Letters to the Editor

The Chickens are Coming Home to Roost

January 1, 2010

To the Editor:

Some time ago I wrote a Letter to the Editor concerning Dr. Whitney’s actions regarding transferring teachers and staff around. Included in that article were the classes without a waiver which he orchestrated, without a change to my contract and without regard to prep time from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades that I was teaching at Blythe Middle School and at Ruth Brown.

My contract did not include itinerate teaching nor, did it take into consideration the Special Education headcount at a different school, writing Individual Education Plans when the student is not assigned to you; nor having a chance to meet the parents of the student. Neither the State Handbook, nor the Federal statutes that govern these IEPs were adhered to. The only statement that I could get from Dr. Whitney was "I can modify and assign you any way that I want." l have to admit that I asked for a written justification for the assignment outside my school for my lawyer to peruse. He did, in fact, send me a letter regarding the transfer – which is amusing at best. As for the subject of saving the district money, I would consider getting rid of some top heavy administrators or reducing their salary. I'm sure there are at least two that are not earning their salary.

I'm still amazed that no one has called Bakersfield to find out whether the position that Jacob Jensen served before coming to Blythe was Student Services or Special Education. The qualifications are 100 percent different between Student Services and Special Education. Maybe that answers why PVUSD is in such a quagmire. I don't know when this power grab started at other schools in the district but I know that it started at the Middle School. It is the actions that took place there that Mr. Underwood should have investigated before his rapid reaction to replace Dr. Alan Jensen with Dr. Whitney. If this was in the best interest of the School District then we need to look at recall and replacement of individuals who do not exercise the appropriate judgment to run a school district.

Just my opinion.

Bill H. Coram
M.Ed Special Ed. Teacher Ret.

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