I can't figure out how to relocate the data column; so you have to go down the page until you encounter my latest entries: one a response to a question about the attorney's preparation of the information pamphlet for Professional Standards for teachers referred there; then the "We Deliver" prize nomination of Ms. Elia. ldd
Nomination for We-Deliver Award La Elia Delivers Piffle Whopping superintendent hubris makes the We-Deliver prize a slam dunk for La Elia. Ms. Elia fantasizes that people are too dumb to notice that this bread-and-circuses gimcrack aims to divert attention from her sorry record. Ms. Elia exploits teachers by treating them like coolies, not professionals.
Not only did Ms. Elia pass off as a bona fide raise at the beginning of the school year the accumulation of neglected past raises for teachers, but she now orders teachers to take on extra classes without pay to balance her budget while she gets $262,000 and perquisites for shoddy performance. She does so from her conviction that teachers are too scared of her Professional Standards SS terror machine to stand up and say, “Enough!” Elia’s administrative performance includes ignoring real-estate fraud in the building department. She also overbuilt classrooms while there and later scrambled school boundaries as superintendent to cover up this incompetence while uprooted and sobbing tots clung to their mothers’ skirts. Superintendent Elia flouts vaunted “We-are-an-equal-opportunity-employer” Web slogan by hiring unqualified sycophants and buddies without advertising for jobs for which they lack credentials. Linda Kipley, who sports a Paleolithic home-ec degree, reigns Professional Standards Cell Block czar, getting $120,000 for sadistic treatment of the unfortunates with better credentials who come within her power. That Kipley sinecure no advertising. Most recently La Elia rammed through for Dr. Jim Hamilton a $132,000 boutique perch. He got the job before its description posted. The old huffer and puffer prances ROSAC Rasputin to tell La Elia what to do while being unable, the record shows, to distinguish between "your" and "you're." To top off the reasons for La Elia’s meriting the We-Deliver certificate is that, despite being the least-qualified candidate, she filched the superintendent job through labyrinthine ROSAC politics even though every other finalist was better qualified than she. Finally, Elia merits We-Deliver champ status because, at the top of a school system dedicated to instilling literacy in the young, she can’t punctuate and handle grammar at the level students need to achieve to graduate. See her award text below for confirmation. Ms. Elia requires the $10,000 We-Deliver prize to add to her bloated salary for walking-around money to treat Rasputin Jimbo and other layabout administrator-C-students to chocolate-covered truffles while teachers labor gratis and bus drivers get third-world wages and broken-down buses in which to transport students. The district must fork over the “We Deliver” award to La ****** Prentice-Hall is the hefty, expensive-for-taxpayers text for English classes. Ms. Elia’s We-Deliver text shows that she not only writes without felicity but that she also messes-up on basic grammar and punctuation that students must know to graduate.
Maximum-leader Pronunciamento: Grammar-Punctuation Errors Flagged—Excellence in Education Indeed At the annual back-to-school news conference, I announced an employee Hyphen: hyphenate two-or- more words before a noun acting as a single adjective--Prentice Hall 747. recognition initiative to celebrate the fact Inexact diction: "miracles happen every day"is not a fact. that miracles happen every day in Hillsborough County Public Schools. We will give a cash award to the district employee who best exemplifies the spirit of “we deliver” miracles Close quotation marks after “miracles” every day. We have formed a broad-based committee Easiest comma-rule error: Prentice Hall 694 and now we are soliciting nominations. With my input, the committee will select a field of finalists whose contributions we will celebrate. The winner will get a check for $10,000. It will be hard to pick five finalists. It will be harder to pick just one winner. This is a symbolic recognition – and a significant reward. The point, of course, is to highlight some of those employees who are committed to do all they can. I know that our employees deliver miracles every day. Not everyone seeks recognition for what they Pronoun-antecedent agreement problem: Prentice Hall 600 do for our students and the district, so if you know someone like that, please fill out the nomination form. Anyone and everyone in the district is Prentice Hall 592 eligible to win. Either the compound subject represents a subject-verb agreement error, or if “anyone” and “everyone” parse as one person under a little-used, questionable grammar rule, then the author subsequently falls into pronoun-antecedent error. This dilemma in grammar parlance amounts to being caught between Scylla and Charybdis as they say in Plant City or as struggling between a rock and a hard place as Cambridge dons put the problem. Prentice Hall 592 All they need to do is make a difference, give it their all, and deliver miracles every day for the children, for the taxpayers Comma: Prentice Hall 694 and for the community. Nominate a co-worker, supervisor, or even yourself. You can include your name on the nomination form, or you can remain anonymous. Keep in mind that the winner will be decided on the merits of the nomination, not the number of nominations he or she receives, although we will make note of that. School Board members, district and school staff Comma: Prentice Hall and I will surprise the winner at their Pronoun-antecedent disagreement--Prentice Hall work site on Friday, May 11. The winner will be presented with a $10,000 check in their Pronoun-antecedent disagreement--Prentice Hall 600 name that theyPronoun-antecedent disagreement--Prentice Hall 600 can use however they theyPronoun-antecedent disagreement--Prentice Hall 600 wish. Click here to access the online form. All nominations must be received by Monday, April 2, 2007. MaryEllen Elia, Superintendent of Schools
******** | Nominate a co-worker, supervisor, Consistency: Here La Elia gets the standard items-in-a-series correct; other places, she flouts the rule. or even yourself. You can include your name on the nomination form, or you can remain anonymous. Keep in mind that the winner will be decided on the merits of the nomination, not the number of nominations he or she receives, although we will make note of that. School Board members, district and school staff Comma: Prentice Hall 694 and I will surprise the winner at their Pronoun-antecedent disagreement: Prentice Hall 600 work site on Friday, Click here to access the online form. Superintendent of Schools | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Extracting public information from government people supposed to render it up to a citizen according to the Sunshine law requires a sturdy refusal on the part of the citizen to be turned aside. A citizen keeps asking the official sitting on the information to yield it up in accordance with the Sunshine Law until the bureaucrat buckles. The citizen does so as many times as it takes to procure success.
There is always a reason for an official’s keeping secret public information—in this case the source of the We-Deliver prize money. I have some surmises about why in this case the source of the prize funds is secret. If it redounded to the credit of the secret-keeper, Ms. Elia, the information would appear instantly. If it doesn’t, there is a tug of war between the citizen and the reluctant tax-paid functionary. The latter has this citizen's vote.
A citizen is bound to win who hangs on; he or she will in the end get the data. The law and ethics are on the citizen's side.
lee drury de cesare
Second request
Ms. Cobbe: What is the source of money for the We Deliver award? Who generated the idea? I would like to have that information and any material accompanying its generation as public documents. Thank you.
lee drury de cesare
There are no documents related to this, other than the text of the superintendent's back to school news conference speech. It was her idea. The money is from private sources.
Who are the private sources?
lee drury de cesare
Ms. Cobbe: What are the names on the "broad-based" committee to pick the winner? Thank you. Lee Drury De Cesare
From: lee decesare [mailto:tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com]
Sent: Thursday,
To: 'Linda Cobbe'
Cc: 'Tom Gonzalez'; 'letititiastein@sptimes.com'; 'jhill@sptimes.com'; 'patrickmanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com'
Subject: RE: public information Gene, call this to Patrick's attention.
From: Linda Cobbe [mailto:lcobbe@sdhc.us]
Sent:
To: lee decesare
Subject: Re: public information
I don't know the source or sources.
Linda Cobbe
External Communications Manager
Ms. Elia does. Ask her. And if the superintendent declines to give the name of whoever donated the prize money for the We-Deliver prize, then ask the school attorney for an opinion on the secrecy of this source as it relates to public information since it has to do with public business--a prize involving the whole school system and even the community.
The source of the prize money should not be secret. If it is self-promotion of her superintendence by Ms. Elia, we in the public should know that information.
lee drury de cesare
ROSAC functionaries are reluctant to ask Ms. Elia a question. There is the inchoate fear that they will lose their jobs for their effrontery at asking for facts. Thus, the citizen should step up and ask Elia herself to protect the bureaucrat from administration habit of retaliation. Elia doesn’t answer emails. I believe that is due to her knowing that that her writing skills are sub-par. Her suspicions are correct. But this superintendent manqué registers the question and passes it back to the public-affairs people. Sooner or later, you will get an answer if you pound away.
Ditto for emails to Board members. They go into hiding once elected, believing that they have been elevated to the purple, not to public service. The secret to eliciting responses from the Board is to repeat the query as many times as necessary to draw the members out of their caves for a response.
April Griffin (April.griffin@sdk12.fl.us); Edgecomb (Dorothy.Edgecomb@sdhc.k12.fl.us); Jack Lamb (Jack.Lamb@sdhc.k12.fl.us); Susan Valdez (Susan Valdez@tampabay.rr.com); 'candy.Olson@sdhc.k12.fl.us'; 'letititiastein@sptimes.com'; 'patrickmanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com'; 'genenj1@yahoo.com'; 'jhill@sptimes.com
Ms. Elia: Ms. Cobbe of the Public Information office does not know this information. Pray provide it as public information. 1. Who is the source of the We-Deliver prize listed on the schools Web Home Page? 2. What are the names of the people on the award committee?
Thank you.
lee drury de cesare
