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My fav quote from your post is "These arrogant supporters of bad government are lame."
I’m far more inclined to give the opinions of people like Traci Wilson-Kleekamp and Diana Bosetti in this area more weight than many others because they have done more than simply complain about perceived government misfeasance; they have stood toe-to-toe with their elected and appointed representatives and tried to do something constructive about it.
A recent post to the original column concerning Ms. Bosetti’s efforts on our behalf dismisses Bosetti’s actions as nothing more than “posturing for a school board position.” Disqus wouldn’t let me post a reply there for some reason, so I’m going to do so here:
Dear “Bosetti For President”: You presume much to make this accusation unless you have some insight from a reliable source that you, conveniently, do not cite. But even if your assumption in this area is accurate…so what?
Is a desire to serve on our School Board somehow now to be derided or ridiculed?
Every single person who has ever served on our School Board has, to some degree and in one manner or another, “postured for the position.” School Board positions are elected offices. Candidates campaign for them just as they do for other elected offices. Let me tell you, after what Bosetti accomplished on our behalf at Los Cerritos Elementary, if she truly aspires to serve on our School Board she shouldn’t even need to campaign!
Through her tenacity on this issue and her ultimate success in recovering some $87,000 of our education-related tax dollars, Bosetti has shown me that she is *precisely* the sort of person who should be serving us on our School Board! Had we had a School Board full of people as tenacious in requiring answers of District Staff as Bosetti proved and a School Board even half as insistent upon setting high standards of conduct and performance and holding District Staff accountable to those standards as was Bosetti then Bosetti would have had nothing to work to resolve!
It’s critically important that you get this, “Bosetti For President”, you and everyone else who seems so filled with petty jealousy; our School Board’s very *mandate* includes, among other things, “…adopting the annual budget, approving all expenditures (and) establishing district policy…”. So why did it take someone like Diana Bosetti to get this mis-allocation of District funds corrected? Every one of our current Board members should have been on top of this and demanding answers of District Staff…and loudly…until the situation was properly identified and then corrected.
Instead what we got from them…the very ones we have elected to represent us in this critical area of public policy…was reluctance, obfuscation and excuse-making.
It’s my admittedly amateur opinion that Diana Bosetti (and anyone like her) would serve us far better on our School Board than almost any of those currently seated but most especially someone like Michael Shane Ellis…a person who has been convicted of various crimes and other public offenses. A person who, to the best of my knowledge, is still on criminal probation. A person with one of the most abysmal attendance records of any Member that has ever served on our School Board.
If we can continue to tolerate the abject ineptitude of someone like Michael Shane Ellis, we should be begging someone like Diana Bosetti to serve us on our School Board.
At the very least her presence would serve to restore a little dignity to the position!
How nice of you to join us! We can now unequivocally proclaim that The Conspiracy Theory nut-job contingent has arrived. Always a hoot to hear from the lunatic fringe. I'm guessing that your "9-11 Attacks were Orchestrated by our Government" meeting must have ended early.....
You know, Mary Stanton, I mean, 'Bosetti for President', you have actually done a nice job canonizing Mrs. Bosetti. Now that I think about it, maybe you should apply to be her campaign spokesperson. I think about the only thing you left out, though, was how Mrs. Bosetti invented a cure for cancer, climbed Mr. Everest barefoot, and singlehandedly solved global warming. I guess if we want further clarificaiton, we'll all just have to sit tight and wait for your next 'pearl of ignorance'......
Or wait, perhaps you've been bucking for Stanton's plum job when she steps down, and now you're just ticked because Bosetti's impressive efforts have already completely outshined your undoubtedly mediocre and bureacratic resume.......
I swear, the arguments from these pro-LBUSD dimwits hold water about as well as the Titanic......
I wanted to see if I understood why people on both sides of this were getting so heated up about it. So I pretended I was explaining it to my eight year old to see if I could figure out where all the bad feeling is coming from. Here is what I understand Boseti did.
First, someone at the school asked the state government for some money from a special state fund for a program for poor kids. The state sent the money to the school. The school spent it on people and things used at the school.
Then, later, Boseti told the state that the school shouldn't have gotten that money because the school didn't have enough of the right kind of poor kids to qualify for it. After lots of effort on Boseti's part, that seemed to be discouraged by school officials in Long Beach, the state finally agreed with Boseti and asked for the money back from the school.
But the school said it didn't have the money, that the money had already been spent. The state said tough, give it back.
So then the school had to take the normal amount of money that it would use to run the school and remove some of it and cut back on what it would normally do in order to find the money that Boseti wanted sent back to Sacramento.
Is this it, because it would explain a lot. It would explain why many people consider Boseti a good person and worth praising for making sure people always follow all the rules. It would also explain why people at the school might be mad at her because the kids at that school ended up with less money, not more, because of what she did.
It seems to me that people are mad at each other because this is a story about defining what ethical behavior is. If you're inclined to be black and white about these things, then Boseti is a hero because a rule is a rule and breaking a rule always should have consequences for the rule breaker. If you're inclined to see shades of gray in this situation, you might have a lower opinion of Boseti and wonder why she didn't overlook this, because her actions only hurt the kids at that school. If one of those kids is your own, you might even have a hostile opinion of Boseti, which I think the story and comments after the story demonstrated.
Unless I'm missing a step here, but I didn't see any money added to the school, only taken away as a result of what Boseti did. Were the people at the school just trying to get as much money for the school as possible and got one of the rules wrong? Could it be that the rules need interpretation and we want a Long Beach principal pushing the rules as hard as possible for Long Beach kids? If that's it, then I can understand why people in Sacramento would like Boseti and why people and parents at the school might not like her very much. And this could also explain why people would feel comfortable questioning Boseti's motives and whether she really had the best interests of Long Beach children at heart. Diane Boseti didn't find more money for the Long Beach kids, she took it away from them.
Black and White people and Shades of Gray people seldom see eye to eye on ethical issues. So there's your problem right there!
Anyway, just thought I'd share what I was thinking. I love the District Weekly, keep it coming!
“Janie, all of the public schools in Long Beach are a part of our School District. The School District receives some money (called Title 1 funds) from the Federal and State government to help all of the at-risk students that go to school here. Each School in the District then receives its part of that money based upon how many at-risk kids go to school at that school.
But some of the money the Federal and State government sent to our District to help these kids wasn’t spent the way it was it was supposed to be.
There’s a rule (or “law”) that says the School District is only allowed to spend 15 cents of each of these dollars on extra stuff”
Role play time: Tell Janie that she gets to be an at-risk kid and you are going to be someone from the School District and Los Cerritos Elementary. Give Janie a dollar, in change, and then take 15 cents back. Show her that she gets to keep the remaining 85 cents to help him or her with her schooling.
“The problem, Janie, is that some people at the District and at Los Cerritos Elementary broke the rule (or “law) and spent more of the money on extra stuff than they were supposed to. Instead of 15 cents of each dollar, they spent 60 cents. This means that there was a lot less money left to help you with your schooling.
Role play time: Take back an additional 45 cents from Janie. Show her that she now has 40 cents instead of 85 cents to help her with her schooling.
“Janie, do you think it’s right that you didn’t get all of the money you were supposed to get to help you with your schooling? No? Do you think it was right for me to break the rule (or “law”) and take 45 cents more from you than I was supposed to be allowed to take? No?
Well, one mom at Los Cerritos Elementary, her name is Mrs. Bosetti, saw this was happening and didn’t think it was right either. But when she asked people at Los Cerritos Elementary and the School District to explain why they took the extra money, they told her not to worry about it…that she just didn’t understand the rule (or “law”).
The Mom didn’t like this answer because the rule seemed very clear to her so she kept asking and asking but the School District would not listen and would not answer her. Ms. Bosetti finally decided to ask people in the State government about it. They looked into it and agreed with Ms. Bosetti that this rule was very clear and that the School District and Los Cerritos Elementary should not have taken the extra 45 cents of each dollar.
So the State made the School District give the extra money back.
Unfortunately by then, the School District and Los Cerritos Elementary had already spent the extra money they took on things like office furniture and cinnamon rolls so they had to take other money that they normally used for other things and pay back the same amount that they took.
Some people then got mad at Ms. Bosetti because the School District had to pay the extra money back.
Do you think the School District and Los Cerritos Elementary should have to give the extra money back? Yes? Whose fault do you think it is that instead of 85 cents you only got 40 cents? The people at the School District and Los Cerritos Elementary who took it? That’s correct, Janie.
Well Janie, because of Ms. Bosetti...and *only* because of Mrs. Bosetti...you were able to get the extra 45 cents back to help you with your schooling.”
Role play time: Give Janie back the additional 45 cents you took earlier. Show her that she now has 85 cents again to help her with her schooling.
“So who should people be mad at because there isn’t enough money in the School District or Los Cerritos Elementary for other things now? The people at the School District and Los Cerritos Elementary who took the extra money in the first place? That’s exactly right, Janie.
Do you think Mrs. Bosetti was a good person or a bad person for making sure that at-risk students got all of their money back to help with their schooling? A good person? That's exactly right, Janie.
Is it right to take money that doesn't belong to you? No? That's correct.
If I promise to give you a dollar if you will promise to spend 85 cents of it on someone who is depending on you; you agree; and then I keep my promise and give you the dollar but you break your promise and only spend 40 cents, instead of 85 cents on the other person, have you done a good thing or a bad thing? A bad thing? That's correct.
Should we always try to keep the promises we make? Yes? That's correct."
Should we always try to do good things instead of bad things? Yes? That’s correct.”
Because you are such a smart girl who will always try to keep her promises rather than break them, and always try to do good things instead of bad things, you can keep the whole dollar, Janie, just this once.”
Try explaining it that way, GEP, and your 8-year old may better understand this situation.
Then realize, in your own mind, that we weren’t just talking about 45 cents of misappropriated funds, but almost $88,000…of our tax dollars…over 2 years…and then maybe you may better understand this situation as well.
Well your spin certainly differs from the rest of the comments I have read. Let's start with the obvious, every single post has been able to spell her name correctly, Diana (not Diane) Bosetti (not Boseti) except you. Minor point, but telling.
My take on most of the comments is the parents are more than happy Diana stepped in. She had perseverance, and when she hit a brick wall she was forced to step around it, again and again. How much effort have you put into investigating this outside of reading these post, and of course explaining it to your 8 year old. And why would you do that in the first place, that is weird.
Do me a favor, go back and really read these post, I mean put your full concentration into them. Maybe then you will have a clearer understanding of what transpired and won't need to clarify it with your 8 year old.
I appreciate someone else who seems to care about a very important issue affecting our kids. Although your interest is palpable, I'm not entirely sure where your opinion ultimately ended up planting roots.
Let's boil this down to the basics for you. There's the "Give us the coin and we'll spend it where we see fit" crowd, and there's the "We've received these funds which are EARMARKED for programs to directly assist at-risk kids who need the additional, specialized attention (ie. funds). That's the issue in a nutshell.
(And since I don't think any of us are buying that dime-store rhetoric, can we now just disregard the ilk who shovel the "she doesn't really care about the kids" crud? At this point, I find that to be nothing more than pure smoke-screen banter.)
That's it, folks. You either believe that a school district should spend all dollars in manner THEY deem appropriate, or you believe that a district should spend according to the inherent recommendations of the government body that appropriated those funds. How difficult is that to understand?
Well, it sure looks like Mrs. Bosetti is in the latter camp. The government gives you a buck on the condition that you spend it the way that they (the government) wants you to? You take their buck and do with it as you please? Well, you deserve everything Mrs. Bosetti has to offer and more.
Why all of the smack-down against Mrs. Bosetti? It seems rather black and white to me......
Oh, but wait, G.E.P. seems very interested in that "gray area". Sorry, but I believe that gray areas are for people looking for an escape hatch. When I couldn't make curfew, I resorted to the "gray area" argument. When my grades didn't quite meet expectations, I went "gray area". When that promotion fell just a tad short, I blamed it on the "gray area".
Rules and regulations are there for a reason. Whether Mrs, Bosetti helped a kid or deprived a kid is not the issue. She fought for the INTENT of the appropriation. That's it, G.E.P. You and the rest of the Los Cerritos cheer squad want to continue your bash-fest, take it up with GW Bush. When we have a president who appropriates funds with no strings attached, well, we'll certainly have less to bicker about. (And LBUSD will undoubtedly be busy with cartwheels and other methods of celebration.....)
"God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board."
- Mark Twain
Last week, the Press-Telegram had an article regarding school upgrades and new schools. Superintendent Steinhauser said Signal Hill has wanted a middle school and he wanted to build one for them. Butler Middle School is 2 blocks from from where Supt. Steinhauser wants this school built. Why is our tax money going to build another middle school which would be 2 blocks from another?