Hillsborough school district has been dipping into emergency funds to cover MaryEllen Elia's Hole | Tampa Bay Times

Hillsborough school district has been dipping into emergency funds to cover expenses | Tampa Bay Times:

Hillsborough school district has been dipping into emergency funds to cover expenses

TAMPA — In the last four years of superintendent MaryEllen Elia's administration, the Hillsborough County School District went on a spending jag, tearing through more than half of its $361 million reserve fund, officials revealed this week.

Left unchecked, the pattern would have resulted in another operating deficit this year — a $75 million hit that would bring the fund down near its legal minimum threshhold.

The situation has surprised Elia's successor, unsettled School Board members and put bonding agencies on alert, which could lead to the district facing higher interest rates when it has to borrow money.

Jeff Eakins, who took over as superintendent after serving as Elia's deputy, says he was caught off guard when he realized the district used $68.5 million in non-recurring funds to meet this year's payroll.

"We're not in any kind of financial crisis," Eakins told the Tampa Bay Times editorial board Tuesday. But, he said, "we need to put some measures in place right now."

Eakins was careful not to criticize Elia, a onetime national finalist for superintendent of the year who, after her Jan. 20 firing in Hillsborough, landed a job as state education commissioner in New York.

Asked if he knew about the spending imbalance before Elia left in March, Eakins said, "not to this extent." Meeting one-on-one with School Board members in recent weeks, he was similarly discreet, said member Sally Harris. "He never mentioned names, just numbers," she said.

Elia's critics on the board were far less subtle.

"We have time and time again requested information that was not given to us, as has been documented for years in her evaluations," said board member April Griffin.

Added member Cindy Stuart: "To me, this validates every reason why we pushed the yes button to fire MaryEllen."

Elia did not return calls for comment Monday and Tuesday.

Board member Melissa Snively, who voted against firing Elia, said of the controversy, "I hope it doesn't overshadow the good things she did in this district. She did a lot of positive things for the children that put us on the map."

While disappointed to learn of the dwindling reserve fund, Snively said, "I'm not one to dwell on the past, except what we can learn from it."

Eakins said he is still gathering information as he tries to get a full understanding of the budget issue.

For example: Teachers were given pay raises in the summer after negotiations with their union. School Board members were told how much those raises would cost.

But those were estimates that fell short of the real number because they did not take into account a new pay structure offered under Empowering Effective Teachers, the system Elia initiated in 2009 with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That's because teachers don't decide whether they want Hillsborough school district has been dipping into emergency funds to cover expenses | Tampa Bay Times:

CURMUDGUCATION: So, I Have a Book

CURMUDGUCATION: So, I Have a Book:

So, I Have a Book

CURMUDGUCATION: What Fresh Hell

Authored by Peter Greene 
Peter Greene blogs about the current state of public education with plenty of sass and not much rigor. This book includes almost 100 favorites from his popular blogs Curmudgucation and View from the Cheap Seats, and makes the case that there is much to love at US public education and much not to take serious about many of the folks who want to tear down one of our most 

I am a fan of self-publishing. The new world of Print on Demand makes it possible to put just about anything in a book at little-to-no cost. I've used it to publish collections of pieces from my newspaper column, create book-like memorabilia for my tiny region, and to publish the history of the 159-year-old town band I play in. Every year I now collect the major project from my honors students and publish it in book form. For our first anniversary, I made my wife a book.

I'm old school. I think books are awesome. I think holding the object, turning the pages, feeling that sheet of paper move under my fingers as it shifts to reveal another field of words-- it's just awesome. Other things in the world, particularly the cyber-world, could vanish tomorrow without a trace, but a book is real, solid (yes, I know it will dry up and blow away eventually, but somehow, that's different).

So I've published a book for this blog, and I am pleased to say that it's available to the world.



The book is a collection of ninety-some pieces from this blog, and I feel it only fair to point out that there isn't anything in the book that you can't read right here for free. Some popular old favorites are in the book, like the Arne Duncan spleen piece and the Hard Part, a blog that blew up on Huff Post. If you would like your dosage of Curmudgucation in a handy read-on-the-porch-with-a-cup-of-coffee format, or if you've been trying to get people in your life to read about what's happening in education but they just hate that whole interwebs thing, this is one more available option.For me, this will be a handy Christmas gift for family members.

And if you prefer not to fund amazon, you can buy a copy directly from the publisher (which is owned by amazon, but Bezos will still get less of your money less directly).

At any rate, I'm pleased to offer rantings in a different format as one more way to get the word out. One thing I've learned over the years is that I'm very bad at doing the whole "Hey, buy my book," thing. But if you have enjoyed the blog and would like some copies of classic material in book form, hey, buy my book.CURMUDGUCATION: So, I Have a Book:

ICYMI: Great Eduposts This Week

I missed last Sunday because vacation. But here's some of what you could be reading today.

About those charter school waiting lists

Here's a nice clear first-person account of how those wait lists get to be so large, and how little wait lists tell us about demand for charter schools. 

Why schools need more teachers of color-- for white students

We already know that there's no question about the benefits of having students see teachers who look like them. But having teachers of color is also hugely beneficial for white students as well.  

Is NOLA Experiencing Slave Market Education Reform

Reformsters are bummed. The release of the ERA report was supposed to unleash a storm of excitement about how awesomely successful the New Orleans school privatization experiment has been. Instead, pieces like Jennifer Berkshire's Salon article have folks questioning the whole business all over again. Jullian Vasquez Heilig storified some of the critical conversations coming out of #NOLAEdWarning so we can see just why folks aren't dancing in the streets, and just how much isn't being included in the NOLA PR blitz.

Want to know how a student is doing?

Wendy Lecker reminds us that parents already know how to find out how well their children are doing in school-- and it isn't to march to the office and demand to see Junior's standardized test results. 

The Hefty ad campaign

Yes, the Hefty trash bag folks, of all people, have launched a campaign hitting the idea that schools and teachers are underfunded and undersupported.

The suicide of the liberal arts

John Agresto takes to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to make a case for the liberal arts, and to argue that the discipline needs to be a better friend to itself.

ICYMI: Great Eduposts This Week

Louisiana Educator: New RSD Propaganda Machine Whitewashes Dismal Performance

Louisiana Educator: New RSD Propaganda Machine Whitewashes Dismal Performance:

New RSD Propaganda Machine Whitewashes Dismal Performance

The latest Recovery District propaganda machine is called theResearch Alliance for New Orleans. It was founded by Tulane University professor of economics, Douglas Harris. In this articleprinted in Education Next, Harris makes an attempt to paint the struggling Louisiana Recovery School District in New Orleans as a big success despite the dismal facts about student performance.

This faux research technique is used primarily to prevent us from noticing the extremely low performance of the New Orleans RSD in the ten years since Katrina

Harris uses a very dense and confusing array of research strategies to convince us to disregard the most basic data on the actual performance of the New Orleans charter schools comprising the RSD. He attempts instead to make obscure comparisons of growth in performance by matched groups that show that the RSD is succeeding in greatly improving student performance in New Orleans. Based on these obscure caparisons he concludes that the New Orleans "portfolio model" should be a model for turning around struggling schools across the nation. Harris utilizes a comparison of the RSD schools using a "difference between the two differences between the treatment and comparison groups" that supposedly "yields a credible estimate of the policy effect." This stuff is just gobbledegook! This faux research technique is used primarily to prevent us from noticing the extremely low RSD performance in the ten years since Katrina.

Don't believe your lying eyes! Harris wants to distract us from the actual performance of the charter schools administered by the RSD and have us focus only on his complex growth comparison analysis

Harris produces almost no actual data about the real performance of the New Orleans RSD. He does not tell us how the RSD now ranks in student performance (after ten years of reform) compared to all other school systems in the state, he does not tell us what the RSD graduation rate is, he does not discuss the average ACT scores, and he never mentions the RSD dropout rate. For most researchers (And for the parents of RSD students) these actual facts are very important as they paint a very sad picture of the real performance of the RSD. But Harris wants us to disbelieve our lying eyes and instead take his word for it that the RSD is a tremendous success and a model for reform across the Nation.

Here are the indisputable facts as verified by Louisiana Department of Education Data:

• The latest performance of the N.O. RSD schools as a Louisiana Educator: New RSD Propaganda Machine Whitewashes Dismal Performance:

Russ on Reading: The Single Most Destructive Force in Public Education

Russ on Reading: The Single Most Destructive Force in Public Education:

The Single Most Destructive Force in Public Education

On Monday, I had some fun with Chris Christie’s desire to punch the teacher’s unions in the face. Today, I think it is much more important to deal with the substance of what Christie said to reporter Jake Tapper on CNN last Sunday. Speaking of one of the two large national teachers unions the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Christie said that the AFT was “not for education for our children. They’re for greater membership, greater benefits, greater pay for their members. And they are the single most destructive force in public education in America.”

Now I am sure that Christie was using hyperbole in an attempt to raise his sagging poll numbers, but what is inescapable, and most worrisome, is that so many people believe him. Of course, the moneyed, anti-union, American oligarchs like the Koch Brothers and the Walton family believe him, but the really scary part of this statement is that so many middle-class working people, people who we might expect to be on the teacher’s, i.e. the worker’s, side believe this also.

My earlier blog post was published in a number of news outlets and while many commenters expressed sympathy with my position many took the opportunity to vent their anger at teachers unions. Typical of the more rational comments was this one:

We have communities and municipalities and states near bankruptcy as well as their citizens, paying for benefits predatory and hostile teachers unions have managed to extract over the years. 

Many people, it seems, admire teachers and loathe their unions. My larger point in the blog was that you can’t separate the two. Not all teachers agree with all the positions that their unions Russ on Reading: The Single Most Destructive Force in Public Education:

With A Brooklyn Accent: Next Step for the Opt Out Movement- Demanding Public Schools Exempt from State Tests

With A Brooklyn Accent: Next Step for the Opt Out Movement- Demanding Public Schools Exempt from State Tests:

Next Step for the Opt Out Movement- Demanding Public Schools Exempt from State Tests

If you want to restore idealism to the teaching profession, win back the confidence of the nation's parents, and expand the recruitment of teachers of color, one sure fire way to do this is start opening "test exempt" public schools in communities where parents and teachers demand them, either by opening new schools or giving test exemptions to existing schools.

There are already high schools like this in New York City- called "Consortium Schools"- which use teacher developed assessments to chart student progress, and they are extremely popular with students and parents. It is time to expand this experiment to middle schools and elementary schools, and spread it around the nation.

It is hard to put in words how much excitement and hope this will create among the nation's disillusioned parents and teachers, who have been leaving public schools in droves. Imagine- a chance to unleash teacher and students creativity; end the humiliation and abuse of students with special needs; give the arts, play and exercise their rightful place in the school experience; and allow flexibility in assessing student talents and performance.

There will be those who say that such an experiment dispenses with "accountability" and makes it impossible to determine whether these schools serving their students well, but that is only because they see test results are the only important data. However there are other forms of "data" that may be even more meaningful in determining whether such schools are succeeding. Here are a few:

How many teachers apply to teach in these schools when they open?
How long do teachers stay at these schools once they begin operations?
How much turnover is there among students in these schools? Are there less student suspensions than in regular public schools and charter schools?
What are the graduation rates of students who begin in these With A Brooklyn Accent: Next Step for the Opt Out Movement- Demanding Public Schools Exempt from State Tests:

At-Risk Students, Bad Teachers, Failing Schools: Our Blinding Accusatory Finger Pointing | the becoming radical

At-Risk Students, Bad Teachers, Failing Schools: Our Blinding Accusatory Finger Pointing | the becoming radical:

At-Risk Students, Bad Teachers, Failing Schools: Our Blinding Accusatory Finger Pointing

Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart

“The Scientist,” Coldplay

The absolute greatest gift of being a teacher by profession is accumulating throughout your career the young people gifted you by your classroom.

A few days ago, I was having lunch with a former student and current teacher, Ali Williams, who teaches English at a majority-minority, high-poverty high school in the school district that serves the county where I teach.

Among the ramblings of our nerdfest, we talked about language, about the challenges of trying to be a good teacher, and about the fields of psychology and sociology, a tension that has more and more fascinated me over a thirty-plus years career as a teacher.

For anyone who doesn’t know Ali personally or who has never spent time at her school or with her students (I have had several teacher candidates placed at the school and thus have observed there often), the reality today is that the students are likely and uncritically viewed as at-risk, the school is believed to be failing, and Ali could very easily be labeled a bad teacher.

Those pronouncements occur all across the state of South Carolina and the U.S.—an accusatory finger pointing that blinds political leaders and the public from the corrosive social forces that are reflected by students, teachers, and schools (but not created by those students, teachers, or schools).

Because the U.S. remains trapped within the lies of rugged individualism and believing the country is a meritocracy, the influence of psychology (mostly quantified claims about individual qualities and behaviors) is more readily and almost entirely uncritically andinaccurately embraced while sociology (often broad and descriptive explorations of social forces) is either ignored or carelessly discounted—often as “excuses.”

If we did deeper, another division is embedded in the disciplinary tension above—the power ofnumbers.

Numbers give the compelling appearance of objectivity and certainty while rich description offers complexity and uncertainty.

And the U.S. has a disturbing propensity for being a blowhard nation; we seem to like our columnists, radio personalities, and even presidential candidates to hold forth with the simplistic bloviating found among privileged white men who have never reconsidered anything, especially their own privilege.

The 10,000-hour rule, humans use only 10% of their brains, poor children have smaller vocabularies that wealthy children, high rates of black-on-black crime—each of these remains incredibly common claims throughout mainstream media, politics, and private conversations, but each is also bad numbers—at best cited in misleading ways and at worst simply wrong.

Numbers are compelling, especially when they can be used to promote “objectively” our worst prejudices.

If we focus on the black-on-black crime claim (which I believe is representative of this problem), that data are misleading because essentially most crime is within race (white-on-white crime is about 84% and black-on-black, 91%).

Crime is also strongly connected with poverty, and then poverty disproportionately impacts blacks.

In other words, a rich and detailed description of crime, one that is more accurate and not At-Risk Students, Bad Teachers, Failing Schools: Our Blinding Accusatory Finger Pointing | the becoming radical:

Schools Matter: Corporate Radio Picks On AFT Indiana

Schools Matter: Corporate Radio Picks On AFT Indiana:

Corporate Radio Picks On AFT Indiana

Get Hoosier School Heist in Paperback

Hoosier School Heist On FaceBook

by Doug Martin 

A few days ago, WIBC 93.1’s Ray Steele and Mike Wilson, hosts of The 10 @ 10 Show, found a tweet by AFT Indiana andwent into corporate bully mode. 

The AFT Indiana tweet read:  

“To all the heroes of the education world headed back to the trenches: Good luck & Thank You!” 

WIBC’s hosts were offended by the war metaphor, claiming that teachers do not do anything like engage in battle from the “trenches” and that it was “outlandish” for AFT Indiana to make such a statement. 

WIBC is owned and operated by Emmis Communications.  Emmis’ Executive Vice President is Scott Enright, a board member of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, an Indianapolis-based national privatization propaganda mill started by economist Milton Friedman and Mitch Daniels. Emmis, as I note in my book Hoosier School Heist, was paid very well by the Friedman Foundation a few years back for ads to push school privatization. 

 

With a board made up of Overstocked.com’s founder and many school privatization champions, the Friedman Foundation pays well, too.  In 2013, CEO Robert Enlow raked in over $220,000 (see page 7).  The Friedman Foundation has funded the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity (page 39) and even the Indianapolis Urban League, the latter to the tune of $20,000 in 2013 (see page 40).  

As I mention in my book, Milton Friedman knew quite a bit about war, literally war against the people.  In the 1970s after the CIA helped overthrow the democratically-elected president in Chile, Friedman aided the new brutal dictator, Augusto Pinochet, in beating into place a free-market scheme that still spurs protests in the streets.  As Naomi Klein and others have Schools Matter: Corporate Radio Picks On AFT Indiana:

Big Education Ape: Hoosier School Heist Continues: $50 million plan - Grants, loans for charter schools | Indiana |... http://bit.ly/1IXbOue

Big Education Ape: Subscribe to Hoosier School Heist TV - YouTube http://bit.ly/1FL2arN

Big Education Ape: Fourth Generation Teacher: Hoosier School Heist Predicts Sooner School Stickup http://bit.ly/1IXbTOx

The consequences for kids when their parents work irregular night shifts — research - The Washington Post

The consequences for kids when their parents work irregular night shifts — research - The Washington Post:

The consequences for kids when their parents work irregular night shifts

Having a regular schedule matters — especially when it comes to young people of all ages. According to a new research brief from the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute, children of parents working non-standard and unpredictable schedules are more likely to have decreased cognitive and behavioral outcomes.

Who is more commonly affected? Blacks, less-educated parents,  and young low-income single moms.  What are some of the negative outcomes? The brief says that toddlers whose mothers work non-standard hours, for example, have worse sensory perception, learning, problem solving, and verbal communication, while 13- and 14-year-olds whose parents work at night are more likely to be depressed and to engage in risky behavior, such as smoking and drinking, than kids whose parents are at home at night.

The brief, titled “Parents’ Non-Standard Work Schedules Make Adequate Childrearing Difficult: Reforming Labor Market Practices Can Improve Children’s Cognitive and Behavioral Outcomes,” was written by Leila Morsy, a lecturer at the University of New South Wales (l.morsy@unsw.edu.au) and EPI research associate Richard Rothstein (rrothstein@epi.org). It is part of a broader project by Morsy and Rothstein that examines social class characteristics that hinder children’s cognitive and behavioral development and provides policy recommendations to address these characteristics.

Morsy and Rothstein make some recommendations for policy changes in the brief, including that businesses compensate workers who have irregular schedules.  

Here’s the report by Leila Morsy and Richard Rothstein, without the footnotes, which you can see in full here.

Introduction and key findings

Recent developments in employment practices have increased the prevalence of non-standard work schedules—non-daytime shifts in which most hours do not fall between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., when shifts rotate, or when schedules vary weekly or otherwise. For example, computer software now enables retail, restaurant, service, and other firms to predict hourly customer demand and delivery schedules with precision, encouraging employers to create “just-in-time” schedules in which workers are called in or sent home on short notice. By preventing many parents from adequately caring for their children, such practices adversely affect child and adolescent development.

This issue brief examines evidence on the prevalence of unpredictable and non-standard work schedules, and on how such schedules impair children’s development. It concludes by proposing policy solutions. Key findings include:

* Non-standard schedules are more common among black workers and less-educated workers, and also among mothers who are low-income, younger, and have spent more years as single parents.

* Young children and adolescents of parents working unpredictable schedules or outside standard daytime working hours are more likely to have inferior cognitive and behavioral outcomes.

–Toddlers whose mothers work non-standard hours demonstrate worse sensory perception, memory, learning, problem solving, verbal communication, and expressive language.
–Preschoolers whose mothers work non-standard hours exhibit more negative behavior (depression, anxiety, withdrawal, aggression).
–Parents’ variable schedules require irregular family mealtimes and child bedtimes that interfere with children’s healthy development. For young children, mothers with non-standard schedules must make inconsistent and poorer quality child care arrangements.
–Parents with non-standard schedules can engage in fewer pre-academic activities with children, such as reading books, telling stories, and practicing reading, writing, or math skills.
–Parents with non-standard hours are more tired, anxious, irritable, and stressed, making children’s delinquency, aggression, and other negative behaviors more likely.

* Policy changes should create disincentives to schedule work in ways that impede employees’ ability to care for their children.

–For instance, legislation should require premiums for work performed beyond eight hours after the first working hour of the day or outside typical daytime hours, and provide predictable scheduling and pay, adequate rest between shifts, and access to adequate hours.

Prevalence of non-standard and unpredictable schedules

African American workers are typically assigned more non-standard work The consequences for kids when their parents work irregular night shifts — research - The Washington Post:

Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials Optional) - The New York Times

Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials Optional) - The New York Times:
Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials Optional)

ROHNERT PARK, Calif. — In a stark about-face from just a few years ago, school districts have gone from handing out pink slips to scrambling to hire teachers.

Across the country, districts are struggling with shortages of teachers, particularly in math, science and special education — a result of the layoffs of the recession years combined with an improving economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers.

At the same time, a growing number of English-language learners are entering public schools, yet it is increasingly difficult to find bilingual teachers. So schools are looking for applicants everywhere they can — whether out of state or out of country — and wooing candidates earlier and quicker.

Some are even asking prospective teachers to train on the job, hiring novices still studying for their teaching credentials, with little, if any, classroom experience.

Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; Oklahoma City; and Providence, R.I., are among the large urban school districts having trouble finding teachers, according to the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large urban districts. Just one month before the opening of classes, Charlotte, N.C., was desperately trying to fill 200 vacancies.

Nationwide, many teachers were laid off during the recession, but the situation was particularly acute in California, which lost 82,000 jobs in schools between 2008 and 2012, according to Labor Department figures. This academic year, districts have to fill 21,500 slots, according to estimates from the California Department of Education, while the state is issuing fewer than 15,000 new teaching credentials a year.

“We are no longer in a layoff situation,” said Monica Vasquez, chief human resources officer for the San Francisco Unified School District, which offered early contracts to 140 teachers last spring in a bid to secure candidates before other districts snapped them up. “But there is an impending teacher shortage,” Ms. Vasquez added, before correcting herself: “It’s not impending. It’s here.”

With state budgets rallying after the recession, spending on public schools is slowly recovering, helping to fuel some of the hiring. In California, Gov. Jerry Brown persuaded voters in 2012 to pass a sales and income tax measure that raised funding for public schools.

But educators say that during the recession and its aftermath prospective teachers became wary of accumulating debt or training for jobs that might not exist. As the economy has recovered, college graduates have more employment options with better pay and a more glamorous image, like in arebounding technology sector.

In California, the number of people entering teacher preparation programs dropped by more than 55 percent between 2008 and 2012, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Nationally, the drop was 30 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to federal data. Alternative programs like Teach for America, which will place about 4,000 teachers in schools across the country this fall, have also experienced recruitment problems.

And that has led districts here — and elsewhere — to people like Jenny Cavins.

Ms. Cavins, 31, who once worked as a paralegal and a nanny, began a credentialing program at Sonoma State University here in Rohnert Park less than a year ago. She still has a semester to finish before she graduates. But later this month she will begin teaching third grade — in both English and Spanish — at Flowery Elementary School in Sonoma. Ms. Cavins said she would lean on mentors at her new school as well as her professors. “You are not on that island all alone,” she said.

Esmeralda Sanchez Moseley, the principal at Flowery, said she could not find a fully credentialed — let alone experienced — teacher to fill the Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials Optional)Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials Optional) - The New York Times:

Big Education Ape: A Memo To States: This Is How You Create A Teacher Shortage http://bit.ly/1IX9YcU

Big Education Ape: Is There a Teacher Shortage? That Depends How You Frame It - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher http://bit.ly/1IXa448

Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: Teacher "Shortage" Reflections http://bit.ly/1IXa6sJ

Big Education Ape: Why Don’t Schools Give Teachers Enough Time to Use the Restroom? - The Atlantic http://bit.ly/1IXa9Vz

Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: Teacher "Shortage" Coast to Coast http://bit.ly/1IXac3K

Big Education Ape: California’s teacher shortage is becoming a crisis | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee http://bit.ly/1IXaeZx

Big Education Ape: Teacher Labor Supply - Forbes http://bit.ly/1IXafMQ

Harassment allegations, true or not, hurt us all - Marcos Breton - KJ Bromance Relationship Counselling Working ?

Marcos Breton: Harassment allegations, true or not, hurt us all | The Sacramento Bee:

Marcos Breton: Harassment allegations, true or not, hurt us all 

Allen Warren has been a very good city councilman representing northern Sacramento neighborhoods bypassed by prosperity abundant in more fortunate sections of town. Just this weekend, and every weekend all summer long, hundreds of kids and their families congregated in Del Paso Heights for well-attended events meant to keep peace and promote community.

The music, comedy and dance events, called Nightlife Turned Right Sacramento, have played out every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night since June. They have been made possible by $200,000 in Measure U funds, raised when Sacramento voters elected to tax themselves to restore police officers laid off during the recession. Some community activists had been frustrated that more Measure U money wasn’t being used for community-building.

Enter Allen Warren, who used his political acumen to leverage the funds for neighborhoods that needed the help. Warren was elected in 2012 and, last week, allegations of sexual harassment against him surfaced.

“He told me he had $200,000 in Measure U money if we could organize events,” said Darrell Roberts, one of the best-known community activists in Sacramento. “So we did.”

“We’ve been able to keep kids safe all summer long. We’ve averaged 300 people at every event, more than half of them kids.” This might not sound like much if you live in neighborhoods where such events aren’t essential.

But they are to Sacramento neighborhoods yearning for diversions to keep young people out of the rear seats of police squad cars on hot summer nights.

HE TALKS TO PEOPLE ABOUT MAKING THE COMMUNITY MORE ATTRACTIVE. HE HAS THE KIND OF PERSONALITY THAT BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER.Community activist Darrell Roberts

Warren’s gift as a budding politician has been melding his business experience with sensibilities shaped by his upbringing in Del Paso Heights – still a community overrepresented in police calls for service, poverty, free school lunches and TB outbreaks, and underrepresented in opportunities for young people.

“He’s been effective,” Roberts said of Warren. “He’s delivered things you want from elected officials. He’s brought businesses to Del Paso Heights. He talks to people about making the community more attractive. He has the kind of personality that brings people together.”

Northern Sacramento, and especially Del Paso Heights, needed someone like Warren on the City Council. Local politics are still rife with cliques and political clubs lacking in racial, ethnic and economic diversity.

Warren’s predecessor, Sandy Sheedy, was a divisive voice in her final years. Her nadir came in late 2011 when Sheedy was a no-show at a Del Paso Heights community event where residents gathered to express their concerns over the death of an African American man in police custody.

That Sheedy blew off the meeting – but found the time to hold a news conference bashing plans for a downtown arena that same week – personified the lack of political representation for northern Sacramento’s poorest neighborhoods.

For all these reasons and more, the sexual harassment allegations levied against Warren are more than just damaging to him. They threaten the interests of those he represents.

Delia Chacon, a former Warren staffer, made very specific allegations against him. She claims Warren coerced her into having sex with him for nearly two years. She claims Warren brandished firearms in front of her and laughed when she expressed fear. She claims she traveled with Warren on out-of-town trips, “sexual escapades.” She claims Warren threatened her with termination if she spurned his advances.

SEXUAL ESCAPADESHow staffer Delia Chacon described trips with Warren

Warren’s response on Thursday, just before a City Council meeting and the nationally televised Republican presidential debate: “I want to state clearly that the allegations made by Ms. Chacon are false. Since this matter is under investigation, it is inappropriate for me to comment further at this time.”

When the response to the allegations came three days after they came to light, you wondered in the interim if some mea culpa was coming. Was this a relationship that was about consensual adults before it went bad? Was Warren going to do a Bill Clinton after the jig was up? Was he going to say he had “sinned” and was going to try to make amends with his family, colleagues and constituents?

Nope. If this were a card game, Warren has called the bluff and put his chips on an all-or-nothing hand. It’s all false, he said.

OK, but the stakes are higher. The allegations go beyond sex and harassment.

Chacon alleged that Warren also tried to coerce her into spending her work hours on assignments that had nothing to do with city business. She claims that Warren wanted her to spend her time working on assignments meant to help his business, New Faze Development.

Mayor Kevin Johnson, a close Warren ally and friend, has gotten negative publicity this summer for having members of his staff spend considerable work time on Johnson’s efforts to lead a national group of African American mayors.

But here is the difference between the two situations as they stand now: Johnson was using his staffers while taking over the National Conference of Black Mayors. By all accounts, this was a terribly run organization afflicted by legal and financial problems that were considerable.

You could argue that as a leader of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and as a high-profile African American leader himself, Johnson had an obligation to help improve a group, founded during the civil rights era, that had fallen on hard times.

Given Sacramento’s reputation as a diverse city, having Johnson lead the group was good public relations for the city. Johnson’s national profile has been good for the city. And even if you don’t agree with that – and Johnson’s loud detractors do not – there has been no proof that he profited from getting involved with NCBM. You could even argue that he should have his head examined for ever doing so given the grief he’s gotten from the experience.

But in Warren’s case, Chacon alleges that he used City Hall staff time to help a for-profit business founded by Warren. If the outside counsel retained by the city finds this allegation to be true, Warren has a problem. If the investigation finds he coerced an employee for sex, Warren has a problem.

In this card game, Warren had better not be bluffing or all that good work he has done is jeopardized. Already, the Democratic Party of Sacramento – a liberal but not very diverse group antagonistic toward Johnson for years – has called for the formation of an ethics panel because of the Warren allegations.

Johnson, who has faced his own sexual harassment allegation as well as the black mayors flap, has been quiet and withdrawn this summer. The only sound you hear from City Hall is the circling of wagons, while Johnson’s enemies get louder and louder.

Sacramento City Hall is the opposite of transparent right now. A lot of important work should be done right now. Is there a leader in the house?

Marcos Breton: 916-321-1096, mbreton@sacbee.com, @MarcosBreton

Marcos Breton: Harassment allegations, true or not, hurt us all | The Sacramento Bee:

Big Education Ape: Sacramento Integrity Project | Open Governenment Ordinance http://bit.ly/1ItEqtE

Big Education Ape: Sacramento Democratic Party calls for ethics reform in wake of scandals | The Sacramento Bee http://bit.ly/1UoVaYf

Big Education Ape: Marcos Breton - KJ Is It Time For Bromance Relationship Counselling | The Sacramento Beehttp://bit.ly/1IObKNt

Big Education Ape: Sexual harassment claims become the norm at Sacramento City Hall http://bit.ly/1ItsGrd

Education reform bill shows compromise still possible in Congress - News Sentinel Story

Education reform bill shows compromise still possible in Congress - News Sentinel Story:

Education reform bill shows compromise still possible in Congress

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander had been chairman of the Senate committee over education for just a week when he began circulating the draft of a bill intended to do what other Congresses had not: Fix the Bush-era No Child Left Behind school-reform law, which many experts agreed was no longer working.

But the top Democrat on the committee didn't like what she saw. So she delivered a blunt message to the Tennessee Republican.

"I said, ‘Do you want to just have a bill to fight about or do you really want to fix a broken law?'" said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "To his credit, he wants to really fix a broken law."

The candid exchange between the two lawmakers, both of whom have reputations as dealmakers, set the stage for weeks of negotiations that eventually produced a bipartisan bill that sailed through the Senate in late July on an 81-17 vote. Just as important as the bill's content was the message it sent: Compromise is still possible — even in Washington.

"It really took an extraordinary effort — there was a crocodile lurking every 100 feet that could have derailed this bill," Alexander said. But, "I think we showed the Senate a model of what can be done."

Given the partisan divisiveness that at times has crippled Congress, "the only way you get things done is for people to feel they are part of the conversation, that they have policies in (a bill) that they can support, and that it is not a partisan document," Murray said. "That is exactly how we are approaching all of the issues we work on."

What the two senators managed to achieve is extraordinary and encouraging, said Jim Douglas of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit that promotes negotiation and dialogue in policymaking.

"It's frankly the way the Senate used to work," said Douglas, a former Vermont governor. "I hope we're past this period of stasis, of gridlock, of accomplishing so little, and on to a new time where senators — and we hope some of the House, as well — can work across the aisle."

Although the No Child Left Behind revision got off to a shaky start, Alexander and Murray approached the task with a couple of common goals that quickly got them back on track: Both believed the 13-year-old law isn't working. Both wanted to fix it.

"Both of us shared a goal of actually legislating and getting something done, and No Child Left Behind left us a perfect opportunity," Murray said. "It is a law that is not well liked. It is not working well. And we both agreed on the principle that this (revision) needs to be signed into law."

Murray, known for working out a bipartisan budget agreement two years ago with U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., suggested she, Alexander and their staffs try to negotiate a bipartisan education bill that each of them could then attempt to sell to their respective caucuses. No Child Left Behind had expired eight years earlier, but attempts to revise and fix it in the last two Congresses collapsed under heavy partisanship.

Alexander, who stepped down four years ago from a powerful Republican leadership position saying he wanted to work with Democrats to solve problems, took her advice.

"It turned out to be very good advice," he said, "and that's exactly what we did."

Alexander and Murray had never worked closely before, so while they were still sizing each other up, Alexander told her a story that former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker had relayed to him years ago.

When Baker became the Senate majority leader in 1981, he went to the Democratic leader, U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and made a pledge: "I won't surprise you, if you won't surprise me."

Byrd agreed, and the two lawmakers kept a "no surprises" relationship for the four years they worked together.

Alexander and Murray soon developed a "no surprises" working Education reform bill shows compromise still possible in Congress - News Sentinel Story: