Newsflash: a teacher who's being tortured by his principal emailed me that Linda Kipley resigns next month. Thank you, Jesus, Allah, and Buddha. lee

From: lee [tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com]

Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:48 AM

To: 'Pat&Doug'

Subject: RE: Response to letter

Mrs. Erwin:

How nice to hear from you and learn that your retirement is going well. I too am retired-- from teaching English at HCC for 28 years. We live in our condo on the beach because our big old house in Beach Park got too empty after our four children left.

I do what I can to prod the Hillsborough County Board and administration to serve the students and teachers and community instead of themselves. But that gaggle of cutthroats in the ROSSAC building are hell bent on making the taxpayer serve their selfish ends, not those of the community. The current superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, seems bent on becoming a millionaire in the job. Her greediness is repellant.

This afternoon is school board day, and I will travel over Franklin Bridge to the board room to squawk. People are so scared of the administration. That’s what appalls me. This is America, and people are afraid to speak up in the Hillsborough County School system.

The board is the main villain. If its members stepped up to the plate and did their jobs, the administration would be as tame as puppies, But the Board just wants to sit up on the dais as ceremonial figures and gad about the community pretending to be the beneficiaries of education. They know exactly what is going on as they did when Davis, Hamilton, and Lennard were torturing Mr. Erwin. My goal now is to get some better people elected to the board who are not afraid to do the job the voters elected them to do—some with concern for education and with enough guts to stand up against the hostility of the other board members who think things are just hunky-dory and don’t want a thing to change. Three of the culprits from Mr. Erwin’s ordeal are still sitting up there on the dais: Olson, Lamb, and Kurdell.

They are still rubberstamping anything Elia lays under their noses, of course. But Kurdell has two opponents for the August election—two former military men. I pray one will win.

I am a Georgia girl—born in Camden County. My mother’s county was Jeff Davis. I go back every year to Camden to our family cemetery in Burnt Fort for dinner on the grounds. My Catholic husband is appalled at the vigor of the born-again ceremony in the little church, but I love it and know all the songs. I eat myself sick on all the good things that only Georgia farm women know how to cook.

One day, with permission, I shall swing by when I go home and visit you and Mr. Erwin. He has become a hero to me after my plowing through the Erwin files, which I had a hard time laying hold of since Tom Gonzalez is always up to his old tricks. He keeps threatening to sue me. I welcome the day. He will be the laughing stock of the law community in Hillsborough County, and Granny will be a hero to all her ten grandchildren.

Best wishes,

Lee Drury De Cesare

PS: Tell Mr. Erwin that I cheered when a panicked ROSSAC spy saw him climb up on the roof of a school with reporters to show them the holes in the roofs built less than five years previously. He can always feel he went beyond the call of duty in doing what he could to protect the schools. The jury gave him a “well done” in its verdict. That approval means that when the people find out what’s really going on in the schools, they make the right judgment.

From: Pat&Doug [mailto:patanddouge@alltel.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 7:47 AM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: Response to letter

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Dear Mrs. De Cesare,

My name is Pat Erwin (Doug's wife) and I am responding to your very nice (and informative) letter on Doug's behalf. Doug is a great talker but is not too handy with the computer.

Doug did respond to your letter of approximately two years ago with a letter of his own. We don't know where it ended up, but we mailed it to your home address. We are so sorry that you did not receive it. He told you that he had really gotten into gardening and that we loved our new neighborhood. Of course, since Tampa was our home for most of our adult lives we will always miss it and our many friends there. At that time, Doug told you that he was truly enjoying his retirement and had really put all that happened with the school system behind him and (most of the time) out of his thoughts. We both learned that unfortunately, no matter how badly our leaders are behaving, most of us are too apathetic to demand change. He was very hopeful that his actions would make a lasting difference, but we now know that not much has changed "downtown". Some of the names have changed but the actions still seem pretty much the same!

A dear friend of ours, who is also retired from the school system, had told us about your blog and I checked it out and shared it with Doug very often. However, I thought you had retired from your blog and had not checked it lately. We are happy that you are still stirring the pot!

Doug appreciates your support of him and most importantly the students and all the site based employees of Hillsborough County Schools. He feels that the students are the ones that are totally forgotten in that mess that is the HCSB. Very sad!

Once again, thank you for your untiring efforts on behalf of the children of Hillsborough County.

Respectfully,

Doug and Pat Erwin