Category: Uncategorized

By Dianna Huculak, President of the Davis Teachers Association

At the end of the school year, educators in our district received an email from Director of secondary education Troy Allen, which among other things, told us that our students would not be able to have new textbooks next year because of increased compensation for teachers.   Based on this email, many teachers expressed to me that they felt guilty that their salary increase hurt their students.   To me, and others who have worked in Davis for a period of time, this rhetoric from district office is all too familiar- a district message frame-repeated to the community that unfortunately pits nurses, counselors, teachers, psychologist, and all support staff against the children that we protect, nurture and serve.  It creates a false dichotomy which says anything that goes to the support the livelihood of the people in our school community, must take something away from children.   It disrespects and minimizes the role of our school communities to create healthy spaces for children to grow and to learn.   Moreover, it’s not enough that teachers had to picket, write letters, show up at multiple school board meetings, for what basically amounted to a cost of living adjustment- we are also supposed to feel guilty about it.   What I didn’t realize at the time, was that apparently, this logic only applies to teachers.

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Image From Leidos website and Chancellor May 

By Nick Buxton

I’m glad to hear the university administration read my piece, although I wish it had led to some self-reflection about the ethics of education leaders holding corporate board positions – even more so when they are in the defense industry. Instead they have deployed a PR defense tactic of mis-characterizing my argument rather than addressing its core concerns. The fact that a university administration also spends public money defending a private corporation shows the costs of universities becoming ever more corporatized in recent years.

My article did not argue that Leidos was responsible for the latest Trump policy of separating children from their families, nor did I say that Chancellor May was responsible for this. However it is clear that Leidos is part of the border regime, and that May as a Board representative therefore naturally bears some responsibility and accountability for its activities.

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Dear Davis School Board Members, (boe@djusd.net)

I am so very disappointed in your leadership and continued support of the Superintendent’s agenda and request for additional salary for top administrators. You have been saying all year that teacher salaries are a priority yet your actions speak otherwise. Stop adding admin positions and stop increasing their pay!

This year I had an amazing student teacher, the kind that only comes around once every few years, and we lost her to a school 15 miles away. Although she loved being at Pioneer – she could not turn down $1,000 more take home pay per month plus a much better benefit package. After all – she has student loans to pay back!

UC Davis Statement On "Chancellor May, Leidos Corp., and “heart-wrenching political tactics” for refugees" Published on the Davisite.org

On behalf of Chancellor Gary S. May and UC Davis, I must address the accusations and incorrect information made by Nick Buxton in his June 20 article, “Chancellor May, Leidos Corp, and ‘heart-wrenching political tactics’ for refugees.” In addition to the inflammatory and wildly inappropriate placement of Chancellor’s May’s picture with that of children detained by ICE, Buxton made false statements related to May’s Leidos Board seat and how that position impacts his role here at UC Davis. 

For starters, Chancellor May has been transparent about his board service from the very beginning. He disclosed his board service and salary candidly with the search committee that ultimately recommended unanimously to select him as the next UC Davis Chancellor. The UC Office of the President and UC Regents were also informed about his board leadership prior to selecting him. He has discussed this topic with the campus community and during many media interviews. He continues to make himself available to anyone who wants to discuss this with him in person. 

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By Nick Buxton

UC Davis Chancellor Gary May has joined the chorus of voices rightly condemning the separation of children from parents seeking asylum in the US. In a public statement on June 19, he condemned the “heart-wrenching political tactics” affecting refugees and voiced his support for DACA students. These are important statements, but they would be even more powerful if he took action to back up those values, which in this case he could easily do by stepping down from his position on the board of one of the leading corporations involved in the inhumane border regime.

According to Sacramento Bee, May earned $288,280 in cash and stock in 2015 as a member of the board of Leidos, a Virginia-based defense and technology company. Leidos is an important supplier of surveillance equipment to the Department for Homeland Security Border guards, boasting of supplying 70 programs worth $200 million in the last five years. The company has expanded significantly in recent years and its CEO has boasted to investors of how it is benefiting from Trump’s agenda.

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By now you must have heard of the big issue of children being separated from parents at our boarder with Mexico ……. this is highly controversial and within the past 24 hours five current and former First Ladies have weighed in on this situation…. express concern and at times outrage at how this situation is being managed by the current administration.

Part of the management of the situation is a considerable amount of communication "spin".  Here is a link to an article from the Washington Post which does a great job of sorting out the spin from the truth.  

In these modern times it is important to be able to separate fact from fiction or even more critically fact from near fact or semi-fact.  And we need to be prepared to sort through these claims as we go about making decisions that affect us and/or others.  For example, "More cars means less traffic".  You might have heard that one lately.  Still makes my head shake.

Anyway, here is the link to the Post:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/06/19/the-facts-about-trumps-policy-of-separating-families-at-the-border/?utm_term=.54b235edb54f&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

I subscribe to the online version….. you might want to, too.

John

photo by Iggie Walsh – https://www.instagram.com/iggiewalsh/

By Tom Owczarzak

It’s amazing how much hospitals look the same. Not on the outside – on the inside.

Early morning, body cramped from dozing in uncomfortable chairs – why the hell do they not put couches in the waiting rooms? There has to be some logic there I am missing because it makes no sense.

And, yep, back in the hospital. Another nighttime vigil for family.

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photo by Iggie Walsh – https://www.instagram.com/iggiewalsh/

By David Kupfer

"Leadership is action, not position." – Donald Megannen

"Don't agonize, organize!" – Florence Kennedy

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -Aldous Huxley

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." – Emerson

"The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on Earth." – Sir Wilfred Grenfell

"In dreams begin responsibility." – Yeats

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This is a complicated issue …. assisted dying…. and can have profound impact for individuals and their families.

The original law in California, based in part of laws from other states including Oregon, was proposed by Davis based Senator Lois Wolk.  It was passed during a special session of the legislature and a recent court decision put it on hold for that reason.  Then just this week a higher court reversed the hold and now the law is in place again.

That kind of back and forth must be torture for doctors, patients and their families trying to help their loved ones and also wanting to be operating within the boundaries of the law on this controversial issue.  (Many disability advocates have issues with this law).

Couple of interesting articles in the Chronicle today (https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/California-s-assisted-dying-law-reinstated-12999276.php) describing the law switching back on and from the Bee (when the Wolk bill was approved by the California Senate) help provide some background: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article23113641.html

Perhaps this is something to discuss in your families, among friends, on this blog page, etc….

John 

Some folks may know that the legislature is supposed to vote on the California State Budget by June 15th or today.  Actually, they finished up yesterday a day ahead of time.  That's kind of nice because this kind of performance was not always the norm.  It seemed that not that many years ago, the Legislature was chronically late in moving on the final budget and that caused lots of problems for state funded programs.  But no more, and let's give appropriate thanks to the Governor and the Legislature for making that process work!

Speaking of work, how are the folks in the education sector going to spend all the money that they got in one time and ongoing boosts to their budgets?  You might like to know that this was a major "feature" of the budget and as Delaine Eastin was heard saying in her campaign for governor, "Budgets represent values" and so, I think the new California $200 billion budget does that with an infusion of money into education.

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