Once Upon a Time

Florence, Italy, is in the background .

My husband and I enjoyed this Italian tour on a bus more than all the flossy cruises we had taken. The bus people were friendlier and didn't think they were tres important. On the cruises we often sat at the captain's table with the snoots.

I don't know how we got the coveted assigned slot. I think it was my husband's political skills. He was mayor of our little beach town for a dozen years, quitting when he couldn't bear the strife any more. He still has people accosting him on the street pleading, "Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, run again. The city government is going to pieces without you!" I wish he would run again instead of running me crazy rearranging my pots and pans.

By the time we had completed a two-week cruise on one of these floating examples of wretched excess, my old man could have won a captain-of-the-ship slot, such is his electoral charm. I busied myself fend offing the bazillions of widows who infest these cruises trying to pick of my old man or any other old man who is not on a walker or an oxygen tank. I also held conversations with the cleaning crews. They get terrible treatment from employers, and the passengers quite frequently don't leave them a tip after a two-week cruise, even though they can well afford it. lee


Ms. Faliero says she wants the schools to get the good publicity they deserve. I pledge to do my part to provide it. I did public relations for the first chapter of the National Organization for women when we formed forty-five years ago in the Bay Area. This stuff is right down my alley.

I think the the board and the administration should indeed get the publicity they deserve so that an informed public will vote the board slugs out of office and vote in some people who care about education instead of power and who throw state money around without consulting teachers about the issues that affect them.

The only money the current board seems concerned with is the thousands of dollars of tax money it spends to go to places like Las Vegas and Canada on so-called board conferences that are in reality pleasure sprees.

There is not one board member who has the courage, the education, or the knowledge of Robert's Rules to challenge Ms. Elia's hidden agenda that speeds by on the Consent Agenda without board review. The board does not insist on open government. The current board is only interested in preening on the podium and looking like its members are the benefactors of education.

My read says that all the current board are poseurs. Two--Dr. Lamb and Ms. Ethridge--are double dippers as is Dr. Jim (doesn't know the difference between "your" and "you're") Hamilton.

La Elia created him a lobbying job without the board's objecting to this boutique perch in an economic downturn and while the poor children of the county can't participate in class activities because they lack supplies.

I have not read yet Dr. Lamb's doctoral thesis. That experience should be a hoot. I wager it was bought and paid for as was Hamilton's in my professional view. One day I will ask the learned Lamb for a copy of his thesis to review. See my review of the former administrator for Pinellas County to give you some idea of the quality of the top administrative people of school systemshttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6520837584997793196.

The community needs people on the board who, first of all, have educations--at least bachelor's degrees in non-rinky-dinck subjects, and who 1. aren't too intellectually inert to learn Robert's Rules so that the runaway gaveling conduct of chair Pole Girl Faliero does not go unchecked and 2. the get-up-and-go to learn to mount an individual board-member Web site to exchange information and views with community members.

If board members can't do these simple things to deserve their jobs, they should resign and give their place to people who are serious enough about their roles that they put out a modicum of effort to perform well in the job of board member.

As my first effort at getting publicity out about the schools that La Board Member Faliero touts, I have sent the following to a Brandon Christian school. I hope it spreads around that Christian education community so they people will get a better specimen to run for office against Faliero, who claims to be a born-again, no-doubt footwashing Christian.

Faliero needs replacing for the good of the children, the teachers, and the community. She needs replacing to put the fear of God into that bunch of ROSSAC thugs who crucified Mr. Erwin and not one of whom received an iota of punishment for their dirty deeds from the board, which always pretends that the whole group is deaf, dumb, and blind when leadership is called for.

If my readers want to add their heft to my publicity blitz for the board, the administration, and especially Ms. Faliero, they should get out their phone books and send messages to the Brandon community. Tell the prospective Brandon voters to check onto my blog, The Wall, and other teacher blogs that expose what really goes on at the school board and administration of the schools of Hillsborough County. lee


To a Christian school in Brandon (Ms. Faliero claims to be a Christian):

I think this organization should be concerned with the ethical quality of your school-board member. Go to leedrurydecesarescasting-room couch.blogspot.com for a history of this member's conduct.

If the Christian community does not pay attention to what sort of person occupies its district's school-board seat, then the community suffers. The education community should encourage ethical people to file to oppose Ms.Jennifer Faliero when her school-board race comes up soon.

If the Brandon community does not have an ethical person on the school board, it is because its members do not pay attention to what kind of person a board member's conduct suggests he or she is. The citizens do not review whether the decisions the member makes on the board support the community or support the corrupt administration headed by MaryEllen Elia.

In Ms. Faliero's case, it is the support of Ms. Elia that is primary to her, not the support of teachers, students, and taxpayers. Brandon needs to recruit a board candidate to oppose Ms. Faliero who wants excellence and morality in the schools.
lee drury de cesare
_______________________________________________________

lee drury de cesare

Jennifer Faliero, District 4 School Board of Hillsborough County, Florida

Ms. Faliero:

I have comments and questions from a reader below of my Casting-Room-Couch blog that need answers. Voters especially need this academic-credentials data since you will run for re-election soon one assumes.

This reader’s questions require your USF transcripts. Give me email permission to ask the USF college-records office for these, and I will post a copy on my Couch blog for the benefit of prospective voters. Also helpful would be any academic honors you won at USF. Those, too, I will post.

In addition to intellectual fitness, I am concerned about your moral fitness for the job of chair of the school board. I am also concerned at your participation in youth guidance, especially the Ophelia Project for pre-teen girls. Your school-site adultery with Marc Hart, which the divorce depositions record, makes me fearful that you do not present the right moral role model for children and especially for pre-teen girls.

You also participated in the one-sided punishment of Hart's getting the sack and your getting the school-board chair job by a vote of the other board members not concerned about your adultery after the affair had run its course.

Please explain how you justify your participation as school-board chair and community youth-board memberships, given your deposed record of sexual immorality and other ethical lapses that do not present an appropriate role model for youth of the community. I will post these data on Casting-Room-Couch as well since the voting public will need this information in addition to your transcripts and other academic data.

I regret that in writing the letter of rebuke to the Tribune that you required editing help. Most people have good ideas--even those who can't read much less write, but they can’t put them down on paper because they do not possess the standard of literacy required of bona fide educated people: the ability to write literate prose. A person who must have an editor to make her writing meet standard-education requirements is not a literate person no matter what degrees stand after her name.

The ability to write down information with correct grammar and punctuation is the gold standard of literacy. Those who can’t do this task unassisted can't count as literate and should go back to school until they master language to this standard of literacy.

Remove the superfluous comma after “2002” in your biography; it splits a compound verb. Put one after “daughters”; the adjectival subordinate “who” clause is nonrestrictive since you have only two daughters.

Respectfully,

lee drury de cesare

c:
Brandon Chamber of Commerce
Brandon Kiwanis Club
Florida School Boards Association
Governor Charlie Crist
State Board of Education's Professional Practices Advisory Group
Glazer Museum’s Board of Directors
Department of Juvenile Justice
Hillsborough Education Foundation board of directors
County Council of Governments
Hillsborough County Value Adjustment Board
Lowry Park Zoo board
Hillsborough County Republican Women’s Club

Board Members

Jennifer Faliero – School Board District 4

Jennifer Faliero is the 2008 Hillsborough County School Board Chair. She first was elected to the Board in 2002, and was re-elected in 2006. She is one of seven members responsible for making policy decisions and overseeing a budget of $3.2 billion for the 8th largest school district in the nation, which is also the county’s largest employer with 25,000 employees.

She advocates in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., for better laws that affect public education. Prior to her election to the School Board, she was a health care marketing and public relations executive.

In 2007, Jennifer was appointed by Governor Charlie Crist to serve on the State Board of Education's Professional Practices Advisory Group. She serves on the Glazer Children's Museum Board of Directors. She has also served on the Hillsborough County Youth Advisory Council, Department of Juvenile Justice Board, the Hillsborough Education Foundation board of directors, the committee for Making Strides Against Cancer, Hillsborough County Council of Governments, Hillsborough County Value Adjustment Board, and Lowry Park Zoo board. She is a member of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Council, H.B. Plant Museum, is an honorary member of the Brandon Kiwanis Club, and is involved in the Ophelia Project for Preteen Girls. Jennifer has been a member of the National School Boards Association since 2002, and served as the Hillsborough legislative liaison with both federal and state lawmakers for the Florida School Boards Association (FSBA). She also has served on the FSBA’s board of directors and advocacy committee.

As a private citizen, Jennifer worked with lawmakers to establish the state’s landmark school concurrency program, and since her election she has taken a lead role in developing the district’s pilot project to implement school concurrency. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations from the University of South Florida in 1986. Hillsborough County has been her home since 1982, and she currently lives in Valrico with her two daughters who attend Hillsborough County public schools.
January 2008
________________________________________


From: Linda Cobbe [mailto:lcobbe@sdhc.us]
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 4:13 PM
To: lee de cesare

Subject: Re: FW: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Some Ghost

All of the Board members' bios are on the Board web page.

Linda E. Cobbe
External Communications Manager
Hillsborough County Public Schools
901 E. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33602
813-272-4602 (O)
813-493-6964 (C)
813-272-4510 (F)

Our mission is to provide an education that enables each student to excel as a successful and responsible citizen.


"lee de cesare" writes:
Linda, can this reader below get these data through your office? Lee


From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 12:47 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Some Ghost Writer Assisted Falliera to Look Litera....





Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Some Ghost Writer Assisted Falliera to Look Litera...":

I would like to know where I can find Fallerio's education and experience previous to sitting at the helm of this board. Where does she get off treating others as if she is some type of Rhodes Scholar? Perhaps you know, Lee. I wonder what kind of grades she earned at a four-year institution, if she attended. Online, mumbo-jumbo degrees don't count to me. People who truly value the experience of higher education do it the best way, attending on campus, interacting with professors and classmates face-to-face. I doubt she wrote this little piece of propaganda alone. If she did, I would love to know how long the editor spent fixing it up to make it “presentable.”

On another note, I can't respect my "superiors" if they lack a college-level literacy at least, which almost every one of them proves to lack. I receive emails and see communications from assistant principals, principals, Elia, the school board, communication specialists, what have you, and the errors are egregious at times. The hypocrisy is overwhelming. “We at the SDHC demand all students be literate and college ready, but most of us at ROSSAC couldn’t write a complete thought free of comma splices and other gratuitous mistakes to save our lives.” What is their solution to facilitate the perception of college-level literacy? Hire people to make us “look” smart and literate.

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Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 9:46 AM
Ms. Kipley:

Answer to reader's question about the location of Marc Hart's deposition in the divorce case involving Ms. Faliero: Mr. Hart or his lawyer has it I assume. I saw the part that dealt with the infidelity with Ms. Faliero. He called up asking for a visit and showed me the deposition. If he gives it to me, I would usually put it on the blog. But he has two young children whom he loves and who could eventually see the blog, so I don't think publishing it on my blog is a good idea because of Hart's children. Faliero has two young daughters. Poor girls with such a role model for a mother. lee