| Castle Park Principal Ollie Matos |
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| Lawsuit Against Chula Vista Educators and former President Gina Boyd 2007 |
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| The Castle Park Elementary site council and PTA "heads" who slammed their principal in this story were Felicia Starr and Kimberlee Simmons. Within a year after the Chula Vista Star-News published this article, Castle Park Elementary discovered that $20,000 was missing from its PTA accounts. PTA president Kimberlee "Kim" Simmons was arrested for the embezzlement. Neither the Star-News nor La Prensa published this information, to my knowledge, even though they had both published stories that were negative toward principal Ollie Matos. The San Diego Union Tribune was also guilty of slanted reporting by editor Don Sevrens. Kim Simmons was elected in 2004 because Felicia Starr wanted someone she could control in charge of the PTA. Starr, a parent representative on the site council, made sure that Latino parents didn't get a vote. She engaged in hostilities with Latino parents who had innocently tried to nominate a candidate. As a result of the embezzlement (the second discovered at Castle Park Elementary within 6 years), there has been no PTA at the school from mid-2005 through mid-2008. Parents have begun to organize themselves through ACORN. The Star-News failed to tell the full story about transferred teachers Robin Donlan and Peg Myers, a story involving $100,000s of school district money to defend these teachers. Star-News publisher Linda Rosas Townson knew the truth, but revealed only a small part of the story to the public. |
| San Diego Union Tribune "Nonprofits easy targets for thievery Little or no oversight leaves school, sports groups at risk" By Leonel Sanchez and Brent Schrotenboer August 26, 2007 "CHULA VISTA: The former president of the Parent Teacher Association at Castle Park Elementary was arrested in November on suspicion of stealing up to $20,000. No criminal charges were filed. Castle Park's PTA disbanded." http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20 070826/news_1n26embezzle.html |
| Peg Myers statement about "Hispanic community" Peg Myers helped Linda Watson and Robin Donlan and others severely damage the bilingual program at Castle Park Elementary. I doubt that she was aware of the irony of her statement to a La Prensa reporter: |
La Prensa
September 17, 2004
"Approximately 40 teachers, parents and school children
protested at a Chula Vista Elementary School District School
Board meeting on Sept. 14 because of a recent transfer of five
veteran teachers from Castle Park Elementary School. The
controversial transfer has been perceived by some as a mere
power-play by Superintendent Lowell Billings — with the net
result being a lower quality of education for the largely Hispanic
school. “They still don’t have a credentialed special ed teacher,
teaching special ed class; they’re just rotating subs,” said one of
the transfered teachers Peggie Myers. “There’s not a whole lot of
learning going on there.”
"Billings does have the right to make an administrative transfer
with certain conditions, according to Myers, but she believes
Billings has misinterpreted his rights. “If the board gets away with
this, they will do this to other teachers,” she said.
"The transfered teachers had over 50 years of teaching
experience between all of them. “We need to get this out to the
Hispanic community,” she said. “If this had happened at Allen,
Sunnyside, Tiffany, or Hedenkamp we wouldn’t be standing here
right now.”
Photos by J.D. Hawk.
http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/september17-04/040917.html"
September 17, 2004
"Approximately 40 teachers, parents and school children
protested at a Chula Vista Elementary School District School
Board meeting on Sept. 14 because of a recent transfer of five
veteran teachers from Castle Park Elementary School. The
controversial transfer has been perceived by some as a mere
power-play by Superintendent Lowell Billings — with the net
result being a lower quality of education for the largely Hispanic
school. “They still don’t have a credentialed special ed teacher,
teaching special ed class; they’re just rotating subs,” said one of
the transfered teachers Peggie Myers. “There’s not a whole lot of
learning going on there.”
"Billings does have the right to make an administrative transfer
with certain conditions, according to Myers, but she believes
Billings has misinterpreted his rights. “If the board gets away with
this, they will do this to other teachers,” she said.
"The transfered teachers had over 50 years of teaching
experience between all of them. “We need to get this out to the
Hispanic community,” she said. “If this had happened at Allen,
Sunnyside, Tiffany, or Hedenkamp we wouldn’t be standing here
right now.”
Photos by J.D. Hawk.
http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/september17-04/040917.html"
| [Note: In fact, Castle Park Elementary test scores went up after Peg Myers and Robin Donlan left the school.] |
| November 17, 2006 SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE Former president of PTA is arrested CHULA VISTA – A former PTA president at Castle Park Elementary School has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling thousands of dollars from the school, a police spokesman said. Kimberlee Simmons, 43, of Chula Vista was arrested by Chula Vista police Nov. 3, said police spokesman Bernard Gonzales. Gonzales said Simmons is suspected of stealing $10,000 to $20,000 from the school. Simmons visited police headquarters for questioning and by the end of the interview police decided they had enough information to arrest her, Gonzales said. Simmons was booked into Las Colinas Detention Facility but released the same day, a jail spokesman said. Police have submitted the results of their investigation to the district attorney's office. A deputy district attorney said yesterday that no charg- es have been filed against Simmons while his office considers the case. – Chris Moran |
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San Diego Union Tribune
Letters
10/21/04
"This is in response to "An important story found way into
print," a letter by Lisa Shannon-Torgerson on Sept. 30:
"She mentioned that a community newspaper should be
unbiased. I couldn't agree more, but her insinuation that
Linda R. Townson, publisher of The Star News, is biased
in any way stems from her personal bias, that her fiancé,
Michael Burgess (which she failed to mention), was let go
from the newspaper.
"Townson might not have a background in journalism but
her 17-year record in publishing speaks for itself.
"By the way, I work for The East County Californian and
The Alpine Sun, sister papers of The Star News, and am
also Linda Townson's niece. So, yes, I am very biased, but
at least I am honest enough to admit it."
SHAVONE OWENS
Chula Vista
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041021/news_l
z3e21south.html
Letters
10/21/04
"This is in response to "An important story found way into
print," a letter by Lisa Shannon-Torgerson on Sept. 30:
"She mentioned that a community newspaper should be
unbiased. I couldn't agree more, but her insinuation that
Linda R. Townson, publisher of The Star News, is biased
in any way stems from her personal bias, that her fiancé,
Michael Burgess (which she failed to mention), was let go
from the newspaper.
"Townson might not have a background in journalism but
her 17-year record in publishing speaks for itself.
"By the way, I work for The East County Californian and
The Alpine Sun, sister papers of The Star News, and am
also Linda Townson's niece. So, yes, I am very biased, but
at least I am honest enough to admit it."
SHAVONE OWENS
Chula Vista
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041021/news_l
z3e21south.html
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| Peg Myers was leader of teachers, who could be very unruly at times. |
| [Note: 17 teachers were polled out of about 40. How were those 17 teachers chosen?] |