On January 16, 2008 the Rocklin School Board voted down 5 – 0 the Western Sierra Collegiate Academy’s (WSCA) request for a charter to open a 7 – 12 Public School of Choice in Rocklin.

The fix was in way before this meeting or the public hearing that was held last month.  Superintendent Kevin Brown told the Rocklin Academy Board President last June that he would not support this charter.  Kevin Brown is a shrewd operator.  He has a school board that acts as his 5 puppets.  I was amazed how Mr. Brown was able to make the mouth move of Steve Paul, the “Grand Poobah,” of the board.  The “Grand Poobah” showed the entire audience how arrogant and misinformed he is.

Lets recap: The school district evaluated the WSCA charter request and reported, through their attorney that the charter did not meet certain requirements.  By law, the charter request only had to be 60 pages.  The WSCA provided a 700-page proposal.  The district evaluated the proposal.  The district said the WSCA was non-compliant in many areas.  With a 700-page proposal there could be some confusion.  The district provided the WSCA only 6 hours to see where they were non-compliant.  6 hours for a 700-page proposal.  I have worked many government proposals for the Air Force as an  Air force officer and as a contractor and never would we allow only 6 hours to look at our response to a proposal.  If that happened there would be a protest by the contractor to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  After the district’s attorney and Mrs. Hawkins, the principal of Whitney High, spoke for an hour on why the charter should not be approved, the “Grand Poobah” only allowed a 3-minute response from the Rocklin Academy Board President, the Rocklin Academy Executive Director and the WSCA attorney.  The district speaks for 1-hour and the official response from the WSCA directors is 3 minutes.  This is an outrage.  There were approximately 100 people supporting the charter at the meeting.  How could the school board be so insensitive to their cause?

Everyone in the audience knew the “Grand Poobah,” never even read the report.  I am sure he probably looked at the first page and said; I do not understand the content.  But not to worry; Superintendent Kevin Brown will put the words in my mouth.  All I need to do is move my jaw. 

Greg “I’m a Communist” Daley said there was no reason to have a school that demands accountability from their students or one that concentrates on achieving a very high level of excellence so these students can compete at the highest level.  I am very surprised that Comrade Daley would have this view.  He is a former Air Force pilot.  He should know what it means to be the best.  It seems Mr. Daley’s views are more in line with the People’s Liberation Army in China.

Camille “I’m so liberal” Maben is the poster child for what is wrong with the public education system in the United States.  All Ms. Maben was concerned about was the lower achieving students.  The WSCA had a plan to work with the kids that needed additional help.  But what about these high achievers that are not being challenged in a normal school setting?  I would challenge Ms. Maben to leave the nice confines of her office in Sacramento and take a trip to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena.  I have worked with JPL and most of their PhD and PhD candidates are on visas from foreign countries.  But lets follow Ms. Maben and Comrade Daley’s philosophy and lets all learn the same way.  Lets also dumb down our schools so we cannot compete on a global scale with students from other countries.

Todd “slick attorney” Lowell was slick in his responses.  He believes there is no difference to what Rocklin high schools provides and what the WSCA could provide.  He is so wrong.  He is as arrogant as the “Grand Poobah.”

Wendy “ I can cry like Hillary” Lang showed she really does not understand what it means to be a school board member.  After the meeting she spoke with a few of the WSCA supporters and had tears in her eyes because of her no vote.  She said she voted with her heart.  She must have watched Hillary before the New Hampshire primary and took a page out of her playbook.  Ms. Lang, the people of Rocklin did not vote you into office because we want you to vote with your heart.  We voted you into office because we expect you to do the right thing for all children.  You dropped the ball.  By the way, we all thought your tears were not real.  I recommend you keep watching the Hillary tape so you can perfect your crying.

Jim “you do it my way” Trimble is the principal at Rocklin Elementary School.  I used to respect Mr. Trimble.  When I was on the school board, I spent more time at his school than any other school in the district.  I supported the expansion of his Gate program.  The “Grand Poobah” and the “Slick Attorney” did not.  Last night he read a letter from a parent at his school.  This parent’s child went to the Rocklin Academy (RA) and then transferred to Rocklin Elementary.  The child transferred because she said things were not working out at RA.  Mr. Trimble even mentioned the parent was not happy with the RA principal.  Just think what the  “Grand Poobah” would of done if a parent said something negative about a principal at on RUSD School?  He would not of permitted it.  I guess there is a double standard.  I approached Mr. Trimble after the meeting to say that was a low blow against RA.  He said it was justified.  When I asked him about the 400 kids that attend RA because they did not want to attend a RUSD school he did not want to hear about it.  When I asked him why there has been such an exodus of students and teachers from Twin Oaks Elementary School, he did not want to hear it.  Mr. Trimble, there are 2 sides to every story and in my eyes you have lost all credibility.  You should be reprimanded for mentioning the RA principal in a personnel issue.  I thought you were an educator that had an open mind.  It is obvious that you have gone through the brain-sucking machine that the Superintendent keeps in his office.  It is too bad.  I thought you were really for all the children.  I was wrong.

Every person that got up to speak to request the school board approve the WSCA charter did not have one negative word to say about any school in the RUSD.  In fact most people who have already sent their children to a RUSD school had positive comments.  The issue was not whether one school is better than the other.  The issue is about providing choice to parents.  Most of these parents have kids in elementary school today. They do not know if they would even send their child to WSCA, but they want the choice to do so.  Because of the vote last night, they will not have that choice.

Whitney High School principal Debra Hawkins and a handful of Rocklin High teachers got up to say how good Rocklin High School is.  Once again, nobody was saying Rocklin High School is a bad school.  It was these teachers with the help of the teacher union controlled school board that were trying to split the community.  They are afraid that too many families would want to send their children to WSCA and that would hurt the budget.  Lets remember that the California Teacher’s Union, (the CTA is the biggest obstacle to public education in California) controls this school board.  The have donated over $20,000 to make sure their agenda is the priority of the school board.  Remember their agenda does not mean what is best for your child.  That was evident last night.

One interesting observation, where was Rocklin City Councilman Scott “empty suite” Yuill last night?  Mr. Empty Suit is on the advisory committee for the WSCA.  However, he failed to attend last month’s public hearing.  He has never made a public comment supporting WSCA.  We must conclude that Mr. Empty Suit put his name on this committee to only pad his resume for higher office.  Mr. Empty Suit is the poster child for what is wrong with our politicians.  He is one that smiles at you and shakes your hand, while he stabs you in the back.  Suggestion to the WSCA Committee, get rid of the dead weight.

What is next for WSCA?  They have the option to appeal to the county and to the State Board of Education.  Since the good old boys network controls Placer County politics, they will have better luck at the State.  The Governor appointed the state board and he is a big supporter of charter schools.  I believe the State Board will approve the charter.

I am curious to hear any comments from Placer County Republican Party.  The party endorsed Mr. Paul and Mr. Lowell even though they these board members never supported school choice.  What about Ted “in my pocket” Gaines?  It was his help using teacher union money that helped eliminated school choice.  We know Mr. Gaines or his staff reads this blog.  A real leader is able to admit his mistakes.  Lets see if Mr. Gaines is a real leader.