We are treating the symptoms of what ails SUSD rather than the disease killing the district. Part 2
The Urgent Need to Address the Root Causes in Saugus Union for Lasting Change
Disney's "A Bug's Life" features a memorable scene where Hopper, the leader of the bully grasshoppers, expresses his concern that one ant stood up to the group of grasshoppers. However, the other grasshoppers laughed it off, making Hopper throw one seed at a few grasshoppers, who both shrugged it off; he then opened the entire floodgate, allowing hundreds of seeds to bury the laughing grasshoppers. Hopper's point was that if you let one ant rise up, they all might rise up, and then the situation would be out of control.
The SUSD "ants" have started to rebel against the Bureaucrat grasshoppers, as evidenced by this most recent meeting. As parents & teachers realize that they share common complaints, they often begin communicating with each other and learn that they should unite; this is also why the Accountable SCV team has experienced a flood of new Whistleblowers sharing some disturbing revelations.
California is ranked 50 out of 51 (DC is included in the ranking) in literacy; California even trails Mississippi in illiteracy. In SUSD, only 38% of students can read at or above grade level, despite Saugus Union having the 4th lowest "High Needs Students" in the entire state.
Ms. Hawkins met with some parents in the fall of 2019 who questioned SUSD's problem of passing 20% of SUSD students on to Hart being illiterate. This group of parents challenged the budget for Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) and why there were no teachers specifically trained to teach language-based learning disability like dyslexia, which happens to be about 15-20% of the population. In 2020, SUSD spent around 200k on SELPA-specific staff members; in 2021, the number was zero. It is still yet to be determined if that has changed for 2022 or 2023, but it is very odd that during the forced distance learning and after, SUSD wouldn't focus on the most vulnerable learners in our schools.
It is no wonder now why Saugus Teacher Association STA President Liz Hand and Superintendent Hawkins were so obsessed over the alleged violation of a special needs child's privacy—hanging 20%+ of our students out to dry by allowing them to go through life not being able to read? Student privacy is sometimes used as a pretext, akin to the wizard hiding behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz, to divert attention from perceived inadequacies in their performance. Is it any wonder we saw a massive drop in public school attendance? In 2019-20, SUSD spent 174 million or about $18k per child; the taxpayers of this state will pay upwards of 125k+ to send one child through SUSD only to have 1 in 5 come out illiterate. What a complete rip-off.
It is no secret that California is awful at education, despite having the 3rd highest-paid teachers in the nation. So it was bizarre to hear the account of one public speaker at last week's meeting administrators interrupting lessons to whisper in students' ears if they knew who 'Z' is. A casual watcher might think that this situation was related to the Emblem Academy and Moshayedi situation, but this is not the case; this situation happened at West Creek with the principal, Susan Bett, and the Assistant principal Amanda Howard.
When searching the SUSDs website for "SELPA." The only thing that came up was a woketastic seminar by Dr. Niki Elliott called "How Students with Disabilities are Affected by Implicit Bias After COVID-19." Implicit Bias, you say? What like the implicit Bias of having your school superintendent blow off training teachers specialized in teaching you how to read? Or having your school principal come in to disrupt your class to make sure you know who their woke Elmo mascot is? Of course, the kids can't read, but at least they know who 'Z' is! 🙄 What makes this incredibly creepy is Niki Elliot’s use of the hashtag #Down4OPC or Down for Other People’s Children, a reference to the Naughty By Nature’s cheating anthem OPP which stands for “Other people’s p****y.” it always comes down to something nefarious or inappropriate with these creeps.
How did we get admins like Moshayedi, Bett, and Howard? It may have something to do with what Anna Griese discussed later in the meeting. Mrs. Griese pointed out that 16 teachers resigned in 2023 and 28 resigned in 2022. Also, there were 244 staff resignations in the last year and a half! We have already touched on how Superintendent Hawkin will punish teachers who question her by moving them to another grade level. It looks very plausible that Hawkins created a hostile work environment to purge the ranks of dissident staff members in favor of subordinate woke staff.
Was beloved Emblem Academy principal Jon Baker forced to retire early to bring Sahar Moshayedi in? Accountable SCV will dive deeper into these issues on Saugus Union and campuses around the valley. You are not alone if you feel like a lone ant against some bully bureaucrat grasshoppers! If you have a situation that needs addressing, please email whistle@accountablescv.com.
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