Friday, April 2, 2010

Things got even tenser than they already were in TUSD when on Tuesday, the board cut Poet Christians magnet in exchange for saving two middle school guidance counselors.
I'm convinced every teacher I've talked to in this district is invested not only in their own jobs an livelihood, but in their students.
Some teachers, who showed up at the meeting to ask the board to save 31 teachers, and class size reduction, in exchange for Poet's magnet*, came across the wrong way at the meeting, they said.
Bridget Huff teaches third grade at McKinley Elementary School. She'll probably be laid off this May, she said-- she got a pink slip for the second year in a row (last year the district took it back.)
Huff and other teachers held signs asking the board not to treat Poet differently from other schools. Some people were disappointed in the signs. But Huff said when teachers cheered that the board had suggested moving Poet's magnet down on the priority list, they were cheering that they felt the board was listening to them, not that four teachers were losing their jobs.
"Now not only am I losing my job and I have to pack up my classroom and say goodbye to a school I love, I'm public enemy and I'm getting hate mail," Huff said.
Huff said in retrospect, maybe she shouldnt have called Poet out by name.
She just wanted to convey to the board that when 63 teachers of traditional subject were losing their jobs, it should make sure the cuts were spread even.

*The CSR teachers cost about $350,000. Poet's magnet costs $250,000.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Friday, January 22, 2010

On knowing your sources:

Finally, I can sleep after tracking down the source of a widely distributed e-mail predicting El Nino flooding around California this week...

Daniel Swain, 20, studies atmospheric science at UC Davis. He started his weather blog in 2006, and it never got much traffic outside its niche audience, until his Jan. 12 post “hit a nerve” and got forwarded all over the place.
My editor got an e-mail with some of the post, which noted the Pacific jet streams that caused the rain and wind around the state this week could repower and dump a bunch of snow which would melt and overwhelm dams, causing major floods (which hasn't happened yet.)
The e-mail landed on my desk, and I called everybody whose tags were attached to the strand: the county, UC Berkeley, a meteorologist with US Geological Survey who is currently in Japan, and Cal FIRE. Nobody would claim this work, until Cal FIRE spokesguy Daniel Berlant sleuthed it out and gave me Swain’s web site.
Swain said he made the predictions a week and a half before the storm started, and there's still a chance we've gotten a lot more snow than usual.
He said frankly, it’s a little scary people are reproducing information and forwarding it all over the place without knowing where they got it from.
I agree, but it made for a fun chase.
You can find my weather story at tracypress.com

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

(209) 815-2769

Loyal readers,
I now have a cell phone on which you can reach me day and night by voice or text message.
Of course, my desk line still works: 830-4225, and my e-mail is ctomlin@tracypress.com.
Be safe in this soggy mess and call me.