Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/652677
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD 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 Thereisadifferencebetweenmovement and going through the motions. At last Wednesday's Tehama County Board of Education meeting, it looked to me like the board was going through the motions. Asyourecall,thatboard called a poorly posted meet- ing on February 6, and that meeting had a vague agenda. Many attended the meeting out of a legiti- mate concern the Board was going to ap- point a hand- picked successor to the disgraced Charles Allen whose resigna- tion they accepted that night. As I reported, the public pre- vailed upon the Board to op- erate in a transparent and forthright manner, it delayed any decisions regarding a successor. After the regular meet- ing of the Board in February I reported there was actually hope the Board would follow a sensible and transparent plan to select the new County Superintendent. I no longer have that hope. At this Wednesday's meet- ing several people testified before the board about tech- nical, content, and proce- dural problems with their process. For example, many people had told the Board of the importance of a secure survey, assuring the anonym- ity of those Department staff who responded. This was nec- essary so people could be candid and there would be no fear of retaliation, something that had been rumored in the past. Nevertheless, the Hu- man Resources Administra- tor, a dutifully avowed sup- porter to the presumed heir to the Superintendent, and certainly not a neutral party in this matter, put out a sur- vey to the TCDOE staff that required that they would be identified when they turned the survey in; the survey deadline was before the dis- graced and perceived vindic- tive superintendent would leave his office. It was only three days before the dead- line for that survey that three employees, anxious to pre- serve their anonymity asked if they could be assured that would be the case. Two days before the survey was due, that Administrator sent out a curt staff e-mail as- suring that anonymity. It was not clear how that would be done. A neutral party, an out- sider or consultant could have easily made that assurance and avoided the possibility of those loyal to the presumed heir know who might be com- plaining, or offering con- structive criticism, although the survey did not really al- low for that. That same HR Adminis- trator also undermined the Board's credibility. She pub- lished materials referring to a "Deputy Superintendent;" it was only after I ques- tioned her about that posi- tion that she publicly issued a correction. There is no dep- uty superintendent. Her ac- tion fanned the flames of sus- picion already raging at the hastily called special meeting of February 6. Either the Board or some staff members made a fee- ble attempt at garnering pub- lic input for the process of se- lection. The population of Te- hama County is over 63,000; nevertheless, the hastily pub- licized public meeting at- tracted only 21 people exclud- ing presenters and the press. The only public announce- ment of the meeting was in the newspaper the day before the meeting. As far as I can tell there were no other obvi- ous outreach attempts to gen- erate a significant audience. This anemic effort seems a farce. Those present said the Board should appoint Harley North, a local and success- ful school administrator who actually had the proper edu- cation and credential for the job. The Board claims to be fol- lowing the El Dorado County model in their process; nev- ertheless, it has deviated sub- stantially from that model. It used three different surveys, and allowed only some who took the survey to nominate a candidate; in El Dorado that was not the case; there was just one survey for all to com- plete and no room for nomi- nation. Although the Board claims to be seeking a leader, the content of the survey ap- pears to be seeking a bu- reaucrat. As pointed out at Wednesday's meeting the sur- vey is poorly framed, requires forced choices, and will not be technically reliable by most accepted standards. There were no meetings scheduled to discuss the sur- veys, develop interview ques- tions, or to decide on how to select the up to five candi- dates to interview. All of that was supposed to happen on March 22, the day chosen to interview candidates. That does not seem credible. The Board did not discuss or respond to the input from the audience on Wednesday, but it did finally respond to a request for a special meet- ing to discuss some of the is- sues above. That meeting will be at 4 p.m. on March 16 at the County Schools office, 1135 Lincoln Street in Red Bluff. I am hopeful, but not very much, that the Board will be able to avoid further embar- rassment and take this one opportunity they have to ac- tually do something positive for the students going to our public schools. I am ashamed to call them my elected repre- sentatives. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Going through the motions again? Cartoonist's take Superintendentsearch shouldincludeoutofstate candidates Editor: It is naive to believe that the best county school super- intendent will come from lo- cal choices. It is a given that the choice will be honest, and will have the degrees required for candidacy. Most public schools have failed miserably since the 1960s as they have fallen behind global com- petitors. Our nation has long ceased to be a local economy. Our competitors are the best and brightest globally. Manufactur- ing has ceased to be the prime employer, as that segment de- clined from 40 percent of US em- ployment in 1945, 25 percent in 1970 and 9 percent in 2015. The US is now a heavy STEM, vocational and service industry employer. The superintendent must have broad knowledge of the post high school education and vocational employment fields available. He must ensure that the brightest and best principals and academic teachers are hired, and not the ones with the most local connec- tions. Personally, I believe a science and math degree candidate, with business, people and financial management experience, would be the best choice. — Joseph Neff, Corning Responsetocolumniston Trump Editor: Robert Minch, who seems to consider himself Red Bluff's intel- lectual elite like the ruling class in Washington DC, both Republi- cans and Democrats, just doesn't get what makes Trump so popu- lar with his followers. Robert and the DC ruling class dismiss and ignore the blue col- lar working class that has suf- fered the most in the last eight years with a loss of jobs and a re- duction in their annual income. They are becoming the vanishing class of people under the current direction in which this country is headed, while poverty is increas- ing. Obama so loved the poor he has created millions more of them. The blue collar working class, while having less to spend, is paying more in taxes, more in user fees, more services and more for Obamacare than their previous health plan, energy and utilities. When they speak out about Obama's policies that have impacted their livelihood they are attacked by the politically correct police and called racists and bigots. David Duke favorably backed Trump and Trump was con- demned, and to my knowledge has no personal ties or friendship with Duke. On the other hand, Obama has close ties to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, leaders and co-founders of The Weather Underground, who declared war on the United States of America and bombed the Pentagon and other government buildings. While stomping the American Flag into the ground Bill Ayers is quoted as saying, "Guilty as sin, free as a bird, and ain't America a great country?" He is a known terrorist and he needs to be held accountable. Obama has ties to an assorted group of radical anti- American groups and individuals such as, but not limited to, Louis Farrakhan the leader of the Na- tion of Islam, Jeremiah Wright and individual communists, so- cialists and radical Muslims. Trump is accused of lying by the liberal media, the establish- ment and those who fear he may well be the next president. How- ever, the biggest liars, Hillary and Obama, have done more to destroy the security of this once great nation than anyone else ever. There is also convicted liar Bill Clinton. Trump, on the other hand, talks plain English straight to the people in a manner that both the intellectuals and the blue collars can understand and digest with- out the politically correct BS, and that makes him a target of elite intellectuals, the ruling class and the liberal media. When Trump talks about making America great again, se- curing the border, getting rid of illegals, being energy indepen- dent, getting rid of the Depart- ment of Education and rebuild- ing our defense, that is some- thing everybody can understand and all the candidates should be endorsing. We all have flaws and accom- plishments and when you com- pare the accomplishments of Trump to Hillary, Obama and most, if not all, of his attackers, the balance scale will without any doubt be in Trump's favor. — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Fedsshouldmaintaina comprehensiveobituary website Editor: Fast-approaching 50, I'm in- creasingly finding obituaries online for people I once knew. Alarmingly, a few have been for people my age. Frustratingly, obituaries rarely disclose how the person died. In most cases this is probably unin- tentional oversight. In others it's likely to avoid embarrassing the deceased's family, as when a per- son died from alcoholism, obesity or suicide. Since most newspapers now charge for obituaries, some de- cedents sadly don't get obituar- ies at all. To ensure we're apprised of threats to our health and civil rights, the government should create and maintain a free, pub- licly-accessible website contain- ing comprehensive obituaries for every deceased American. As with clean air, water and free- dom of speech, access to such should be considered an inalien- able right. After all, learning a person we actually knew died from smok- ing, drinking or overeating could provide just the push we need to quit such behavior ourselves. Learning they were murdered could summon our offering in- formation helpful in prosecuting a killer. Finally, including information summarizing a deceased person's relationships, pleasures and ac- complishments could inspire our striving for similar success. — Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama Letters to the editor Although the Board claims to be seeking a leader, the content of the survey appears to be seeking a bureaucrat. As pointed out at Wednesday's meeting the survey is poorly framed, requires forced choices, and will not be technically reliable by most accepted standards. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. People need to be more careful with this weather. Hope everyone is OK and nothing major. Sara Salazar: On a report of a two-vehicle collision on South Main Street Thursday. And so do the burglaries. You would think there is something in common. Bobby Mcmichael: On unemployment increasing in January in Tehama County. Joe Harrop State and National Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http:// ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 For- est Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Fran- cisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, March 12, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A5