THERE ARE CERTAIN PEOPLE who come into your life that you realize just fit. I met Mary Haffner back in 2000 when our children's school had been covered in a toxic cloud from a pesticide drift from a neighboring orchard, an incident which I've written about a few times here. My daughter and other children became ill.

Enraged, I alerted every media outlet I could find. The story ended up on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.

Enraged, Mary organized parents, held meetings and helped spearhead legislation later carried by then-Assemblymember Hannah-Beth Jackson to stop this from happening again.

Used to operating independently on various activist endeavors, we discovered each other one day with a mutual exclamation of "OK, you were the one who did that. I was wondering."

Three years later Mary called me to co-chair a group she wanted to start to raise money for the Ventura Unified School District. Save Our Schools raised thousands of dollars, sponsored many education rallies and helped bring our highly successful School Resource Officer program back to our campuses.

In 2005 my friend told me she wanted to run for school board here in Ventura and I enthusiastically agreed she would do a fine job. In the past four years she has already been elevated to the position of president. I am proud of her accomplishments and I heartily support her re-election.

The only school board member with children in the district, Mary is a devoted mother of three who manages to do it all and do it all well. An attorney, Mary has also been a strong voice for sustainability and environmental stewardship. As a board member, Mary helped to draft Ventura Unified's Green Schools Resolution -- a statement of Ventura Unified's commitment to sustainability and the promotion of policies and actions that help our district tread more lightly on the earth.

In alignment with this philosophy, Mary serves as the board representative on the Ventura Unified Green Schools Committee and is the Chair of the Ventura County Regional Energy Alliance.

In these tough budget times for our schools, she has shown exemplary leadership. And Ventura schools have weathered this storm better fiscally than most surrounding districts. Our API scores have increased every year since 2002.

But on a more personal note, she has been a wonderful friend. Like any two strong, independent women, we've had our little spats, but we always find our way back to each other because in this life you always need somebody who really understands you.

On Nov. 3, cast your vote for Mary Haffner and by doing so you will also be helping the children of Ventura.

For an interview with Mary on CAPS-TV, go here.

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT the hysteria from rightwing media couldn't get much worse, I learned about the protests against President Barack Obama's televised pep talk to students today.

A sample of today's speech:

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

That's right. Our president wants your kids to be better learners and do their homework. Similar speeches were delivered by presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and shown to schoolchildren.

But leave it to a few shock jocks like Tammy Bruce to stir the pot and look for a sinister agenda. Per Bruce's Twitter feed calling for parents to pull their children out of school today rather than watch a televised speech from the president of the United States:

Remember, *you* are the moral tutor of your child, not some shady Chicago lawyer and his sycophants.

Bruce, formerly a Democrat, says she's now disavowed any party affiliation but chooses to do political commentary for FOX News.

And then we have 2012 presidential contender Gov. Tim Pawlenty also questioning the speech, calling it "uninvited." According to a radio interview, "the Republican governor says showing the address could be disruptive and raises questions of content and motive."

"I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said last week.

AT MY HOUSE, I realize my strong political opinions have permeated my children's belief system. When my youngest brought home a presidential scholarship award signed by Obama he couldn't resist pointing out to his older sister in a bit of triumphant sibling rivalry that hers was (alas) signed by George Bush.

But I've also taught them to respect the office. And no matter how much you disagree with a sitting president's politics, you owe it to your children to teach them that the great traditions of this country and our system of democracy should always be honored.

The text of Obama's speech can be found here.

A NEW STUDY from the Public Policy Institute of California predicts that a majority of the state's schools will fail to reach No Child Left Behind's impossibly high goals for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) next year. "Very soon almost every public school in California will be labeled a failure," the study's authors write.

The program mandates that schools and districts receiving Title I federal funds make satisfactory yearly improvement toward an established individual goal in math and English. A school which consistently misses its goal over several years is eventually subject to major restructuring. These efforts are costly and their success has been mixed.

The study identified many factors behind its findings but suggested that the larger problem is a  system which does not account for the significant differences in challenges between schools. "Fifty percent of elementary schools with the highest share of low-income students made AYP in 2007, whereas 98 percent of elementary schools with the lowest share of low-income students made AYP," according to the PPIC.

"As a result, a school that inherits many high-achieving students but teaches them very little can be labeled a success, whereas a school that inherits many low-achieving students and teaches them a great deal can be labeled a failure," the authors write. California has a high percentage of disadvantaged students.

The situation will not likely improve given the economy and severe cutbacks and larger class sizes California's schools face next year as a result of state budget negotiations.

WHAT CAN BE DONE besides a complete overhaul of the NCLB rules? The study makes many worthwhile suggestions:

• Invest in preschool. High-quality programs can help close the achievement gap.

• Re-evaluate programs which are not working. The study points to a remedial program for students who have failed the high school exit exam as one which has been ineffective, yet the current budget allocates $73 million to it.

• New, innovative programs which work should be nurtured, piloted and implemented statewide.

• Reform school finance by replacing it with a weighted formula more closely tied to the actual costs of educating students. Schools which have more students from low socioeconomic background should naturally receive more funding, but those with higher regional costs should also receive more dollars.

While few would argue that many reforms are needed in California's education system, NCLB has had an unhealthy effect on the education community nationwide, something Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the American Federation of Teachers conference last week.

"This idea of labeling and stigmatizing schools as failures -- it is unbelievably demoralizing to faculty; it's confusing to parents."

I ATTENDED MY youngest child's "graduation" ceremony from elementary school today. It was a touching morning filled with awards and a montage of baby photos, girls dressed up in their best dresses and boys squirming uncomfortably in collared shirts. As a long-time parent, I've attended quite a few of these affairs.

But at the end came something that was markedly different from any ceremony I've attended before. We bid goodbye to a favorite teacher. My son's beloved part-time health teacher received a pink slip this spring. In good years these "temporary" teachers find themselves with a job again after the budget issues have settled down. But this is not to be this year.

A cheer went up among the children when her name was announced along with the other teachers. She's a favorite with the kids. My quiet little son, who seldom relays details of his school day, often came home with stories about the great discussions he's had in her class.

Clearly this is a teacher who is making an impact. And yet we seem to be unable to afford her salary any longer. This is the grim reality of state budget cuts. A family without a second income will be making fewer purchases in the community. Next year's students will not receive the benefit of her instruction.

It is a chain of ruin with profound impacts on the future of our children and the economy.

I went up to her afterward and assured her she would land on her feet. Unable to find child care today, she had her small daughter with her. She thanked me for my words of support and I could see the tears forming in her eyes.

I think back to the day I watched the TEA party protesters in Ventura gleefully patting their wallets in giddy celebration of taking down the government.

This is the government: a now unemployed health teacher who really gets through to her pupils, holding the hand of her 3-year-old.

I NEED TO DO a short followup to a blog entry I wrote back in January about my friend Melissa Wantz's contest for high schoolers, The Phoenix.

Wantz, an English teacher at Foothill High School in Ventura, came up with an idea to support and showcase the creative work of high school writers, artists and photographers in Ventura County.

I went to the presentation ceremony for the awards last night and I can now report that the arts are alive and well in our county's high schools. With hundreds of entries to choose from, the judges, who are locally renown in their fields of expertise, were blown away by the quality of the students' work.

Ventura artist Michele Chapin was so enthusiastic about the work she saw she plans to help expand and promote the contest next year.

The contest awarded cash prizes and an opportunity to be published in a book compiled by the journalism class at Foothill High. A Ventura Education Partnership grant helped pay the expenses.

Both the book and contest take their name from a mythical bird which dies in a fiery death and rises to live once again -- the Phoenix. "Our motto, 'Rising from the Ashes of Standardized Testing,' is taken from this idea of life after death," Wantz wrote on her Web site.

As wonderfully talented as these kids are, the contest would not have happened without a dedicated teacher who spent hours of her own time on the project. Thanks, Melissa!

AND SPEAKING OF the Ventura Education Partnership, our biggest event of the year, SummerFest, is being held from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Saturday (5-30) at the VUSD Education Service Center, 255 W. Stanley Ave., Ventura.

SummerFest brings our children and community together in a day-long event of fun, physical fitness events, music and healthy foods. This event celebrates our healthy community and also raises funds for nutrition and exercise programs through sponsorships. It is a free, family-friendly event. Join us!

And the Stricklands continue to evade meeting with educators

TEACHERS WERE WEARING PINK. Administrators and school board members were wearing pink. So were parents, teen-agers, little kids, babies and dogs. There were pink ribbons and banners and capes and hats and scarves today out on Victoria Avenue in Ventura.

But most of us were really just seeing red.

More than 26,000 teachers across the state received layoff notices or "pink slips" today, according to the Pink Friday web site. Today's protest was part of many rallies called across the state, but Ventura's was surely the largest in our county. Hundreds of folks, many layers deep, held banners and signs in a ribbon of humanity stretching from Telephone Road to the 126 Freeway.

The probable teacher layoffs, part of a recent $8.4 billion cut to K-12 education, impact not only their families and the local economy but also the education of a generation of California children who will be faced with such things as larger class sizes, crumbling facilities, aging textbooks, fewer counselors and librarians, and less instruction in P.E., arts and music.

"Without a decent education, our children and our future are nothing," said Rosa Granado, a fourth-grade teacher at Sunkist Elementary in Port Hueneme.

Parent Bill Walthall, also of Port Hueneme, worried that the teachers receiving pink slips today would not be rehired when the economy turns around. The younger teachers with less seniority are always the first to be laid off, he said, yet they are some of the most energetic and dynamic educators we have. "We're going to lose them forever," he added.

If this isn't bad enough, State Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor announced today that the precarious package of cuts, revenue increases, borrowing and legislative trickery we just passed as a budget at the end of February has missed the mark by a mile. Yes, there's already an $8 billion hole, Taylor said.

MEANWHILE, elusive legislative duo Tony and Audra Strickland are still playing hide-and-seek with county superintendents asking for a local meeting, according to a very reliable education source. Both skipped a long-scheduled gathering in January with our education leaders. Tony opted instead to attend a card-table event in the rain which was only noticed to the public the day before.

The Stricklands, along with fellow Republican George Runner, who was also a no-show at the  meeting with educators, were given a chance to reschedule at a time convenient to them. Tony's staff has ignored a succession of emails, my source tells me, and Audra recently responded that she was busy for at least the next two months but would meet, one-on-one only, with individual superintendents in her Sacramento office.

I guess Audra thinks it is a better bargain for taxpayers to fly all 19 of our county superintendents individually to Sacramento to meet with her. Or perhaps she expects them to pay for the trips themselves and leave the mayhem going on in their districts behind.

Local parents looking to the Stricklands for leadership in Sacramento in the public education arena should just throw in the towel at this point.

Better yet, let's gather up a few pink slips to throw.

SCHOOL EMPLOYEES statewide will be taking to the streets on Friday, March 13 to protest the estimated 20,000-25,000 layoff notices going out to teachers across California. Here in Ventura, the Pink Friday protest begins at 4 p.m. at the corner of Victoria Avenue and Telephone Road.

"It's a show of support for the teachers who are getting pink slips," said Ventura Unified Educators Association President Steve Blum. Other demonstrations are expected across Ventura County, Blum said.

With education taking up about half of the state's budget, the reduction of $8.4 billion to our schools was part of an agreement passed by legislators on Feb. 19 to plug a deficit projected at $41.6 billion over the next two years.

In the Ventura Unified School District, 17 Reduction in Force (RIF) notices will be sent out to teachers in addition to letters notifying an additional 86 temporary instructors that they may not have a job next year. Temporary teachers, Blum said, are those who have been hired to fill in for those on leave or to fill "categorical" positions like music, art or P.E. State law requires permanent teachers to be notified by March 13 if they will have jobs next year or not.

Ventura Unified will need to trim $10 million from its budget in the next two years. An unknown number of "classified" positions such as janitors, secretaries, etc. will also be lost, Blum said.

THE NEWS IS FAR MORE GRIM in other parts of the county. The Conejo Valley Unified School District is sending notices to 160 employees. Fellow Star blogger Brian Dennert reports an astounding 231 employees in the Simi Valley Unified School District will be notified their jobs are in jeopardy.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Board of Education will vote today (March 10) on whether to issue layoff notices to about 9,000 employees.

"It's ugly out there," Blum said.

Without the revenue package passed by legislators with the budget, even more of our educators would be out on the streets next year, a fact conveniently ignored by radio shock jocks John and Ken of KFI-AM 640 last weekend at a "Tax Revolt Day" in Fullerton. Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy joined the event with the giant inflatable ATM he hauls around with him. (I've always wondered if in Foy's case that stood for Avoiding Taxing Millionaires.)

While these radio goofballs partied last weekend, more than 20,000 teachers were likely wondering if they could feed their families next year. And up in Sacramento, Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield was giving an interview to the Sacramento Bee: "Ashburn, who is termed out of his Senate seat next year, said that 'more than a few' Republican legislators acknowledged privately that the budget deficit could not be patched without tax hikes." But they just didn't want to be the ones to vote for them, apparently.

Let's hope they're not laying off math instructors. Math skills are urgently needed in Sacramento.

WHAT'S THE BEST REASON to not cut our state education funding? In the future we'll need sharp minds to get us out of these budget messes.

I've been hunkered down for the past few days looking over documents and trying to make some sense of the budget package the governor just signed and how it will affect the bottom line of our schools. It's a precarious hodgepodge of $8.4 billion in cuts offset by reforms and accounting tricks. And all of this hinges on a package of ballot measures up in May, some designed to reshuffle prior ballot measures.

This labyrinthine budget reduces Prop. 98 guaranteed school funding from now through 2010 and then adds in another ballot measure to help to help restore the lost funds in 2011. Yet another tinkers with Prop. 98 formulas because the state now needs to borrow from future lottery earnings that would've gone to our schools.

Several of the seven ballot measures coming up on May 19 are so complicated that one could safely predict most voters probably won't do anything but vote no in protest, if they bother to cast a ballot at all.

AND THERE'S MORE: Categorical funding for many important programs is being slashed 20 percent between now and 2010. Included in this are programs for gifted students, college preparation, middle and high school counseling, deferred maintenance, technology, English language acquisition, summer school, ROP programs, and, of course, arts and music. In return, school districts are being given the "flexibility" to move these pots of funding around, but it's sort of like figuring out which child doesn't get dinner that night.

Upcoming federal money, which would help reduce state taxes, would have no effect on K-12 classroom funding this budget year, according to the California Department of Education. In the longer term, "these resources will have a minimal impact on reducing the size and magnitude of the state reductions in education funding," according to the California Association of School Business Officials.

AS YOU CAN SURMISE, budgeting for the next school year is like playing pin the tail on the weasel. It's a moving target which the dedicated folks who can actually figure this stuff out HAVE to wrestle with because the deadline for letting teachers know whether or not they will have jobs next year is March 13. Yet, they won't have any answers until June. Maybe.

Here in Ventura, school officials are looking at a mighty big gap. "... It will not look like business as usual here," said Superintendent Trudy Arriaga. "We should not be celebrating a state budget that is cutting $10 million out of a little budget like the Ventura Unified School District has.

"We should be outraged."

Most people just pay attention to all this by how it affects them personally. If you have a child in the public schools in California, expect bigger class sizes, no new textbooks, fewer supplies and technology, less remedial help, reduced maintenance and less emphasis on programs such as arts, music and physical education. Some familiar faces in teaching, staff and administration will be gone.

"About the only thing schools won't have less of is testing," said Ventura Unified Educators Association President Steve Blum. "The more-and-more testing crowd made sure state testing will be untouched.

"All this together is not good. This generation's shortsighted approach to preparing the next generation for the future is sad."

IT'S TIME ONCE AGAIN for another shameless plug for my favorite non-profit group, the Ventura Education Partnership. Our biggest fundraiser of the year is coming up Saturday night, the Festival of Talent, which showcases our most talented youth.

In the past year, VEP has given more than $100,000 to Ventura Unified School District classrooms through a teacher granting program. Our Healthy Schools Collaborative has distributed dollars to health and wellness programs and puts on the annual event, SummerFest, which drew more than 4,000 children and families last year for a day of healthy fun.

Our Arts Collaborative is working on an Arts Master Plan for the district and helps bring money into our classrooms for art and music. Our Early Learning Collaborative works with the Ventura Neighborhood for Learning to help children under the age of 6 with school readiness.

We've done great work and have forged wonderful partnerships within the business community and the city. Our volunteers and donors are among the brightest, most motivated people I have ever known. We are united by a common bond: to do what is best for our community's children. It is an honor to be among this group of citizens.

We are always looking for sponsors for the grants we give to our schools and this year the need is more urgent than ever. To find out how you can help, go here.

Come watch a great show Saturday, Feb. 28. The Festival of Talent starts at 7 p.m. in the Ventura High School Auditorium. Tickets are $10 and available for pre-sale at all Ventura school sites. They will be $15 at the door. Come early and join in our Mardi Gras festivities at 6 p.m.

ALL OUR LOCAL REPUBLICAN state legislators were no-shows at a meeting held Friday by local educators to talk about the state budget and how it will affect our schools. Absent from the gathering with Ventura County school superintendents were Sen. Tony Strickland, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, and Sen. George Runner.

Yet our local Democratic representatives made time in their busy schedules to attend. Sen. Fran Pavley,  Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, and Assemblyman Pedro Nava were all present and paying attention. "The legislators who were there took copious notes and wanted to understand our concerns. It was a really important meeting," said Ventura Unified School District Superintendent Trudy Arriaga.

The event was set up three weeks ago and all legislators were asked to attend at that time. "Our county superintendents left their districts for this meeting," Arriaga said.

WHERE OH WHERE was Tony instead? At exactly the same time as the 2 p.m. meeting with school officials, he was camped on a rainy day outside the Borders Bookstore in Goleta at an outreach event only noticed to the public the day before. Indeed, the press release sent to the media about the event was dated January 22.

It looks like Tony needed a quick excuse for ducking a meeting with school officials. But why would that be? Perhaps it was because he supports a Republican version of the budget which would cut $10.6 billion from K-12 schools and community colleges. 

According to Education Week's 2009 Quality Counts report, California spends $7,571 per student, compared to $9,963 per student nationally. The report gave California an "F" in the category of school spending and ranked it 47th in the nation in this area.

Everyone agrees that the education community will likely see some cuts when a budget plan is agreed upon, but the degree varies according to ideology. The Stricklands seem far more interested in helping their extremist friends than they in do working for our children, and were part of a recent lawsuit to stop a Democratic budget.

Where was Audra on Friday? Apparently she called just an hour and a half before the meeting and said she had a family emergency. No explanation was given for Runner's absence.

UNFORTUNATELY FOR TONY, he didn't escape the wrath of public education advocates by retreating to Goleta. He was instead peppered with questions by activists who traveled from UCSB and Ventura County to talk to him. "The event was dismally attended," said Katherine Holland, who drove up from Ventura. "His little table and chair with the State Senate sign were empty for about 30 minutes as he was inside Borders with a lone person or two and a camera."

When Holland was finally able to engage Strickland, he told her he was in favor of a "flat tax" plan.

"Strickland's attempts to raise the flat tax as a possible reform only served to reveal the extent to which ideology, rather than common sense, is holding the state budget hostage," said Holland, a political and marketing researcher based in Ventura. "The idea of raising a significant, regressive sales tax to replace the state tax system did not strike Strickland as being at odds with the current economic climate in which consumers are already reducing purchases. And it's doubtless safe to say that with the state about to run out of money in February, now is not the time to be chasing after what amount to hypothetical and whimsical fancies."

Arriaga said the superintendents plan to try again to corral the missing Republican legislators.

"We're going to ask for another meeting and our Democratic legislators said they are happy to return and are going to ask their Republican counterparts to come," she said.

Be sure to look for another last-minute "card table" event coming soon from Tony Strickland