By Antonio D. French
Filed Thursday, December 21, 2006 at 7:11 PM
Paychecks for all employees of the St. Louis Public Schools will be released on Wednesday, Dec. 27, as a result of an agreement between the Board of Education and Teacher's Local 420. Labels: Schools
Employees who are not enrolled in direct deposit may pick up their paper checks on Wednesday between 2:00 and 4:00 pm at the District’s central office, 801 N. 11th Street. A second individual paper check distribution will be held on Thursday, Dec. 28, between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. at the central office. Proper identification will be required.
Direct deposits for all employees will be available in their bank accounts on Wednesday.
1 Comments:
I know this is going to take up too much space---but this struck me as interesting----Oakland California---
http://www.stoprandyward.com/
Oakland, California, USA Saturday, December 23, 2006
Home Action Alert!
The Broad/Ward Connection
The Cost Of State Rule Adult Ed Stories K12 Comments
Updates: oaklandrising.com
Randy Ward was sent to the Oakland public school district to design and implement a financial recovery plan, continue the academic improvements of the previous administration, and leave. Instead, he has used our financial crisis as an opportunity to close and privatize our schools, to enrich his friends at our expense. He has threatened to shut down the successful Adult Education program, even though it’s in the black.
Is this the best that Jack O’Connell- State Superintendent of Schools- can do for the people of Oakland? With this kind of mismanagement, why did we need to be taken over by the state in the first place? At least our last superintendent was democratically chosen by an elected school board accountable to voters. Randy Ward is accountable to no one. Except, perhaps, billionaire Eli Broad.
Ward and O'Connell have refused to set a date for their departure. Is the plan to keep us in debt, to justify gutting public education and turning it over to private business interests, while Dr. Ward continues to enjoy a $240,000 position?
It’s time for this fiasco to end. Ward must go.
Dr. Randolph E. Ward
State Appointed Administrator
Oakland Unified School District
Who is Randy Ward? Why does he control our schools?
Randy Ward is the State Appointed Administrator of the Oakland Unified School District. He was trained by multibillionaire Eli Broad, whose Broad Foundation seeks to privatize public schools and undermine unions.
In 2003, after a large OUSD budget shortfall was discovered, Democratic State Senator Don Perata wrote a law, SB 39, which authorized a state takeover of the Oakland school district. Randy Ward was then appointed by another Democrat, Jack O’Connell, California’s Superintendent of Instruction.
When O’Connell ran for this elected office, he received campaign contributions from- guess who? Eli Broad. And who advised O’Connell and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown concerning the appointment of the state administrator, prior to the selection of Randy Ward? Eli Broad.
Click for more...
What is Randy Ward doing to our schools?
Dr. Ward was sent here to end Oakland School’s financial crisis, create a recovery plan, and turn the district back to local, democratic control. Instead, Ward and his backers have seized on our financial problems as a chance to enrich themselves at the expense of students, parents, and teachers, much like George W. Bush has seized on real and conjured crises such as forest fires, 9/11, and a projected Social Security shortfall, to advance a draconian corporatist agenda.
Ward has closed schools and turned them over to private companies connected to his wealthy friends. Golden Gate Elementary, for example, will now be run by Aspire, a Broad-associated outfit. Ward has also threatened to fire hundreds of teachers and close the vitally successful Adult Education Program, which serves almost 30,000 immigrants, seniors, and young adults, even though it has a separate (from K-12) budget which is in the black.
Oakland’s Adult Education Program is not a drain on K-12. On the contrary, it actually gives all of its allotted state lottery money (at least $500,000 per year, and often more) to K-12. How many millions of dollars has Adult Ed turned over to K-12 over the years? 5 million dollars? 10 million? More importantly, Adult Education SUPPORTS K-12, by teaching English to the immigrant parents of Oakland’s schoolchildren, so that they can be involved in their children’s education.
So what’s Ward’s rationale for shutting down Adult Education? “It might take money away from K-12 some time in the future.” Sounds like Bush’s rationale for acting now to fix a hyped up “crisis” with Social Security that’s looming over us- 40 years in the future.
Randy Ward wants to “fix” the Oakland Unified School District like George W. Bush wants to “fix” social security- by destroying it. Ward’s policies are achieving at a local level what Arnold Schwartzenegger’s anti-teacher ballot initiatives seek to achieve at the state level, and what Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act is achieving on a national level: public school closure, privatization, and the destruction of teachers’ unions (which they hate, since we mostly vote Democratic).
The teachers and students in Compton, California are still reeling from the damage Ward brought upon their schools, phony PR to the contrary. Before he came to Oakland, Ward “fixed” Compton’s financial problems by firing qualified teachers and bringing in unqualified staff from Third World countries to work for much less. It’s the Wal Mart approach to education. (And believe it or not, Wal Mart is one of the companies with a stake in the hostile corporate takeover of Oakland’s public schools.)
George W. Bush is infamous for budget numbers that don’t add up and hasn’t even submitted a budget -with real numbers- for the Social Security plan he’s trying to shove down our throats.
Is this why the state is paying Randy Ward $240,000 a year?
Click for more...
This isn't just about Oakland: Public education is being attacked by all levels of government. Local State Federal
Dr. Randolph E. Ward
State Appointed Administrator
Oakland Unified School District Arnold Schwartzenegger
Governor of California George W. Bush
“President” of the United States
School closures, firings, privatization. Uses Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act to justify charterizing and privatizing public schools. Close connections to anti-union billionaire Eli Broad. Ward brags about being “the most hated man in Oakland.” We are paying $170,000 a year for Ward’s bodyguard service.
Anti-teacher ballot initiatives that would privatize teachers' pensions, allowing Wall St. to rob us (Enron, World Com), and enable retaliatory administrators to cut teachers' pay. Slashed funding for schools. Calls teachers and nurses “special interests” and brags about “kicking their butts.”
No Child Left Behind Act sets up public schools for federal funding cuts and closure by imposing high standards without sufficient funding. Bush is deliberately running up huge federal deficits, sticking us with massive interest payments to justify slashing programs that help the non-rich. Neo-cons call it “starving the beast."
photo:bushorchimp.com
What is their agenda?
Throughout the US, wealthy interests are now working overtime to trash, steal, and privatize publicly shared resources, such as our National Forests and Wilderness Areas, Social Security, the California State Pension Fund, our broadcast airwaves, public education, and even our vote. These “patriotic” moneyed interests, who don’t want to pay any taxes, already control most of our country’s wealth. But “most” is not enough for them. They want it ALL. Imagine an uninvited guest who comes to a party and stuffs every pocket with the food from the buffet table, leaving nothing for anyone else.
No, we’re not saying all rich people are evil. We’re just saying it’s nicer when they act more like Franklin D. Roosevelt (created Social Security), Senator Ted Kennedy (has fought for middle and working class people for four decades), and Senator Mark Dayton (Thanks to the Dayton family, anyone can go to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which is a great museum, FREE, any day they are open), and not quite as nice when they act like Jack the Ripper, King Leopold II of Belgium, Richard Mellon Scaife, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, and Eli Broad.
March 15, 2005
Action Alert!
Write! Call! Berate!
If you do nothing else, pick up the phone and call this man:
Jack O’Connell
State Superintendent of Schools
California Department of Education
1430 N Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
e-mail: joconnell@cde.ca.gov
Jack O’Connell is Randy Ward’s boss. O’Connell appointed
Ward, and Ward is directly accountable to O’Connell.
His phone number is
(916) 319-0800
When you call, an assistant will answer. Tell her to tell Jack:
Dr. Ward is an arrogant bully. His heartless, greed-driven policies have hurt Oakland schools, and he needs to go. We don’t want our Adult School Program shut down this year or next year, we don’t want our elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools charterized or privatized and turned over to Randy’s rich friends, such as Eli Broad, directly or indirectly, and we don’t want to get stuck with endless debt!
If you called Jack before, call him again.
Sponsored by Oakland Teachers for Justice.
Send your comments to stoprandyward@hotmail.com
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