Edmonds School District Weblog

Promised a U-Village. Delivered a Big Box.

2011-01-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

Athletic fields
Rhonda Hampson stated she was unhappy the fields are gone. They are not gone.
They moved to 184th and North road in Bothell at the New Lynnwood High School. Please get your facts straight before printing these articles. The school district put exactly what they had at the old site at the new site. Also, I have children who have graduated and two who are still at LHS. This is a wonderful plan and my kids are safe in a new building.
The school district gets money for 50 years for other building sites and we as tax payers don't have to come up with funds
for upkeep and new buildings. Yeah for us all. Get over the change, it's a win, win.

Carrie McAfee

Community Resource Lost
Carrie McAfee's assertion that this community resource was not lost, but rather just relocated is absurd. Sure, she isn't complaining because they moved this community resource to Bothell, just a couple of blocks from her house.

Please enlighten us as to whether the City of Lynnwood will be managing the fields or will that task fall upon the District's Athletic Department - now managed by someone with zero experience in athletics.

The real loss to the community is not in a patch of Field Turf or the adjacent grass but rather the deception inflicted upon the community by Marla Miller and her board of puppets that sold us a University Village and delivered a severely under-utilized plot with yet another "big box".

Marla's legacy will forever be remembered with this new and unexciting development, "Miller's Double Crossing".

Manufactured Demand

Ground lease is for 99 years
Carrie,

Get it right. The ground lease is for 99 years and if you believe the District will ask us for less than you probably believe what flows out of Brossoit's mouth.

The contaminated lot that was purchased for $5.8 million from a shmuck that bought it four years earlier for $900,000 is the site to watch. The District re-graded the site for millions and now it just sits there, waiting for another handout from the taxpayers.

Where is the New Scriber Lake High School? Where is the ground lease for the transportation center next to the mall? What is happening with the site across from the Lynnwood Convention Center? The District is just waiting for the right set of circumstances for their friends and political allies to financially flog us.

We need competent leadership, not a board of like-minded do nothings, easily hypnotized by the rhythmic sway of Marla's kooky hair.

Manufactured Demand

Talking to Manufactured demand
To Manufactured Demand, You are so insecure about your thoughts that you don't even use your own name. I said 50 years because have you ever seen a building last more than 50 years? They build the big box stores cheep. Then we will be watching them change the idea of what to do on that site. I do know that the school district used the 99 year term as an end date to buy it back. The next thing I would like to address is the new LHS is near my house. But it is also near the old LHS site around 3 miles east. That being said you must know me manufactured demand because I did not say where I lived in my article. Lets talk about Marla Miller, she works her butt off for us. Our district is better off than most in our area. So get off your high horse and help out at the citizens planning committee. Where you will see that the Scriber Lake High school is temporarily at the old Woodway Sr. High. Then it will be moved to the building next to Edmonds Community College when the new site for the bus barn is ready and the district offices move to that site at the Old Cedar Valley Elem. It's a great plan to use what we have and to make sure we keep the district in the black. Then you stated the site across from the Convention center... that site was set to be a high rise and the city of Lynnwood held that construction up. The school district does not get the final say in our choice of what goes on to each piece of property we are trying to get rid of. I also want to tell you that the City of Lynnwood has the last say in what they do or do not do with fields they may or may not maintain. Look at their budget and show us where they have money to do these types of things. LHS is gorgeous and the fields are sitting there under the snow waiting for our use. Last you are just negative. Dr. Brossoit is a great asset to our school. If you helped out instead of just bitched you would see that.

Carrie McAfee

Carrie McAfee...
Why would the District "buy back" their own site?

As for a building lasting more than 50 years, have you ever been to Seattle or any urban area for that matter?

The New Lynnwood High School is not even in Lynnwood. It isn't only about distance but also about jurisdiction.

Marla Miller is a criminal and you are blind.

So, Scriber will move from Former Woodway High School to the current Administration site when the Transportation site leaves the Alderwood Mall area and into the contaminated site? Would that be before or after the District seeks another construction bond from the public?

New Lynnwood High School was designed by architects for no other real purpose than to impress simple minds and fatten the resume of the architectural firm. That school should have been more utilitarian. Gee, I wonder if you have even looked at their utility bills.

And as for serving on the CPC, I refuse to be part of the problem. You are obviously blinded by the self-obsessed. The Board is a band of fools, Brossoit is a monkey whose greatest accomplishment to date was to outshine Ken Limon and Ellen Kahan in his interview with the Board (see above).

As for Marla, she has been steering district money to friends for years and has zero business sense. I suggest you read a little more - start with that blog site written by one of Marla's former pawns (esd15.org).

Time will catch up with Marla. Her day is coming.

Manufactured Demand

New entries are password protected for now

2009-11-25T20:58:00.000-08:00

There have been a number of topics that have been set aside for discussion outside of this public forum. Since it really wouldn't make any sense to cover these issues while they are still officially unresolved.

For a select few individuals, I have been providing usernames and passwords, so that healthy and open dialogue can occur without concern for the whole community watching. Sort of like "Executive Sessions".

Thank you for your support and I look forward to continued discussions "off the record" until the air is clear and I can start posting the accumulated entries.

The site may be found at www.esd15.org/protected-blog

All the best.

Mark Zandberg

Is anyone surprised that print media is failing?

2009-11-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

For readers of the blog that are tracking all of the clear evidence illustrating the close ties between this local rag and the District, here is a rather vivid case in point.

-----Original Message-----
From: mark@esd15.org
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:48 AM
To: Jocelyn Robinson; Eric Stevick
Subject: Questions for Candidates

I was just informed that the Enterprise published a Q and A article regarding the candidates for Edmonds School Board. I was also informed that you have no information from me and that I "did not respond".

May I ask just how exactly you attempted to contact me because no one has ever had any difficulty in doing so? Is this fair and effective journalism for our community?

While it is true that I was in Ethiopia for the month of September, my calls and email were monitored every day and I was still responding to every inquiry - even from Addis Ababa.

At the very least, all of my biographical information and my views on every issue imaginable are freely available on the internet.

Mark Zandberg

Hi Mark,

We sent the letters and questions through the mail to the addresses listed on the Snohomish County auditor's website.

I've attached the questions we sent to Edmonds School District candidates. If you can get these back to me by Monday, Oct. 26, I can include them online. I can't guarantee that we'll be able to publish the entire answers in the newspaper, but we will at least include a referral to the website.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Jocelyn Robinson
Enterprise News Editor
425-673-6504
jrobinson@heraldnet.com

I returned from Ethiopia on October 3, 2009, the day after the Public Forum hosted by the City of Edmonds. There was nothing in the mailbox from the Enterprise and no telephone messages or email from anyone at the Enterprise. There was nothing ever mailed to me from the Enterprise to the address where I was living at the time I filed as a candidate, nor was anything from the Enterprise forwarded to my address in Edmonds.

Clearly, the Enterprise felt it would be beneficial to allow Ann McMurray and Susan Phillips to get their messages out in their small newspaper while maintaining the illusion that they were being fair and effective.

What newspaper, in this day and age, sends questions out in snail mail? One could naturally assume that if something was mailed to a candidate, the responses could be mailed back. The "journalist" (and I use the term loosely here) would then have to have the questions and answers typed up. Why not send the questions by email? After all, our email addresses were included with our physical addresses when we filed as candidates. And of course, any real journalist wouldn't have any difficulty finding contact information for the moderator of a blog with more than 400,000 page views.

Why wouldn't this "journalist" follow up with a telephone call or an email? "Gee, I noticed that you did not respond to the letter that I mailed. Did you ever receive it?" Of course, I cannot respond to a letter that was never mailed.

What is funny is that after I "complained", I was given an opportunity to respond but not given any real chance to appear in print. There was a notation at the bottom of their web article stating that my responses were submitted after the original article was published. As if to suggest that I would copy the written work of the other candidates (assuming they actually wrote their own statements).

Is anyone actually surprised that print media is failing?

Scams uncovered on the blog are "too complicated"

2009-11-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

When I met with King 5 (contaminated site), KOMO (frozen cheese sandwiches) and the Herald, everyone was telling me that the scandals I cover in the blog are just "too complicated" for their intended audience. They couldn't possibly explain the nature and impact of each scam in a way that could be easily understood. While the blog has made an effort to reveal the feculence seeping from the operations side of the district and infecting the education side, it is clear that we need to start catering to a wider audience.

On a bright note, when I explain these real estate transactions to the many commercial brokers with whom I mingle, they immediately understand and quickly express shock at how a school board can be so blind to such blatant malfeasance.

In the very near future, the blog will be taking its message to YouTube. Our mission will not be to explain every last detail, but rather give our community a taste for the schemes being unleashed by management at the expense of the public.

The mission will be to provide a five minute snapshot of each questionable attack on our senses by district management. The viewer can watch one video in the series or all of them. They will be able to watch them in any order and watch them multiple times so some of the details will start to make sense.

Along with the use of this new platform, the blog will be revamped, restructured and revitalized with a long list of issues that have been piling up while I was in Africa.

This community needs a proactive school board.

2009-10-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

The most efficient way to cover the long list of material covered on this blog is to read the "Summary" section and then drill down to individual topics for greater detail. You can get to the "Summary" page by clicking right here or by clicking on the word "Summary" in the margin to the right.

While I can appreciate there are a lot of topics covered here, the overall trend clearly demonstrates that our current school board cannot provide the oversight they have been elected (or appointed) to provide. They may collectively claim to be doing their best, but "their best" is not good enough.

It all comes down to whether this community wants a reactive board that lacks the tools and experience to resolve problems or a proactive board that has a history of recognizing problems before they happen and has the skill and resources to prevent the problems that plague us now.

With the long list of issues covered here, just imagine how much more effective district leadership can be with the right person asking the right questions at the right time. This community cannot afford more of the same.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and please remember to vote.

"He didn't disclose something confidential."

2009-10-16T06:19:00.000-07:00

If you have been following my departure from the District, you may recall that Marla Miller and her minions were spewing the concept that I somehow violated the public trust by revealing something confidential about the Old Woodway Elementary transaction.

For those of you who still cling to the statements made by questionably-motivated managers, please review the following, simple facts.

Before the Old Woodway Elementary site was sold, it was advertised in the Herald as being a surplus site and it was marketed to developers in its entirety. That means, it was made available for purchase as a complete site of 11.2 acres. The fact that such a declaration was made in the Herald (albeit just once, not the legally-required twice) and that the site was advertised to developers as 11.2 acres means that no portion of the site was obligated to anyone and certainly not the City of Edmonds. Making such a declaration in a Letter to the Editor was just restating publicly-known facts. If any portion of the site had been committed to anyone else, then the entire site would not have been available to developers.

For those of you who still choose to cling to the statements made by Marla Miller, I advise that you read her own words here in this transcript of her own words and approved by her lawyers. Line 14 on Page 141. The rest of her transcript will be posted later.

So, why would Marla Miller, Nick Brossoit and the Board take action to constructively terminate a highly-praised employee? Clearly they wanted to silence the only voice of reason in a real estate transaction that was far more complicated than it needed to be and that resulted in millions of dollars lost for the District. Remember that the Old Woodway Elementary transaction happened right on the heels of the District's purchase of the contaminated site - a site purchased without the Board-mandated Site Acquisition Committee.

I say again, since I have said it numerous times before, Marla was gravely concerned that the manner in which district funds were being squandered, through poorly-crafted real estate transactions, would deeply upset the community. What she failed to understand is that our community doesn't have the time or energy to study the issues that come before our school board. That is precisely why we elect board members who create and maintain board policies. Our community believes that their elected board members understand the consequences of their decisions. Unfortunately, the current board is not capable of the oversight they have been elected to provide. Susan Phillips may "pledge to do [her] best for our students and District" but, quite frankly, her best is not good enough.

Change is needed on the Board. In electing even one board member that has the intellectual capacity to articulate consequences before they happen, never again can our school board claim to be uninformed or refuse to accurately assess circumstances before they devour us. One voice of reason would be a great start to a total board transformation that must happen sooner rather than later... for the sake of our children.

Blog: Photo acquired through flickr and pfly.

School Board candidate returns from Africa

2009-10-14T06:40:00.000-07:00

I am fairly confident that if the school board election were held today, in Ethiopia and Kenya, I would win by a wide margin.

For the many of you that have been writing in during my absence, I would like to thank you for filling my inbox. There are so many things to discuss and so many questions to be answered. An email that I received today served as a valuable reminder as to why it is so important to have a strong school board with inquisitive, analytical minds at work for the taxpayers of our district.

I am including this most recent email here and will respond more fruitfully once I have explored the issues raised. The email is as follows:

Hi Mark:

I don't know if you're still actively maintaining your watchdog blog (last update: June 30) but I wanted to know if you were aware of this:

Parents got a mailing recently from ESD Transportation Department urging them to make sure their (eligible) kid rode the school bus this week, October 12-16, as a student headcount will determine the amount of state funding for the department.

The card says:

"Already, we use local levy dollars (about $4m last year) to backfill the gap in transportation funding because the state's formula does not cover actual costs. The levy dollars also directly fund classroom expenses, such as curriculum and salaries. So by ensuring all assigned bus riders are on the bus during the 'count' week, our District can recoup the maximum amount of transportation funding to which we are entitled - and preserve more dollars for the classroom."

I'm asking:

Is it legal and proper to raid the local levy fund to keep bus service at full strength at the further expense of classroom ops? Parents already get incredible 'wish lists' from teachers, asking us to contribute the most basic classroom supplies... why are they so ready to strip the classroom experience to the bone and beyond to keep the bus fleet running?

If maximum ridership is so politically important, why did ESD rule this year that no kid within a radial mile of his/her school can ride the bus? Surely this policy is costing us state money.

Why is ESD in the transportation business anyway? I've wondered this for years. Fueling and operating 100+ buses is far, far outside ESD's core competency, and it's a major drain on capital. In the private sector you'd look at the Transportation Department as a natural candidate for sell / leaseback, outsourcing or spin off action. It strikes me as completely insane that ESD has such a fetish for buses (but so little apparent skill at running them) and now is actually raiding the classroom-funding bucket to keep the "bus business" whole. It's like an airline cancelling flights and laying off pilots to keep the kitchens making its in-flight meals running at full strength.

Would we not be better served by selling the ESD bus system's assets to a private contract operator (that knows something about fleet management, fuel hedging, personnel management, etc.), banking the proceeds, then tying the contractor's pay rate to performance metrics? One of the really frustrating things about the current arrangement is that there's no way to sanction bad performance. We have buses run late or not at all... kids standing in the rain and darkness for 20, 30, 45 minutes...substitute drivers get lost... and the Transportation Department just shrugs and says it wishes they could do better. If they were a contractor performing this way, they'd have to do more than shrug.

This "buses first, classrooms second" line is especially frustrating considering the giant salaries ESD leadership is earning...

Thanks, and I'd sure like to know what you think about this. Please keep me anonymous if you use this on the blog.

Cheers

Anonymous

Blog: The State does not reimburse transportation costs for students living within one mile of their school. There have been discussions outside of board meetings that involved students walking away from their schools to bus stops just outside of the one mile restriction. Such a student would be counted but the practice is clearly contrary to the intended policy.

District response intended to mislead the Public

2009-06-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

The District continues to dodge the real question that must be asked. Of course, this question can be asked many times and the responses are normally not connected to the question.

The Edmonds School District continues to peddle the argument that their team of assistant superintendents are compensated in a normal, reasonable fashion. However, the question that must be answered is how many assistant superintendents do other districts have? More revealing would be to ask, "How many people in other districts earn more than $100,000.00 per year?" I suspect the result would be rather troubling.

I would never suggest that an assistant superintendent or "deputy" superintendent should not be paid $150,000.00 a year. Yes, it seems rather excessive when you compare such a salary to average salaries within our community, but if this assistant superintendent was a powerful force for educational empowerment and motivated our community to take greater interest in producing great students, I would readily argue that the salary was not high enough.

Part of the responsibility of the Superintendent's Office is to build upon the successes achieved in the classroom and nurture support from the community to strengthen the District's mission. If we had a superintendent that successfully accomplished this goal, with an appropriate number of assistants, that would be newsworthy. Unfortunately, we have assembled a team of six assistants while other districts work with far fewer.

Here are a couple of rather telling documents provided by the Edmonds School District. First, there is a direct comparison (here) with other school districts in our region and the level of compensation provided to their assistant superintendents. Notice the absence of real information, like how many assistants work at these districts. Notice also that Bellevue has no "deputy" superintendent. How is that possible? Based upon the Edmonds model, they should have at least five.

Second, there is a document (here) that reveals the financial impact of having so many assistants, each of them receiving a cost of living increase on an annual basis. If our district had just one assistant superintendent, the financial impact would be significantly less. Unfortunately, we have six assistants. Every couple of years, the COLAs alone would fully fund yet another assistant. Of course, that same series of adjustments could add capacity to the number of teachers.

Third, there is a rather interesting document (here) that illustrates just how many assistants are dining at the trough of public funds. While there may eventually be an initiative to reduce the number of "assistant superintendents", there will never be a downward adjustment in the number of dollars spent on these employees. Titles may change, but salaries will continue to move onward and upward.

How is it possible that so many other districts can survive with so few "assistants" and "deputies"? I have said this many times before and I will mention it once again. During periods of financial challenges, when raises cannot be handed out to upper management, titles are used to make people feel better about themselves. When funding improves, these managers start wondering how people with such powerful titles can be earning so little - raises come flooding in. These raises come at a direct cost in the number of teachers, paraeducators and librarians.

Make no mistake, it is a club and until our community is prepared to address the senseless gluttony demonstrated by these bloated salaries, we will continue to struggle financially.

District will meddle in school board election

2009-06-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

For those of you that may think our electoral process is free and impartial, let me caution you now. We have only to look at the record to see just how far the District is willing to go to protect their own.

It is only through having an unengaged crop of board members that management can force through poor property decisions and illegal procurement practices.

Bruce Williams
Shortly after Bruce was compelled to leave his home through the filing of a restraining order, the Superintendent contacted me to have Bruce's director district redrawn. The intent was to have a rather elongated portion of Director District 4 reach across Director District 1 and include the apartment on Edmonds Way where Bruce Williams was living at the time. Of course, I knew it was sheer lunacy and didn't even pursue the matter, and in the process tell the world we are a collection of fools.

Nick Brossoit even expended considerable effort researching WSSDA recommendations as to the validity of Bruce Williams' status - not that WSSDA governs anything or has any influence in the manner in which the District is held accountable to its voters. Clearly, Nick was prepared to chase the issue to the end of the earth to save Bruce from a premature departure from the Board.

Gary Noble
The matter surrounding Gary Noble was made very clear to the Board and the Superintendent and yet they spent public money hiring attorneys to unsuccessfully reinterpret the English language. Board policies made it very clear that his occupation of a board seat was improper and his position as a board member was unauthorized under the terms of board policies.

This forum reported the issue to the State Auditor and the Board was directed to adhere to their policies or change them. The Board elected to change board policies to allow clear conflicts of interest to occur. They also went as far as to review all board policies so as to suggest to voters that the need for changing the restriction upon Gary Noble was something they discovered on their own.

Oddly, even though the Board had gone through a review of all board policies, they had missed the policy regarding the filing date for school board candidates - a point raised by this forum. The change was immediately adopted because it was characterized as an issue coming from a member of the public. Had it been revealed that the blog made the suggestion to revise the policy, there would probably be a flurry of legal briefs generated and untold fortunes spent on lawyers.

Pat Shields
The issue surrounding Pat Shields has more to do with his affiliation with Powerful Partners and the protection the program has been provided. Despite having signed a lease, Powerful Partners refused to honor their obligation to the tax-payers of this district. When the matter was brought to the attention of the State Auditor, Powerful Partners had mysteriously changed their name to Powerful Tutors, though still used their original name to endorse the District's ballot action.

The refusal of Powerful Partners to pay the rent was particularly painful since it had been happening for more than seven years and the District was in the process of redefining their facility use policy and seeking to pass along rental obligations to casual users of community facilities - particularly parent groups and fund-raising activities in support of district schools.

Susan Phillips
No one is saying that Susan Phillips is a bad person. On the contrary, her willingness to continue her involvement in the community should be applauded. Unfortunately, this district needs someone on the Board that cares about the financial stamina of our public schools. We need someone that knows what enrollment forecasting is all about. We need someone that knows a scheme when they see one. We need someone that knows how the District works from the inside. We need someone on the Board that isn't afraid to speak up for tax-payers and ensure that public funds are spent appropriately.

Unfortunately, that person is not Susan Phillips.

The District needs someone on the Board that understands facilities issues. We need someone on the Board that knows about the legal requirements of public procurement. We need someone on the Board that knows what a Capital Facilities Plan is and the impact such a document has on an operating budget. We need someone on the Board that is significantly more critical of how dollars are spent on education than a group of five people with an irrefutable belief that any money thrown in the direction of education is money well spent.

In times like these, we need to be a little more particular and much more targeted in our approach to funding.

Endorsements come with consequences.

2009-06-14T16:23:00.001-07:00

At the risk of upsetting my numerous supporters, I must voice a word of caution to the Edmonds Education Association that invited me to speak for five minutes last week. In this current climate of illogical cuts to district programming, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to rock the boat and allow district management to view your association with anything other than a favorable eye. If such a group were to express any interest in endorsing a candidate who stands for the appropriate use of public funds, district management would likely become enraged.

The fact that current, sitting board members were allowed to sit in your audience demonstrates the Board's keen interest in knowing what your group is thinking. Surely they don't attend with a legitimate interest in understanding your issues but rather to detect opposition before it has an opportunity to form.

While it is true that I am a relative newcomer to the realm of politics and running for school board, my record for defending public funds is without question. A lot of the bad decisions made by district management were endorsed by this current board. Just take a few minutes and read about Gary Noble and how this board had no idea what their own policies required. Even the legal team they hired was completely in the dark. It was only after my concerns were expressed directly to the State Auditor that the Board "decided" to review all of their policies and make changes. But alas, they missed a big one.

Perhaps some of you may recall the most recent change to Board Policy 1235 on June 2, 2009. It clearly specified that the filing period for school board candidates was in July. After I called out the misinformation, the issue was taken up at the next board meeting and corrected immediately. It was a case of simple language and didn't threaten a board member's service to the community. What was mildly humorous is the manner in which the Board tried to characterize the change as something they discovered on their own.

Why wasn't the Noble conflict issue handled as quickly? Why did this board have to hire a team of lawyers to redefine terms and expressions in the English language? It merely proved that the district's lawyers will say anything for a fee and that this board was unable to understand the meaning of their own policies.

Rules were also violated when Bruce Williams filed as a candidate from an address where he was legally prevented from living. The blog pointed out this issue and it was resolved with his resignation.

The ubiquitous Piano Scam is another issue that came to light under the watchful gaze of this forum. It is further proof that this current board is unable to truly dissect a recommendation from staff before rubber stamping it. The District lost a pile of money and even the piano vendor himself described the entire transaction as a "scheme". Read the blog and see for yourself.

The many questionable decisions coming out of Human Resources also shows how detached the current board is from reality. If management was even remotely concerned about having their conduct challenged, they would take a little more time to cover their tracks or work a little harder to conceal misconduct. When there is no real oversight there is never any danger of seeing the consequences of getting caught.

There are many examples of misconduct by district management to be found on this blog. The fact that the current board is either unable or unwilling to hold management accountable clearly demonstrates how disconnected the Board is from the responsible use of public funds. This board would be well-served by having a more inquisitive mind among them - someone with the experience of seeing the misconduct of management from the other side.

I am not suggesting that every decision made by this Board is wrong, but I am suggesting that too much money is being wasted on the wrong choices at the cost of adequately funding the right ones.

I am not asking to be elected to the school board along with four like-minded friends. However, I am absolutely convinced that adding me to this current board would offer something more to the discussions behind closed doors.

Besides, Nick Brossoit keeps telling us that 70% of residents in this district don't have children that attend district schools. Why not have such a person on the Board? Why not have someone on the Board that just wants to see our schools become even better? Why not elect someone that just wants to make sure that public funds are spent wisely before asking the public to provide additional funding for new projects or buildings?

Ultimately, what the Edmonds Education Association chooses to do with their endorsement is their business. I certainly wouldn't want to see an important relationship suffer within the District. As a group you can endorse my opponent, but as individuals I would hope that you would vote differently - after a little research into what this district truly needs to get things back on track.

Voters will benefit from a televised debate.

2009-06-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

susan4schools@gmail.com

June 7, 2009

Dear Susan,

With the recent filing of candidates, I noticed that only the two of us will be contesting the position for Director District 4. This being the case, I am writing to express hope for an open and honest dialogue regarding matters of importance to the Edmonds School District. In the spirit of such discussion, I would like to invite you to debate the issues facing our beloved district at a venue to be determined and moderated by a member of the media.

It is also my hope to obtain your consent to have the debate videotaped for broadcast on local television. Clearly, the voters of our community deserve to know where we stand on the issues. Not every voter may be familiar with our names or the positions we take on matters of great importance. It would be through a televised debate that our community can gain greater insight and develop a more meaningful opinion than just seeing our names on yard signs.

Please respond as soon as possible, as a facility will have to be arranged and a mutually-agreeable moderator will have to be coordinated.

Sincerely,

Mark Zandberg, Candidate
Director District 4, ESD15

Blogger remodeling to accommodate new tenant.

2009-06-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

To reduce operating costs (general funds), I have elected to remodel my primary residence (capital funds) and then rent the house to a family that could more fruitfully utilize the 2,400 square feet of living space. The house is just way too big for two people that spend most of their time working anyway.

Of course, I would have loved to hire my favorite contractor two years ago, but since I was an employee with the District and met this contractor at that time, I wanted to make sure there wouldn't be anything inappropriate by hiring him. So I waited until now to start this project.

Remodeling a home kicks up a lot of dust and creates a lot of obstacles for a person having to get up at 5:00 AM to catch the train to work. So as to prevent any temptation with rolling up my sleeves after a 12 hour work day, jeopardizing my productivity at work, I have decided that the best path forward would be to leave the house and let the contractor take total control of the premises.

The project involves the relocation of walls, upgrading all plumbing, heating and electrical systems, the installation of an enhanced security system and running Cat5 cabling to all rooms on both floors. There is also a considerable amount of tiling and carpet to install. It is my hope and expectation to have all of the work completed by the end of summer.

Because it is my intention to rent out the house after the project is completed, I have taken up residence elsewhere in my community. That new residence happens to be in Director District 4.

To be very clear, the following points deserve to be mentioned.
1. My wife has never filed a restraining order against me.
2. I have never filed as a candidate for a school board position from a former address.
3. The "modernizing" going on at my former residence will be performed by a real contractor.

Blog: A special word of thanks to Nick Brossoit for doing a little research on this issue.

Governors are doing the best job they possibly can.

2009-06-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

The blog is pleased to announce the receipt of another negative comment about the blog. Including this recent arrival, the grand total is now three.

you people are are seriously uninformed. What I see in these postings are comments filled with hate and spite. You really have NO idea what Madrona and Maplewood families deal with in their daily lives. I am sure I will get some hateful responses to my posting because that is what happens on this blog. First, get your information straight before you start trash talking about people you don't know. Secondly, name calling shows your ignorance. I won't be comming back to this blog. I don't need your kind of "bias" telling me that everyone who doesn't agree with you are "stupid"
Redmond, WA

Let's study this entry, one point at a time.

1. The writer appears to suggest that you people are seriously uninformed. This statement is in direct conflict with statements made by Nick Brossoit that the blog is a one man show. It may leave the impression with casual readers that more than a single person is at work here and that even this statement could not have been written by the same, single individual.

2. The reader suggests that these postings are filled with hate and spite. A statement such as this appears to suggest that the writer is a recent arrival to the blog, otherwise they would be well aware of the fact that we are a force for change and a conduit to enlighten the community as to what happens to public money when left in the hands of the misguided. It is more likely that suggesting the presence of hate and spite may provide new readers with a motivation to draw conclusions without reading more of the blog. It also appears to be indicative of a response to a recent topic, as opposed to a sweeping condemnation of the blog and its mission.

3. The writer is correct in assuming that I have NO idea what Madrona and Maplewood parents deal with in their daily lives... which is why this blog exists. Parents generally have a lot on their plates and cannot always dedicate the time and energy to perform an effective evaluation of the manner in which their school district is being managed and public funds are being wasted. For the record, it is also quite likely that I have NO idea as to what other parents at other schools deal with in their lives.

I am not sure what the writer is attempting the achieve by only mentioning Madrona and Maplewood. I am aware that the parent community at these schools is very vocal and incredibly active, but perhaps this has more to do with the amount of time they can afford to dedicate to their children's educational needs. Does this make such people better parents? Does this make their children more deserving of public resources? Again, I am not sure I see why mentioning two specific schools validates your argument. Are you suggesting that because parents deal with more important things in their lives they warrant greater protection and funding from the District?

4. No one affiliated with this one man show will respond hatefully to your comments. We always appreciate constructive comments. It is clear that the budget reductions are impacting your life as they are impacting the lives of everyone around you. People are being laid off, teachers are being let go, programs are being slashed, librarians at smaller schools are being threatened with reductions, kindergarten programs are in danger of being dismantled. We are all aware of the suffering in the District and this blog is a mechanism for positive change. We seek to illuminate the questionable calls that result in the senseless waste of public funds. Whether capital funds or general funds they are still public funds and should be spent with our children in mind.

5. If "straight information" is something you believe the blog is lacking, please provide it. We take every reasonable step to ensure that our information is correct. The blog receives innumerable accounts deemed unreliable and we don't publish any of those. For instance, yesterday there was a rumor floating around the District that the soon-to-be Executive Directors of Human Resources and Business Operations will each be taking a $25,000 a year pay cut when they move into their new titles. Unfortunately, this was determined to be nothing more than a rumor. Salaries are governed by contractual arrangements and though the impression may be left with others that pay reductions are forthcoming, it is more than likely a tactic to encourage other unions to accept reductions in pay and benefits. If someone is telling you that an administrator is reducing their own pay - believe it when you see it.

As far as talking about people I do not know, you should know, if you have been reading the blog, that I had been an employee of the Edmonds School District for more than six years. I know a lot of people and have seen many things that should have never happened.

6. I am not entirely sure if you are writing about the contents of our entries or something someone may have said in a comment to an entry. Either way, name calling is not the goal of the blog. Offering a position is what we are all about. Dissent in government is a good thing. In order for any meaningful system of checks and balances to occur, there must be an alternative source for information and ideas. It is through the expression of opposition that arguments strengthen and organizations become better. We all want a better school district.

This forum also believes that Nick and his Governors are doing the best job they possibly can ... and that, my faithful readers, is the problem.

Program selection for cuts reveals another motive.

2009-06-02T23:11:00.000-07:00

For the many of you that could not attend last night's board meeting, here is a brief overview.

First, Nick performed a total reversal on the issue of half day "kindie-garten". (Why people like Nick pronounce it this way is just bewildering.) While attending the community input meetings he was adamant that no reliable, valid or objective evidence has ever been shown to support the strength of half-day programming for kindergartners. At last night's meeting he mentioned "legal" research that helped staff decide to retain the half-day kindergarten programming and appeared to have an epiphany regarding the wisdom of half-day programs. Should a superintendent be performing research about the strength of early childhood development AFTER announcing that such programming would be cut? Wouldn't it have been better to know the strengths and weaknesses of an issue BEFORE blasting a hole through it?

In my opinion, the District is retaining the half-day program for two primary reasons. The first reason is that the community knows how vital such a program is and it came through in their comments. Sadly, our community seems to more in touch with the research associated with early childhood development than district leadership. It is the role of our educational leadership to know what works and what doesn't. This just seems a little too sloppy on Nick's part. I suspect another motive.

Whenever budget cuts are proposed, the District routinely threatens to slash programs they know will never be cut. I am convinced that such suggestions are made for no other purpose than to inflame the sensitivities of this community. I am convinced that mentioning half-day kindergarten programs on the list of potential cuts served no other purpose than to quickly rally support behind the District in an effort to cut anything else. So, the District is either misinformed on fundamental matters relating to education or they are manipulating us. I am convinced of the latter.

The same can be said about librarians at "smaller" schools.

The District also proposes to reduce the size of the Superintendent's Office. One path forward is to revert some of the six assistant superintendents back to "executive directors". However, since salaries will not be changing, how is this a budget reduction? Nick mentioned that administrators have been discussing furlough days, but such days only offer a temporary suspension of budget problems. The same salaries are being paid and the same level of retirement contributions are being made. Vacation and sick days are accumulated at the same rate as usual and COLAs still move these administrators further into the stratosphere.

Real and lasting cuts can be accomplished by cutting administration. The District needs to shift away from the model that assigns a correlation between salary and qualifications and toward a model that strengthens the organization as a whole. The District needs to become a place where people want to work and desire to be a part of something exciting. We already have a lot of teachers that have such a passion to teach, where are the administrators that have a passion to lead and care a little less about earning obscene salaries?

Just take a few minutes and ponder this point. If everyone had all of their bills and mortgages dissolved overnight, what percentage of our teachers would continue teaching as salaries moved toward zero? What percentage of district administration would continue to work for this community as their salaries moved toward zero? I am sure there are many great administrators within the District, but there are also far too many assistant superintendent salaries being paid. We might as well start calling them Governors because their salaries are nearly as much as our governor's.

Another point from last night's meeting stuck in my head. A teacher from Cedar Way suggested that a "pay-to-play" fee be evaluated for music programs at the District. Nick's response was some senseless drivel about music needing to be free because it is required under the auspices of the Basic Education Act. Well then why would you cut the program all together? I suspect if parents had the choice to pay a fee or see a program be cut they would likely start paying a fee. Such logic was applied to district athletic programming why would it not be at least considered in lieu of total elimination?

As the son of a librarian, I am still irritated by the District's insistence that librarians in smaller schools do not mean as much as librarians in larger schools. They are quick to reduce the level of service of librarians but why not apply the same reasoning to principals? Splitting librarians across two schools apparently wouldn't adversely impact students, why not split principals across the same two schools? In fact, let them car pool. Like many others, I am left wondering why a small school like Maplewood wouldn't be in danger of losing their librarian? Is it simply a matter of catering to the most vocal parents rather than advocating for the needs of ALL students?

The real consequences of misguided leadership.

2009-05-29T05:58:00.000-07:00

There used to be a time when offering high salaries brought the best and brightest to your company. With all things being equal, the prospective candidate for a position within your organization could consider things like compensation as a determining factor. However, things have clearly gotten out of control.

The mentality of many public agencies is to automatically assume that higher pay means a higher set of qualifications being brought into service to advocate for an agency's priorities. Sadly, when everyone offers obscene wages to their leaders, while retaining a board that doesn't understand the work these "leaders" do, there is a disaster just waiting to happen. That disaster is now devouring us.

What happened to the days when a candidate for superintendent wanted to lead a school district and be a part of its community? What happened to developing a reputation as a great place to work and attracting stellar candidates that want to be involved in cutting edge work and the provision of exceptional services? What happened to developing leadership from within an organization and investing in our community resources, like employees? There doesn't appear to be any real concern for leaving a constructive and positive legacy. We recruit random outsiders that rave about the random success of their respective organizations... organizations they appear to be in a hurry to leave.

These days it is all too common for "leaders" to move between organizations and demand high salaries under the pretense of perceived success. As we survey the industrial and commercial landscape in search for a representative sample of what this strategy has created, one cannot help but take notice of the innumerable casualties and countless programs that have withered under the pressure of misguided leadership.

When a "leader" tells our community that no meaningful research exists to support the assertion that five half days of kindergarten each week is better than two full days and one half day and then protects half day programming at Madrona and Maplewood, what conclusions must this community draw?

Why slash half day programming everywhere else? If it works at Madrona and Maplewood, why doesn't it work everywhere else? If it doesn't make any difference everywhere else, why protect the programs at Madrona and Maplewood? Perhaps the answer has more to do with the inclination toward vocal dissent among those parents than any real educational objectives.

Edmonds School District just paves over problems.

2009-05-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

The Herald published a very interesting article this morning about the contaminated site the Everett School District bought in 1986. Tainted soil costly for Everett district.

The Everett School District identified their site as necessary for acquisition in 1986, while the Edmonds School District had rejected their new administration site twice before.

The Everett School District knew their site was contaminated and they spent years developing a plan to remediate the existing consequences from known conditions, while the Edmonds School District still has no idea as to the extent of contamination at what was an informal dump site for decades.

The Everett School District determined that removing the contamination would be a far more effective solution to their problem, while the Edmonds School District elected to just pave over the problem.

The Everett School District is performing their clean-up voluntarily instead of in response to a directive from the State, while the Edmonds School District just decided to pretend that no such contamination exists and provided no meaningful information to the State.

The Everett School District held this property for years before developing the site, while the Edmonds School District rushed into their purchase and even rejected their own $3,300,000.00 appraisal in favor of the seller's $5,800,000.00 appraisal.

The Everett School District is paying approximately $450,000.00 to haul contaminated soil from the site, while the Edmonds School District spent $2,300,000.00 to grade and pave their site.

The Everett School District has administrative staff working in three old buildings (One is 40 years old, one hasn't been updated in more than 40 years and another is 97 years old), while the Edmonds School District has administrative staff working in one building constructed less than 20 years ago.

The Everett School District has increasing student enrollment, while the Edmonds School District is shrinking.

The Everett School District has one person managing Facilities and Capital Planning, while the Edmonds School District divides those tasks to prevent the departments from working together effectively.

Librarian issue offers a peek into district thinking.

2009-05-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

At our "evening of community enlightenment", Marla and Nick offered a rather feeble explanation as to why librarians at smaller schools need to be cut. Marla appears to believe that smaller schools must be populated with smaller children with smaller brains. Perhaps she thinks they come from smaller families, eat smaller meals and have smaller feet. Her logic is flawed and here is why.

If a smaller school needs to have less than a full time librarian, why not have less than a full time principal? If there are fewer students wandering the halls and sitting in classrooms, why not reduce the number of hours a principal works at the school? It wouldn't be the first time in human history that a principal performed the duties of a site administrator at more than a single school. A single principal could be shared by two smaller schools. Mornings could be at one location and afternoons at another. They are smaller schools after all.

Marla furthered her argument by suggesting it would be inequitable for a full time librarian to work at a small school because the time spent per student at a small school would be higher than at schools having more than 500 students. Applying this manner of reasoning would suggest it would also be unfair for a small school to have a full time principal because the time spent per student would be greater than at a larger school.

Can the same thinking be applied to maintenance and custodial staff? Would it make sense to reduce the number of hours spent at a facility because enrollment happens to be lower? Assuming the District still had a fully-staffed Grounds crew, would they mow a smaller portion of the field? Would a custodian clean a smaller portion of the school?

Of course, there are those of us that work in facilities that would call such a tactic "deferred maintenance". It could make sense to just limp along until enrollment increases and funds come rolling in from the State. The facility may suffer in the short run and the costs involved in making needed improvements may be significantly higher when performed at a later stage, but can the same tactic be used when educating our children? Have we adopted a philosophy of "deferred intelligence"?

This tactic smells a lot like the one year suspension of swimming. While it may improve the look of your budget to have the additional $20,000.00, it does absolutely nothing for those swimmers relying upon their involvement on the swim team to build a future. Whether we deprive a student of a pool or a librarian, there are core issues that directly improve the academic potential of students. While the District may see simple cuts as nothing more than a few dollars in the General Fund, their obsession with attacking children in the short run to garner long-term sympathy from voters is sad, disruptive and academically irresponsible.

As for the District's lawsuit against the State of Washington, are they suing for money that doesn't exist or suing to encourage change in the way government manages resources. I am a firm believer in the latter and the District lacks the capacity to know such a thing when they see it.

Blog: Today is a furlough day - part of a strategy used by some public agencies to apply an equitable distribution of financial consequences in dealing with the effects of budget reductions.

Wearing a kilt doesn't make you a Scotsman.

2009-05-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

Nick Brossoit has decided to make a shift in how many pigs eat from the same golden trough. For some reason, several years ago, it was decided that Marla Miller and Debby Carter should become assistant superintendents. Someone must have asked these two employees if they deserved more money and then believed their explanation. Worse still is that such a decision was made while the District already had too many assistant superintendents.

Knowing the District the way I do, I would be willing to bet my collection of smurfs that Marla and Debby will have their titles changed but retain their swollen salaries. They each earn slightly less than the Governor of the State of Washington at $140,000.00 a year plus an additional third for benefits. Keeping in mind that these salary figures are from a records request in 2008 and they have likely received a number of upward adjustments since that time.

Question 1: How is it a budget reduction to move unchanged salaries around? Sure, we might count the reduction in the Superintendent's Staff column, but what are the real impacts to wherever these salaries are moving?

Question 2: If salaries have changed downward, why did the District feel the need to pay more than the positions required? The Board allowed these adjustments to occur and there must have been a compelling argument made to dazzle away the public wallet.

Question 3: Would this be a theft of public funds by the employee or a gift of public funds from the Board? The job of Executive Director never changed in the last several years but somehow the Board managed to approve this ridiculous shift in public resources in a direction that was never warranted. Only when hard times come around does the party, at the public expense, come to an end.

Question 4: How does this differ from the practice of hiring friends and family members into positions for which they are utterly unqualified? The blog has already received countless complaints of shameful hiring practices and we have relayed many of them on the blog. Debby Carter seems to be hiring staff with the same disregard for public resources as Marla Miller has for student enrollment projections.

Since the arrival of challenging budget years are inevitable, the District decided to hire anyone and everyone as temporary placeholders. When times get tough, they have a long list of potential cuts, all of whom have varying degrees of personal relationships with management. If they have to be cut, it was good while it lasted. Zero accountability and free money until economic conditions change.

The same can be said for enrollment forecasting. While the Board has been adopting Capital Facilities Plans since 2002 that show nothing but shrinking enrollment, they still allowed staffing to swell and programs to grow when they really should have been contracting. That is the purpose of a Capital Facilities Plan. Time and energy go into the production of the document and the Board merely glances through it while looking to Marla Miller for a recommendation.

The manner of management must change in Edmonds. It does nothing for anyone to have change forced upon us. The result is a few poorly structured "community input meetings" where no real input is wanted by any of the presenters. As was mentioned by a member of the audience at the last gathering, there are a lot of people in this community that have more education and intelligence than our current band of district managers and this community is entitled to at least a moderate degree of honesty from these public servants.

Imagine if Boeing built planes to the standards maintained by this school board. Worse still, imagine if such a company was denied the opportunity to fail and received an endless stream of revenue from the government.

"...and we pay these people to do this to us."

2009-05-21T05:29:00.000-07:00

There were a number of significant disappointments at last night's Community "Input" Meeting.

First, the manner in which kindergarten is being restructured to accommodate the need to reduce transportation costs just seems illogical. A rather astute member of the audience pointed out that the mind of a developing child performs best when they have five half days of instruction a week, rather than two full days and one half day with full day gaps in between. Nick Brossoit's response was that no valid or "objective" research shows this to be the case.

I will let others debate the strength of his statement but if we apply his logic, why not compress the academic week and eliminate days of instruction at all grade levels? We could save a bundle in transportation costs if we just divide five days of instruction over three. Instead of having classes from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm, Monday through Friday, we could shift the schedule to start at 7:00 am and end at 6:00 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Perhaps we could try a four day week first.

Another fine point raised was the long-term impact upon our community when programs like music and athletics are cut from district programming. Music students tend to perform better academically (I am not saying that I agree, just relaying what was stated) and without athletic programming, students may wander the streets looking for ways to expend their pent up energy. It seems like a reasonable conclusion to draw that these students will drift from legitimate academic interests and start delving into areas that may not be in the best interest of our society.

Slashing transportation for students attending additional study sessions seems like a tough call to make. On the one hand, the District wants to leave the impression that they care about academic achievement, but on the other hand, they don't want to spend resources supporting the needs of a few students.

One significant blunder that surfaced last night was the total lack of real community input prior to compiling the presented list of program cuts. For instance, the District wants to increase rates for students that want to get involved in after school sports, but then they remove entire programs without considering the impact of their own proposed increase in fees. One activity in particular, which seems heavily weighted toward one specific gender, is the drill team. The District already contributes very little to support this activity and the various drill teams already raise a lot of money. Clearly, such programs are being targeted because their members will become outraged and just raise more money. Our community is being manipulated.

Take the swimming program, for instance. The District wants to "suspend" all swimming activities for one year. As a member of the audience pointed out, there are probably several students hoping to obtain an athletic scholarship for their swimming performance and "suspending" the program for one year would put next year's seniors at risk of losing an opportunity to reduce future tuition expenses. The benefit to the District would be a one time savings of $20,000.00 and yet a single student could receive much more than that amount in a single scholarship over their college career. Even a young man tapped as his school's swim captain next year chimed in.

One rather interesting development is the District's plan to revert their superintendent structure back to how it was before. While our community may be dazzled by the gesture, I would be willing to bet that, in typical district fashion, titles will change but rates of pay will not.

The District currently has seven superintendents. They are as follows:
Nick Brossoit, Ken Limon, Ellen Kahan, Sue Venable, Marla Miller, Debby Carter and Tony Byrd.

Each assistant is paid no less than $136,000.00 plus benefits and allowances. Their real impact upon the District's budget is probably closer to $180,000.00. The Superintendent is paid more than $208,000.00 and his real impact upon the budget is probably closer to $260,000.00. There is also a planned increase in pay of 7% which merely adds insult to financial injury.

I would be willing to bet that while these people may find themselves with different titles (along with the associated costs for changing stationery and business cards), their salaries will be untouched and, in fact, will likely continue on their obscene, upward trajectory.

Nick also mentioned a report generated by ESD189 suggesting that the Edmonds School District is understaffed in administration. Upon closer evaluation of the points they attempt to make, the assessment is entirely misleading and absolutely useless. One cannot determine the appropriate level of staffing based solely upon the total impact of administration salaries. Any grade school student would understand that you can continue to increase the salaries of assistant superintendents as long as there is a comparable decrease in the gross salaries of every other employee in administration. Essentially, the District is paying a select few number of employees an ever increasing salary, while expecting the remaining staff to battle over what remains. Of course, no actual battles will ensue because they are just far too busy doing all of the real work. If the District actually gets rid of a number of these highly-paid administrators, there would be enough to hire on additional staff to manage the real work that needs to be completed.

And of course, Marla and Nick were careful to point out that the comments and concerns expressed by attendees will not necessarily amount to any real adjustments to their grand scheme. The District didn't bother to legitimately engage the community before slashing vital programs, why would they ever start listening now?

"We know that leadership is very much related to change."

2009-05-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

With all of the scrambling going on and the half-hearted attempts to explain what happened to our precious district, I cannot shake this nagging feeling that Nick will soon move to greener pastures. Call me crazy, but I just have a hunch.

Part of the complication in running a school district is when all of your real control and authority is handed off to others. When a leader hides behind someone maintaining the illusion of control, it is only a matter of time before people catch on and start demanding a more effective leader. The tide is changing and the best time to get out of town is before the locals realize they have been robbed.

Sure, I am speculating. One quickly wonders where another $200,000.00 job can be found in this current economic environment. The same environment that our superintendent cites as the sole reason for the hard times falling upon the district now. Like no one in district leadership is responsible for the questionable calls regarding pianos, property and slashing teachers and paraeducators. Things are bad and will likely get worse, with the current leadership model in place. The best thing for the District right now is to shake things up in administration and get back to the real reason for existing - like educating our children.

For far too long, this district of ours has been suffering from severely swollen management while the emaciated limbs continue to do without. The District needs a change and they need it now. We need to get back to basics and reinvent our organization from the grassroots up. In fact, we might be a lot better off if we just stop at the grassroots and remind management that they exist to serve our children. We don't need a superintendent that just tells voters what he thinks they want to hear. We need a leader that will tackle the real issues before the entire organization suffers from the consequences of poor choices.

It isn't the bad economy creating problems for the District, it is poor management and a general sense of confusion as to how to plan for a reduction in funding. Rather than whine and complain about the State's refusal to adequately fund education, why not pull together a plan that makes real sense and doesn't leave the fate of thousands hanging on the whims of the Legislature.

I expect an announcement to come before the end of the school year.

New web domains, for your convenience.

2009-05-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

From time to time, people stop me on the street and ask why I am using such a complicated web domain. They wonder why I seem to think it is so easy to remember. One of the primary complaints has been, "What is that 15 and why does it follow ESD?" Well, to make matters a little easier, our web developer has registered two more domains to make finding us a little more straight forward.

From today, users can visit http://www.edmondsschools.net/ or http://www.edmondsschools.org/ for a direct connection to the blog. Please be careful when typing, since http://www.edmondsschools.com/ is registered to a real estate company and has traffic automatically forwarded to their website.

Thank you for your continued support of our effort to inform the public.

"Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny."

2009-05-08T13:36:00.001-07:00

Just like the discussions the District had with the community regarding the closure of Woodway and Evergreen, the "Reduced Educational Plan" seems to be following the same path. The District decides what positions and programs will be cut and then coordinates meetings to come up with ways to make cuts. The decision was already made. It would be nice if the illusion of community concern was at least sophisticated enough to happen before the cuts are announced.

If you haven't seen the 2009-2010 Reduced Educational Plan, you can see it by clicking here.

While I still find it troubling that the District is cutting staff and programs while giving another round of raises to administrators, that issue will be discussed in the coming days. For now, there are a number of items from the Reduced Educational Plan that give cause for concern.

1. The value of reducing or reorganizing district administration appears to be of a similar value to the entire fifth grade music program. Perhaps if district administration wasn't so bloated to begin with, it wouldn't be so costly to reorganize them. Perhaps if they double their efforts to reduce and reorganize they might save music.

2. It would appear that the guy the District hired to just sit at home waiting for the pager to go off is being eliminated. The position should have never happened in the first place and if greater minds had effectively pondered the issue years ago, they would have realized how insensitive it is to have people sitting idle, earning salary and benefits while paraeducators lose their jobs. Shame on the District for wasting this money in the first place. Congratulations on getting back to zero.

3. I misspoke in an earlier entry. While Custodial Services is taking a cut of 6.5 FTE, those positions were intentionally left vacant so the District wouldn't have to actually cut people. Unfortunately, these positions were probably very necessary to keep our schools clean, safe and free from the heightened possibility of disease transmission. There may have been a cut of zero people, but since these positions will now go unfilled, the costs will be borne by the schools and the other custodians that will have to pick up the slack.

4. The Planning and Property Management Specialist, which was already downgraded from a professional position when Marla hired her friend, affectionately called Twinkle Toes, has been scaled back to Office Personnel. Clearly, after two years of woefully inadequate service, it is more than apparent that the position no longer needs to exist. Of course, in cases like these, the District would invite the current occupant of the position to be involved in the reclassification process and stay on to serve in this newly defined capacity. The only time that doesn't happen is when the person is so unqualified their days become numbered. Perhaps my use of the term "clericalist" was just far too generous.

5. The cuts to Grounds seem a little brutal. These employees serve a far greater function than district management understands. I fault George Marschall and Brian Harding for failing to understand the role these employees perform and failing to effectively advocate for this portion of the work under Facilities Operations. There were other reductions that could have been made first, but of course, these relatively simple minds must believe that back-filling grounds positions would be a simple matter. After all, they just mow lawns, right?

6. The District is actually creating a job in facilities management and funding it with the revenue derived from renting out schools. While this move will take some pressure off of office staff - staff that was just reduced through budget cuts - why centralize facility use under these conditions? If schools were responsible for renting out their own space and told that their salaries depend upon the revenue generated, wouldn't it stand to reason that increased earnings could be realized? Will the new employee be provided with the same incentive? If you are funding the position from rental revenues, would you cut the position if they are unable to generate revenue? Will the rentals of athletic facilities move to this same position? You might just need more than one person.

7. Community Relations is taking a cut of $20,000 in their newsletter costs and $25,000 in reception support. While I could see an argument for doing away with the newsletter entirely, since I have never met anyone that ever read one, I fail to see how the reception desk can be unstaffed. Wouldn't this just be a cost shifting effort? Someone will have to cover the front desk. It looks as though the District will be drawing upon all of the free time that some of their other employees have. Will receptionists or secretaries in other departments be expected to sacrifice their staff and departmental productivity by having them cover longer periods of time? Is this fair to staff? Is it accurate to call this a reduction?

8. Under Human Resources there is a peculiar topic; "Seek collective bargaining changes". This is essentially a description of the District's interest in renegotiating labor agreements with staff. What upsets me is the blatant lack of equity. While the District pins their financial hopes on labor's willingness to reverse an agreement signed last August, they make no real effort to reciprocate in management. The union has even gone as far as to encourage their members to accept such a proposal because it will save jobs. What happened to management? Why are they not taking the same cut? Why are they not in jeopardy of losing their jobs? Why aren't cuts being made across the board?

It has been said many times before but why wouldn't the District institute furlough days to save money? There are already plenty of "in service" days where teachers come to work and students get a day off. Why not identify a number of set days in the coming year that will have the rest of district staff stay away? If there is a concern about having too many people gone at the same time, why not give different labor groups different floating furlough days, including management? Imagine the savings that can be realized if the District's herd of superintendents were required to take one unpaid day off each month.

Of course, the elimination of librarians is back on the table. It is terribly tragic when an organization that serves no other function than education feels it is acceptable to get rid of librarians. For the price of a single assistant superintendent you could save most of them, and it would have to be more than just moving Sue Venable to Teaching and Learning, unless she intends to become a volunteer. Clearly, the District intends to use the loss of librarians as a motivating force for those among us that believe that reading is fundamental. Instill a love for reading in a child and they will be richly rewarded with all that literature has to offer. Such children would also be far more likely to care about education and far less likely to allow poor district management to destroy our community from the inside out.

To the District's lawyers: I have been given the day off for all of the heavy hours I have been working because of H1N1.

Encouraging parents to take their children elsewhere.

2009-05-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

For those of you playing at home, please take notice of the cuts that are being made at the Edmonds School District. Management is on verge of cutting Transportation by 25%. This ultimately will mean that children will be walking if they live within an ever-increasing distance from their designated school. It wouldn't be such a bad thing, since a little fresh air would be a great thing for young minds on their way to school, except there is no one on staff equipped to evaluate the safety of walking routes. As darkness returns in the fall, the number of accidents will increase.

One response would be the obvious increase in parents dropping their children off at school. This will put more cars in school parking lots and ultimately result in more accidents and congestion. While there is no doubt that cuts must be made, why target children? It almost seems as though war has been declared on our offspring. Cutting teachers while keeping throngs of assistant superintendents seems like warfare. Cutting Transportation seems like an undeniable declaration of war.

It seems that while the District is slashing music programs and stripping away the reasons why parents keep their children in this district, they are making the choice a little easier for parents. Why take them to school in our district? As long as our children are already in our cars, why not explore more options and other school districts that are between our homes and our places of work?

It also seems that parents that have the resources to consider other options will do so. Parents that care a little bit more about educating their children might start shopping around for better facilities, teachers and schools. Parents that have the means to seek out other opportunities will do so. Where does that leave the rest of us?

As for the slashing of four employees from Grounds, while there are only 11 employees looking after so many sites, it's only a matter of time before our schools start to look a little shabby and vandals move in. Keep in mind that these employees don't just mow lawns, they perform a long list of tasks that range from landscaping and site work to rodent and moss control. As the point was made at the Board meeting last night, with a new high school coming on line in the fall, it won't take long before that site looks shabby as well.

Stay tuned for the news about drastic cuts to Custodial Services. They already refuse to tell you about all of the MRSA cases in our schools, just what will happen when a serious public health crisis occurs?

Blog: Ever wonder what it feels like when middle management doesn't advocate effectively for the work you perform? And are you still wondering why Marla is actively dumbing down these positions and hiring people that will never oppose her?

Too many employees, not enough parking stalls?

2009-05-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

It has been said many times before that some of the budget cuts should impact staff at the ESC. After all, the District is supposed to be dedicated to the educational needs of our students and yet the bulk of budget cuts in previous rounds always seem to target the classroom. The time has come to lose a few assistant superintendents, and I don't mean just change their titles while keeping them at their current, swollen salaries.

If a few of these extra bodies were removed from the ESC, perhaps there would be enough parking stalls for everyone to find a place to park.

There really shouldn't be a need to have anyone sitting outside monitoring the parking lots. One sign, well placed, warning students that the District will tow unauthorized vehicles should be more than adequate. Unless the signs are posted in an obvious location, the District has no legitimate right to have any car towed - unless of course Paulson's Towing is one of management's "special friends". Spot checks should be good enough. A written warning under the wiper blade would also be a friendly approach.

No one with a bad back should be made to monitor a parking lot. There have been times in the past when students have been known to be confrontational. There might even be a slightly elevated chance of a fracas. Why would the District willingly place an injured member of staff in a position that might result in personal harm? Also, the lot monitor would have no way of knowing the driver's status as a college visitor until they left their vehicle and started walking toward the College. Is the lot monitor supposed to chase the offender and confront them? Perhaps district lot monitors have been trained to tackle students safely. Maybe they throw lawn darts or use pepper spray. The mind boggles.

I suspect there is probably a lot of interest in assigning light duty workers to Property Management. While the department has more than enough bodies to do their work, adding a lot more minds certainly couldn't hurt. The blog has been informed, on more than a few occasions, that one employee has been attending rudimentary classes, on district time, to learn how to use basic software applications. I wonder if she parks at the College on those days when most of her time is spent over there.

Better still, as long as the District is going to employ parking lot attendants, why not charge for parking? The District could sell monthly passes, they could validate ticket stubs for visitors and they could shackle large, yellow barrels to the tires of parking offenders. The practice would have the added advantage of generating a little extra revenue and encouraging staff to carpool, ride the bus or walk. Even better, the attendants could be provided with stylish uniforms that give the illusion of a highly-organized and financially-savvy enterprise.

The time has come to assemble another committee and we can call it the Citizens Parking Committee.

The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated

2009-04-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

For the many of our readers that have been emailing me nearly every day asking after my health and well-being, I appreciate your concern. Rest assured, I am working on a number of issues related to this blog and will be back to work shortly. During the hiatus, I have been blessed with volumes of records from current district staff and still have more than 5,000 pages of documents to review that I acquired last year.

My heart goes out to the many district employees with careers hanging in the balance. While it is true that our state is experiencing many significant budget woes, the current economic crisis was clearly evident to whomever possessed the fortitude to look somewhere other than at their own feet. Our District is tacking through innumerable catastrophes and they have seven blind bobbleheads at the helm.

I did manage to drive by the ESC on Friday. As reports had indicated, there was a district employee in an orange vest, sitting in the sun, reading a book. The District exists for educational purposes and at least the parking lot monitor was reading.

ESD189's staffing assessment is just more propaganda

2009-04-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

What senseless gibberish is this? Nick Brossoit is asking for a third party evaluation of administrative staffing levels at the Edmonds School District. He called on ESD189 to provide this assessment based upon data found on the OSPI website. The assessment is absolutely meaningless and just more misinformation.

In the second paragraph, Jerry Jenkins claims that the process of actually answering the real and meaningful question is just too costly. Well, maintaining the District's administrative hierarchy is what is so costly. Hiding behind the illusion of financial responsibility creates the impression that Nick Brossoit cares about how public funds are being spent. I have news for you - he doesn't care. The proof is in his reluctance to make cuts in administration. Not in the number of staff, but in how they are compensated.

Nick Brossoit dare not truly assess the financial impact of all of his hand maidens, aka assistant superintendents, for fear that rational minds may demand their elimination. Try as he might to reduce the number of employees in the ESC, progress is rapidly unraveled when raises and promotions are doled out to his friends with unwarranted salaries and titles. Nick Brossoit will tell you that the Assistant Superintendents in his district are paid the same salaries as assistant superintendents in other districts, but how many do those districts have?

ESD189, like Nick Brossoit, is just playing with numbers. They offer a per student cost of administrative expenditures and total FTE per 1,000 students. There is no discussion related to the number of assistant superintendents each district has or how much is spent supporting each of them.

When people say the District is top heavy, they are not talking about the number of bodies, they are talking about the amount of money spent on assistant superintendents and the like.

The total amount spent for administrative support may be on par with comparable districts, but no effort has been exerted in illustrating a range of salaries. I would be willing to bet that the Edmonds School District has more staff per 1,000 students earning more than $100,000 than any other district in the state. If they are not right at the top, they'll be a close second.

Why is it so hard for a superintendent to understand the impact of poor choices? He and his board seem so enamored by creating and rewarding a small circle of "executives" and it comes at the expense of retaining qualified and competent staff. As more and more money is doled out to friends and allies, the net number of employees may shrink, but alas, the total volume of dollars spent actually stays the same or shifts upward.

It is no surprise that ESD189 thinks the District is understaffed. Fewer people are earning larger salaries while the real worker bees see no real change in their salaries. In a normal economy, such workers would resign and move to another district, but with our current financial turmoil and the charm of our region, few will actually leave.

Evergreen Elementary is gone for good.

2009-03-25T05:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just have to laugh because crying would be a waste of time.

At the Board meeting last night, Sue Venable struggled to recall that the Board recently decided to close Woodway Elementary. She remembered that Evergreen was scheduled to close, perhaps because it was on last night's agenda, but the loss of Woodway momentarily slipped her mind.

Also revealed last night was that Cypress Equities has revised their site plan and that Marla Miller was not at liberty to discuss how the plan has changed. Well, wouldn't this be a good reason to start the process over in selecting a developer? There were strong developers expressing interest in the site but with slightly different site plans in mind. The revised Cypress plan is likely to be something similar to what the other developers were offering. That is, if Marla Miller ever has the guts to share it with the public. I smell a Home Depot in our future, or some equally mundane big box.

Another interesting tidbit was the revelation that the City of Mountlake Terrace has placed a moratorium on any change of use for Evergreen Elementary until September 19, 2009, when the City will have a better idea as to how to permanently change the zoning for the site entirely. Just five or six years ago, the City attempted to change the zoning to some sort of designation called Transit Commercial. This would have prevented the District from doing any significant alterations to the site or any meaningful capital improvements. It is a strategy designed to let your structure and/or programs at an identified site just slowly rot away while the zoning authority plans a take over. Rest assured, when Evergreen's doors close at the end of the school year, they will never open again. Let's just hope the demographic trends across the county line don't trickle into Evergreen's current service area.

If you can't be the change then vote for a change.

2009-03-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

Like many of the blog's readers, I find it terribly distressing that other school districts in Snohomish County are taking action to freeze administration salaries while the Edmonds School District elected to hand out raises to their administrators in the middle of significant budget challenges.

The Herald recently covered this issue at Lake Stevens. Clearly, they have a school board that is more plugged into reality and not afraid to make tough choices. While it is true that a few administrators in Lake Stevens may have "young families" and they may be the "sole breadwinner", it is far better to have a salary frozen than layoff teachers and staff. After all, teachers and staff are the heart and soul of a school district.

Call me crazy, but I see similarities between the recent public outrage with AIG executive bonuses and the senseless 'slathering on' of additional pay for administrators while teachers and para educators see their careers ending prematurely. The taxpayer has been bailing out the Edmonds School District for years. They make poor choices and refuse to plan for obvious, turbulent times and then grab their money from taxpayers without any expectation of accountability from the public. This lack of concern for the direction our schools are heading must stop. Our community needs to take action now.

Of course, as others have said many times in this blog, parents are naturally distracted by their duties as parents. They apparently have adopted the outlook that nothing they do can lead to real change and have decided to put their energy into something that really matters - like their families. Who could fault them? There have been a few people that have tried to make a difference and have been driven out of the community or relegated to some dark hole without access to information or the means to get a message out.

Maybe someone among us will run for one of the two board positions coming up for election in November. We need real and meaningful change and the best thing that distracted parents can do is vote for change in the fall.

Save a fortune and cut the Supe's handmaidens.

2009-03-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

March 17, 2009

Dear Colleagues (and taxpayers):

We are all are busy with the work of serving students and others before us each day. Still, since the 2009-2010 budget has the potential to touch so many, I am of the opinion that you will want to be kept informed. The process, including the 4 open public meetings in May, is as it was outlined in my previous e-mail on this topic. However, attached is the updated "list" which reflects work ongoing that continued into Monday of this week. Most of the list is the same, however, there are a few changes as summarized:

Potential savings from reduced bussing service within 1 mile radius of schools had to be lowered due to safety issues impacting the number of routes we can alter.

We have developed more district office administrative and district office staff reductions and these are now shown.

Due to intensive support classes at 6 of the elem. schools on the previous list and related schedule/staffing complications, the LMS reductions have been modified.

Detailed analysis showed the potential elimination of 5th and 6th grade general music in diverse schools to be very problematic in terms of scheduled planning time, thus that changed and now involves 5th grade instrumental.

When you open the attachment to review the updated list, you will also note there is a contact person associated with each idea who can provide additional information for that respective item. Also, thanks to those who have been sharing ideas for research and consideration as we continue to work on possible budget reduction concepts for next year. In closing, please remember this is not a final list and is still a work in progress.

Thank you for your continued caring and professional service in these most challenging times.

Sincerely,
Nick (Brossoit)

No questions. No debate. No opposing views.

2009-03-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Our community is comprised of essentially two groups of people. There is a group that believes the District is doing everything it can to make the right decisions and do the right thing. There is another group that believes the District constantly drifts away from their mission and consistently makes bad decisions that have short and long-term consequences. Regardless of the group that best captures your prevailing view, there is one fact that cannot be denied - the current composition of the Board is unhealthy and unproductive for legitimate debate and progress.

Our current board lacks the ability to engage in open and honest dialogue. No one is challenged when presenting information and no one's conclusions are questioned. The board has essentially been degraded to a point of ineffective governance. Whatever district management wants, they get. No questions. No debate. No opposing views.

Why wouldn't our community seek to change this condition by electing people to the Board that care about how public resources are being spent? Why wouldn't our community seek to elect individuals that offer a pattern of constructive engagement in every aspect of district management? Our current board seems to be meeting privately to make sure that everyone takes the same position on every issue. Once the board meeting starts, no one has anything to say about any topic other than "Aye". And we wonder why no one attends board meetings.

Board meetings are a real snoozefest where the outcome is determined by the agenda and the minutes offer no new information. All that is proposed is passed. Every word that is uttered goes unchallenged. Where is the constructive engagement? Where are the discussions? Sometimes it is helpful to initiate a counterpoint or even occasionally play the devil's advocate just so our community can take comfort in knowing that all points have been offered and all positions have been presented, discussed and subjected to meaningful deliberation. Our current board is spineless.

At present, district management governs the district. The Board is impotent. District management develops an agenda and then drives it down the throat of our community with the illusion of a real board's endorsement. The end result is that our unions get weaker, staff get trampled upon, and every district employee quickly discovers that they need to jump ship and swim to shore or join in the mutiny by swearing allegiance to the kingpin of management - and we all know who that is.

Personally, I am tired of watching what has happened to our district and to our schools. When we have an ineffective board, there is no way to control the manner in which management exerts their unique form of control. Without accountability to a board, management does what they want and pays little attention to a board that is incapable of asking a probing question.

In an ideal world, the Board (or at least one that follows board policies and understands the reason why they exist at all) would stand up to bullies of management and demand a greater degree of transparency. If this current board had any real, collective intelligence, they would look around and understand that the problems plaguing the District right now are a direct result of their inability to demand more from management.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt for this current board to follow their own policies. How Gary Noble thinks that he earned his seat in the last election is still a mystery. Sure, your friends may have changed the rules, but your "election" was to the height of an earlier standard. A standard that you did not meet. As for Pat Shields, it is still shocking how he could be so closely involved in the creation of "Powerful Partners" and then allow them to go so many years without paying a dollar toward the lease they signed. And will they keep changing their name every time a bill arrives in the mail? Of course, we shouldn't forget that Ann McMurray was the one that directed Marla Miller to start negotiating for a contaminated piece of property before they even had the results from an environmental assessment. Bruce Williams was part of that decision but then his policy violations and personal issues eventually bounced him from the Board.

"Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner..."

2009-03-07T18:13:00.000-08:00

Just how much money would you think the Edmonds School District would spend on renting tables for the WASL exams in 2009? If you guessed $23,712.98, you would be right.

Every year, the District spends upwards of $20,000.00 to rent a bunch of tables from the same vendor - year after year. This annual migration to the District's trough begs a few questions... Just how did this happen? What other vendors competed for this business? Is this within a pre-defined threshold for directing business without competition? Who made the decision? What connection does this decision maker have with the vendor? Are there professional affiliations? Are they related? This issue has to be investigated.

We already know that when a friend of management struggles to make ends meet in his practice, the District's decision maker just issues a directive to hire his spouse - after making space, of course. Just ask her supervisor if he thinks she is a productive member of staff. I suspect he'll tell you in private that someone else made the decision to hire her.

In this current economic climate, and considering the direction the WASL will be heading, why not just skip the test all together or just send students home with a "take home" WASL? The outcome would likely be the same. Let's make it happen.

No one on the Board seems willing or capable to ask real questions or hold anyone accountable. When will this condition change? How much longer do we have to pay a bunch of bobbleheads to blow through our "pre-ordained" property tax? It appears that this board thinks that any money spent in the District is money well spent. Any money thrown in the direction of schools is money well spent. Well, for the 70% of us that don't have children in district schools, we would disagree. Public funds must be spent responsibly and there is very little evidence of responsible spending going on at the District over the last several years.

Appraiser defends his "Apples to Oranges" comparison.

2009-03-04T05:56:00.000-08:00

This arrived from Judson Clendaniel. Notice that it starts out in the third person and then he concludes his statement in the first person.

Clendaniel is a lifetime resident of the Seattle area and has been appraising full-time since 1978 - almost as long as my good friend, former coworker, and respected colleague who preformed the previous appraisal. What has been left out of the commentary is that after the first appraisal, the property had been platted, graded & filled and utilities extended. Streets had been vacated adding to the potential size of the site. The market also continued to improve. These changes were described in my report, in detail, so that the decision makers had up to date information.

As for past real estate agent - yes, I sold houses to pay for College. WSU, 1978 BA, Business Administration with an emphasis on real estate, full tuition scholarship recipient. I hold an MAI designation, am a published appraisal author and past real estate instructor. My client list includes the top developers, bankers, public agencies and attorneys in the area as well as national investors and lenders. Perhaps Mr Zandberg should expand his "real estate circles." And no, I didn't do the Woodway appraisal - I did the review.

Judson H. Clendaniel, MAI

Your assessment of your own conduct is quite breath-taking. Clearly, you decided to respond to comments written on this blog because you harbor some degree of guilt for your part in the financial assault on a public agency. In my opinion, you are just another dollop of pond scum looking for a quick buck in serving your deep-pocket client to further his own financial ends. Sadly, your target was an easily fooled rube that believed the mush you continue to spew without regard for facts, truth or honor.

First of all, your MAI credential means nothing in this argument. The appraisal that was provided by Northwest Valuation was performed (as opposed to "preformed") by someone with the same credential. Attempting to set yourself apart by citing this "illustrious" designation means nothing to the rest of us.

As for your conclusion that the property had been graded, platted and filled - what planet are you on? Were you even aware of the contamination? Did Raskin even inform you of the history of the site? Did any past use make it into your assessment? What good is a graded and filled site if the appropriate response to contamination is to mitigate it?

I will put my faith in the District's appraiser, Jim Irish and John Koster. Those are three highly distinguished individuals that do not agree with your feeble assessment. The King 5 report exposed your scam for what it was - a scam. Your appraisal was making a comparison between apples and oranges. As for the market continuing to improve, just what sage wisdom were you relying upon to draw that conclusion? As a university educated appraiser with a lifetime of experience in real estate issues, how could you not see or hear that train coming? I will say this much, however, you served your master well. I hope you were paid enough to cover the guilt that any normal human being would have to be feeling. Just how do you sleep at night?

Regarding the Old Woodway appraisal and transaction, that discussion will be happening this summer. I have read a lot of material on the topic and have a lot to share when the time is right.

As for expanding my "real estate circles", if it means encountering people like you, I think it might be better if I left the profession all together. Fortunately, there are still a lot of great people in the industry and even a few honest appraisers.

The difference between salary and value.

2009-03-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

"As a public employee, the difference between what you are paid and what you are worth is a charitable contribution to your community."

Of course, this statement assumes that the public employee's "worth" is greater than their "pay" and that they are fortunate enough to be working within their community.

Whether you spend your time tracking the appropriate use of procurement cards or the appropriate use of the Internet, the value that staff contribute to the District can greatly outweigh the salary they receive for performing that work. In such cases, those employees are making a sizable contribution to their community. By preventing unnecessary waste or catching unauthorized expenses, such exceptional employees deserve to be treated with greater respect.

Conversely, public employees that seemingly go out of their way to spend more scarce resources than are absolutely necessary, or seek out every opportunity to enrich their friends and associates, should be driven from the community. They have no place in public service.

While the blog is not generating a lot of entries these days, there is a reason for it. While it may not seem very obvious why there is this lull, once you start reading future entries, it will become very clear. In the meantime, I ask new blog visitors to do what many are already doing - read a few of the blog topics that are listed in the margin to the right. In a matter of minutes, you will see why so many district employees feel frustrated and will begin to understand why it is important for the community to be involved in how their school district is managed.

Obvious candidates for RIF action are insulated.

2009-02-26T16:40:00.000-08:00

I was amused by the following response from the District to a Request for Review from the City of Lynnwood for a development scheduled to occur in the near future. Click here to have a look at what the District considers to be a meaningful and timely response.

First, the response from the District was due no later than October 29, 2008. This response was generated on October 31, 2008 and faxed to the City of Lynnwood on the same day. What took the District so long to get back to the regulating jurisdiction?

Second, the response was faxed. Why wouldn't the District at least scan the document and then email it to the City so it can easily become part of the development record? Notice how the fax didn't feed properly and everything is skewed slightly to the left.

Third, the letterhead still shows "Facilities AND Operations". Wasn't this issue resolved nearly two years ago? It really should be "Facilities Operations".

Fourth, the fax machine is still stamping the initiating fax number as a 670 number. Wasn't this issue resolved nearly three years ago?

Fifth, the response is hand-written. How is the District tracking developments if responses are hand-written? What happened to FileMaker Pro? What happens when staff want to determine how many developments have occurred in one jurisdiction or if staff want to determine how many developments have been assigned to one cluster of bus stops? Perhaps no one is tracking this information, which calls future student enrollment forecasts into question.

Sixth, why is the mislabeled department letterhead directing all calls to 425-431-7334? Doesn't the department have an office manager? Why would all calls go directly to the Director? Perhaps "director" means "director of telephone traffic".

An additional and obvious concern is that the District's template cites the assigned "safe" walk routes to bus stop locations and then in the next sentence declares they do "not have the expertise to prescribe remedies to address these safety issues". What safety issues? There are no safety issues mentioned. Besides, who better to evaluate student safety than a school district? What would a city or a developer know about keeping kids safe? Wouldn't that be best left in the hands of professionals?

For those of you that have been watching the financial turbulence at the District, you will know that the Superintendent is preparing a list of RIF candidates for the Board to "consider". Of course, placing the Director of Facilities AND Operations or the Planning and Property Management Clericalist on such a list may be viewed by others as following the recommendation of the blog - and we all know that would never happen. So to the current occupants of those positions, rest easy in knowing that image means a lot more to the District than financial prudence. Your days of draining public resources are far from over.

School board president aspires to be oblivious.

2009-02-19T05:46:00.000-08:00

At the last BM, Ann McMurray uttered a few words that will not soon be forgotten. It was in response to an attempt from a member of district staff to explain just a little about a project funded by taxpayers.

"Just to be oblivious would probably be best."

These eight, simple words capture the essence of what plagues our school district. On the one hand, the comment makes light of the need to be informed when spending public money. On the other, it appears to suggest that those of us in the audience would be amused by such a statement. Since I was the only one in the audience, and therefore 100% of the audience, I can assure that 100% of the audience was not amused.

Of course, there is the possibility that Ann thought the comment would be funny to her fellow board members. While likely, it just strengthens the argument that this school board is out of touch with their financial responsibilities. The fact that no one attends these board meetings, aside from collecting the meaningless certificates - doled out like raises to district administrators - just reinforces the fact that this board is unengaging, uninspiring and undeniably stupid.

Perhaps my perspective is skewed but was there ever a time when board meetings were well attended on a regular basis? What does that say about the subject matter? Sure, it might be a little dry at times, but the unsophisticated approach to public education that appears to have infected our region gives great cause for alarm. People in our community don't care about making our schools better and they have elected five idiots that feel the same way. Our community is unengaged and unsophisticated and they have elected like-minded representatives. The Board will never change until people in our community change.

An extension of this problem is the tendency of upper management at the District to go out of their way to hire morons that, for the last several years, have been driving in circles in their intellectual cul-de-sacs. The Board doesn't care about making our schools better and they have no understanding of what that process might entail. Without forming expectations of district management, mediocre staff will continually be collected for no other purpose than to keep an assortment of $700 Mirra chairs warm.

First casualities in the latest round of budget cuts?

2009-02-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

The blog received comments from a number of people regarding the first casualties in the latest round of budget cuts. It is believed that cashiers at lunch will be eliminated, thereby requiring that the recent adjustments to the lunch line sequencing be altered, yet again.

Some of us were under the impression that the community discussions around the frozen cheese sandwich issue resulted in an acceptable solution. By placing cashiers at the front of the lunch line, students could have been identified as having ample credit for a lunch or insufficient funds, thereby requiring a frozen cheese sandwich. Well, with the elimination of cashiers, food service staff will have to bounce between dishing up meals and taking payment from children.

Perhaps the plan is to automate the payment process. Maybe children will be able to have their eyes scanned and be able to just walk in front of an iris scanner and their meal will just magically appear in front of them while the funds will be charged to their parents credit card. Perhaps the plan is to leave an old, rusty coffee can at the front of the lunch line for students to make their payments using the honor system. Maybe children will stick their finger into a machine that reads their fingerprint. If they have adequate funds, they get to keep their finger - if not, it is sliced into a vat of soup and they are handed a frozen cheese sandwich. Of course, they can only make that mistake ten times.

If lunch cashiers are eliminated, where does this put the conversation regarding frozen cheese sandwiches? Is Nick trying to break a record and collect Schrammies like they were Golden Globes?

At the last board meeting, the Board was discussing the need to close one of the District's production kitchens. The District has already decided not to buy another $110,000 oven.

... and nobody saw that coming?

2009-02-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

There was a time, not long ago, when we the taxpayers of the Edmonds School District were told of a magical scheme straight from the lips of Nick Brossoit. We were told that if we passed the construction bond for the new Lynnwood High School (after it failed twice before) the District would use the proceeds from the long-term ground lease of the current Lynnwood High School to fund a lengthy list of other projects. Well, it sounded good at the time... to a few of you, at least.

Now that Cypress Equities is "rethinking" their development and delaying the launch of any real revenue-generating project, one thing is for certain - the trough is empty and the cows are coming home to be milked.

As for Marla's claim that Cypress Equities is "still very interested in developing the site", she is clearly detached from the realities of our economic circumstances. Give me a break. Many of us in our 30s are "still very interested in" retiring, it just won't be happening anytime soon.

I have also been informed that Cypress Equities is just keeping their foot in the door. At the moment, they have no real plan to move forward with the current project and would never back out entirely, in case the economy improves in the next few years. What sense would there be to leave the project when they already have a number of available exit opportunities built into the ground lease? Why would they give up their seat in the first chair when it costs them nothing to sit there? There is no expiration date. There is no meter running. Why not maintain the illusion to your investors that you have yet another iron in the fire? Never mind that the fire is just orange paint.

Just how much money has been spent so far on consultants and lawyers to prepare the ground lease? What about the cost of converting the property from public use? What other magical sources of funds are available to renovate the ESC for Scriber Lake High School or develop the contaminated site for the new administration center? And where is all the money from the Old ESC site and the Maintenance and Transportation site?

The board may be dazzled by the illusion of intelligence in district management, but it is all quite relative, I assure you. Five imbeciles and an idiot are easily out-witted by a moron.

Heavy traffic from a 49er fan in Spokane.

2009-01-30T05:55:00.000-08:00

I know there hasn't been a lot of new entries on the blog recently, but there has been a lot of traffic.

One heavy hitter comes from a dental office in Spokane, Washington. Network connectivity is provided by Apria Healthcare in Costa Mesa, California and the regular user of the computer is also a fan of the San Francisco 49ers. Just the other day the following post was made at BoardHost.com.

Posted by Longtime 49er Fan on 1/26/2009, 4:01 pm, in reply to "Paraphrase"
199.253.201.4
I am still looking at 2 years from now as being the possible true breakout season that speaks of some sort of national presence. This team will have a lot of size in the frontcourt by then with Richardson, Chang, Vantrimpont, Robinson, Montgomery, Phelps, and Wilson; and even good SG size with Anderson. All of them will have some to strong experience by then.

--Previous Message--
Paraphrasing Dansk AFTER the game:
We have a nice crowd, we're on local TV and we step on our &*%K$. Oh well, that's Long Beach State. The byword henceforth is realism. Be realistic about what this young team can accomplish THIS season. Many didn't think we'd win even 10 games much less be leading the pack in conference play.

And an even more recent post...

Posted by Longtime 49er Fan on 1/29/2009, 2:55 pm, in reply to "Re: Morris Game-Time Decision Tonight"
199.253.201.4

Robinson and Anderson have long since deserved to start. Now is the time.
Until Morris returns:
New lineup:
Freeman
Robinson
Anderson
Gilling
Ware

That lineup isn't too short.

Key subs become:
Fleming
Phelps
Williams
Plater
Clady

Lazdauskas really can only supply a minute here and there each game, as his game is severely limited for division 1.

This visitor has been focusing much of their attention on matters related to the Superintendent. However, most recently they have been spending time reading about the purchase of contaminated land and the blog's response to the parent letter sent out in an attempt to "circle the wagons".

Parent asks the District to be part of the Solution.

2009-01-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

The topic was raised that EDS15.org is a “one man show”. While I believe that this is patently false, I’ll raise the challenge to the District to “address the issue” as opposed to “point the finger”.

In these trying economic times, communication with the electorate is more important than ever when difficult issues need to be addressed. The cost of traditional mailings is very expensive and should be reserved for only the most significant issues. In order to save money and improve communication with parents and the community, the district should put a community forum in place that can put forward ideas and have the community participate in those ideas. There are a number of ways this can be done – the district can do something as simple as a moderated “google groups” page that can be moderated or host their own “blog” on wordpress or any one of a number of free services.

Now, here are a couple of objections that I’ll address up front

1. “We can’t do it because we are responsible for the content”. You have a moderated account that only puts up those items that meet your standards (and I hope your standards are about profanity, not the exchange of dissenting ideas).

2. “We can’t do it because it costs too much”. The hosting service is free. The cost is the manpower to moderate the exchange. Considering that the District spends $8000 for every mailing to communicate with parents, I would argue this is a cost savings.

3. “We can’t do it because not everyone is included because they don’t have internet access”. Aside from the fact that both Lynnwood and Edmonds have free internet terminals, this is not a reasonable argument. To view your student’s records, you go online to “Skyward”. Other services are online – why not this?

4. “We can’t do it because it allows anonymous comments”. We’ve been down this before. Ideas are the important part here – not the source.

5. “We can’t do it because government organizations can’t use computing resources we don’t control”. Please…. One word. “Skyward”.

I will be at the next board meeting and will raise this to the board for their comments. Are the leaders of our educational systems interested in a free exchange of ideas or is communication over the internet something we should ignore? Elections are coming up for 2 board members. Think about your answers carefully……..

Blog: I challenge those capable of free thought to question why this blog [esd15.org] would openly advocate for the creation of such a forum. By posting this entry, we are actively endorsing this great idea. More open and free discussion is never a bad thing.

Nick Brossoit thinks the blog is a one man show.

2009-01-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

I have been getting a lot of feedback from staff at the District reporting that the Superintendent thinks the blog is a one man show. I can see where he gets this impression. He appears to be a simple man and easily confused.

In the summer of 2007, the blog posted an email exchange between a woman named Kirsten and Nick Brossoit. That woman's name was actually a pen name that I used because I already knew that Nick would lie if I used my own name or, more likely, ignore me entirely. To improve my chances of getting a response, I used a female's name, thinking Nick would be more inclined to chat with a woman. I was right. Click here and read the following entry from the blog to see the source of Nick's confusion.

Whenever I make a comment on my own blog, I use my registered account name ESD15.org. What "Nicky Suspenders" is hoping to create is a degree of uncertainty among the blog's many readers. If he can convince you that no one supports this blog, maybe you might grow tired of reading it and move on to something less challenging to District management. The many of you that read the blog and submit your comments know the strength of our forum.

The easiest way to demonstrate the high volume of traffic we receive every day is to provide our records from StatCounter. Unfortunately, I have the settings adjusted to only retain the last 500 entries and I periodically delete all of those records just to provide the added comfort to our many contributors that still work at the District.

How does Nick think the blog received information about the Piano Scam? What about the fraud in Human Resources regarding AFLAC? How would I ever get copies of the email sent by Cathy Birdsong that criticize Carmel@? How would I get the handouts that Cathy Birdsong distributed at a presentation to employees at the District? How would I get information about Pat Mason and what happened to her in Maintenance? How would I get an internal email from Laura Barney discussing the status of benefits for employees? How would I know about the small fortune spent on reconfiguring cubicles that now sit empty? How would I know that security staff that were hired after I left the District are paid full wages and benefits for sitting at home? I would I know about a deal struck between an employee, his union and the District? How would I ever know how bad the new Property Management Clericalist is? How would I know about Brian Harding's attempts to track my whereabouts during the last two weeks of my employment?

Fortunately, I don't have to prove anything to Nick. However, Nick believes that he has to convince staff that the blog is just the senseless tirade of one disgruntled employee. Well, Nick, the records speak for themselves and ultimately my peers will determine the strength of my allegations.

Blog: Thanks to the many unnamed members of district staff that forwarded their concerns about the Superintendent's statements. Apparently, he thinks you do not exist.

District management embraces a culture of bullying.

2009-01-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

These quotes are from a paper presented by Alan McEvoy of Wittenburg University to the Hamilton Fish Institute’s Persistently Safe Schools Conference in Philadelphia, September 11 - 14, 2005. Material is under copyright and needs to be properly credited. While this is a paper addressing teacher-to-student bullying, it is applicable also to teacher-to-teacher or administrator-to-teacher behaviors.

Teachers who bully feel their abusive conduct is justified and will claim provocation by their targets. They often will disguise their behavior as “motivation” or as an appropriate part of the instruction. They also disguise abuse as an appropriate disciplinary response to unacceptable behavior by the target. The target, however, is subjected to deliberate humiliation that can never serve a legitimate educational purpose.

This reflects on the principal/student bullying (removing students from school/dressing them in coveralls) that I witnessed on Monday March 6, 2006. The last two sentences are most appropriate-RR

Similar to peers who bully, teachers who bully may employ a number of methods to deflect anticipated or actual complaints about their offensive conduct. One common method is trying to convince targets that they are paranoid or crazy, that they have misperceived or misrepresented the behavior in question, or that it is all in their mind. It is also common for bullies to impugn the motives or performance of students, colleagues, and supervisors who register a complaint. For example, an abusive teacher may argue that a student who complains is simply trying to excuse his or her “questionable” academic performance. This shifts attention from the teacher’s inappropriate conduct to a discussion of “standards” and to the student’s motivation for complaining. This also has the minimizing effect of suggesting to others that what is at stake is merely a “personal difference,” rather than a systematic abuse of power.

This reflects on the treatment we endured. We were frequently told by administration and others that we had "misunderstood" the "if you don't like it here, go someplace else" comments directed toward me personally (Also the frequent use of the phrase "That's just your perspective" in the pejorative). It also speaks to the general perception that "you have to be crazy" to stand up and speak your mind and voice your objections to administration. Any disagreement with the administrative line leaves an employee open to bullying and possible charges of "insubordination" which in too many cases means simply that you disagree openly with policy.

Bullying by teachers produces a hostile climate that is indefensible on academic grounds; it undermines learning and the ability of students to fulfill academic requirements. In this it shares core attributes with more recognized abuses of power such as sexual harassment, stalking, and hate crimes, each of which is, in fact, a form of bullying…

I once asked the union for a clarification of "hostile workplace" thinking foolishly that I worked in one. I was told that it only had to do with sexual harassment. So bullying was OK but sexual harassment wasn't? The only difference as far as I can see is that the expected result of sexual harassment is having sex under duress; the expected result of bullying is that you mentally break someone in order to establish power over them so that they will do WHATEVER you want them to do; the same techniques are used, the same coercion is used.

Victims of bullying by teachers often feel emotionally distraught and fearful, with no place to turn for help. The victim’s distress is compounded by the inaction outright complicity of the larger group. The function of such inaction is to further enable the bully and to affirm his or her “right” to use professional authority in an arbitrary manner. By not defending the victim, others are confirming his or her selection as an appropriate target, thus endorsing and tacitly legitimizing the abuser’s mistreatment of that individual. Although not every member of the victim’s environment shares the abuser’s values, some do. Many bystanders remain silent or comply to avoid being targeted themselves.

Again, no one in higher authority did anything about our allegations; colleagues refused to walk in the halls with us; and support was given covertly so as to not be found out. Bullying works when no one else stands with the victims. We were frequently told, even by union leaders, that the principal could do anything he wants, leaving no room for dissent. This is very hard for social studies teachers who teach students that dissent has a legitimate and legally supported place in the American constitutional system.

Bullying by teachers raises the specter of school liability. For example, the Supreme Court's ruling in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education 526 U.S. 629 (1999) provided a language and a set of principles that should give educational institutions pause…The court ruled that schools receiving federal funds, at all levels of education, may be held financially responsible where officials are “deliberately indifferent” to harassing behaviors that are “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive.” If the Supreme Court found those principles an adequate basis to expand school liability in one arena, why wouldn’t they apply equally to a decision to expand school liability in another arena (i.e., to liability for teacher/student bullying)? [or administrator/teacher bullying?-RR]

I tried to raise this issue with Tam after the Virginia Tech shootings. If the district continued bullying, as I knew it was at the time, the district was leaving itself open to grave legal consequences. Rather than heed my warning, he/they took my concern as evidence that I was myself preparing an attack on MMS and used it as evidence in their issuance of a "no trespass order" against us because our "continued communication" was "deemed threatening and disruptive" as Limon wrote. This is naked use of power in an inappropriate fashion for inappropriate ends. Limon had never learned that the ends do not justify the means, much less that his ends were wrong in the first place.

This is not just us being crazy. This is an academic paper presented to a group of educators and scholars who are interested in keeping schools safe for learning. This includes everybody who works for the district, not just students. This is a big issue for a school district that continues to deny that it has a problem. How many of us have friends or relatives who deny that they have a drinking problem and then go out and engage in destructive behavior while drunk? Well, folks, that's where ESD is. It needs an intervention.

Richard Reuther

Nick doesn't approve of anonymous comments.

2009-01-17T20:34:00.001-08:00

The blog recently received an anonymous comment from a district computer. While the comment was one continuous series of statements without regard to punctuation, capitalization or paragraphs, I have clustered the sentences for ease of comprehension and adequate response.

You know how sorry i am for you? Very sorry.

There really is no need to be sorry. Aside from the fact that I was subjected to a lot of disturbing material while researching your IP address.

The fact that you have no life and seem to feel the need to "reveal the disturbing secrets" of ESD 15 is sickening. I mean come on. who really needs to spend this much time hating their job, when it isn't even their job anymore?

These lines appear to have nothing in common with each other. The responsibility to expose corruption when it is discovered has nothing to do with whether a person dislikes their job. While it could be said that I viewed my job with the District as being responsible for the efficient use of public funds under my control or influence, I am certain you are not describing that aspect of the work I once performed. The job I once had at the District was one that I enjoyed and did very well. At no time did I ever "hate" my job. The fact that the position has been inadequately filled by someone else would not change the manner in which I viewed the position.

I think that you have deep, psycological problems and need to take better care of your self. Why get stuck on something so trivial as a this? It's time to move on. You don't need to do this anymore.

Careful, that sounds like a medical diagnosis. While District management may think they know a medical diagnosis when they hear one, I suspect, like the vast majority of management, you lack the qualifications to make such a determination. Since you sent this comment from a district computer, I am left wondering if you are communicating on behalf of the Edmonds School District.

I do not consider the exposure of corruption to be "trivial". The money wasted by Marla, Nick and the Board is money that cannot be spent for the benefit of students. The students that sit in your classroom.

The effort you've put into this is spectacular, but think of the time you've put into this, and all for what? Make a few people angry and uncomfortable?

If the corrupt are angered by being called corrupt, so be it. I make no apologies. Accountability is not always comforting for those inclined to enrich their friends and business associates. The record on this blog speaks for itself.

All of this effort, which is really quite impressive, and use it to make this good in your life. I know that it's hard to let things go, but trust in human nature. People aren't bad. You can change this.

I am amused that you are impressed.

and please stop commenting your own blog.

I am not sure what you mean by this statement. Are you expressing a preference for me to stop blogging or would you like me to join the ranks of hundreds that comment anonymously, like you just did?

More blog options if you care about education.

2009-01-15T19:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome!

This week, "Betrayed" is addressing issues related to Washington's standardized tests. Soon to come are articles on WASL costs and issues with the WASL's statistical reliability and validity. Articles so far:

WASL is the "floor" of expectations
Washington State Superintendent "Spins" the Data on Education
Washington's Math Standards Failing the Students
Birth of Reform = Demise of Math Skills

Update on "Betrayed":
The blog settings were modified today to allow anyone to comment. Comments may also be anonymous. Please feel free to add your thoughts.

Education coverage in Spokane is weak, and the general public is not well informed. Teachers, parents and students have little voice, and the situation is dire. Thank you for the great feedback so far and for your suggestions. Please continue to let me know about education-related links you think I should add. I'm happy to do it. There is a lot of great information out there from advocates who have been working on this for a long time.

Knowledge is power.

Meanwhile, your feedback is very welcome. If you feel I have written something in error, please don't be shy. I'm trying to get this right, and I'm trying to get it out in this community in whichever way I can. If you think the articles are of value, please pass the link on to anyone else who might be interested. The election is just over a month away, and time is short. Together, perhaps we can turn this thing around.

Thank you very much.
Laurie Rogers
http://betrayed-whyeducationisfailing.blogspot.com/
wlroge@comcast.net

Blog: Thank you for sharing.

Edmonds School Board isn't smarter than fifth graders.

2009-01-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

The blog was recently contacted by a fifth grade teacher from another school district. The teacher, who shall remain nameless, provided two board policies to her class for discussion.

Board Policy 6810 used to state that, "No person shall be employed by the district who is the spouse or dependent child of any member of the Board of Directors or of the superintendent."

Board Policy 1260 used to state that, "No member of the Board, or any spouse or dependent relative of such member, shall receive or accept any compensation or reward for services rendered to the District."

Even after lunch, the class, with minimal prodding, was able to make the distinction between these two different rules and conclude that they basically describe the same restriction. While the sentences had to be broken into sections, for ease of discussion, the concepts were fairly clear and straight forward.

Surprisingly, the task didn't take a lot of time and it wasn't too complicated for them to understand. It also didn't involve the payment of a small fortune in legal fees or the input from sluggish hacks from the State Auditor's Office. Clearly, the Board of Directors for the Edmonds School District is just too stupid or corrupt to follow simple rules that even children can understand.

Blog: Thanks to Mrs. J for her email.

Something is rotten in the Edmonds School District.

2009-01-04T14:09:00.000-08:00

I will number them for ease of reference and for the convenience of our international readers.

1. Bruce Williams moved outside of his director district, the blog and its readers easily proved it and he was compelled to resign on September 11, 2007. I won't go into the reasons as to why he relocated, but they insufficiently justify the nonsensical retention of his board seat. His appointed replacement, Susan Phillips, reads the blog frequently but has no independent thought of her own.

2. Nick Brossoit lied numerous times to cover for Bruce Williams and yet his lies were easily dismantled by the blog and its readers. When Bruce Williams moved outside of his director district, Nick Brossoit asked Mark Zandberg to redefine director districts. Then, when Mark Zandberg asked about Bruce Williams, while using a pen name, Nick Brossoit concocted a ridiculous story about modernizing a rented apartment.

3. Marla Miller entered into a scheme with Arnie Tucker of Seattle Piano Gallery to buy pianos under the disguise of a "lease" to fool the State Auditor. Then, to make matters worse, Tam Osborne issued a check for just under the legally significant threshold of $40,000.00 to buy four of these pianos. Even Arnie Tucker's lawyer characterized the piano transaction as a "scheme" and the Audit Manager was still unable to connect the dots.

4. Gary Noble ran for a seat on the Board despite two different board policies that prevented it. Sure, when you run the first time you might be forgiven because technically the violation only occurs once you are elected. When Gary Noble ran for re-election, there was no denying the fact that he was in direct violation. Nick Brossoit and the Board repeatedly denied the fact that none of them can read and understand simple English and waited until after the State Auditor told them to follow or revise board policies to actually revise them. It doesn't change the fact that Gary Noble is currently serving under the rules of the earlier policies. His day in court is coming.

5. Pat Shields was actively involved in the formation of Powerful Partners. This organization then entered into a lease with the Edmonds School District and never paid a single cent of the required rental payments. In fact, it was just a use agreement, which excluded a base rental rate and came without any financial benefit for the District. Mark Zandberg attempted to collect the rent and was always turned away. Then Marla Miller stepped in and declared that she would take care of it. The way in which she "took care of it" was to give Powerful Partners a free ride.

6. The State Auditor is an agency of hacks. I have had the pleasure and privilege of knowing a few of their former employees and the stories they share would make any taxpayer shudder. In the case of the Edmonds School District, Sadie Armijo was unable to understand the concept of a property appraisal and how such devices can be easily used to defraud taxpayers. Chris Kapek was easily bamboozled by Powerful Partners changing their name to Powerful Tutors. Chris Kapek was also easily fooled by the words contained in the piano "lease" and couldn't see the intent behind the words. The State Auditor is not doing any favors for the taxpayers of the Edmonds School District.

7. Marla Miller also manipulated the process of appraising the property known as Old Woodway Elementary. While it resulted in a direct windfall to the City of Edmonds and her friends at Burnstead, the Edmonds School District lost a fortune.

8. Marla Miller also worked with Mike Raskin to convince the Board to buy a contaminated piece of property that had been rejected three times before. The fact of contamination is irrefutable, despite Nick Brossoit's statements to the contrary. The District's appraisal came in at $3,300,000.00 and the seller's came in at $5,800,000.00. The District paid $5,800,000.00 and will have to deal with the contamination whenever they make any changes to the site.

9. The Capital Partnerships Program was shifted away from Property Management, where the District was an actual project partner, to the Capital Projects Office, where the District charges for project management and every time staff moves a muscle or lifts a pencil. How is that fair to parents or community members that sell cupcakes to subsidize CPO staff salaries in addition to the increased property tax they have already paid and continue to pay every year.

10. There is also a swollen collection of imbeciles that are in positions at the District where they either have absolutely no meaningful experience or an utter absence of intellect that makes the completion of their job virtually impossible. These individuals are so arrogant that they even profess to their co-workers their amazement in how they were hired in the first place. What is troubling for the many of us looking in from the outside is that most of the District is so focused on saving the nickles and dimes in their sphere of control, they don't appear to notice the hemorrhaging going on everywhere else.

There are many other bone-jarring issues covered in the blog, but the ten points above offer a quick snapshot of what this blog is all about. We believe in public accountability and will not rest until the Board and Superintendent realize they are on the wrong path and make meaningful corrections - like resigning and moving on to a community that can more adequately afford the corruption they have allowed to take root here.

Richland outshines Edmonds on dealing with bullies.

2009-01-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

www.rsd.edu/resources/bullying-harassment-policy.html

If the Legislature adopted this as state law, we'd all be better off. Note that this policy includes all school district employees, volunteers, etc. They MEAN it.

A story was related to me of a district teacher who had called out a student for bullying other students; the student retaliated by starting vicious rumors about the teacher; the principal called the student AND her parents in and told the student that she WAS a bully and would have to apologize to the teacher and go around to EVERYBODY she told the lie to and confess to them that she had lied. Fairly strong response. This showed students and other bullies that they can't get away with it easily and bullying DECREASED. Imagine that!

Kansas and Florida provided "everybody" protection, too.

Little known fact-useful at your next party: In Arkansas, a parent or guardian who "abuses" superintendents, principals, teachers or bus drivers can be fined $10-$50.

Richard

The blog has readers all over the world.

2009-01-03T16:44:00.000-08:00

Someone in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan is searching for Nick's email address.

IP Address: 58.27.146.26
ISP: National Wimax/ims Environment
Entry Page Time: 3rd January 2009 11:24:50
Visit length: 9 mins 12 secs
Browser: Firefox 3.0
OS: WinXP
Resolution: 1024x768
Location: Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Returning Visits: 0
Entry Page: August 2007
Exit Page: September 2007
Referring URL: http://esd15.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

My archives (of just the last 500 entries) also reveal a lot of activity in the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A total of 18 hours, 48 minutes and 31 seconds.

Oddly, someone in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan, Iran has been reading about the Piano Scam.

Well, to our international readers... Happy New Year.

Something worse than "pesky" I'm sure.

2008-12-29T06:06:00.000-08:00

The District has been getting a lot of practice cutting millions and millions of dollars from their operating budget every year. Due to poor leadership and the inability to read board adopted documents like the Capital Facilities Plan, our district is looking at yet another year of deep cuts.

However, this latest budget disaster has more to do with the District's dependence on state funding and since enrollment has been declining for years, the net impact is slightly less disasterous than if it was left solely in the hands of district management. But then they always seem to find a way to cripple their own mission by making cuts in the classroom and never in the glass palace known as the ESC.

Of course, management is completely safe because Mr. Nick's grand plan appears to be the maximization of management and the minimization of actual teaching staff. Even his own Human Resources director, Cathy Birdsong, readily admits that district kids are "pesky". With this grave news out of Olympia, the Birdsong-Brossoit approach can be fully implemented. Like many of our readers, I find it odd that the kids that actually stay in our district and remain in our schools have been labeled "pesky". What does management call those students that have opted to leave the District entirely? Something worse than "pesky" I'm sure.

So, where will these new cuts be made? The blog has been recommending for years that Facilities Operations should be condensed considerably. Have Bob Hansen and George Marschall report directly to Marla Miller and eliminate the Planning and Property Management Specialist and the Director. The current occupants of these positions have proven that these functions are not essential to the mission and are ripe for a reduction. Safety can move to Human Resources, where similarly-qualified staff reside.

While the District launches their latest campaign to plead poverty and beg for more funding from voters, the rest of us, that actually care enough to track their countless devastating choices, will try not to pass out from witnessing all of the bloodshed. Darker days are coming.

Perkins Coie using Rippers 0 on Boxing Day.

2008-12-27T15:10:00.000-08:00

26 Dec, 14:06:49, Rippers 0
Seattle,Washington, United States
Perkins Coie, Llp (198.22.100.4)

Because my server only archives the last 500 page views and dumps anything older, I periodically review traffic to determine the origin of users. Well, imagine my surprise when Perkins Coie was found cruising the blog on Boxing Day. While the rest of us might be at home, recovering from the chaos of Christmas Day, fighting with relatives or playing with our new toys, this law firm spends their afternoon reading tidbits from a website with a rapidly-growing fan base.

Even more surprising is their use of Rippers 0. This could only mean one thing. They must be interested in copying the blog for some other purpose. Gee, what could it be? Could it be they are planning to publish the site in an alternate format? Maybe they plan to incorporate the blog into some training opportunities for other school districts. Perhaps they plan to have such a seminar outside, at Safeco Field, in bone-chilling weather. Send me an invitation and I would be happy to help with the presentation. Just let me know how many hats, jackets and scarves to pack.

I recall attending a few of those seminars and fighting the urge to fall asleep when their keynote speaker had me convinced I was developing a case of narcolepsy. Whenever a Perkins attorney opened their mouth, my eyelids would slam shut.

My records indicate they are most interested in the month of January 2008. Perhaps our readers would like to review the month and help the rest of us see what has them so captivated.

Happy Holidays from the Blog.

2008-12-25T13:51:00.000-08:00

It has been a productive year. While I know the blog has been running fewer articles these last few weeks, I can assure you that 2009 will be very illuminating. We have been working on a number of things that will be rolling out next year. Your patience is much appreciated.

Stay safe, keep warm and have a great and prosperous new year.

Mark Zandberg

Reaching out to our community leaders.

2008-12-17T20:56:00.000-08:00

I attended the last [Edmonds City] council meeting but didn't stay very long. I was under the impression that the presentation by the Edmonds School District might be a little more informative. Boy, was I mistaken.

As many of you may have already noticed, the District's 2008-2013 CFP does not include Student Generation Rates. Such information is vital in obtaining an objective assessment of enrollment trends. Without them, it is essentially a guess as to the direction enrollment is heading.

Student enrollment is important to evaluate because it determines the level of financial support from the State. The District's recent budget problems have much to do with the fact that their board adopts the Capital Facilities Plan without discussion, questions or even reading the document. Unfortunately, this recent CFP demonstrates a further weakening of planning priorities and it is unfortunate that elected officials do not place much value in what was once an important document.

Please take a few minutes and read about many of the other questionable decisions made by our school district.

Sincerely,

Mark Zandberg

Your assessment of the ESD does not match mine; I am very well acquainted with their operations and I believe that they have a highly competent and diligent management team. I will not comment on the School Board Members, as I have no personal knowledge of any of the members.

I have previously not heard of the term "Student Generation Rates". If it refers to "Student Enrollment Projections", that data is in the CFP.

Thanks for bringing your concerns to us.

[Name Withheld, Edmonds City Council]

I totally understand your position regarding the management of the District. The Old Woodway Elementary transaction probably defined your impression. However, if you remove yourself from your elected perspective and look at the transaction objectively, you will see that every taxpayer in the District suffered, except the residents of the City of Edmonds.

The site was declared surplus and made available for purchase. Developers were encouraged to make an offer for the site - all 11.2 acres. I personally met with many developers, in my private capacity, to drum up interest in the site. Those developers indicated that they could not make an offer on the site because they did not have the expertise or staff to demolish an old school filled with hazardous substances.

Burnstead was deemed to be the highest bidder for the entire site. Then, after Burnstead was selected, the site was divided and Burnstead was offered the vacant half. I know for a fact that many developers would have jumped at the chance to buy a vacant piece of land near Woodway, but they never had the chance. In the real estate market of 2006, the District could have gotten a lot more for that vacant half. Of course, the unsuccessful bidders are probably rejoicing now.

I remain convinced that this tactic was employed to artificially deflate the value of the site - especially the half eventually purchased by the City. As a resident of Edmonds, I am happy for the City in getting such a great deal. As a former employee of the District, having worked there for six years, I am terribly saddened by the obvious fleecing of district taxpayers.

Thank you for your response and thank you for your service to our community.

Mark Zandberg
http://www.esd15.org/

Sorry for my belated response, Mark. But, I thought I’d let you know I appreciate that there is a ‘watchdog’ for the district. Every government needs one. I came across your blog some time back so I knew generally about some of what you’ve been up to. Keep at it.

[Name Withheld, Edmonds City Council]

I don't agree with many aspects of your information but I sure enjoy reading them and look forward to additional information. I have [found] the information to be helpful and informative.

[Name Withheld, Edmonds City Council]

Evergreen gets a temporary stay of execution.

2008-12-16T20:39:00.001-08:00

On the Board's agenda this evening was a second action involving the closure of Evergreen Elementary. Unfortunately, the item was dropped from the agenda because, according to Nick, adequate public notice had not been provided through the Everett Herald. It was felt that the District met the notification requirements with all of the discussion provided in the paper, but they had not provided adequate formal notice.

The matter will be taken up in March of 2009.

I find it odd that Nick Brossoit is concerned about the provision of adequate notice when closing an elementary school but not when declaring district property surplus. Old Woodway Elementary was supposed to be declared surplus through a formal notification that was to appear in the Everett Herald. Unfortunately, the formal, District process for notifying the public of the action to declare the site surplus was not followed. Count how many times the notification appeared and compare that number with the actual total required.

Now that Nick has demonstrated that he knows what proper notification entails, perhaps he would be kind enough to inquire as to the process involving Old Woodway Elementary. I would love to be proven wrong.

While I am pleased that Nick is honoring the process regarding the closure of an elementary school, I am saddened that less of a concern was shown to the residents around Old Woodway Elementary.

Blog: Woodway Elementary was closed since adequate notice was provided regarding the closure of that school.

Is cybersquatting against the law?

2008-12-14T14:49:00.000-08:00

[Perkins Coie and Mark Zandberg discuss "cybersquatting" in PC-1, MZ-1, PC-2, MZ-2, PC-3.]

When is it OK to buy up an expired domain name?
By Christopher Beam

The George W. Bush Library Foundation has retrieved its domain name. A small Internet company had bought www.georgewbushlibrary.com for less than $10 after it expired and then sold it back it to the library for $35,000. Is that legal?

Probably not. Cybersquatting, the practice of buying up a domain in order to profit from a trademarked name, is prohibited under the 1999 Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act as well as a set of international guidelines called the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy. (Disputes are usually mediated by the National Arbitration Forum or the U.N.'s World Intellectual Property Organization.) Both systems were created to protect companies, celebrities, and even Joe Schmoes from having their names exploited online for commercial purposes. To sue someone for cybersquatting, you have to show that they acted in "bad faith," meaning they deliberately registered a certain domain in order to profit off your name. For example, if someone buys JenniferLopez.com and puts ads up to generate income from random visitors, that's considered bad faith. Same with trying to sell the site back to its rightful owner for a hefty profit, as in the case of the presidential library. (An example of "good faith," meanwhile, might be registering Georgewbushlibrary.com as a nonprofit repository for articles about the president.)

There may be added protection for domains that are named after celebrities. In most states, famous people have a right of publicity that prohibits anyone else from profiting off their names or personas. Celebrities can also argue that they have common law rights to the trademark of their own names. In 2000, Madonna won a lawsuit against a cybersquatter who had bought Madonna.com and set up a porn site. (The same guy registered, among other names, wallstreetjournal.com.) Likewise, Hillary Clinton won a case in 2005 against an Italian woman who had bought the domain name Hillaryclinton.com. (See a list of domain name disputes here.)

The First Amendment makes it legal to grab even a famous person's domain name in some situations: You might not get Hillaryclinton.com, but you could register Ilovehillaryclinton.com if you're planning to use it for nonprofit political speech. You may also be able to use an established name if you're setting up your own, unrelated company. If the domain name for Delta Airlines expired and you bought it up for your competing airline, that would be against the law. But if you were promoting a very different kind of company—Delta Plumbing, for example—then you'd be within your rights to use Delta.com. As long as you're not profiting off a person or company by misrepresenting them, you're probably OK.

Indeed, there's a whole industry of so-called domain "tasting," whereby companies buy up recently expired domain names, test their traffic ratings, and estimate their profitability. (Sites like SnapNames.com and Pool.com will tell you when certain domain names are about to expire.) If a site is deemed a moneymaker, the company will hold on to it. If it's not, the company will give it back within the five-day grace period. The practice is legally restricted to domain names that use words you can find in the dictionary. But some companies will buy up variations or misspellings of other well-known sites—like, say, Micorsoft.com. Those sites aren't legal, but they can still turn a profit before the trademarked party notices.

Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks Enrico Schaefer of Traverse Legal and Hank Burgoyne of Kronenberger Burgoyne.

Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2206596/

Crowded classrooms coming to a school near you.

2008-12-12T05:41:00.000-08:00

The Edmonds School District, like most, will have to cut to operate next year, even without new state cuts this session, officials said.

Officials declined to be interviewed, saying it was "too early" to talk about the subject, but responded to some questions via e-mail.

"If the state cuts us even more, it will result in us having to make further reductions," Debbie Jakala, district spokesperson, wrote in an e-mail. "While we would do our best to work with our staff and community as to how best do these, the magnitude of the reductions based on further state funding shortfalls could be extreme."

Last year, the district cut about $3 million, with cuts to special education and more. The year before, it cut $4.5 million and closed teaching positions.

Losing I-728 money would be devastating, as it would for all districts, Jakala wrote.

The district received almost $9 million in I-728 money last year, which funded about 78 full-time teachers. Mostly it goes to reducing class size, and the rest goes to teacher professional development and extended learning.

I wonder what sort of losses would be taken if Marla's Marsh was sold on today's market. I suspect the District's appraisal of $3,300,000 would be way too much. And that valuation assumed the absence of contamination - which was a theoretical assumption taken as fact by the Superintendent and the School Board.

I predict an increase in sales of frozen cheese sandwiches.

Blog: Read the rest of the article in Lynnwood's best newspaper, The Enterprise, by clicking here.

What happens when a dummy dumbs it down?

2008-12-11T06:05:00.000-08:00

There was a seminar on Friday, December 5th where custodians were gathered together and provided with handouts. They are accessible here by clicking handout 1 and handout 2.

I find it rather humorous that the Director of Facilties Operations does not believe staff beneath his level are qualified to call the police and yet the Lynnwood Police spoke at this seminar and directed staff to call the police at any time - even if it is just a suspicious vehicle. If the Director had his way, all such calls should be channeled through him so that he can make contact with the police. Like he isn't paid a lot of money to do anything better.

The handouts that were presented smack of condescension. The author is either a kindergartner, lobotomized chimp, brain dead zombie or believes that custodians are illiterate morons, unable to construct or understand simple sentences. Look at the title of her presentation. Even the word "efficiently" is spelled incorrectly. In this day and age, we have spell check and access to co-workers that can proofread the work of imbeciles.

The blog has also received numerous complaints about the waste of paper. There was no reason to use such a large font size. People were not interested in your message because Human Resources doesn't follow their own direction. Printing it in a larger font doesn't make it any less hypocritical. Ms. Birdsong would be better off to share her presentation with her own department and let custodians get back to the reasons why they work for the District - and it isn't the charm and magnetism of its administration.

I nearly fell out of my chair at Ms. Birdsong's suggestion that custodians "use "I" sentences, I feel…" and of course, like "I hope this Carmel@ is different than our existing one."

I also find it mildly amusing that someone decided to deface the banner of appreciation with a rather unsavory expletive. Perhaps next time, people in management will double check the names they use and refrain from showering appreciation on people that have died years before. It would have been much better to express your appreciation while they were still alive. Shame on you for waiting so long.

Word on the blog is that the banner of appreciation has been hidden in shame. I am not surprised. Now, if they will just start getting rid of those shameful employees.

Recent film has much in common with our district.

2008-12-11T05:50:00.000-08:00

We went to the movie Changling last night. We were expecting a mystery, but got something much larger. We saw our lives at Edmonds School District from 2003-2006 when we “left.”

The lead character, a single mother, returns home from work to find her son has disappeared. We assumed that we would see the unfolding of the police search for this child. Instead, we saw a corrupt organization, the L.A. Police Department, applying psychological pressure to the lead character in order to cover-up the fact that they had “found” the wrong child. The lead character claims that the replacement child is not hers, but the police pressure her by telling her that she is mistaken, she is wrong, she doesn’t see that her son has changed during his ordeal. They begin to call her an unfit mother, because, now that the child has returned, they claim she wants to get rid of him because she wants to be free of the “responsibility” of motherhood. When she refuses to go along with the police, they bring even more psychological pressure to bear, essentially declaring that she is mentally unbalanced and is therefore not a credible person, not a good mother. She is whisked off to an asylum without cause and without proper judicial procedures; she is essentially “disappeared” from the community. Her supporters had warned her that because she was potentially an embarrassment to the police, they were likely to move against her; she believes that the police are good and would not do such a despicable thing. The actions of the police prove her wrong.

As all good movies do, this one circles back to the lead characters’ central philosophy: never start a fight, but if you get into one, make sure you finish it. As the police continue to pressure her (and some of the tactics brought groans of disbelief from audience members, even though it is clearly noted at the beginning of the film that this is a true story), she doesn’t bend or give in. She has self-doubts but she continues her fight with the assistance of others who are interested in eliminating the corruption in the L.A. Police Department. And she continues the search for her son.

The parallel to the District is clear. If you disagree with management, you are labeled a “disgruntled employee,” even to outside agencies that might be drawn into an investigation of the actions of the District, potentially tainting any investigation they might conduct. It is made very clear to all other employees that if they stand up against District actions (or inactions, as the case may be), they will suffer the same treatment as the “disgruntled employee.” If you object to the way you are being treated, there are a variety of ploys the District has to minimize your ability to bring those concerns to light. When you take your complaints public because the administration has failed to deal with them through proper channels, the District suggests that you are mentally unbalanced. If you try to explain to a colleague that their concern for the safety of the bullies is misplaced because victims of bullying are 5 times more likely to harm themselves than the bullies, the District reacts by issuing a no trespass order against you, and they assemble your former colleagues and they lie, calling you a threat to the safety of the students and faculty. And there is no one brave enough to speak up in your defense because it is clear that they will be treated the same as you if they speak up. Oh, and remember, you are still under a no contact order with any past or present employee, so you are not legally able to tell your side of the story to any of your former colleagues.

This is the Kobayashi Maru scenario; the no-win situation. No matter which course of action you choose, you will fail. This is what the District has done to us. Stay in the situation where students and older faculty are being bullied by the principal, office manager and their allies or try to get the District to stop the bullying; but they, unknown to you, are openly or tacitly approve the behavior. Either choice will end with bad results. I was encouraged that among the several e-mails excoriating me for my actions (these writers were never disciplined for electronic bullying which is banned by Board policy) there was one faculty member who gave me the benefit of the doubt and suggested that my actions were uncharacteristic and there must be something else going on that others were not aware of. Chris was not in a position to tell others what had happened; she would have been open to greater bullying (which ultimately did come her way even after [or perhaps because of] asking Osborne to make sure that the next principal be made aware of the truth of the situation) and, theoretically, I could have been additionally charged with violating the terms of the administrative leave that I was placed on in that I was not to talk to any present or former district employees. (I asked Tam how that was supposed to work since I was married to a staff member who was perfectly aware of everything that had gone on; he had no suggestion.) So, just as the lead character in the movie, I was “whisked away” from sight, unable to talk to any potential allies; unable to say “good-bye” to my students; unable to clear my name; unable to tell the truth to colleagues or the public. I was branded a “disgruntled employee,” as if that were MY fault. Actually, I was perfectly happy until I was set up for failure by Houser and watched as he went about harassing other staff as well.

To state this again, I was not the one bullying staff members of a certain advanced age; I was not the one bullying students; I was not the one who would do nothing to stop the bullying or make excuses for it or to warn the bullies that I was on to them so that they could bully me more. No. That was Houser, Bradshaw, Limon, Wilson, Woods, and Osborne.

How much higher in the system does this behavior go? Read the blog; it will soon be clear to you that it is a behavior pattern that is endemic to a significant segment of the administration. It is not a valid argument to call my sanity, or anyone else’s, into question just because I am opposed to this behavior from my superiors. Issuing a “no trespass order” against BOTH of us without going through the court system is neither fair nor appropriate nor in the spirit of the Constitution. Name-calling of employees (disgruntled, crazy, lazy, old, traitor, worn out, old-fashioned) who oppose the administration is not appropriate. Placing targeted employees on administrative leave with a gag order is not democratic behavior; what about freedom of speech rights? Administrators often bully employees that they cannot control in order to get rid of them so that they can hire others who are then beholden to the administrator for their job and who will therefore do as they are told (especially if they are related or socially connected to the person hiring them). Every time someone leaves the employ of the District, willingly or unwillingly, administration has the opportunity to hire people who will bow to their every desire.

That is the object; to hire sycophants who will never question the authority figure so that the authority figure doesn’t have to explain or defend any of their stupid moves.

This is a bankrupt management style. This is management by intimidation and coercion. It is wrong. It is not the model that should be presented to our children. Somebody needs to stand up to it.

Look guys, I didn’t start this fight. But I intend to be around to end it.

Property Management website needs to be updated.

2008-12-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

First of all, I thought it was Facilities Operations. Not Facilities AND Operations. Not Property Management. If the District wants people to find the appropriate website, they really should use the proper names for their departments.

Second, the tax parcel number site hasn't been updated in two years. The Old ESC site is no longer pending. That deal fell apart when the City wanted to build their own hotel next to the convention center, instead of across 196th. Where is that hotel anyway?

Third, Old Woodway Elementary is described as Surplus and not as Sold. Gee, I thought the District "sold" that site?

Fourth, the North Road Property really should be called New Lynnwood High School.

Fifth, Scriber Lake High School is incorrect.

Sixth, Woodway and Evergreen will need to be updated shortly, as well.

Of course, updating a website cannot be a task that moves upstream like the rest of the responsible person's work. The talent isn't upstream. It will have to move downstream and downstairs to Community Relations.

Celebrating staff from a decade ago.

2008-12-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

CELEBRATION (5 minutes)

The School Board will recognize individuals and groups that have contributed to the children and staff of the District. Nominees can be an employee, a parent, or a community member that have supported students and staff in exceptional ways.

The following will be recognized at this Board meeting: Maintenance, Custodial, and Capital Projects Departments related to the varied summer projects.

The tip line received a call regarding the December 2nd board meeting where these people were "honored". Apparently, a banner was produced and the names of exceptional staff were clearly written upon that banner. Unfortunately, it was a list of names from years ago. Wouldn't it be nice if the actual employees currently on the payroll were the ones being honored? Someone was assigned the task of compiling the list of names and no one bothered to double check.

Is it that management doesn't actually know the people with whom they work? Is management just sloppy? How does a school board honor staff but then not even take the time to confirm that the names cited are still employed - or even alive. Gee, that must have been more than a little embarrassing. Good thing only a handful showed up to be "honored".

Just a few of the many facts we have uncovered.

2008-11-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

Fact: Gary Noble was ineligible to seek election to the Board and was still ineligible when he sought re-election in 2007.
This was confirmed by the State Auditor and the Attorney General. The District recently changed board policies to allow this conflict to occur for future candidates, however, Mr. Noble is to be held to the standard that was in place when he filed as a candidate.

Fact: Bruce Williams was not eligible to occupy his board position and resigned.
Despite the fact that the Superintendent lied numerous times to conceal this fact, readers of the blog did a little research and uncovered what was really happening. As unfortunate as his personal life may have been, there was no reason to spew forth so many lies about modernizing apartments and what WSSDA might feel about deceptive practices.

Fact: The Piano Scam was a scam.
The involvement of the District's legal counsel was to make it somehow meet a minimal threshold. The use of a lease came close but the State Auditor has confirmed that the intent was to purchase the pianos, not lease them.

Fact: Powerful Partners is stealing space from the District.
The District claimed that Powerful Partners disbanded in 2007, but somehow they are still using their same name and still occupy the same space in the ESC. If an organization "disbands" are they no longer responsible for the debts they have accumulated?

Fact: The New Administration Site is contaminated.
The problem with establishing this fact is the absence of legally-required documentation being filed with the appropriate agencies. Personally reading many of these documents was enough to convince staff and consultants of contamination. The District, however, wanted to funnel an additional $2,500,000.00 to a friend from Medina with wineries in Woodinville.

Fact: Capital Partnership funds have been misappropriated.
When the District decided to no longer be a partner and transfer these projects to another department that is capital funded, they swept more than $150,000.00 in matchable money under the rug. This single action removed $300,000.00 in projects away from district playgrounds.

Fact: Reconfigurations are now performed by outside vendors.
The District has no one on staff that has the ability to learn or understand how to maintain inventory of panels and parts. They have no one on staff that can manage a reconfiguration. They have no internal talent that can learn or become trained in reconfigurations.

Fact: The District hires friends and relatives.
If you have any doubts as to the validity of this statement, you aren't getting out much. People that have come in dead last in a list of applicants have magically been hired. People that didn't even bother to apply had their applications inserted in after the deadline. People without any qualifications or experience have been hired to manage staff having jobs they don't understand.

Fact: The District did not act in the public's best interest when they sold Old Woodway Elementary.
This topic will be covered in greater detail in the near future. Essentially, during the peak of our last real estate frenzy, the District advertised the entire site as being for sale. After filtering out all developers that could not perform a demolition, they then handed a vacant piece of dirt to Burnstead. The summary page of the Old Woodway appraisal says it all.

Fact: The Snohomish County Auditor does not actually audit anything.
We cannot achieve public accountability if the State Auditor refers critical issues to the County Auditor, only to have her readily confess that she doesn't audit anything. Her job is more appropriately described as that of County Recorder.

Fact: The District claims they do not keep copies of checks.
This statement was only made to avoid having to reveal that no rent was being collected from Powerful Partners, now Powerful Tutors. For more than six years, I personally copied every check that I received while working for the District and I never received a single check from Powerful Partners.

Fact: The District refuses to read and understand the Capital Facilities Plan before adopting it.
Never fear. The document doesn't actually reveal anything anymore. There are no student generation rates nor does it provide any meaningful basis for the enrollment trends it might try to illustrate. If an agency refuses to follow their own adopted planning documents, why not just water them down so they become as meaningless as the Board?

Fact: The District hired someone to sit at home for 16 hours a week waiting for a pager to go off.
Staff used to carry the pager one weekend a month as Non-Exempt employees and never received compensation for all of the hours they sat around waiting for a crisis to occur. Personally, I carried the pager for no less than 30 days a year and never received a single dollar for the inconvenience.

There are many other rather shocking revelations to discover by reading this blog. If you have any doubt as to the credibility of any statement contained herein, please feel free to contact us. You can also contact the District, but then they won't tell you anything.

Perhaps NPI should audit that piano transaction.

2008-11-28T12:27:00.000-08:00

Living in Edmonds, we have a great resource right at our fingertips. There is an organization called Northwest Procurement Institute that offers training in public agency procurement practices. Just take a look at the current list of course offerings. Wouldn't it be great to tap that exceptionally endowed organization to review the piano scam and truly put the issue to rest, once and for all?

We could also ask NPI to review the Powerful Partners (conveniently renamed Powerful Tutors) lease and see if it truly is a legally binding document. I don't run an "Institute" but I am fairly sure that I know a lease when I see one, or in this case, write one. If NPI can wield the weight of their considerable intellect and publicly declare whether the lease is valid, it could take a lot of pressure off of the Board and offer a respite from sniping by the blog.

But wait a minute. Isn't that the same organization that is owned and operated by a member of the school board? So, wouldn't it stand to reason that such a review has already taken place? If the Board accepted and endorsed the manner in which the pianos were acquired and declared the lease with Powerful Partners invalid, that would undermine the strength of management at NPI. This is a rather sad turn of events. The Board seemingly had an expert among them and still allowed district management to run amok. It wasn't as if there were five imbeciles on the Board. One of them actually passes himself off as an expert in the realm of procurement practices.

The same can be said of the contaminated site slated to accommodate the new administration building. Someone trained as an engineer should be able to understand the concept of contamination. So, if such an engineer were to be a member of the Board, and I am led to believe that there is such an engineer on the Board, wouldn't he be in a position to know what constitutes a significant threshold? Wouldn't he have an idea as to what constitutes a mathematical certainty and what can be relegated to a less significant margin of acceptability? Wouldn't this person's inability to grasp the concept of contamination cast a questionable shadow across his employer's ability to hire the best and brightest engineers? Of course, since he only recently asked if the site was contaminated, he clearly must have been sleeping since 2005.

We need better people on the Board. While the public may have tapped the current board members for the illusion of intelligence, it hasn't generated the sort of results we have been seeking. Having the credentials to serve the public and using them are two entirely different things. Saying you seek public accountability and actually promoting it are two different things. The Board is currently unable or unwilling to truly govern our district with the sort of leadership we desperately need.

I find it surprising that, as a nation we were able to take an awe-inspiring step forward by electing a relatively unknown senator to become our next president and yet locally, we collectively refuse to embrace the opportunity to change things for the better.

I wonder if the owner/operator of NPI truly believes that the piano scam wasn't a scam at all. I wonder if he truly believes that a signed lease with a public agency doesn't mean anything.

I wonder if an engineer in the aerospace industry truly believes that the new administration site isn't contaminated because Marla confirmed it. Perhaps if Marla taped cardboard wings on a bicycle and confirmed that it could fly, this board member would be packing his bags to fly it to his next vacation.

The foolish choices made by our elected board members, and Gary Noble, do very little to promote the intelligence and objective deliberation of district leadership, but they also weaken the strength of companies in our region.

Blog: Simplified Acquisition Procedures - Advanced - 5 Days - $830. If a public agency seeks to procure anything, just write a lease. Give Perkins a call and I am sure they can draft something hardly intelligible but that meets the minimum legal threshold.

Our Beliefs Impact Board Effort.

2008-11-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

The Board interprets our belief about their ability and potential. Our thoughts matter and how we work with the Board brings about results consistent with these beliefs.

Uri Treisman, Professor from the Dana Center at the University of Texas, recently noted that if the public thinks a board's ability is “permanently fixed” and not capable of being improved; then, expectations and interventions are impacted and the Board doesn't improve. In now 25 years in public education, I have seen that this is particularly critical for board members with low self confidence. A rare board member is strong enough to overcome and learn in spite of their own limitations. Most are victims of it. However, if we think a board member's ability can improve from effort and we accept and start with them where their ability is now, combined with a belief that if they worked with us, that together we can reach a higher and better place for their learning and performance then that is exactly what happens. Board members come to us as they are; the first and most profound variable for all board member learning is our acceptance of them as people and our belief in them as elected officials.

Our beliefs directly influence board member motivation, effort, and ultimately performance over time. Given a healthy belief about the capacity for ALL board members to make an effort, and in doing so improve, here are some tips for building board member motivation:

1. Keep board members in psychologically and emotionally safe places when they are working so they are empowered to make the effort and not be driven by fear to avoid making an effort for risk of looking bad in their own eyes and in their peer culture

2. Help board members accept in a real and honest way, where they are. Reinforce them in a caring way that they are of value at that starting place. Express hope for them in how you communicate, such that they are willing to make the effort to improve.

3. Admit with the board member that it is hard work but they are worth making the investment in themselves, their education, and their future.

4. Start with what board members know and can do, and then build on these to gain momentum.

5. Have routines for recognizing improvement and effort, as well as recognition of performance; or else for the reluctant board member you will get neither.

6. Reinforce the tenacity of board members working through new learning in your community. When their effort is rewarded and recognized, it is like priming a pump of positive energy and they will want to work harder.

7. Know your struggling board members by name and face, and not just as statistics on a chart or graph. As you build relationships and trust with them, their efforts will increase for you and with you, even if the subject matter is a struggle.

When you get together with your friends and neighbors, use the time to share strategies, approaches, and successes with each other. Talk about your practice with each other and use board member comprehension as the center piece. What we focus on as adults is what gets done, and when board member learning is our collective target, everyone wins.

Blog: This entry is a slightly modified version of something posted on the District's website. The moderator of the blog is not the original author of this material.

Camp moves to Lake in the Woods.

2008-11-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it becomes necessary to pack up Camp and move to a better place. Eventually, there just aren't enough places to bury excrement and you have to move to a new place, farther from Edmonds. Of course, it doesn't help matters when many of the people around your Camp are burying their waste under your tent.

There was a great opportunity, not long ago, to make the Camp a permanent base and build a house with all of the necessary amenities to support a robust and vibrant place. Unfortunately, this Camp was overlooked as the great and vital resource that it was. Now, the Camp is moving further north.

With the uprooting of this Camp, the organization of wolves will rejoice in that no future Camps will be established and money will be saved by allowing staff to wander around with no particular direction in mind. Some will sleep for hours at a time, locked in a latrine. Others will smuggle materials to distant locations for use at their private, personal place.

A Camp offers the opportunity for nomadic people to return to a common place where ideas and stories can be shared. Without a Camp, such nomadic people will just wander aimlessly without the benefit of a unified community. As wanderers, they will be more easily picked off by wolves and budgetary predators.

Without the hope of another Camp, the outcome is obvious; wandering nomads, without the benefit of a map, will quickly get lost. These wanderers may find themselves at the Shoreline, Cape Flattery, Northshore, Kettle Falls, Mount Vernon, Mercer Island or Lake Stevens. Can we really afford to have these people wander off to new territories?

District needs to call in the Mythbusters.

2008-11-25T05:54:00.000-08:00

Single reading, approve Acceptance of Public Works Contract, District Support Center - early site grading package, Resolution #08-47.
It was moved by Director Shields and seconded by Director Noble to approve the acceptance of public works contract – District Support Center early site grading package, Resolution #08-47. It was confirmed that there was no soil contamination on the site and that the early site grading was complete. All aye.

So, I have to ask, who "confirmed that there was no soil contamination"? Any reasonable person would have to ask such a question. Confirmation of such a condition would require the requisite qualifications to make such an assessment. Better still, the public should, at the very least, seek "certification" from the designated environmental engineering firm working for the District. The best path forward would be an independent assessment from a third party - which will never happen.

If AMEC is prepared to certify that the site is free from contamination, the public should be reasonably confident that future problems with abating or mitigating contamination would be minimal.

This particular board action item smacks of utter stupidity. Why not just "confirm" that Gary Noble is god, that Nick Brossoit is dependable or that Marla Miller is honest. Under what authority is such a confirmation offered? What good is such a confirmation if there is nothing of substance to back up the confirmation. The only confirmation offered by the board action item is the Board's absolute and irrefutable detachment from any sense of obligation to the community.

Is anyone fooled by this meaningless confirmation inserted into the board minutes? I would be willing to bet that if you can read words written in the English language then you likely share my view that our district is being driven into the ground by a tag team of bobbleheads.

ESD15 spins off an office reconfiguration service.

2008-11-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

In an effort to better support our financially-strapped public agencies, the blog has decided to offer reconfiguration services to help our community weather the storm of economic uncertainty. It is no longer necessary to contact those high-end cubicle companies to have your space reconfigured, nor is it necessary to interact with internal staff to try to ascertain just what exactly your new space might look like.

Our experience is extensive. Our lead installer has experience building out AO2 cubicles and can reconfigure a space containing 20 to 30 employees over a single weekend. Collectively, we have designed more efficient work spaces, tracked existing inventory, tapped resources for obtaining additional Herman Miller AO2 panels and pieces, coordinated the delivery of portable crates, managed the networking requirements of the new space, enlisted the services of licensed electricians to ensure safe, code-compliant connections and cleaned the entire space so staff can get to work promptly once they return.

Why confine yourself to the limitations of a static work environment when your staffing needs change all of the time? The panels move, after all. They easily come apart and easily go back together. It isn't rocket science, so why would you pay rocket science rates?

Herman Miller AO2 panels and pieces are very common and additional pieces can be acquired on the secondary market for a fraction of the original price. Our staff is even skilled at reupholstering panels to make them work in a more aesthetically pleasing manner. No mish-mash of colors or a splash of contrast where such a splash really isn't wanted.

Why waste the time of valuable, internal staff with something so simple as a reconfiguration? Why would any public agency want their employees harboring grudges against co-workers for messing up what was only an inefficient space and now is an horrendous mess that accommodates no one? Let those valuable employees get back to filling out purchase orders or tracking keys.

Our reconfiguration service is founded on one basic premise. We serve as reconfiguration consultants. We assemble the best people and products and ensure the lowest possible price and shortest possible down time because of our vast experience in the industry.

If you are concerned about what your accounting department might say about that fat check made out to ESD15.org, don't worry, as consultants we won't charge you a thing. You just pay for the parts and the hourly rate of our highly-efficient installer.

If you need a first or second opinion about how to get your space modified to meet your programmatic needs for the lowest possible price, do yourself a favor and email us immediately.

Perkins Coie must be on speed dial.

2008-11-20T16:38:00.000-08:00

On the 20th of November, at 8:21 AM, using Internet Explorer 7.0 and Windows 2003 with an unspecified monitor resolution and an IP address of 168.99.166.227, a user named Edmonds School District logged on to the blog.

Eight minutes and 30 seconds later, this user visited another page on the blog.

At 8:53 AM, using Internet Explorer 6.0 and Windows XP with a monitor resolution of 1024x768 and an IP address of 198.22.100.4, a user named Perkins Coie logged on to the blog. They visited the entry found by clicking here.

At 8:55 AM, this same user at Perkins Coie then visited another entry found by clicking here.

The total time spent on the blog by Perkins Coie was less than two minutes and involved visits to no more than two entries. At a rate of $360 an hour, the bill for this legal review will be - if they bill by the minute - no less than $12.00. That is 17 frozen cheese sandwiches.

Points to review by legal:

"seems to expose a rather disturbing trend"
The author's impression or opinion.

"seem[s] that no one at the District is capable of seeing a legal argument"
The author's impression or opinion.

"no one on staff...apparently knows when a legal threshold has been crossed"
The author's impression or opinion.

"the habit of channeling business to friends"
Demonstrated fact of past conduct. [See: Piano Scam]

"What are the rest of us supposed to believe about the intelligence of district management?"
Asking a question. The answer could be rather flattering to district management.

"The District has developed an itchy trigger finger because they never paid for the gun or ammo and have no stake in the bloodshed the bullets may cause."
If this statement suggests a veiled threat of some kind, keep in mind that the District is the one depicted as holding a gun.

"The Board continues to deny the fact that Gary Noble is a squatter and needs to be ejected from his illegitimately acquired seat."
Statement of fact. [See: Gary Noble]

"The issue will no doubt end up in a court room and will result in one simple conclusion."
If this is interpreted as a threat of some kind, that cannot be helped. The public has the choice to file for corrective action and will likely do so. I have faith in my community.

"Are members of the public so simple that lawyers can easily convince them to focus on a single dot rather than a line or a pattern?"
This seems to be either a criticism of unknown members of the public or a compliment to the legal profession.

"The District will continue to bleed cash on lawyers when people that lack legal training or legal sense engage the services of lawyers to defend incredibly stupid choices."
I am not aware of any member of district staff having passed the Washington State Bar or management actually using the opinions of such district exceptions during the course of discussions regarding facilities or operations.

"The lawyers defending the District are reminiscent of the worst sort of defense attorneys - those doing whatever is necessary to get their client off, even if their client committed the crime."
A direct comparison between the District's lawyers and criminal defense attorneys working hard to serve their client. Again, a compliment to lawyers or perhaps a direct comparison with the fashion sense they may have in common.

Note to Legal: I normally work from 6:45 AM until 3:45 PM. Today would be a normal day.

The public pays for the District's lack of legal sense.

2008-11-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

A question has been posed by a contributor to this blog that seems to expose a rather disturbing trend in the manner in which our public servants at the Edmonds School District engage law firms. It would seem that no one at the District is capable of seeing a legal argument when one is blatantly obvious. There is no one on staff that apparently knows when a legal threshold has been crossed.

With the amount of money being spent on lawyers, and the habit of channeling business to friends, the public cannot be blamed for thinking that maybe district management has friends at these law firms. After all, when a lawyer from Rotary is struggling to keep his law practice afloat, he makes a call and his wife is hired without qualifications or meaningful experience. What are the rest of us supposed to believe about the intelligence of district management?

These are the same people that are making decisions about how best to educate our children.

From a personal perspective, I was rather surprised to see the District hire Perkins Coie to challenge my use of ESD15.org for non-profit, community discussions about the Edmonds School District. [Let the legal billing begin, The District wants your wool socks] If ever there was a reason to use .org, a public forum would be the perfect venue for such a domain. Hiring a high-priced law firm to mail a few threatening letters does nothing more than incur legal fees that have to be covered by the public.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a portion of the legal fees incurred by the District passed along to the manager that engaged the firm to mount an offensive position on the issue. Perhaps 10%? Maybe 25%? The District has developed an itchy trigger finger because they never paid for the gun or ammo and have no stake in the bloodshed the bullets may cause.

Next was the senseless defense of Gary Noble's ineligibility to run for a seat on the Board. Despite the fact that board policies were written in English and they were very easy to understand, the District's next law firm relied upon irrelevant state laws to manufacture a non-existent defense of Gary Noble. [Gary Noble should immediately resign, "Exit Items" reveal that Gary Noble must go, Shoveling smoke and talking by the hour] The State Auditor and Attorney General have both weighed in and have concluded that Gary Noble is out of compliance. The Board continues to deny the fact that Gary Noble is a squatter and needs to be ejected from his illegitimately acquired seat.

The issue will no doubt end up in a court room and will result in one simple conclusion. Unfortunately, the legal fees incurred by the District will never be covered by Gary Noble, despite the fact that his refusal to relinquish an undeserved seat is at the root of legal expenses.

The question posed was this:
When is a law firm obligated to advise their client that the facts do not support their case?

On the one hand, the law firm is made up of partners that have an expectation of maximizing income for their firm. On the other, the firm needs to adequately protect their client from incurring unnecessary charges chasing after bad policies that will only result in future losses.

Is a law firm doing its job when their client spends very little paying for lawyers? Of course. Where is the sense of justice when a law firm just spins bad decisions long enough to wear down their opponent? What happens when such cases arrive before a jury? Are members of the public so simple that lawyers can easily convince them to focus on a single dot rather than a line or a pattern?

The District will continue to bleed cash on lawyers when people that lack legal training or legal sense engage the services of lawyers to defend incredibly stupid choices. The lawyers defending the District are reminiscent of the worst sort of defense attorneys - those doing whatever is necessary to get their client off, even if their client committed the crime.

Public servants or self-serving fraudsters on public assistance?

2008-11-18T05:50:00.000-08:00

Interesting article in our local paper on the sparsely populated side of the state. Seems the State Auditor is concerned with travel costs paid by Washington school district for professional meetings. Spending too much money on hotel rooms, not renting economy cars, etc. Now, we are talking about 1/3 of 1% of the total amount of money spent on schools, but "reducing travel costs...would free up more dollars to educate kids." (Tri-City Herald, 11/17/08, B1)

Paying the school superintendent less than the governor would have the same effect. Not purchasing contaminated land would have the same effect. Not lease/purchasing pianos through a purposefully convoluted process (and not being able to find the paperwork or checks) would have the same effect. Not paying relatives above the standard pay grade would have the same effect. The list is extensive, Mr Sonntag.

Yes, it was the bean counters who finally got Al Capone, but it seems that our Auditor's office is missing the big picture here. Knocking a district for staying at the hotel/convention center rather than the Motel 6 at the edge of town (and having to perhaps rent a car to get to the conference) while ignoring the waste of millions of dollars on the purchase of contaminated property that the district has refused for years to purchase (or any of the dozen or so issues placed before the Auditor's office) seems myopic.

But perhaps, if the Auditor can get an article in the paper every once in a while that "shows" he is doing "something," that would satisfy his goal of looking productive even if the big fish get away.

Woodway and Evergreen: Your days are numbered.

2008-11-16T17:43:00.000-08:00

The agenda for the Board meeting scheduled for November 18th includes a first reading for the closure of Woodway and a first reading for the closure of Evergreen. What happened to the "study" being conducted by the CPC? What happened to the deliberation by the Board? The CPC was to study and develop a plan for consolidation. Where is that plan?

Will the Board at least "read" something to the audience during the Board meeting? Normally, they think that reading the agenda item constitutes an actual reading of the action item. The rest of us would like to know what is happening and just because our elected BMs don't care doesn't mean the rest of us don't either.

It must be very troubling to be a parent of students at Woodway or Evergreen. They appear to be rather quiet on this topic. Have they been drinking Nick's Kool-Aid?

In a matter of a few years, the Evergreen site will be grabbed by the City of Mountlake Terrace at some bargain basement price - or perhaps just given away. The City wants to develop the site and has been threatening to do so for years. It wasn't long ago when they attempted to rezone the site, making it impossible for the school to make any meaningful improvements. So why did greater minds seek to confront this change in zoning?

When it all comes down to it, the City will get their zoning, a developer will get the site and Marla will get whatever it is that she wants from this. The only loser in the process will be the taxpayers of the Edmonds School District.

NEW BUSINESS (2 minutes each)
1. Single reading, approve Acceptance of Public Works Contract, District Support Center - early site grading package, Resolution #08-47.
2. First reading, Woodway Elementary School Closure (no action)
3. First reading, Evergreen Elementary School Closure (no action)

Public perception is the District's only priority.

2008-11-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

While many in public service are only interested in how things look at the surface, there are many of us that poke and prod at issues that casual observers care not to explore.

For instance, the State Auditor is currently using a Google-supported script to generate an email every time his name surfaces in a blog entry. My logs show that he doesn't really spend much time reading, just staying long enough to see how others might perceive him. He isn't reading for substance, just trying to glean the manner in which his name is being used.

What makes this habit terribly unfortunate is that public agencies lose their ability to delve into topics in a meaningful way. They begin to evaluate issues by limiting themselves to how the public may see them. Obsession with public perception is at the root of what is eroding our public agencies. As public interest and analytical abilities wane and vanish, the public agencies being "held accountable" slip further and further from their assigned path of due diligence.

When forced to contend with an adversarial relationship, they only see opponents in very simple terms. Enemies of the organization are pounded into pre-defined roles that are better understood by the public. From hours of watching television, the public knows that opponents tend to wear dark clothing, have facial scars and are most active in the evening hours.

Public agencies have adopted a strategy of illusion. Dazzle your constituents with simple trickery and slight of hand maneuvers and no one will cast an unfavorable glance in your direction.

Fortunately, there are still a lot of public agencies that believe in their organizational mission. Unfortunately, the Edmonds School District is not one of them.

Board Meeting Report – November 4th

2008-11-10T06:02:00.000-08:00

At the last Board Meeting, I specifically asked the Board to be accountable and RESPOND to the public in their requests – not just the "Thank you for your comments" – truly respond, state their positions and be accountable to the community they serve. Simply, they did not and acted as if I was not even in the room.

The only time this Board responds to issues is when they are addressed by the media (or to an issue that the Administration requests – of which it is a "rubber stamp") - NEVER to the public or the "rank and file staff". This is unacceptable when there are huge cuts in services being proposed by the Superintendent. A partial list of issues and abuses brought to them over the last year includes:

Children being denied food and embarrassed at school

School Lunches rising over 100% in a single year (no other school district has prices CLOSE to this)

A multi-million dollar overpayment of a contaminated land purchase

The implementation of a policy to charge PTAs rental fees so they can volunteer their time for our kids

Clear circumvention of procurement procedures to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars for pianos

Clearly ignoring the active promotion of a culture of fear amongst district employees

Ignoring repeated calls to address school closures and dismantling the Terrace Park Middle School Program in a responsible manner

Ignoring fraudulent actions on the part of a Board member, Dr. Bruce Williams and spending thousands of dollars in legal fees that should be going to our kids

Ignoring a clear conflict of interest by another board member, Mr. Gary Noble, to run for a seat he was ineligible to run for (and did anyways with full knowledge of the violation).

And the list goes on, and on.

We need a fundamental change in the School Board to allow us to create a District that is representative of our community, operates effectively and independently from the Administration, provide QUALITY education to our kids and communicate with our parents and district staff.

We need to vote the entire board out of office and start fresh. We need a board that is RESPONSIVE to the needs of the community and is ACCOUNTABLE to the community they serve.

Rick Jorgensen

Blog has become a permanent record of district misconduct.

2008-11-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

In reviewing blog traffic recently, it has become abundantly clear that our entries are being read by a wide range of people from a wide range of places. Many of our visitors have been reading articles from the summer of 2007 while the majority are reading several entries every day.

Thanks to StatCounter, I can tell how long each visitor is staying on the blog, what articles they are reading, in what order and where they go once they leave esd15.org. This is powerful information and can be used to specifically guide topics for discussion. I know what is interesting to our visitors and I know what generates the most traffic.

The vast majority of our visitors come from a Google search of keywords. There are many other search engines being utilized, but the bulk of searches come by way of Google. The same can be said of browser locations. There are many people visiting the blog from all over the world, but the vast majority come from Snohomish County.

People are using Google to search for things like "Nick Brossoit", "Edmonds School District blog", "election results", "Randy Dorn", "pat shields school board edmonds", "School district superintendent, no trespass, retaliation", "why cheese sandwich in schools" and "Seattle Northwest Securities school bond". What is most interesting is that the information presented on the blog will be available for many years to come. It will forever illustrate what this current band of scoundrels has been up to and it will offer all of the evidence for their misdeeds for the foreseeable future.

To date, the blog has exposed election fraud by Bruce Williams, utter stupidity and election fraud by Gary Noble, theft of public resources by Pat Shields, refusal to photocopy checks or keep adequate records by management, favoritism in Human Resources, violations of public procurement requirements by Marla Miller, absolute incompetence by management regarding Cedar Valley, Site 6 and the new administration site, irrefutable evidence of simple-mindedness regarding the Capital Facilities Plan, blatant theft of public resources regarding the Capital Partnership Program and a wide assortment of other iniquitous conduct by district management. All the evidence any reader would need is right here in this blog. If anyone has a doubt, ask the District to explain themselves. They won't because they can't.

The blog also has more than 186,364 page views and more than 500 entries.

Additionally, the blog has been contacted by countless concerned parents and community members expressing a desire to stop this obvious and deplorable conduct. The general consensus at present is to challenge the District in court. The Board has been given every opportunity to correct their behavior and, to date, has demonstrated a shocking disregard for the public. I am inclined to believe that change will not happen without a court decision.

The next step in this process is to have the Gary Noble issue heard in court. Only through such a process can the many issues presented in this blog be presented in a courtroom - to be heard by a jury.

Clearly we have a problem. The blog, the State Auditor and the Attorney General all believe that Gary Noble was not eligible to run for a seat on the school board. It was recommended that board policies be changed to prevent this sort of stupidity from happening again. Those policies have been changed, but the illegitimate outcome of last year's election has not yet been corrected.

As the next phase moves forward, Gary Noble needs to decide if his unjustified seat on the Board is worth racking up additional legal expenses for the District.

Things that are holy are revealed only to men who are holy.

2008-11-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

So far, on all of these issues where board policies and state law were violated, where the superintendent lied repeatedly to protect the sanctity of the board and its members, where crooked deals were pieced together to enrich friends and associates on the District's dime, we have seen something rather amazing unfold. The board and its tentacles are so enamored by themselves and their minions that all logic, fact and basic extrapolation are thrown out the window in favor of a simple tenet. They are God.

The Board is infallible, therefore all supporting evidence must be fabricated to support any conclusions they have already adopted - with the greatest of faith and divine intervention, no doubt. Anyone that dares speak against the sanctity of the Holy Board must immediately be labeled a heretic and cast asunder.

Contrary to this opinion is an ever-expanding string of irrefutable facts all leading to a simple conclusion of District corruption. We have the single cell organisms. We have the amphibious vertebrates crawling from the primordial soup. We have the prosimian. We have the Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus and Homo Sapien. We have the Olduwan, Acheulean, Iron Age and the Industrial Revolution. We have all of the evidence demonstrating the depth and scope of corruption in the District, but the Board, in all of its holiness, has adopted a new way of thinking: Facts are meaningless unless ordained and consecrated by the Holy Board.

Editorial: The Scientific Method seeks conclusions from facts while the Creationist Method seeks facts to support conclusions.

Randy Dorn appears to be winning.

2008-11-05T05:31:00.000-08:00

For the latest election results, click here.

Randy Dorn held a slim lead over incumbent Terry Bergeson in early returns Tuesday in the race to become Washington state's top schools official.

If Dorn wins, it would be a big upset for Bergeson, who has spent three terms in office, and hasn't had a tight race since she first ran for the post in 1992 and lost.

"We gave the voters of the state a choice and we think we're going to win, and it will be the best thing for kids," Dorn said. "We definitely need a new set of eyes and a new leader in education."

Bergeson said she knew the race would be close, and laid some of the blame on the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires states to test students more than ever before.

"That's why I'm in trouble tonight," she said. "It's the weight of too much testing and too much negativity."

Win or lose, she said, she plans to find a way to work with President-elect Barack Obama's administration to make major changes in the No Child Left Behind law. Bergeson sought a fourth term to continue work she's done since the mid-1980s.

She has presided over efforts to write new learning standards for students, and to develop tests to judge whether they've reached them.

Those tests are known as the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), which are given in grades 3-8 and 10, and cover reading, math and, in some grades, writing and science.

If re-elected, she said, this four-year term would be her last.

Dorn, executive director of a union that represents 26,000 teacher aides, bus drivers, janitors and other school employees, said he ran because he's become disenchanted with Bergeson's leadership.

As a state representative from 1987 to 1994, he helped write the education law that Bergeson has implemented, but he says she's taken it in directions that he and others never intended.

If elected, he pledged to work to get rid of the WASL and replace it with a shorter, less-expensive exam.

He particularly objected to the way Bergeson developed the math section of the WASL, saying it tested students' reading abilities as much as their math skills.

Dorn's union played a big financial role in the race.

The political-action committee of the SEIU's national office sunk about $400,000 into ads supporting Dorn, and others opposing Bergeson. Dorn sits on the SEIU national board.

By Linda Shaw, Seattle Times

The District's masquerade of integrity and virtue.

2008-10-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

It seems appropriate to discuss district management's lack of empathy on this day of disguises and masks. Clearly, they lack the ability to look beyond what appears on the surface. They look no deeper than the masks of others and expect no one to look beyond their own masks. Until management understands that real people have real lives and actually have independent thoughts and feelings, nothing will ever change.

Management quickly thrusts opponents into a mire of negativity because they lack the ability to discern between thinking, feeling people and the shell of humans they perceive and portray. It seems their strategy is to dazzle thoughtless and shallow humans when really their audience is just unengaged and uninterested. There is a difference. People have their own lives to live and their own concerns. They don't have the energy to take on honorable causes because their honorable causes are closer to home - like family.

What is also rather striking is district management's propensity to project their motives on others. I suspect management readily assigns a rather twisted purpose to people that speak out against them. If the roles were reversed, district management would be sneaky and conniving. They may sue for no other purpose than money. They may blog for no other reason than to attack and belittle others.

If the roles were reversed, there is no way on this earth that district management would take on a personal struggle to improve the plight of others. No. If district management took on a challenge, they would have no other motive than personal enrichment and self glorification. Just look at the Piano Scam, the contaminated site, Gary Noble, Pat Shields, Bruce Williams and the lengthy list of other very bad choices made in the last few years. The record speaks for itself. It clearly demonstrates that management serves no one but themselves. If anything positive happens, it is either an unplanned coincidence or there is an underlying scam that has yet to be exposed.

Until management digs a little deeper and tries to understand others, they will amount to nothing more than paint. It may be fashionable on the day it was selected, but trends change and once the old color is covered - it is soon forgotten. I just hope that the long term impact of this current batch of paint doesn't rot out the sheet rock, studs, and exterior siding.

Happy Halloween.

Fun Factoid: This is blog entry number 498. There are 31 drafts that have yet to be posted. There are 11 completely new topics that have yet to be revealed. We have had 184,941 page views since we started in June 2007.

And just where are those fourteen pianos?

2008-10-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Many people have been asking, just where are those 14 pianos purchased, sorry "leased" from Seattle Piano Gallery? If anyone knows, please tell the rest of us.

It is one thing to thwart legally-required procurement processes and direct business to friends. It is entirely a different thing if the pianos purchased, sorry "leased", never stayed in the District.

Please click on the link and check if one of these pianos ended up at your site.

Someone could make a public records request, but I suspect the District will tell you that no such records exist that reveal the whereabouts of these magical pianos.

District Benefits: One step forward, three steps back.

2008-10-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

From: Barney, Laura (ESC)
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 2:50 PM
Subject: Insurance Benefits and Pools
Importance: High

To: Group Leadership Members

From: Laura Barney, Manager of Payroll and Benefits

Re: Insurance Benefits and Pooling

Earlier this week notification was sent to the leadership of each employee group about the new pooling amounts for the 08-09 school year. As always, the cost of benefit coverage and the impact it has on all employees is an important issue for the District. In addition, during this period of economic uncertainty employees are more concerned than ever about the impact these increased benefit costs have on their pay. As leaders within your groups, I thought it would be helpful to share some "talking points" about benefits and pooling, so you are able to answer questions or address concerns from your members.

The perception is that the District has "cut" employees' benefits. This is not the case. In fact, the state allocation increased by $25 per month and all employee groups (with the exception of Superintendent's Staff) receive an additional allocation per month, funded by the District, based on midpoint data.

There are several factors that have occurred that have unfortunately caused greater out-of-pocket expense for several individuals:

Health insurance rates increased significantly in September. Although the District negotiated lower rate increases than originally proposed by the insurance companies, rate increases are a direct result of plan use the prior year. District employees and dependents are using their medical coverage to the fullest capacity and this has directly impacted the rate increases.

It is important that employees remember they are only guaranteed the state allocation (based on FTE) toward their benefit package each year. The District does pool the excess dollars for most groups so all additional funds go directly back to the employees, however, there is no way to predict the actual pooling dollars from one year to the next. We acknowledge this is difficult for planning purposes and that is why we are diligent about reminding employees in our benefit brochures, at the Benefits Fair and at labor management meetings that they should be making insurance decisions based on their needs, and financial decisions based on the state allocation each year.

Sometimes employees will forget that pools will vary from year to year and will make plan changes or will add family members based on what they anticipate will be available to them in the fall; then when the pools are calculated following open enrollment, they are surprised by the decrease in pool dollars and the increase to their out-of-pocket expense.

Pool balances are monitored monthly and are recalculated twice a year, once in October and again in April. Historically, pools are higher in the spring than in the fall. This occurs primarily because employees drop dependent coverage after they see their out-of-pocket expense in the fall, therefore "freeing up" pool dollars for others to use. We wait until April to adjust the pool dollars because during the first part of the school year there is a lot of fluctuation to all the factors that affect pooling; enrollment changes (dropping dependent coverage), new hires, FTE/hours changes, etc. Generally, by mid-year these factors are static and we are able to accurately adjust the pools.

There is a bigger impact to the pool when the employee group is smaller (like maintenance or principals) compared to the larger groups (teacher or paraeducators). A change by 1 person in a smaller group can significantly impact the pool dollars for every employee in that group.

Why does the notification about pool dollars happen so late in October?

Pools are calculated based on all the changes that occur during open enrollment. Open enrollment lasts the entire month of September. We calculate the pools once all enrollment changes are entered into the payroll system and all new hires and FTE changes are processed for October payroll; this is usually complete about the third week of October. As soon as this work is complete the information is shared with each group. It is not possible to calculate the pools prior to open enrollment since the pool amounts are driven by the changes that occur during open enrollment. The process and timing of calculating the pools is the same this year as it has been for many years.

Thank you for your help communicating this important information to our employees. If you have questions you can contact me directly at (425) 431-7037. If staff members have specific concerns, I am happy to talk with them.

Brandsma and Brossoit: Tumwater's finest.

2008-10-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

Brandsma, previously the deputy superintendent, has worked in Everett Public Schools since 2001. He came to the district from Tumwater Schools where he served as director of secondary education and technology. Prior to that, he worked in the Tacoma and Peninsula school districts. His 31-year career began in the Tumwater School District where he was a teacher, football coach and department chair.

The Edmonds School Board voted Wednesday to hire Tumwater School District Superintendent Nick Brossoit as superintendent of the 21,000-student district. Brossoit, has been superintendent of the Olympia-area district of 6,000 students for the past 10 years. Before that, he was an assistant superintendent in the Burlington-Edison School District.

It does seem terribly unfortunate that the two largest school districts in Snohomish County are being "led" by forces from Tumwater. Just what is it about Tumwater that churns out these sorts of people?

Before Tumwater received its current name, it was known as Bush Prairie after the founding settler George Washington Bush.

The name was changed to Tumwater borrowing from a Chinook Jargon phrase tumtum chuck meaning "waterfall" or "rapids" (literally "heartbeat water").

From 1896-2003, Tumwater was well known regionally as the home of the Olympia Brewing Company.

Comments are stamped with the date and time.

2008-10-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

It is worth mentioning that comments submitted to the blog are stamped with the date and time they were submitted. As moderator, I cannot alter the comment or the date and time the blog received it. I can just reject the comment or publish it - those are my only two choices.

If contributors wish to attach their name to a comment, please pay attention to the time the comment was submitted. The District may claim they have no problem with your expression of free speech, but just make sure it isn't "on the clock" or while using a district computer.

If you have something to say during business hours, you can use a private, non-District email account and mail it to mark@esd15.org. Of course, as is always the case, I would prefer not to know who you are, but if you want to use your name, and want it posted along with your comment, I will be happy to do that for you.

It is also worth mentioning that anything sent to my email address has a set shelf life. In order to conserve space and not bog down my account, all email is automatically deleted after 30 days.

When I wrote my Letter to the Editor of the Edmonds Beacon that appeared on March 22, 2007, I was using my own computer and wrote the entire letter on my own time. I was expressing a personal opinion that had nothing to do with the District and yet - still - management felt they owned the contents of my head and every moment of my life.

Parental pacification and the assault on staff.

2008-10-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

There have been more than a few people calling the blog tip line and sending anonymous emails expressing concern about the latest district tactic to weaken opposition to the dismantling of Terrace Park. Apparently, the District plans to create a highly-capable program at Brier Terrace Middle to pacify opposition. What leg does the parental argument stand upon for eliminating the only non-lottery K-8 school in the District if the plan includes candy canes and gum drops at the replacement location?

The problem with the District's approach is that parents should be bright enough to know a ruse when they see one. Parents couldn't possibly be stupid enough to believe that conversations about a new highly-capable program will still be happening after the move takes place. In fact, I would even place a wager that the program never launches and that it is merely idle chatter intended for no other purpose than to make middle-of-the-road parents start swearing their allegiance to district management.

Another interesting tidbit is the latest decision to meddle with the medical benefits of staff and the overtime of custodians. From what I have been able to extrapolate from the messages on the tip line, it would appear that the District is launching a financial assault against employees that dodged staffing cuts. Oddly, while administrators are getting an increase in benefits, everyone else appears to be in the cross hairs. What makes this situation all the more egregious is the lack of sufficient notification. Why inform staff of reductions just one week before it hits their monthly paycheck?

The overtime issue is alarming. From what I have been hearing, if there is a paid holiday during the week and a custodian works eight hours of overtime during the same week, they will not receive overtime pay for those eight hours. I have also heard a rather pathetic assertion that the District has been violating state law for years in paying overtime when the first 40 hours involved vacation time or sick leave. I suspect Floridians couldn't even be this stupid. How hard will it be to get a custodian to work overtime when there is a vacation during the week? What good is it to use sick leave or take a vacation if it won't count toward your 40 hours of weekly effort?

More details are needed, so if you have a perspective to contribute, your insight will be much appreciated.

Public Hearings - Edmonds School District Style

2008-10-24T06:26:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of old-fashioned. I always thought that a public hearing was something that was widely announced to the community, had materials available for review to the public well in advance and a well informed public would come with questions and comments in order to have an actual DISCUSSION of the issues. Well, I guess ESD does things a bit differently.

I heard about the "public hearing" for the State Performance Audit because I happened to be one of the 10 people that attend board meetings and look at the agenda before the meeting (I noticed that the Facilities Use Policy was NOT a point of discussion and magically turned up as BEING on the agenda - but that is another topic). There was no information to review, no links to what was to be discussed, zero, zip, nada. I checked my son's school newsletter and the school website (that provides me of important information about the school) and didn't see anything. Here we go again - if you don't tell people about a topic, then you can guarantee that the public can not provide comments that you might not agree with.

During the board meeting, Marla Miller went into great detail about how the audit was oh so wrong and misleading. Well, she said, we can ALWAYS learn something and we will try to improve on what makes sense, but for the most part, the auditors just don't know what they are talking about. No plans on what she was planning to look into, no expectations of time frame, no accountability, zip, nothing, nada.

Then came the Board, member after member lamenting how unfair the audit was and reminding the public that they were "picked on" (sarcastically) to receive special treatment by the State. Nothing that stated how they might actually consider learning or consider anything of value from the process, nothing, zip, nada.

So they opened public comments and asked if anyone wanted to speak. After quickly scanning the information provided 5 minutes before the "hearing" , I put a couple of words together on the fly (within my 3 minute time limit) and asked the board to consider directing staff to come back with some kind of recommendations on what COULD work to bring SOME Savings to the district (this after they spent hours trying to figure our how to charge non-profits maybe $50k per year to offset the budget reductions and why $50k was so important). The response? Well, a bit better. Some "head nods" up and down. Any direction? None, zip, nada, nothing.

To be kind, this was not a public hearing. It was a "check mark" to say that they "did something". Business as usual with the ESD Board.

Rick Jorgensen

Superintendent's "Open Door Policy" is a sham.

2008-10-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

At the Board meeting last night, Nick responded to a community member's comments that dealt specifically with district staff and their reluctance to expose mismanagement in the organization. District employees are clearly concerned that if they speak up and reveal their identity they might find themselves without employment. It isn't hard to imagine. Look what happened to the moderator of this blog.

Nick's response was to encourage staff to pass along their concerns to their association presidents so the information might be conveyed anonymously to management without regard to the identity of the source. Nick even went as far as to encourage former employees to use the open door policy.

Well, let's review the record on one glaring topic.

A member of the public mentioned to the Board and Superintendent that Gary Noble was ineligible to compete for a seat on the Board. The notification was made prior to the election. There was adequate time to revise policies and protect Gary, but alas, Nick and the Board decided to pretend they were not native English speakers. They even went as far as to hire a law firm to support their confusion with references to irrelevant state statutes.

No constructive action was taken by the Board. No meaningful steps were taken by Nick. In fact, when confronted with irrefutable evidence, Nick's response was to duck and dive. He was handed critical information and decided to not only ignore it but to spend public money trying to bury it.

To be clear, it wasn't as if a member of the public was offering an opinion. No one was saying that Board members shouldn't look like a Keebler elf or have grey hair. It wasn't an opinion from the community - it was matter of fact and an adopted board policy.

Why wouldn't Nick or the Board act on a concern from the public that involved a conflict clearly cited in board policies and verified by the State Auditor and Attorney General? Well, it wasn't in their interest to do so. If they refuse to adequately and appropriately respond to irrefutable evidence, how would anyone expect them to respond on matters of community opinion?

Do us all a favor, Mr. Nick, and drop your nauseating references to an "Open Door Policy". You may think it sounds impressive because you heard better men use it, but the proof is in the pudding and your dishing out nothing more than scorched mayonnaise.

Fun Factoid: I thought Nick was opposed to anonymous comments. It seems he is now encouraging such anonymous comments to be funneled through an approved conduit. Is this about control or has Mr. Nick had an epiphany?

Malignant cells quickly invade the healthy tissue.

2008-10-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

It is a sad day in our district. After identifying a problem and expressing concerns to the Board and Gary Noble, the District decided to ignore plain, simple words and instead, picked up the phone to engage a team of lawyers. A frantic search was launched, looking for any shred of information that may give the illusion that Gary Noble’s conflict of interest was just a misunderstanding. For those of us that can read, there was no misunderstanding.

Since the Board would not act to correct the problem (or revise board policies prior to the election of November 2007), we had no other choice than to seek the opinion of the Washington State Auditor. Of course, the Auditor was probably bewildered as to how a group of five English-speaking adults could not understand a rather simple board policy. After consulting with the Washington State Attorney General, the State Auditor’s Office reached a conclusion on April 23, 2008 – follow board policies or revise them.

If the Board wasn’t wrong, why would they have to revise their own policies? Have we elected a group of imbeciles? Like many others, I am starting to wonder just who is making the meaningful decisions about the educational needs of our community’s children.

Even more troubling is the fact the State Auditor waited from April 23, 2008 until October 6, 2008 before responding to the concerned citizen. What purpose could that delay have achieved other than to allow the District enough time to revise their plain, simply-worded policies? Not only did the State Auditor wait until after the revisions occurred, they also shifted the burden for responding to the core issue by claiming the County Auditor makes the determination regarding candidate qualifications.

In communicating with the County Auditor, it was made abundantly clear that the Board is responsible for monitoring their own compliance. What happened to checks and balances? What happened to accountability? The public elected citizens to serve on the Board with the understanding that board policies would be followed. Why else would we have board policies?

If board policies don’t mean anything, why would staff be terminated for violating them? Why would students be expelled for violating them? If this isn’t a double standard, I don’t know what would be.

Why would the Board allow Bruce Williams to resign? Didn’t anyone bother to tell him that board policies don’t actually matter?

Since board policies don’t actually matter, why have them at all? Why not add a statement right at the beginning of every policy that provides a disclaimer: The following policy is entirely optional and may or may not be followed, depending upon how the board feels at the time. Such a disclaimer would eliminate any confusion and prevent the public from developing any expectations.

It is no big mystery why no one attends board meetings. If board policies don’t matter, the board doesn’t matter. If the board doesn’t matter, what hope would a community member have in expressing interest in a topic or an opinion regarding our educational objectives?

To the Edmonds School District Board of Directors, you have my heartfelt congratulations. I have demonstrated on paper just why there are so few people that attend your meetings. Clearly, our community views your existence like something akin to a terminal illness. Try as we might to correct a condition, the remaining malignant cells quickly invade the remaining healthy tissue and hasten the demise of the organism.

Board is the final authority for its own violations.

2008-10-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

[Mark Zandberg]

One year ago, you had an exchange of emails with a member of the community that forwarded the communication to me. It was an exchange regarding the status of a school board member in the Edmonds School District. The member was Bruce Williams and your advice was to take up the matter directly with the District.

The issue was raised and the board member ultimately resigned on September 11, 2007. He violated board policies and lied to the County Auditor when he filed as a candidate. He used an address that was not his actual residence.

Thank you for your direction in that case.

Presently, there is another issue of which you may not be aware. Gary Noble ran for re-election in November 2007. In July 2007, I contacted the school board to inform them that Mr. Noble was ineligible to occupy the seat and running for re-election demonstrated an utter disregard for board policies. Mr. Noble was in violation of a provision in board policies that prevented spouses and dependents of district employees from serving on the Board. My comments were disregarded. No action was taken at that time to revise the policies.

I continued to express concerns regarding the candidacy of Mr. Noble and in September 2007 sent a formal letter to the Board and the Superintendent. They responded in October 2007 through legal counsel expressing that Washington State law prevailed and essentially dismissed the validity of all board policies.

I then contacted the State Auditor who immediately added the issue to their list of audit issues for January 2008. When the State Auditor concluded their annual evaluation, they specifically directed the school district to follow board policies or revise them. The direction was included in their Exit Conference dated April 23, 2008.

In September 2008, the school board took action to revise board policies allowing conflicts of interest to occur. While the Board is well within their rights to modify or revise their policies, it does not change the fact that Mr. Noble was ineligible at the time of his "re-election".

On October 6th, 2008, two weeks after the board policy was revised, the State Auditor contacted me and suggested that I take up the matter with the County Auditor. That is the purpose of this letter.

I am concerned that the Board blatantly disregarded their own policies in allowing Mr. Noble to seek re-election when he was an ineligible candidate already.

The revised policy makes it possible for Mr. Noble to run for the position during the next election cycle, but his current status is in question.

I am gravely concerned about the many highly-qualified people that did not run for the board position because board policy prevented it. I am also concerned about the other candidates that expended personal funds to contest the election against an ineligible candidate.

Perhaps I am mistaken to believe that rules mean something, but when so many other people disqualified themselves in reading board policies, how can we allow an ineligible candidate to serve on the Board.

Again, changing the rules in September 2008 makes him an eligible candidate from that day forward but it does nothing to correct the injustice of an unfair election.

I seek corrective action from the County Auditor, as recommended by the State Auditor. The election of Gary Noble needs to be reversed and the options, in my humble opinion, include the following; 1. declare the election of Gary Noble invalid and declare the position vacant pending the next election cycle in 2009, or 2. declare the other candidate as the successful contender and move to have him seated immediately.

It warrants mentioning that the recent revision passed by the Board prevents the appointment of any replacement. All future board members must be elected.

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Four days later...

[Mark Zandberg]

One small point of clarification. When the Board voted to revise their policies on September 23, 2008, allowing future conflicts to occur, Mr. Noble abstained from voting. The reason he abstained is because voting to allow his current conflict would have been a conflict.

Clearly, Mr. Noble is fully aware that his status violated board policy prior to the election of November 2007 and continues to be in violation - despite the recent revision.

The State Auditor and the Attorney General's Office have reviewed this issue and have recommended that I take the matter up with the County Auditor. If you prefer to take no action, I would like to know as soon as possible.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

[Carolyn Weikel]

Thank you for your e-mail regarding your concern over some of the actions by the Edmonds School Board. I would be interested in having a copy of the state Auditor's findings to try and determine why they would refer you to the County Auditor for corrective action. There is no statutory authority delegated to the County Auditor to invalidate a candidate and to declare a position vacant. There are statutory procedures to challenge a candidate's eligibility but there are specific timelines associated with that process which have currently all expired. In addition, any challenge to a voter's or candidate's eligibility based on residency must be initiated by a registered voter or by the Prosecuting Attorney not the County Auditor. If Mr. Noble was in violation of any school board policy that issue needs to be addressed directly with the school board not this office. If you wish to continue to pursue this action the only possible avenue I can think of would be to file a recall petition. (RCW 29A.56)

[Mark Zandberg]

It would appear that you agree with the District's legal counsel, that school board policies do not actually mean anything.

A recall petition is not a viable option. I am not seeking to remove a legitimately elected member of the school board.

Attached is the letter from the State Auditor's representative.

Fun Factoid: The State Auditor notified the Board of Mr. Noble's lack of eligibility on April 23, 2008 and directed them to adhere to existing policies or revise them, but the State Auditor waited until two weeks after the revisions were adopted to respond to my concerns in writing. The County Auditor is now saying that violations of board policy must be "addressed directly with the school board, not [the County Auditor's] Office."

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

2008-10-16T05:57:00.000-07:00

From: Courtney Amonsen
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 12:59 PM
To: Sarah Johnson; Barbara Lowe; Kristina Brundage; Blaine Fritts; Lisa Erdman; Judy Perry
Cc: Cory Maki
Subject: From now on...

So, the Finance Director at Edmonds SD has given Cory a new name. From this point on he will now be called Spence as she has called him that the last two times she came in the room. So, just as Ian was given the name Lance, Cory will now answer to the name Spence.

Courtney Amonsen
Assistant Audit Manager
Washington State Auditor's Office
3501 Colby Avenue, Suite 100B
Everett, WA 98201-4794
(425) 257-2137 - Main Line
(425) 257-2149 - Fax
amonsenc@sao.wa.gov

From: Kristina Brundage
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 1:12 PM
To: Courtney Amonsen; Sarah Johnson; Barbara Lowe; Blaine Fritts; Lisa Erdman; Judy Perry
Cc: Cory Maki
Subject: RE: From now on...

Did Spencer have that audit before?

From: Courtney Amonsen
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 1:14 PM
To: Kristina Brundage; Sarah Johnson; Barbara Lowe; Blaine Fritts; Lisa Erdman; Judy Perry
Cc: Cory Maki
Subject: RE: From now on...

If he did it was at least 4 years ago. That is no excuse to call Cory Spence because Cory has been here for the last two years.

From: Barbara Lowe
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 1:54 PM
To: Courtney Amonsen; Kristina Brundage; Sarah Johnson; Blaine Fritts; Lisa Erdman; Judy Perry
Cc: Cory Maki
Subject: RE: From now on...

He doesn’t look much like a Spence either. When I think of Spence, I think of Doug Heffernan’s friend Spence.

Film producer offers financial support for the blog.

2008-10-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

The blog was recently contacted by a film producer and post-production effects supervisor from Burbank, California. His credits include Underworld, Fantastic Four, and many other contemporary films of which I have never heard.

The purpose of his contact was to express his gratitude for taking on such an honorable cause and to offer his financial support. He has no direct ties to Snohomish County but has family working in the Seattle area. Someone shared the blog with him and he has been reading it ever since.

It has been the policy of this forum to not accept any financial support from the public. Doing so would weaken the mission of the blog and allow opponents to assign a financial motive when no such motive exists.

Again, I wish to extend my sincere appreciation for the many anonymous contributors and, most of all, my sincere admiration for the people who have used their actual names while engaging in matters of great importance to the Edmonds School District.

While it may be true that the Superintendent doesn't agree with making statements anonymously, the State Auditor fully recognizes the power of constructive feedback from any source - known or unknown. Clearly, the State Auditor's Office has better things to do with their time than to hunt down opponents and make life difficult them.

The Superintendent has been hunting opponents for 25 years and certainly doesn't want his hunting license revoked or his choice of prey concealed by vegetation.

The blog is here to stay. We have regular readers from places as far away as Russia, Italy and Argentina, but the vast majority of readers are in Snohomish County. Every now and then you may see a corrupt image file at the bottom of the blog. The number climbs so quickly my counter is challenged with keeping up.

An anonymous forum is far better than a committee.

2008-10-14T05:44:00.000-07:00

There has been a discussion on this blog, and behind the scenes, regarding the creation of a small, board-sponsored committee to receive anonymous concerns and complaints. Under such a scenario, the information received would eventually find its way to the Board for a response.

However, creating a committee to receive anonymous comments from district staff and the public cannot be as effective as a simple blog. With a blog, no one is looking into the eyes of anyone else and no one will ever have to worry about being uncovered.

A committee requires a group of people to come together on a regular basis to review accumulated concerns. Such a group would have to take time out of their schedules and a meeting space would have to be arranged. With the current state of the Facility Use Policy, it would be any one's guess as to how such a meeting would be coordinated. Issues also surface quickly and may require a response before the next meeting can be scheduled.

A committee also has the additional fault of endowing a select few individuals with identifying information that can be leaked - voluntarily or under duress. A concerned member of staff would rarely be able to determine the identity of the leak and would be worse off with the creation of such a committee. The blog has the advantage of being moderated by just one person. If an identity slips out, there is only one person to take responsibility.

The moderator doesn't have to schedule space in any building or meet formally with anyone else. Most of the blogging activity takes place in the early hours of the morning and without regard for political pressure or consequences to a career with the district.

The blog does not edit comments. We either post the entire comment or reject it entirely. The vast majority of comments are posted, but those that slant heavily toward something inappropriate or filled with profanity are rejected. Supporters and opponents of the blog can contribute.

The blog also allows discussion to take place. A committee cannot offer such a benefit. With a committee receiving anonymous comments, there is no opportunity for constructive dialog to take root. More importantly, a committee would not allow the opportunity for opponents to collect information and mount a well-reasoned and coordinated position.

Clearly, this blog is the ideal format for receiving anonymous comments from district staff and our community. In fact, the Board already reads the blog and therefore has access to the concerns expressed. The Board can choose to take action or they can continue to ignore the anonymous expressions made by voters and residents of our community. It is the thinking of simpletons to assume that anonymous comments are meaningless and don't require an official response.

Furthermore, the fact the Board continues to pretend the blog doesn't exist is a powerful indication of how they would view the contributions of an organized committee.

Sixty-two percent requires greater accountability.

2008-10-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Good economic modeling relies upon the effective evaluation of extremes to help establish the impact of trends and consequences. In reviewing the tax obligations of community property owners, a troubling problem becomes very clear. More than 62% of our property tax goes to support our local schools and there have been no adjustments for plummeting enrollment.

It would make sense to identify an ideal number of students for our district and then allow our property tax obligations to float with enrollment. As student populations surpass the established range of capacity, our community obligation should drift slightly upward. Conversely, as enrollment drops, the obligation should shift downward.

Such an approach would be consistent with Impact Fees assessed on new developments in our community. If a builder seeks to construct a number of homes within a school district having limited school capacity (identified through the Capital Facilities Plan), the developer must pay an impact fee equal to a set figure multiplied by the number of dwelling units under construction.

Some claim that an impact fee is unfair because it penalizes developers that construct while available capacity is low and offers a windfall for developers that build during periods of excess classroom capacity. I am not suggesting an elimination of the impact fee but rather the application of such a philosophy to the entire community - not just developers.

Imagine what would happen to a school district's general fund as enrollment approaches 0. There would be more property tax revenue available for fewer students.

Imagine what would happen if you added the effect of an increased property tax assessment. There would be even more money available for these fewer students.

Some may quickly argue that communities naturally grow and that over time, student populations increase in size. Well, housing stock also increases over time and these new houses are assessed new property tax obligations.

The Office of Financial Management has been using the figure of 14.6% to describe the proportion of K-12 students in our state's population. This figure has proven to be totally unreliable with prevailing demographic trends. In the year the figure was established, it was fairly accurate. However, over time, people have been having fewer children and the proportion is now under evaluation.

Imagine a scenario where district administration adopts a policy of forcing children out of their school district. Property tax levels would remain fixed while enrollment would shrink. More funding would be available for fewer students. Greater funding means higher wages for administration positions, since teacher's salaries are somewhat dependent upon teacher's salaries across the region - the use of midpoints, for example. An increase in administrative salaries may not be immediate for individuals, but the ranks of administrators could swell over time - creating a greater burden on taxpayers.

Fun Factoid: Owning my primary residence, in the City of Edmonds, requires a direct payment to the Edmonds School District of $228 every month. That is more than I spend for electricity, water, sewer, telephone and television combined. It is within a few dollars of my average monthly expenditure for heating. It also warrants mentioning that the City of Edmonds is muddling through serious budget problems for the coming year. No doubt there will be additional taxes to cover.

Image is from The Edmonds Beacon. Click here to read their article.

Control staff and parents by focusing on fear.

2008-10-10T05:54:00.000-07:00

Principal Letter to Parents

Dear Parents,

Our school will be conducting its first Shelter-in-Place drill Oct XX. Since this is a new drill for our district and school community, we thought you would find this information helpful in understanding the purpose and intent. Not all the steps outlined below will be practiced. No tape or plastic will be used nor will the ventilation system be turned off. This will only be done in the event of a real emergency.

Shelter-in-Place is used in an emergency where hazardous materials may have been released into the atmosphere, making it necessary to create an environment within the school where air sources from the outside can be controlled or eliminated. Our school may need to shelter in place due to chemical, biological, or radiological contaminants being released accidentally or intentionally into the environment. This is a precaution to keep our students and staff safe while remaining indoors. When we shelter-in-place we select small, interior rooms, with no or few windows and take refuge there. Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems would be shutdown and building doors will be locked to prevent outside air from entering the building until it is safe to leave the shelter area. The selected location is sealed with plastic sheeting and duct tape over windows, doors, and vents.

If there is a need to use shelter-in-place during a real emergency, we would listen to direction from the fire department directly or via television, radio, or NOAA radio. They will advise us of what precautions are needed. We would keep a radio with us to tune into a local radio station to listen for the threat to pass. This drill is an opportunity for us as a school community to practice our safety measures. This type of drill is not something we do often in school, but is important for us to practice so we can learn how to improve in case there is ever a real threat in our area.

Commentary

The letter doesn't ask for feedback, or offer a way to get more information. Not sure who will be impressed. As a parent, I certainly didn't find the information helpful.

If we want kids to be safe and healthy, let's not have them walking so far to school. Let's build real sidewalks in our communities. Let's pass out bicycle helmets and have bicycle rodeos. Let's have nurses more than one day a week. Where's the funding for basic and obvious needs?

Isn't it enough already to have fire drills, earthquake drills, and lockdowns; not to mention the occasional dog on the playground when everyone has to come in? Just how many other scenarios are there? Are grief counselors part of the next drills? How low can we go? Why?

I want my kid's teacher to teach, and correct papers, and plan excellent lessons - not to have follow up emergency meetings, not to figure out where to store plastic and duct tape, not to have to squeeze the same learning into less time. She's a teacher, not an emergency resource. Leave her alone - and my kid too. Practice on weekends.

Are there any readers out there who can tell me where my child will be "sheltering" and for how long? How many more drills there are?

Name withheld by request

The ESC is just another high school.

2008-10-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for the report on the School Board Meeting. I completely understand your stance on personal attacks; in an ideal world everyone would rise above the tactic and stick to the issues at hand. However, the Edmonds leadership DOES take everything personally and will not admit to ever being wrong. The behavior is almost adolescent in nature. Working at the District offices is like being in High School all over again. Personal attacks are the only kind of language they understand.

Staff has very good reason not to be vocal. Any dissent from the party line will get you passed over for promotion or worse, constructively terminated. Mark Zandberg is not the first person at the District to be targeted for speaking out about mismanagement. The difference is that Mark stands steadfast while others left with their “head held high” and did not have the wherewithal to try to effect change.

Every day staff has to bear witness to this and much more. There is sheer incompetency breaching on stupidity, lack of dedication, favoritism and blatant time fraud. It’s more than frustrating to work with these individuals, it is demoralizing. Taking jabs at them is a way to let out the pressure that builds day after day. It’s a wonder no one has gone “postal.” To add insult to injury staff also have to endure the turf wars and pissing matches. One often wonders if we all work for the same employer.

The fact that there is a blog, no matter the content, should make Nick Brossoit take notice and care that something fundamentally is wrong in the organization he leads. Everyone remains anonymous because deep down we have no hope that he or any of his staff will act like responsible adults.

Anonymous

Board Meeting Report – October 7th

2008-10-08T06:03:00.000-07:00

I want to start this off with KUDOS to Director McMurray. Marla Miller presented a bunch of material regarding a new amendment to the Facilities Use Policy (never really answering direct questions) and Director McMurray pinned her right to the carpet. She asked what was the SPECIFIC IMPACT of the policy to groups such as mine (blush) and others. Marla did a dance about where she collected the information and laid out page after page of information but McMurray didn’t take the bait. She insisted that she understand the IMPACT before voting on it. Good Luck – Marla is a professional in diverting the issue away from what she wants. I know first hand. Director Noble also joined in and asked a few questions as well – good for him! Once I see the proposed changes, I’ll comment on it as well.

In my 3 minutes of public comments tonight, I dedicated my time to informing the board that my experience in this matter has been that the employees of the district were fearful of retaliation of expressing contrary positions to District Policy. See my letter to the Board explaining my position in greater detail. I mentioned www.ESD15.org as the only place that people can express their opinions freely. Most of the Directors said nothing on the topic. Director Paine was tactful in recognizing the issue but noted that the board “needs to be sensitive” in addressing the issue. To that I agree but there is still the need to do something about it.

Nick, on the other hand, dismissed my concern outright and went on a bit of a rant about the evils of anonymous feedback. My letter details the exchange in more detail. Now, let me be really clear here – It’s not doing anyone any good to make personal attacks on the blog about others. I know there is a lot of frustration out there but it really damages the effectiveness of what the blog is trying to do – to get issues addressed and changed. I urge everyone to make sure we STICK TO THE ISSUES. That is the best way to make change occur and be taken seriously.

Rick Jorgensen

Non-district schools opt out of food service program.

2008-10-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

So this is where Food Services latched upon the reference to McDonald's. I find it mildly bewildering that the Food Service program is shlepping food to non-district schools when they can't even get their own service delivery problems resolved internally.

The following is an article that appeared in the Edmonds Becon on September 18th, while the rest of us were distracted by cheese sandwiches and Schrammies.

“For that amount you could buy a Happy Meal and get change”

Holy Rosary School in Edmonds has opted out of the school lunch program after being notified the lunch price has gone from $2.75 to $4.40.

School spokesmen say they were notified of the pending increase Aug. 8, which took them by surprise.

“The timing was not good,” says Holy Rosary principal Dr. Kathy Carr. “We can’t afford $4.40 a day for a lunch. For that amount you could buy a Happy Meal (at McDonald’s) and get change.”

St. Thomas More and Pius X schools also bowed out of the Food Services Program, which is administered by Edmonds School District, because of the price increases.

“We’ve been using the National School Lunch Program for 20 to 30 years and never had a problem,” says Holy Rosary principal Carr. “Over that period we always complied with every regulation and were never late with a report.”

The problem, she says, is not just the price but the fact that private schools are charged more to participate in the lunch program than public schools. A lot more.

Holy Rosary is charged $4.40 per lunch while the rate for public schools is $3.25. School officials point out that their students have to pay the middle school price, even though only a small percentage of the students are middle schoolers. Most are elementary students.

The in-district charges are even more dramatic when compared to the same lunches from other local districts.

In the Mukilteo School District, the current lunch price is $2 for elementary students. Middle and high school students pay $2.25.

Trying to rectify the situation has been frustrating for Dr. Carr.

She says the Edmonds School District told her it was out of their jurisdiction.

Calls to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction got the same response.

Calls to Congressman Jay Inslee’s office led to more out of the same – “not our jurisdiction.”

The Beacon’s calls to the Edmonds School District had not been returned by press time.

However, there is general uncertainty about who is in charge of setting the school lunch prices, and no explanation as to why they’re so steep compared to other districts.

“My biggest frustration is that it’s on the backs of the children,” principal Carr says. “It’s taxpayer money. But when I tried to get answers, it was no one’s jurisdiction. They all said the same thing: Nothing can be done.”

Read the entire article in the Edmonds Beacon by clicking here.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

2008-10-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Edmonds schools could save $1.9 million over five years by using special software to increase efficiency on bus routes for special education students, the audit found.

Software is used to plan all Edmonds bus routes, but the district doesn't always follow the software's recommended routes for children in special education programs, Assistant Superintendent Marla Miller said. Following the auditor's recommendation would involve moving some children with special needs to other schools.

"It would make some kids stay on the bus longer," Miller said. "Even though it would be less costly for transportation, it wouldn't be right for the kids."

[Read the rest of the article by clicking here.]

Let me get this straight.

The Auditor is recommending that the Edmonds School District fully-utilize software they already use in an effort to more efficiently operate their transportation department.

That makes sense.

District management claims they do not fully-utilize the software because "it would make some kids stay on the bus longer".

What will happen to transportation costs - and the length of time kids stay on the bus - if Woodway and Evergreen are closed?

So, the District has decided to burn $1,900,000.00 over five years to accommodate the transportation needs of a few kids, but will quickly close two elementary schools and uproot hundreds to save a similar amount. Of course, the closures will result in more transportation costs that have yet to be quantified.

What happened to the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few?

"The public isn't clamoring for any more lapdogs..."

2008-10-03T06:06:00.000-07:00

A great leader should encourage staff to be intellectually engaged in their work. A great leader should also seek opportunities to be constructively challenged by staff when developing new procedures or seeking to improve the manner in which business is conducted. The alternative is to develop a weak or nonsensical policy and then be publicly challenged by the community. Two recent examples involve cheese sandwiches and the facility use policy.

The current dilemma with the District is that opposition is silenced at every opportunity. People that would otherwise be viewed as organizational experts in certain areas are pounded into submission or driven out of their profession. This does not make an organization stronger or more capable of accomplishing the organizational mission.

Perhaps management has grown tired of pounding staff into submission, because they have apparently adopted the highly destructive strategy of hiring people that are "pre-pounded". If you hire staff that refuse to be creative or lack the capacity to fully understand their jobs, they spend their careers just trying to tread water and have limited opportunities to grow professionally. If such staff do manage to grow, it would be in a direction consistent with the path followed by their supervisor - pounding others into submission.

On the education side of the house, principals claim they are interested in hiring the best and brightest teachers. This approach assumes that students are better off with the best and brightest teachers. Why wouldn't a similar approach be adopted on the operations side of the organization? What sort of credibility does the District have if the operations side of the house doesn't seek out the best and brightest? What are the consequences for our community?

In these difficult economic times, highly qualified people are readily available if you just know where to look and, more importantly, if you don't actively try to limit the list of candidates because you have a friend in mind. Not a friend with meaningful experience, but rather a friend that is in dire need of employment.

The public sector is not the place to cut deals to accommodate the financial needs of friends. Sure, you can "lease" a bunch of pianos and tell people it's legitimate, but ultimately we all know the transaction was a scheme hatched between two friends. One friend that desperately needed to make a sale and the other friend that had the power of a public agency in her pocket without a concern for accountability.