My View
By Don Sorchych | December 9, 2009
Terrorists and education
Based on the sometimes legible e-mails and unsigned letters from the CCUSD crowd we experienced a small invasion of folks and their children returning award winning Sonoran News.
We are a business and the behavior of those who brought the newspapers and their attitudes led to a posting of our access door. Our front office contractor is a CPA and is not paid to be abused.
Our sign reads:
STOP!
DO NOT ENTER
IT IS TRESPASS TO ENTER IF YOU ARE PART OF A
SO-CALLED PROTEST INVOLVING CCUSD
ALL OTHERS WELCOME!
Not only is Sonoran News off limits to terrorists, but so is the shopping center property. At considerable expense, we have installed cameras that scan all outside views.
I will not subject employees to threats, bullying and pressure of the terrorist group of school ideologues. As the pictures on this page show, adults and their children showed up here to create havoc.
Now it is one thing to protest, but to bring children of all ages to experience the adult anger, lack of law abiding actions and irresponsible and inaccurate complaints is beyond belief. Are these parents setting an example worth emulating? Absolutely not.
Three CCUSD activists demanded retractions. The first is Political Action Committee “Learn Yes” leader Steve Hart.
Linda Bentley wrote that while actively seeking an override he had not paid his property tax. Not only did she get public record verification of that fact but talked to the Maricopa County Treasurers office which verified he had not.
Hart complained Bentley did not call him and therefore she was practicing “gotcha” journalism. He attached an apology from a mortgage company who admitted that while refinancing his house they had inadvertently sent him a refund of the taxes. Hart didn’t explain why he didn’t send the money back. Maybe he was too busy going door to door to pass the CCUSD override.
Virgil Cain, who ran for the CCUSD School Board in 2004 and 2008 and failed to get elected, claims that even though he received a $200 payment for stakes to anchor signs he paid a like amount to the “Learn Yes” PAC. The PAC is delinquent to deliver the post election campaign finance report, which was due on Dec. 3, but as of today, the payment from the PAC to him is shown but there is no record of a contribution from him to the PAC.
We did find considerable fodder though of his connection with liberal and union organizations in lawsuits. More about that later.
Another asking for a retraction is Realtor Ron Weiss. He maintains we ruined his reputation by wondering if he wrote two identical e-mails sent from the same e-mail address’ one signed “Ron” and the second one signed “Vin” after the e-mail recipient questioned “Ron who?”Linda Bentley wrote about the identity, Ron (Weiss?) as a rhetorical question. Weiss appeared at the “protest” carrying a sign which said, “Sonoran News is a cancer on the community.” He also sent a letter to the editor that was so inaccurate it was not printed. Weiss denies he sent the e-mails so I will withhold further comment until we have completed the investigation of the screen name and who it traces to. Weiss’ latest e-mail was unapologetic about boycotts. But he may come to realize boycotts are a two edge sword.
Some of the issues returned to us had lovely marked statements.
“SN is anti-education.” “Print all the facts Don! Support CCUSD.”
Although the terrorists are fond of claiming we don’t print facts, they never point out what fact we print is wrong. For example that Davis child showed up with her smirking buddies carrying a sign that said “Sonoran News take back the lies.” This from a 14 year old who admits she never reads Sonoran News.
Linda Bentley studied the 35 people (not the 75 or 100 claimed by the terrorists) and did not see a single face she had seen in school board meetings. And don’t forget the 35 included babies in strollers and all sorts of kids. Not surprisingly Carefree activists Huber Stevens and Lyn Hitchon were there as well, no doubt fanning the flames for their buddy Carefree Mayor David Schwan.
Although we are criticized for only concentrating on the negatives we have lively reporting of CSHS sports by Pete Mohr and we print news about all sorts of school activities. Mohr drives hundreds of miles to report on sports events.
While we are criticized has anyone discussed the activities of the PACs and administration? Do you care that Superintendent Debbi Burdick showed up on Saturday mornings in a “Pass the override” T-shirt, preparing for door to door propagandizing?
Did those volunteers discuss the monthly payments of approximately $51,000 currently paid by CCUSD because they activated a useless bond? Did they mention they already passed an override for K-3 but later got duplicate payment from Janet Napolitano? Did they tell you shortly after the state payment Superintendent Tacy Ashby got a 32 percent salary increase? Did they talk about the numerous violations of election laws CCUSD was guilty of?
These are all things voters have a right to know and they heard about if from Sonoran News, not the administration or PACs. How could a rational voting decision be made when such vital measures of CCUSD are unknown?
Linda Bentley has spent countless hours in meetings with the superintendent and her CFO trying to understand the funding mechanism and what their reports mean. She has done the same with the elections department over the many violations involving overrides and bonds.
The criticism of her factual reporting is simply political; they want her to be a propagandist rather than a reporter. It is easy to simply say we lie. Really? Innumerate them.
One of the favorite claims of the terrorists and administration is the need for smaller class sizes. Smaller class sizes obviously mean more teachers and more money.
If you really want to know, search the Internet for something like, “class size versus learning.” You will find, “Class size has no effect on the retention and recall of facts and information during a course as measured by student performance on objective questions or examinations and scores on standardized examinations two years after a course is over were virtually identical between students in large and small classes so there is no discernable difference in the retention of academic information.”
Although there are a few concepts about what is taught and the ability of the teachers, the above is truth that bond and override pushers want to bury.