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Community Corner

OPEN LETTER TO AUSD BOARD

To:       AUSD School Board

From:      Jeffrey R Smith

Date:       July 4, 2014

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Subject:   BRIAN RODRIGUEZ, Involuntary Reassignment

 Why is the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD) tacitly approving the involuntary transfer of Brian Rodriguez from Encinal (EHS) to the Alameda Science and Technology Institute (ASTI)?

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 This forced relocation runs contrary to the spirit of Brown v. the Board of Education, its equity goals and everything that contemporary public education strives for.

 Silence is assent; your complacent concurrence is astounding given that the pending reassignment runs diametrically opposite to recent arguments presented in Vergara v. California, the June 10, 2014 ruling of the Los Angeles Superior Court, which found that “California teacher tenure, firing and discipline procedures are unconstitutional because they violate children’s right to an adequate education.”

 Why was the Vergara v. California decision applauded by the poor, the underprivileged and by people of color?

 Presiding Judge Treu answers this question, “Look, this is a moral imperative, these teacher tenure laws are hurting students, and whoever is going to do something about it, they better get on that fast."

 Judge Treu flatly acknowledged that existing “teacher tenure, firing and discipline procedures” had the net effect of placing the best teachers in the best schools and neighborhoods, and relegating the worst teachers to the neediest and worst performing schools:” a reaffirmation of the undisputed premise of Brown v. the Board of Education.

 The U.S. Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, applauded the Vergara v. California; he agreed that “state teacher protections (are) unconstitutional” and the decision was a "mandate" to fix "laws, practices and systems that fail to identify and support our best teachers and match them with our neediest students."

 “Neediest students!” School Board members, are you hearing and understanding Arne Duncan? “Get on that fast!” as Judge Treu recommends.

 Incongruously, you are seemingly prepared to allow—to rubber stamp—the imminent reassignment of what is indisputably one of the best teachers—if not the best teacher—in Alameda, from a school charged with educating the “neediest students” to a magnet school that not only graduates nearly 100 percent of its students but typically sends all of its graduates to upper echelon, four year colleges.

 Your inaction, indeed your de facto collusion with the perfidious forces relocating Brian Rodriguez, will stand as your worst, most damaging piece of inaction; it will not only eclipse the list of your positive contributions to education in Alameda, it will roost at the top of the heap of your damaging decisions.

 Strangely, Board Policy calls for employee notification for involuntary transfers on or before May 30 for the next school year; this is obviously to allow the teacher to fight it, adjust to it, or apply for other jobs before the school year ends.

 Brian was not notified of the involuntarily transfer me until June 25; why has Policy been suspended?

 Inaction will highlight your ovine predilection for rubber stamping the machinations of educrats who put ascending the CalPERS food chain ahead of all other considerations.

 Few people, are currently recognized—nor want to be recognized—for their principled, staunch opposition to the Brown v. the School Board decision.

 Prudently, they prefer the anonymity that time and history has provided them.

 Which of you on the school board will stand up and take ownership of the Brian Rodriguez exile?

 To her credit and contrary to the teachers’ contract, AUSD Superintendent Ardella Daily (2005-2008) fought to keep the best teachers at the lowest performing schools; an effort that was applauded by all who demanded equity in education; relocating Brain to ASTI is moving in the opposite direction.

 Should your lethargy let this happen, I would like to hear your clarion admission: “I did that; I routed Brian from Encinal and marginalized him at ASTI; that was my doing! I stand by it. That's my hairball.”

 For nearly 20 years, and until academic year 2014-2015 commences, Brian Rodriguez has been charged with educating the under-privileged at a school where the “free or reduced lunch” contingent averages 70% of its demographic; at an institute with more diversity than any school in the island.

 To his credit, Brian has been chosen as AUSD Teacher of the Year, Alameda Country Teacher of the Year and last August he received recognition by the Nobel Committee at one of the top ten teachers in America—certainly all of these awards were based on merit: a rock solid track record of success.

 Is that cynical cliché correct?

 That “no amount of competency will go unpunished?”

 Did the AUSD school board err when they ratified Brian’s Teacher of the Year selection?

 Why is AUSD complacently allowing him to abandon well over 1000 students, primarily of color, for a far less challenging position at a school of 172 over-achievers who need little more than a syllabus and a textbook to surmount their courses and gain admittance to a four year college?

 Why are you willing to expose AUSD to liability for retaliation for union activity as well as a civil rights action by students who are denied a great teacher?

 Why would you allow reckless, insensitive acts like this, which will negatively resonate against the District, when attempting to get a school bond passed in November?

 Are informed West End parents likely beam approvingly while the District removes its best—indeed celebrated—teacher from a struggling school, where he is highly effective and desperately needed?

 Will such an egregious miscalculation result in West End parents feeling even more disenfranchised as they witness Brian being transferred to a “wait-listed” school, where he will simply teach the motivated, the best and the brightest, and meanwhile their sons or daughters are unlikely to attend the crimped ASTI unless they win a lottery?

 It seems obvious that this relocation runs contrary to the spirit of both Brown and Vergara and Ardella Dailey.

 Brian Rodrigues is the founder, the Latino role model and the continuing sponsorship of Latino Club; if such considerations are not relevant what are the over-riding factors?

 Is it something we, as an educational community, can proudly bandy about?

 Imagine an angry crowd of 300 or more—like the parents who rightfully assembled to protest the loss of Mike Cooper.

 Will the district apologist, for this current decision be likely to mollify or placate parents when he or she solemnly announces that Brian is being transferred for the good of the order?

 Will the district effectively demure as to the real motivations prompting this decision?

 Will it invoke its favorite disclaimer, “It’s a personnel issue, and despite our seamless track record for transparency, we will not discuss it with interested or injured parties?”

 Not only are the students of EHS losing the best teacher they could hope to find in the district, the county, indeed the country; but EHS teachers are losing a mentor, an educational leader, an advocate and one of the most compelling and cogent voices at faculty and committee meetings.

 Unfortunately it appears that his dynamism at EHS, along with his compelling voice, are central to the spurious rationale and specious logic that serve as the flimsy foundation for his involuntary relocation.

 As a teacher at Encinal, I can attest that Brian’s agenda invariably echoes the mantra of two of Encinal’s finest, most dedicated educators, Bill Sonneman and Earl Rivard; their credo: “It’s about the students,” should be your litmus test.

 This decision is conspicuously NOT about the students of Encinal; it is about capitulation to pusillanimous, crony leadership and to an inner cabal of teachers, the core of which successfully targeted Charles Franklin, Roxanne Brown-Garcia and now Brian Rodriguez.

 You are cordially invited to examine the demographics of this hit list and to ask yourself if you want your DNA on these proceedings.

 But, should you elect to ratify this decision, to forcibly relegate Brian to obscurity at a highly successful school of 172, far from a struggling school of over 1000, I would respectfully ask, that one or all of you attend the “All Teacher Training” scheduled for August 21, 2014 in which we will be “Establishing a common vision, procedures, systems, and agreements to create a student centered learning environment (sic).”

 As this session opens, teachers and administrators will undoubtedly trot out the trite and traditional ground rules for discussions; they will put out the hollow bait i.e. that teachers should feel free to express themselves without fear of reprisals.

 The removal of Brian Rodriguez may temporarily placate his smug critics, peers who have played into the hands of higher forces—but the knee-jerk resolution will undoubtedly serve as a stern warning to the other 55 teachers that the workplace is no forum for freedom of expression and that first amendment guarantees are trumped by job security.

 During the “ground rule” stage of this training, I would invite you to interrupt the proceedings, point to room 220—the room where for 20 years, Brian Rodrigues had hitherto redirected the destinies of thousands of Encinal Students—and warn all teachers, that no number of awards, no track record of exemplary service, no number of grateful letters of acknowledgement from students and parents, no number of students sent to Ivy League Schools and UCs, no amount of time dedicated to sterling hard work, no amount of professional competency, no stratospheric AP test scores and no hue and cry of a rallied West end, can protect a teacher from capricious and arbitrary reprisals. Assure the teachers that the intimidation they feel, is neither delusional nor paranoid; it is real, especially if you speak your conscience as Brian Rodrigues mistakenly dared to do at Encinal High.

 Thank you for your consideration.

 Sincerely,

Jeffrey R Smith

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