My husband and I went on a cruise around South America on one of those posh ships. I had to fight off all the predatory widows from capturing my old man and gained ten pounds at the cheese bar. lee

The post directly below is from Susie Creamcheese, the young teacher who started the blog The Wall when Ms. Elia betrayed teachers while the board stood by and colluded with the extra-class burden. Susie Creamcheese wanted to give teachers a place to voice their frustration since the administration blindly supported by the board was a brick wall when it came to teacher concerns.

I started Casting-room Couch after Susie’s launch of The Wall. I aimed to look at the school system from a citizen’s viewpoint who had been a community-college professor and union leader of the faculty. I thought I could attend board meetings and make observations from an outsider who was an informed citizen that would complement Susie’s lead from inside the schools.

See Susie’s post today for her comment on the Faliero adultery I wrote about recently: http://call-in-6.blogspot.com/

Board members won’t give teachers a place on the board along with students to provide their input. The board agrees with Ms. Elia that teachers and students are the field hands who provide the revenue for the Elia with the board and the board attorney’s collusion. The board members agree that Elia is free to bloat her own salary and pump up that of her administration pets. Candy Olson helped devise the contract for Elia’s $300,000 salary that even the Tribune, a usual supporter of the superintendent, criticized in an editorial. Elia also throws stashes of tax revenue to previous administrator buddies in no-bid contracts with the board’s complicity. It voted 5 to 2 against Griffin and Valdes in the recent dust-up about the $148,000 no-bid plum Ms. Elia tossed to a recently retired administrative buddy. The board is up to their collusive necks in ripping off teachers, students, and taxpayers; they have gotten away with the scamming so long that they think that’s how the world goes round.

The board is not on the teachers’, students’, or schools’ side. Its members are on the ROSSAC extortion team that bleeds the system of all the goodies--financial and power thuggery—that it can grab.

Like the administration, the board wants to shut teachers and students out. They want teachers and students to stay in the fields toting that barge and lifting that bale so that the board members can pose as great benefactors of education for the masses on the board dais; these poseurs also relish strutting around town impressing their friends about their high-minded service to the community. They want nothing to do with those riff-raff field-hand teachers and students.

I heard that Dr. Lamb sat isolated at the last graduation exercise in the green room and didn’t speak to one teacher. When they ran for the board, the last batch of candidates promised to keep in close contact with the students and teachers. They have not kept that promise. When did one of the incumbent candidates turn up in the teacher lunchroom at your school since their election to talk with teachers about their concerns? Did they go over to the students’ lunchroom to talk to the young people? When has one of these prevaricating board members asked your principal for the auditorium or the lunchroom after hours to have a general meeting of exchange with teachers and students? If they wanted to communicate with the teachers, board members would have scheduled such a meeting one day out of every week of their board duties in their districts. Instead, they hunker down in ROSSAC and take orders from Ms. Elia.

When has one of these board members had the sense enough to call a press conference and tell the newspapers their interpretation of what is going on in the schools and what the public should know? Answer: none have. They are too scared of Ms. Elia, too indifferent to the needs of the electorate, or too eager to keep all the controversy off the podium so as to keep the public ignorant.

Griffin and Valdes are two whom teachers thought they could count on for support. But even they have not made a place on the board agenda for teachers and students, have not made the information of what goes on behind the closed doors of the consent agenda available to the public, and have not had a single press conference to educate the press and the public about anything. They also have not told Tom Gonzalez to obey the public-information law and give me the data I have repeatedly requested from him.

The no-bid controversy about giving Elia’s recently retired administrative buddy a $148,000 no-bid plum would have been a good place to start with press conferences. And the one calling the press conference should have invited Kurdell and Olson to tell the press why they jumped on Griffin for her challenging the no-bid.

For the record, I did jump on Lamb and Olson at Tiger Bay right after they raised their salaries to that of Level 9 teachers: $40,887. Lamb screamed at me—Lamb has a habit of screaming at me—that I should go back to the beach where I came from, that he didn’t want to hear from me, and that he didn’t have to listen to me. Oh, yeah? He took an oath of office that said he would uphold the laws: that means the Constitutional right for a citizen to approach an elected official for redress of grievances. This attitude may undergird my complaint to the governor for a board member’s removal from office for failure to carry out his oath of office.

And what did Candy do during this Tiger-Bay scene of Lamb scream? She smirked and nodded her head in agreement. Candy is not gutsy enough to attack herself, but she will hold the coat of one who will.

The next time you run into Fred Burns in the halls at school, nail down that he will work for a place for teachers and students on the board agenda when he beats Lamb for his seat. And get from him how he plans to keep the schools and the public informed about what is really going on in the schools. Carol Kurdell, a rigid superintendent addict is up for re-election as are Doretha Edgecomb and Susan Valdez. Ask them these same questions and any others you can think about such as why did they agree with the extra class day without a murmur and with Elia’s dumbing down of the grades to make her achievement bonus bigger. lee

From: Suzie Creamcheese [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
http://call-in-6.blogspot.com/

Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 1:42 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on ROSSAC Cover-up Uncovered When I went to Hillsb....

Suzie Creamcheese has left a new comment on your post " ROSSAC Cover-up Uncovered When I went to Hillsb...":

I could not look away until the end Lee.

My contact with Mr. Hart was minimal.
My heart goes out to him. You gave him good advice and I implore him to follow it. He has much to offer any employer and deserves another chance.

To be fair, Ms. Faliero deserves another chance with another employer also.

She should address this issue, apologize to us and then resign.

Publish this comment.

Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by Suzie Creamcheese to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 10:41 AM

From: Suzie Creamcheese [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2008 1:42 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on ROSSAC Cover-up Uncovered When I went to Hillsb....

Surprising to me is that this blog is such a hit. There is an audience for a view of what's really going on in the school system, not the administration spin.

People might be curious about where my readers come from. My hit counter is a little fancier and can give that information. That the calls come from some faraway places surprised me. I wonder if a relative of our teachers lives in Australia.

61

New ZealandAuckland

62

United StatesBrandon, Florida

63

United StatesTampa, Florida

64

United StatesSaint Petersburg, Florida

65

United StatesOdessa, Florida

66

United StatesLakeland, Florida

67

United StatesTampa, Florida

68

United StatesTampa, Florida

69

United StatesTampa, Florida

70

United StatesBrandon, Florida

71

United States

72

United StatesBrandon, Florida

73

United StatesSpring Hill, Florida

74

United StatesTampa, Florida

75

United StatesDallas, Texas

76

United StatesSaint Augustine, Florida

77

United StatesValrico, Florida

78

United StatesSafety Harbor, Florida

79

United StatesTampa, Florida

80

United States

81

United StatesMacomb, Michigan

82

United KingdomBarnsley

83

United StatesWorcester, Massachusetts

84

United StatesNew York

85

United StatesPalm Harbor, Florida

86

United StatesTampa, Florida

87

United StatesNorth Platte, Nebraska

88

United StatesTampa, Florida

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United States

91

United StatesTampa, Florida

92

United StatesPensacola, Florida

93

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United StatesTampa, Florida

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United StatesTampa, Florida

96

United StatesClermont, Florida

97

United StatesTampa, Florida

98

United StatesPinellas Park, Florida

99

United StatesValrico, Florida

100

United StatesMadison, Wisconsin