Hey Sloan, just checking in, heard from KWPD and they spoke to my brother, he told them his brother was in jail for deceiving IRS about millions of dollars and that he has 18 top secret security clearances, so when schedule permits, and hoping he is still there, I will as well as my sisters, head down and check on him, no confrontation, just make sure he is receiving Navy monies, etc so again I just wanted to say thanks………..I replied:
Interesting. I could use a few million myself, thank you, and where does one acquire 18 top secret security clearances?
Do you know if KWPD told your brother he had received an inheritance from his mother, and his brother and sisters want him to get that and hope he is receiving his Navy moneys? That might not rattle him as much as his wondering if you all are coming down here to find him.
Sloan
He replied:
I am pretty sure the officer mentioned it but I will check and make sure as that is sound advice,
I replied:
I imagine the Navy veterans benefits section can tell you if your brother is receiving Navy benefits.
Merda taurorum animas conturbit, veritas omnia vincit
I googled that, it translates, “Bull shit baffles brains, truth conquers all”The only people I have known who quote Latin to make their points are lawyers. I know of one lawyer living on No Name Key, last name something like Bahke. However, that particular invective reminded me a bit of Jim Hendrick’s style of expression. The CT woudn’t be nearly so fun for the pussies who play there, if Deer Ed made them put their names and faces on their slams.
The Latino’s Sloan slam was classic misdirection, which is all I ever see from pro-grid campers on No Name Key. Every last one of them, or their parents, bought or built a home out there because they wanted to live off the grid, evidenced by the obvious, RES IPSA LOQUITUR, they all bought or built a home out there knowing the key was off the grid. Nobody but themselves made them do it, and they are the fools they really hate and should slam and sue.
Although I knew it long before Deer Ed first encouraged me to send him my ravings to publish on the CT, quite a while before he encouraged me to start my first website, which he built, the many CT Sloan slams I received over the years proved yet again, RES IPSA LOQUITUR, those who squeal the loudest protest too much and the truth is not in them.
Merda taurorum animas conturbit, veritas omnia vincit.
Also on yesterday’s CT was a slam of Last Stand. Some time back I wrote in a few posts that Last Stand had become a bunch of weenies.
Also on yesterday’s CT, a school board comment: I see Larry Murray is running for School Board. I’ll vote for the good doctor if he promises to get rid of soda machines and all junk food from school property and gets the cafeteria to focus on health foods. Kids today are just too fat. Note: Pizza is not health food.
Maybe Larry is worried about what kids eat, but I never heard him mention it during our many telephone conversations and many more email back and forths. I wrote in a post quite a while ago, that if I ever was on the School Board, I would do what I could to get all vending machine junk food and sugar and caffeine drinks out of the schools.
Meanwhile, pizza is better for kids than hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries, and the good doctor now knows the way to one voter’s heart has zip to do with anything he has been writing and saying about this school district.
On the school district wing of The State Mental, this un’s pretty long and you probably won’t read lots of it in the local newspapers
Nashville J wrote yesterday about school fund-drive-raised “slush funds”:
Sloan:
One would “assume” that the STUDENT FUNDS are audited by someone on no less than a yearly basis – but – we all know what ass-u-me-ing does. If these accounts are not audited internally and by and outside auditor – how do we know that “dollars” are not pocketed from these fund raisers for personal gain of someone. It’s really easy to slip $100 in cash into ones pocket and it never see the bank. I do not say this is happening; however, controls should be put into place to ensure that it is NOT happening.
WHO has authority over the spending of the student funds? The legalistic comments by S Kessler is not clear on WHO can spend the money. NO BUDGET approval is needed – therefore – I assume (that word again) that state, county and school district purchasing procedures are also not needed for WHO to spend the money. So, WHO, or WHO’s have control of up to an estimated $1 million dollars slush funds with virtually no controls that I can see.
Having worked for a state agency in my earlier life, I can assure you that they do not allow money to be laying around without audits and without someone with an actual name ( no WHO’s allowed) being responsible for every penny of the money with very clear audit trails.
IF, I worked for the school or was an administrator or teacher in charge of these “school funds”, I would insist on a yearly audit and two signatures for deposits/ disbursements. Otherwise, I would run as hard as I could from being anywhere near this money. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time until something goes missing, or maybe a $300 check is deposited incorrectly, and someone tries to use that to have someone fired.
Surely, with the $400,000 credit card problems of a few years ago, they do not allow this much money to be laying around without total control over what WHO can do with it and strict accounting controls. Of course I could be wrong and it’s just the way they do it in Key West.
J
I replied:
Morning, my ever ardent stalker.
According to the school district website this morning, there are 11 schools in this district, not counting the charter schools, which are oversighted by their own board of directors.
I imagine the principal of each traditional school has control over and oversight of fund-raised money, but that might be delegated to a teacher or support staff person. I do not think the school district legally can control the spending of schools fund-raised money, other than require it be spent on what it is raised to support at each school.
General oversight is supposed to be supplied by the Superintendent of Schools, that being Jesus Jara, and his administrative staff.
I found myself wondering this morning, give how much trouble Jara and his hired hands have keeping up with school district funds, which schools fund-raised monies are not a part of, I can’t imagine Jara & Crew keeping up with each school’s fund-raised monies.
Yes, schools fund-raised moneys are indeed ripe for going into pockets where they ought not to go. Yes, people responsible for schools fund-raised moneys ought to be high-tailing, if there is no oversight and audit.
I don’t know if there is oversight or audit of such monies. Again, that would be on Jara and his hired hands to require and do that.
It always comes back to the Superintendent and his, or her (no her so far), hired hands; and that all comes back to the School Board, who are supposed to oversight the Superintendent and his hired hands. About as easy to do as oversighting, hmmm, a few hundred kindergartners.
Maybe the School Board will order the Superintendent to give the Audit & Finance Committee direct oversight over the schools fund-raised moneys. Then, the AFC actually would have something to do beyond just meeting and making noise.
However, I don’t see the School Board ordering the Superintendent to give the AFC much else.
I was at a school board meeting last fall, when they tried to put the AFC under the supervision of Superintendent Jara or the School Board. When AFC Chair Stuart Kessler didn’t offer a squeak of protest, I raised hell, said in its own charter, made by the School Board, it says the AFC is independent and advises the School Board. I said that means the AFC answers to no one but the AFC. Finally, Stuart woke up and agreed with me.
The problem the School Board has with the AFC actually having power to request and obtain documents and information is, yep, a whole lot more bad news will end up in the local press than already ends up there.
The problem the School Board has with the AFC actually having power to request and obtain documents and information is, yep, the School Board does not want an Internal Auditor (translates to Internal Affairs) to oversight the School Board and Superintendent and school district.
Sloan
Nashville J replied:
Appears to be an enigma all wrapped up in a conundrum!
Appears to me to be an insane asylum.
Tim Gratz wrote yesterday about how the superintendent search committee members were selected:
Sloan:
“As for the selection of the members for the Superintendent Search Committee, you are correct that it was done by Board members. It was done very quietly and very anonymously and the names were never brought to the full Board for any sort of approval. The whole process was subterranean. There was no effort to solicit the community as to people who might be interested in serving. You would have to ask each Board member why they selected the people they did. I do not know who selected District employees since no aspect of the process was ever made public.
Larry [Murray]”
Sloan, did this procedure violate the Sunshine Law?
I replied:
I don’t know.
Probably not, if doing it that way was discussed at a duly advertised School Board meeting, at which the superintendent search committee possibility was on the agenda, and a general understanding was reached that each Board member would select a certain number of candidates. What that each Board member then did would not, I don’t think, be under the Sunshine Law, because the candidates would not yet be on any government body covered by that law.
John Dick told me on the telephone that he was not in favor of hiring that fellow from Tallahassee to drum up a list of applicants, and, as I recall, John said there was no formal vote on doing that. It went that way by informal majority indicating that’s how they wanted to do it. I heard Andy Griffiths led that charge, which proved ill-fated.
Still looks to me, Tim, the only way to straighten out this school system is to decapitate management and replace it with clerks who serve a decentralized school system. Or, the State of Florida takes over and decapitates management and installs its own management.
And, the various school district administration departments are privatized.
Then, I sent this:
Just finished lengthy phone conversation with Todd German. Jesus Jara made the final five, fourth down from the top. All but one school district employee pushed Jara.
Todd said he told the search committee that it was flawed from the beginning because everyone on it had ties to the school district. I agreed.
Todd said, that aside, the committee worked pretty well. I said that remains to be seen. If Jara is chosen by the school board to continue as superintendent, then the search committee did not go pretty well.
I said, now we will see how rigged it really was, by how it goes on the school board.
Todd said Andy Griffiths deserves credit for pushing for there to be a search committee, and I agreed with that, and said it will be interesting what Andy does now, given how important being liked and being reelected is for him.
Todd said when the Community College went about selecting its new head, it brought all the candidates down and they all got together in a meeting hall with the public there and the entire vetting took place in the sunshine. Then, the Community College directors voted.
Todd said he wants to see that happen with the school board applicants vetting, I said in Marathon, half-way up or down the Keys. He said fine by him. He said Andy is proposing 3 public meetings up and down the Keys.
I said it is the school board’s job to make the tough calls, and it not the school board’s job to be swayed by public opinion on something like this. Theoretically, the school board members are in the best position to evaluate the 5 candidates. Theoretically.
Todd said he felt this search committee functioned far better than the 7 member search committee functioned for the Key West city manager position. Each city commissioner and the mayor selected one member for the search committee, and there was lots of ensuing conversation between the elected officials and their search committee selectee.
I said that probably violated the Sunshine Law. Todd said the same occurred between school board members and their search committee selectees. I said that probably violated the Sunshine Law.
Todd said it was different government bodies. I said, yeah, but symbiotically related. After the appointments were made, there should have been no discussion between the elected officials and their appointees.
And, I said, there should have been no one on the superintendent search committee, who had any ties to the school district, including Todd, who is Chair of the Collegiate charter high school in Key West. Conflict of interest is conflict of interest.
My sense was, Todd agreed in theory, but he struggled with the notion of finding people to be on the search committee who had no ties to the school district.
I easily could have found several intelligent, educated Keys people to be on the search committee, who had no ties to the school district. So could have each of the school board members.
They could have cut most of the politics out of it, if they had wanted to do that.
Sloan
Here’s The Key West Citizen’s version of what happened at the search committee yesterday, my occasional thoughts in italics:
gfilosa@keysnews.com
Appointed Schools Superintendent Jesus Jara made the final cut for the job Wednesday after the citizen search committee voted for its top five candidates.
That makes him a finalist for a public schools chief in two spots — the Florida Keys and Springfield, Mass., where a search committee named him as one of two contenders.
Jara came out as the Keys search committee’s fourth choice, by number of votes cast by the School Board-appointed volunteer panel.
The School Board will formally accept the shortlist from committee Chairman Mike Puto at a special meeting set for 5 p.m. today at Marathon High School.
Twenty committee members cast votes Wednesday, according to Puto and other members. The final vote named the following candidates:
• Edward Shine, who is retiring from the superintendent’s job in Rye City, N.Y., after 16 years there, received 20 votes.
• Mark Porter, formerly of the South Washington County School District, where the school board in December voted not to renew his contract, received 19.
• Shannon Goodsell, superintendent of Tahlequah Public Schools in northeastern Oklahoma, got 16 votes.
• Jara received 13 of the 20 votes — including ones from Puto and former School Board member Steve Pribramsky, who is on the committee.
• Thomas Gay, president/CEO of the Quality Schools Group in Lapeer, Mich., received 12 votes.
The other applicants in the pool, narrowed to 16 from an original batch of 56, received single-digit votes, said Puto.
“We have done the homework,” said Puto of the top five. “All of the people here — whoever you choose could be OK to be superintendent.”
The School Board has the final say on who gets the job.
Monroe County isn’t the only place Jara has recently applied.
Jara, who earns $135,000 and has worked for the district since 2010, said Wednesday that he is open to taking the Springfield job, where the school board wants to hire someone on June 18.
“I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t want that job,” said Jara, 41, whose wife and young children live in Miami as he remains working without a contract here. “I have got to look at the commitment the school district wants to make with me — both.”
Three Springfield school board members have scheduled a June 8 “site visit” in the Keys, as part of their interview process.
“I have a great job,” Jara said. “Springfield is a great job as well. There are no guarantees that I’m getting the Monroe County job. I have to look out for my family and for opportunities.”
Springfield’s school board plans to interview Jara and a local finalist June 18 before calling for a vote, according to the city’s newspaper, The Republican, on Wednesday.
According to The Republican story, one board member is worried that Jara will get a job offer from Monroe County’s School Board and drop out of the running.
Hopefully, our School Board dallies a while, to give Jara a chance to get the Springfield job.
Jara’s competition for Springfield, where he worked for almost four years as an assistant principal and then a principal before taking a job with The College Board in 2005, is 36-year Springfield schools veteran Daniel Warwick.
Warwick is deputy superintendent at Springfield.
Of the names on Monroe County’s superintendent search committee’s shortlist, Jara is the only one with a public record in the Keys and has faced local criticism.
Committee members did not speak to the candidates, but instead checked out their resumes and called people who were not listed as references.
I could have given the search committee members a few names to call in the Monroe County School District, who were not listed as Jara references. However, what I would have done, were I on the search committee, was visit a number of Keys schools up and down the Keys and have casual off-the-record conversations about Jara with principals, teachers, support staff.
City Attorney Shawn Smith, one of the committee members, told the group at the Wednesday meeting in Marathon that Jara wouldn’t get his vote for superintendent.
“He has not been straightforward in his dealings with me and I believe he lacks credibility,” Smith told The Citizen after the meeting. “I believe this district is in desperate need for someone to restore the public’s trust. The teachers and the public in general need a fresh start with a new and effective leader who can improve morale and instill confidence in the day-to-day operation of our school system for the benefit of this county’s children and taxpayers.”
Hello, anyone on the School Board listening? Not everyone on the search committee was listening.
Some members didn’t like reading Jara’s application to the Springfield school board, on which he claimed to have negotiated a three-year teachers contract that “included performance pay,” and to have crafted a budget in 2011-12 that maintained the district’s savings at 4 percent of projected revenue.
That savings reserve this past year dwindled down to 2 percent, forcing Jara to alert the state Department of Education.
And on Wednesday, Jara spent time at yet another impact bargaining session with the United Teachers of Monroe leaders, who have filed complaints against the district after Jara last year froze all raises and mandated seven furlough days for all employees.
Hello, anyone on the School Board listening? Not everyone on the search committee was listening.
Overall, the committee remained nonpolitical and respectful of one another’s opinions during the three meetings this month at which they compiled candidate shortlists, said Puto and Pribramsky.
“Next to the graduations, this is the best School District experience I’ve ever been a part of,” said Pribramsky. “I believe on that list is our next superintendent who will do an awesome job.”
Hmmm, not all that long ago, didn’t I read in The Citizen where Pribramsky said Jara’s credentials did not meet the requirements for a new superintendent given to the search committee by the School Board?
Puto said the committee members wanted to make sure that the candidates were well-respected and liked, as well as qualified.
“We got on the horn, talking to teachers, school board members, principals, bus drivers and janitors,” said Puto, of Marathon. “You can have all the qualifications in the world and if you’re not a people-person, we don’t win anything. We need somebody that can come in and say, here’s what we need to do.”
I never heard it said Jesus Jara is a people-person. Au contraire, I heard it said he is a dictator. Wonder who all in the Monroe County School District Pluto talked with about Jara?
The county’s first hired superintendent is set to start Aug. 1 to run the 8,400-student district that has had four people in the job in as many years.
Voters in 2010 ended the county’s tradition of electing a superintendent in the wake of the tumultuous financial scandal that led the state to oust twice-elected Randy Acevedo, and led a jury to send his embezzling administrator wife, Monique Acevedo, to prison for eight years.
______________________________________