Tonight's board meeting: short but unsweet

     Tonight, I’ll offer only a brief account. I’ll have more tomorrow.
     The meeting lasted but one hour. But what an hour!
     Marcia Milchiker reported that, during the closed session, David Bugay was approved as acting Vice Chancellor of Business Services. That doesn’t strike me as terribly surprising. With Gary Poertner’s retirement, some adjustments have to be made.
     Item 9.1—the accreditation self-studies—were pushed to the front of the meeting. The board quickly voted—unanimously—to “accept” these reports.
     After the meeting, several administrators and faculty hung around, looking worried and/or angry. I left 'em alone.
     Still, I have it on good authority that a certain prominent person had not yet signed the Accred reports. (As you know, several officials routinely sign these reports before they are sent to the ACCJC. Included among them: the Academic Senate President, the Board President, the college president, the committee chair, et al.)
     As far as I know, that person had still not yet signed the reports as I drove off this evening. (I’m being vague about this, ‘cause I don’t want to place any more heat on the situation. Perhaps tomorrow the signatures will be provided. If this person is going to sign these documents, they will have to do so very soon. Tomorrow. If, in the end, the signatures are provided, there's no need to go into details.)
     Few items were pulled from the “consent calendar.”
     Nancy Padberg pulled the item on trustee requests for attending conferences. As I’ve reported recently, it appears that a trustee has expressed an interest in attending a conference in Orlando, Florida. (“Surprise, surprise,” said Nancy.) Nancy noted that attendance at this conference is expensive and that there is no need for a trustee to go to the east coast for whatever information the conference will provide. The request is, she said, “inappropriate.”
     Williams said nothing.
     Only Nancy voted against approval.
     Tom Fuentes pulled item 5.12—authorization of institutional memberships. You’ll recall that, several years ago, Don Wagner led a successful effort to reject the colleges’ continued memberships in the American Library Association, an organization of, as Don put it, “liberal busybodies.” Don declared that he was opposed to money for memberships in “partisan” organizations.
     Among utterly routine institutional memberships (at community colleges) are Academic Senates’ memberships in the state academic senate. As we’ve reported, recently, the state academic senate filed an amicus brief in support of the prayer lawsuit against the district (“Westphal v. Wagner”). Hmmm.
     Fuentes successfully pulled those memberships from the approval vote. I do believe that administrators will provide "information" about these memberships for the next board meeting. Then trustees will make a decision. (Get real, dude: ceasing Saddleback and Irvine Valley College senates' memberships in the state senate will never happen.)
     Item 6.5 was “academic personnel actions.” Trustee John Williams had no problem with these actions—with one exception:

AUTHORIZATION TO ESTABLISH AND ANNOUNCE ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION

1. DEAN OF ACADEMIC PROGRAMS, STUDENT LEARNING, AND RESEARCH, Academic Administrator Salary Schedule Category 11, Office of Instruction, Irvine Valley College, seeks authorization to establish and announce this full-time, Academic Administrative position within its staff complement, effective July 27, 2010. This position reports to the Vice President of Instruction. 

     Let’s just say that, with item 6.5, the tensions that now exist between the two trustee factions (Wagner/Padberg/Jay/Milchiker vs. Fuentes/Lang/Williams) boiled over and spilled all over the room. Here’s the short version:
     Background: Fuentes (I've been assured) views pursuit of this position as the ascent of former Academic Senate President Wendy G to administration. Fuentes’ camp, especially former Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur, hates Wendy (these fools imagine that she's the Great Blonde Satan). And so their rejection of this dean position is personal. It's "Wendy must be stopped." And so Boss Fuentes has made it clear to his unprincipled minions (Lang, Williams, and the roaches in the walls) that they shall oppose approving this position, which Fuentes and Co. assume is destined to be filled by Wendy.
     (But tonight’s decision was not about who would be hired for the job. Rather, it was about whether IVC should be allowed to create [or revive] this administrative position.)
     Fuentes, Williams, and Lang offered feeble objections to approval of the position. (More details tomorrow.) Padberg, Jay, and (especially) Wagner offered powerful arguments in support of the position, including the circumstance that this position has been included in two previous budgets, and no trustee had objected to it then.
     It finally came down to a vote: should approval of this position be tabled until “questions” are answered about it? In fact, during tonight's meeting (and in previous discussions), all concerns and questions had been answered. C'mon!
     The vote on tabling a decision on this deanship was very surprising. Only Wagner, Jay, and Padberg voted against it.
     And Marcia? Why did she vote for tabling?
     I don’t know. [July 27 update: I have it on very good authority that Marcia favors supporting the position but agreed that it would be good to get more information about it before voting.] I do know that Don’s body language left no doubt about how he felt about her vote. Trust me. There can be no doubt.
     Back to the discussion: it got very heated. Essentially, Don tagged Fuentes and crew for their bad faith ("something else is going on here," he said, and that something else could lead to litigation). And, in the course of the back and forth, he left no doubt what he thinks of John Williams.
     Well, he thinks he’s an idiot.
     And he is.
     More tomorrow.

The CAPO recall: a sprawling, fascinating mess

     This morning, the talented and energetic (if somewhat undisciplined) Vern Nelson of Orange Juice blog presents what he calls a “primer” on the CAPO recall.
     It’s Vern’s typically sprawling and sometimes wacky outpouring of ideas and facts (and fun, but sometimes goofy, videos), but it does touch on lots that’s relevant and even crucial. Do check it out:

A Capo Recall Primer (Orange Juice Blog)

     Be sure to catch some of the video footage of the board—and especially of trustee Anna Bryson, a clueless right-winger who has visited our own Board, usually at the side of her corrupt boss (and pal o' Fuentes) Chriss Street.
     Another name that pops up in Vern's piece is that of Howard Ahmanson, Jr. For some reason, Vern has little interest revealing just how disturbing is that fellow’s politics. As we've often explained here on DtB, the guy is way out there, man.
     It’s a cozy world, that ugly, deceptive, conniving, and often amateurish zone of right-wing South County education politics. Among the common threads Vern weaves through his story is Education Alliance, which, as you know, has had involvement in SOCCCD affairs going back at least to 1998 (and likely before that).
     Naturally, Education Alliance, on whose board our on Don Wagner sits (it’s hard to say, since the EA website seems to be stuck in a time warp), received its initial financial support from Ahmanson, who has continued to throw money in the organization's direction. Ahmanson seems also to be the Big Money support of the Pacific Research Institute, whose big "scholar," Lance Izumi, has appeared and squawked at at least one of SOCCCD's Raghu Mathur's opening sessions.
     Vern embraces a kind of conspiracy theory that we’ve heard about (and have been tempted to consider) here at the SOCCCD for more than a dozen years: that the far-right education reformers that EA helps represent seek, not to reform, but to destroy public education from within.
     It sure does seem that way sometimes.
     On the other hand, some of these people (unfortunately, not all of them) are clueless and even stupid. That goes a long way in explaining their trail of confusion and ruin in public education.

PRI's Lance Izumi at the SOCCCD

SEE ALSO

• Education Alliance, Pacific Research Institute, and CAPO (Dissent the Blog, 5/22/09)
• Trojan horses in public schools (DtB, 12/3/09)
• "Fuentes World," part 1 (DtB, 11/30/05)

* * *

Today in the news:

Online K-12 education surging, but official says 'it's buyer, beware' (The Sacramento Bee)

Interest in online schools for kindergarten through 12th grade is surging as new virtual offerings flood the market, leading education experts to warn parents that not all programs are equal....