A Grain a Day Makes the Rock Go Away

Somebody wrote me that Linda Kipley got her job in an unorthodox manner. Somebody who knows about this rumor and is fairly certain that he or she has the case down cold, let me know what happened. lee

Ms. Kurdell: I mistakenly thought you were blocking my emails when I had made an error on your address.

I include a file below that I don't think you got because I had your address wrong. I think you will be interested in reading that I commend your chair expertise.

I don't commend anything else.

I am allergic to pages of symbols such as email. It reminds me of the shudder I experience when I see a page of calculus. If I had had a secretary, I could have been somebody.

I have had the experience of having my email shut down at HCC when I was trying to rally the faculty and career employees there to fight the firing of the old book store women by the administration so that its heartless minions could bring in a Barnes & Noble contractor. The women would not have been able to get anything but minimum-wage jobs with no health insurance, and one had just had brain surgery for a balance problem.

I got the state to have HCC reopen my emails. We saved the women's jobs.

I apologize for the-shutdown mistake. lee drury de cesare

Linda, Postscript:

Several readers have pointed out that I got the Kurdell address wrong. So scratch the Kurdell email item request. But be sure to put it in your file labeled "Lee De Cesare Is a Crazy Old Lady." ldd

PS One reader wrote that you got your job in an unorthodox manner. I have to chase this rumor down. lee

I won't need Ms. Kipley's emails now that I understand the context of her receiving my charges.

She would have and been more professional had she written to me in February when she received my charges to say that she had received them but could not accept them for the reasons you stated. Her response to me when I asked for the disposition of the charges was disingenuous to put the kindest construction on it. It was misleading to put a stricter reading of it.

I think Ms. Kipley was trying to mislead me. I think this is template response to anyone's trying to get a straight answer from the administration. I don't know how the administration came to believe this is the way to deal with the public, but it's plain that this plan to fool it, not inform it, is extant for some perverse reason. ldd

-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Cobbe [mailto:lcobbe@sdhc.us]
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 1:28 PM
To: lee
Cc: Ken Otero; Dan Valdez; Lewis Brinson; Gretchen Saunders; Wynne Tye; Cathy Valdes; Connie Milito; David Steele; Gwendolyn Luney; Stephen Hegarty; Candy Olson; Carol Kurdell; Jack Lamb; MaryEllen Elia; Susan Valdes; April Griffin; Doretha Edgecomb; larry.mason@sdhc.k12.fl.us; phildra.Swaqger@sdhc.k12.fl.us; Alice Loeb; David Schmidt; Steven Eichhorn; Steve Vanoer; Stephanie Tamargo; steveotto@tampatribune.com; Michael Smith; don.johnson@sdhc.k12.fl.us; Mike Phillips; Charles Fleming; Nancy Lind; Henry Washington; jeaneen.down@sdhc.k12.fl.us; Henry Ballard; Karine Johns; donna.leonard@hcsd.k12.fl.us; jeffrey.bandry@sdhc.k12.fl.us; Richard Parrish; Sue.hindman@sdhc.k12.fl.us; pmanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com; Lauen@tampatribune.com; paultash@sptimes.com; stein@sptimes.com; genesiudut@lagacetanewspaper.com; tgonzalez@tsg-law.com
Subject: Re: The Steve Kemp case and Public Information Regarding It

Lee - I will assume that you sent the email below before reading the response I sent to you earlier on Tuesday. Linda Kipley never denied receiving an email from you demanding an investigation. However, there was never an investigation based on your email, nor will there be one based on the one below. I stated the reasons in Tuesday's email.

I have submitted your request for Linda Kipley's emails for the entire month of February, Mrs. Elia's job description, and the final report on Steve Kemp's investigation.

Mrs. Kipley's emails often contain confidential information, so the hundreds she received in February will have to be reviewed and confidential information will have to be redacted. Those activities will take time, for which you will be charged the hourly rate of the lowest paid employee capable of performing the work. It will take several hours to complete, so you will be facing significant charges. I will give you an estimate before anyone does any work on this part.

I must point out that you have already received the advertisement that was used in the superintendent search, which includes the job's requirements. You can also look at the policy manual online for policies and procedures related to duties of the superintendent. If there is an actual job description, I will send it to you.

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

Linda, June 9th is the next board meeting. I still have not gotten from your office the description of the scope and purpose of the Professional Standards Office, from where the citation of these data emanates (Secretary of Education?), and Ms. Kipley's job description.

Please send those so I can review them before the board meeting. And pray answer this question separately: What is the procedure outlined in the Professional Standards literature that is the official document for the administration and board which cites the procedure for terminating a charge against a teacher such as Steve Kemp and what is the procedure outlined in the official literature for notifying him of the administration and board's decision in his case?

The administration nor board has notified Kemp that he rejoins the faculty in the fall I read on his blog. He happened to run across his name in the schedule for the fall and saw that an administrative fiat had assigned him a job.

This is a slipshod way of processing the grave charge of child abuse against a teacher. It sounds as though the administration is trying to evade revealing that it made a grave error in this case and has egg on its face. It is not professional behavior to charge a teacher with child abuse, keep him on suspension for a year with no communication to him of the progress of his case, and then without notification slip him into the following fall's schedule to avoid admitting the administration and board messed up in this instance of trying to coerce a teacher into shutting down his education blog from fear of losing his job after the sheriff had long since threw the child-abuse charge out.

Another problem that I believe comes within your jurisdiction is that I get back no-delivery notices from Ms. Kurdell's emails that I send to the whole board.

Please tell Ms. Kurdell for me, or forward her this email, that in a democracy it is unacceptable for the chair of the governing board to block citizens' communications. Thank you.

Ldd


Kurdell block message: This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason: Your message was not delivered because the destination computer was not found. Carefully check that it was spelled correctly and try sending it again if there were any mistakes. It is also possible that a network problem caused this situation, so if you are sure the address is correct you might want to try to send it again. If the problem continues, contact your friendly system administrator. Host sdhc.k12.fl not found. The following recipients did not receive this message: The following websites may contain more information to assist you: http://help.rr.com/HMSLogic/rrmail.aspx http://security.rr.com/help.htm http://security.rr.com/contact.htm Please do not reply to this message, as it will go to an unread mailbox