New Santa Ana | Tag Archives: saea

Why the local unions are running opposing liberal slates for the SAUSD School Board

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2016 Elections, Alfonso Alvarez, Angie Rosario Cano, Beatriz Mendoza, Bruce T. Bauer, Democratic Party, Education, Mark McLoughlin, Politics, Republican Party, Santa Ana 18 Comments

There are no less than five Democrats running for the SAUSD School Board this year, including Santa Ana Planning Commissioner/Attorney/Bike Trail Activist Bruce Bauer; Congressional Field Rep./Planning Commissioner Beatriz Mendoza; Social Worker Dr. Alfonso Alvarez; college teacher Dr. Rigo Rigoberto; and business owner/Anti-Bike Trail Activist Mark McLoughlin. The latter three (Alvarez, Rigoberto and McLoughlin) are supported by the local education unions while the first two (Bauer, Mendoza) are supported by the SEIU and other local labor unions. (The SEIU is also supporting Rigoberto).

So why are the unions at war with each other? Why run so many similar candidates (honestly all of these candidates pretty much agree on close to 100% of the issues) for the same body? Continue reading→

The SAUSD’s bloated administrators are sticking it to their teachers

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, Politics, Santa Ana, SAUSD 17 Comments

Rick Miller, the SAUSD’s Superintendent, pulls down over $363K in pay and benefits per year, according to Transparent California. To put that into perspective consider that President Barack Obama, the leader of the free world, barely makes more than Miller, at $395K a year, according to PayWizard. And the median household income in Santa Ana is just over $53K, according to the U.S. Census. That means that Miller makes almost seven times what most Santa Ana households earn.

So Miller got paid, big time. But he is dragging his heels about paying his teachers even though the SAUSD has a twenty million dollar surplus. They are also blowing 24 million a year on consultants! Continue reading→

The teachers’ union declares war on SAUSD Trustee Cecilia Iglesias

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Art Pedroza Posted in Cecilia Iglesias, Education, Politics, Santa Ana, SAUSD, Susan Mercer 10 Comments

The Santa Ana Educators’ Association (SAEA) has declared war on SAUSD Trustee Cecilia Iglesias after she posted a comment on Facebook back in September.

Here is the comment Iglesias posted – that riled up the teachers’ union:

I disagree with the notion of a huge pay increase for teachers. In Santa Ana teachers with 10 years plus seniority are receiving an average of $95k / year + benefits for 180 days of instruction days. And a day is only 6 hours of work including lunch and nutrition.. which will only be 5 hours of instruction total. If you divide $95, 000 by 180 days = $527/ day and divide by 5 hours= $105 an hour. With that type of investment for our teachers I believe our students should be receiving high quality instruction and excelling academically.

Entry level for a teacher is $55k a year plus benefits for 6 months of instruction. If they teach summer school or tutor after school that is additional pay. So can you justify a huge salary increase????

Continue reading→

SAUSD Superintendent Meléndez de Santa Ana will retire in July

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, Santa Ana, SAUSD 20 Comments

Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana is retiring

Embattled SAUSD Superintendent Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana recently lost the support of the Santa Ana Educators’ Association, the union that represents our teachers. Sources said the School Board was about to call her on the mat. She has apparently decided to run for the hills, as the SAUSD announced her retirement in a press release distributed last night. (See it below). Kudos to SAEA President Susan Mercer – she won this war.

I was hoping she would make a difference but instead she weakened school discipline, hurt our fundamental schools, made a mess of food service, hired too many consultants, and failed to crack the SAUSD’s entrenched bureaucracy. Adios Thelma. Enjoy your huge pension… We can but hope that the next Superintendent will be an improvement.

Here is the SAUSD’s press release, which as you might expect is quite sugarcoated: Continue reading→

Santa Ana’s teachers declare war on the SAUSD’s Superintendent

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, Santa Ana, SAUSD 2 Comments

SAEA Letter re Superintendent

The Santa Ana Educators’ Association’s President, Susan Mercer, has had enough. She distributed a stark letter to her members, who are the teachers at the Santa Ana Unified School District, yesterday, announcing that “we have waited long enough for issues to be tackled.”

Here are a few excerpts from Mercer’s letter: Continue reading→

The SAUSD has reached a tentative agreement with their teachers’ union

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, Labor, Santa Ana, SAUSD 2 Comments

saea

The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) has apparently negotiated a “signed tentative agreement” with their teachers’ union, the Santa Ana Educators Association (SAEA), according to an email sent by SAEA President Susan Mercer to her members. The deal is pending ratification by the SAUSD School Board and the SAEA’s members.

The SAEA has been endorsing the SAUSD Trustee incumbents for years. So this new deal really was a forgone conclusion however it should be noted that the new deal does NOT include any furlough days or pay cuts.

Here is Mercer’s email to her members about the tentative agreement with the SAUSD: Continue reading→

Disaster strikes as the SAUSD has apparently lost their QEIA funding

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Art Pedroza Posted in california, Education, Santa Ana, SAUSD, Youth Activities 11 Comments

What will SAUSD Superintendent Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana do now?

Update: Fresno Unified is losing their QEIA funding too, due to low test scores, and San Bernardino Unified is losing 7 million in QEIA funding.

The Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) has apparently lost their Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) funding, which will result in a huge excess of teachers – and no money to pay for them, according to a district insider who has asked to remain anonymous. To make matters worse, the district did not “RIF,” (Reduction in Force) or lay off teachers, meaning they are now stuck paying the teachers.

I am hearing that the district is in complete scramble mode – and they are coming up with some truly ridiculous schemes. They will say anything to avoid fessing up to screwing up royally. Rumor has it that they are going to change to a six period day based on the premise that everyone should have an elective. Most of the students have an elective already in the current seven period day and the rest of them don’t have one because the district forced the schools to put them in two periods of math despite the objections of some teachers. Continue reading→

No layoffs planned for Santa Ana’s teachers, according to their union

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, Jobs, Labor, Santa Ana, SAUSD 1 Comment

There is good news for Santa Ana’s schoolteachers, courtesy of their union, the Santa Ana Educators’ Association (SAEA). Their President, Susan Mercer, reported in her latest email newsletter that even though the State of California did cut the school budget – it could have been worse. Here is Mercer’s newsletter with the details:

At yesterday’s school board meeting, the District presented their financial documents for the Board’s review and approval.

Even though the State’s financial picture is still bleak, there are two pieces of good news: Continue reading→

SAUSD School Board election update

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Art Pedroza Posted in 2010 Elections, Democratic Party, Education, Elections, Latinos, Santa Ana, SAUSD Leave a comment

Yamagata-Noji pandered for votes at the Fiestas Patrias parade

Things have been rather quiet in this year’s Santa Ana Unified School District Board elections. This year, as opposed to two years ago, there are only four candidates, including the two incumbents – John Palacio and Audre Yamagata-Noji. The challengers include myself, and a pastor/educator named Jeffrey K. Morris.

A new blog called the OC Democrats blog recently profiled Palacio. I think they did a pretty good job of summarizing his 12 years in office. He has done a good job, overall, and he has my endorsement.

The other incumbent, Yamagata-Noji, is another story altogether. She is so awful that her own political party, the Democratic Party of Orange County, did not endorse her this year. That should tell you all you need to know.

As I expected, the Santa Ana Educators Association, which is the local teachers’ union, endorsed the incumbents. I wrote about that on my campaign blog today. Click here to read that post. It is ridiculous that these hacks would endorse a Trustee who has fired hundreds of teachers and classified staff.

I laughed when I saw that Yamagata-Noji had a car in last week’s Fiestas Patrias parade. She can pander to Latinos as much as she wants to, but the people know that she has done nothing but give us lip service. Thousands of our students have dropped out or failed to pass the high school exit exam, on her watch.

If ever there was a year to finally be rid of Yamagata-Noji, it is this year. The voters are angry at incumbents in general. I have broad support from a coalition of parents, teachers, business owners and activists, including Democrats, Republicans, independents and the Green and Libertarian Parties. Click here to see a list of my endorsements.

I can use your help if you would like to join me in bringing change to the SAUSD. Click here to download my campaign flyer in English. Click here to download a double-sided flyer, in English and Spanish. Andclick here for my campaign flyer in Spanish. Help spread the word to your neighbors, friends and family here in the SAUSD.

I will be announcing a number of volunteer meetings this week, where we will pass out flyers and precinct lists. Stay tuned. Together we will bring change at last to the SAUSD!

Teachers react to placement of 6 SAUSD schools on low performing list

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Art Pedroza Posted in Education, Santa Ana 26 Comments

Susan Mercer, the President of the Santa Ana Educators’ Association (SAEA) has sent out an email to her members regarding the placement of six schools in the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) in the California “Persistently Low Performing” schools list.

Once a school gets on this list, the school district has to take incredible measures to get back in compliance with the state. These include changing school administrators and reassigning teachers.

Here is Mercer’s email message:

On March 11, the California State Board of Education added an additional thirty-eight schools to the 188 “Persistently Low Performing” schools identified during the prior week. Century, Valley and Willard were identified during the first round and Santa Ana High, Saddleback and Sierra were added to the list last Thursday. Continue reading→