Chunk's photo backlog

ACCRED TEAMS MEET WITH CHANCELLOR'S CABINET (11/30):

This was the scene up in the snazzy district offices as the trustees' meeting with the Accreds ended:
That's trustee Fuentes moving toward Debra Blue. The SC Accred team is to the right (with Lang).

Above: Chancellor Mathur lingered as Chancellor's Cabinet prepared to meet with the Accreds. Mathur did not attend these meetings. I asked him if I was welcome, and he said "Yes."

Above: just before the Chancellor's Cabinet Accred meeting. I left the meeting early, sensing that my presence might discourage frank discussion.

Above: a few hours earlier, the IVC Accred team met with the IVC Academic Senate.

VISITING THE DISTRICT OFFICES (late November):

It's a different world, up on the third floor. Looks like corporate offices. Taco Bell maybe.

Outside the Chancellor's office:


OUR NEW BOARD OFFICERS

With apologies to Tracy Daly:

At Monday's board meeting, Nancy Padberg was replaced by Don Wagner. Nancy's the Majority's least favorite trustee.

Above: all too often, the board votes look like this.

Vice Chancellor Andreea Serban

What Happens When You Go Away

Don't even ask what the past week has been like. Suffice to say, Rebel Girl has not finished grading her various paper sets, has not finished staffing all the classes for the next semester, has not finished writing letters of recommendation, has not even begun to do faculty evaluations let alone holiday shopping and sister calling and instead has been composing a 2000 word essay titled "Pedagogy of the Deceased." It's too long and dreadful to post here but if you want a copy just let her know and she'll be happy to share the pain.

Instead, a poem, from the wonderful Muriel Sparks:

The Three Kings

Where do we go from here?
We left our country,
Bore gifts,
Followed a star.
We were questioned.
We answered.
We reached our objective.
We enjoyed the trip.
Then we came back by a different way.
And now the people are demonstrating in the streets.
They say they don't need the Kings any more.
They did very well in our absence.
Everything was all right without us.
They are out on the streets with placards:
Wise Men? What's wise about them?
There are plenty of Wise Men,
And who needs them? --and so on.

Perhaps they will be better off without us,
But where do we go from here?

~RG

Owen & Dennis?

● We keep hearing that the fates of IVC Police Chief Owen Kreza and his Deputy, Dennis Duncan, have been decided. (Both were mysteriously placed on administrative leave over two months ago. Their computers were seized.) As near as I can tell, nothing was announced about them after the closed session of the Board of Trustees Monday night. See Tracy’s Board meeting highlights.

On the other hand, I’ve been told that the closed session item regarding “Resignation.Retirement/Conclusion of Employment” [sic] referred to the resolution of the Owen/Dennis situation.

According to my sources, Owen Kreza will retire, and Dennis will resign. We'll try to get confirmation.


● The LA Times had a great story yesterday (and another today) about my Congressman, Gary Miller. He’s another corrupt local Republican, bigtime. See Ex-aids allege abuse of power. We’ll have more about Miller at a later date. See also Gary Miller can always get what he wants in today’s Times.

* In this morning’s Times: Passion fills O.C. court in trial over student rights:

Two high schoolers are caught kissing on campus.

Ordinarily, such an incident would garner little attention. But for Charlene Nguon, a smattering of kisses and hugs stolen after school and in between classes led to detention, suspensions, a transfer and a lawsuit.

The reason? That's what a federal judge in Santa Ana will soon decide.

Nguon says it's because she was kissing a girl. Ben Wolf, who was then principal of Garden Grove's Santiago High School, says that's not the case at all….

The article ends:

On the plaintiff's side, one focus of [the girl’s attorney’s] closing argument was school policy. He said that when Wolf told Nguon's mother her daughter had been kissing a girl, he was revealing her sexual orientation. Would it not be sufficient to say she was caught making out? He said school officials testified that they would never use a student's race or ethnicity as an identifier.

[The defendant’s attorney] warned that siding with the plaintiff on that point would force "a lot of school districts throughout this state to change the way they communicate."

To which the judge replied, "What's wrong with that?"

● If you want to read about how our state is unprepared for a disaster, check out State lags in health readiness surve in this morning’s San Francisco Chronicle. It ain’t pretty. Compared to other states, we’re near the bottom. Joining us there: Iowa, Maryland and New Jersey.