From: Montolino@aol.com [mailto:Montolino@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 8:33 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Cc: amanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com
Subject: Faliero
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| Find this article at: http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB58L9TLVE.html |
Bart Birdsall
2309 W. Bristol Ave.
Tampa, FL 33609
home (813) 258-8817
cell (813) 362-7937
Montolino@aol.com
It is galling that Linda Kipley the head of Professional Standards with the School District of Hillsborough County lied to a teacher during an investigation into his emails. I am willing to take a lie detector concerning this. No one should be lied to in that office.
In a message dated 12/14/2006 6:03:55 PM Eastern Standard Time,2309 W. Bristol Ave.
Tampa, FL 33609
home (813) 258-8817
cell (813) 362-7937
Montolino@aol.com
It is galling that Linda Kipley the head of Professional Standards with the School District of Hillsborough County lied to a teacher during an investigation into his emails. I am willing to take a lie detector concerning this. No one should be lied to in that office.
Yvonne.Lyons@floridaea.org writes: I noticed that neither you nor Lee spoke either. Could it have been that it was not politically wise for the two of you to speak given the bias it may have caused on the Board?
You and Lee have made some very serious allegations about certain school board members and district staff, so you were probably very smart to stay out of the fray, so to speak.
My decision not to speak had nothing to do with what you say above. I have emailed all the school board members and MaryEllen Elia about my views on the permission form matter and many other issues. I emailed them after the meeting.
They know me, they know how I feel, and it would have been redundant for me to speak. They would have yawned and thought, "I know exactly what he's going to say" and I wanted others to shine in the light.
In contrast for CTA's executive director to speak on this issue would have held a lot of weight with the board members. Some of the people who spoke at Tuesday's board meeting have been influenced by me and were emailing me constantly before the meeting.
You express concern about my obsession with Linda Kipley. I am obsessed with making sure no other teacher is caught in her abuse of power. This personality trait is the trait that all whistleblowers have. They experience something personal that is outrageous, and they want to tell the world, so that this type of behavior does not keep going on.
I have spoken to a teacher today who I think will finally call Tom Gonzalez, so there is another solid story. Her story is horrendous. It shows how Linda Kipley is a menace to every teacher in the county.
I have not changed. I have simply discovered wrongdoing and received no help in getting it exposed. That frustrates anyone, especially when you receive no help from those that you trusted and believed would help you.
Lee has been the only person who has helped me during and after the investigation into my emails, in my opinion. You find it strange that I enjoy the discomfort that someone faces during a confrontation. Why shouldn't someone be glad that Linda Kipley has to be uncomfortable when she has made others uncomfortable in a sadistic way or through lies?
Why should I be respectful and nice to someone who has lied to my face about the reason she was investigating me? That would be ludicrous.
The teacher I spoke to who was mistreated by Linda Kipley in an extreme manner was thrilled to death to hear that Lee confronted her. When people have been wronged, they are HAPPY when the shoe is on the other foot. Surely you understand that elementary concept of human emotions.
I'd like to see you mistreated by Linda Kipley (if you were a teacher) and see if you don't find some happiness in her discomfort when Lee confronts her. It is normal and human. Watch court cases. Families who have a relative who was killed scream for joy when a murderer is put behind bars.
I do not know what it is like to experience a murdered relative and go through a trial, but it appears to be quite common that people find happiness in the murderer being convicted, even though it does not bring their relative back. They delight in the murderer being punished. That is an extreme example, but I am sure you understand my point.
I am still the same sweet, soft spoken Bart that I have always been, but when I feel something is wrong, I will not "drop it" as CTA suggested. How can I drop it? I have never dropped my support of gay youth. I have never stopped loving opera. I have never stopped Pilates and yoga. When I get involved in something I do not stop and do not give up. It becomes a part of my life and being, and I am driven to expose Linda Kipley as an unprofessional head of Professional Standards, because I believe her to be despicable, and I can not live with myself, if I don't continue to tell anyone who will listen that this woman abuses her power.
I will take a lie detector or sign an avadavit or whatever I have to do. I will testify in court, if I have to, but I will go to my grave talking about the unprofessional head of Professional Standards in the School District of Hillsborough County.
When I first brought Kipley's behavior up to Jean, I told her I thought Kipley should be investigated. She said, "'Investigate' is a harsh word....." Well, Kipley had no qualms about investigating me or many others. Why is she too good to experience investigations? Why would CTA uphold a double standard for teachers and district officials?
Like I said, I am still the same Bart, except that I am sick and tired of the obstacles gay students have faced in starting their clubs (I received many calls about students not being able to start them and even called Plant High years ago to question the AP and that got it started).
I am sick and tired of the nonsense that goes on in the district and how people give excuse after excuse to avoid doing anything about injustice.
Jane Boles of PFLAG was sick of the district runaround about the gay club issue way before I was, and I told her that we have to be patient, etc. etc. Finally, I got sick too.
Michael Freincle is sick too, and he's a lot younger and newer at this than I am. Come to Greco and interview the staff. I guarantee that the majority will praise me and say that I am a nice and respectful person, but when I feel I have been wronged I do not hesitate to say something.
I was always respectful to Candy Olson, and then she yelled at me in a public place, when she thought I was down and in trouble. She saw the moment to kick someone while he was down. What's funny is that you don't seem to care about how others have treated me, but I am supposed to remain sweet, nice, and respectful while they treat me incredibly disrespectfully. That's a double standard. Why is it that they have every right to treat me any way that they feel, yet the minute I do the same, suddenly, I am supposed to be "respectful" ?
I have been amazed at the people I counted as friends who have literally avoided helping me. I believe this is because people avoid confrontation at all costs, and what I ask people to do is confront people who I feel have done the wrong thing. Since people, who should check into this, don't like conflict, they begin to avoid me.
From your email I feel you are trying to say I am crazy or something ("obsession" and I have changed). This is a tactic to avoid dealing with hard issues that may require confrontation. Tom Gonzalez told me there was nothing that would have happened to me. He basically implied the whole email investigation was nothing more than a bluff by Linda Kipley.
I would like to know how you would feel if your son or daughter were treated the way I was or the way Shawnree Miller or Pat Barton were treated.
When you have been on the receiving end of lies or sadism, then see how it feels for someone to tell you to "drop the whole thing" or to tell you to be more respectful. This district's civility policy and concept of "respectful" is thrown in our faces when we speak up. Meanwhile, the district people can act ridiculous and mean-spirited and nothing happens.
I know you will say, "That's the way of the world," and maybe I am charging at windmills, but I think my reactions have been human. I had a horrible year 2005-2006.....I loved my job and working with my co-workers, but I was angry about my email investigation, and I was angry CTA kept telling me to drop it, and I was angry that other teachers have experienced what I experienced and much worse.
It's hard to work for an organization (school district) that you feel is totally corrupt.
Bart Bart Birdsall 2309 W. Bristol Ave. Tampa, FL 33609 home (813) 258-8817 cell (813) 362-7937 Montolino@aol.com
It is galling that Linda Kipley the head of Professional Standards with the School District of Hillsborough County lied to a teacher during an investigation into his emails. I am willing to take a lie detector concerning this. No one should be lied to in that office.
La Gaceta called me. It was too late to find out how to get in.
I wish that I could have been there and exposed Elia's illiteracy and how she got the job through the back door of inside political machinations, not from merit. The Board was complicit in hiring this ill-prepared, marginally literate superintendent because its members were too parochial to hire one of the better credentialed and more highly experienced outside candidates.
The Board allows itself to be cozened and flattered by the administration operators into doing the administration's bidding. Every election of a Board member from now on should focus on this poisonous situation. The Board has not led; it has followed the worst, greediest, and most power-hungry of the manipulators in the administration. These were behind both Lennard's and Elia's slipping into the job of superintendent.
The Board allows itself to be cozened and flattered by the administration operators into doing the administration's bidding. Every election of a Board member from now on should focus on this poisonous situation. The Board has not led; it has followed the worst, greediest, and most power-hungry of the manipulators in the administration. These were behind both Lennard's and Elia's slipping into the job of superintendent.
I would have also got in the fact that the Board does not advertise top jobs that pay over $100,000 of tax money to people with kindergarten and home-ec credentials when these jobs advertised could attract top talent from across the country.
Schools are no better than their leadership, and the administrative leadership of the local school system is shoddy. It allows administrative courtships that break up marriages to fester in the halls and offices of ROSSAC as a way to get a job promotion, setting the whole building abuzz, and yet savages a teacher by producing a gimcrack case against her for taking students to see a university with parental permission and referring her to Linda Kipley's Abu Gharib cell block for degrading treatment for this manufactured offense.
The Board is the gateway to better schools and better leadership. Elia makes mistake after mistake, but the Board does not rebuke her or, better, fire her.
The Board must explain itself to the voters in the next election cycle.
lee
Lee's response to union featherbedder Jean Clements' excuse for not speaking at the petition-slip Board meeting:
From: Lyons, Yvonne [mailto:Yvonne.Lyons@floridaea.org]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 6:04 PM
To: Montolino@aol.com
Cc: Clements, Jean; tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com; Ford, Andy; ROMERXVI@aol.com; Roney, Jim
Subject: RE: Permission forms
Lee's response to union featherbedder Jean Clements' excuse for not speaking at the petition-slip Board meeting:
Clements's view is limited. That teachers' relationship with their students encompasses their ability to relate to students without the intrusion of gender into the equation is a work-related issue. The explosive consequences of some of these admission slips' going to parents who discover their gay children's orientation and then the parents' flailing about and pressuring teachers because of their homophobia are a quite possible outcome of the sequelae to passing this sadistically honed disguised issue to trap gay students into admitting their gayness to hostile parents.
That was the elephant in the room that I did not hear articulated in any of the remarks. People talked all around it but didn't lay it out in plain English.
We must deal with ethical environment of the workplace for teachers. Right now the ethics of the school-system environment is that people are scared to death to say anything critical of the administration for fear of firing. That is a highly relevant work-environment issue that the union's being in bed with the administration keeps in the closet, but everybody knows about it nonetheless.
That La Jean is unconcerned about ethics does not surprise. Any union leader who allows tacky administration home-ec trained ghoul Linda Kipley to savage teachers as she does in the Professional Standards Abu Gharib with no written guidelines in teachers' hands when they enter the gauntlet is not much of a friend to teachers. Any union that discourages teachers from filing grievances against lies and mistreatment is not much of a union. Any union that sucks up to the administration is not teachers' friend. Any union that plays politics sans ethics is not teachers' best advocate.
Finally and especially, any union whose overpaid staff refuses to put its salaries on the Web is greedy and disingenuous.
Finally and especially, any union whose overpaid staff refuses to put its salaries on the Web is greedy and disingenuous.
I know what a union should be from the inside: I was union president at HCC and fought the administration when it tried to stifle teachers. Nobody backed me down on teachers' rights and protections. I did not cozy up to the administration; I opposed it when it harmed teachers--or when it even looked like it wanted to harm teachers.
When I speak publicly or write for public consumption, I speak from conviction in plain American English. I practice a higher politics than Bay Area you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours. I went to the Board meeting observe the spectacle of community action on an issue that the School Board and administration has evaded with unethical cowardice for a long time. I thought the kids and the grown-up supporters did a pretty good job of making their case and didn't need me.
I never hesitate to speak up, to confront, to harass, to holler, to jump up and down, and to fulminate if I think the situation calls for it. That is more than Jean or her timid collaborators can say in their speaking up for teachers' wellbeing. They are administration toadies and bootlickers. Gutlessness, not political astuteness explains their sitting out the meeting.
lee drury de cesare
From: Lyons, Yvonne [mailto:Yvonne.Lyons@floridaea.org]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 6:04 PM
To: Montolino@aol.com
Cc: Clements, Jean; tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com; Ford, Andy; ROMERXVI@aol.com; Roney, Jim
Subject: RE: Permission forms
Bart,
I am weeks behind in my emails and am unable to respond to each and every one in a timely manner. I would appreciate it if you would call me whenever there is an issue for which you want an immediate response.
The only reason for this lie of "weeks behind my emails" is to excuse her from not answering Bart's request for the union to speak against notification and thus oppose the gay-student-bashing maneuver that Elia cooperated with the homophobes to craft to make gay students' life miserable. The first committee recommended no notification. When the homophobes pressured Elia, she buckled as she did in the religious-holiday issue, reformed a second committee with the homophobes on it, and got a "Let's-notify-the-parents-so-they-will-kick-their-gay children-out-of-the-house-at-2 a.m.-second decision that satisfied the homophobes' ugly desire to punish gay kids by outing them to their parents. Thank goodness, four members of the Board didn't buy the sadistic notification gambit. The union members are in bed with the administration and don't oppose it from gutlessness, not from "being weeks behind" in their emails.
I really don't feel comfortable commenting on Missy's conversation as I was not privy to it, however, I have been advised that the person who called was a total stranger from another county asking for union action. If she said what you claim was said, it was incorrect.
A single member's request does not drive the organization, nor does it compel me or any officer to act. Your request seemed a simple one from your perspective, I'm sure, however, you know that the agenda item at Tuesday's school board meeting had very little to do with paperwork. A Board member who might have been caught in a perceived moral dilemma may have been able to use "paperwork" as their excuse to vote down the proposal, but the real issue was inclusion for gay and lesbian students and should not have been disguised by anyone as a paperwork issue.
I believe it was you who informed me in a previous email that the paperwork burden was not an important issue and that you handled unwanted paperwork by throwing it in the trash. You went on to say that teachers at your school were more concerned about losing their planning period due to the lack of substitutes.
I took your comments as one member's opinion, but did not change Rep Council's direction to me regarding excessive paperwork as a result of that opinion. We on CTA staff have been meeting with School Board members, district staff, teachers and the superintendent concerning the unnecessary paperwork that gets in the way of teachers doing their jobs. In fact, Jean and I met with Candy Olson, Ken Otero, and Mary Ellen Elia for two hours one morning discussing paperwork issues and planning a focus group which met and made proposals to the superintendent. Candy actually participated in the focus group activities.
There is no district administrator or elected school board member that is in the dark about CTA's position on paperwork, nor can I believe there are any CTA members in the dark either.
Sometimes it is not politically wise for the union to be in the forefront of a parent/district battle, even one that affects teachers tangentially.
I noticed that neither you nor Lee spoke either. Could it have been that it was not politically wise for the two of you to speak given the bias it may have caused on the Board? You and Lee have made some very serious allegations about certain school board members and district staff, so you were probably very smart to stay out of the fray, so to speak.
At least they were forced to deal with the real issue instead of how they may have felt about you two personally. On the other hand, Jean and I were there and could easily have risen to speak had it been necessary. From our conversations prior to the Board meeting, it was apparent that the vote would go the way it did.
The only reason for this lie of "weeks behind my emails" is to excuse her from not answering Bart's request for the union to speak against notification and thus oppose the gay-student-bashing maneuver that Elia cooperated with the homophobes to craft to make gay students' life miserable. The first committee recommended no notification. When the homophobes pressured Elia, she buckled as she did in the religious-holiday issue, reformed a second committee with the homophobes on it, and got a "Let's-notify-the-parents-so-they-will-kick-their-gay children-out-of-the-house-at-2 a.m.-second decision that satisfied the homophobes' ugly desire to punish gay kids by outing them to their parents. Thank goodness, four members of the Board didn't buy the sadistic notification gambit. The union members are in bed with the administration and don't oppose it from gutlessness, not from "being weeks behind" in their emails.
I really don't feel comfortable commenting on Missy's conversation as I was not privy to it, however, I have been advised that the person who called was a total stranger from another county asking for union action. If she said what you claim was said, it was incorrect.
A single member's request does not drive the organization, nor does it compel me or any officer to act. Your request seemed a simple one from your perspective, I'm sure, however, you know that the agenda item at Tuesday's school board meeting had very little to do with paperwork. A Board member who might have been caught in a perceived moral dilemma may have been able to use "paperwork" as their excuse to vote down the proposal, but the real issue was inclusion for gay and lesbian students and should not have been disguised by anyone as a paperwork issue.
I believe it was you who informed me in a previous email that the paperwork burden was not an important issue and that you handled unwanted paperwork by throwing it in the trash. You went on to say that teachers at your school were more concerned about losing their planning period due to the lack of substitutes.
I took your comments as one member's opinion, but did not change Rep Council's direction to me regarding excessive paperwork as a result of that opinion. We on CTA staff have been meeting with School Board members, district staff, teachers and the superintendent concerning the unnecessary paperwork that gets in the way of teachers doing their jobs. In fact, Jean and I met with Candy Olson, Ken Otero, and Mary Ellen Elia for two hours one morning discussing paperwork issues and planning a focus group which met and made proposals to the superintendent. Candy actually participated in the focus group activities.
There is no district administrator or elected school board member that is in the dark about CTA's position on paperwork, nor can I believe there are any CTA members in the dark either.
Sometimes it is not politically wise for the union to be in the forefront of a parent/district battle, even one that affects teachers tangentially.
I noticed that neither you nor Lee spoke either. Could it have been that it was not politically wise for the two of you to speak given the bias it may have caused on the Board? You and Lee have made some very serious allegations about certain school board members and district staff, so you were probably very smart to stay out of the fray, so to speak.
At least they were forced to deal with the real issue instead of how they may have felt about you two personally. On the other hand, Jean and I were there and could easily have risen to speak had it been necessary. From our conversations prior to the Board meeting, it was apparent that the vote would go the way it did.
Bart, I have to tell you that I am concerned about your apparent obsession with Linda Kipley, but even more than that, I am disturbed at your delight in watching her discomfort at being approached by you and Lee.
When I first met you while serving on the committee to make recommendations for the student handbook, I was struck by your gentle manner, your advocacy for all students, your reasoned intellect and patience. To compare the Bart Birdsall I first met with the one who enjoys the intimidation of another human being and one who promotes his opinions as the only "right" opinions, and know he is the same person, is almost incomprehensible to me.
Standing up for what you believe in a respectful manner is far more influential than trashing those who disagree or disappoint. Those individuals who spoke at the Board Meeting, regardless of which side they were on, were impassioned, respectful and articulate. They made a difference.
When I first met you while serving on the committee to make recommendations for the student handbook, I was struck by your gentle manner, your advocacy for all students, your reasoned intellect and patience. To compare the Bart Birdsall I first met with the one who enjoys the intimidation of another human being and one who promotes his opinions as the only "right" opinions, and know he is the same person, is almost incomprehensible to me.
Standing up for what you believe in a respectful manner is far more influential than trashing those who disagree or disappoint. Those individuals who spoke at the Board Meeting, regardless of which side they were on, were impassioned, respectful and articulate. They made a difference.
Please call me if there are other issues we should discuss.
Sincerely,
Yvonne
From: Montolino@aol.com [mailto:Montolino@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 11:05 PM
To: Lyons, Yvonne
Cc: Clements, Jean; tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com; Ford, Andy; ROMERXVI@aol.com; Roney, Jim
Subject: Permission forms
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 11:05 PM
To: Lyons, Yvonne
Cc: Clements, Jean; tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com; Ford, Andy; ROMERXVI@aol.com; Roney, Jim
Subject: Permission forms
Yvonne,
Steve Kornell told me last week that he spoke to Missy from CTA, and she said all she needed was a CTA member to request that CTA get involved on the permission form issue that the Superintendent wanted the board to pass.
So I called Missy and asked that CTA get involved. She didn't think the permission forms were going to be brought up. I told her that it is listed on the online agenda. At that point, she told me I had to contact you for you to make the final call, so I emailed you as a CTA member and asked you to take a stance on the burden this would put on teachers.
So I called Missy and asked that CTA get involved. She didn't think the permission forms were going to be brought up. I told her that it is listed on the online agenda. At that point, she told me I had to contact you for you to make the final call, so I emailed you as a CTA member and asked you to take a stance on the burden this would put on teachers.
I did not hear back from you, and I noticed you and Jean showed up to the meeting tonight and did not speak on the issue.
Once again I felt I was getting the runaround from CTA. I followed the directions that Steve Kornell gave me and then what Missy gave me and nothing.....
I am happy to get info for teachers at my school from CTA and will continue to do so, but I am disturbed that I never feel like CTA wants to act on anything that goes counter to the school administration.
I really do feel like CTA helps you unless it means aggravating the big wigs. It shouldn't be that way. I am in the awkward position of telling teachers at my school to join CTA and singing your praises at my school so that teachers are somewhat protected, but then my own personal experience has not been great. Tom Gonzalez told me nothing would have ever happened to me. He seemed to think that Chuck's comments about working really, really hard on getting me out of any punishment was odd. He said I was never in any real trouble to begin with and the district could not have done a thing to me about the things I did.
I really do feel like CTA helps you unless it means aggravating the big wigs. It shouldn't be that way. I am in the awkward position of telling teachers at my school to join CTA and singing your praises at my school so that teachers are somewhat protected, but then my own personal experience has not been great. Tom Gonzalez told me nothing would have ever happened to me. He seemed to think that Chuck's comments about working really, really hard on getting me out of any punishment was odd. He said I was never in any real trouble to begin with and the district could not have done a thing to me about the things I did.
I have asked for 2 things in my 10 years as a CTA member:
1) that Linda Kipley be investigated for her lie to me and for her sadistic treatment of teachers, according to some teachers.....something that Tom Gonzalez is looking into after I met with him recently, and
2) that you speak tonight opposing permission forms for clubs.
Neither of these things ask you to climb Mount Everest, and one of them makes the district safer for ALL teachers, and the other goes hand in hand with your goal to eliminate unnecessary paperwork for teachers. I do not understand why you would not work on either of these two things. I would love to have an explanation.
I keep wanting to believe you are trying to keep teachers safer, but I do not understand your response or "no response" to the two issues named above.
I am beginning to believe that Candy Olson would do a better job of running CTA after watching her tonight. She has become braver and is finally showing true leadership and questioning everything district officials are doing including questioning Elia. Maybe Candy should just do CTA's work instead. When she retires from the school board, maybe she can run CTA. Her performance was terrific tonight, and I emailed her that opinion.
I am beginning to believe that Candy Olson would do a better job of running CTA after watching her tonight. She has become braver and is finally showing true leadership and questioning everything district officials are doing including questioning Elia. Maybe Candy should just do CTA's work instead. When she retires from the school board, maybe she can run CTA. Her performance was terrific tonight, and I emailed her that opinion.
I am very disappointed you did not speak on the permission forms issue.
By the way, Lee tried to talk to Linda Kipley, and she ran away to avoid talking. When someone has a defense, they plant their feet and fight or argue when someone confronts. When they have no defense for their horrible behavior they run, run, run to avoid discussing the issue. She ran like the wind. This was priceless to see.
I finally saw her experience the feelings she causes in teachers in Hillsborough County. I have talked to teachers who literally start to tear up about how Kipley treated them.
You should be looking into this and questioning, questioning, questioning for the sake of every teacher of Hillsborough County. I am shocked that CTA does not want to do anything about a liar who sits as head of Professional Standards. Now I find out tonight that she's not just a liar but a coward to boot. She can dish out chastisements, but she sure doesn't want to take them.
I finally saw her experience the feelings she causes in teachers in Hillsborough County. I have talked to teachers who literally start to tear up about how Kipley treated them.
You should be looking into this and questioning, questioning, questioning for the sake of every teacher of Hillsborough County. I am shocked that CTA does not want to do anything about a liar who sits as head of Professional Standards. Now I find out tonight that she's not just a liar but a coward to boot. She can dish out chastisements, but she sure doesn't want to take them.
CTA should be outraged and horrified that the head of Professional Standards lies to a teacher during an investigation. This woman is a menace to every teacher in the county. If she is willing to lie once to a teacher during an investigation, what else is she capable of doing? Why should any of us put up with that? It is obscene and makes a mockery of the Office of Professional Standards as well as the school district.
Bart
Bart Birdsall 2309 W. Bristol Ave. Tampa, FL 33609 home (813) 258-8817 cell (813) 362-7937 Montolino@aol.com It is galling that Linda Kipley the head of Professional Standards with the School District of Hillsborough County lied to a teacher during an investigation into his emails. I am willing to take a lie detector concerning this. No one should be lied to in that office.
