Sworn in... and now the work begins

I am so fortunate to be able to comment directly to you in this medium.  As you may know I was sworn in on the board of education on Nov 9.  I again declined to speak with the Greeley Tribune.  There are so many people who know the truth about the Tribune and urge me to continue the fight for the truth. 

This audio file will also be posted to my blog.  Just go to the pirates main website. www.pirate1047.com to the lower left you’ll see the “blog” button. You can also communicate with me there.   A final place I will send my comments is to the Greeleyreport.com   …they are a bit more abrasive or aggressive than I, but always, so far, have posted my true comments, not calculatingly ripped and misconstrued.

So, how was my first official swearing in by judge unfug and school board meeting?  I have to say it was a bit boring.  But I’ll explain as the reporter can’t stop me here.

I was impressed with the achievements of some of the students in their literacy and even helping their parents to learn English.  We all know this is good.  And it was funded primarily by a grant---not our collective pocketbooks; even better.

I was also impressed with the choir that performed for us.  There were a myriad of principles describing how well their schools are doing and picking and choosing specific students who were stand outs.   As I remember it through the 6 hour meeting, there was a principle who extolled a student achievement showing 37% of his students were now proficient in math.  I hope he has more than that who can do math.

 I’m not sure I’m into the fancy meal we all get  to eat between our work session and our public session, at 6pm.  In fact, I skipped it.  I also turned down the computer and printer and additional phone line the district offered me.  I accepted the cell phone  as I don’t want to be paying air time for people to talk to me about district business.

Wayne Eads has been coo for 17 years.  Hard to tell if he knows what he’s doing well enough to be able to make the correct changes to meet the new budget demands …we’ll see.

I really got the feeling politics had an awful lot to do with most of the agenda.  We don’t need self-aggrandizement and security; we need efficiency and motivation.   But, as I explained to chairman Broderius in a 2 hour meeting before the 6 hour public meeting, I have no axe to grind, save fighting excess.  I also intend to keep my mouth shut until I’m sure of what I’m doing.  It may be a week, it may be a couple months.  I do know that the current board is “deeply burdened” about the financial and academic crisis.  Hopefully, that means they are open to new ideas.  I will continue to post my thoughts in the aforementioned locations.

Finally, I have to mention the supportive letters and email of support from listeners here on Greeley’s most listened to radio station, many  teachers, both active and retired, and those who have just been hearing about my campaign.  It is not my intention to disappoint you.  Just give me a speck of time.

Unfiltered Comment

I declined to comment to the tribune reporters at my school board victory party. I have been misquoted and libeled enough to know better. During this campaign, Mr. Bangert and his tabloid claptrap continuously attempted my political murder.

I asked the tribune reporters to tune in here, to the pirate, for my appraisal of the issues. My comments here will not be misconstrued before the public hears them.

The problem has been described by mark twain as those who do not read the newspaper are uninformed, those who do are misinformed, somethings don’t change huh? My question to mr. Bangert is with over $20k of in kind advertising in his newspaper every single day for the last few months, how did he still lose on 3A by over 66%? If I were a current Tribune advertiser, I would be rethinking my marketing strategy.

The wasteful and misguided 3A went down badly. In this eelection, property owners won. As I work with the board of education, the district will soon begin winning. But as I said in my campaign, no worries, they will bring it back from the dead again next year. Drag it out of its dark grave, slap the dust off, pin a sunset clause to the corpses chest and prop it up again.

But in my race AND the fight against 3A, I can not take credit for winning, save maybe finding extraordinary people to be my friends. My schoolbaord race was close only because of an idiosyncrasy in the voting mechanism. Thank you to so many who encouraged others to vote only once for a schoolboard member. If we had not exposed this quirk, and gotten so many to vote for only one candidate instead of using all 4 votes, I know I would have lost badly as it amounted to a 33% headstart for my opponents.

I look forward to working with the other members of the board of education. I have based my entire campaign on honesty, openness and neutrality. There will be cuts. We have had the foxes guarding the henhouse much too long. As I have heard from so many silent voices within the system, district 6 is top heavy. We have tons of waste and I will find it and offer it to my colleagues to do as they will with it. They have already steeled themselves for my arrival. I can not out vote them, I am one against six , but I can make darn sure the public knows what’s going on and who is accountable so that, if need be, at the polls in 2 years we can get the majority. In this endeavor I need your help. I need others with more experience and who know where the waste is to step forward and contact me.

I am starting a monthly meeting at different schools. I want to spend quality, intense time with teachers and students and meet and listen to them where they are at. I will work with the district to bring these meetings into the schools themselves. As I promised in my campaign, I need volunteers to find out what is working at other schools. We will find out how, for instance, a private school right here in Greeley is graduating kids at the 97% percentile academically and doing it for less than half distrtict 6 per pupil funding. They also accept mentally handicapped and minority students.

For those of you who did not vote for me. I want your confidence and even your approval. I encourage the rest of my colleagues on the schoolboard to get beyond their emotional negativity and be open about new ideas. We all have certain common goals. Nobody wants waste or distrust in our schools. We all want content teachers and administrators. We all know we need some major changes. We want to be proud of our schools and we CAN be proud of them. And I believe if we are ready to forgo the status quo, we can.

District 6 Curios Spending

Click link to listen: Curious Spending Habits

3A The Rest of The Story?!

Thank you for listening to my first audio blog. To listen simply click below and follow the direction your browser gives you:

3A Rest of Story.mp3

Welcome to my blog!

I'm not creating this blog for campaign purposes. It is permanent for as long as I am on the board. I make my living by communicating and communication and trust is sorely needed as a foundation to improvement in District 6. Here is where you can interact with me. You will be blocked if you are being non-realistic, flapping your gums or just being selfish and one sided.

I want to hear about real problems in district 6. It's rumored there are warehouses full of wasted/outdated textbooks. Gimme a picture. I understand administration on the 4th floor got new carpet, paint and furniture. Maybe reasonable, can anybody tell me if the prior conditions were adequate?

Literacy problem is setting non-English speaking students for failure.

I have already began working with Hispanic teachers who have dealt with this problem before in CA. and know how to fix it.

Maybe you have ideas to make the district better? For example...

I’m a real estate investor-my wife is a broker. We keep hearing about the commercial real estate bubble bursting in 2010 or 2011. What will happen if schools begin leaning hard on this bubble when it goes POP!!?

District 6 has also been number 1 in the nation in foreclosures for several months in a row. We’re number 2 in the state right now for unemployment. Know what 3A will do to our commercial property tax? Think New Frontier Bank

Besides not addressing the problem. Timing could not be worse. We are in the midst of the worst economy since the great depression 80 years ago.

We want what’s best for the children and 3A is way too much, way too general given to the very people who got us here in the first place.

If you own a commercial property in Greeley or Evans, your new rate will be about $2k per $75kin value. A chairperson of the task force charged with justifying this tax is married to the Prez of UNC and … a candidate for Mayor of Greeley!!!

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to

live at the expense of everybody else.

-Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong

A Teacher’s email…

Teachers are educated licensed professionals in the State as are many other folks. These other professions work more than 40 hours a week, get no guaranteed raises for State mandated education requirements as teachers do, and never receive tenure. A starting salary of $30K is divided by 7 hour work day X 189 contact days less the 11 vacation days to get an hourly rate of $24.08. That is the same as $48K in the real world. 40 hours a week X 52 weeks minus 2 weeks vacation. Know any other fresh out of college professionals who make $48K? Get excellent benefits? Never have to work weekend duty unless they choose to? Get increases for taking required courses? Get comp days for being available after hours for teacher conferences? Most importantly, this is still America. No one is forcing anyone to be a teacher. If that profession is truly that bad - QUIT! I appreciate teachers as I am licensed to be one, but I despise the whining!