Greetings Friends of Southwestern College,
Some community members may be questioning why there is a recall effort for Jean Roesch, Terri Valladolid, and Yolanda Salcido when an election is coming in Nov. 2010. There would reasonably be talk of cost.
Here are some of the reasons:
The community taxpayers deserve to know the truth about Southwestern College’s Governing Board majority. They deserve to hear all sides and voices so they can make an informed decision at the ballot box in June. All we want is a chance for democratic process.
----------------------------
NUMBER OF ADMINISTRATORS AT SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE COMPARED TO OTHER
REGION 10 COMMUNITY COLLEGES
BASED ON FALL 2009
| Community College | Number Students Enrolled | Number of Vice Presidents | Number of Deans |
| Palomar | 32,200 | 4 | 6 |
| Southwestern | 22,137 | 4 | 13 |
| San Diego Mesa | 22,423 | 3 | 11 |
| Grossmont | 20,371 | 3 | 6/1 Senior Dean |
| San Diego City | 17,704 | 3 | 8 |
| Mira Costa | 13,618 | 3 | 8 |
| San Diego Miramar | 10,787 | 3 | 6 |
| Cuyamaca | 9,228 | 3 | 5/1 Executive Dean |
| Imperial Valley | 8,984 | 3 | 4 |
Superintendent/President Raj K. Chopra notified the other board members of the forums, and then
Date: Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:04:15 -0800
To: Raj Chopra <rchopra@swccd.edu>, 'Pick Nick Aguilar' <picknickaguilar@cox.net>, Jorge Dominguez <jd91915@yahoo.com>, Jean Roesch <jeanrsch@aol.com>, Yolanda Salcido <ysalcido2@att.net>, "'Salcido, Yolanda'" <ysalcido@arthritis.org>
From: Pick Nick Aguilar <picknickaguilar@cox.net>
Subject: Re: Terri Valladolid Forums
Cc: Terri Valladolid <tvalladolid@swccd.edu>, "'Valladolid, Teresa'" <tvalladolid@ucsd.edu>, SWC Academic Senate President <vgoodwin@swccd.edu>, howsemewzyk@hotmail.com
Dear SWC Governing Board Colleagues,
While Trustee Valladolid's outreach efforts are commendable, the appropriate forum for discussions of the SWC Governing Board Free Speech Policy is at a regular or special meeting of the Governing Board. With all due respect to Trustee Valladolid, the SWC Free Speech Policy is a matter totally within the purview and responsibility of the entire Governing Board, these forums are not an appropriate or acceptable substitute for the failure or refusal of the SWC Superintendent and SWC Governing Board President Roesch to respond to the request I submitted to both of them several weeks ago to place the SWC Free Speech Policy on the agenda of the November 2009 Governing Board meeting. In fact, this message will serve to notify both Superintendent Chopra and Board President Roesch of my standing request for the inclusion of the an item on the December 9, 2009 Board agenda for the Board to direct the immediate review and update of the SWC Free Speech Policy. Best regards to all. Nick Aguilar
At 02:35 PM 12/2/2009 -0800, Raj Chopra wrote:
For your information, Terri will be holding forums on campus to provide opportunities to hear from constituent groups on their thoughts and concerns regarding issues important to Southwestern College.
Thank you.
Raj K. Chopra, Ph.D.
Superintendent/President
Southwestern College
619.482.6301
Posts
Thank you, SWC employees and powers that be at this blog, for pursuing this recall of the board members.
ReplyDeleteThe recent e-mail from Vallodolid reeks of "too little, too late." Sorry, sister! Where was she last month? A couple of weeks ago? Did the recall petition scare her? Sure looks like it!
I do applaud Mr. Aguilar for having the cojones to speak up, esp. at our rally.
Keep up the good work, all!
Can anyone comment on how the Dec. 8th "forum" with Valladolid went?
ReplyDeleteYolanda Salcido was there, too. Michael Kerns served as a kind of moderator.
ReplyDeleteA grand total of maybe five faculty members showed up. We began by pointing out that this lack of attendance probably means that faculty have simply given up on Board members' ever listening to anything we have to say.
And that's pretty much how the meeting went: Tere and Yolanda wanted to talk, explain, justify, but they--especially Yolanda--didn't want to listen, even though we gave them an earful.
My (very strong) sense of things is whatever we say to the Board goes in one ear and out the other. Two examples: Tere and Yolanda handed out a four-page "Q & A." Among other things, it mentions a "deficit of nearly $6 million" at SWC.
At Wednesday's Board meeting, I directed the Board's attention to the "General Fund Cash Analysis for Period Ending October 31, 2009." This document shows that our reserves now total $13,607,485. We began the fiscal year with reserves of $13,467,393.
In other words, the District has actually made $140,000 so far this year. It's hard to understand how anyone could claim that we're hemorrhaging money. It's hard to understand how we are facing a $6 million "defecit" when we're 1/3 of the way through this fiscal year and we're actually generating a surplus. But the Board made no comment and had no questions for our VP of Finance during his report at the end of the meeting.
Next, the Q & A also had this to say about GASB: "SWC has contractual commitments to provide employees with post-retirement benefits. We owe about (approximately) $9 million more than we have (possess). . . ."
The first sentence is true. But why words like "about" or "have" need to be explained in the second sentence is just plain weird. And we simply do not "owe" anyone $9 million in post-retirement medical benefits. If x retirees live long enough, we'll eventually have to pay them $9 million, but a pay-as-you-go system has worked just fine for the past 40 years at SWC.
Of course, this is something we've told the Board over and over and over. But, bottom line, they either don't listen or they can't understand. I'm not sure which is worse.
P. Lopez
That's a scary comment about GASB. They just don't get it, do they?
ReplyDeleteWhat's "GASB?"
ReplyDeleteIt is best to choose the evil you know, than the evil you do not know. Watch who is put into a position of power, they may be worse than those already on the board.
ReplyDelete