Disruptions at Montalvo

We, the teachers of Montalvo School, discovered firsthand how Monique Dollonne's involvement in our school actually eroded our ability to teach and focus on our students. When administrators didn't let her get her way, she:

— Publicly cast suspicion on our school's budget. (The California Department of Education found nothing out of compliance with our budget.)

— Made false accusations to numerous governmental agencies. This required our principal, district and state to waste countless hours and resources dealing with these accusations, which were found to be baseless.

— Organized others to act against our administrators with a vengeful and unfair commitment to finding fault with them.

— Actively maligned our school to the public.

— Confronted and harassed parents who did not agree with her.

We were extremely frustrated by her unwillingness to accept that her actions had become a barrier to student achievement. As a result, 22 members of our teaching staff united at the January 2005 School Site Council meeting to publicly protest being mired in so much unnecessary conflict and harassment.

We were supported by seven of the eight council members and many other parents in attendance. The lone council member who abstained from the vote co-authored many of the false accusations mentioned above.

This did nothing to thwart her belligerence, and eventually the district had to ban her from coming on campus without the escort of an administrator.

Eventually, she withdrew her child from Montalvo, and we felt we were finally free to dedicate all our time to teaching. We have since met every Annual Yearly Progress criteria established by the federal No Child Left Behind law.

— Penny Buli, Gwen Field & Alma Quezada, Montalvo School teachers, Ventura

(This letter was co-signed by 11 other teachers. — Editor)

Time to end local control of schools....all schools should be run directly out of washington, d.c. just like health care.....

the Feds can do it cheaper and more efficiently...of course california 300,000 teachers, who are now all exempt from paying any social security taxes....would have to start paying once they all become federal school teachers.....

Andy,

Would they also get social security then?

Ms. Dollonne sounds very passionate about education. It should be a very interesting interview.

RE: Would they also get social security then?

Yes they would, as federal employees,who can retire at age 55, they would get both a federal pension and social security....two pensions, which federal employees get now

Federal employees can start drawing social security at age 55...they call it a "supplement"...and it is equal to the social security they will draw at 65 on top of their federal pesnion...

You just don't want them to have a pension once they get older?

Note from moderator : I moved this question from the one on one interview to here.

I am a parent, with kids in the Ventura school district. I am currently very active with my schools parent organization, as well as many committees at the district level. I remember way back when Monique was involved in her childs school--but she has more than dropped out, she was destructive and continues to be so--ask any teacher at Montalvo school! what bothers me most about Monique, is that she hasn't even taken the time to find out about the wonderful programs and services this district has to offer--programs that I personally have volunteered countless hours for the benefit of all of our students and their families. I resent her criticism when she doesn't even bother to lift a finger and help in the trenches in our community where real advocates are hard at work-- Its a slap on my face.

I had the opportunity to personally talk to Monique tonight at an event, and when asked what she had to bring to table, she said to me, and I will quote, "your kids go to Foothill--they don't need any help". I'm sorry, but a board member cannot choose to represent only certain students. Its a dangerous assumption that kids who do not fit a certain profile do not need advocacy.

I do not think you will find many folks from our community, who are engaged in education, who support Monique Dollone. How can she serve in a community that she knows or cares so little about?

You asked some very good questions--I'd like to see her try to answer!

By the way, I too am on the Ventura Education Partnership, Parent Advisory Council, Festival, healthy schools, all of the above. Monique, how many years has it been since you've attended ANY of these groups? Perhaps 8 to 10? Anyone can go to a meeting; participating is something else.

Ask Monique how many taxpayer dollars have gone to pay for the school district's lawyer to deal with numerous frivolous and unfounded lawsuits. Monique has sued the Ventura Unified School District, the Office of Civil Rights and the California Department of Education. She lost all the suits. The District has had to spend valuable resources and time to address these nuisance suits.

RE:You just don't want them to have a pension once they get older?

No government employee is entitled to a pension other than social security....they should all be forced into a single "payer" system of social security and nothing else

What the governmnet has done...is forced the taxpayers into social security....and then set up entirely diferent and better retirement systems for government folk...so they can all avoid social security

1 in 4 government employee, including all 300,000 california school teachers, are totally exempt from paying social security taxes...they pocket them

All it takes is being bamboozled into electing a few unworthy candidates and the System begins to destroy itself. Be careful who you vote for because there are those who seek election simply to tear things down. We see it in Sacramento, on the County school board, all over. Don't be fooled again. Seek out true public servants to represent you and your families.

testing

I want to publicly apologize to Brian Dennert, and his guest, for posting my comments in the wrong place (thanks for moving them, Brian).

About those frivolous and unfounded lawsuits; Monique, how many times are you going to appeal those losses (what are we on now, the 3rd or 4th)? When will you quit your harassment, gross waste of taxpayer dollars, disrespect for our judicial system, and accept the loss?

I appreciate your dogged determination and passion, but would rather see it directed at helping our kids and families, not some self-serving goal that you have yet to adequately explain to me. Let's do coffee again?

Monique, are you a member of the Christian Coalition? Do you believe a balanced approach should be taken with sex education or should it be abstinence only? Do you fully support NCLB? Did Mike Osborn support you in your last campaign? Did you agree with Dick Cheney when he said "Ronald Reagan proved that deficits mean nothing?"

Watched Monique's testimony. She talked about how much she liked No Child Left Behind...

I moved all of the following comments from the entry I put up the interview on. If you would like to continue your discussions this is the proper entry.

Here you go:

By andyLevinson on September 19, 2009 7:45 AM

RE:As in nearly every other facet of American society, Americans value having choices and don't want to be limited to one-size-fits-all.

You have hit the nail on the head, Monique....the very reason we don't want obama running our health care, or union indoctrinated teachers and administrators being the sole education providers.....
By gs on September 19, 2009 9:47 AM

You don't like the system? Then make the choice to send your kids to private schools.
By andyLevinson on September 19, 2009 5:01 PM

RE:You don't like the system? Then make the choice to send your kids to private schools.

No....then the choice dictators will still be dictating THEIR choice to everyone else...using OUR tax dollars....so stop taxing us and we will leave your broken and oppressive system
By gs on September 20, 2009 7:07 AM

Too bad, Andy! You enjoy the benefits of public education, you pay your fair share of the taxes. If that's too much for you then I suggest you look into emigrating to a place where you won't have to pay taxes. There are plenty of them out there.

Funny, how the places with the highest taxes are also the places where people don't want to leave, where they enjoy a high quality of life and where the state makes certain they're not preyed upon by insurers, corrupt bankers and far right politicians. We only seem to get immigrants from low tax and no tax countries.
By andyLevinson on September 20, 2009 8:23 AM

RE: Too bad, Andy! You enjoy the benefits of public education, you pay your fair share of the taxes.

How come teachers don't pay their fair share of social security taxes....

300,000 active california teachers pay no social security taxes

190,000 retired california teachers went thru their whole teaching career without contributing a dime to america's social security

RE: Funny, how the places with the highest taxes are also the places where people don't want to leave,

Ever hear of NY city?

Anyway it's time to get union thugs out of government....get the unions out of our school systems, police stations, and fire departments, cities and counties
By gs on September 20, 2009 9:20 AM

Why should CA teachers pay SS taxes? Why aren't you paying more into SS? Why should teachers pay into a system that benefits YOU but not them? Why should CA teachers pay for your retirement? Isn't that socialism?

NY City? It's the place everyone who wants to make money wants to go. Just cause YOU don't like NYC doesn't mean its not a magnet for capitalists and their money. But you're right...the taxes are high and that doesn't prevent the doers and movers from bidding up the cost of housing and office space.

On the other hand, how do no-tax places like Alabama, N Dakota, Moldavia, Albania and others fare? Not too well, Andy. Smart businesses don't want to work out of places that have poor transportation, bad cops, no firefighters, no public education, little govt services and unreliable supplies of water. Those things cost money, commensurate with how much you want out of them.

We can all pay less if all we want is lousy police protection, less firefighting coverage, and future generations of ignorant, jobless kids & young adults milling around the streets. But most of us want more.

But you want less. That's fine. That's a valid desire...to do with less.
By Scott Blough on September 20, 2009 10:09 AM

Andy and GS:

It is my understanding that many teachers, who worked in the private sector prior to being public school teachers, paid FICA taxes into social security and lose out on social security benefits once they become public school teachers. Some have even fulfilled their full "quarters of credit" obligations under the program indicating they would be eligible for full benefits if they were disabled or reached the age requirements to draw on the program.

Many teachers also may work side jobs during the summer or in the evenings and pay social security taxes.

If they met the contribution metrics, should they be eligible for social security or not?

I would think they should be.
By Nobody on September 20, 2009 10:36 AM

*Stop being "post insurgents" and posting on the Live Interview post. Major blog foul.
By Mary Walther on September 20, 2009 1:11 PM

Monique-
Thank you for representing our voice in Congress! You have worked hard to have our values and standards heard. Good luck!

Mary Walther

Hey Monique,

Marcos Vargas of CAUSE did not endorse you. You might want to ask Brian to remove that from your "interview." Lots of other misrepresentations there too.

For clarification, I have not, and have no intention of endorsing Monique Dollonne, or any other candidate for the Ventura School Board. My policy, since the mid 1980s has been to not endorse candidates. I have asked Ms. Dollonne to refrain from making any further such claims.

Marcos,

Thanks for posting a clarification.

I would like to see Monique answer questions about how shw as a school board member would help Veentura get out of program improvement. It is important to stay on the message of what is important when it comes to our school.

Monique has already demonstrated that she is not trying to be popular when it comes to getting things done for the best interest of the student. Putting kids first is not very popular.

Now I want her to put in laymen term her game plan for reversing the scores for the district. How do we get out of program improvement. This is what your parents of Ventura who has a child that is far below or below basic would like to know. This is where the parent community concern starts. How can your leadership improve academic achievement? Everything else is irrelavant.

I would like to also know how can we keep cuts away from the class room and therefore away from students?

Thank you.

DH

By gs on September 18, 2009 8:20 AM

All it takes is being bamboozled into electing a few unworthy candidates and the System begins to destroy itself. Be careful who you vote for because there are those who seek election simply to tear things down. We see it in Sacramento, on the County school board, all over. Don't be fooled again. Seek out true public servants to represent you and your families.

RE: I want to ditto on your comment. I agree 100% with you.
I believe America is now waking up from sleeping for so long.
There are so many people who still don't have a clue.
When we are clueless we fight against each other for the wrong reason. The system has perfected itself on parents against, parents against teachers, teachers against parents and we are all fighting each other.
The truth of the matter is this...I have never found a teacher that went into the profession of teaching to keep a student behind academically. And,I have never met a parent that did not want their child to be successful. I have nothing but the utmost respect for teachers who are making sacrifices everyday in their classrom. Many go into their own pocket to buy supplies for their children out of complete committment. We teach parents to respect the teachers that are teaching your child and go the extra mile to partner with them.
Why am I saying all of this? My point is simple. A child will spend his childhood education in the presence of these two equally important people. Unlesss they form an allegiance to the success of the student..this child will fail. As parents we teach our children to respect authority. But at the same time we teach them to stand up for what is right.

Monique Dollone is a standing up for what is right. She want the people of ventura to hold the school board accountable to the academic state of your school district. They are the policy makers at the top.

Not many people are willing to speak out and risk being attacked. I believe that if you look at her track record of where she has always focused her area of concern, you will see that she put the students first.

Isn't this what we really want....

This is my recommendation: You have nothing t lose but much to gain. Elect Monique for one term. Develope an accountability for ALL of your board members. They get one term to turn things around. If it does not chaange, move her and every candidtae out and put in people that are capable of bringing change. We must get out of the habit of keeping candidates in office just because. Hold everyone that you elect accountable. The students of Ventura can not vote. They are depending on the ventura community to look closely at the past years and do an evaluation according to data.

You don't have to like a candidate to vote for them. You just need to know if they are the right pick to get the district back on track. I say this in all due respect to every Ventura board member that is now serving..They had a chance to turn things around many years but it has not happened. We owe it the the Ventura students to choose the right person for the job.

We can not continue to keep our head in the sand and HOPE things get better. How many more years do we wait?

It is my prayer that parents and teachers would work together and put away the division among them. Do it for the students. They deserve nothing less from the Ventura adults.

When adults put aside their personal issues...children win.

Elect Monique Dollone and give Ventura a chance for change. Change may not be popular...but it is needed.

No Parent, No Teacher, No CHILD left behind!

Respectfully,
DH

Hi

I've looked a trailer for the "2012". I was interested in this theme.
Please advise me a good site on this topic.
And what do you think about the end of the world 2012.

Thanks.

I agree with the above...

Elect Monique Dollonne and give Ventura a chance for change. Change may not be popular...but it is needed.

To add on...

I have young kids. I'm starting a high-tech business here in Ventura County. The worst thing about living here (and the worst part of my pitch to recruit new employees to Ventura) is the quality of education for our kids. There are a few good public schools, but most of our public schools are not good. And while there are many reasons for this fact, I believe we mostly have good teachers. With few exceptions, the teacher are not to blame.

Lack of parent involvement and family stability seems to be the primary problem (which no legislation will ever cure). And secondly, Government and administration seems to be inefficient and insufficiently focused on our kids. The system needs to change. It needs to be more accountable and more transparent.

I believe that Monique will facilitate accountability. She is aggressive, and she's not as political as others--which will bother some. Her style will create debate. But because I don't like the status quo, I welcome the debate and discussion. She is a threat to the status quo, which is why many members of VUSD are against her.

We need change, so I'm willing to take a chance...

I'll vote for Monique Dollonne.