YOU’VE GOT MAIL FROM MR. PRETTY INSULTING IN PINK

Craig Mann loves to write e-mail. He writes to friends. He writes to enemies. He sends messages to board colleagues. He openly attacks teachers for exercising their first amendment rights. And, he contacts members of the press so much that he seems to have become an unpaid Mercury News editorial writer. And this past month he’s been particularly active.

Every time you read an editorial by the Information Minister, you now know that most of the information came straight out of a Craig Mann e-mail, especially all those articles asking teachers to accept a benefits cap and to lose the cola language. You also read last month about Craig Mann’s silly e-mail fight with the NAACP’s Rick Callendar. If you’re an ESTA member, you probably know that he was begging for an ESTA endorsement for six months, sending hundreds of e-mails each month to teacher leaders (Team Unruly’s particular favorite is the one where he invokes “the devil you know” cliché to describe himself).

ESTA never endorsed him, and that slight still sticks in his craw. Some of you might remember we wrote about a letter he sent in response to a Panorama article that appeared in September. In that letter, he told an Oak Grove teacher to “climb out of the swift-boat veterans for truth swamp and come up for air.” That’s when we launched our “no incumbents” campaign and got a curious letter from a guy we call “Hotmail Bob.” (See letters). Then his vitriolic e-mailing focused his anger on Lan Nguyen, whom Mann threatened to sue on campaign ethics grounds simply for promising to bring accountability to the district (read “The E Word” here: ). The day after he was forced to go to a press conference regarding the auditor’s report he told Doug Emerson to suppress (see this month’s “Did You Know?”), he went back into stealth mode, sending an anonymous e-mail that called Andrew Hill’s Site-President Wendy Stegeman a member of the ”ESTA KKKLAN.” Ironically, when the Metro tried to contact Mann regarding the issue, “Johnny Send Button” never bothered to respond to their e-mails (read “Mystery E-mailer” here: ).

In spite of the misappropriated credit card spending, the lack of an ESTA endorsement, and being one of if not the only self-proclaimed, office-holding democrat in Santa Clara County to advocate for teacher merit pay years before Arnold raised the issue, Mann was reelected. He sent an e-mail out to his supporters following the election, with a couple of personal thank you’s to God and a statement about receiving a mandate from the voters (while never acknowledging that his name being at the top of the ballot was worth about 75% of the vote alone).

Soon after the election, Mann dropped the ghosting and became the epitome of belligerence. His first demonstration of his renewed self-aggrandizement came a short week or so later when he sent a nasty Orwellian reply to AH libriarian Julie Pratico’s letter questioning the placement of Dr. Lomas at Andrew Hill. That e-mail was the topic at many a school lunch table for a few months. In it, Mann told Pratico that she was not hired to run a school (editor’s note: she was elected to run part of the school. She is Andrew Hill’s School Site Council president). He went on to say that if she didn’t like the decision that Ms. Pratico could “do us all a favor” and seek employment elsewhere. A grievance was filed. The ruling? Ms. Pratico was told that the letter she sent would not be put in her personnel file nor held against her.

Mann was merely reminded that he was entitled to his opinion.

Craig spent a lot of time e-mailing others in the district. He continues to send e-mails to Don McKell, telling him in no uncertain terms that teachers need to lose their contractual COLA language and accept a benefits cap. Team Unruly learned from the Mercury’s Jon Fortt and the Metro’s Fly folk that Craig Mann sends them e-mails routinely. And it comes as no surprise to Advocate readers that the primary recipient of Mann’s e-mails is Information Minister John Fensterwald, who wrote no less than six editorials in a two-month period cutting and pasting Mann’s aforementioned opinion about COLA and benefits.

Team Unruly learned that the day after the board meeting where the pink slips were approved, Mann sent an e-mail to local papers claiming that only 404 pink slips would be issued. That was obviously premature. The evening of March 15th, the day 935 pink slips were signed and sent registered mail, Mann attended the Budget Task Force meeting wearing a pink shirt and a strange smirk (read “Our Fashion Section” here: ). While Mann might argue he was showing solidarity, he spent most of that BTF meeting nodding in agreement with Kathy Chavez-Napoli that — you guessed it — teachers needed to lose COLA and accept a benefits cap.

But within a couple of days, Mann’s e-mail inbox was packed with letters from angry parents, students, teachers and community members. Reporters started asking tough questions that Mann and his colleagues couldn’t answer. One teacher from Oak Grove asked how the Board could justify such an egregious violation of the collective bargaining agreement by laying off teachers with over 20 years of service to the district. Mann sent this reply:

Given all of the turmoil resulting from our budget crisis and the apparent inability for all stakeholders to answer the Kennedy-like clarion call, "ask not what your school district can do for you, ask what you can do for your school district," I am becoming increasingly convinced that we should probably just ask the county (or state) to take over East Side to impose the necessary corrective actions.

I'm just talking out loud, but unless the vitriolic dialog [sic] is replaced with productive solutions, oriented dialog [sic] and meaningful results, I'm of the mind to bring such a resolution to my colleagues for discussion and action. This way, a neutral party, free of the bitter politics can do right by our students and school community.

Your thoughts, suggestions?

Best regards,
Craig Mann, Governing Board Member
East Side Union HSD,
408-270-6988
www.craigmann.org

When John F. Kennedy brought the referenced “clarion call” into the American dialogue, he was talking about service and duty, the philanthropic spirit Joseph Kennedy instilled in all his children. What has Mann done for his school district? On top of personally doing more than his share of contributing to the dysfunction that brought the district to this supposed budget crisis, Mann wants the people whose hard work and dedication directly impact the lives of students to do more with less.

Speaking of heeding clarion calls, the Advocate has learned that during a closed session Board meeting, one of the trustees suggested the Board forgo their benefits as a symbolic gesture since most of them have benefit-providing day jobs (editor’s note: other local school boards have done it, like Gilroy Unified—why not East Side?). As the proposal was being made, Mann started shaking his head before rejecting it outright with a vitriolic “no”.

There’s also the matter of “the bitter politics” irony. Funny how a guy who spins daily e-mails to the press and uses that same e-mail account to openly criticize teachers has the audacity to imply that a tenured teacher and her colleagues, layoff notices in hand, are responsible for the bitter politics dividing the district.

Does Mann really want the state to take over the district? Nope. If they did, the state might throw out the Collective Bargaining Agreement, but for certain they would use the money from the Quimby land sale to cover any outstanding debts. There is a precedent to do so after all, right Info Minister? (Read it here: ). Keep in mind that Mann, though not up for reelection next year, wants a higher office. There’s a possibility that Councilman Dave Cortese will be the next mayor of San Jose. If that happens, a vacancy will open in Mann’s council district. He needs money and voter support. The only way he’ll get it is if he appeases the wealthiest, most active voters in the East Side — and lives up to the list of promises he’s made to his supporters in the Evergreen community, which include using the Quimby land money for a new building for EVHS or to begin developing another new high school in the Coyote Valley. (Read it here: )

We have to admit we’re speculating. And maybe we’re wrong. Maybe Craig really was “just talking out loud” when he sent that e-mail. Maybe he really believed only 400 pink slips were being issued, and he was shocked to discover the depth of the incompetence in the East Side’s human resources department. Maybe that pink shirt is a sign of solidarity, a way to show that he’s turning over a new leaf and taking the first step to putting aside the bitter politics that’s divided us all for so long.

Or not. Two days after students walked out in protest over the pink slipping of 935 of their teachers, the Information Minister published an editorial blaming those protests on teachers. He never acknowledged that the radio station students listen to encouraged the walk out everyday for over a week, nor mentioned that teachers called into the radio station asking students not to walk out. Instead, a couple of days after the editorials appeared, this letter made its way onto the opinion pages of the Mercury News:

Teachers need more than slap on wrist

In your March 23 editorial about the walkout at the East Side Union High School District you state: ``If some teachers encouraged the walkout, they should be disciplined.''

How about fired?

We know that won't happen. If any other custodians of our children were to encourage similar misconduct that resulted in arrests, they would be in jail. Teachers just get a slap on the wrist.

S. Mann
San Jose

Is it just a coincidence that the only letter condemning the student walkout to appear in the Merc bears the same last name of an East Side board member with an axe to grind against teachers?

Does the S stand for “solidarity”?

Watch out, Craig. Your ghost is showing.