Since December 22, 2004

Unruly News & Updates
May 2005

Esperanza Zendejas: The Unauthorized Biography
Part I: The Lame Cactus

In the North American Southwest, a diamondback lurks in coiled comfort to await its careless prey. A migrating millipede, cyanide seeping, kills a potential predator who never had a chance to touch the orange hue of its outer shell.

A Manufactured Crisis

Circa 2001 the power went out. A deregulated energy scheme devolved into rolling blackouts, a castrated public energy commission, steep increases in electricity bills, and the graceless fall from Enron’s excessive hubris. California’s budget had never taken so many collective hits, and the largest slice of the state expenditure pie—public education—took the blunt of the blow. Bleak budget forecasts forced districts statewide to reduce staff, services and supplies. Schools closed. Pink slips issued.

Pending Litigation: The Other Budget Crisis

The ESUHSD community might have missed an important line item in one of the many documents submitted by the ESUHSD administration to the budget task force this past year. As one of hundreds of proposed cost-cutting measures, the line item suggested the District could save a few thousand dollars by cutting its legal expenditures. But one look at any Board meeting agenda suggests the ESUHSD District will not have the luxury of lowering legal expenditures any time soon.

Look, for example, at page three of the May 19th board agenda. On top of an on-going discussion regarding ESTA v. ESUHSD, the lawsuit dealing with money acquired from the Quimby Oak land sale and its use in shoring up the general fund budget deficit, three other lawsuits were discussed in closed session, as was the impending threat of another lawsuit. That’s five lawsuits (four actual, one potential) in one Board meeting. Since these are discussed in closed session, it’s hard to determine the nature of these lawsuits. Are they unresolved grievances? Do they deal with parents, community members, or employees? Or are they special education lawsuits? Whatever the issue, the bottom line is each lawsuit carries an unnecessary cost that over-burdens an already cash-strapped district.

The Kiko Chronicles

Team Unruly has discovered a treasure that proves Dr. Zendejas is superbly talented as a verbal performer. Her only mistake is viewing her greatest strength as a “hobby” instead of a talent. We aim to help. The Unruly Advocate is happy to provide a public forum to resolve this controversy once and for all.

Prepare to meet Kiko.

Same Hydra, New Head: Bersin and San Diego's Matchbook School of Journalism Alumni

Late in April the guy in the mail office in the Team Unruly basement crawled up to the editorial board offices to deliver a letter from an Unruly reader way down south in San Diego.

News of the Weird (but isn't it all weird?)

They came from every neighborhood in the East Side, from the Berryessa foothills near Piedmont Hills bordering Milpitas to the Bernal Road edge of San Jose near Santa Teresa. There were parents, students, community members, and of course, teachers. They were united by their anger and collective distaste for a superintendent who saw fit to layoff 965 teachers, only to rescind all of the notices by the end of May.

OTHER ISSUES
October 2007
February 2007
December 2006
September 2006
Summer 2006
December 2005 - January 2006
October 2005
August-September 2005
June-July 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005

May's "Did You Know?"

Did you know we ran a story on nepotism last month? New readers can check it out in our Unruly Advocate April 2005 archive. Did you know nepotism is legally NOT a conflict of interest? Sure you did. But that doesn’t mean you have to like it. Did you know former Superintendent Joe Coto was criticized by current Board members both privately and through the Mercury News Propaganda Ministry for practicing excessive nepotism? If not, talk to a friend, neighbor, or colleague familiar with a decade or so of ESUHSD history.

Did you know Metro Ed was recently searching for a principal? Did you know Craig Mann is the designated Board representative to Metro Ed? Did you know Craig Mann suggested John Fox be the new principal? Who’s John Fox, you ask? A man with a long administrative resume. Did you know he was an administrator for Indianapolis Public Schools in the mid-1990’s? Did you know he met his second (or possibly third) wife at that job? Did you know her name is Esperanza Zendejas?

Did you really think nepotism would die out with Coto’s departure from the ESUHSD? Of course not, because you’re a faithful reader of the Unruly Advocate, and that’s why we thought you’d like to know! Now feel free to leave your computer to wretch into a nearby toilet, sink, or trash receptacle.