Monthly Archives: May 2008

And in a related matter …

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 30, 2008 | Comments closed
By JONANN BRADY (ABC NEWS) Ignorant. Pathetic. Self-absorbed. Those are some of the harsh names an Indiana kindergarten teacher called one of her students, and the boy’s parents captured it all on tape. Five-year-old Gabriel Ross complained over the school year that his teacher, Kristen Woodward, was being mean to him, said his mother Tabitha McMahan and stepfather J.R. Edwards. Gabriel told them other [...]
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Autistic boy voted out of class (update at bottom)

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 29, 2008 | Comments closed
This is a family photo of 5-year-old Alex Barton:     If you haven’t heard this disturbing story, Alex has been at the center of a huge controversy in Port St. Lucie, Fla., which is about 115 miles north of Miami. Recently, Alex’s kindergarten teacher, Wendy Portillo, reportedly allowed her students to decide whether they wanted [...]
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Committee to recommend SJCOE as DAIT provider

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 28, 2008 | Comments closed
    SUSD’s curriculum committee — or at least two-thirds of it — met Tuesday evening to decide whether to recommend the San Joaquin County Office of Education or a private company, Action Learning Systems, as the district’s DAIT provider.     It was pretty dry stuff, but the topic itself is a crucial one. DAIT stands for [...]
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Disario placed on paid leave

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 23, 2008 | Comments closed
    The full story will be in tomorrow’s paper. Here’s the press release sent out late this afternoon by Stockton Unified. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE STOCKTON – Paul Disario, Chief Financial Officer for Stockton Unified School District, has voluntarily asked to be placed on immediate administrative leave five weeks before he was set to retire from the district. The request [...]
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Sticking her neck out

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 18, 2008 | Comments closed
    After more than six months of reporting on school-related issues, I have found that while many people who work in education are willing to gripe, almost none are willing to be quoted by name about anything remotely controversial (though several Stockton Unified school board members and former SUSD athletics administrator Joe Martin have been [...]
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Good morning, Stockton

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 14, 2008 | Comments closed
   If anyone is keeping score, the SUSD board meeting ended at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. The first closed session ended after 90 minutes at 7:30. The public session ended at 10:45. Then they went into closed session again to discuss a possible interim deputy superintendent.    They announced that the second closed session would probably take about five [...]
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Quiet before the storm?

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 9, 2008 | Comments closed
    First of all, I should have done this at the beginning of the week, but better late than never … On Sunday I wrote a story on Measure Q, and online, there’s an interactive map with school-by-school info on the planned projects. Just click on a school name, and you can find out everything [...]
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A sad world

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 6, 2008 | Comments closed
    I can’t stop thinking about Mayra Lopez.     I can’t stop thinking about Aaron Kelly.     When do we hit bottom? When do things start to get better?     Last week, I wrote about a $3.4-million grant for small learning communities at Stockton Unified School District’s high schools. The grant is held up in a political battle [...]
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Budget talk hits the tube

By Roger Phillips | Published: May 2, 2008 | Comments closed
    The California budget mess isn’t going away anytime soon. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed $4.8 billion slash of public K-12 spending continues to be the hottest topic in California education, understandably.        For Stockton Unified, the situation has forced it to grapple for ways to cut $10 million from its 2008-09 general fund budget. Every [...]
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