University of North Texas

Story dated June 25, 2007 - Dr. James Jarrett Glass, 63, director of the UNT Survey Research Center pleaded guilty to public corruption.

A retired University of North Texas professor pleaded guilty Monday to federal public corruption charges after prosecutors said he funneled more than $463,000 in cash and services from the university to his private business.

It seems to be something of a problem at the University of North Texas.

This is the fourth court case of embezzlement by UNT staff members or professors in the last two years.

Patti Dale was sentenced to four years in March 2005 in state court for theft by a public servant. She recruited 14 people she placed on the payroll of the School of Library and Information Sciences who never worked there. Those involved gave most of the money they received to her, and she took more than $155,000 in the scheme.

Paul Schlieve was sentenced to 160 months in federal prison in July 2005. He put his boyfriend on a student work grant payroll and collected paychecks for him, even while the boyfriend was in jail. The man neither worked at nor attended UNT.

Andrea Szaboky was placed on 10 years' probation in state court for felony theft in July 2006. She reimbursed herself nearly $30,000 for trips she didn't take, bought expensive gifts on the university purchase card and paid herself for work she didn't do.

Wytheville, VIRGINIA

Sentenced to four years in prison for sex with two 13-year-old boys.

First reported Mar 5, 2007 - There's been a continuance in the trial of Karen Patton, 41.

The 7th grade teacher at Scott Memorial Middle School is accused of having sex with one of her 13-year-old students. She's also charged with molesting two other boys.
Full Name: Karen Susan Patton

Mar 7 - Backgrounder - Arrested last January, the one-time Scott Memorial Middle School language arts teacher and cheerleading sponsor is charged with four counts of carnal knowledge of a minor and one count of sodomy. She was arrested again in March on on allegations involving two additional 13-year-old boys, one from her teaching stint in Carroll County, where she was teacher of the year in 2004. One of those charges was dropped in August.

She resigned from the school. She is due in court on Monday.

Update Mar 12 - WDBJ7 reported she was convicted. Another source says Patton pleaded guilty on several charges involving inappropriate relationships with two of her former students. Roanoke Times says she pleaded no contest to two counts of carnal knowledge and one count of non-forcible sodomy. Several other charges she faced were dropped.
However, WXII 12 is reporting that " judge made the ruling [of guilt] Monday in a Wytheville courtroom." [TT - Most likely, she pleaded no contest but perhaps later stories might clarify.]

She will be sentenced in June.

SENTENCED June 26 - Patton was sentenced to four years in prison for molesting two of her students. "After she serves three years and eleven months of prison time, Patton will be on probation for five more years." She's already on the sex offender registry.

Unfunded Pensions

TEXAS June 25, 2007 - The Texas Attorney General reports that there are 82 unfunded public pensions with liabilities of $23 Billion.

One of the worst is the Teacher Retirement System of Texas with an unfunded liability of $13.9 Billion.

New Bedford, MASSACHUSETTS

June 25, 2007 - Philip Riviere, 61, a retired teacher, was arrested for video voyerism for filming the underwear of unsuspecting women strolling around the air show at Quonset State Airport. Two National Guardsmen spotted him.

Riviere is a retired sixth-grade teacher from the Parker Elementary School in New Bedford.

Remember when retired teachers took up writing books and fishing?

Las Vegas, NEVADA

Just what Las Vegas needs - the Teamsters taking over the teachers' union.

June 25, 2007 - The Teamsters want to take over the Clark County Education Association. They've hired Ron Taylor to take over contract negotiations. For now, it's a verbal battle with John Jasonek of the Clark County Education Association.

Jasonek does say teachers need more pay and better services. But the threat isn't enough to make him worry. "With or without that attempt, I think every year we look for ways to improve."

But Taylor stands firm. "If he wants to get into a fight, he got into a fight with the wrong people."

Taylor says his previous union work was dangerous. He says he hired bodyguards with "mob connections" to protect him. But that was then.

"This battle is not about me," said Taylor. "This battle is about education in the state of Nevada."

The Clark County Education Association represents 13,000 teachers.
Clark County Teacher salaries. Here
Teamster website Teachers4change Here

TT - It's all for the children, you know.

For parents, you might want to consider kevlar vests for the Fall. Backpack shields can serve double duty. There's also protection for the family dog that accompanies your child to school.

June 28 - Eyewitness News in Las Vegas on the press conference by the Teamster's Union. Be sure to see the video at left. First vote on representation would be November 2008.

Vermont - The cost of education

June 25, 2007 - A retiree from J.P Morgan joined a school board and did an analysis of state education spending.

His conclusion is that the state simply has more school staff than it can afford.

While enrollment in kindergarten through 12th grade has declined by nearly 10 percent during the past decade, total staff numbers have increased by more than 20 percent. Per pupil spending grew from $6,073 in 1990 to $13,664 in 2006, according to his findings.

Most of the spending on the nearly $1.5 billion spent on education in the state — between 70 percent and 85 percent depending on the study — is the cost of salaries, benefits and other staff expenditures.

He's a blogger and has posted his study online.

San Leandro, CALIFORNIA

RANT OF THE DAY

"The bottom line is staff felt disrespected..." - How a union president described the teachers who are unhappy that a principal is shifting around jobs in a low performing school.

June 25, 2007 - A school principal has reshuffled staff assignments based on expertise and experience in the hopes of improving Hillside Elementary School. Teachers and their unions are opposed because it disses them. Go figure.

Comment at news site:

Hillside's lost ten or eleven experienced teachers because of this. (I am one of them). That's about half the staff. It's a shame because most of us would have stuck it out the duration, program improvement and all, if we felt respected.

I was satisfied with my grade level's test scores, being that they were above CA average and some of the highest in the district. That came from the consistency of being in the same grade level for years, working well with my grade level team, and knowing the material. Hillside needs consistency and this change brought the opposite.

TT - A school that rates a 2 at Greatschools.com can afford to lose 10 or 11 teachers. The average years teaching in this school is 6 years. (The least amount of experience of any elementary school in the district.) 16% of the teachers are first-year teachers. Hillside is the worst elementary school in the district.

One parent comment at Greatschools explains a lot.

The teachers at Hillside are dedicated to the children. Services provided: Boys and Girls Club, basketball, soccer in the planning stages, active PTA, Gate, band, music."

Not a word about academics.

Indianola, MISSISSIPPI

This was a tough punishment, but heck, here's more money where that came from.

June 22, 2007 -
Lynda P. Whatley, an accounts payable clerk for Indianola Public School District, pleaded guilty to the theft of $91,535.70

Whatley was sentenced on Feb. 12 to five years of house arrest, fined $3,000 and ordered to pay $108,130.20

El Monte, CALIFORNIA

Sentenced to seven years.

ARRESTED May 22, 2007 -
Marco Irigoyen, 43, a a teacher at Rio Hondo Elementary School, was arrested last week for lewd conduct with a child.

He is being held on $1 million bail and faces five felony counts of lewd conduct with a child under the age of 14. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday (May 23.)
Full Name: Marco Antonio Irigoyen

May 23 - The arrest was based on an anonymous tip police received May 14. The four victims are not students at Rio Hondo Elementary School, but some of them are children and one of the cases happened almost a decade ago.

"Sex crimes statue of limitations starts as soon as you've been notified," Mena said. "So even though this occurred about nine years ago the statue doesn't start running until it is reported to us.

May 25 - His arraignment was rescheduled to June 4.

June 12 - Irigoyen pleaded not guilty. A preliminary is scheduled for June 21. He is still being held on $1 million bail.

June 25 - SENTENCED Irigoyen pleaded no contest to three counts of lewd conduct with a minor and was sentenced to seven years in a state prison.

New York, NEW YORK

June 25, 2007 - ARRESTED Timothy Avery, 25, a teacher's aide at Hunter College High School, was arrested and charged with third-degree rape today for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.

Avery is also charged with criminal sex acts and endangering the welfare of a child.

Press Releases from the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District. HERE

(The Special Commissioner of Investigation office is the source of the story in the New York Times and the picture in the Staten Island Advance, but the Investigation office site does not carry anything on Avery.)

Boulder, COLORADO

His fantasy was to have sex with a 12-year-old girl.

June 25, 2007 - Michael Barta, 46, a counselor at Casey Middle School, was arrested in a prostitution sting after a "professional escort" who had serviced him alerted police that he had expressed interest in having sex with a 12-year-old girl.

Police arranged to meet him and arrested him as he arranged to meet an undercover detective for paid sex.

Now comes information that Barta was the subject of news story in November 1994 in the Rocky Mountain News about his kinky online chats. At that time he was a teacher in Golden, Colorado, and after the story, was asked to leave the school. He was allowed to voluntarily resign. He taught a year in Denver schools before he left to get his doctorate. He was then hired as a counselor by the Boulder Valley Schools.

He's on paid leave and the district is debating whether to rehire him next year.

TT - Colorado has a reputation for oddness. An April panel at the High School gave a sex talk so lurid that a parent wasn't allowed to read from a transcript because the school board president thought it was inappropriate to be read aloud at a public forum. Yet attendance at the Sex Forum was mandatory for the high school students. LINK

Then there was Laurence Reed Senterfit who would have gotten parole for his crimes. LINK

The Conifer, Colorado school yearbook featured drugs, alcohol and Minor in Possession citations. LINK

Miami, FLORIDA

June 25, 2007 - The Sun-Sentinel was generous in reporting the death of Pasquale ''Pat'' Tornillo Jr.

Pat Tornillo, a former head of Miami-Dade County's teachers union who championed education but was later sent to prison for stealing from the group, has died, his attorney said Monday. He was 81.

Tornillo died Sunday at his home in Tallahassee, his attorney Michael Rosen said. He had suffered from lung and heart disease, prostate cancer and diabetes.

Tornillo was sentenced to 27 months in prison in 2004 for cheating teachers out of $650,000 in United Teachers of Dade dues which he used to pay for lavish vacations.

The American Federation of Teachers calculated that Tornillo actually stole $2.5 million from the largest union in the Southeast. A judge ordered him to pay nearly $1 million in restitution and back taxes.

After his release from prison, Tornillo published an apology in a newspaper.

The United Teachers of Dade said: "Pat Tornillo's death marks the end of a life once dedicated to education reform and teacher leadership in Florida, but unfortunately was compromised at the end of his career by his admission of fraud and tax evasion."
"For more than 40 years Pat Tornillo was among the strongest voices for leading education reform in Florida and nationally," said Ron Sachs, a long time friend, who also worked with Tornillo. "It's truly tragic that the last professional chapters of his life was tarnished by probably staying in power too long as a union leader."

"I don't regret the 40 years. I made a good contribution to the education of children," Tornillo said in an interview with NBC6 in February 2006.

His lifestyle was written up by the St. Petersburg Times in 2003.

- $20 million union headquarters
- $243,000 salary
- $2,000 a night hotel suites
- Union dues to pay his maid
- $10,200 trip to St. Barts
- $20,138 for an eight-night stay at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami
- $4,158 shopping spree in New York City
- He owns two homes on St. George Island in the Panhandle, including a 3,000-square-foot beachfront house with a dune walkover. He also owns a townhouse in Tallahassee and is constructing another house in that city's Hermitage subdivision, home to some of the city's most prominent residents.

The Miami-Herald says he looted $3.3 million.

His legacy is in the Miami-Dade high schools.

Haines, FLORIDA

Jan 3, 2007 -
Fidel Vasquez,
29, a Haines City High School teacher, was arrested on one count of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. (A student at the high school.) It was euphemistically called "a "romantic relationship" with a student."

Jan 4 - The Orlando Sentinel picked up the theme and headlined the story "Teacher accused of affair"

Jan 14, 2007 - The school board voted to fire Vasquez. Vasquez is accused of having a yearlong relationship with the student."

Mar 18 - The school board may have voted to fire him. but Vasquez is still certified to teach.
No other updates available.

June 25 - Vasquez pleaded guilty (June 21) to having sex with a minor and been sentenced to 5/12 years state prison, followed by 9 and a half years of sex offender probation.

TT - The saddest part of this is that Vasquez, apparently, graduated from this school. The school is rated a 3 at Greatschools.com He had a year-long sexual fling with a 17-year-old student instead of trying to make a difference. This is what one parent wrote about the school at Greatschools.com

Absolutely horrible school! I wish I had the resourses to send my children to a private high school, but since I don't they suffer through this one.

My daughter comes home talking about constant fights daily. I visit the school, they want no parent partisipation. No dress code makes it look like Sodom & Gommarah in there. I walk through there and students walk into me, no respect.

No learning - at 17 my daughter has no clue what the Civil War is. What are Florida schools teaching our children? Nothing! All Haines City schools are C-D rated and no hope of improvement in sight. It's time for a change.

Children who should be retained are shoved ahead. It's beyond me how some make it through college from HCHS. My sons aced their 'advanced classes', graduated high honors. My daughter needs extra help, it isn't there for her. She asks teachers for help, they flunk her instead. Yet she isn't retained.

What's wrong with this picture? Will this school improve for my grandchildren? "

You can hear the pain.

Boston, MASSCHUSETTS

June 24 - Boston has a new superintendent of schools who will have the same problems in reforming Boston schools that every superintendent has had.

Carol Johnson, Boston's next school superintendent, will confront far different obstacles here than the ones she'll leave behind in Memphis -- including a powerful teachers union that could block her reforms, standardized tests that are tougher to pass, and thousands more students who speak English as a second language.

Stunning failure figures.

Less than 60 percent of Boston's students graduate from high school in four years. About 20 percent -- mostly black and Latino students -- drop out. And, for the past six years, half of the city's sixth-graders flunked the state's math test.

Look at the stunning comparison of Boston and Memphis schools in a chart at right at story.

-Black and Latino students make up 76 percent of Boston students.
- Less than half of Boston's black and Latino 10th- graders mastered math and English last year, scoring at least 30 percentage points behind white and Asian students.
- Some 18 percent in Boston who are mostly Latino are not fluent in English.

TT - At Greatschools.com you can compare the 11 public high schools in Boston. What you find is that the school with the highest teacher-student ratio of 22 is rated 10. Of the 23 high schools, only one is rated 10, the rest are 4 and below.

A Harlem class 13 years later

June 24, 2007 - Kudos to the New York Daily News for their story on 23 Harlem children who were in kindergarten in 1984-1985. Part One

Excellent.

June 25 - Part Two Another story in the series about the 23 Harlem children.
"One class, many incredible journeys" Subhead: Their lives intersected 13 years ago but 2 students take different paths

Dropout finds tough going getting back on diploma track
Proud parents laud grads who surpass them

Standardized Testing

The war on standardized testing continues in the media.

June 24, 2007 - With the No Child Left Behind Act up for reauthorization, New Jersey Express-Times worries about "Some fear law is leaving smart children behind." The story cites a Rand study released in May without supplying any links to the study.

Their point is that teachers don't like No Child Left Behind requirements.

One of the biggest criticisms of the law is that it forces teachers to, as [Spokesman for the state teacher's union Steve] Walmer put it, "teach to the test." In other words, subjects outside of the tests' scope -- social studies, art, music and physical education -- are being short-changed so teachers can drill students on the core math and literacy skills that are on the tests.

Leaving "smart children behind" is a concern, according to the article.

More than half of Pennsylvania's middle school teachers think a lack of attention to the Keystone State's smartest kids is one of the unintended consequences of the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, according to a study published in May by the California-based think tank Rand Corp. Nearly 40 percent of Pennsylvania elementary school teachers agreed.

No studies have been conducted in New Jersey, but Steve Walmer, spokesman for the state's teachers union, said it's a complaint that he hears more and more.

TT - However, an examination of the Rand study does not see "leaving smart children behind" as a major concern that isn't being addressed adequately. What they do conclude (Report page 81, PDF page 109) is that retaining high achieving students is critical to raising overall school test scores.

In other words, unions fear that high achieving students won't be there to haul up test scores to disguise the fact that children who are in most need of education aren't getting it. In New Jersey, that's most of the students. (Proficient means at grade level.)

The Rand study is called "Standards-Based Accountability Under No Child Left Behind Experiences of Teachers and Administrators in Three States." Research Brief.

The full 303-page document is available online. PDF (Very Large)
Chapter 8 Conclusions and Implications
-Report page 129 (PDF page 157)
Appendix A Survey Results
- Report page 140 (PDF page 167)

Three states were surveyed: California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. They wanted to survey 27 districts in each state, however, refusal rates were high, particularly in California. ( PDF page 167)

Survey question on high-achieving students cited in story above. B.40 - Report page 168 (PDF page 168.)
Percentages are those who agree or strongly agree. SE is the standard error + or -

Dropout Rates

June 24, 2007 - The Boston Globe reports on dropout rates in the state. In Boston, the dropout rate is 3%. The highest dropout rate in the state is in Brockton where 7% drop out. Interestingly, however, students aren't dropping out because of standardized testing.

Particularly frustrating to state Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll is the number of high school seniors giving up, even though they passed the standardized test known as MCAS, which is a statewide graduation requirement.

Across the state, more than 65 percent of the 2,584 high school seniors who dropped out last year passed the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. Comparable figures for the region south of Boston were not immediately available.

The best explanation was given by Stephen Sangster, principal of Rockland High School.

"The reason may be that parent investment has helped students make some real good choices," said Stephen Sangster, principal of Rockland High School, where the rate has dropped from 4.1 percent three years ago to 2.8 percent last year.

"A lot of time students decide not to continue with education because they are not finding the success they want and parents don't have the strong influence to help them bear through ."

Also see - The Annie E. Casey Foundation reports on dropout rates in all states. This interactive chart allows you to see dropout percentage rates for each state. However, percentages are less meaningful than the number of dropouts.

Child Trends databank reports that "Hispanics accounted for 40 percent of all high school dropouts in 2004. However, they only made up 17 percent of the total youth population." Graph

Peru, NEW YORK

"The reason I am not tenured is I will not sell my integrity out."

June 22, 2007 - A school principal is just giving up and resigning in face of opposition from teachers and their union. Jeannie Henry's appointed angered many faculty and staff members who supported another in-house candidate.

A member of the Mexico High School faculty said employees there were split over whether to support Henry or not.

Henry said that controversy stemmed from her criticism of a popular teacher who allegedly targeted a student because of his ethnicity. The student's parent filed a complaint against the district, which ended with the state Division of Human Rights ruling against the teacher.

Henry is planning legal action against the school district for the bullying and harassment.

TT - Government schools are bad enough. Soviet-style schools run by workers' collectives end up being the worst. It's what union-run districts are coming to.

Oak Hill, WEST VIRGINIA

SENTENCED June 22, 2007 - Jerome Fruit, a Collins Middle School teacher, pleaded guilty June 13 to “knowingly and intentionally possessed with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, also known as ‘coke,’ a Schedule II controlled substance.”

Fruit resigned. He will be sentenced Oct. 9.

SENTENCED - Fruit was sentenced to five years in prison in December 2007.

PENSION CHALLENGED According to a September 5, 2008 article, the state Consolidated Public Retirement Board asked the court to remove a former Fayette County middle school teacher convicted on federal drug charges from the state Teachers Retirement System. Which led to this editorial by the Charleston Daily-Mail.

Longview, WASHINGTON

Education Briefs

June 22, 2007 - A Monticello Middle School teacher was formally reprimanded for swearing at students. She was also warned that she would be fired if she continued. It's not her first warning.

The behavior became public at a June fifth school concert when an eighth-grader gave the audience a profanity-filled example of what she heard from her teacher.

The student wanted to make a point and she was suspended for 10 days and missed her graduation ceremonies. But it did, however, force school officials to investigate. Hence, the reprimand.

Also found at the news site, another Washington school district is being run by the union.

Toppenish, WASHINGTON [Teachers and the school district] groups have been negotiating for almost three months over a new contract. The teachers union wants more money for healthcare and teachers salaries. They also want the school district to stop moving teachers from one position to another without the teachers and union approval.

District officials say they have already given each teachers an additional personal day, and that the average teacher will see a pay increase of nine percent and more money for healthcare.

Interesting job posting at the Toppenish site for a Migrant Recruiter - "Recruiter will work district-wide conducting home visits which will require visits in the late afternoon or evening to identify and recruit for enrollment migrant students pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade."