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

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Deepthroat: Tom Gonzalez is a real person: he is the School Board attorney. Yes, he is creating a publication to tell teachers their rights when they go into the Professional Standards Cell Block. You can contact him--anonymously if you like--at tgonzalez@tsg-law.com. He is paid by the taxpayers to do the Board's legal business and is assembling data to answer the questions teachers have when they get referred to Professional Standards because the union and the administration have not provided these data to teachers who must run the Professional Standards gauntlet. What Mr. Gonzalez is doing is at the behest of Board Member Lamb, and Mr. Gonzalez would welcome data that you provide. lee Top of Form I am nominating: First Name: Maryellen Last Name: Elia Work Location: ROSAC Hot-Air Palace Job/Position: Ultimate Decider and Bad Punctuator My Information: My Name: Lee Drury De Cesare My Phone: 727-398-4142 Email:tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com Web Page:http://www.leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot.com I am a : Student Parent Community Member and Hapless citizen 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 Maryellen Elia for sustained performance in ripping off faculty, hiring as bloated-salary administrators academic weaklings, mauling grammar and punctuation, promulgating hanky-panky, employing smoke and mirrors, and churning out spin, spin, spin ‘till Daddy Takes Her T-Bird Away. ****** 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. Parents, students, business partners and others in the community are also welcome to submit nominations. If a teacher, secretary, custodian, principal, aide Comma: Prentice Hall or other staff member has gone above and beyond their Pronoun-antecedent disagreement--Prentice Hall job description, that’s the person we’re looking for. 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. Parents, students, business partners Comma: Prentice Hall 694 and others in the community are also welcome to submit nominations. If a teacher, secretary, custodian, principal, aide Prentice Hall 694 or other staff member has gone above and beyond their Prentice Hall 600 job description, that’s the person we’re looking for. 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, May 11. The winner will be presented with a $10,000 check in their Pronoun-antecedent agreement problem: Prentice Hall 600 name that they Prentice Hall 600 can use however they 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

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

2/22/07

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.

2/22/07

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

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From: lee decesare [mailto:tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 3:11 PM
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.

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From: Linda Cobbe [mailto:lcobbe@sdhc.us]
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 1:47 PM
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

Bart Birdsall Gets Letter of Apology with no Help from CTA

From: Montolino@aol.com [mailto:Montolino@aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 11:10 PM
To: Yvonne.Lyons@floridaea.org
Cc: Jean.Clements@floridaea.org; Chuck.Kiker@floridaea.org; tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: Letter

Yvonne, Jean, and Chuck,

Tom Gonzalez tells me I will get the letter I continue to ask for......this is the letter Linda Kipley promised me in my meeting with her back in July 2005. Back then she said I would receive a letter that the meeting with her was satisfactory. However, I never received such a letter. Instead, I received what I feel was a threatening letter in a nasty tone with absolutely no wording stating that the meeting was satisfactory or the outcome was good. Around the same time I had a co-worker spread lies that I am about to be fired back when all this happened. He assumed this after a downtown person, who used to be a friend, told him the whole story.

I asked Tom Gonzalez to make sure the letter is the type that I can show anyone the letter as proof that I am not going to be fired to counteract rumors.

I wish CTA had made sure this letter was written to me back in August 2005. I think Kipley owed me this letter, and since she said I would receive it in the presence of a CTA rep, I should have received it.

But I am getting the letter through my own insistence. It is taking me almost 2 years to get the letter that Kipley owes me. Tom says I will get it. If I do, I will finally be able to put everything to rest and move on with my life. If I do not get it, I will probably attend every single school board meeting and talk about Linda Kipley owing me an apology for lying to my face during an investigation and for bringing up issues (a newspaper article and the Joe Stines emails) that she had no right to bring up during the investigation (and she even admitted I was not called into Professional Standards for those issues but she made a point of trying to scare me that MaryEllen Elia gave her those items).

I believe in being nice, but when I feel I have been wronged I will defend myself to the nth degree. I believe powerful people must be held accountable for their nonsense.

Below is a column about Molly Ivins. I believe CTA should work toward her goal: holding powerful people accountable......I feel that the culture at CTA is a "don't rock the boat, just work on FEA type issues that effect education, but don't make anyone important mad...." type of culture. It's a "let's help the teachers as long as it doesn't cause a rift in our relationship with the bigwigs" culture. I feel there are times you have to rock the boat and should, especially when it holds powerful people accountable and keeps them from abusing their power and harming others.

I am hoping the article below will inspire you all to be braver in helping teachers, when they have a problem or issue. I continue to be a CTA member, I continue to encourage new teachers to join, and, in return, I feel you owe teachers more when they are upset or in trouble.

Bart

Missing Molly Ivins
By PAUL KRUGMAN

CTA:

Pray allow me to lodge an official rebuke from a former FUSA president at HCC that you of Hillsborough County CTA let down a member whom you charge $500 a year despite your pusillanimous bowing and scraping to the administration when it mistreats teachers.

By dint of his persistence, Bart has petitioned Dr. Lamb to have the Board attorney survey the situation and has finally prevailed to a degree. The Board attorney will soon issue a pamphlet outlining teachers' rights who go to Professional Standards--on trumped-up charges in Bart's case and in others.

The administration uses Professional Standards as a sneaky punishment device not for infractions but for getting back at teachers for doing something the administration doesn't approve. In Bart's case, it was his participation in the gay protest to the library-shutdown privileges for gays.

This administration has a long and unlovely history of tolerating the savaging of gay children in the school system for years. Bart and a mother with a gay son at HHS lobbied against it for years while the administration and Dr. Lennard fled the problem because they thought that their protecting gay children in school would annoy the homophobic bigots.

CTA did not one thing about this vile Professional Standards situation and knew about it for years. It knew and looked the other way when Linda Kipley acted like the administration's Lucco Brazzi. It discouraged Bart from appealing his treatment. CTA let teachers enter Kipley's den of sanctioned sadism without even a paper in their hands outlining their rights and resisted requests--I know I sent several--to see that such information as the appeals process should be in a teacher's hands when he or she got the call from Kipley to come to her Abu Gharib Cell Block.

In short, CTA colluded with the administration in mistreatment of teachers. That's vile. Moreover, it's uncivilized.

As a result of Bart's unyielding persistence, he has also got the promise of a letter of apology to him from La Kipley. Again, CTA had nothing at all to do with generating this promised letter. It cooperated with the administration in its mistreatment of Bart even when a CTA Pooh-Bah accompanied Bart to the punishment interview with Kipley; it did not succor Bart: quite the contrary--its members with the administration honchos at a Tiger Bay luncheon.

Bart was new to the club and scared, but he got up and protested his treatment to speaker Elia despite being frightened and despite being ignored by the CTA sycophants present.

Bottom line: CTA is in bed with the administration, which uses CTA ciphers to keep teachers scared and quiet. The CTA's relationship with the administration comes first in CTA's lexicon of skewed priorities; teachers, who fork over $500 a year out of meager salaries, come second to the administration, with whom CTA is in thrall, too scared to annoy any administrator, no matter how egregious his or her behavior toward teachers.

Shame on CTA. It dishonors organized labor. If you and your ilk had been around at the beginning of the labor movement in America, you would have seen not a thing wrong with child labor, sweat-shop hours, and inhumane working conditions. Instead, you would have chimed in to support the opponents of these practices to call Samuel Gompers crazy.

Pray accept my abiding contempt.

lee drury de cesare

15316 Gulf Boulevard 802

Madeira Beach, FL 33708

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From: Montolino@aol.com [mailto:Montolino@aol.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 11:10 PM
To: Yvonne.Lyons@floridaea.org
Cc: Jean.Clements@floridaea.org; Chuck.Kiker@floridaea.org; tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: Letter

Yvonne, Jean, and Chuck,

Tom Gonzalez tells me I will get the letter I continue to ask for......this is the letter Linda Kipley promised me in my meeting with her back in July 2005. Back then she said I would receive a letter that the meeting with her was satisfactory. However, I never received such a letter. Instead, I received what I feel was a threatening letter in a nasty tone with absolutely no wording stating that the meeting was satisfactory or the outcome was good. Around the same time I had a co-worker spread lies that I am about to be fired back when all this happened. He assumed this after a downtown person, who used to be a friend, told him the whole story.

I asked Tom Gonzalez to make sure the letter is the type that I can show anyone the letter as proof that I am not going to be fired to counteract rumors.

I wish CTA had made sure this letter was written to me back in August 2005. I think Kipley owed me this letter, and since she said I would receive it in the presence of a CTA rep, I should have received it.

But I am getting the letter through my own insistence. It is taking me almost 2 years to get the letter that Kipley owes me. Tom says I will get it. If I do, I will finally be able to put everything to rest and move on with my life. If I do not get it, I will probably attend every single school board meeting and talk about Linda Kipley owing me an apology for lying to my face during an investigation and for bringing up issues (a newspaper article and the Joe Stines emails) that she had no right to bring up during the investigation (and she even admitted I was not called into Professional Standards for those issues but she made a point of trying to scare me that MaryEllen Elia gave her those items).

I believe in being nice, but when I feel I have been wronged I will defend myself to the nth degree. I believe powerful people must be held accountable for their nonsense.

Below is a column about Molly Ivins. I believe CTA should work toward her goal: holding powerful people accountable......I feel that the culture at CTA is a "don't rock the boat, just work on FEA type issues that effect education, but don't make anyone important mad...." type of culture. It's a "let's help the teachers as long as it doesn't cause a rift in our relationship with the bigwigs" culture. I feel there are times you have to rock the boat and should, especially when it holds powerful people accountable and keeps them from abusing their power and harming others.

I am hoping the article below will inspire you all to be braver in helping teachers, when they have a problem or issue. I continue to be a CTA member, I continue to encourage new teachers to join, and, in return, I feel you owe teachers more when they are upset or in trouble.

Bart

Missing Molly Ivins
By PAUL KRUGMAN


Published: February 2, 2007
Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died of breast cancer on Wednesday.
I first met her more than three years ago, when our book tours
crossed. She was, as she wrote, "a card-carrying member of The Great
Liberal Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now
schlepping around the country promoting books that do not speak
kindly of Our Leader´s record."

I can´t claim to have known her well. But I spent enough time with
her, and paid enough attention to her work, to know that obituaries
that mostly stressed her satirical gifts missed the main point. Yes,
she liked to poke fun at the powerful, and was very good at it. But
her satire was only the means to an end: holding the powerful
accountable.



She explained her philosophy in a stinging 1995 article in Mother
Jones magazine about Rush Limbaugh. "Satire ... has historically been
the weapon of powerless people aimed at the powerful," she wrote.
"When you use satire against powerless people ... it is like kicking
a cripple."
Molly never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the
times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are also the
times when it´s most important to do just that. And the fact that she
remembered these truths explains something I haven´t seen pointed out
in any of the tributes: her extraordinary prescience on the central
political issue of our time.
I´ve been going through Molly´s columns from 2002 and 2003, the
period when most of the wise men of the press cheered as Our Leader
took us to war on false pretenses, then dismissed as "Bush haters"
anyone who complained about the absence of W.M.D. or warned that the
victory celebrations were premature. Here are a few selections:
Nov. 19, 2002: "The greatest risk for us in invading Iraq is probably
not war itself, so much as: What happens after we win? ... There is a
batty degree of triumphalism loose in this country right now."
Jan. 16, 2003: "I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to
our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what
happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent
Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, `Horrible three-way civil
war?´ "
July 14, 2003: "I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it would
lead to the peace from hell, but I´d rather not see my prediction
come true and I don´t think we have much time left to avert it. That
the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald
Rumsfeld. ... We don´t need people with credentials as right-wing
ideologues and corporate privatizers - we need people who know how to
fix water and power plants."
Oct. 7, 2003: "Good thing we won the war, because the peace sure
looks like a quagmire. ...
"I´ve got an even-money bet out that says more Americans will be
killed in the peace than in the war, and more Iraqis will be killed
by Americans in the peace than in the war. Not the first time I´ve
had a bet out that I hoped I´d lose."
So Molly Ivins - who didn´t mingle with the great and famous, didn´t
have sources high in the administration, and never claimed special
expertise on national security or the Middle East - got almost
everything right. Meanwhile, how did those who did have all those
credentials do?
With very few exceptions, they got everything wrong. They bought the
obviously cooked case for war - or found their own reasons to endorse
the invasion. They didn´t see the folly of the venture, which was
almost as obvious in prospect as it is with the benefit of hindsight.
And they took years to realize that everything we were being told
about progress in Iraq was a lie.
Was Molly smarter than all the experts? No, she was just braver. The
administration´s exploitation of 9/11 created an environment in which
it took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.
Molly had that courage; not enough others can say the same.
And it´s not over. Many of those who failed the big test in 2002 and
2003 are now making excuses for the "surge." Meanwhile, the same
techniques of allegation and innuendo that were used to promote war
with Iraq are being used to ratchet up tensions with Iran.
Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the
follies and lies of the powerful. And Molly Ivins, who devoted her
life to questioning authority, will be sorely missed.

Bart Birdsall
2309 W. Bristol Ave.
Tampa, FL 33609
home (813) 258-8817
cell (813) 362-7937
Montolino@aol.com

Dr. Lamb Shepherds an Information Pamphlet for Teachers Who Must Undergo the Ministrations of Linda Kipley's Simon-Legree Treatment in Her Abu Gharib Cell Block

Dr. Lamb: Bart Birdsall said he had a useful conversation with you today and that you applauded him for running for the School Board. So did my husband and I. We gave him some money and encouraged him all the way.

I liked that Bart ran to detoxify the idea that a gay couldn't do so, and the great thing is that he did not get one anti-gay taunt in the entire campaign. His run for office to make doing so more hospitable for gays is what I call higher politics. To change our culture, there have to be people who will step out front where more cautious and more conveniently political people won't. If you examine the history of our democracy, this was always so.

Bart ventured into that unknown territory. I think his Board run on principle will be something he will treasure when he is an old man. When he looks back on his life, he can say, "I ran for the Hillsborough County School Board" to make life better for gays in society and especially for the gay children in the school system."

He and Jane Bolton began their efforts to make the schools less toxic for gay students years ago--Jane had a gay son at my old school, Hillsborough; and these two pioneers bumped up against the prejudice of the school administration and, I am sorry to say, the Board too. I joined in with a little skirmish or two in the last days of their efforts. I once ran down Dr. Lennard in a pair of spiked Manohla Blanicks at Tiger Bay and caught him. He promised to form a committee to deal with the gay harassment. He didn't. I am sorry he dropped out of the Florida Senate race. I could hardly wait to get him on a platform where he had to field questions and couldn't run.The Board and administration apparently were afraid to challenge the bigots. I don't think he had the political instincts to win that election. A real politician knows when to veer in another direction because his political nose tells him the voters are going that way.

I believe Ms. Elia repeated this error with the last gay-club effort by reappointing the committee that reviewed the situation when the first committee came up with the advice to not notify the parents. The second committee, I understand, had the anti-gay complainers on it and reversed the previous decision.

I am sorry that the deluge of emails caused you to vote on the losing side. You should have voted your convictions. All politicians should. When you wrote me that reason for your vote and when I then heard that Ms. Falliera had boasted of sending out many emails to invite people to condone the notification that the gay students opposed, I asked you to have the Board attorney give an opinion on the legality of a Board member's using a school-supplied computer to engage in this kind of politicking on a Board item. I believe all of the Board members have a school computer at home and infer that Ms. Falliera used hers. The school email technicians in the Tech Department could determine whether Ms. Faliera's computer was used it to send out the political emails. I would like to know when the attorney renders an opinion on this question. I expect to include a copy of the email sent out on this issue and the email recipients' list. That is public information since it involves school business.

Ms. Elia and Ms. Faliera are the unfortunate possessors of bad political noses. They don't know when an idea's time has come. Ms. Kurdell is embalmed in my considered opinion and doesn't know anything but heil Hitler.

I thought it interesting that the gay kids had turned out a much more numerous body at the Board on this issue than had the homophobes. I congratulated every kid I could that night on their vigorous demonstration of democracy in action. I especially thanked the ACLU--of which I have been member for many years--for its support of the gay kids' side of the question. I thought a couple of USF people made outstanding statements. You can always trust academics to know valid data. But the kids were the stars. The boys who piled the books on the table to demonstrate their point will be important people one day. That kind of hustle and get-up-and-go at their age promises significant lives.

I am delighted that you will welcome Mr. Gonzalez's information booklet for the Professional Standards referrals. I wish you would put it on the Web for public review and comment. The teachers who enter the perilous precincts of Professional Standards badly need solid information. I tried to talk to Ms. Kipley about this booklet at the gay-club Board meeting. She spit out, "I don't have to talk to you!" and fled before my astonished eyes. Not only does Ms. Kipley not have the academic background for her important position, she lacks the poise and polish to respond to one of the public who pays her salary.

Ms. Kipley's progress from Home Ec to that job is a primie facie case of the administration shoddy employment practices. Ms. Elia would amend those if a majority of Board members made plain that they expect her to do so. She wants to keep her own job, which the Board controls.

I don't know whether you plan to contact the CTA on the Professional Standards pamphlet for teachers. I can tell you categorically that the organization cooperated with Kipley's savaging of teachers and did not think the issue worth the outfit's attention, although I understand the dues for a teacher is $500 a year. I consider the CTA corrupt and ineffectual, and I speak from the position of a former faculty union president at HCC.

Thank you for your hospitality to the information packet for teachers subjected to the treatment Ms. Kipley is infamous for in Professional Standards.

Lee Drury De Cesare

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lee De Cesare [mailto:tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com] Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 8:34 AM To: Jack Lamb; candy.olson@sdhc.k12.fl.us; carol.kurdell@sdhc.k12.fl.us; dorthea.edgcomb@sdhc.k12.fl.us; susan.valdez@sdhc.k12.fl.us; April Griffin Cc: letitiastein@sptimes.com; wayne.garcia@weeklyplanet.com; marilynbrown@tampatribune.com; rosemarygoudreau@tampatribune.com; david@eqfl.org Subject: Official Question Dr. Lamb, Board Chair: The Tribune reported that Ms. Faliero said that "she sent her plea [against the campaign of the gay kids to thwart club notification] to 'hundreds' of Hillsborough residents in hopes they will unleash their own resources to lobby the board." Please consider this a formal request to determine whether Ms. Faliero's using her school-provided home computer and supplies to lobby for her view soas to "unleash" opposition against the gay kids' position is legal. I understand that the computer supplied to the Board members is for school business; but Ms. Faliero's use--if she used her school computer as she describes to the Tribune reporter--sounds as if she engaged in an unorthodox political use of school equipment supplied to her. Can your attorney answer the question of the appropriateness of this use of Ms. Faliero's home computer for the purpose the Tribune describes? Thank you. lee drury de cesare

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From: Montolino@aol.com [mailto:Montolino@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 8:33 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Cc: amanteiga@lagacetanewspaper.com
Subject: Faliero

Ms. Goudreau: I send this via the city desk since your email kicks my messages back. So does Ms. Brown's. I protest the slovenly use of the English language first of all in Brown's school-board article. The Tribune promotes Faliero to "Board leader" when she is, in fact, a voice for the right-wing minority community whose views she represents on the Board. Homophobia is, according to all polls, a minority view amongst voters even in Hillsborough County. The advocates reside mostly in the fens and bogs of such redoubts of brutal bigotry as Seffner and Wimauma. Plant City festers with the breed too. I think this is another example of your paper's Girlfriend Publishing Politics: your reporter puts herself squarely in Elia's, your girlfriend's, camp. Brown's is supposed to be a news story with pretensions of objectivity. "Leader" in the title is a tendentious piece of diction that blows that pretension to hell and back. Matt Drudge could slant the story no more decidedly than that word choice signals. It's too bad that Tampa has only one newspaper and that that newspaper gets its first female editor who is not a professional in doing her job. I had high hopes for you, ma'am. Now I see that you are from the Phyllis Schlafley branch of the x-chromosome population. This is not what I worked 45 years in the Women's Movement to see: The Aunt Tom Girlfriend Sorority getting power slots that feminists worked to open up to women. Brown doesn't ask Faliero if she used her school computer and supplies to send out this homophobic call to her homophobic supporters.You must have coached Ms. Brown in her slant,I infer--perhaps even intimidated her. I hope Ms. Brown is not another Tribune Aunt Tom like her editor but merely a lowly reporter kowtowing to her boss's prejudices to keep her job. Tell us: Did she get her marching orders from you, or did she know without formal coaching that her job would be in jeopardy if she were even handed like ethical reporters are supposed to be? I wonder what Poynter's journalistic ethics drive-by would say of this piece's ethics? And why didn't Brown ask Faliera what group she referred to when she spat out the "special-interest-group" reference and her sneer at "ideological" politics? Why didn't Reporter Brown ask Faliera if she referred to the ideology of savaging gay children by blowing the whistle on them in a parental-notification scam to alert any homophobic parents who would savage their gay kids by kicking them out onto the streets in the middle of the night? A modicum of journalistic curiosity would have beseemed Ms. Brown. Why didn't Ms. Brown ask Ms. Faliero what she was an "advocate" for when she quotes her as saying, "I'm doing my job as an 'advocate'"? In Faliera's dais screed, delivered in zeig-heil cadences, she asserted that she knew that there were those in the audience who had an "agenda." She meant the gay kids protesting the permission slips, of course. She didn't seem to comprehend that the homophobes had the unlovely agenda of alerting homophobic parents to their child's being gay in the vile hope that the sicko parents would kick that child out in the middle of the night for this "sin" against parental bigotry. And there is the issue of proportion in Brown's piece: Faliera and her her homophobe campaign hogs most of the article; the last sentence seems to show that people favored the kids' stand, but it would take a determined parser to eke out its import. The fact is that of the twenty people who spoke, most were against notification. Brown doesn't say so. And there were impressive people against notification that she could have named instead of giving Faliera a piece of the Tribune for her propaganda: ACLU sent a spokesperson; a psychologist from USF warned against the permission slips; Nadine Smith of Florida Equality gave a powerful endorsement of the gay students' pleas. There were a lot of gay kids in the audience. There weren't any pro-notice kids that I could discern. The main speaker of the scanty homophobe contingent wore one of those ghastly red Santa Claus sweaters with the legend of Santa's ride stitched in garish green relief. I never trust the mental stability of one who has no better sense than to wear one of those Night of the Santy Body Snatchers god-awful sweaters. You've shown your Elia girlfriend colors again, Ms. Gourdreau, and ripped off the purported High Purpose of journalism. You have let down womankind's effort to get jobs in high places by showing you aren't ready for one. Your paper has published a distorted account that ill serves your readership. You have ensured that you will not get a condo in H.L. Mencken's corner of eternity for solid journalists. I send this rat-out to the Columbia Journalism Review, although it probably doesn't pay a shred of attention to outback publications with girlfriend editors. Shame, ma'am, shame. Redeem yourself and your paper by finding out about Faliera's possible use of a school-bought computer for advocating bigotry. If she claims she sent it from her own computer, not the school's, dispatch a factotum for ocular proof, including the sent messages on her hard drive. And put the story above the fold in repentance of deeds ill done in the objectivity boast of the news racket. lee drury de cesare 15316 Gulf Blvd. 802 Madeira Beach, FL 33708 727-398-4142 Board Leader Solicits Supporters For Change In School Clubs Rule By MARILYN BROWN The Tampa Tribune Published: Dec 12, 2006 TAMPA - A battle over whether to require parental permission for Hillsborough County students to enroll in school clubs was reignited this week with a mushrooming e-mail campaign. On Monday, one day before a school board vote on new club guidelines, board Vice Chairwoman Jennifer Faliero sent a mass e-mail asking for support in requiring signed parental permission forms before students can participate in school clubs, including nonsanctioned athletic clubs. Faliero said she sent her plea to "hundreds" of Hillsborough residents in hopes they will unleash their own resources to lobby the board. "I'm doing my job as an advocate," said Faliero, who predicts a divided board on the subject. Faliero said she was responding to dozens of identical e-mail received by board members Monday decrying the "unnecessary obstacle of permission slips." "Changing the current policy will have a stifling affect on students and on the clubs and will require even more time and effort be spent on non-educational programs by already overburdened school employees who volunteer as club advisors," the form e-mail said. Faliero's e-mail response warns that a large contingency organized by Equality Florida and members of the American Civil Liberties Union are opposing the new guidelines. "I believe a parent has the right to know and decide what is best for their child," Faliero wrote. School clubs ignited a bitter debate a year ago after a parent group from Newsome High in Lithia protested a new Gay-Straight Alliance Club there. The issue was put on hold as a committee of district personnel and citizens reviewed club policies and procedures. The committee recommended requiring permission slips as well as a disclaimer for participants in sports club activities. The disclaimer protects the school district from liability. Cathy James, a Riverview parent of a first-grader, said she plans to speak against the new policy even though "it doesn't affect me yet." "My concern is some members of this committee may be a little short-sighted on how some families work," James said. "I think we need to allow students to find their own ideas, find their own way. Permission slips are something you need when you go off campus, when you have a liability." The school board meets at 5 p.m. today at 901 E. Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa.

Find this article at: http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB58L9TLVE.html

Bart Birdsall
2309 W. Bristol Ave.
Tampa, FL 33609
home (813) 258-8817
cell (813) 362-7937
Montolino@aol.com

It is galling that Linda Kipley the head of Professional Standards with the School District of Hillsborough County lied to a teacher during an investigation into his emails. I am willing to take a lie detector concerning this. No one should be lied to in that office.

In a message dated 12/14/2006 6:03:55 PM Eastern Standard Time,

Yvonne.Lyons@floridaea.org writes: I noticed that neither you nor Lee spoke either. Could it have been that it was not politically wise for the two of you to speak given the bias it may have caused on the Board?

You and Lee have made some very serious allegations about certain school board members and district staff, so you were probably very smart to stay out of the fray, so to speak.

My decision not to speak had nothing to do with what you say above. I have emailed all the school board members and MaryEllen Elia about my views on the permission form matter and many other issues. I emailed them after the meeting.

They know me, they know how I feel, and it would have been redundant for me to speak. They would have yawned and thought, "I know exactly what he's going to say" and I wanted others to shine in the light.

In contrast for CTA's executive director to speak on this issue would have held a lot of weight with the board members. Some of the people who spoke at Tuesday's board meeting have been influenced by me and were emailing me constantly before the meeting.

You express concern about my obsession with Linda Kipley. I am obsessed with making sure no other teacher is caught in her abuse of power. This personality trait is the trait that all whistleblowers have. They experience something personal that is outrageous, and they want to tell the world, so that this type of behavior does not keep going on.

I have spoken to a teacher today who I think will finally call Tom Gonzalez, so there is another solid story. Her story is horrendous. It shows how Linda Kipley is a menace to every teacher in the county.

I have not changed. I have simply discovered wrongdoing and received no help in getting it exposed. That frustrates anyone, especially when you receive no help from those that you trusted and believed would help you.

Lee has been the only person who has helped me during and after the investigation into my emails, in my opinion. You find it strange that I enjoy the discomfort that someone faces during a confrontation. Why shouldn't someone be glad that Linda Kipley has to be uncomfortable when she has made others uncomfortable in a sadistic way or through lies?

Why should I be respectful and nice to someone who has lied to my face about the reason she was investigating me? That would be ludicrous.

The teacher I spoke to who was mistreated by Linda Kipley in an extreme manner was thrilled to death to hear that Lee confronted her. When people have been wronged, they are HAPPY when the shoe is on the other foot. Surely you understand that elementary concept of human emotions.

I'd like to see you mistreated by Linda Kipley (if you were a teacher) and see if you don't find some happiness in her discomfort when Lee confronts her. It is normal and human. Watch court cases. Families who have a relative who was killed scream for joy when a murderer is put behind bars.

I do not know what it is like to experience a murdered relative and go through a trial, but it appears to be quite common that people find happiness in the murderer being convicted, even though it does not bring their relative back. They delight in the murderer being punished. That is an extreme example, but I am sure you understand my point.

I am still the same sweet, soft spoken Bart that I have always been, but when I feel something is wrong, I will not "drop it" as CTA suggested. How can I drop it? I have never dropped my support of gay youth. I have never stopped loving opera. I have never stopped Pilates and yoga. When I get involved in something I do not stop and do not give up. It becomes a part of my life and being, and I am driven to expose Linda Kipley as an unprofessional head of Professional Standards, because I believe her to be despicable, and I can not live with myself, if I don't continue to tell anyone who will listen that this woman abuses her power.

I will take a lie detector or sign an avadavit or whatever I have to do. I will testify in court, if I have to, but I will go to my grave talking about the unprofessional head of Professional Standards in the School District of Hillsborough County.

When I first brought Kipley's behavior up to Jean, I told her I thought Kipley should be investigated. She said, "'Investigate' is a harsh word....." Well, Kipley had no qualms about investigating me or many others. Why is she too good to experience investigations? Why would CTA uphold a double standard for teachers and district officials?

Like I said, I am still the same Bart, except that I am sick and tired of the obstacles gay students have faced in starting their clubs (I received many calls about students not being able to start them and even called Plant High years ago to question the AP and that got it started).

I am sick and tired of the nonsense that goes on in the district and how people give excuse after excuse to avoid doing anything about injustice.

Jane Boles of PFLAG was sick of the district runaround about the gay club issue way before I was, and I told her that we have to be patient, etc. etc. Finally, I got sick too.

Michael Freincle is sick too, and he's a lot younger and newer at this than I am. Come to Greco and interview the staff. I guarantee that the majority will praise me and say that I am a nice and respectful person, but when I feel I have been wronged I do not hesitate to say something.

I was always respectful to Candy Olson, and then she yelled at me in a public place, when she thought I was down and in trouble. She saw the moment to kick someone while he was down. What's funny is that you don't seem to care about how others have treated me, but I am supposed to remain sweet, nice, and respectful while they treat me incredibly disrespectfully. That's a double standard. Why is it that they have every right to treat me any way that they feel, yet the minute I do the same, suddenly, I am supposed to be "respectful" ?

I have been amazed at the people I counted as friends who have literally avoided helping me. I believe this is because people avoid confrontation at all costs, and what I ask people to do is confront people who I feel have done the wrong thing. Since people, who should check into this, don't like conflict, they begin to avoid me.

From your email I feel you are trying to say I am crazy or something ("obsession" and I have changed). This is a tactic to avoid dealing with hard issues that may require confrontation. Tom Gonzalez told me there was nothing that would have happened to me. He basically implied the whole email investigation was nothing more than a bluff by Linda Kipley.

I would like to know how you would feel if your son or daughter were treated the way I was or the way Shawnree Miller or Pat Barton were treated.

When you have been on the receiving end of lies or sadism, then see how it feels for someone to tell you to "drop the whole thing" or to tell you to be more respectful. This district's civility policy and concept of "respectful" is thrown in our faces when we speak up. Meanwhile, the district people can act ridiculous and mean-spirited and nothing happens.

I know you will say, "That's the way of the world," and maybe I am charging at windmills, but I think my reactions have been human. I had a horrible year 2005-2006.....I loved my job and working with my co-workers, but I was angry about my email investigation, and I was angry CTA kept telling me to drop it, and I was angry that other teachers have experienced what I experienced and much worse.

It's hard to work for an organization (school district) that you feel is totally corrupt.

Bart Bart Birdsall 2309 W. Bristol Ave. Tampa, FL 33609 home (813) 258-8817 cell (813) 362-7937 Montolino@aol.com

It is galling that Linda Kipley the head of Professional Standards with the School District of Hillsborough County lied to a teacher during an investigation into his emails. I am willing to take a lie detector concerning this. No one should be lied to in that office.

La Gaceta called me. It was too late to find out how to get in.

I wish that I could have been there and exposed Elia's illiteracy and how she got the job through the back door of inside political machinations, not from merit. The Board was complicit in hiring this ill-prepared, marginally literate superintendent because its members were too parochial to hire one of the better credentialed and more highly experienced outside candidates.

The Board allows itself to be cozened and flattered by the administration operators into doing the administration's bidding. Every election of a Board member from now on should focus on this poisonous situation. The Board has not led; it has followed the worst, greediest, and most power-hungry of the manipulators in the administration. These were behind both Lennard's and Elia's slipping into the job of superintendent.

I would have also got in the fact that the Board does not advertise top jobs that pay over $100,000 of tax money to people with kindergarten and home-ec credentials when these jobs advertised could attract top talent from across the country.

Schools are no better than their leadership, and the administrative leadership of the local school system is shoddy. It allows administrative courtships that break up marriages to fester in the halls and offices of ROSSAC as a way to get a job promotion, setting the whole building abuzz, and yet savages a teacher by producing a gimcrack case against her for taking students to see a university with parental permission and referring her to Linda Kipley's Abu Gharib cell block for degrading treatment for this manufactured offense.

The Board is the gateway to better schools and better leadership. Elia makes mistake after mistake, but the Board does not rebuke her or, better, fire her.

The Board must explain itself to the voters in the next election cycle.

lee

Lee's response to union featherbedder Jean Clements' excuse for not speaking at the petition-slip Board meeting:

Clements's view is limited. That teachers' relationship with their students encompasses their ability to relate to students without the intrusion of gender into the equation is a work-related issue. The explosive consequences of some of these admission slips' going to parents who discover their gay children's orientation and then the parents' flailing about and pressuring teachers because of their homophobia are a quite possible outcome of the sequelae to passing this sadistically honed disguised issue to trap gay students into admitting their gayness to hostile parents.

That was the elephant in the room that I did not hear articulated in any of the remarks. People talked all around it but didn't lay it out in plain English.

We must deal with ethical environment of the workplace for teachers. Right now the ethics of the school-system environment is that people are scared to death to say anything critical of the administration for fear of firing. That is a highly relevant work-environment issue that the union's being in bed with the administration keeps in the closet, but everybody knows about it nonetheless.

That La Jean is unconcerned about ethics does not surprise. Any union leader who allows tacky administration home-ec trained ghoul Linda Kipley to savage teachers as she does in the Professional Standards Abu Gharib with no written guidelines in teachers' hands when they enter the gauntlet is not much of a friend to teachers. Any union that discourages teachers from filing grievances against lies and mistreatment is not much of a union. Any union that sucks up to the administration is not teachers' friend. Any union that plays politics sans ethics is not teachers' best advocate.

Finally and especially, any union whose overpaid staff refuses to put its salaries on the Web is greedy and disingenuous.

I know what a union should be from the inside: I was union president at HCC and fought the administration when it tried to stifle teachers. Nobody backed me down on teachers' rights and protections. I did not cozy up to the administration; I opposed it when it harmed teachers--or when it even looked like it wanted to harm teachers.

When I speak publicly or write for public consumption, I speak from conviction in plain American English. I practice a higher politics than Bay Area you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours. I went to the Board meeting observe the spectacle of community action on an issue that the School Board and administration has evaded with unethical cowardice for a long time. I thought the kids and the grown-up supporters did a pretty good job of making their case and didn't need me.

I never hesitate to speak up, to confront, to harass, to holler, to jump up and down, and to fulminate if I think the situation calls for it. That is more than Jean or her timid collaborators can say in their speaking up for teachers' wellbeing. They are administration toadies and bootlickers. Gutlessness, not political astuteness explains their sitting out the meeting.

lee drury de cesare

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From: Lyons, Yvonne [mailto:Yvonne.Lyons@floridaea.org]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 6:04 PM
To: Montolino@aol.com
Cc: Clements, Jean; tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com; Ford, Andy; ROMERXVI@aol.com; Roney, Jim
Subject: RE: Permission forms

Bart,

I am weeks behind in my emails and am unable to respond to each and every one in a timely manner. I would appreciate it if you would call me whenever there is an issue for which you want an immediate response.

The only reason for this lie of "weeks behind my emails" is to excuse her from not answering Bart's request for the union to speak against notification and thus oppose the gay-student-bashing maneuver that Elia cooperated with the homophobes to craft to make gay students' life miserable. The first committee recommended no notification. When the homophobes pressured Elia, she buckled as she did in the religious-holiday issue, reformed a second committee with the homophobes on it, and got a "Let's-notify-the-parents-so-they-will-kick-their-gay children-out-of-the-house-at-2 a.m.-second decision that satisfied the homophobes' ugly desire to punish gay kids by outing them to their parents. Thank goodness, four members of the Board didn't buy the sadistic notification gambit. The union members are in bed with the administration and don't oppose it from gutlessness, not from "being weeks behind" in their emails.

I really don't feel comfortable commenting on Missy's conversation as I was not privy to it, however, I have been advised that the person who called was a total stranger from another county asking for union action. If she said what you claim was said, it was incorrect.

A single member's request does not drive the organization, nor does it compel me or any officer to act. Your request seemed a simple one from your perspective, I'm sure, however, you know that the agenda item at Tuesday's school board meeting had very little to do with paperwork. A Board member who might have been caught in a perceived moral dilemma may have been able to use "paperwork" as their excuse to vote down the proposal, but the real issue was inclusion for gay and lesbian students and should not have been disguised by anyone as a paperwork issue.

I believe it was you who informed me in a previous email that the paperwork burden was not an important issue and that you handled unwanted paperwork by throwing it in the trash. You went on to say that teachers at your school were more concerned about losing their planning period due to the lack of substitutes.

I took your comments as one member's opinion, but did not change Rep Council's direction to me regarding excessive paperwork as a result of that opinion. We on CTA staff have been meeting with School Board members, district staff, teachers and the superintendent concerning the unnecessary paperwork that gets in the way of teachers doing their jobs. In fact, Jean and I met with Candy Olson, Ken Otero, and Mary Ellen Elia for two hours one morning discussing paperwork issues and planning a focus group which met and made proposals to the superintendent. Candy actually participated in the focus group activities.

There is no district administrator or elected school board member that is in the dark about CTA's position on paperwork, nor can I believe there are any CTA members in the dark either.

Sometimes it is not politically wise for the union to be in the forefront of a parent/district battle, even one that affects teachers tangentially.

I noticed that neither you nor Lee spoke either. Could it have been that it was not politically wise for the two of you to speak given the bias it may have caused on the Board? You and Lee have made some very serious allegations about certain school board members and district staff, so you were probably very smart to stay out of the fray, so to speak.

At least they were forced to deal with the real issue instead of how they may have felt about you two personally. On the other hand, Jean and I were there and could easily have risen to speak had it been necessary. From our conversations prior to the Board meeting, it was apparent that the vote would go the way it did.

Bart, I have to tell you that I am concerned about your apparent obsession with Linda Kipley, but even more than that, I am disturbed at your delight in watching her discomfort at being approached by you and Lee.

When I first met you while serving on the committee to make recommendations for the student handbook, I was struck by your gentle manner, your advocacy for all students, your reasoned intellect and patience. To compare the Bart Birdsall I first met with the one who enjoys the intimidation of another human being and one who promotes his opinions as the only "right" opinions, and know he is the same person, is almost incomprehensible to me.

Standing up for what you believe in a respectful manner is far more influential than trashing those who disagree or disappoint. Those individuals who spoke at the Board Meeting, regardless of which side they were on, were impassioned, respectful and articulate. They made a difference.

Please call me if there are other issues we should discuss.

Sincerely,

Yvonne

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From: Montolino@aol.com [mailto:Montolino@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 11:05 PM
To: Lyons, Yvonne
Cc: Clements, Jean; tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com; Ford, Andy; ROMERXVI@aol.com; Roney, Jim
Subject: Permission forms

Yvonne,

Steve Kornell told me last week that he spoke to Missy from CTA, and she said all she needed was a CTA member to request that CTA get involved on the permission form issue that the Superintendent wanted the board to pass.

So I called Missy and asked that CTA get involved. She didn't think the permission forms were going to be brought up. I told her that it is listed on the online agenda. At that point, she told me I had to contact you for you to make the final call, so I emailed you as a CTA member and asked you to take a stance on the burden this would put on teachers.

I did not hear back from you, and I noticed you and Jean showed up to the meeting tonight and did not speak on the issue.

Once again I felt I was getting the runaround from CTA. I followed the directions that Steve Kornell gave me and then what Missy gave me and nothing.....

I am happy to get info for teachers at my school from CTA and will continue to do so, but I am disturbed that I never feel like CTA wants to act on anything that goes counter to the school administration.

I really do feel like CTA helps you unless it means aggravating the big wigs. It shouldn't be that way. I am in the awkward position of telling teachers at my school to join CTA and singing your praises at my school so that teachers are somewhat protected, but then my own personal experience has not been great. Tom Gonzalez told me nothing would have ever happened to me. He seemed to think that Chuck's comments about working really, really hard on getting me out of any punishment was odd. He said I was never in any real trouble to begin with and the district could not have done a thing to me about the things I did.

I have asked for 2 things in my 10 years as a CTA member:

1) that Linda Kipley be investigated for her lie to me and for her sadistic treatment of teachers, according to some teachers.....something that Tom Gonzalez is looking into after I met with him recently, and

2) that you speak tonight opposing permission forms for clubs.

Neither of these things ask you to climb Mount Everest, and one of them makes the district safer for ALL teachers, and the other goes hand in hand with your goal to eliminate unnecessary paperwork for teachers. I do not understand why you would not work on either of these two things. I would love to have an explanation.

I keep wanting to believe you are trying to keep teachers safer, but I do not understand your response or "no response" to the two issues named above.

I am beginning to believe that Candy Olson would do a better job of running CTA after watching her tonight. She has become braver and is finally showing true leadership and questioning everything district officials are doing including questioning Elia. Maybe Candy should just do CTA's work instead. When she retires from the school board, maybe she can run CTA. Her performance was terrific tonight, and I emailed her that opinion.

I am very disappointed you did not speak on the permission forms issue.

By the way, Lee tried to talk to Linda Kipley, and she ran away to avoid talking. When someone has a defense, they plant their feet and fight or argue when someone confronts. When they have no defense for their horrible behavior they run, run, run to avoid discussing the issue. She ran like the wind. This was priceless to see.

I finally saw her experience the feelings she causes in teachers in Hillsborough County. I have talked to teachers who literally start to tear up about how Kipley treated them.

You should be looking into this and questioning, questioning, questioning for the sake of every teacher of Hillsborough County. I am shocked that CTA does not want to do anything about a liar who sits as head of Professional Standards. Now I find out tonight that she's not just a liar but a coward to boot. She can dish out chastisements, but she sure doesn't want to take them.

CTA should be outraged and horrified that the head of Professional Standards lies to a teacher during an investigation. This woman is a menace to every teacher in the county. If she is willing to lie once to a teacher during an investigation, what else is she capable of doing? Why should any of us put up with that? It is obscene and makes a mockery of the Office of Professional Standards as well as the school district.

Bart

Bart Birdsall 2309 W. Bristol Ave. Tampa, FL 33609 home (813) 258-8817 cell (813) 362-7937 Montolino@aol.com It is galling that Linda Kipley the head of Professional Standards with the School District of Hillsborough County lied to a teacher during an investigation into his emails. I am willing to take a lie detector concerning this. No one should be lied to in that office.