jesus Jara and, very likely, the other three candidates for the position. Shine is the real deal, folks. The real deal. And the real deal ain’t welcome in this school district, in my experience and observation. Shine should have been at the top of the short list of every member of the superintendent search committee.

Also in The Citizen report of the meet and greet was:

“The School Board will hold individual, closed-door interviews on Thursday in Marathon before taking a vote during a meeting that begins at 2 p.m. at Marathon High School.”

I do not include the entire Citizen article today because it got left out of the easy to open and copy and paste online Citizen. I had to open the entire edition, and when I copied and pasted from that, the formatting was two or three words per line and I had to manually reformat what little I had copied from the article. If you wish to see the entire article, you can click on keysnews.com and pay the 50 cent fee with plastic money and download the entire online edition, which will take about a minute.

Also yesterday, I learned from Larry Murray that the gratis offer of Clerk of Court candidate Matt Gardi, an IT pro, to live-stream Thursday’s school board meeting was accepted by Jesus Jara, pending availability of the Internet connections and hardware Matt needs on the school district’s side of it. Don’t know yet how to link into the meeting, will report that if/when I get it from Larry or Matt. Both have the sad misfortune to be on my email hit list.

From another wing in The State Mental, as reported in The News-Barometer, residenced on Big Pine Key, read a real journalist:


Legal maneuvering delays No Name court decisions
BY STEVE ESTES
News-Barometer Editor
A series of procedural delays in various legal arenas will push the possibility of a court-resolution concerning the electrification of No Name Key up to or past the estimated time for completion of the power grid on the island.
Last Monday, the Third District Court of Appeals denied a motion by No Name Key property owner Bob Reynolds to dismiss the appeal filed there by the Solar Community of No Name Key and Monroe County. That appeal is
one asking the Third DCA to overturn local Circuit Court Judge David Audlin’s dismissal of a declaratory action filed by the county seeking the answers to several lingering questions concerning what the county could and doesn’t have to permit on No Name Key.
The appeal itself still isn’t on the court’s public calendar and may not reach it by the time Keys Energy Services has completed placing power poles and stringing lines to the remote island off the northeast shore of Big Pine Key.
Once the poles began rising skyward on No Name Key, the county filed an emergency injunction request in Audlin’s court, but that was rebuffed as not an emergency. According to Chief Assistant County Attorney Bob
Shillinger, the court believes an ultimate remedy does exist in that the poles can be removed if for some reason the project cannot be completed.
“There is precedent in Florida law for removal of development that has been completed without the proper permitting,” said Shillinger.
The county has also filed a standard injunction order, but that case isn’t scheduled to be heard until late August, a week or two after Keys Energy officials have said the grid will be completed and energized. But Shillinger says the county is still researching the possibility of a stop work order through its code compliance office as he believes the project will violate county code prohibiting the extension of public utilities to and through areas within a Coastal Barrier Resource System.
Though not all of the 43 homes on No Name Key are physically located in a CBRS area, the grid must at some point run through that area to get to the homes. Only 25 of the 43 property owners on No Name are signed
onto the line extension agreement with KEYS at this point. County officials also have said that the proposed route for the power grid will cross county-owned conservation lands and the Board of County Commissioners has denied use of those properties for utility easements.
The latest statement from Keys Energy is that none of the lines will traverse county-owned properties, but will skirt the edges. The utility is using as its basis for access to the necessary easements a letter from the No Name Key Property Owner’s Association that says the association has verified the easements.
KEYS went to the BOCC last year, however, to ask for permission to use the county land for easements but was denied. According to an email from Keys Energy Chief Executive Officer Lynn Tejeda, the design for the power grid for the island does include crossing county lands. She said that the design had not changed from
its initial conception. In that first iteration, KEYS asked for easements across that property.
Audlin’s initial ruling in the declaratory action was to kick the decision to the Florida Public Service Commission, the agency he ruled had complete jurisdiction to decide all matters with commercial electrical service in the state.
In its appeal, Monroe County argues that the PSC has jurisdiction over territorial disputes and rate and safety issues, but has no jurisdiction over county regulations controlling development on private
property.
Reynolds filed a complaint with the PSC shortly after Audlin’s ruling asking that the state agency force KEYS to run the power grid and force Monroe County to back down from its established code prohibitions. KEYS filed a motion to dismiss that action, however, the PSC staff report said that the motion to dismiss should not be honored and that the commission should hear oral arguments on the issue.
KEYS withdrew its motion to dismiss last Thursday and reported that both they and Reynolds’ attorneys had agreed to give the utility 45 days to completely answer the initial complaint. That takes the new deadline for filing an answer to July 29, which is about two weeks before the utility claims it will have the grid completed and energized.
County officials have steadfastly claimed that they can’t issue building permits to the residents of No Name Key to hook into the power lines despite the lines being run to the public rights-of-way in front of the homes. The county’s code prohibition doesn’t allow that. The prohibition was one of the legal questions the county and KEYS had asked Judge Audlin to decide before the judge kicked the matter to the PSC.
Shillinger says that the PSC’s jurisdiction doesn’t run to ruling on the validity of county code in growth management matters.“Until a competent court invalidates our ordinance, which they haven’t
done, we have a valid, enforceable ordinance that we must maintain,” said Shillinger.
Meanwhile, KEYS contractors are placing power poles for the next week or so and will begin stringing lines in a little over a week. Once the lines are up, KEYS Spokesman Julio Barroso says that work will stop until the company constructing the No Name Key Bridge crossing brings the high voltage lines from Big Pine Key across the bridge to tie into the poles on No Name.
The BOCC voted unanimously to continue with legal action to enforce their county land use codes in regard to No Name Key, though Commissioner George Neugent, whose district two includes No Name Key, said last week during a US 1 Radio interview that he felt as though the commission should back out of the fray and let it play out as a civil matter between the residents of the island and Keys Energy.
The problem with that argument, George, as you well know, is the County’s Comprehensive Plan is on the line and you and the rest of the County Commissioners authorized Shillinger to put that question into the courts via a Declaratory Judgement action because you and the other Commissioners didn’t want to get the County sued by either side of the NNK fracas, which for sure would have happened if the DEC action was not filed. As I wrote the other day, George, I knew when we ran against each other in 2006 that you were a developers’ county commissioner, and your environmental protection talk lacked substance. KEYS never saw a development it didn’t like, and the greatest threat to KEYS not growing greener every day, greenback greener, is Alicia Putney and her solar tribe on NNK. Why are they KEYS greatest threat to growing greener every day? Obvious. If every home in the Keys was as solarized as Alicia and her tribe’s homes on NNK, then KEYS would go bankrupt. KEYS cannot AFFORD for the rest of the KEYS to become like NNK, which should have happened decades ago. The county government should have ordered its building and code enforcement departments to make it easy as pie to get a permit to install solar systems in Keys homes and business properties. The county government should have declined to approve any new development or re-devleopment that was not as solarized as the homes on NNK, even though those developments or re-developments would be on the grid. The County, and Key West, Marathon, Layton, Islamorada and Ocean Reef Club could have made the Keys an international show case for solarized living, which would have attracted visitors from all over the world, who would have made the entire Keys a hell of a lot greener, as in greenbacks. Idiots.

More from a real journalist


PSC goes public on jurisdiction
BY STEVE ESTES
News-Barometer Editor
Much has been said and a lot of money, public and private, spent to get to the point where some court or some agency, somewhere, may actually make a decision on what group, or groups, can make decisions on the potential electrification of No Name Key. Circuit Court Judge David Audlin ruled in dismissing a declaratory
action that sought to have some of those questions answered that the Florida Public Service Commission had sole jurisdiction to decide matters on commercial extension of electricity.
Proponents of power to the remote, environmentally sensitive island of No Name Key have jumped on that bandwagon and filed actions requesting that the PSC toss aside county rules prohibiting the extension of
public utilities to No Name Key.
Opponents of power have stayed with the court system, appealing Audlin’s ruling and also filing a demand letter that the county enforce its, thus far, legal and valid ordinance prohibiting electrification of the island with 43 homes and several hundred endangered Key Deer, along with a smattering of endangered Lower Keys Marsh Rabbits, Stock Island Tree Snails, Eastern Indigo Snakes, Keys Tree Cactus and Silver Rice Rats.
But it appears that the Public Service Commission already knows where its jurisdiction on such matters starts and stops. On the PSC’s public website, on the welcome page, is a link to a downloadable, printable brochure that tells state residents when they should call the PSC with a specific question regarding utility service. The brochure is detailed and breaks out the information into sections.
The first section concerns electric service. Under the Electric section are two sub-sections, one detailing when a
resident would call the PSC and to what areas the agency extends it jurisdiction. The second sub-section delineates those aspects of electrical service the PSC does not regulate. Those areas the PSC claims it regulates include investor-owned electric companies. It also claims jurisdiction over rates and charges by electric utilities, as well as jurisdiction over meter and billing accuracy.
The brochure is quite specific that the PSC regulates electric lines only up to the meter. That’s one of the questions both Keys Energy Services and Monroe County had asked Judge Audlin to rule on in the declaratory action that he dismissed. The question was whether the county had the authority to enforce its land use code prohibition against the extension of public power to No Name Key by refusing to issue building permits to the residents there to hook in to the power once the poles and lines were in place.
The county claims jurisdiction over electrical systems from the meter to the residence, a claim that has never been successfully challenged. That county-claimed jurisdiction melds completely with the PSC’s claim
of jurisdiction only to the meter, leaving the state agency out of the argument over whether a building permit is appropriate.
The brochure also says that the PSC has authority to regulate reliability of the electrical service provided, new construction safety code compliance for transmission and distribution of grid power, territorial agreements over who has authority to serve what areas and whether there is a need for certain power plants and transmission lines.
What’s more interesting to opponents of commercial power to No Name Key, however, and probably to Monroe County officials who have been forced to take legal action to protect their ability to enforce their own growth management rules, is the list of things the PSC admits it does not regulate.
The agency says it does not regulate rates and adequacy of service provided by municipally owned and rural electric cooperatives except for safety oversight. Keys Energy is a municipally owned utility. The PSC claims that it does not exercise jurisdiction over electrical wiring inside the customer’s building. Again, the county has long
claimed regulatory authority from the meter to the rest of the home. The PSC has never challenged that authority.
The PSC brochure also claims that it does not regulate the physical placement of transmission and distribution lines nor does it regulate the placement or relocation of utility poles. A state law allows Keys Energy, or any other public utility, to use public rights-of-way free from interference for pole and wire placement. The county has maintained that placement of poles and wires on private property is subject to their rules. The PSC notes that for questions of jurisdiction on pole placement and wire, they defer to the local municipal authority and its agreement with the provider.
The PSC brochure also says the state agency does not regulate what is and isn’t right-of-way although it notes it does give the provider the authority to use eminent domain, the condemnation of land for use as easements and rights-of-way, with a fair market value to be determined by the courts.
What is and isn’t considered right-of-way is one of the questions KEYS and Monroe County had sought to have answered by the declaratory action that Audlin dismissed, deferring to the PSC. Another of the questions was placement of poles on publicly owned lands that are not dedicated rights-of-way and the necessary easements needed for that placement.
The PSC staff arranged an informal conference on the procedures to be used to handle the No Name Key complaint before the PSC Tuesday. During that conference, PSC staff announced that it would conduct a
fact-finding period to determine what its jurisdiction might be. That period was expected to last beyond the time when Keys Energy expected to have the poles and wires in place.
“I got the impression from conversations after the meeting that the PSC would wait until its jurisdiction no longer applied and then shelve the issue,” said Alicia Putney, opponent to power on the island and a member of the Solar Community of No Name Key.
Chief Assistant County Attorney Bob Shillinger’s reaction to news that the PSC has already publicly stated what it does and doesn’t regulate, and several of those claims deal with issues raised by the No Name Key
Property Owners’ Association, was “Interesting.”
“We hire specialists in public service commission actions just because we as general practitioners can’t be aware of all the legal ins-and-outs of every state or federal agency and the experts we hire are more familiar with those agencies than we could be,” said Shillinger.
Shillinger told the county commission that it was important they authorize county legal staff to intervene in the PSC complaint because the NNKPOA was asking the PSC to legislate on the validity of county ordinances dealing with local land use.
For a fact, the county government seriously resents outside government agencies, FEMA and US Fish & Wildlife come to mind, telling the county government how to govern the Keys. Why would the county government not resent just as much the PSC telling the county government how to govern the Keys? I can’t wait to see the PSC step up to the plate and tell Key West that it cannot stop Keys Energy Services from trimming trees back from powerlines in the tourist sections of Key West (about half of the city). I can’t wait to see PSC do that. PSC told Sandy Downs it has no jurisdiction over Keys Energy Services because it is not a public utility but is owned by Key West. Maybe some day Bob Shillinger and Alicia Putney and her lawyer will point that out to the PSC. Maybe some day Alicia and Bob will figure out why Judge David Audlin is so obviously biased in favor of running power out to No Name Key. I told them both why, after Alicia told me why. Before he was a judge, Audlin was a practicing attorney in the Keys. As such, in an early 1990s NNK lawsuit before Judge Payne, Audlin was appointed by Payne to mediate the case. Audlin reported to Payne that NNK should get Keys Energy electricity. Payne ignored Audlin’s recommendation and ruled NNK was not entitled to Keys Energy electricity. Audlin has had that stuck in his craw ever since. Why Alicia and her lawyer let Audlin stay on the DEC action filed by Shillinger for the County is beyond my comprehension. Was it a death wish? They could have forced Audlin to recuse himself. No appellate court would have let Audlin stay on the case, if he had declined to recuse himself.

From the same wing of The State Mental yesterday:

From: sloanbashinsky@hotmail.com
To: island@bigpinekey.com; gastesi-roman@monroecounty-fl.gov; neugent-george@monroecounty-fl.gov
Subject: Coconut Telegraph – banned from viewing on county server?
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:19:39 -0400

Hey, Roman and George. You wanna field this one from bigpinekey.com’s Coconut Telegraph today? Ed is the boss pirate owner operator of the scurrilous site and blog. Thanks. Sloan

(Ed: Does anyone know County Administrator Roman Gastesi’s email address and how to properly pronounce his last name? I found out that the Coconut Telegraph is the only website in the world that is blocked on County computers. County employees can watch terrorist instructions, naked children, gambling, hate, bigotry and every other God-awful thing, but they can’t read Monroe County’s Coconut Telegraph. The only other site he might have censored was Sal Gutierrez’s site, but I think that site is gone now.
What shouldn’t County employees see? I want to email him to find out. What have we done that is wrong and how can we fix it? I’d like him to know that the Coconut Telegraph is an actual archived record of what people concerned with the Florida Keys have been talking about every day since January 2002. Whether the site is good or bad isn’t my point. My point is that bigpinekey.com was singled out from of all the internet site in the world to be blocked.)

I feel terrible. My goodmorning websites have not been banned from viewing on the county server. I need to try harder.

begged, borrowed, stolen, written by Sloan Bashinsky, District 3 write-in school board candidate, and otherwise nere-do-well

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

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Florida Keys school bullying, superintendent and other showdowns

Monday, June 25th, 2012

Received this from School Board member Ron Martin yesterday:

Subject: RE: Surreal School District
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:20:53 -0400
From: Ron.MartinSB@KeysSchools.com
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com 

Sloan I read in your blog yesterday that all the present school board was in office when Gentile was hired. That is not so, I was not and Smith-Martin was not on the board at that time. Ron

I replied to Ron that I would publish his today. I had tried to find out when Ron and Robin Smith-Martin went on the School Board relative to Ken Gentile being hired. The person I asked turned out not to know. My apologies to Ron and Robin.

The School Board members who hired Ken Gentile were Andy Griffiths, Steve Primbramsky, Duncan Matthewson, John Dick and Debra Walker. Ron Martin replaced Walker and Robin Smith-Martin replaced Pribramsky.

From State Attorney Dennis Ward re the State Attorney part of yesterday’s lipstick on pigs – Florida Keys State Attorney & School District beauty pageants, mostly post:

From: dward@keyssao.org
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 12:29:09 -0400
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com; oktcraft@terranova.net; gaffer12333@bellsouth.net; johnlguerra@gmail.com; keywestislandgirl@hotmail.com

I’ve never known you to hold back, even if you don’t know all the facts.

I guess you’ve already formed your misguided opinion.

So, as I see it, if I do nothing you criticize me and if I do something you call it a re-election campaign.

Good to see your parents spent big bucks educating you. They would be really proud of you.

I replied to ALL:

Hi, Dennis. I always give people I write about a chance to respond and I publish it verbatim. Tell me the facts I don’t know and I will publish them, along with any thoughts I might have. My opinion of you, Dennis, is based on what I have seen you do and not do, and our many conversations. If you are looking at criminal activity and do nothing, yes, I criticize you. If you go off the reservation prosecuting someone who deserves nowhere near the punishment you dish out, yes, I criticize you. My mother died from cancer when I was in law school, so she never got to form an opinion of me after I went into this world. My father was proud of my law practice and the three consumer-help books I wrote from that experience, which pissed off some of his good friends and plenty of Realtors and lawyers in Birmingham, and elsewhere. After I quit practicing law, my father slowly but inexorably became sorely disappointed in me, and finally he became convinced I was insane, even as he was terrified of me because of what I might write or say or do next, which had anything to do with him. All during the estrangement, he was probably my strongest ally in my dreams, and after he died he started asking me to do what I could to straighten out the various problems he had left behind. Problems he and I had discussed and over which we had become estranged. Sloan

Later yesterday, Dennis and I had along phone conversation. He said he has been disturbed by stuff happening in some of the schools and he is going to start applying regular law to those situations. We agreed, the anti-bullying law is ineffective because of its requirement that bullying has to be ongoing and longstanding. I opined that I figured the law was passed by new agers, yuppies, touchy-feel-gooders, and politically water-downed by lobbying from principals, teachers, school superintendents and school boards who did not want to stop what was really going on in the schools. I told Dennis I would be delighted to write about his efforts to deal with crimes committed by students on school grounds in ways that get everyone’s attention. I said I would pound nay sayers who said he was doing it for political gain. Dennis’ predecessor, Mark Kohl, did nothing about what was going on in the schools. Kohl’s felony prosecutor, Cathy Vogel, did nothing about what was going on in the schools. I told Dennis yesterday that Kohl should not be State Attorney again, and so far, Vogel looks like a wench to me. I said I had heard nothing good about Key West High Principal Amber Bosco, and from all I had heard of her, she needs to be gotten rid of.

According to Andy Griffiths, who was told it by his daughter, Bosco’s niece, the student body president, used Facebook to invite seniors, including Griffiths’ daughter, to the early morning vandalism party at Key West High School, which left human feces smeared on walls. Bosco’s response was basically no response. Andy told me he would look into it. I haven’t heard back from him.

Nashville J had this to say about the small kid being stuffed in a locker for a hour by a big kid at Coral Shores High School, the punishment for which was the the principal had the big kid and the small kid shake hands:

Sloan:

Concerning your:

My point.

A big kid stuffing a little kid in a locker for an hour is assault and battery and wrongful imprisonment, which are crimes in Alabama, and I imagine in Florida.Florida has an anti-hazing law for schools doesn’t it? Different from anti-bullying law, yes?

So Ward wants you to come to an Anti Bullying presentation at MCC on Monday. We will move forward on these issues. Express your views!

WTF – we don’t need a friggin meeting – enforce the laws of the land, Ward. There is no where that taking someone, whether they are a kid or not, and putting them somewhere (a locker) for an hour without their wishes is not a crime. IF someone were to grab Ward against his wishes, stuff him in a trunk of a car (I assume he is too big for a locker) for an hour and then see whether he thinks it is a crime or not. Would take about a nano-second after he got out for him to charge whoever did it (unless it was an old time Conch) with kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment, etc. etc. Yes, kids will be kids, but if the “bullying” laws don’t work the laws on the books will.

Let’s play along! So, the kid that got stuffed in the locker has a knife in his pocket – he is scared to death, he wants out badly. The Bully comes back in an hour and open the door, the little kid inside sees his chance to escape, has his knife out and when the door opens he slams the knife into the Bully and badly injures him or (lord forbid) kills him. Would Ward get off his ass and charge the little kid for assualt or murder? Second Degree? Man-slaughter? OR would he call a frigging meeting about the subject so you could express your views? Grow a pair Ward and do your job !

J

I might go to MCC to explain that the anti-bullying law is a farce and what they need is for kids who assault, lock up, steal from, threaten, hurt other kids in schools to learn they will be treated like other criminals are treated. Judges decide if juveniles can be prosecuted as adults or as juveniles. Judges can issue injunctions against kids who are violating other kids, with criminal sanctions for violating the injunctions – jail time. Judges can do all sorts of things juvenile criminals don’t like. It’s time juvenile criminals learn the consquences of crime in our schools. No child should have to go to school fearing what some other kid or kids will do to him or her in school. No kid should ever have to fear that, and since our principals, superintendent and and school board members don’t seem willing to do anything about it, it’s the job of the State Attorney and the Circuit Judges to make crime not pay in our schools.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Schools Jesus Jara wrote this to Larry Murray yesterday, re Larry pushing to have this Thursday’s school board meeting video-streamed, so more Keys people could watch it. School Board meetings historically have been televised on Comcast, which is a cable company. People who do not have Comcast, I don’t have it, cannot watch school board meetings on TV. I asked in a post maybe three months ago, when Larry first raised video streaming of school board meetings, if, in these tight money times, if the school district had the money and equiptment to do it?

Subject: RE: Online Video Streaming
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 09:02:32 -0400
From: Jesus.Jara@KeysSchools.com
To: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
CC: Robin.Smith-Martin@KeysSchools.com; Ron.MartinSB@KeysSchools.com; Duncan.Mathewson@KeysSchools.com; John.Dick@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com; keysmyhome@hotmail.com; mhowell@keysnews.com; island@bigpinekey.com; matt@mattgardi.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; news@us1radio.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com

It is not going to be available for next Thursday.
Mr. Nick Osterhoudt, IT Director spoke to the company that approached the district about offering a free service and it turned out to be a pricy proposition.

______________________________________

Meaning, you can watch Thursday’s school board meeting on Comcast – perhaps your nearest sports bar or convenience store can tune into it for you, if you don’t have Comcast. Or you can attend the school board meeting. Or you can read and hear what the local media have to say about it the next day. I’m going to be there because I want to watch the five school board members sweat when they select the new superintendent. I want to see if the superintendent search was genuine, or was a farce. A member of the superintendent search committee told me day before yesterday that, based on the superintendent candidate applications and resumes, which was all the search committee were allowed by the school board to consider, Jesus Jara should not have made the short list of five candidates.

On another waterfront, Dennis Ward jumped me yesterday for not reporting the Federal Court in Miami, on Motion for Summary Judgment, had dismissed Robert Krukto’s lawsuit against the City of Key West. That was maybe six weeks ago. I said I had not written about that because I had not felt I was supposed to write about it yet. (I figured I would write about it sooner or later, given how much hell I had raised about it.) I told Dennis that I remain convinced Krutko was fucked by the City of Key West and Attorney Michael Halpern, it was another case of Bubba Justice. (The unable to get the number of passengers he needed for the tour boat he had purchased to make a profit, Krukto removed the boat from its favorable boat slip on Front Street. Not long afterward, The Fury tour boat, owned by Michael Halpern and others, got the same slip and was allowed by the city to have ten-times, according to what I recall Krukto telling me, the number of passengers the Krutko boat was allowed.) I told Dennis, maybe if Krukto’d had legal counsel when he bought the tour boat, he would have avoided all the trouble. But the way he’d tried to deal with what was done with online attacks, instead of trying the case in the courts, was out of bounds. (The first law firm who represented Krukto, the Cochrah Law Firm, screwed up by making it a civil rights violation case, instead of a Duck Tours anti-trust/unfair competition case. Krukto’s second lawyer told me that the time the Krutkos engaged him, the statute of limitations had run for bringing an anti-trust/unfair competition lawsuit.) I told Dennis that I once wrote that I had dreamt Robert Krutko might be Key West’s Christ, and I had wondered in that post if, like Jesus, Krutko would be crucified? I think that’s exactly what happened to to Krutko, in many ways. I think the City of Key West has no moral compass. Reminds me of the school district.

begged, borrowed, stolen and written by Sloan Bashinsky, District 3 school board candidate

 

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

 

keysmyhome@hotmail.com

 

?

 

 

 

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lipstick on pigs – Florida Keys State Attorney & School District beauty pageants, mostly

Sunday, June 24th, 2012

From State Attorney Dennis Ward yesterday. keyssao.org is the State Attorney’s website. gaffer is John Donnelly of Key Largo. Kim Romano heads up Womankind in Key West. Island girl is Christine Russell, a citizen activist, member of The Resitance. I imagine tegans are Judge Tegan Slaton and his wife Rosemary Enright, the Public Defender. Debby Goodman heads up the local Republican Party. Don’t recall knowing classeter.
 
Subject: Fwd: MonroePP_FINAL.pptx
From: dward@keyssao.org
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:38:04 -0400
To: gaffer12333@bellsouth.net; pworthy@msn.com; vwinter@keyssao.org; kim_romano@post.harvard.edu; keywestislandgirl@hotmail.com; pramage@keyssao.org; sreams@keyssao.org; tegans@aol.com; yleon@keyssao.org; cpoist@keyssao.org; aturso@keyssao.org; abutler@keyssao.org; labreu@keyssao.org; kscull@keyssao.org; cspottswood@keyssao.org; keysmyhome@hotmail.com; cdunne@keyssao.org; debbygoodman@keysgop.com; dphillips@keyssao.org; fcohens@keyssao.org; kclasseter@gmail.com; cweber@keyssao.org; blast@gaykeywestfl.cDennis 
Sent from my iPad
 
Begin forwarded message:
From: Lynn Layton <LLayton@moniqueburrfoundation.org>
Date: June 22, 2012 4:00:19 PM EDT
To: “‘dward@keyssao.org‘” <dward@keyssao.org>
Subject:MonroePP_FINAL.pptx
 
 
It was, in my opinion, a worthless powerpoint presentation on bullying in schools, which I cannot transfer on my laptop into an email or post. Why I think it was worthless is explained in the following emails.
 
I replied to ALL:
Subject: RE: MonroePP_FINAL.pptx
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 08:10:10 -0400

Looks to me bullying is too difficult to prove, because of ongoing duration requirement.Looks to me what happened to that smaller kid getting stuffed into a locker for an hour by a bigger kid at Coral Shores High can be dealt with more simply: assault and battery and false imprisonment charges against the bigger kid.

Education is good, but there needs to be a clear understanding in the students, parents, teachers and principals that physical violence at school will be prosecuted just like everywhere else in the Keys.

Isn’t there also a state anti-hazing law that applies in the schools?

Dennis replied to me only:
 
Subject: Re: MonroePP_FINAL.pptx
From: dward@keyssao.org
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:59:15 -0400
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.comBut maybe we will prove other violations
 
I replied to Dennis, then forwarded his and mine to ALL:
 
My point.
 
A big kid stuffing a little kid in a locker for an hour is assault and battery and wrongful imprisonment, which are crimes in Alabama, and I imagine in Florida.Florida has an anti-hazing law for schools doesn’t it? Different from anti-bullying law, yes?

Looks to me the Florida anti-bullying law is a joke, because of the way it defines bullying.

Under the anti-bullying law, a big kid stuffing a little kid in locker for an hour is not bullying because it did not happen but once. Actually, it happened 60 minutes times 60 seconds, if you ask the little kid who was stuffed in the locker.

The way the schools and the state view bullying, if instead of locking the little kid in the locker, the big kid had cornered him after school and threatened to beat the little kid up if he didn’t give the big kid all his bubble gum, that would not be bullying either, but you would never convince the little kid it wasn’t bullying. Nor will you ever convince me it is not bullying.

Bullying is like pornography, I know it when I see it.

 
Dennis replied:
 
Subject: Re: MonroePP_FINAL.pptx
From: dward@keyssao.org
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 21:47:59 -0400
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com

We will see. Come add your comments to the Anti Bullying presentation at MCC on Monday at 5:30. We will move forward on these issues.

D
 
I replied to ALL:
 
Last time I was at MCC, the church in Old Town, yes?, it was a gay attempt to get you and your prosecutors to give gays more protection on the sidewalks and streets of KW, than straights were given. Fallout from Tom Milone, who is gay, being nearly beaten to death by several black teens while he was taking a walk one night in Old Town. I was waiting to see if you would say you are going to look into the little kid being stuffed into the locker by the big kid. I seem to have gotten your answer.
 
Sloan
 
Dennis replied only to me:
 
Subject: Re: MonroePP_FINAL.pptx
From: dward@keyssao.org
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:35:38 -0400
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.comHappy to see you will attend.  Express your views.

D
 
I replied to ALL:
Don’t know how I can express my views any plainer to the one person who calls the state law enforcement shots in the Keys. Nobody else matters on something like this. If I make it to the re-elect Dennis Ward political rally at MCC, what I have to say probably won’t be pretty.
 
Unknown to me, this was to be in The Key West Citizen today. My comments intersitus aren’t particularly pretty. For readers who might not know, I busted my tail trying to get Dennis elected in 2008. I felt his opponent, Mark Kohl, was a weak State Attorney. That view has not changed.
 
Vogel v. Ward
Veteran from previous regime takes on incumbent state attorney in primary
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
When former Monroe County State Attorney Mark Kohl announced in February that he wanted his old job back, so began whispers that the race to oust the current top prosecutor could get muddy.
Kohl is running as the only Republican candidate, whereas Catherine Vogel, Kohl’s one-time chief assistant state attorney, is challenging current State Attorney Dennis Ward in the Democratic primary on Aug. 14.
Kohl and Vogel adamantly deny Ward’s suggestion that they are teaming up on him to defeat him and take the office “backward (to) where we were financially, politically and public corruption wise,” Ward said. Ward defeated Kohl in 2008.
The same conspiracy theory could be mouthed by any incumbent who has more than one opponent. Vogel quit shortly after Ward was elected, after he told her he was going to cut her pay as a cost-saving measure. He had campaigned on cutting costs in the State Attorney Office, and on going after public corruption. Vogel quit on the spot, tossed a capital case she was handling on the desk of a green Assistant State Attorney, said good luck, and walked out of the office. Later, she decided to stick around and finish handling that case, and then she quit. All according to what Dennis told me, when it happened. I believed him, and I still believe that is what happened.
The bout for top prosecutor is coming down to a war of words over how much the electorate values the experience of Kohl or Vogel versus Ward’s four-year record, which he claims is stellar for tackling public corruption.
I can claim pigs fly, but that don’t make it so. In fact, Dennis’ tackling public corruption and being hard on crime is spotty.
Dennis prosecuted a Wisteria Island trespass case knowing a chief piece of evidence against the defendent had been doctored by the arresting Florida Fish & and Wildlife Officer, Lieutentant David Dipree. I was unable to get Dennis to deal with Dipree, a movie star shill for Roger Bernstein, whose family owns Wisteria Island. A movie in which Dipree starred. A movie designed to convince the Monroe County Growth Management Division, the Monroe County Planning Commission, the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners, and the general public that they should support the Bernstein’s attempt to develop Wisteria Island into a copycat of nearby Sunset Key, owned by another developer named Walsh, who had partnered with the Bernsteins to develop Wisteria Island. All of this Dennis knew, and, in fact, Dennis had called Dipree on his movie stardom in front of Dipree’s superior at F & W and told them both that could not happen again. I told Dennis he should prosecute Dipree for evidence tampering. Dennis declined. He said Dipree did not tamper the evidence. It was an honest mistake. When pigs fly. I told Dipree, Dennis and his top gunslinger Mark Wilson, during a phone conversation on the speaker phone in Dennis’ office, that Dipree was lying.
This year, Dennis let City Planner Don Craig off with a wrist slap probation, after Craig got drunk and started throwing rocks at passing cars because he was pissed off the city was not doing anything about his complaints of cars driving to fast on his street. One of the passing cars Craig hit with a rock was a KWPD cruiser. All development proposals in Key West start with Craig and his department. Craig used to be a private planner. He represented developers before the previous City Planner and the the City Commission. Craig was very important to developers. They did not want him put out of commission. The Assistant State Attorney given the case by the SA computer is the daughter of a KW developer, who, with his brothers, have developed much real estate in Key West and some up the Keys. When she asked the cops to go along with the plea deal she wanted for Craig, they said okay. They knew who she was, that her family were several generation conchs. I crawled all over Dennis for that plea deal, and he said he liked it. Hold that thought until we get to the spit on the cop’s hat case later on.
At the request of Key West Attorney Michael Halpern, who enjoys a notorious reputation in some Key West legal and lay circles, and at the request of local judge David Audlin, at the request, it was not required of Dennis and his Office, Dennis had his top gunslinger Mark Wilson extradite Robert Krutko from Ohio on a contempt of court finding by Audlin in a civil lawsuit filed by Halpern against Krutko. When I got onto Dennis about that, he said he did not extradite Krutko. Halpern extradited him. Which was pure bull shit. Halpern had no legal means to extradict Krutko. Jugde Audlin had not legal means to do it. Only the State Attorney could do it, and the State Attorney did it. I wrote a number of times about that case on my websites, and finally I worte that Ward, Wilson, Judge Audlin and Michael Halpern all should be put in prison for what the did to Robert Krutko. I am still of that opinion.
Sandy Downs and I gave Dennis Ward uncontroverted proof that the Key West Tree Commission and its Assistant City Attorney Ron Ramsingh, whom I understand is a Conch, that is, a Keys native, knowingly gouged many Key West property owners, who wanted to remove damaged or diseased trees, out of fines, forced donations and/or new trees in mitigation of removed trees, knowing they did not have a city ordinance that allowed them to do it. Out of their own mouths, in two Tree Commission meetings in 2009, the Tree Commissioners and Ramsingh talked about what they were doing, that there was no ordinance to allow for it. In the second meeting they talked about how they could make it look legal so they could keep doing it. Sandy and I have the recording of the first meeting and a court reporter’s transcript of the recording of the second meeting. I published that. Dennis Ward got what I published. He gets everything I publish. He has told me many times he reads all that I publish. He gave the case to an assistant prosecutor, who then quit. working for the SA Office. Not long ago, Dennis gave the Tree Commission case to an assistant prosecutor who has never handled a felony prosecution. A misdemeanor prosecutor. In my opinion, the case Sandy and I gave to Dennis is every bit as serious as what the Acevedos did to the school district and the entire Keys Community. Except it applies to Key West.
This latest round with Dennis over a state bullying law he knows is useless, his avoidance of my repeated invitations for him to investigate the little kid being stuffed in the locker at Coral Shores High School, about which I wrote a few times in posts, before this round of emails yesterday, leaves me wondering just how serious Dennis is about going after public corruption and crime.
Ward criticized Kohl’s administration — and by proxy, Vogel — saying not enough was done to combat political corruption and theft at local government agencies.
Far as I know, Vogel had nothing to do with Kohl’s administration. Far as I know, Vogel was a pretty fearsome prosecutor.
Ward presided over the biggest public corruption case in recent Keys history when his office successfully prosecuted former Monroe County Schools Superintendent Randy Acevedo and his wife, Monique, in the school corruption scandal.
That case would have been prosecuted by any State Attorney. The Acevedos were caught red-handed, after Cathy Reitzel, who was pretty high up in the school district adminstration, turned them in. Cathy became the prosecution’s star witness. Because of her, Ward got the convictions. Without her, there likely would have been no convictions. For her efforts, Reitzel was fired by the Governor-appointed Superintendent who replaced Randy Acevedo, and that firing was ratified by the then sitting School Board. Reitzel had worked under Randy Acevedo. She knew what his wife was doing and he was covering it up. Unable to take it anymore, Reitzel finally ratted them out. She was fired because she waited too long to rat them out. Subsequently, Reitzel then brought legal action against the school district. Far as I know, that is still in progress. There apparently is no whistle-blower protection in the school district. As a result, no one in the school district will come forward with what they know is going on, except through anonymous letters or emails or calls in to the hot line. There is zero chance the school district will ever have another Cathy Reitzel.
Ward’s office also successfully prosecuted Florida Keys Mosquito Control Superintendent Mike Spoto in a case Kohl’s administration declined to prosecute.
Spoto pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge last year and served 90 days in county jail for giving his wife and daughter company cellphones and allowing them to use them for several years.
Dennis was criticized for bringing that case. He caught lots of flack from some Conchs for prosecuting the Acevedos. “My Conchs, right or wrong,” was those Conchs’ creed.
The case was brought to Kohl’s attention, but he declined to prosecute. Ward reopened the case after he was elected.
Vogel questioned Ward’s motives in a recent case.
Former Monroe County Technical Services Director Lisa Druckemiller retired from the county in March amid allegations that she stole county-owned iPads and iPhones and sold them. She’s accused of selling them to other county workers and officials, including county employee Hank Kokenzie, County Administrator Roman Gastesi and County Commissioner Heather Carruthers.
County officials uncovered the alleged thefts after county fire officials noticed their budget was billed for an iPad that was not in their possession. County officials alerted the State Attorney’s Office, which is investigating. Druckemiller has been questioned, but not charged.
“Why isn’t he charging Druckemiller now?” Vogel asked. “He doesn’t have to wait for a grand jury. He’s waiting for the grand jury so he can point to them if they fail to indict and back off the case instead of taking responsibility. This is all political. Everything he does is political.”
I also have wondered why Dennis did not prosecute Druckemiller yet. It is true, state attorneys do not have to go through a grand jury proceeding to prosecute. They can go to a judge in a preliminary hearing and put on evidence and get the judge’s okay to prosecute. That’s what the Special Prosecutor did in the Travyon Martin shooting case. In my experience, that’s a quicker way and less expensive way for a state attorney to try to launch a criminal prosecution, than is using a grand jury.
When asked how she would handle the case differently, Vogel said, “Would I prosecute? Yes, if I had the evidence.”
Be careful, candidate Vogel. You know that if you comment on a case before you are elected, you will be challenged by defense counsel and asked to recuse yourself and your office from the prosecution, which will require bringing in a Special Prosecutor from another county. You used that very excuse to decline to comment on the Tree Commission cases, when Sandy Downs emailed you about them, asking what you would do with those cases. It’s darn easy to say what you would do, if you have the evidence of a crime. It’s another thing to actually do it, as Dennis Ward has demonstrated, and as Mark Kohl demonstrated when he was the State Attorney. For sure, candidate Vogel, if you win this election, you will be asked to prosecute the Key West Tree Commissioners, Ronald Ramsingh, and Mayor Craig Cates and the six City Commissioners, at whose pleasure the Tree Commissioners sit. Mayor Cates and the six City Commissioners were noticed with the extortion racket the Tree Commissioners and Ramsingh were running, and they did nothing to stop it. Thus they became knowing accomplices in the extortion racket.
Vogel called the accusation that she and Kohl have teamed up and offered each other jobs in the office should either defeat Ward — an accusation Ward maintained Friday — a “red herring.”
“Because he can’t face me on my record and he can’t challenge me on my record as a prosecutor,” Vogel said.
Vogel’s other major point of criticism was her assertion that Ward is too cozy with the local press, specifically, talking to reporters about plea agreements offered defendants.
Ward does like to talk to the local press. The time to do that is after a case is over and done with.
“It’s a function of experience necessary to have that judgement,” Vogel said.
She added that another of her positive attributes is that she can fill in for assistant state attorneys, helpful in times of dwindling state funds.
“I can actually try cases, and go in and cover cases for someone,” Vogel said, adding that Ward rarely tries cases himself.
It doesn’t look to me that Ward has the experience to try a serious felony case. Back in Alabama, district attorneys (same as state attorneys in Florida) try serious felony cases. As do their lead felony prosecutors.
Ward said his record stands for itself and painted himself as a public servant keeping a promise to voters.
“We will continue to respond to public inquiry, and the public has a right to know what’s going on in their community and how their tax dollars are being spent, keeping in mind that the defendant has a right to a fair trial and the jury pool is not poisoned,” Ward said.
Former State Attorney Mark Kohl has been battling throat cancer and has not been able to appear at community campaign gatherings due to chemotherapy and other medical treatments, but he’s not out of the fight, he assured The Citizen.
The doctors say the prognosis is good and Kohl will be more visible after the Aug. 14 primary, he said. Kohl dismissed any suggestion that he was working closely with Vogel in the race.
“He can say whatever he wants to,” Kohl said. “Catherine is running her own race. I will never say a bad word about Catherine.
“She is a great prosecutor and a very experienced individual, but the one thing that does separate us is that I’ve been state attorney.”
When asked about Ward’s record on public corruption, Kohl accused him of overstepping his authority, noting the state attorney’s investigations of, and disputes with, Islamorada Mayor Michael Reckwerdt, none of which resulted in charges being filed. Reckwerdt is currently being investigated by federal authorities on charges that he owes back taxes.
I dunno. I whacked The Pussy of Islamorada (Reckwerdt) a few times in posts. I heard he talked with a lawyer about suing me for libel. I hoped he would sue me. Give me something more entertaining to write about. What you wanna bet The Pussy is not a Republican supporting Mark Kohl?
“How many times has he gone after Michael Reckwerdt? The feds haven’t done anything. This is a personal vendetta. And the job of prosecutor is to protect people, not persecute them.
“I certainly know the difference between prosecution and persecution — Dennis doesn’t. Dennis is a Miami Beach motorcycle cop who never outgrew that mentality.”
Sometimes I feel the same way about Dennis,when it comes to his deference toward law enforcement officers like F & W’s Lieutenant David Dipree, and the KWPD cops who arrested a young man for spitting off a balcony and the spittle landed on top of one of the blue’s PD cap. Dennis let those cops and his prosecutor throw the book at that kid. Spitting, maybe even accidentally on a cop’s hat in Key West, is a far more serious crime than throwing rocks at passing cars, including a KWPD cruiser. A far more serious crime than a bully stuffing a smaller kid in a school locker for an hour, while other kids laugh at the smaller kid. Ward could have been Superman. Could have been. Instead, of taking down the City of Key West over its Tree Commission, Ward keeps trying to get something on a Republican Pussy way up in Islamorada.
Ward defended his investigations of Reckwerdt, calling them follow-ups to legitimate complaints.
Kohl also highlighted his record of tackling public corruption in prosecuting former Key West Public Works superintendent Gilbert Suarez, who was sentenced to five years’ probation in 2006 after being convicted on charges of grand theft and possession of cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He stole thousands of dollars in coins from city parking meters while serving as Public Works superintendent.
Ward said the race can be viewed in whole from a taxpayer’s perspective.
“They can both talk about experience and try to distance themselves from each other all they want, but that isn’t what this race is about,” Ward said. “This is about how this office was run in the four years I’ve been here compared to the eight years when they both were here.
“I’ll continue to be vigilant in investigating and prosecuting the theft of taxpayer dollars and sunshine violations. That’s the promise I made to voters four years ago. I’ve kept that promise and I’ll continue to keep that promise.”
 
_________________________

The next cops and robbers school toon was stimulated yesterday by yet another prodding from Nashville J:

 
Sloan:
 
Now that Jara is out of the running for NM; “I hear the DICK train a’comin, it’s rolling round the bend……. And the Jara fix is in, since I don’t know when!
 
I can already write the quote from DICK: After doing an extensive, country wide search for the very best Superintendent, the Committee has determined that the very best and top candidate for the position was right here in Key West all the time and we are extremely happy and proud to be offering the position to Jesus Jara to lead us into the future.
 
TIME WILL TELL !
 
On another DICK subject.
 
“Things have changed,” said School Board Chairman John Dick. “Some real frugal things have been done by the district since then, and we have been able to enhance our fund balance.”
Enhance sounds a lot like putting lipstick on a pig!
 
Pig Parlor Gazette to J:
 
Ah, you figured out who my favorite girlfriend is.Yes, this is going to be interesting to watch unfold. We’ll see just how cloned the other 4 school board members are next Thursday afternoon. Lemmings also come to mind.Things indeed have changed. Dick has started sounding and acting like everything he used to rail against, see attachment 1.

As for me, I’m still hoping the photo in the second attachment will happen with splendid enhancements, but I ain’t holding my breath.

 Oink

 
Pig Parlor Gazette II to J:
 
Someone asked me this morning if maybe it was Jesus Jara who put Ken Gentile up to saying intentory assets could be used to calculate the reserve fund balance? I suppose I could try to put a crystal ball on it, a dream kind. I have seen Jara use other people to do his dirty work, and I have seen him say things he did not mean, in an effort to manipulate the target of his remarks to do his bidding. He did that with the teachers recently, saying their benefits were going to be cut. Caused the teachers union to ask Tallahassee to intervene. He told parents 40 teachers had to be let go, and maybe sports and band cut, as part of a pitch for a new school tax increase this year. Turned out, he knew he would lose about that many teachers through their contracts running out, their quitting, their moving elsewhere. Unfortunately, Jara seems to have three kindred spirits on the school board, who aren’t all that straight shooting: John Dick, Robin Smith-Martin and Andy Griffiths. Matthewson, who is leaving, has struck me as straight-shooting but not always in touch with what was going on. Ron Martin has struck me as staight-shooting, so far. He is the only board member who has spent meaninful time in the school trenches, as a teacher and principal in this school district. A career educator, Ron has forgotten more about teaching children than the rest of the board members ever will learn. I wonder how often he asks himself what was he thinking, running for school board, after he retired?
 
J replied:
 
Most everyone has seemed to forget that it really is suppose to be about providing a quality education to the children. DICK, Jara and others think that it is all about THEM!
J
 
Pig Parlor Gazette III to J:
 
There you have gone and figured that out, too. I tend to have the same sentiments about people who run for office. Perhaps I should remove tend to.
 
Here’s some email jabber from this afternoon about a big elephant in a room to cheer you up even more. I got two problems with that there elephant. First problem, there is too may pigs in this here parlor to squeeze in an elephant. Second problem is, every last one of them pigs thinks it’s an elephant.
 
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 12:34:20 -0700
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Elephant In The Room
To: John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com
CC: keysmyhome@hotmail.com; mhowell@keysnews.com; island@bigpinekey.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; news@us1radio.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com; matt@mattgardi.com; jesus.jara@keysschools.com; dsmits@florida-law.com

 
John: I sincerely hope that the Board fully resolves the Gentile/CPA controversy before next Thursday’s School Board meeting. I think everyone, including Ken Gentile, deserves an expeditious end to this issue.

 
If you do not, permitting Gentile to conduct himself as if it was business as usual in his capacity as Chief of Staff, will have everyone speculating about the elephant in the room. I cannot imagine a more awkward and potentially embarrassing situation for everyone, including Ken Gentile. To behave as if nothing is amiss, particularly as you move toward the selection of a superintendent, will be surreal.
 
Larry
 
Dr. Larry Murray
Fiscal Watchdog and Citizen Advocate
Candidate
Monroe County School Board
District 3
(305) 872-3087
 
 
I replied to ALL:
Subject: RE: Surreal School District
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 15:51:28 -0400Aw shucks, Larry. Nobody told you yet Monroe County School District is a pseudonym for Surreal School District.Meanwhile, what does Gentile’s pedigree have to do with selecting a new Superintendent? 

What does calculating undisclosed inventory assets as cash for the reserve fund balance purposes have to do with selecting a new Superintendent?

These are trick questions because the answers are whatever anyone wants to make up.

Sloan

J replied:

 
Sloan:
I’ve been trying to figure out how a new firehouse could be built that will not allow ambulances to go thru the door because they are 10? tall and the door is only 9? AND that the fire engines are too long to fit into it. Just Curious – Did the School Board design the building???
 
Nice plan they got there: READY – FIRE – AIM
J
 
Pig Parlor Gazette IV replied:

Darn, you figured that out, too! Just so happens I know the County Fire & Rescue Chief due to the fact that he and his wife like to hang out at Looe Key Tiki Bar just down US 1 about a mile from the turn-off to my place. Next time I see him, I’ll tell him the school district oinkers are slanderously impersonating his troops.

local pig farmer
 
After that oinking around and some time off at the tiki bar listening to live music and munching a dolphin wrap, porpoise is in season now, I came home and found an envelop from Larry Murray in my snail mail box containing yet another (the 3rd in several months) typed anonymous semi-cogent letter sent to Larry from someone who appears to work inside the school district. The anonymous semi-cogent letter begins:
 
There are a couple of things you might want to check into.
 
Tiffany Freeman is always out and Ms. Bosco never deducts her time. She had a baby less than a year ago was out for 3 months but still seems to have plenty of time on the books. This has been a practice for years and everyone is afraid to report her.
 
Afraid to report whom? Freeman? Bosco?
 
Freeman has had several children and gets this special treatment from Bosco every time?
 
Whatever, this should be easy enough for someone to verify or rule out. Wouldn’t rely on Bosco, Jesus Jara, Theresa Axford or Ken Gentile to get to the bottom of it, given how tight Bosco is with Jara and Axford, and given Gentile no longer works for the school board but works directly under Jara now. Christina McPherson used to be the assistant principal at Key West High School. I imagine she knows where look to verify or rule out this allegation. I keep hearing Christina is honest and hard working. She would be my pick for John Dick and Andy Griffiths and the rest of the school board members to send in and get to the bottom of the Freeman-Bosco allegations and report back to the school board what she found. No way do I let the “internal audit” process have this one and bury it like it buries other unpleasant debris, especially Key West High debris.
 
For a district with no money we are pushing a contract with the college in the amount of $48,000 to pay rent to the. How does a district do that and not rehab their own space for long term status.
 
$48,000 in rent for what? Where did this snitch go to school and learn to write like this?
 
The alternative school is getting ready to be set up at Sugarloaf Elementary school with the majority of those students being Key West kids. This will then require the district to provide bussing service to Sugarloaf at a low bal figure of $30,000 a year. The space is not set up with internet service and in the past has had problems obtaining service.
 
This makes all the sense in the world send our disruptive students to an Elementary campus when there is really not a clear game plan in place. Wonder how happy the parents will be in that area.
 
All of this and lots more was aired out at the Sugarloaf barn-burner last Wednesday night.
 
Where is the leadership in this district? Or I forgot Ms. Bosco is running it from behind the screens. Can’t you tell.
 
Is that a suggestion Bosco has dominion over Jesus Jara? I
 
Good Luck in saving the district $$ in a very short time we will have spent half a million dollars and it will cost a fortune to reverse what has been done.
 
I have no clue from this sentence what will have half a million dollars spent on it, but I can guess it’s moving the two troubled kids schools to Sugarloaf Elementary. I hope this snitch is not a grammar, English, literature or writing teacher. It remains to be seen if she’s a prophet.
 
The lawyers don’t care what is done they get paid for everything they review and work on and paid again to clean up the mistake.
 
Actually, what I have observed is the school board and district tend not to care for what their lawyers tell them, which leads to the lawyers getting paid not only for eveything they review and work on, but also for cleaning up what happens after their advice is ignored.
 
Sort of reminds me of Keys Energy Services ignoring its own lawyer and running power poles and lines out to No Name Key, not yet having a clue how either the Florida Public Service Commission or the Florida 3rd District Court of Appeals will decide their parts of that situation. Only idiots would run power poles and lines out on NNK not having a clue how it was going to end up before the PSC and the 3rd District. Yeah, the idiots got the other idiots, who live on NNK and want power, to agree to pay for running the poles and lines out there, and to pay for tearing the poles and lines out and hauling them back to wherever they came from, if the PSC and/or the 3rd District decide the poles and lines can’t be run out there. Even so, who but idiots would even get involved in such an event? Keys Energy is a Key West-owned utility company. Its elected directors all have to live in the city limits. A real testament to the IQ of the directors and the KW voters. The silver lining is, Keys Energy’s directors are serious competition for the IQ enhanced folks running the school district and the the IQ enhanced voters who put them in office.
 
By the way, the fellow the voters elected twice instead of me for the District 3 county commission seat, that would be George Neugent, finally has publicly said what I figured he all along would say: he wants the county commission to give the pro-power folks on NNK what they want. I knew when I met George in 2006 that he was a developer’s county commissioner. He was oozing out of him. That he convinced Keys enviornmentalists that an ex-wildcat oil company owner who loves playing golf and dining at Ocean Reef Club was an environmentalist proved to me the enviornmentalists in Monroe County are as IQ and morally enhanced as the as the Keys Energy board members and the people running the school district.
 
Meanwhile, before I turned into a pumpkin last night, received this from Larry Murray:
 
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 18:40:04 -0700
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Online Video Streaming
To: jesus.jara@keysschools.com
CC: robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; andy@fishandy.com; keysmyhome@hotmail.com; mhowell@keysnews.com; island@bigpinekey.com; matt@mattgardi.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; news@us1radio.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com  

 

Jesus:
 
Over a month ago, you announced at a School Board meeting that you were working with a vendor in Marathon who would help the District, at no charge, to provide online video streaming of Board meetings and workshops. Where do we stand on that?
 
Next Thursday’s Board “Special” meeting is arguably the most important such meeting in Board history because they will be, for the first time, selecting a Superintendent. Further, the meeting is starting at 2:00 pm which will make it effectively impossible for working people to attend. Online video streaming is more imperative than ever.
 
I hope that online video streaming is in place in time for Thursday’s meeting.
 
Larry
 
Hmmm, Jesus of Jara will arrange for video streaming of what will be his own coronation or crucifixion? You are a hard man, Larry Murray. A hard man.
 
And persistent. This letter to the editor in The Citizen today.
 

Fire Gentile and deny Jara the district job

Here we go again. Just as Mr. Jara does not meet stated job requirements, neither does Mr. Gentile. The difference is that Mr. Gentile lied on applying. I may qualify as an astronaut, for example, but that does not make one. Yet another instance of bubba rule-bending.

I am sick of it. That Mr. Gentile would claim Christian discrimination because he prays is beyond the pale. He lied and can’t get around it. Mr. Jara’s subtle denial of the problem until this late in the game is another example of poor leadership. Mr. Gentile should be fired for having lied. Mr. Jara should be denied the superintendency.

John Schafer

Key West

I have never criticized CFO Gentile’s faith

Yes, I have been critical of the financial mismanagement in the School District. Yes, I have been critical of the failures of former Chief Financial Officer Michael Kinneer, and current Finance Director and former Internal Auditor Ken Gentile. And yes, I have been critical of Mr. Gentile’s misrepresentation of his CPA credentials.

However, I have never been critical of Mr. Gentile’s Christian faith or his practice of praying at his desk, of which I was unaware until he raised it.

For him to level such an accusation is outrageous.

Any criticism that I have made has always been directed to the behavior of the person, not the individual’s personality or activities beyond his employment with the district. That has not always been the case with responses to my criticism. My own famous remark to then-CFO Kinneer about what he could kiss was made while he was engaging in a vituperative personal attack.

It looks to me like Mr. Gentile is attempting to distract attention from what is clearly a misrepresentation of his credentials by portraying himself as a Christian martyr. I do not for a moment believe that and I do not think that your readers will, either.

Larry Murray

Big Pine Key

Editor’s note: Larry Murray is a candidate for the Monroe County School Board.

 
Hmmm, didn’t Jesus of Nazareth tell people to pray not in public like the Pharisees, but to pray to God in secret and be rewarded by God in secret?
 
Begged, borrowed, stolen and written by Sloan Bashinsky, District 3 school district pig disenhancement candidate
 

Posted in Today's FlaKey Drivel | No Comments »

Can the Florida Keys school district get any weirder? – You betcha!

Saturday, June 23rd, 2012

 

A new page at goodmorningbirmingham.com, which you should be able to reach by clicking on this link: Dr. Leo Bashinsky. Reading about my father’s older brother, who probably influenced me more than any other man, might provide some insight into my personality. Leo loved the Keys as much as I did. Around Islamorada, he was known as “Doc” and “Doctor Bashinsky”.
 
From Larry Murray replying to this part of yesterday’s dysfunctional junction – Florida Keys school district post:
 
From The Key West Citizen:
Murray was a member of the district’s volunteer Audit and Finance Committee until School Board member Duncan Mathewson decided to replace him, after Murray had stormed out of a meeting telling a top administrator, “Kiss my a–.”
I was at that AFC meeting. The top administrator was Chief Financial Officer Michael Kinneer. Larry said, “Kiss my butt,” and my recollection was, it was aimed at others beside Kinneer, although Kinneer’s criticism of Larry for uncivil speech triggered the remark, which came as Larry stormed out of the meeting.
Sloan:
 
Thank you for providing a context for my infamous remark to CFO Michael Kinneer to “kiss my ass”. The remark was directed exclusively at Kinneer as at the time, as you recount, he was in the midst of a vituperative personal attack. My “KMA” remark was my “defense” and was prefaced by the comment that I “did not need to sit here and listen to such.” If you recall, I was standing in the doorway when I made the remark as Kinneer rolled on with his personal attack.
 
Larry had been pretty rough on Kinneer about Kinneer’s and the administration’s unwillingness and/or inability to provide information and financial projections. Looked to me Kinneer finally had enough and calmly dressed Larry down for his bad manners and incivility. Larry gathered his papers and files from the table where he sat, stood and walked toward the door and said his now famous remark.
 
Larry also forwarded this:
 
Thought you would be interested.
Two finalists for school superintendent announced
Anne Constable | The New Mexican
Posted: Friday, June 22, 2012 -
 
On Friday, the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education announced two finalists for the position of superintendent.
They are Michael McKie, of Missouri City, Texas, currently the assistant superintendent for the Fort Bend Independent School District in Sugar Land, Texas and Joel Boyd, of Philadelphia, Pa., who is currently assistant superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia.
Meaning, Jesus Jara was eliminated from getting that job. That sure puts our school board members in the crosshairs. Our superintendent has no job waiting elsewhere. He has a wife and children living in the Miami area. Would you pick him from the 5 candidate shortlist based solely on his job performance in this school district, if you were on the school board? I might, but not because I felt he deserrved it. I might do it to let him prove to everyone in the Keys that this school district is systmetically dysfunctional and the only way to straighten it out is to eliminate the school board and superintendent’s say so in how this school district operates. The only way I see to do that in a way that allows for self-determination staying in the Keys is for each school to vote to be a charter school.
 
On Jara not getting the Santa Fe job and the superintendent seleciton, this in The Key West Citizen today:
 
Public to meet school finalists
 
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
The Monroe County School Board, along with the rest of the county, will get a first look this week at four of the five finalists in the running to become the district’s first-ever hired superintendent.
Superintendent Jesus Jara, appointed by the governor in August, joins four educators who will meet the public starting 5:30 p.m. Monday at First State Bank at 1201 Simonton St. in Key West. The board-hosted reception will last until 7:30 p.m.
“The only one we know is Dr. Jara,” said board Chairman John Dick. “The other candidates will all be new for me. That will be my first time speaking with them on Monday.”
The Florida Keys is now the only place where Jara remains a contender for a superintendent job.
On Thursday, he withdrew his name from the schools chief selection in Santa Fe, N.M., after going through a series of interviews along with five other semifinalists.
“I just felt it wasn’t meant to be for me to be there,” Jara said Friday, while on the road back to South Florida.
Last Monday, Jara lost out on his bid to run public schools in Springfield, Mass. Springfield’s school committee instead voted 5-2 for an insider who has worked there for 37 years.
All of the finalists for Monroe County schools chief are men. They are Jara, and:
• Edward Shine, who is retiring from the superintendent’s job in Rye City, N.Y., after 16 years there;
• Mark Porter, formerly of the South Washington County School District, where the school board in December voted not to renew his contract;
• Shannon Goodsell, superintendent of Tahlequah Public Schools in northeastern Oklahoma; and
• Thomas Gay, president/CEO of the Quality Schools Group, which runs a private school in Broward County.
The five will take part in an interviewing blitz this week, culminating with Thursday’s 2 p.m. board meeting at Marathon High School, where the panel plans to select a superintendent.
“I don’t believe we will go home Thursday until we come up with someone we make an offer to,” said Dick. “There won’t be any contract offer on Thursday. We have a committee that will work with this person to determine a contract.”
That three-person committee comprises School Board member Robin Smith-Martin, City Attorney Shawn Smith,sunand Monroe County Clerk Danny Kolhage.
The school’s attorneys will write the language of the contract, while the committee will negotiate the deal.
Aug. 1 is the start date for the new superintendent, who will make between $125,000 and $150,000.
“You never know,” said Dick. “Sometimes they don’t come to agreements. We should have a second choice and maybe even a third.”
Strange comment from the school board member who all along has tried to make this a one-man race, that one man being Jesus Jara.
After Monday’s Key West reception, the superintendent search will move up U.S. 1 to Key Largo for a 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday event at Centennial Bank, 100280 Overseas Highway.
On Wednesday, the “meet-and-greet” series heads to Marathon for a 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. event at Iberia Bank, 5601 Overseas Highway. This event is longer because each candidate will make a brief presentation and get a public question-and-answer session.
I think I will take in this event because I want to see how the candidates do on their feet, and I want to make sure each of them knows just how fucked up this school district is, which I seriously doubt anyone who matters has explained to them.
Thursday is the big final day, with board members taking turns meeting one-on-one with each candidate from 9 a.m. to noon at Marathon High School. Those interviews are closed-door and not open to the public.
The board will then go into a 2 p.m. meeting at the school’s library.
 
On same topic, this from Larry Murray yesterday:
 
Then this from Larry:
 
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:10:08 -0700
From: citizenlarry007@yahoo.com
Subject: Are You Serious?
To: robin.smith-martin@keysschools.com; ron.martinsb@keysschools.com; duncan.mathewson@keysschools.com; John.Dick@KeysSchools.com; andy@fishandy.com
CC: keysmyhome@hotmail.com; mhowell@keysnews.com; island@bigpinekey.com; johnlguerra@gmail.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; bigpinenews@aol.com; news@us1radio.com; rd.boettger@gmail.com

 
John:
 
Are you serious? You have postponed the regular Tuesday meeting of the School Board and moved it to Thursday, styling it a “Special Board Meeting”. However, the meeting’s speciality is quickly lost in the agenda, which characterizes the meeting as “Regular”, which is the case.
 
If you go to the agenda and read along, you learn that the last item is the selection of the Superintendent. So much for a special meeting of the School Board to make the most important decision that any School Board has in the history of Monroe County.
 
You plan to start with two Closed Attorney/Client sessions and then wade through the usual items, including five budget amendments to spend money that the District does not have. There will be the usual the “Public Comment” section which I am told will be lengthy and lively in view of Superintendent Jara’s decision today to alter the District contribution to health insurance for administrators. Also, there will be public hearings on three subjects.
 
Finally, and I mean finally, after everyone is suitably exhausted, the Board will shift its attention to the selection of the superintendent. How the selection process will proceed no one knows as the Board has not chosen to share that. It should be, as my father said of WWII, “very interesting”.
 
What was wrong with having the regular School Board meeting on Tuesday as scheduled and then have a truly special meeting on Thursday dedicated exclusively to the selection of the superintendent? Were you trying to save on travel? Staff time? or what? Also, scheduling the meeting at 2:00–was that intended to limit public involvement in the selection of the first appointed superintendent?
 
I guess that I should not be surprised as every other aspect of the superintendent selection process has been muddled.
 
Dr. Larry Murray
 
PS: Are you laying the groundwork for an age discrimination suit with your repeated public comment that you do not want a superintendent “who will retire here.” I suspect that Larry Tyree would take some offense to that observation.
 
I will be at that school board meeting because I want to see what the each of the 5 board members does with the selection of a new superintendent. I imagine the less people there, the better the 5 board members will like it.
 
This also from Larry yesterday, just to me.
 
Sloan:
 
Earlier this evening, I attended the Leadership Monroe recruiting gathering. The glitterati were there.
 
Among those in attendance was Andy Griffiths. I asked for his opinion on the Gentile CPA affair. He was emphatic in his response. His voice rose and cracked as he said that Gentile should be fired for falsifying his credentials.
 
I told Andy that I would hold him to his statement. School Board members are notorious for making statements and then, when the time comes to act, they become conveniently silent. We shall see if Andy “puts his money where his mouth is” and takes further action. The School Board meets next Thursday and that will be a very convenient opportunity to express himself publicly and to take action with regard to the Board’s sole employee.
 
Larry
 
It will be interesting to see if Andy follows through on what Larry reported of their conversation. Interesting, because Andy and the other four current board members knew from the Mercer Group report vetting Gentile’s resume that the Mercer Group could not verify Gentile was a Florida CPA. Yet Andy and the other 4 board members voted to hire Gentile. Looks to me Andy needs to fire Andy.
 
Larry told me last night, on US 1 Radio Morning Magazine yeterday, John Dick said he could not remember if he had read the Mercer Group’s report. I said baloney, the school board knew what was in the Mercer report and they hired Gentile anyway. In hiring Gentile, they waived being able to fire him over his resume saying he was a Florida CPA. If they fire Gentile, they will have to pay him the rest of what he is owed under his employement contract, which I understand runs to next March.
 
I told Larry what this really all boils down to is yet another solid piece of evidence of just how terminally fucked up this school district is. Larry said he could not argue with that.
 
This Editorial in The Key West Citizen today:
 
Can district reserves be fixed by a garage sale?

Of the myriad controversial issues the Monroe County School District has dealt with over these past few tumultuous years, one of the biggest has been the district’s fund balance — or lack thereof.
If one wants to get a quick snapshot of an organization’s financial health, a look at the fund balance (cash reserves) is the first place to go. A look at our School District’s dismal fund balance is actually an appropriate snapshot of the seemingly never-ending train wreck we have all been watching.
Back in 2004, under the reins of then-Superintendent John Padget, the district had a fund balance of $12.5 million, which was exponentially higher than the fund balance the district finds itself with today. It has been all downhill financially since then.
In December, Superintendent Jesus Jara had the unpleasant task of writing a letter to the Florida Department of Education, notifying them that the district’s fund balance had fallen below 3 percent.
If a district’s reserves fall below 2 percent, drastic remedial measures can come into play, including the possibility of the state assuming control of the district’s financial management.
A recent change of administrative responsibility for the district’s Finance Department has brought with it a startling improvement of the district’s fund balance. Chief of Staff Ken Gentile, in his first budget presentation to the School Board, assured board members that past concerns over the district’s reserves had been successfully addressed.
At first this development appeared to be welcome good news. But a closer look gives cause for concern.
While some of Gentile’s budget magic came from cutting expenses, about $2 million came from district assets not previously considered as reserves. In describing this “new” money, Gentile explained that “inventories count; you could sell it and spend it.”
That left a lot of folks, including some board members, doing double takes. Did he really just say that? He was kidding, right?
We are under the impression that reserves consist of unencumbered cash — not some vague inventory that can be converted to cash.
To hear Mr. Gentile say we could, in effect, conduct a garage sale if things get tight is ridiculous — and is an insult to all the people who recently have been “downsized.”
Of course, maybe Mr. Gentile is right and his numbers, while creative, are acceptable to the state Department of Education. Were the old numbers wrong? Are some of the district’s budget woes merely the result of not thinking outside the fiscal box?
Or is the district’s financial management just getting weirder and weirder? Can it get any weirder?
– The Citizen

 
Here is my email eight days ago to the Commissioner of the Department of Education, and the auto reply that came back. So far, nothing further from the Commissioner.
 
From: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
To: commissioner@fldoe.org
Subject: Monroe County School District reserve fund balance question
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:24:10 -0400

 
Dear Commissioner:
 
This article about the Monroe County, Florida School District was in yesterday’s Key West Citizen, the daily newspaper in the Florida Keys. I highlighted the areas of concern to me and others. A few comments after the article.
 

From The Key West Citizen:

District: Reserve fund OK
Gentile: Schools can use inventory in calculation
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
Monroe County School Board members this week heard some good financial predictions for a change — that the district’s reserve fund will remain high enough to ward off state intervention.
When the 2012 fiscal year ends June 30, the reserve will likely amount to 4 percent of the year’s revenues, or about $3.2 million, Chief of Staff Ken Gentile told the board Tuesday.
The reserve, commonly called the “fund balance,” is a bellwether of a school system’s financial health, so much so that the state Department of Education requires immediate notification if it dips below 3 percent of projected revenues.
Superintendent Jesus Jara sent such a notification letter to DOE in December, when the district’s best numbers showed that the fund balance wouldn’t hit 3 percent.
Although the district’s final numbers for 2012 won’t come in until a couple weeks after June 30, the end of the fiscal year, all signs point to a fund balance that will meet the state’s standard of 4 percent.
The funds are set aside as a reserve for unanticipated expenses, such as meeting state class-size requirements.
“These are the best numbers we have to date,” Jara told the board.
By 2013, the district projects an ending fund balance of 5 percent, which is what the five-man board had practically demanded.
“Things have changed,” said School Board Chairman John Dick. “Some real frugal things have been done by the district since then, and we have been able to enhance our fund balance.”
Jara’s team went after funding that was owed to the district, decided not to fill positions when people quit or retired, and cut back spending, said Dick.
“I would say we’re fine,” he said. “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. The district will survive.”
Gentile’s fund balance figures for 2012 and 2013, however, include some “unavailable” money, in the form of about $2 million in assets the district could tap if necessary.
“Inventories count,” said Gentile. “You could sell it and spend it.”
Once a school system’s fund balance falls below 2 percent, that district must submit to the state a plan on how to rebuild it.
In Monroe County, the fund balance is a touchy subject.
When John Padget left the superintendent’s office in 2004, the fund balance amounted to a flush $12.5 million.
Once voters handed the district’s reins to Randy Acevedo, the schools spent most of that reserve. By 2010, the year after the governor removed Acevedo from office after the financial scandal that sent his wife, Monique Acevedo, to prison for embezzlement, the fund balance was down to $2 million.
But by the end of the 2010 fiscal year, the fund balance had risen to 5 percent of revenues, or about $4 million, according to Gentile’s presentation to the board Tuesday.
 
__________________________________
 
To me and others, reserve fund balance is the difference between revenues and expenditures. Inventories are not factored into it. Would not surprise me, if the State audited this School District, it would find the fund balance at or below 2 percent. That may seem like a fantastical statement way up in Tallahassee, but down here in the Keys, we have come to expect the fantastical out of this school district.
 
For your information, I am a write-in candidate for one of the School Board seats in this year’s election. Looks to me like my role is showing the voters what is really going on in their school district; can’t imagine getting elected. I am a former practicing attorney, in Alabama. Perhaps your legal department needs to look over this inquiry?
 
Thank you.
 
Sloan Bashinsky
 
1031 Grand Street, Little Torch Key, FL 33042
 
(305) 872-1705
(305) 407-4285 (cell)
 
Subject: Thank you for contacting the Commissioner
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 13:24:13 -0400
From: commissioner@fldoe.org
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Thank you for contacting the Commissioner at the Florida Department of Education. Due to the volume of emails received, please understand that there will be a slight delay in response to your correspondence. However, this in no way lessens the importance and seriousness of your issue for the Department.
Sincerely,
Office of the Commissioner

 
There is one other thing stuck in my craw, which is how Andy Griffiths came to the Sugarloaf School barn-burner last Wednesday night. He came in his big double-cab white pickup with “Andy Griffiths for School Board” magnet signs on the two front side doors, and a much larger 2-sided billboard in the truck bed, saying much the same thing, with 2 American flags flapping in the wind, attached by short poles to the top of the billboard. I could not imagine anything more tastless and insensitive than to arrive like that at a meeting so serious and disturbing to the children, parents, teachers and principal of that school. It told me nothing is more important to Andy than being reelected. Nothing.

Posted in Today's FlaKey Drivel | No Comments »

dysfunctional junction – Florida Keys school district

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

On bigpinekey.com’s Coconut Telegraph yesterday:

The truth about Charter schools in Monroe County – My children attend the charter school that sits behind a military gate in Key West. They scored a solid 4 on both parts of the FCAT, and we are very pleased with the quality of the teaching. The school is free to the military kids as well as the kids from the civilian community. Yes, the teachers are not well paid, they spend money from their family budget on supplies for the classrooms, and are often asked to do more than anyone should. My beef is not with the teachers but with the school’s administration. First, instead of inspiring the kids, they focus on inflating the little things, and teachable moments have been replaced by punishment moments. Second, the charter school has a handpicked Board with individuals whose children have been out of the school system for decades, who do not understand modern technology (iPhones, iPads), its availability to children, its place in the classroom and school, its functionality for parents and the attachments the children have developed to it in the last decade. Third, I wish the school would give me an annual dollar amount that I have to contribute for field trips, supplies, lunches, teacher’s baby showers (remind me again, why should kids parents be obligated to contribute to baby showers) gifts, etc. Instead the school nickels and dimes you to the point that you don’t ever want to see another e-mail from the school. Fourth, charter schools may be “guided” by district policies but they are not necessarily the same policies, so if you are going to enroll your kid in a charter school, I suggest you read those policies and carefully review them with your children and make sure they understand them. Otherwise, you will find yourself in punishment hell.

Maybe this parent should send her/his child to a traditional school, and see how that goes. Maybe this charter school’s board should give some thought to this parent’s feedback.

 
Sloan:
 
Jara wants to put these items up, then he needs to grow a pair and be there to sell or defend it! Wuss!
 
Seeing Sunny Booker’s name made me wonder if there is still no response concerning the FOI about her misuse of a program that she was accused of. Just another item that they refuse to answer in the hopes that it will go away.
 
Amazing how an investigation got Gentile to file for a Florida CPA license – when all the questions raised got no comment at all. Things that make you go hummmmmmmmmmm! There have been lots of CEO’s, COO’s and CFO’s in private business who have been fired for lying in their resume. If you will lie about something in a resume, you will lie about other things. Just saying……………….
J
 
I replied:
 
Jara probably was in route from Springfield, Mass to Santa Fe, NM, to try to land that superintendent job. I don’t blame him for job hunting, but the timing here was lousy. Someone told me Theresa Axford said on US 1 Radio this morning that it was Jara’s plan to bring those two schools to Sugarloaf School. Jara is adept at getting others to do his dirty work, but with him gone, he didn’t get to skate this time.

I am still foggy about $2 million in undefined inventory assets reported to be avialable for calculating reserve fund balance, when Gwen Filosa, Larry Murray and Andy Griffiths all felt that was what they heard at that school board meeting.

I still think they are sitting on Sunny Booker investigation/result because it is not pretty for Jara and school district. Maybe if Sunny Booker investigation results aired out now, it might be a lot more difficult for John Dick and the other school board members to keep Jara on as superintendent.

The same thought occurred to me: “If you will lie about something in a resume, you will lie about other things.”

Reminds me of Zimmermans fudging the truth a bit at the bond hearing re their finances.

 
(On that grim subject, a new post at goodmorningbirmingham.com, which you should be able to reach by clicking on this link: George Zimmerman videos and hand-written statement made public.)
 
J replied:
 
Sloan:
 
Concerning your:
I am still foggy about $2 million in undefined inventory assets reported to be available for calculating reserve fund balance, when Gwen Filosa, Larry Murray and Andy Griffiths all felt that was what they heard at that school board meeting.
 
I would guess it is exactly what they heard, or course they were not aware that he was making up new terms to try to explain it to the less educated. My personal opinion is that he accomplished exactly what he wanted with the statement; however, he was not prepared for someone to actually require him to explain it. I still don’t think he explained it.
J
 
Three totally unrelated educated eye/ear witnesses heard the same thing. Gentile wrote to me that was not what he said. I wasn’t there. I was glad Gentile said there are not such assets to use in calculating the reserve fund balance. If I ever hear back on my email to the Commissioner of the Florida Department of Education, I will suggest he/she call Gentile and get it from the horse’s mouth.
 
Here’s what The Citizen reported yesterday about Gentile’s CPA credentials:
 
School official says he’ll get state CPA license
 
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
A Monroe County School District administrator said Wednesday that he will obtain a Florida Certified Public Accountant license simply to silence relentless critics who accuse him of misrepresenting his credentials when he applied in 2010.

The resume of Ken Gentile, the district’s internal auditor who in May began working for Superintendent Jesus Jara as chief of staff, says that he is a CPA in New York and Florida.

In fact, his New York license, granted March 30, 1987, lapsed on Aug. 31, 1993, and he never practiced as a CPA in Florida.

Gentile signed a three-year contract in 2010 with the School Board that requires he be “professionally credentialed” as a CPA. The board hired him for $122,400 a year as an independent auditor to examine the School District’s financial dealings.

Critics, including School Board District 3 candidate Larry Murray and blogger Sloan Bashinsky have deluged Jara with emails questioning Gentile’s integrity due to the discrepancy.

“The way I interpreted that is that I have an ability to reactivate my license in New York and Florida,” Gentile said Wednesday. “I have a CPA license. It’s on my resume. I passed the exam. I’ve never said I was active in the state of Florida.”

Jara said he has asked the district’s attorney to review the matter.

“After careful thought, I decided to turn this over to our legal department for a complete and thorough investigation,” Jara wrote in an email Friday to Murray that was copied to board Chairman John Dick.

Jara was responding to a June 14 email from Murray that accused Gentile of having committed a crime.

On June 4, Jara had responded to a previous email inquiry from Murray by saying that Gentile would no longer use “CPA” on his signature line in emails or letters and that the matter was closed.

“Mr. Gentile is not a registered CPA in Florida, he is a Certified Internal Auditor,” Jara wrote. “Mr. Gentile is not performing any public auditing services for the school district, his current role does not require for him to be a Certified Public Accountant.”

Florida law forbids anyone from using the CPA title without holding “an active license … or [having] the practice privileges.” The violation is a criminal misdemeanor.

“By signing his name routinely as ‘CPA,’ Mr. Gentile has, in my opinion, perpetuated the fraud,” Murray wrote, copying the email to Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward.

“Transgression deserves punishment, regardless of how light it may be.”


Larry has had many beefs with Gentile, which did not resolve to Larry’s liking. This is the first thing Larry has had that gave him any traction over Gentile. The School Board who hired Gentile included John Dick and Andy Griffiths. Apparently, they were not concerned Mercer Group said it could not verify Gentile was a CPA in Florida. If they were not concerned, what’s the big deal now? If Gentile took the CPA training and passed the CPA exams and for Arthur Anderson in New York, what’s the big deal now? Gentile earned his CPA credentials the same way Larry earned his PhD, the old-fashioned way. Gentile was not hired to be the school district’s CPA. His being a CPA was not even a part of his job description. What’s the big deal? I am a hell of a lot more concerned about why the Sunny Booker investigation has been buried, than I am about the School Board hiring an internal auditor they were told by Mercer did not have a Florida CPA license. I am a hell a lot more concerned about Jesus Jara forcing the two troubled teens schools down the throat of Sugarloaf School. I am a hell of a lot more concerned about a news journalist (Gwen Filosa), a former Audit & Finance Committee member (Larry Murray) and a member of the School Board (Andy Griffiths) thinking Gentile told the Board:
 
Gentile’s fund balance figures for 2012 and 2013, however, include some “unavailable” money, in the form of about $2 million in assets the district could tap if necessary.
“Inventories count,” said Gentile. “You could sell it and spend it.”

Murray was a member of the district’s volunteer Audit and Finance Committee until School Board member Duncan Mathewson decided to replace him, after Murray had stormed out of a meeting telling a top administrator, “Kiss my a–.”

I was at that AFC meeting. The top administrator was Chief Financial Officer Michael Kinneer. Larry said, “Kiss my butt,” and my recollection was, it was aimed at others beside Kinneer, although Kinneer’s criticism of Larry for uncivil speech triggered the remark, which came as Larry stormed out of the meeting and missed out on some interesting financial disclosures around the money the school district supposedly”lost” on charter schools last year not being the charter schools fault at all, but the fault of Jesus Jara for ignoring the charter school principals’ estimates of their next year’s enrollment and using his own lower estimates to make it easier to balance his budget. Turned out the charter school principals’ estimates of their next year’s enrollment was correct and the school district ended up with more teachers in the traditional schools than were needed, and that was the lo$$ Jesus Jara tried to blame on the charter schools, instead of on himself.

Jara, who has only been superintendent since August, asked Murray why he didn’t bring the issue up when Joe Burke was at the district helm in 2010.

“One question I have for you,” Jara wrote. “Why was this never brought up to my attention or Dr. Burke’s attention when you worked with Mr. Gentile for two years in the Audit and Finance Committee?”

Murray said he had only heard of the CPA question recently.

Gentile said Jara is responding to the political drama to satisfy the critics in a touchy year that includes a School Board election for two seats and a search for a superintendent scheduled to culminate in a new hire by month’s end.

The district is making excellent progress in its financial accounting, said Gentile, and there are those in the Florida Keys that would prefer to see failure.

“There’s a circle of people that want to make it a big deal,” said Gentile. “These are the same people who have an issue with me being a Christian, and for praying at my desk. They are trying to find something to discredit me or something to bring me down. It’s a shame, but I’m not surprised.”

From all I have heard, it is Gentile and his wife who make a big deal out of being Christians. I have heard Gentile leads prayers with some of his employees in the Trumbo offices. I have seen some of Gentile’s and his wife’s Facebook evangelical ministry. They are very serious about it. Someone asked me what I thought about what I had seen on Facebook. I said I had seen this many times in Pentecostal Churches and communities. The person was concerned it was demonic. I said I had seen plenty of demonic, and this on Facebook was simply how many Pentecostal evangelists are. I wasn’t concerned about it, except I did not like hearing about Gentile leading school district employees in prayer on the job. I felt it was fraught with problems, if those employees answered to Gentile, or were targeted in an internal investigation, which was Gentile’s job in the school district. I called Gentile out once for being a follower of Jesus, when I made a Freedom of Information request about the status of the Sunny Booker investigation. I told Gentile Jesus of Nazareth would publish the findings. Gentile replied he agreed the Sunny Booker investigation needed to be brought to a conclusion and it had been assigned to Richard Collins, the school district’s legal counsel, who was experiencing medical difficulties. Ken was the internal auditor when the allegations were made by Jesus Jara against her. I remain of the view the district is sitting on that investigation because the outcome will be unfavorable to Jesus Jara and the district.

Gentile said Wednesday that he had downloaded all the forms to activate his license in Florida and will pay the $400 in fees.

Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto God that which is God’s. I have seen Gentile try to steer Jesus Jara and the School Board toward more responsible accounting practices and more prudent fiscal behavior. I have seen Gentile favor across the board wage cuts for all school district employees, including himself and Jesus Jara and the School Board members, to avoid teacher firings and terminations. It ain’t Gentile who really concerns me. It’s his school bosses. Gentile needs to clear up their confusion that they can use $2 million in undefined inventory assets to calculate the reserve fund balance.

Here is The Key West Citizen’s version of the barn-burner at Sugarloaf School Wednesday night:

 
Alternative schools homeless for now
 
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
Monroe County’s alternative schools remain in exile with no home yet for this fall, as administrators plan to save money by combining staff for all 44 students from two very different programs born in Key West.
So far, it’s been an impossible sell to one community 17 miles up U.S. 1.
Parents and staff at Sugarloaf School told School District administrators this week that the boys and girls in alternative school programs are not welcome to take up residence at their campus, home to about 600 kids in pre-K through grade 8.
“They would have to hire a lot more police,” said Jayme Thomas, a mother of four Sugarloaf kids age 3, 7, 10 and 12. “They do drugs, they fight. Is that enough of a reason?”
About 90 people filled the Sugarloaf School library at a meeting Wednesday night, where many jeered administrators with heckling and sarcastic laughter over a proposal to add both the Keys Center Academy (KCA) and the Academic Connections for Excellence (ACE) programs to the campus.
Several women offered dramatic testimony that the troubled teens would bring violence and drugs to their neighborhood, depicting the students as would-be burglars preying on the houses down the street.
The idea to relocate the at-risk programs doesn’t add anything to Sugarloaf School, said Principal Harry Russell.
“What do we get out of this?” he asked rhetorically.
“It provides a self-serving solution to another district problem,” said parent Jaynie Royal, who also feared that the teens were a bad influence on the Sugarloaf kids.
“Many of these students have trouble with the law and some have babies themselves.”
The “emergency” meeting was called by the Sugarloaf School’s School Advisory Council, and lasted about one hour.
Superintendent Jesus Jara wants to have boys and girls at one site where teachers and a counselor will oversee all students from the two separate programs.
That decision spared the all-girls KCA from extinction, but still uprooted the 4-year-old program from its classrooms on the Stock Island campus of Florida Keys Community College.
“They’re very sad we’re leaving,” Layne Goldman, who helps run KCA, told the crowd at the start of the Wednesday meeting.
“Then stay there,” a man replied.
ACE students attend class in cramped rooms at the May Sands school.
KCA students must apply for admission.
The school is known for a dedicated staff that includes counselor Heather Jennings, who makes home visits and has become a hero to the girls.
ACE, on the other hand, takes students who have truancy or behavior problems, and numbers about 22 students.
They are “sent” to ACE rather than going voluntarily and applying for it like the girls at KCA. Most of the ACE students are boys, but it also takes in girls.
In January, Jara chose not to replace teachers who left ACE and instead assigned teachers at KCA to teach at both alternative programs.
Administrators said that the alternative schools would have separate lunch times — not in the cafeteria — and different start and dismissal times.
“We are looking at having the two schools have as little as possible to do with the Sugarloaf kids,” said administrator Theresa Axford, who served as Sugarloaf’s principal for years.
“All the children do belong to us here in the Lower Keys.”
Combing staff at ACE and KCA has already cut $250,000 from the district’s expenses, said Axford, and the change will save another $250,000 in the upcoming school year.

When the principal of the Montessori school campused at May Sands told the Sugarloaf audience how easy the ACE school was to get along with, someone in the audience said she and her Montessori students would be welcome at Sugarloaf. I said, “Bus the Montessori students to Sugarloaf.” I imagine most people there knew the Montessori school was hoping to get the space vacated at May Sands by the ACE school, which Sunny Booker told me was why Jesus Jara tried to get her to move the ACE school to the county jail and she refused to go along with it. I told the Montessori principal after the Sugarloaf meeting that she had a conflict of interest and should not have been at the meeting. She said Jesus Jara had asked her to be there and speak. I said she messed up and no to do anything like that again. Later that night, Todd German told me he had told the Montessori principal not to be at that meeting. Todd had been on the Montessori school’s board. Currently, he is board chairman of the Collegiate charter high school housed at the Community College. He persuaded that school’s dysfunctional board to hire Academica to run the school. Maybe after Todd gets that charter school headed in a good direction, he can get himself roped into straightening out the board of the charter school on the military property. Then maybe he applies for the superintendent of schools job. I’d much rather have him there than on the school board. A savvy banker and former Special Forces, Todd would not for a heartbeat put up with what we keep reading all about in the local newspapers and hearing on US 1 Radio.

keysmyhome@hotmail.com 

Posted in Today's FlaKey Drivel | No Comments »

more Florida Keys schools positives and negatives, mostly the latter

Thursday, June 21st, 2012
From yesterday’s Coconut Telegraph at bigpinekey.com:

[The Truth About Charter Schools]

“Charter schools cost more – and the parents who chose to put their kids in charter schools chose to pay the extra.” Sorry, I beg to differ. My son has attended the Charter School on Big Pine and I did not have to pay for it. Charter schools are available to anyone who wants to attend regardless of income. Where are you getting your facts?

“So, creating more charters, which are inherently just for the kids of parents with larger amounts disposable income,” Again I ask where are you getting your facts? If you saw my budget you would know that a single mom does not have any disposable income.

“The real fix is to make the public schools operate like the charters and private schools.” This statement I agree with, but the best fix is implemented in Finland, I think and a charter school in the ghetto area of Oakland CA. Please read ‘Crazy Like a Fox: One Principal’s Triumph in the Inner City.” ( http://amzn.to/Kkiile ) The best fix are teachers that float with their students for a few years at a time. This way they get to know the child’s weakness and strengths and can help to motivate them.

This nonsense of specialty teaching is a big part of the problem with American schools. They are not doctors and like doctors when you only see a child for 42 minutes you can not effectively create a relationship with them. Imagine an American high school student who can teach math, science, English and history!

As far as your comment about the FCATS. I moved away 2 years ago thinking I was going to a better school dist, the town has more money but I pulled my son out in Feb with 4F’s, 3Ds and a B+ in Gym. I sent him down here to live with his dad, and he signed himself in the Big Pine Charter School. He finished school with 1A 3B and 1C. Regardless of what you think, I now believe that the integrity of the teachers and the leadership, is what makes a school good. If they can work as a team and care about their students there is hope. If not, then you have a situation like I just left. The district we left, that has the highest per capita in the state of Florida, came in at 30 out of 63 counties in FCAT scores. Monroe DID come in at 8th in the state last year, get your sources from somewhere out of the county and maybe you’ll get a bigger picture.

_____________________

As for the barn-burner at Sugarloaf School last night …

The school district’s agenda was to persuade the parents, teachers and principal to agree to the troubled boys program at Mary Sands School in Key West and the at risk girls program at the Community College being combined into one school and the students bused from Key West to Sugarloaf School, where they would be taught in unused classrooms there. These troubled students are high-school age and older. Sugarloaf School is a PK-8 school. I had told Larry Murray before I drove down for the meeting, that for the Sugarloaf school community this was like Key West Mayor Craig Cates trying to put a homeless shelter in Truman Annex.

 
I felt sorry for the schools Chief Operating Officer Theresa Axford, as she tried to sell Superintendent Jara’s agenda to the parents. I felt sorry for Theresa because Jara was not there trying to sell it. He was elsewhere, interviewing for jobs.
 
Theresa told the parents it was a cost-saving measure for the school district, and with the older students up there, Sugarloaf might be able to become a high school, what the parents had wanted when she was the Sugarloaf principal. A parent asked, why wasn’t it already a high school? Another parent asked, why didn’t the troubled teens attend Key West High School? Why bus them over twenty miles to a lower grades school? Several parents said they would pull their child out of Sugarloaf, if the troubled teens were brought up there.
 
I wondered, and doubted I was alone, if this was another not in my backyard situation. I wondered if Superintendent Jara was bowing to the wishes of the people of Key West, who didn’t want these trouble kids attending school in Key West? I wondered if this like neighborhoods in Key West wanting a homeless shelter in their neighborhood? Sunny Booker told me Jara had tired to make her move the troubled boys program to the county jail on Stock Island, and she told him that was his call, but she would not continue to run that program, if he moved it to the jail.
 
Theresa Axford never had a chance of getting the Sugarloaf community to agree to the district moving the two troubled kids schools to Sugarloaf School. The maybe 80 enraged parents, in unison, told Theresa to tell Superintendent Jara NO!!! SugarloafPrincipal Harry Russell said he had written his many concerns to Jara. The outcome was 100 percent perdictable. Theresa told the parents she would tell Superintendent Jara their response, and she felt they would have an answer, whoever the Superintendent was, in two weeks time.
 
Andy Griffiths was the only school board member I saw there. I saw District 3 school board candiates John Welsh and Larry Murray. I learned yesterday that District 3 candidate Michael Cunningham’s children attend Poinciana K-6 School in Key West. How can a candidate not send his children to the school in his own school district say he represents that school? How can a candidate who lives in the Sugarloaf School district not be there for that acutely emotional meeting?
 
I learned after the Sugarloaf meeting was over that the fellow running the two troubled teens programs is leaving the Keys for a job on the mainland. He did not tell the parents of Sugarloaf School that last night, nor did Theresa Axford, when they tried to persuade the parents to go along with the troubled teens programs being brought to Sugarloaf School.
 
To parents of Sugarloaf School who might chance to read this harangue:
 
If your school had been a charter school, this would not have happened last night. The school district could not force this on you. Furthermore, the issue of your PE director being cut would be decided by your own board of directors, instead of by your principal and the school district. I hope you will give serious thought to turning your school into a charter school. Then, your teachers and principal will answer to your school’s board of directors, which you will get to select. Then, you can get your high school.
 
The really sad thing for me last night was the troubled teens who are trying to get their lives back on track. I thought it was insane to increase their stress level by busing them from Key West to Sugarloaf School. The fellow running both programs told me there would be 6 pick up points, starting in Key West and coming up the Keys, and the entire trip one-way might take an hour. I told him that alone was a deal killer. Two hours on a school bus these struggling kids have not had to do. Most of them walk to school or ride bicycles. Surely there is space in school district buildings in Key West for these struggling kids to attend school. Surely they don’t have to be bused to Sugarloaf School.
 
Led by John Dick, the school board gave an entire school to Key West for a new city hall, knowing a move was afoot to combine the two troubled teens schools and put them somewhere else, to save costs. Maybe they should attend school at the district’s Trumbo facility. Looks to me there might be room there for that. Maybe there is room for these kids at Key West High School, with kids their own age. I bet somewhere in Key West’s back yard there is room for these kids to attend school. There is plenty of room in Key West for kids who live up the Keys to attend school.
 
On the school bullying front, received this link yesterday from Todd German

http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2012/06/19/the-truth-about-bullying-in-floridas-schools/

about a Coral Shores High senior putting a smaller kid in a locker and keeping him there for an hour, with other kids standing around laughing. The principal let the perp off with having to shake hands with the kid he locked up.

I sent this back:

Hi, Todd.

Maybe youse and mese should drive up to Coral Shores High and grab that shit head principal and put him in a locker for an hour and see if he can figure out how far he has had his head way up where the sun doesn’t shine.

I ran into the same lame excuses last fall with the boy at Key West High, who was hazed for being gay.I think there might be some truth in they define bullying in a way that it is nearly impossible to exist and become a situation they actually have do something about that the perp seriously does not like.I think locking a kid in a locker for an hour is assault and false imprisonment, which can carry pretty heavy criminal penalties for an adult. A tad more serious than Coral Shores High seniors painting a bunch of desks. Maybe Dennis Ward needs to prosecute the little shit who did this. I bet that would get some attention.

Sloan

 
Todd replied:
 
I sent this article to Dennis as well.
 
I agree, if this isn’t bullying, exactly what is? To do so little after a child comes forward seeking help is tragic.
 
I replied:
 
I was remiss in not saying locking that kid up in a locker like that was a tad more serious than spitting off the balcony of a Duval Street bar and the spit landing on top of a Key West cop’s cap, after which the spitter got the book thrown at him by Dennis Ward. Maybe down here in The State Penal Colony, property rights are more important than human rights.
 
______________________________

 

As for my Public Records Request yesterday to schools Chief of Staff Ken Gentile:

From: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
To: ken.gentile@keysschools.com; john.dick@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com; jesus.jara@keysschools.com
CC: gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; news@us1radio.com
Subject: Public Records Request – counting inventories for reserve fund balance
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:04:19 -0400

Morning, Ken:

Re this in Key West Citizen recently:Gentile’s fund balance figures for 2012 and 2013, however, include some “unavailable” money, in the form of about $2 million in assets the district could tap if necessary.
“Inventories count,” said Gentile. “You could sell it and spend it.”

This is a Public Records (Freedom of Information Act) request:

Please describe/provide by individual item and/or category the inventory assets the school district could tap if necessary, and sell, to shore up its reserve fund balance.

Please provide any Florida law or generally accepted accounting practice that allows the district to include inventory in computing the reserve fund balance.

Please provide proof you are a CPA in the State of Florida and/or in any other state in the US.

All of this you, as the district’s Chief of Staff, second to Superintendent Jara, should have readily at hand. I see no reason for you to reply that someone else is getting the information together, or I will have to pay to receive this information which you yourself possess and are the reason I have requested it.

Thank you,

Sloan Bashinsky

 
Ken’s prompt reply:
 
Subject: FW: Fund Balance
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:00:11 -0400
From: Ken.Gentile@KeysSchools.com
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
CC: Jesus.Jara@KeysSchools.com; Sally.Smith@KeysSchools.com

Sloan,

I am forwarding the email I sent to the Citizen regarding the presentation on the Fund balance made to the School Board. In past conversations relating to charter school funding I took your advice to attempt to break down the explanation into “ simple terms”.As a result the terms available and unavailable were introduced. The amounts that are “unavailable” consist of nonspendable and restricted, assigned or committed. See breakdown below and detailed explanations attached under GASB 54 which was implemented last year end.

The proposition that inventories (shown below at $22K) would be “converted” to cash and spent is ludicrous and shows a lack of understanding of the fund balance and functioning of fund balance. My comment made to the school board regarding inventory (or prepaid expense) was to provide an example of what would be considered non-spendable (or unavailable) not a scheme to convert inventories to cash to somehow prop up the fund balance or some other accounting gimmick. This is a gross misrepresentation. The amount of $22k at year-end would not have any benefit as it is immaterial to the balance.

The excerpt Financial statement (below) was taken from our audited financial statements

as of June 30, 2011 and sent to the Citizen. As you will note the total fund balance ($5.4MM) less our unassigned of $4.6MM (“available”) fund balance leaves a remainder of a million dollars. To this balance I proposed at the school board meeting an additional reserve of $800k for health insurance which was cited as an issue on our last audit report. I proposed that this amount be “committed” by the school board but could be transferred to the insurance fund as an alternative. I am proposing that this be done at midyear.

Finally, per your request I have attached a copy of my NYS CPA license. I am now updating this in the state of Florida due to all of the rancor and speculation that a license does not exist or that I fraudulently misrepresented that I had one when I didn’t. I have not practiced as a CPA since I was in New York and worked for the CPA firm Arthur Young and Company. I have never acted as a CPA in the state of Florida and did not see the need to spend the expense to become active here if I was not going to practice. Although there are differences there are similarities with practicing law in various states. One of the main differences is that if the states have comparable practices (as New York and Florida do) an individual does not have to retake the exam (analogous to the bar) . I am in the process of applying to the state of Florida to register and activate my license here to silence the critics.

I see this as a distraction to what we are trying to accomplish; educating children and strengthening the school district financially. However, that said I am also very serious about educating the public as you are. If there is confusion I take some responsibility for that. If however, there are hidden motives or agenda by individuals who claim some sense of righteousness or public good but instead are only attempting undermine character and try and convict in the court of public opinion without any regard to the facts before hand, I personally do not see this to be in the best interests of the district or community.

I am not accusing you of this as I know your readership and contacts often forward you questions and comments that warrant follow up. You have your job and I have mine. Most of the time we agree on the ends but not always the means. I hope this satisfies your inquiry and you are satisfied with the results and turnaround time.

I have copied Superintendent Jara for his information and Sally for logging and tracking as a PRR. Regarding the press and readership I leave this up to your discretion.

regards,

ken

From: Ken Gentile
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 4:51 PM
To:‘gfilosa@keysnews.com’
Subject: Fund Balance

Gwen,

I hope you find this helpful. I have attached a training power point and an excerpt from 6/30/2011 financial report – Fund balance section:

 

My reply:

From: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
To: ken.gentile@keysschools.com
CC: jesus.jara@keysschools.com; sally.smith@keysschools.com; john.dick@keysschools.com; andy@fishandy.com; gfilosa@keysnews.com; skinney@keynoter.com; news@us1radio.com; tdgerman@aol.com
Subject: RE: Fund Balance
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:59:25 -0400

Hi, Ken. Thanks for your prompt response, which ran off the page on my end, and mine back to you might do same therefore.

Am unable to open the file containing a copy of your NY CPA license. Your explanation of your CPA experience in NY probably serves well enough. I wish this issue had been cleared up sooner, for there indeed are very serious issues begging for attention.

 
I don’t care whether you transfer your CPA license to Florida, but perhaps it will make other people happy. I do not think lawyers licensed and in good standing in other states can easily transfer their licenses to Florida. Generally, I think they have to stand for a thorough background check and take the Florida Bar Exam.Todd German told me Andy Griffiths’ was delighted to learn $2 million in inventory assets could be counted in the reserve fund balance. I published someone had told me that, and heard nothing back from Andy, who receives all of my ravings, as do you, Ken.I heard Andy at a school board meeting argue for having only a 3 percent reserve fund balance, instead of a 5 percent balance. I heard Andy argue the disaster fund should be counted as part of the reserve fund. I heard Andy sluff off John Dick’s argument that this school district has a steady history of having unexpected big ticket costs, which he labeled “snakes”, springing from out of nowhere.

I heard John say, and you, too, yes?, that the school district was not amortizing contingent liabilities. All part of a heated discussion at a school board meeting in Key West, for having a 5 percent instead of a 3 percent reserve fund balance.

At that meeting, Ken, you told the board about a workers compensation obligation that needed to be factored in. I came over and asked you to tell them how much it was, and you told them something like $600,000, yes?

I see in your reply to my request that you recommed to the board that they factor in an additinal $800,000 in the reserve fund for health insurance. Was that done?Because I published what Gwen Filosa wrote about you saying there is $2 million in inventory assets which could be sold and thus counted in the reserve fund balance, and I praised her for writing it, I will publish my Public Records Request and your reply to it.I wish you had written a letter to the editor correcting what Filosa wrote. I think you should do that because The Citizen’s readers, whose numbers dwarf my readership, only have what Filosa wrote.

Regards,

Sloan

 
Ken replied:
 
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:07:00 -0400
Subject: RE: Fund Balance
From: Ken.Gentile@KeysSchools.com
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com

Sloan

I will try to answer your questions as they come. First regarding contingent liabilities, they should be accounted for, reserved for or amortized not necessarily all three. Yes workers comp reserve was underfunded at or around 600k although positive the balance in the account is insufficient to handle future claims. Health care reserves are similar there are 30 [days] in excess reserves but the safe harbor provision requires 60 days. The wc will be funded through a rate increase and the health care will be funded all at once. This will be done @ the end of this fiscal year jun/jul.A letter might be a good idea

Thanks

Ken

Last night at Sugarloaf School, school board candidate Larry Murray told me he had walked away from the last school board meeting thinking he had heard the same thing Gwen Filosa wrote:

Gentile’s fund balance figures for 2012 and 2013, however, include some “unavailable” money, in the form of about $2 million in assets the district could tap if necessary.
“Inventories count,” said Gentile. “You could sell it and spend it.”

 
In yesterday’s Keynoter: 

Schools chief of staff misrepresents Florida CPA status
By SEAN KINNEY
skinney@keynoter.com
 
Posted – Wednesday, June 20, 2012 06:00 AM EDT
 
The School District’s recruiting firm specifically said it could not verify Ken Gentile’s CPA status in Florida.

Ken Gentile, the Monroe County School District’s chief of staff, is being investigated internally for labeling himself a certified public accountant on his resume despite not holding the designation in Florida.

The School Board hired Gentile in April 2010 as the district’s chief internal auditor. On his resume, he listed himself as a CPA in Florida and New York.

Larry Murray, a candidate for the District 3 School Board seat being vacated by Duncan Mathewson, pointed out the discrepancy to Superintendent Jesus Jara. Monday, Jara said via e-mail he handed the matter over to the district’s law firm, Vernis and Bowling.

“I directed [attorney] Dirk Smits to complete a full investigation on the allege[d] misconduct,” Jara says. “Mr. Gentile was notified that we are starting an investigation.”

Before he was hired, recruitment firm The Mercer Group vetted Gentile’s resume. From a February 2010 report: “He is a certified public accountant in New York and that was verified…. I have been unable to confirm his CPA license with the state of Florida.”

A CPA must undergo more rigorous academic training than an accountant, as well as pass a licensure examination that varies from state to state and maintain a set amount of continuing education credits. CPAs can perform audits, regular accountants cannot.

Tuesday, Gentile shrugged off the issue. He said his job doesn’t require the CPA licensure which, since he holds the CPA designation in New York, he could easily obtain by filling out some forms and paying a $300 fee to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

“I think the process of going through and getting the certification will show there’s no issue,” Gentile says. “It’s just not activated.”

He said Murray — who, when he was a member of the district Audit and Finance Committee, often butted heads with the administration — is using the issue for political gain.

“It seems to me to be pointed toward an agenda,” Gentile said. “I think because he’s running for an election … I think he’s going after me personally. He’s never contacted me, asked me or asked for any information from me.”

According to the DBPR, to get Florida certification, Gentile has to go through a process called “licensure by endorsement” whereby he provides “proof that [he has] passed a licensing examination that is substantially equivalent to the examination required by the licensing agency.”

Until he does that, he can’t perform CPA functions in Florida. Asked if his resume suggests otherwise, he said: “It could. That could be confusing. They would not ask me — at least I don’t think they would ask me — to perform a CPA function. None of my job description, tasks or anything I’m required to do currently requires a CPA.”

“I don’t see that as fraudulent, misleading or unethical at all. The board can make that determination. They can have an airing; they can have someone independent review it.”

“It’s serious, OK, at least from what I know so far,” says School Board Chairman John Dick. “It sounds like it’s real bad.”

Gentile is working under a three-year contract, valid until next April, that pays $122,000 annually. He has a master’s of business administration from the University of South Florida and an undergraduate degree in accounting and economics from Queens (N.Y.) College.

_____________________________

 

I called Sean Kinney about his article and per my request he sent this below. He said he had only learned of the 1993 date after his article was published.

Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:25:45 -0400
Subject:
From: skinney@keynoter.com
To: keysmyhome@hotmail.com

I presented this information to Ken based on records search with and subsequent phone call to the New York State Office of the Professions.

New York CPA license number 07 055876; granted on March 30, 1987 and expired on August 31, 1993.

Ken’s email response is in blue. [I converted it to black]

From Ken at 9:51 a.m. on June 20, 2012

Sean,
 
I haven’t lived in NYC since 1988. I contacted FICPA and spoke to a representative there and explained my status and she directed me to the web site for the appropriate forms to fill out and send in. I am in the process of doing this.
With regard to the status of “not registered” I have not pursued this status or inquiry with NY.
There is a section of the Florida statute regarding licensing that relates to grandfathering and exemptions for those passing the exam and having experience prior to x year. I don’t have the statute in front of me. I will look into this as part of my application process.
I am currently at the FSFOA conference so my access to email is intermittent
Ken–
Sean Kinney
Florida Keys Keynoter
(305) 890-6620
And this, which was fowarded to me:
 
From: “Kinney, Sean” <skinney@keynoter.com>
Date: June 20, 2012 1:08:16 PM EDT
To: Todd German <tgerman@my100bank.com>
 
Thanks for sending me that email chatter re: Gentile’s CPA license. Based on a review of records available online and a call to the New York State Office of Professions, Gentile hasn’t been licensed in that state as a CPA since 1993, six years after the license was granted. When I asked him about this, he seemed to think it has no bearing on his ability to gain licensure through endorsement in Florida. Personally, I fail to see how you can pick up where you left off after nearly two decades out of the profession, not to mention its affect on the bureaucratic shuffle. What a mess.  

Best,
–
Sean Kinney
Florida Keys Keynoter
(305) 890-6620
 
And this Keynoter Editorial yesterday: 

Another problem rears its head at the Keys School District
Posted – Wednesday, June 20, 2012 10:51 AM EDT
When it comes to the Monroe County School District, it seems something negative is always rearing its head.
The latest is the revelation that Chief of Staff Ken Gentile, who was hired in April 2010 to be the district’s independent auditor — and specifically to restore public trust in the School District — is not a licensed certified public accountant in Florida as he claimed on his resume. He is a licensed CPA in New York.
On the grand scale, there have been far worse things at the district since the bad news started rolling in 2009. That’s when then-Superintendent Randy Acevedo and his wife Monique were indicted for Monique lifting more than $400,000 from the district by charging personal goods to district credit cards. Randy was called out for covering up her theft.
There’s been an ongoing battle with the United Teachers of Monroe over the union’s contract, foul-ups with the reconstruction of Horace O’Bryant Middle School in Key West, allegations of sexual harassment against Marathon High School’s principal. There have been many more minor headaches.
Gentile, since he passed CPA certification in New York, can get the CPA designation in Florida merely by paying a $300 fee to the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation and filling out forms verifying his New York status. So this isn’t like practicing law if you’ve never sat for the bar exam.
But it shows that the district, admittedly going through perhaps its most difficult financial time ever, still has a lot of fixing to do.
Hiring a top official requires serious due diligence, and apparently the School Board didn’t do its due diligence well enough when it hired Gentile. That’s apparent from a February report to the board from recruiting firm The Mercer Group, which wrote: “He is a certified public accountant in New York and that was verified…. I have been unable to confirm his CPA license with the state of Florida.”
How was that left hanging out there with no question from the board? Why didn’t the board, when it short-listed its auditor pool, follow up and see if Gentile held the CPA designation in Florida?
School Board member John Dick was on the board when it hired Gentile. This week, he told us: “It’s serious, OK, at least from what I know so far. It sounds like it’s real bad.”
Gentile says he’ll pay his fee and fill out his forms and get his Florida certification. That’s fine. But the public needs to know how The Mercer Group’s report to the board was never followed through — and if there will be protocols put in place to make sure that false claims on resumes don’t get through again.

____________________________

I told Sean Kinney and Todd German, a person who becomes a CPA or a lawyer in Idaho has about the same training and credentials as a person who becomes a CPA or a lawyer in Florida. Gentile was a CPA. He worked as a CPA for a major accounting firm. So he probably knows that field as well as I know the law field. He came down here to work internally in the schools, not as a private accountant.

I said my concerns are suggestion of misrepresentation of Gentile’s credentials to the School Board on his resume, and the School Board that hired him ignoring the Mercer Group’s caveat that they could not verify Gentile was a licensed CPA in Florida.

I said I doubted the State of Florida would come down on Gentile for putting CPA on his letterhead, if he was not, in fact, in the business of being an accountant in the private sector in Florida.

What’s the difference in Gentile putting CPA on his letterhead, and my putting J.D., LLM (in Tax Law) on my letterhead? I have those credentials. I don’t put them on my letterhead because it would be ostentatious, and because I don’t want to attract an unauthorized practice of law complaint investigation from the Florida State Bar.

Frankly, I’m a lot more concerned about the School Board thinking they have $2 million in unspecified inventory assets they can use to calculate the reserve fund balance, than I am Gentile not being a licensed CPA in Florida. Especially in view of the fact that the School Board that hired him did not seem to care that the Mercer Group was not able to verify that part of Gentile’s resume. School Board member Andy Griffiths came away from that board meeting thinking the district had $2 million in unspecified inventory assets which can be used to calculate the reserve fund balance.

As for “When it comes to the Monroe County School District, it seems something negative is always rearing its head”…

That’s because this school district is systemically dysfunctional. Its basic nature is to keep producing negatives, and I don’t see that changing as long as the School Board and Superintendent have control of the schools. Charter schools pretty much get to chart their own course.

 
begged, borrowed, stolen and written by Sloan Bashinsky, District 3 write-in school board candidate
 

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