TRAGEDIES or Conspiracy at C.C.U.S.D. Why did all the Ph.D's disappear?

By Gary Abrams

Dr. Myrna Cote' Superintendent

Dr. Pam Magee, Culver High Principal and

Ms. Shelia Silver, Two time Award winning AVPA Director

Super Search "Cinderella Story" or $20K+ MESS

C.C.U.S.D.`has great schools? SUPPORT LIGHT FOR CULVER CITY STUDENTS!

The Myrna COTE' Ph. D Story - Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote's sudden resignation from the Culver City Unified School District.

The inner circle, centering on the School Board, knew that Dr. Coté was increasingly unhappy with the tenor of meetings, the revised prevailing atmosphere.

"There was a certain amount of back-and-forth on the dais and at other places.

Although their strongly held differences were shielded from the community.

"Working in that kind of environment - where some Board members wanted one thing and the Superintendent wanted something else.

"There also was exasperation at some points from the three new Board members. But we never had outright wars.

The Pam MAGEE, Ph. D and Award Winning Drama Director Sheila SILVER Story-

Unsurprisingly to many, Dr. Pam Magee, principal of Culver City High School, is moving along -- to a charter school in the Palisades -- four months after an explosive triggering event seemed to abruptly change her career plans.

Jaffe Once Looked at the Palisade Job

Although peers knew in the aftermath of the highest profile incident of her six years, that she was shopping, not a leak sprang.

Supt. Patti Jaffe and Board Members say they didn't know until two days ago. Swift Turnaround "This happened really, really fast."

Dr. Magee starts immediately as the virtual Superintendent with the title Chief Administrative Officer of Palisades Charter High School in the smart seaside community of Pacific Palisades.

Here is the Irony - When the Pali position opened, CCUSD Supt. Superintendent Ms. Jaffe inquired. "After talking to them, though, I was not interested," she told the thefrontpageonline news. Reliable sources says that the "feeling" was mutual.

However, campus wisdom says that Dr. Magee's decision is inexorably tied to the bitter flap with drama teacher Sheila Silver that sparked a student uprising. After months of meetings over Ms. Silver's methods, Dr. Magee fired her.

14 days later, the School Board unfired her.

Re "Maybe Pam Was a Pawn in All of This, Says Silver"

Relocated award winning High School drama teacher Sheila Silver introduced the potential specter of an off-stage person(s) maneuvering policy in the School District.

"Understand that this is speculation, but I have a feeling," Ms. Silver said.

Conspiracy? "There is the possibility (of an unseen hand). "And that was when I began thinking, what if whomever is calling the shots instructed him...?

Meanwhile, after a turbulent two years at Culver High, marked by numerous awards for her theatre students, Ms. Silver started her newest assignment as Director of Drama for San Juan Hills High School, near the southern coastal tip of Orange County.

A Career Question "First, I had to work through, `Can I be part of a system that allowed such a thing to happen?'

"In the end, everything the School District in Culver City did is legally protected. "Everything they did is protected by the law. That's frightening. That is frightening.

Do I want to be part of this system?'

The "$20K+" SUPER SEARCH "MESS" or "Cinderella Story" or "CON"-spiracy?

Popular former Asst. Supt. Patti Jaffe, a 40-year District veteran who already had disclosed her decision to retire until Dr. Cote's bombshell,-- suddenly was thrust into the Interim Super's role. Dr. Myrna Cote, who stunned the community when she abruptly announced her resignation from the School District.

What instructions do you hand to a headhunting company like Cosca, staffed by former superintendents?

"We don't want to spend our District's hard-earned money on lawyers "FEES" if we don't have to. "They agreed to our contract which. (The deal is for "a little over" $20,000, irrespective of the time it takes to land a super).

This is the SECOND time our Board has written contracts." (First time was contract prohibiting Ms. Jaffe Interim from becoming Superintendent)

Ms. Jaffe's agreement contract is on a day-to-day basis. It hinges on the arrival of her replacement. "Technically, the contract says `the Interim is not eligible to become the Superintendent." (A clause allowing that point to be reversed, at the Board's discretion, went publicly unnoticed at the time).

Did Upset Over Vote Drive School Board Member to the HOSPITAL?

Ms. Siever, a longtime faculty member at West Los Angeles College and a community college professor for 36 years in her second year on Board was hospitalized for 24 hours. She believes she knows why.

School Board member Professor Patricia Siever said she was so shocked by the decision to reconsider the contract of the Interim Superintendent that it was nearly impossible for her to concentrate the rest of the evening.

There has to be Protocol' It's about Principle

Disappointed that colleagues on the School Board sought to belatedly enter the Interim Superintendent into the stakes for Fulltime Superintendent,

Board member Patricia Siever speculated the intention may have been to ENCOURAGE the finalists to DROP OUT. It's NOT FAIR. And you don't notify them for three weeks?"

But some people don't think that is an important issue. They just think we should move forward and select the present Superintendent.

"It leaves you in a position where everybody hates you because they think you don't like Patti. It's not personal, and it's got nothing to do with that, how I voted and how I will vote. It is about principle.

Thinking about IMAGE! "We are supposed to be ROLE MODELS for our students. The people who set the policy.

CONSPIRACY THING? I can't stand what I think is BETRAYAL or CONNIVING or MANIPULATION. I was BLINDSIDED.

OUT of the LOOP? I can't speak for anyone else. I didn't know. But I don't think they kept it just from me. I don't want it to be a conspiracy thing. "It's more to me about how a Board operates.

We have done a lot of work on this search. How many special meetings there have been.

On a motion the Board started the Jaffe train rolling agreeing by a vote of 3 -1-1 (with Karlo Silbiger dissenting, and Patricia Siever unable to decide) to allow Ms. Jaffe to be considered for the Superintendent position.

Board Officially Votes for Patti Jaffe The School Board voted 4 to 1 late this afternoon to appoint Interim Supt. Patti Jaffe the Real Super with a one-year contract.

A 'SOBERING' REPORT on HOW LIGHT SCHOOL SUPPORT Is for Its Students December 09, 2008 (excerpt)

The state Superintendent of Schools came to the library at Culver City High School to report on a climate-in-schools survey.

Presented a tightly scripted report that was both straight-forward and DISAPPOINTING to educators.

In the wake of an explosion of students arriving in California from virtually every known culture on the planet, the Superintendent declared two conclusions:

• In the new, non-traditional public school population environment where there is a heavy accent on student diversity, schools are not providing sufficient support to students in need. Correspondingly, support thins out as a student progresses through the system. Both Culver City School District Supt. Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote and Culver High principal Dr. Pam McGee (both dearly departed) said that the School District has participated in the decade-old program for a number of years.

"It is very clear that as students move from elementary schools to middle schools to high schools, that students are not offered much support, as much nurturing, caring and adult support the later on (they go) in school."

62 percent of elementary school staffers believe their schools are "quite supportive" of their students.

ONLY a MINORITY Hold UPBEAT View

At the high school level, merely 40 percent of staffers said their schools provided "an inviting" learning atmosphere.

"These are very sobering statistics." "They have to be of major concern for all of us.

"We know we clearly have a long way to go to make sure our students and teachers are functioning in a very supportive, nurturing and positive learning environment."

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