Friday, July 17, 2015

Baird wins award for debt-for-iPads scheme

We've covered the EUSD iPads saga many times before:

EUSD to use 30-year debt to buy iPads that will be obsolete in 5 years or broken in 2

Five iPads stolen in most telegraphed theft in history

Encinitas schoolkids get porn on iPads

LA Times: iPads in education are a gimmick and a racket

More porn on iPads in class at Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary

From the Inbox:
This is why we have iPads in ENC schools - to win administrators resume padding awards. At least someone is benefiting from this monumental waste of money.

92024 Magazine:
Two Encinitas residents were recognized by the foundation as being at the forefront in the movement of technology-based education. Encinitas School District (EUSD) Superintendent Timothy Baird received the SDG&E Innovative Superintendent Award for his ongoing commitment to innovative learning programs. He recently implemented the one-to-one digital learning program for all students in Encinitas, which resulted in high student achievement.
No details on what that "high student achievement" means.

In related news, EUSD is canceling the idiotic $189,000 facial recognition login software contract.

29 comments:

  1. 92024 Magazine goes straight away to the blue bin and is resented by the respectable recyclables.

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    1. Same here....straight to the trash bin.

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  2. There were a lot more high students here when I went to school.

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  3. 92024 mag, thanks for nothing but wasting our tax dollars. I wonder how much this propaganda rag costs us each year or is this produced by our chamber of commerce and the businesses promoted therein pay for it? Thanks for the answer ahead of time to anyone who knows.

    Does our city contribute to our chamber of commerce in any way and for how much? Thanks the answer to this inquiry too.

    Have a wonderful weekend avoiding our once special downtown scene. Thanks council, thanks EHA, thanks bar owners for allowing our downtown to become another ugly PB like bar scene. Drink it up everyone. Nothing to fear from the sheriffs since they like to set up where they won't cause any trouble for the bar owners.

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    1. Pretty sure 92024 Magazine is just a private, advertising-supported enterprise.

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  4. Without enough interest and community members willing to step up and run for the EUSD school board next year, nothing will change. I hope Jen will consider running again and wish she could enlist some like minded others to join her and try to change the majority that have enabled Baird to remain in his overpaid position.

    Overpaid for what he has given us. Maybe not for what a superintendent who is worth his salt could be worth and one who won't waste valuable dollars on creating an appearance of some false success. His beauty doesn't even go skin deep but with the current majority he is flying high with no risk, as long as they remain in their seats.

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  5. The kids are still on your lawn, eh?

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  6. Ipads for student is a waste of money. Baird is an idiot.

    PEC principal is a trainwreck. Get rid of that slacker.

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  7. Baird Is not an idiot. He is brilliant! He is continuing to pad his resume with awards at the expense of the taxpayers. After the board has flipped and he gets let go he will have multiple offers for jobs. Brilliant!!!!

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  8. City workers to get pay and benefits increase.....taxpayers to get shafted, AGAIN.

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  9. Baird is an idiot and PEC principal is a disaster. Public education at its worst.

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    1. What's your gripe with Pricipal Chavarin?

      I am pretty active in the parent community, and most of the parents are very supportive.

      Whatever your gripe is, Have you talked to her about it? She's pretty open. Go talk to her directly.

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    2. gripe is she offers no academics only spanish langue. The kids wonder whats going on and the parents get discouraged.

      Why are PEC scores sooooo far behind all the other school.

      Fire the lemon Chavarin. With the hugely bight entrepreneurs in the area the local school should be great. Instead we have a lemon and all the smart parents go somewhere else.

      This school used to be great….Why does this school suck so bad?

      Answer: Chavarin

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    3. Are you saying the scores have dropped under Chavarin? If so, I'd like to see your data (because they haven't).

      PEC scores are frustrating. So are the hippy parents who care more about making sure the school lunch has no gluten, than that their kid is doing homework after school.

      You knock Spanish dual language immersion, but that program was started before Chavarin, and it's a big success. English learners learn English faster when they have role models of the same age. And the test scores of English speakers in DLI dip in the first year or two as they learn Spanish, then climb past the scores of their single-language peers. Fluency in more than one language may actually stimulate neural development in the brain and make you smarter. I have two kids who have been in the DLI program.

      Question: what specific changes would you make to improve scores at PEC, and have you brought your ideas to the PTA or Principal Chavarin? Or do you just bitch here without actually doing anything of substance to help our school?

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  10. Brief news of the week -
    Baird and the idea of a school farm raising crops also raises salaries -
    Mim Michelove, recently hired by the school district as director of Farm Lab at a salary and benefits of $111,000. The school district will also pay $40,000 indirectly to the Leichtag Foundation to oversee the crop production. The harvested produce is processed in the District's central kitchen. The article doesn't mention the additional cost of preparing the produce for freezing. Assuming another $50,000 added to the $151,000 buys one expensive pizza.

    The article is in the Union Tribute.

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    1. I remember when Mim was starting her "non-profit." Who knew that non-profit work was so lucrative. Isn't that close to what a principal starts out at in the District. Personally, I would rather oversee lettuce than hundreds of students and a staff of teachers.

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  11. baird and EUSD are now paying Mim over a hundred grand a year? OMG! Is there no limit on what baird will waste money on?

    Non profit my a??. How much produce will that get them to feed their students? Not even close to breaking even, that is for sure. This kind of waste from the top down has to stop!

    How much more will he and his board waste their precious limited resources before the next election cycle comes around?

    One thing is clear. If this compromised school board ever has the gaul to ask for public funding in the future, they should be told to ???? off.

    Until there are major changes on this school board, nothing is going to change. The majority they hold onto needs to be shown the door.

    Jen and friends are our only hope for the change that is so needed. How many disasters does it take to throw them out? Recall the whole bunch and don't wait another year and a half.

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    1. Unbelievable. Let's pay over $100K to someone who will "eventually" help reduce a $65K/year produce bill. But EUSD has gotten awards!

      Teachers with years of experience don't make nearly that much. How many other people that have a direct impact on your childs education could be hired for that. Unbe-friggin-lievable.

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    2. I have heard the argument that "some children don't know where vegetables come from." That may be true, but is there research to show how visiting a farm has measurable positive impact on children? How intensive is this time on the farm? When I was in school, we used to do a field trip to a farm, so I don't see anything particularly new in this except that we are paying 6 figures to an employee who has created a position for herself at the expense of PROVEN programs that benefit children.

      There is TONS of research to show that PE in elementary school is one of the most important subjects. Not only does PE promote physical health, but it also can help kids learn social skills and rules. Elementary school boys in particular NEED PE. The yoga program is one type of fitness, but there are many other skills and activities that are also important. I would vote for PE teachers over this program.

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    3. I can't wait until the corn is ripe, I plan on going over late at night and harvesting a bushel or two....

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    4. Let's teach our kids the basic so that at least they can compete in this world. I don't see how knowing where your food comes if a very significant factor at this young age. It's up to the parents to feed their kids properly (not junk food).

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    5. Right on! They have cut back the number of contact hours to the bare minimum with many partial days! All of the time needs to be used to support the standards or engaged in activities to help their brains develop. If you look at a lot of K-12 activities, PE, music and art are really important in terms of their transference to other academic topics. In this community with the level of parent involvement and the socio economic level, the farm thing does not seem like a good match. It looks like another project that benefits Baird more than our kids.

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    6. I told them to F)(*&) last time..yet they won.

      Many of you have blood on your fingers.

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  12. I think that Baird is collecting a set of awards to benefit himself and will be going for a county superintendent job at some point. Let's just hope it is somewhere far from here!

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  13. Brief news of the week -
    From the Encinitas Advocate -
    Priority Public House, at 576 N. Coast Highway 101, plans to add a 495-square-foot patio and 200-square-foot food truck, which will remain in place, just behind the patio.

    Brian McBride, owner of the American style gastropub, said the food truck will serve as another kitchen to keep up with patrons’ orders. It will be designed and positioned in such a way that it eliminates noise and odor, he added.
    From the Union Tribute -
    Priority Public House, which opened in the former Calypso Cafe two years ago, is finding such success at its North Coast Highway 101 location that’s now obtaining city permission to expand.

    Owner Brian McBride told the Encinitas Planning Commission on Thursday night that his existing kitchen space can barely satisfy customers’ demands now and that’s why he’s proposing to add a non-moving food truck as well as a patio dinning area.

    “We have a really small kitchen and it’s hard for us to keep up with our current occupancy as it is,” he said.

    Commissioners said they had no trouble Thursday approving McBride’s expansion request because none of the nearby homeowners opposed it, but they expressed confusion over his food truck proposal.

    “Why the food truck? I’m just curious,” Commissioner Ruben Dario Flores asked McBride.

    And Commissioner Glenn O’Grady said he hoped it wouldn’t be a noisy, smelly vehicle that would annoy the neighbors.

    McBride responded that he will be installing a high-end food preparation vehicle, not one of those infamous “roach coaches” sometimes spotted at construction sites. These are commercial-grade kitchens on wheels, costing upward of $200,000, and they’re good, prefabricated building options for businesses that don’t want to construct a kitchen, he said.

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  14. 7:45, McBride deserves it. He acquired the 2nd lot next door and got rid of an annoying car lot to increase parking for his business, That's not cheap. (Not all car lots are annoying, but that one was). The other good thing about that is that after 180 days of a N 101 lot not being a car lot, its permit for auto related business expires.
    I'll never like that he painted the new building black; tore out the beautiful plants Calypso had planted which were all up with color at night. But looks like it hasn't hurt his business. Neither does the name of the place roll off your tonge.
    Gill's Market (?)
    Creating Feelings (hippie candle shop)
    Brer Rabbit's Tar Baby (vegetarian restaurant)
    Da Kine (yummy vegetarian restaurant)
    Sports Bar (that just didn't do well)
    Basil St Cafe (that kicked butt and was ran by Oprah's chef)
    Calypso Cafe (great cuisine, atmosphere and entertainment - thanks Gill) Hey that's weird, two Gills.

    The neighborhood balked at Calypso opening up 20 years ago citing, you got it, urinating drunks. But I think most neighbors ended up liking it. I did. I haven't talked to mild-mannered Joel next door yet to see what he thinks of the latest development, but I know neighbors don't miss the car lot. Thanks PPH.

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  15. Da Kine Smoothie Bar was, well, da kine!

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