Sunday, May 27, 2007

South Texas Chisme: Too many minority students dropping out of high school

South Texas Chisme: Too many minority students dropping out of high school

Too many minority students dropping out of high school

Hispanic youths who lack English skills are three times as likely to drop out as other Hispanic students, according to census data. Almost 40 percent of Hispanic dropouts do not speak English well.

The implications for Texas are especially troubling, given that one-fifth of the nation's Hispanic children live in the state, according to the Civil Rights Project.
It isn't just a problem for minority kids.
One in 10 Texas students vanishes from high school each year to an uncertain future, according to the state.

As bad as that number seems, the reality is probably worse. Many experts say the state undercounts dropouts. Three in 10 students who enter ninth grade don't graduate, according to an index developed by Johns Hopkins University researchers that compares the number of 12th-graders with the number of ninth-graders four years earlier.

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said the agency counts dropouts using a variety of methods [depending upon the result they want for their PR], including an attrition rate similar to the index. But independent studies and attrition rates don't take into account students who move, she said.
We all know Republicans don't care much for that accountability.
posted by CouldBeTrue

Texas Public Education Watchdog Authority: Dear Chuy Hinojosa, Florence Shapiro and distinguished Education Committee Members

Texas Public Education Watchdog Authority: Dear Chuy Hinojosa, Florence Shapiro and distinguished Education Committee Members


Just give us (Education) the Lottery Proceeds as per original bill of sale. The Lottery was sold to us (the voters of the great State of Texas) as 100% of the proceeds were for Educating our youth.

What percentage of the Lottery proceeds (currently) are dedicated to the education of our youth?

Why is it, the wealth always steals from our children after acting like they were creating, “doing it for th kids” huge reservoirs of Avarice to siphon off.

Like the Lottery originally was ratified by the people of the Great State of Texas with the belief ot was a moneymaker for our Children’s Education. And now how much of the Lottery revenue makes it to Public Education?



Perry Craddick & Corporate Welfare in the name of WIA, ED Byrne Grant, and under the guise of helping the poor.


With the Education funding we should demand that the dedication of lottery money to the Education of our Children be adhered to as it was sold to Texas. The Lottery when legislated was for the Education of Texas Students. Finally, the Private Sector is funded under the WIA slush fund for Corporate Welfare Recipients under the Guise of a Welfare Reform or Welfare to Work / JOB generating program to help the poor. The rich are getting richer in the name of helping the poor. And one needs to always remember it is both parties dippin into the creative crony contractualism. Give it a title, write a grant and set up a front office with a computer and a sign; then get some brochures and a few token clients and funnel the Avarice in a shell game like manner and voila a new ranch or a new house maybe an agency hummer or King Ranch Pickup Truck with a magnetic sign. Give a few JOBS to your network affiliates and send the clients to perform community based work and get rich and richer doing it. Ask Mary Cano or Oscar Martinez to explain it in detail. Charmed I'm sure.



TFT LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE--FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2007
>(copyright 2007 Texas Federation of Teachers)
>
>Proposed State Budget Shortchanges Schools and Educators; Keep Up the Fight
>For House TRS Plan; House at a Standstill as Speaker Clings to Power
>
>Proposed Budget Shortchanges Public Schools, Education Employees: TFT
>President Linda Bridges put out a press statement today deploring the
>results of the House-Senate conference committee on the 2008-2009 budget.
>The state budget plan in House Bill 1 still must win the approval of
>majorities in both the House and Senate. As President Bridges' statement
>below explains, HB 1 in its current form does not deserve that approval:
>
>"Education and educators would be shortchanged badly in the budget proposed
>by House-Senate conferees this afternoon. Based on the information
>currently
>available, school funding would remain static, not even getting back to the
>level of state and local funding school districts had in 2002 in real
>terms, after you take inflation into account. The $850-a-year
>cost-of-living pay raise for teachers passed by the House last month would
>shrivel to about $425, according to the legislative budget staff. If paid
>out to all teachers across the board, this would amount to less than $25 a
>month after taxes and deductions--not even enough to cover the cost of
>rising average health-care premiums. And the conferees took pains today to
>say the money would not even have to be paid out across the board to all
>teachers.
>
>"Worst of all is what this budget proposal would do regarding TRS pension
>benefits. The bill would withhold an eminently affordable and exceedingly
>modest pension boost--a 13th check for TRS retirees--unless other
>legislation passes
>to impose new levies on all current school employees. The only way retirees
>would get a 13th check, under this scheme devised by Sen. Robert Duncan,
>would be if active school employees pay a higher contribution rate, taking
>roughly $50 million a year out of their pockets. This plan totally
>contradicts the House legislation passed unanimously on Wednesday that
>would provide a 13th check for retirees fully funded by the state, without
>imposing any new levies on active employees.
>
>"In short, school districts under this budget would regain none of the
>ground they have lost financially, teachers would get at best a measly pay
>raise of less than $25 a month that wouldn't even keep up with inflation,
>and 300,000 school support personnel would suffer an actual pay cut, as a
>result of the higher levies imposed on them for TRS with no compensating
>increase in pay. You have to give the
>conferees credit--it takes a certain ingenuity to come up with a plan this
>bad at a time when the state is sitting on a record-high budget surplus."
>
>Keep Up the Fight for House TRS Plan! At this writing members of the Texas
>House are standing firm in support of their unanimously approved plan for a
>13th check for TRS retirees, funded by an increase in the state
>contribution rate to 6.7 percent, with no new costs imposed on active
>school employees. Several Senate offices reported to us today that they are
>receiving a high volume of calls in support of this House version of SB
>1846--as well they should be. The Senate alternative proposed by Sen.
>Robert Duncan, Republican of Lubbock, is a thinly veiled attempt to shift
>state costs for TRS pensions onto active employees and their school
>districts.
>
>Duncan let slip the real agenda during floor debate on his plan,
>noting that increasing the TRS levy on active employees and requiring a
>contribution from school districts could "free up general revenue for other
>purposes." In other words, this scheme would allow the state to save money
>by shifting costs onto education employees and local taxpayers.
>
>Duncan's staff in response to callers today reportedly was claiming that
>the freshly hatched budget deal (see above) means that there's no money and
>no time left to provide this session for the 6.7-percent state contribution
>rate that the House proposes. But that's not so. The legislature has
>billions of dollars left to allocate right now, and it would take only a
>tiny fraction of that treasure--less than 1 percent of it, in fact--for the
>state to get to the 6.7-percent TRS contribution rate from the 6.58 percent
>already built into the budget. Even if the budget bill passes in its
>current form, the
>House plan for a fully state-paid 13th check with no new costs imposed on
>active employees could also still pass and become law with full force and
>effect, delivering a 13th check in September.
>
>The upshot is that you have an opportunity right now to shape the outcome
>of this TRS benefit fight in the critical remaining days before adjournment
>of the legislative session on Monday. Just send the letter on this issue to
>your state senator from the TFT Web site. If you don't know your state
>senator, you can find out quickly when you go to that Web letter.
>
>Speaker's Grip on Gavel Threatened: The Texas House came to a standstill at
>8 PM this evening, as Speaker of the House Tom Craddick shut off House
>members' microphones and called a three-hour recess to head off a
>rank-and-file revolt
>threatening to oust him from the speaker's chair. The Midland Republican is
>under heavy fire from both fellow Republicans and Democrats for what many
>consider his tyrannical rule of the House. Tonight he gave them new grist
>for their argument, by ruling that there is no appeal to the membership as
>a whole if he blocks the parliamentary procedure needed to oust him. His
>ruling, epitomizing the arbitrary, one-man rule of which Speaker Craddick
>stands accused, apparently has led to the resignation of the House
>parliamentarian in protest this evening. Like everyone else at the capitol,
>we are now waiting to see if the House will actually reconvene tonight.
>Keep an eye out for news of the latest developments in the daily TFT
>hotlines that will be published each of the next three days as the
>legislative session hurtles toward final adjournment.


Senate Committee on Education
Committee Information
Chair Vice-Chair Members:

Friday, May 25, 2007

musings: Echo Chamber

musings: Echo Chamber....


The new House Parliamentarian, Terry Keel (former state rep. HD-47), is the man behind the curtain telling the Wizard of Tom what to say. Then, Craddick parrots back the Keel-speak to the Chamber.

Keep Your Promises Solly. Remember Miller? Why are CCISD Students still running at large during school day hours?



CCISD: Why are CCISD Students allowed to run at large during school day hours?



Education is for our Children, our Youth, our Future. Children and Youth need constant redirection and set boundaries at home and at school as well. When a minor is allowed to run at large during the school day hours whether it is in the halls, leaving or returning a closed campus or simply unaccounted for is irresponsible of the caretaker whose custody in which he / she is placed.
Kenedeno



An absent student is one who does not arrive at school in the morning and is absent for the WHOLE Day. The student was never on campus. The Parent is responsible for the student getting to school (requiring the student to attend school). If the student does not get to school it is the Parent’s responsibility not necessarily the Parent’s fault. There are circumstances where the student will walk in the front door and out the back door without attending a single class. This is where the attendance officers need to improve their due diligence like the old days.

Once the student is counted present in the morning; the Parent has required the student (child) to attend school. Once the student is verified in attendance at the beginning of the school day the student is in the custody of the School.

If the student is tardy or skips class (on campus or off campus) this happens on the watch of the school. The Parent if informed should cooperate and communicate with the School Counselors Administrators and the Attendance Officer to correct the behavior. The Security and Attendance officer should take notice and tighten the belt. This is a security issue as well; there is no excuse for students coming and going outside of the lunch period and it is imperative that attendance irregularities be dealt with within 24 hours. This is easily done with our modern technology.

Instead, what we are seeing is the Attendance Officers documenting the absences as they accumulate and filing on the Parent and student when the number of absences are achieved.

Solly, did you forget about the issues and the kids at Miller and CCISD as a whole?

South Texas Chisme: Chisme roundup

Posted on May 15, 2006 at 06:55:18 PM by Jaime Kenedeno ... sources at ccisd downtown have said that a miller hs asst. principal has become a whistleblower. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/05/chisme-roundup.html - 48k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Solomon Ortiz Jr. on the ballot for State Rep D33!

I am Jaime Kenedeno of South Texas. A simple Google search will inform you more of WHO I Am. ... The credentials of Noyola and the CCISD / Miller fiasco was ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/08/solomon-ortiz-jr-on-ballot-for-state.html - 31k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Truth? you cant handle the truth!

That hadn't happened in years, that is why Miller was facing sanctions from the feds (before noyola's time). And Kenedeno is right, we can't support the ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/truth-you-cant-handle-truth.html - 35k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: New block walking program in Corpu$

Posted on May 29, 2006 at 01:28:04 AM by Jaime Kenedeno ... Roy Miller’s political skills, vision brought Corpus Christi into the modern era ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/05/new-block-walking-program-in-corpu.html - 42k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Lets see how you dance to this tune

All the Talk Radio stations will be talking about the Miller HS issue as well as ... From: Jaime Kenedeno [mailto:kingalonzoalvarezdepinedaxiii@gmail.com] ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/lets-see-how-you-dance-to-this-tune.html - 46k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Race for State Rep. District 33 gets HOT

It said that the whistleblowers name at Miller was former assistant ... Jamie Kenedeno, no I just thought it would be fun to do something like that poem. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/race-for-state-rep-district-33-gets.html - 43k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Who's the REAL enemy?

... Sr. attempts to manipulate the vote and his performance at Miller HS last year. ... Jaime Kenedeno/Haley, Who Knows why he writes anything that he does. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/09/whos-real-enemy.html - 53k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: PULP FICTION & The Award Winning Caller-Times

... an article on July 23rd entitled PAPER WON’T REPORT RUMORS AT MILLER HIGH, ... Thanks for watching my back, Kenedeno. At 4:19 AM, Jaime Kenedeño said. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/pulp-fiction-award-winning-caller.html - 22k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Dangerous chisme?

When we write something us here at Kenedeno & Associates believe it to be true. ... in example will be the one that Danny Noyola was removed from Miller. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/06/dangerous-chisme.html - 27k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: HD 33 shuffle

Danny Noyola, Sr., recently reassigned from Miller HS principal to Moody assistant principal, ... Posted on July 3, 2006 at 09:51:17 PM by Jaime Kenedeno ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/hd-33-shuffle.html - 37k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Once again the Caller times tells only half truth

-Jane Wall – Current teacher and former Miller HS journalism instructor “As a Precinct chair, ... Political Pulse: Kenedeno’s Political Pulse ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/08/once-again-caller-times-tells-only.html - 32k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this


Texas Public Education Watchdog Authority

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

South Texas Judicial Watch Dog Authority: Dear Officers of the Court, submitted for further investigation

South Texas Judicial Watch Dog Authority: Dear Officers of the Court, submitted for further investigation



In Re: State v Villa

Do a little research on Del Mar College's in house counsel, Sean Meredeth, DMC Auditorium, Ballet Nacional, little girls, Joe Alaniz, and the relationship with our DA

Why is this evidence not included in the current prosecution of Villa?

Why not drag the whole bunch down to the Courthouse?

Friends of the Prosecution or not, enough of the selective prosecutions. Plaisted, Applebee, and the one's who covered it up at Parkdale Baptist & St Joseph's here in the Jurisdiction of the Nueces County / 105th District Attorney. Zealously

Possible Brady Material?

Does this material not merit a Grand Jury Investigation?

Pervert in Auditorium

Sunday, May 20, 2007

CCISD: Freedom of Information Request: The process the CCISD Board used is unethical and unfair.

CCISD: Freedom of Information Request: The process the CCISD Board used is unethical and unfair.

CCISD: Freedom of Information Request: The process the CCISD Board used is unethical and unfair.


Freedom of Information Request

This Publication request any and all communications including email and written correspondence from one week before Trustee Harry Williams resigned.

Must I formalize it on Monday?

Think I am bluffing?

You gotta ask yourself

Do you feel lucky?

Well Do ya?

Go ahead.........


You guys get the idea?

Now, don't go and seek the OAG's opinion as it will delay our children.

Just fess up and conduct business with honor and integrity and at least give us an appearance of due process. Not one black appointment. You guys are definitely walking on thin ice or maybe already fallen through but just don't know it. Such inadequacy is unacceptable.

CORPUS CHRISTI - CCISD school board members interviewed five candidates Friday to fill the board position vacated by Reverend Harry Williams.

The school board said it will set another meeting to discuss the finalists, and will possibly make a decision then, but still no word on when that would be.

Williams served the school board for more than seven years before resigning last month.






Nick Adame
"Do not be a disservice to our community and choose because this guy is my friend or this guy is my business associate," Dr. Nick Adame said. "I don't want to hear that. I want to hear that we're going to choose somebody because they're going to do right for the community."




Last week, the board narrowed the list of 20 candidates to five
Kenedeno:

Where is the criteria the process for "narrowing the list"?

The process the CCISD Board used is unethical and unfair. Every single applicant took the time to fill out an application, and the thought process for the letter of interest and update of their resume and references. For all intensive purposes this CCISD Board just threw that work product into the trash can while opting for business partners, friends cronies and industry allies.

It is not about the 5 selected it is about how the 5 were selected. It is not about Barrera or Prezas or Bill Clark or Lucy Rubio.

It is about a change of policy where policy is defined by processes of the past. Lucy is the only one with the guts to make the motion, "for the board to scrap the current process and start over. There was no second to the motion." Are there others in that room who agree with her, but politically, they are bound & gagged. The current process is in conflict with current policy. The current process is now a civil rights issue. Is that what CCISD wanted, another Cisneros v CCISD?






We have 19 Candidates who deserve Equal Opportunity and fair consideration. It is called due process.


1. Herbert Cromwell Arbuckle, III Retired Teacher
2. Rolando G. Barrera Insurance Agent
3. Tony C. Diaz, Ed.D. Retired CCISD Administrator
4. Victor Frazier, Ed.D. Minister and University Instructor
5. Cezar Galindo Business Owner and College Instructor
6. Marsha Lynn Grace Professor of Education
7. Coretta Graham Lawyer
8. Helen Gurley, Ph.D. Educator, Director of Academics
9. Patricia Harris Educator
10. Robert Elliott Jones Pastor and Business Manager
11. Deborah W. Johnson Retired Firefighter
12. Bradford Lee Kisner Director of Music and Fine Arts
13. Verna Faye Portis Retired CCISD Administrator
14. Raul R. Prezas, Ed.D. College Professor
15. Norman Haden Ransleben Certified Public Accountant
16. Woodrow Mac Sanders Medical Social Worker
17. Ronald G. Sepulveda Athletic Aquatic Superintendent
18. George Wetzel Retired Public School Administrator/Consultant
19. Goldie Lamarr Wooten Retired Educator

Rubio has said she disagrees with the selection process and would have preferred to use a scoring system instead.

Trustees selected the five candidates to be interviewed by each nominating one from a pool of 20 applicants.

We elect you guys to represent the district with honor & integrity

But before trustees interviewed the first candidate, trustee Lucy Rubio motioned for the board to scrap the current process and start over. There was no second to the motion.

Rubio has said she disagrees with the selection process and would have preferred to use a scoring system instead.


CCCT Editorial

The trustees' refusal to lay out the cards is beyond irritating; it borders on the outrageous.

Particularly disturbing is the fact that three new trustees elected last year - Carol Scott, John Longoria and Dwayne Hargis, all of whom emphasized their intent to bring new openness to the board - appear to have bought into the mum's-the-word ethos that has dominated this exercise.

To be sure, they (and their colleagues) could, and should, reverse their field.




CCISD Trustees: Pick and choose Policy Making with malice. Shame on YOU.

CORPUS CHRISTI - CCISD school board members have decided not to change their policy which forbids seniors who fail the TAKS from graduating.

One parent we spoke with Thursday said the policy didn't make sense, because while students who fail the TAKS test during the school year aren't allowed to take part in graduation ceremonies. The same doesn't hold true for summer school grads. They're allowed to participate in summer graduation ceremonies without knowing whether they passed the test.

The decision didn't sit well with some parents and students.

School board member Lucy Rubio had hoped to amend the policy, and allow seniors who failed the TAKS to at least walk in with their class during may commencement. But other school board members didn't agree.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Parkdale Bank: According to Gambi Gamboa, "John Longoria, Carol Scott and Dwayne Hargis already have chosen and will officially choose Roland Barrera

Parkdale Bank: According to Gambi Gamboa, "John Longoria, Carol Scott and Dwayne Hargis already have chosen and will officially choose Roland Barrera as soon as Fri



After analyzing the recent events surrounding the resignation of CCISD Board Trustee Harry Williams (1 of 3 at large district positions); one thing IS clear. That one thing is Due Process (or lack of it). Immediately one's memory of search firm fiascos and the CCISD Board tool of choice, the Interim Superintendent buffer / scapegoat. The process was elaborate and ethical reasons or rule were claimed as the reason for the process.

Well, why such a rush fellas?

Why is the CCISD board in such a hurry to fill this position?

A Superintendent position and a Trustee position; one we wine, dine and lodge and the other we announce for applications for a month or so and "narrow the list down" from 20 to 5 in most expedient fashion. Now, making a long story short we have 20 candidates who invested their creative, intellectual and professional abilities into a work product they hope will be scrutinized by the Board and be successfully competitive. A good letter of interest comes only from the heart. The application is at times tedious but at least it is more objective than the TAKS. Updating one's resume and with a list of references most meaningful to the position and all of this for 15 to get thrown in the trash can and the 5 resumes remaining are to place on public display

full story here

"I'll be as hardy of mind as I am of body. I'll be a straight-shooter and a square-dealer. My family name will be sacred My word will be as good as any contract. I'll remember the Alamo. I'll stick by my friends. And I'll eat more chicken-fried steak."