Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/637179
The following item is on the consent agenda for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing for the February 10, 2016 meeting. Charles Allen, Red Bluff: "All certification documents under the jurisdiction of the California Commission on Teacher Creden- tialing are revoked and any pending appli- cations are dismissed as a result of miscon- duct pursuant to Education Code sections 44421 and 44345." EducationCode44421 states: "The Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) shall privately admonish, pub- licly reprove, re- voke or suspend for immoral or unprofessional conduct, or for persistent defi- ance of, and re- fusal to obey, the laws regulating the duties of persons serving in the pub- lic school system, or for any cause that would have war- ranted the denial of an appli- cation for a credential or the renewal thereof, or for evi- dent unfitness for service." Education Code 44345 states, in part, that the CTC may deny a credential to one who "lacks the qualifica- tions which are prescribed by law;…has committed any act involving moral turpitude; and…has intentionally prac- ticed or attempted to prac- tice any material deception or fraud in his or her appli- cation." As you may recall there was some controversy over Allen's claim to have a Master's De- gree, and he pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge in December in a Shasta County Court. The case was referred to Shasta County because the local District Attorney felt a conflict of interest in pros- ecuting the charges against him in Tehama County; I am not sure what that conflict might have been other than they were both elected county officials. As a result of the Com- mission's new actions Al- len will leave his post as Te- hama County Superintendent of Schools fairly soon, most likely by March 10. There will be either a replacement ap- pointed by the County Board of Education or a new super- intendent determined by spe- cial election. Hopefully this time someone will check cre- dentials and actual qualifica- tions in either case. The County Superintendent is a county official as defined in the State Constitution, Ar- ticle IX section 3. As such the person filling that position or running for election must be a registered voter of the county. Government Code 24000 spells out the duties of a county superintendent; these include superintending the schools of the county; hir- ing certificated and classified staff; providing fiscal over- sight of the school districts; visiting schools; enforcing the course of study; and some other more technical matters. A county superintendent can make a positive differ- ence for all public school stu- dents if that person knows the county and its schools well, has demonstrated lead- ership qualities and under- stands just how essential the County Office can be if well led. Selecting a replacement for Allen will be critical to make up for the decline in our County Office over the last few years and the disruption caused by Allen's legal prob- lems. Our county schools' sys- tem is what might be called by organization theorists, "a loosely coupled system." When I moved here in 1973 there were 18 independent school districts. One was a unified school district, that is serv- ing students from Kindergar- ten to twelfth grade; that dis- trict was Los Molinos Unified, and it struggled financially because of the necessity to maintain both Los Molinos Elementary School and Vina School. The Red Bluff Joint Union High School District covered the largest area of the county and parts of Shasta County. It served such small districts a Plum Valley, Min- eral, and Manton as well as Red Bluff Union Elementary schools. Today some of the smaller districts have com- bined administration with others to help with costs and consistency of curriculum. It will be important that the new County Superintendent be familiar with these arrange- ments, understand the interre- lationships and history of our local schools, and be willing to work hard at communication and focus. These qualities have been lacking recently in our County Office of Education; it is time to play catch up. In the 2014 election of County Superintendent, Harley North was endorsed by three former and successful County Superintendents, Lou Bosetti, Marvin Locke and Bob Doug- las. He garnered 48.5% of the vote against the unqualified Al- len. Harley knows the county, knows what strong County Of- fices of Education can do, and he is a focused leader. He could hit the road running, and bring the County Office out of its mal- aise and provide leadership of all our public schools. I would hope the County Board of Education will ap- point him. Their next scheduled meet- ing is February 17 at 4 p.m. I suggest you attend to see if the Board members are fo- cused on this very important task. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop New leadership needed for our public schools Cartoonist's take Norththeright choice to lead schools Editor: I write on behalf of myself, Bob Douglas and Gail Locke, for the late Dr. Marvin Locke. As former Tehama County Superintendents of Schools, representing 40 of the last 46 years of management of Te- hama County Schools, we are deeply concerned about the pending resignation of the current Tehama County Su- perintendent and the subse- quent required actions by the County Board of Education. The schools and education personnel of Tehama County have endured an elongated 18-month period of uncer- tainty regarding the leader- ship of our school system. It is in everyone's best interest for the County Board of Edu- cation to promptly appoint a highly qualified school admin- istrator who has a deep famil- iarity with Tehama County school operations and ser- vices, and a successful track record as a Superintendent in Tehama County schools, as soon as possible. While there are many Su- perintendents in the county at this time, the Tehama County Board of Education should immediately appoint Harley North, retired Superintendent of the Evergreen School Dis- trict as Tehama County Super- intendent of Schools. This is the best course of ac- tion for these reasons: 1. Harley North was a can- didate for the position of Su- perintendent of Schools in the last election, and received 48.6 percent of the votes. This would respect the voters of Te- hama County. 2. Mr. North successfully served effectively as Super- intendent of the Evergreen School District for over 25 years and during this time, the Evergreen School District was consistently the highest performing school district in Tehama County. 3. Mr. North is a longtime resident of Tehama County and he has a continuing high interest in serving as County Superintendent of Schools. 4. However, most important, he has demonstrated 25 years of honest, dedicated, high in- tegrity leadership in Tehama County public schools. He is widely known as a straight talking, honest, energetic, hard-working, and deeply committed leader with a re- cord of performance that is second to none. This County Board action would result in an experienced and highly successful Superin- tendent taking the reins of our school system and begin to immediately restore certainty and stability to the system. Equally important, it would avoid the unnecessary cost and the potential prolong- ing of uncertainty brought on by a special election, or a pro- longed appointment process. In closing, we urge the County Board to seek appro- priate and objective legal counsel, and then take this ac- tion promptly and without an extended period of debate and discussion. The students, teachers, ad- ministrators and parents de- serve to have a County Super- intendent with successful ex- perience, a track record of effectiveness and a person of unquestionable honesty and integrity. No one loved the Schools of Tehama County more passion- ately or led our schools with more ethics and integrity than Dr. Marvin Locke, and as his closest colleagues, we know he would urge the County Board to act carefully but promptly at this time. — Lou Bosetti, Red Bluff Real facts on Slough clean up Editor: In response to Susan Serna's letter applauding a long list of elected officials and govern- ment agencies for their "pub- lic service efforts…leading to massive clean ups of the…East Sand Slough" among other cleanups. I want to focus on the Slough cleanup, which was organized completely by me and cleaned up entirely by my group, Tehama Action Team, and AB 109 workers. I do not know where Susan got her list of people who did this, but none of the people listed had anything to do with this hor- rendous under taking. For a year before the cleanup I watched our slough fill up with filth and the home- less, who were quite obvi- ously taking over and destroy- ing the area that once held our beloved Lake Red Bluff. I also noticed that the trees and brush were completely dry and a huge fire danger to the Antelope community. I went to local and state of- ficials telling them we need to clean up the dead trees and brush, before there was a fire. I was told it would take 6 months to get the permits, from all the agencies Susan listed. I brought in BLM from Sacramento, met with Dan Logue's aide, showed him the problem and watched a drug deal go down right in front of us. Senator Jim Nielson and Congressman Doug LaMalfa had nothing to do with it. I brought representatives from Mendocino National For- est under the bridge in the slough to show them how hor- rible it was. Needless to say, they were shocked, but not into action. They told me our group could clean up the gar- bage and camps, if we wanted to. I did get help from County Administrator Bill Goodwin, who rented two dumpsters for us. Caltrans assisted by sup- plying pick up sticks for lit- ter. The day of the cleanup 20 volunteers showed up along with about 10 AB 109 workers. Goodwin and City Manager Rick Crabtree showed up and I took them on a tour of Spi- der Island and discussed the amazing possibilities of this area if we could just get some funding and a little water back in the slough, but did not help with the actual clean up. We removed 7 buckets of human waste and 2 tons of toxic garbage. Some deputies showed up to help us with the homeless and trying to remove the drug dealer from his ten- year-old nest of vile garbage, 7 feet long and 4 feet high, di- rectly under the Rockin' R Restaurant with five vicious pit bulls. It took the Sheriff's Depart- ment all day to finally get him and the dogs out of there, so we could clean it up. By then, everyone was gone, so I and the owner of Rockin' R cleaned it up by ourselves. We took out 20 bags of filth out of that one camp. While Mike was up top, half way through the cleanup and only two hours after the cops arrested the drug dealer, he showed back up, chased me out of his camp, threatening me with a hammer. For a year, I got sick from breathing in dry fecal matter cleaning that camp. Afterwards, I went to both the City Council and the Board of Supervisors beg- ging them to step up and help fix the homeless problem that they generated when they let State and Federal agencies re- move our lake without a fight and with no real compensa- tion. The City Council couldn't be bothered and Goodwin, not the Supervisors, decided to put an ad hoc committee together to fix the homeless problem. The original com- mittee was huge, with a lot of people voicing opinions, but no real ideas on how to go about fixing it. So, Goodwin dropped it to me and three other people. We met a few times and I thought we were going some- place with this problem, when suddenly the meetings stopped. I ran for Supervisor hop- ing to bring my ideas to frui- tion, but the public elected Su- pervisor Dennis Garton, who never lifted a finger to help in any way, even though this is his district and Candy Carl- son wasn't a Supervisor at the time. A week later, the slough burned. I pushed Mendocino National Forest into removing dead burnt trees and helped them do it. Only one other citizen showed up to help from the community, Deb- bie Walden. The Forest Ser- vice did a terrible job. Tehama County Resource did another clean up that made no visible difference to Spider Island. Just wanted to set the re- cord straight on who was in- volved in the East Sand Slough clean up and it was none of the people Susan mentioned in her letter. It is too bad the media didn't report what happened 1 ½ years ago and still most people don't know that it was me alone, that organized this clean up. — Pat Johnston, Red Bluff Letters to the editor A county superintendent can make a positive difference for all public school students if that person knows the county and its schools well, has demonstrated leadership qualities and understands just how essential the County Office can be if well led. GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, February 6, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4