Friday, May 27, 2016

EUSD parents oppose taking $800,000 from general fund to pay for yoga

From the Inbox:
My name is Greg Robin and I started this petition to show Encinitas taxpayers, parents and stakeholders do not agree with syphoning off $800,000 school funds to pay for Yoga.

It would be great if you could share this- we don't have much time left.

https://www.change.org/p/timothy-baird-eusd-net-encinitas-parents-oppose-boards-plan-to-spend-800-000-on-yoga
From the petition site, some ideas for better uses of that money:
Here are just a couple of ideas:
1. Hire 2 teachers for each school that could lower the class sizes of all of our students.
2. Pay for science, art, music, P.E. teachers (currently parents have to raise money to have science, art, music, and P.E. in our schools -- programs that are part of the core curriculums of other school districts). In fact, some of the schools in our district can't raise enough money and those children are missing out on some of these programs. Then any fundraising done at our schools can be used to pay for programs that are priorities to our families. If yoga is a priority, it could come out of the school's fundraising budget.

EU Note: What's up with Sonima/Jois getting Baird hooked on $800,000 yoga and then suddenly pulling the plug? Bad Karma!

50 comments:

  1. Good thing Baird has padded his resume all these years at the expense of our children's education-- time to send him and all 5 board members packing.

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    1. Agree! Plus he and his compliant Board of Trustees have failed to honor the intent and the letter of the law with respect to the Brown Act. The Special Meeting (only 24 hr. notice for 2 pm meeting of the Board, with Baird there, of course) agenda did NOT mention any details of this budget allocation for Yoga. Parents and community members should have been informed ahead of the vote, preferably with at least 72 hour notice.

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    2. Encinitas doesn't need to follow state laws like the Brown Act, silly.

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    3. *Siphoning, nothing like a good education.

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  2. It will be interesting to drill down on who gets paid the $800k to run/staff the program. My bet is people associated with Sonima. This conflict of interest in potentially criminal.

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  3. This is really confusing, as EU points out in the last sentence.

    Sonima/Jois holds a core belief that the practice of yoga in schools will have a life-long positive effect on these kids specifically, and society generally. I'm assuming this means they want the program to succeed long term, and become a beacon for other school districts.

    The normal way to affect that outcome would be to declare a ramp down of the funding over a period of years, coupled with a ramp up of assistance for EUSD to identify and secure other funding sources. Maybe some of the funding would transfer to the general fund, but certainly not all, and never all at once.

    That gradual transition would improve the long term outlook for the program, and allow Sonima/Jois to preserve and redirect their resources to start new pilots elsewhere.

    Yanking all outside funding all at once puts the district in a really bad and highly visible pickle. This move by Sonima sets into motion a series of events that will lead to the eventual death of the yoga program. Maybe not this year, but soon. The end result will be that Sonima spent tons of money, helped a few kids, then---well nothing.

    What a waste.

    If we understood the fickle nature of Sonima, I don't think all the court drama was worth it. Knowing what we know now, I'm not sure we should have taken the grant at all.

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  4. this post falsely implies that EUSD is spending 800K on yoga that could/would otherwise be spent on other things like teacher salaries. That is simply not true.

    These are the paranoid ramblings of evangelicals and other religious nuts who are so unsure of their own faith that stretching and breathing are seen as threats.

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    1. Good try Baird but this argument will not work this time around. This is much bigger!

      And just wait EU there is a lot more stuff coming out soon.

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    2. 1:46,

      The new funding source is General Fund. Fungible money which in fact could be used for other priorities.

      http://www.thecoastnews.com/2016/05/26/eusd-to-pay-800k-for-yoga/

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    3. "this post falsely implies that EUSD is spending 800K on yoga that could/would otherwise be spent on other things like teacher salaries. That is simply not true."

      Please elaborate. How is it the money could not and would not be used for anything else?

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    4. 1:46
      Don't confuse the debate with facts and logic.

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  5. I wonder if Baird knew about this all along? He got a lot of positive press when the lawsuit on this was won, with the help of the Coast Law Group, which is Marco Gonzalez's firm. I wonder if Marco will sue Baird?

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    1. Coast Law Group defended EUSD against the First Amendment lawsuit pro bono, that is at no cost to the Board, or taxpayers. I support Yoga, and do some exercise practices, myself, but I don't support the school funding Yoga out of the General Fund at the expense of other needs.

      More importantly, to me, is that Baird should have set this program up, from the beginning as an Opt In opportunity. The way he did it, parents were not informed, until after the sessions had started, that their children could opt out. Also, I believe it was embarassing for those kids whose parents did want them to opt out.

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    2. 2:48- Yes, Dave Peck of Coast Law Group did the work pro bono. However, the school's attorney didn't nor did the judge who decided the case. Also add in the expenses of the court. It cost a lot of money to defend this one. I love yoga in school, and I agree it should stay. However, i guess I am wondering more about what Baird is up to? He has had a lot of negative publicity since coming to Encinitas. We agree more than we disagree.

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  6. Finally, Baird and his school board members have met their Waterloo. It is a shame the yoga program has to suffer, as it is such a valuable practice to know that will carry them through their whole lives.

    The Yoga foundation pulling their funding after all this energy to get it into the schools and suffering through lawsuits by ignorant right wing christian zealots makes one question their original intent. There never was any religious indoctrination as part of this program and the effort to construct the program to not offend any particular sect was admirable and successful.

    Was this donation by the yoga foundation always such a short term deal? Did Baird and co. know this funding source was going to dry up so soon? We were never told that this was such a short time funding source. Who knew and when did they know?

    Baird and his intransigent self-indulgent school board members will finally get their due and it is about time. All those millions we overpaid for PV accomplished nothing but swelling their heads and creating awards for themselves that are about as justified as their screwing over our town. Karma is a beyatch Tim. I can't wait to see you and your school board members be shown the door. That day can't come soon enough. They can forget any more public funding as long as they remain in their jobs. Good damn riddance.

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    1. Baird knew. It was a three year Grant and we got one extension. Period. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

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  7. It's the cable or satellite TV provider introductory low low rate for the intro period before we stick it to you. This smelled fishy from day one.

    Since these classes were declared more like phy-ed, why doesn't the money come out of the athletic budget?

    Spending that Pacific View School like a drunken sailor.

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  8. This really strikes me as a classic bait and switch move. I suggest that if the school wants yoga in school that they should have parent volunteers lead it since we used to do the PE before this program, and get certified teachers for other areas.

    Also, Mim's job started as a volunteer position at the school farm, and currently she is getting paid over $110,000. These are examples of costly programs with questionable results as compared to other options.

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    1. I disagree. Bait and switch is a fraud where one thing is promised, and another is delivered.

      In this case, Sonima delivered every penny they committed to, and made no promises about future funding.

      I think their decision is confusing and dumb, but not misleading or fraudulent at all.

      How do you get to bait and switch?

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  9. This is really about more than yoga or Encinitas kids who we all love and support.

    This also is about taxpayers. EUSD might not be as top-heavy as the City of Encinitas, but most spokespeople for expanding services in both organizations seem to want to protect jobs more than serve residents.

    Cut back City staff by at least 40% and cut out administrators at the District and use the funds to hire in-class teachers instead.

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  10. The real lawsuit is about the fact that ALL of the kids who went to school in Encinitas had their data collected, blood pressure, body measurements etc taken WITHOUT parental consent to help SELL this product (yoga to other school districts). The school district has a duty to protect our children and their information and they did not. Our kids were used! In all studies children participate in, ethical and moral guidelines are established to protect minors including permission from the parents to OPT IN. This was not the case in Encinitas. My children's data was collected without my permission-- No one knew about this data collection until AFTER the damage was done. Encinitas children were used and the parents were duped. The damage has been done and the parents should be pissed!

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    1. That is completely unethical anc illegal!

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    2. How was your child damaged?

      What proof do you have that PII or SPI data were shared?

      By your description of the purpose, anonymized and/or aggregated data would be easy, and would do the trick.

      If research resulted in statistics like: "on average, children lowered blood pressure by x." Or "70% of children showed improvement in y," then the shared information cannot be used to learn anything about any individual child.

      HIPPA has very strong rules about the collection, use, protection, and distribution of PII medical information. The penalties for violations are stiff. If you think you have evidence that HIPPA was violated, you should consult an attorney.

      But I'd be surprised if the research wasn't conducted with the proper protocols--everybody collecting medical data knows all about HIPPA these days.

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    3. Before children were used as test participants, their parents should have had been asked to opt in to the study. Also, what precautions were taken to protect children's information? Was it a double blind study with numbers assigned to each child? When and how was the information destroyed to protect the individual identity of the participants?

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    4. 3:11
      If the study was conducted as per your description, it would be a single- blind study.

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    5. 9;20 AM
      "How was your child damaged?" What an communist attitude as if the children belonged to the state. The school board uses the children as the board's own private experiment. The experimental data about the children is then given to an outside group that will use that information to sell more yoga classes and equipment.
      What school board meeting date did the board approve the unauthorized invasion of the children's personal information?
      Can the school board trustees be sued for their actions?

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  11. 3:11pm That was already asked and answered. Please review and let it sink in this time around. The tests were structured to be anonymous so no ones privacy was compromised. I welcome the correction if it is warranted.

    The main issue is the yoga foundation pulling the rug out from under a burgeoning beneficial program that will serve the students well for their entire lives. It is a noble enterprise. Why it is being defunded after such a short time period is fishy. Namaste.

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  12. Why can't yoga be taught by volunteers like our district's reading and Arts Attack programs?

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  13. I'll try this again... We have had to use volunteers to support our elementary school reading programs, teach/provide Arts Attack and create foundations to pay for items that the district alleges it does not have funds for. So, until the district fully funds music, the arts, tech and other educational needs, without the need for parent fundraising, yoga funding should be put on the back burner.

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  14. The only reason I can think of why yoga is singled out for so much funding (even though our other programs are not fully funded by district funding) is because Tim Baird is on the advisory Board of the organization for which he is seeking funding. He flies to other countries promoting yoga and has been hired to promote yoga. Good for him but that funding should be used instead for educational programs and technology so that parents do not have to fundraise in order to get them. Board members, you have a fiduciary duty to oversee the programs to make sure that educational curriculum and required programs and needed technology and school improvements are funded first.

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  15. 10:01pm Thanks. Well, this is some news I hadn't heard before. Conflict of personal interest much?

    It does make one wonder what other benefit Baird may have gotten from this whole deal. Bringing such a beneficial practice to the students that can serve them well for their whole lives is admirable but this is beginning to sound like a financial motive might have been at play.

    This school district needs to to wake the freak up and I don't mean their administrators.

    To the public who elected these board members, I hope you will now see what your inattention has brought. To those who brought Baird here in the first place, knowing that his record on liquidating public assets against the desire of his former community's wishes should have been enough to disqualify him.

    What Tim has sown here was a predilection to do just what he has fomented. We had a chance with Jen and need many more of her kind to replace these board members.

    Everyone can remember well all the numerous large campaign signs and a lot of them illegally plastered all over our town that worked to secure them their jobs. From here on out, lets hope the voting public will wake up.

    Anyone who attended their school board meetings a couple of years ago could see how dismissing they were to any public concerns over their priorities. Now that we have witnessed their ongoing self serving indulgences since then, lets hope the next votes will illustrate a change in the way the breeze is blowing. There is not a keeper in the bunch from Baird on down. It may take a couple of cycles to root them out but there is no better time to start than this year.

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    1. Yea, the board was reelected even after the debacle in the desert was exposed. They vacation and party in the expensive resort areas, calling it some "training" session. Training to bilk the system - Baird leads the pack.

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  16. If anyone knows what the yoga foundations instructors were paid, it would be helpful to know. Just asking.

    If anyone knows when Baird joined the yoga foundations board, it would be helpful to know. Just asking.

    Are any of the EUSD school board members involved in any way with the running of the yoga foundation or its programs? It would be helpful to know. Just asking.

    Curiouser and curiouser.

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    1. Do you smell $$$$$$$$$$$ ??????

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    2. 5:57, you can turn in a Public Information request to Baird's secretary, Kristine.Beverly@eusd.net and get that information.

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  17. 9:20 AM
    "How was your child damaged?" What a communist attitude as if the children belonged to the state. The school board uses the children as the board's own private experiment. The experimental data about the children is then given to an outside group that will use that information to sell more yoga classes and equipment.
    What school board meeting date did the board approve the unauthorized invasion of the children's personal information?
    Can the school board trustees be sued for their actions?

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    Replies
    1. 3:13,

      Also, if the board approved the data collection, then it wasn't unauthorized--kind of by definition.

      Last I checked, authorization and approval are synonyms.

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    2. 6:49 PM
      Authorized refers to a parent' consent. Approval of the experiment refers to the Board.

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  18. Settle down there 3:13.

    I was obviously responding to 2:35, who said:

    "The real lawsuit is about. . . "

    And

    "No one knew about this data collection until AFTER the damage was done."

    And

    "The damage has been done. . ."

    In the context of a lawsuit, proving damages is very important. Since the poster mentioned a lawsuit and damages (twice), I was curious how they would quantify the damages to their child. Damaged how, exactly? And how would one prove damage in court?

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  19. The school board's ultimate duty is to protect our children and provide them the best possible education. Whether or not a specific hippa violation was committed is not the point. The fact that our children's data (aggregate or not) was traded for a grant (without parent permission) is not ok. Trading kids data to better a company--This is the concern.

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  20. The Lies That Yoga Puts in Children's Heads
    One branch or path of yoga is called Hatha Yoga and this is probably what most people in the West associate with the word "yoga" – believing it is being practised only for mental and physical health.2

    Some of the positions in yoga are not quite as harmless as they may appear, but are obviously of occult origin, as in the “cobra”, which is usually followed by “greeting the sun” – and taking the pose of the “mountain”. These are all positions which are designed to welcome Hindu gods.

    In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika it mentions the following in chapter one:

    “Salutations to Shiva, who taught the science of Hatha Yoga. It is the aspirant’s stairway to the heights of Raja Yoga... Yogi Svatmarama … explains the science of hatha for one reason – Raja Yoga.”

    So here we see clearly that Hatha Yoga was specifically designed to lead the practitioner onto Raja Yoga. Raja Yoga, however, is chiefly concerned with the cultivation of the mind through meditation.

    Shiva is also known as the Destroyer (of evil) or Yogeshwara (Lord of Yogis). Shiva's consort is Devi, or Kali, the goddess of death.

    Therefore, the idea that Hatha Yoga is "purely physical" is very much once again a distortion of the truth (in other words, an outright lie) and indeed begs the question "Why the cover up or confusion?"

    Ouija boards, Tarot cards, Astrology signs and symbols may all seem harmless to some, but like yoga, they have an idea attached

    Of course, it could be asked whether something purely physical can have any spiritual implications. One needs only look at such practices as Ouija boards, Tarot cards, Astrology signs and symbols may all seem harmless to some, but like yoga, they have an idea attached to them that is the problem.

    A further example that shows how something physical can have spiritual implications is to be found in the account of the Garden of Eden. For in Genesis chapter 3 we have an introduction to the enemy of God and mankind, making the suggestion to Adam’s wife, Eve, that by doing something purely physical (i.e. eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) she would not only receive a mighty spiritual blessing, but would indeed live forever, and become as a god.

    The real result of this action was Adam and Eve being cast out from Eden and the Fall of Man. Ever since then, man has been trying to sneak back into paradise by jumping over the hedge as it were (using drugs and mysticism).

    https://www.cai.org/testimonies/spiritual-deception-yoga

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    1. Well then, I suppose we better purge Algebra and go back to using Roman numerals.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_in_medieval_Islam

      Get rid of the Gregorian calendar too:

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

      And The Iliad, The Odyssey, and most orchestral music.

      The point is: not all derivative works with roots in religion are essentially religious. One can learn algebra without converting to Islam, and teach algebra without proselytism.

      Is yoga similar?

      We all make our own decisions on that as individuals. From a legal perspective, it's settled now.

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  21. To me, the issue is whether curriculum or standards related programs are fully funded by the district. Foundations/parents should not have to raise money to fund them. Until tech, art, music, science are fully funded, yoga funding needs to sit on the side. Seriously Board members, this is a bad decision that needs to be undone NOW. Only once the other programs are prioritized and funded fully by the DISTRICT, should extracurricular programs such as yoga even been entertained. Why was Yoga give such an enormous amount of funding over the other programs?

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  22. For those wanting to know what constitutes a conflict of interest... Here you go https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/publications/coi.pdf?

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  23. I will try again. Does anyone know when Baird joined the board of the yoga foundation?

    Does anyone know how much the yoga instructors were paid to teach the students? Yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, anything?

    Are any of the other EUSD school board group a member of the yoga foundation like Baird is? He sits on their board for some reason. Hubris, me thinks. He has to have known more than is let on at this point.

    Hopefully, they will all hear the bell tolling for their heads to roll if the public outrage will only gather enough steam.

    How many of the EUSD school board are up for election this year? I seem to remember maybe three were just reelected two years ago, so that might mean one or two can be replaced this year. Any start toward this goal of showing them the door is a new much needed beginning.

    I hope Jen is still out there and can round up a like minded citizen to share the burden of campaigning. It will take a team effort to get rid of the current majority and their superintendent. There is not a keeper in the bunch.

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    1. Advisory Board.

      Not Board of Directors. Big difference.

      Advisory boards are ceremonial, with zero authority or decision making power. It's a way to make important partners or customers feel special. They get access to the board and executive leadership to offer opinions, but no vote, and no formal responsibility under 501c rules. In fact, many 501c organizations do not have an Advisory Board.

      Board of Directors can go to jail if the organization fails to operate properly. They are accountable, and have both authority and duty to oversee the decisions of the executive leaders.

      Doubtful any action Baird could take in the figurehead role would amount to a legal conflict of interest.

      Not a lawyer. Could be wrong.

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    2. While Baird is listed as being on the Advisory Board rather than the full board, it appears that the full board is comprised of many ceremonial and celebrity types - who really think Deepak Chopra and Stedman Graham are studying budgets and financials for the foundation? I bet Baird wields a lot of influence in the foundation (far more than most board members). His district is the marquee client of the foundation that is extensively touted in its website.

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    3. He didn't wield enough influence to save the funding.

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  24. Ah, the truth hurts, but 6:33pm, your input is appreciated. No blame heading bairds way once again. He is pretty crafty isn't he? We can't blame him for anything apparently that would suffice to send him packing. One of these days......dreaming on.

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  25. The Encinitas schools are listed as Sonima Foundation Schools. Still think Baird can't be blamed?

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