Month: May 2018

May 26, 2018

Hello Mr. Gallon, Mr. Feldman, Karla Hernandez-Mats, and Mr. Carvalho,

On May 9, 2018, I sent three of you a scathing 8- page, 5,556 -word scathing letter that I sent to Karla Hernandez-Mats regarding the numerous egregious violations of Federal, state, and UTD contract violations of Neva King Cooper (NKC) administrators, principal Dr. Tracy Roos and assistant principal Alicia Fernandez (Screamer). The following day I wrote three of you an additional letter, asking (among other things) that BOTH of the current NKC administrators be relieved of their duties as soon as possible, and that they be replaced by the previous NKC administrators, principal Dr. Alberto Fernandez, and assistant principal Henny Cristobol. An extremely naïve person might believe that sending 2 school board members, plus the school superintendent those two letters would result in the present NKC administrators making at least a token effort to avoid an appearance of seemingly deliberately creating a hostile work environment at NKC for the last remaining month before summer break. Regrettably but not surprisingly, this is not the case. Given the fact that Mr. Carvalho has been aware of the crisis situation at NKC for three years, and given the fact that neither administrator has altered her numerous egregious contract violations, even slightly, and given the fact that Dr. Roos was a candidate this year for the prestigious Principal of the Year award, the inescapable conclusion is that the lawless behavior of the two NKC administrators has Mr. Carvalho’s full approval.

My phone is once again ringing off the hook, with both numerous teachers and paraprofessionals complaining about two new crisis situations at NKC. Their first complaint is that THE ENTIRE SCHOOL will be expected to pack up their belongings and change classrooms at the end of the school year. THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THAT DR. ROOS HAS DONE THIS AT THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. The first time I believe was the end of the 2013-2014 school year, the second time was the year NKC was repainted, and the third time will be in a few days at the end of the 2017-2018 school year. Contractually, the principal is allowed to require teachers to change classrooms at either the end of the school year, or the first week of the new school year. Having said that, during my 30- year career, only a very tiny percentage of classrooms were told to make these moves. I have NEVER heard of an entire school being asked to change classrooms. When THE ENTIRE SCHOOL is asked to change classrooms THREE TIMES DURING THE SIX YEARS THAT DR ROOS HAS BEEN HERE, it is impossible to view that as anything other than a deliberate attempt to create a hostile work environment. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, why are you not doing your duty to enforce the contract? Does UTD have “no-go” schools? (i.e. schools where the contract is frequently and egregiously violated, so UTD simply turns a blind eye, and refuses to ever visit those schools) The other focus of my flood of phone calls is that FIVE educators at NKC are seeking a transfer to another school. Five may seem like a small number, until you consider that NKC is one of the smallest schools in The People’s Republic of MDCPS. By an amazing coincidence, two of the educators applying for transfers are employees who have highly incriminating evidence against both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez that could potentially send one or both of them to prison, with felony convictions. I am wondering if the persecution of these two individuals didn’t start when Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) became aware that these teachers were a danger to the administrators’ careers. I am hoping the four of you who are receiving this letter have the courage or the honesty to look at three things;1) staff satisfaction surveys for the last 6 years, 2) parent satisfaction surveys for the last 6 years, 3) the percentage of NKC staff who have retired/transferred to other schools for the last 6 years, it should send an unmistakably clear signal how bad BOTH current NKC administrators have made things. In the extremely unlikely event that the courage of any of the four of you holds up (and this is probably unfair to Mr. Gallon, as there is only one unanswered certified letter that I sent to him, and that letter was only sent two weeks ago, so perhaps Mr. Gallon is still investigating the scenarios I told him about. Mr. Gallon, the Miami Herald has called you a reform minded educator. I am wondering if that distinction is deserved, or if you just got undeserved good press. I guess I will soon find out the answer to that question. I have a friend who has said good things about you, so I am hoping that optimism about you is justified.) you could compare the staff and parent satisfaction surveys of the two present NKC administrators against the staff and parent satisfaction surveys of the two previous administrators, Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Henny Cristobol. At one time, MDCPS rated Dr. Alberto Fernandez as the most effective administrator in the county.

For a lengthy list of things that have happened at NKC that astonishingly have not raised eyebrows among at least 3 of you (as evidenced by the fact that I have 4 unanswered certified letters to Mr. Carvalho, 4 to Ms. Hernandez-Mats, and 2 to Mr. Feldman.) I refer you to my May 9, 2018 letter to Ms. Hernandez-Mats. You will find that letter posted on my blog mdcpsallegations.com I will also post this letter on my blog.

I would like the four of you to imagine the following scenario. Imagine you have a three-year-old family member who is diagnosed as severely mentally retarded and sent to NKC (may God forbid that this happens to you.) In that case, I have some good news for you, and some bad news. The GOOD news is that your family member may spend 19 years at NKC and learn ALMOST NOTHING during that time. This is because the highly effective Small Step Curriculum (SSC) has been replaced by the highly ineffective Unique Learning System(ULS), which is FAR too advanced for our students. It is the equivalent to taking a remedial math class and changing their curriculum to an honors calculus class, and then wondering why the class learned nothing during the entire school year. (The fact that MDCPS shoved the ULS down our throats without any input from us was one of 2 reasons the faculty chose to explore conversion to a charter school. The other reason was that even though the district budget increased every year, the amount of money sent to NKC got smaller every year.) Formerly, under the SSC, a few of our brightest students mastered both toilet training, and repetitive vocational skills, and were thus placed into sheltered workshops after graduation at NKC. Under the ULS curriculum, neither one of these two crucial skills will be mastered, and our brightest students, who have committed no crime, upon graduation will receive a life sentence, with no possibility of parole, being warehoused for the rest of their lives in a group home. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The need to achieve is a universal need, even for severely mentally retarded children. NKC explored conversion to a charter school NOT to defy Mr. Carvalho, but to give our students the best education we could. It should be also be noted that the ULS costs a great deal more than the SSC. A popular slogan in The People’s Republic of MDCPS is “Giving our students the world.” Perhaps a more honest slogan would be “Giving our vendors the world.” Remember, now, I have just given you the GOOD news. Now here’s the BAD news: Mr. Carvalho gives the appearance of being willing to expose severely mentally retarded children to an artificially high and entirely preventable risk of a horrible death by choking to death, in an effort to “get” teachers who were stupid enough to exercise their legal right to explore conversion to a charter school. Again, I fully explained this scenario many times, most recently in my May 9,2018 letter to Ms. Hernandez-Mats. If your child suffers this horrible fate, both Mr. Feldman, the school board member who represents NKC and Mr. Carvalho, although morally responsible for your child’s death, will suffer no legal repercussions for this, because there is a staff of nurses present on the NKC campus. Hopefully, you as a parent will be comforted by the fact that these two “men” are only morally responsible for your child’s entirely preventable death. It is quite possible that one or both of these “men” will show up at your child’s funeral, and give very sorrowful and emotional speeches, and say all the right comforting things. Then, the next day, on the front page of the Miami Herald, there will be a HUGE color photograph of one or both of these “men”, and a glowing, heart- warming story, because Mr. Carvalho gives the appearance of owning the Miami media, the school board, and UTD. Mr. Feldman, this may come as an enormous surprise to you, but there is more to being a school board member than getting your picture taken with people who really ARE movers and shakers in their chosen fields.

I am DEEPLY, DEEPLY, DEEPLY concerned about the futures of two African-American NKC employees, Mrs. Green, and Mr. Aaron Jackson. In The People’s Republic of MDCPS, if you either make an administrator look bad, or you file a complaint against a MDCPS official, you are dead meat. In my May 9,2018 letter, I explained how Dr. Roos allegedly forced Mr. Jackson to deliver Dr. Roos threat of an illegal transfer of Mrs. Green to another school, shortly after the brutal murder of Mrs. Green’s daughter. The People’s Republic of MDCP then allegedly scheduled TWO meetings with Mrs. Green, cancelled BOTH of them, and never had the decency to offer Mrs. Green either an apology or an explanation for Dr. Roos alleged horrible treatment. If The People’s Republic follows previous practices, these two sitting ducks will be left alone for the remainder of the 2017-2018 school year, Then, AS SURELY AS NIGHT FOLLOWS DAY, it is possible that Dr. Roos may receive one of her famous “anonymous” phone calls, alleging that one or both of these sitting ducks (i.e. Mrs. Green and Mr. Jackson) physically and/or sexually assaulted one or more students. If Karla Hernandez-Mats repeats what she has done in the past regarding contract violations at NKC, she will turn a blind eye and either do nothing at all to defend Mrs. Green, or only pretend to go through the motions. Mr. Jackson should be thanking his lucky stars that he belongs to a different union. Perhaps Mr. Jackson’s union president has more spine than a jellyfish and will defend Mr. Jackson against baseless and unprovable charges. If both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez are removed as the NKC administrators, and replaced by Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Henny Cristobol, these two African-American employees will be safe. This would also eliminate the entirely preventable choking death of one or more NKC students. Mr. Carvalho, as I have done on numerous occasions for three years now, I am literally BEGGING you (and I repeat, I am BEGGING you) to make this desperately needed and long overdue change. My expectation is that you will do absolutely nothing whatsoever, and the two present NKC administrators will continue to have a blank check from you to do ANYTHING, regardless of how illegal it is. Mr. Carvalho, is there a “Carvalho Doctrine” that states that even though in the rest of Florida, schools can legally convert from a public school to a charter school, that “right” simply does not exist in The People’s Republic of MDCPS, and any MDCPS school stupid enough to think Florida state laws will protect them will be punished in perpetuity? It is my intention to make your continued persecution of NKC as expensive as possible. During the 2018 legislative session, I sent every member of the Florida House and Senate K-12 republican members a 19- page letter telling every bit of dirty laundry I know about The People’s Republic of MDCPS. Mr. Carvalho, was the legislature very kind to you regarding charter schools this legislative session? I promise you, my 2019 letter to the Florida legislature will be much, much worse. How much money are you willing to lose to charter schools before you restore Dr. Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol as the NKC administrators? Mr. Carvalho, I am a very patient and persistent man. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, it is my fervent hope that you are intelligent enough to grasp that more and more charter schools mean less and less money and power for UTD. Are you intelligent enough to grasp that the path of least resistance for you at this point is to ask your chum Mr. Carvalho to reinstate Dr, Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol as the NKC administrators? Remember, Karla, you are NOT fighting for the rights of the UTD members of NKC, you are fighting to preserve your six- figure salary and cushy job. Karla, I am also asking you to write a letter to the National Labor Relations Board and ask them to do the investigation that I talked about in my unanswered May 9, 2018 letter to you. When you write that letter, Karla, would you please be kind enough to send a copy to me? Thank you in advance for that favor. Mr. Feldman and Mr. Gallon, I am asking that you write two letters I am asking you to write a letter to Governor Rick Scott and ask him to do a thorough audit of MDCPS. Please refer him to my blog at mdcpsallegations.com Can you also write a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and ask her to thoroughly investigate MDCPS? Again, you can refer her to my blog mdcpsallegations.com I am asking you to do this even if Mr. Carvalho agrees to all of the changes I have suggested Even in the extremely unlikely situation where Mr. Carvalho agrees to stop persecuting the NKC staff, he is simply too powerful and tyrannical and unwilling to obey Federal, state, or UTD rules and laws. Can you please send me copies of those two letters? As school board members, you are paid a salary. One of the responsibilities that comes with the office of school board member is to report the superintendent to the authorities when the superintendent is in dereliction of his duties. Many people think Mr. Carvalho crossed that threshold a long time ago. One of the things you might ask Governor Scott and Secretary De Voss to investigate is the fact that suddenly, MDCPS went from 8 failing schools to no failing schools. If this was achieved honestly, that is indeed commendable. If it was done by “cooking the books” the appropriate consequences need to be applied to the deserving parties. If Mr. Carvalho is removed from office, I would like the school board to insist that the new superintendent be someone who is NOT a member of MDCPS. When Mr. Rudy Crew was terminated, Mr. Carvalho was very quickly hired in a process that many consider to be an internal decision by the top bureaucrats of MDCPS, with almost no input from the public. The result was a superintendent that many consider to be one of the most corrupt superintendents we have ever had.

As a high school student, I was required to read a novel called “Moby Dick.” The plot involved a “mad” (i.e. insane) captain named Captain Ahab. Captain Ahab was a whaler from the 19’th century who felt he was unjustly harmed by a whale. Captain Ahab’s all- consuming obsession was to get revenge against that whale. He became so obsessive that he lost all perspective and exposed his ship and his crew to terrible and avoidable danger in his quest to get revenge against the whale that he felt had disrespected him. Captain Ahab’s all- encompassing obsession to get his revenge of the whale led to the death of Captain Ahab, almost the entire crew, and the sinking of the ship. Mr. Carvalho, your character bears a striking resemblance to the character of Captain Ahab. I am told that you have incredibly thin skin. I again want to emphasize that the NKC staff meant no insult to you by exploring conversion to a charter school. If MDCPS had not attempted to force the ULS curriculum on us, and had the district not cut our budget year after year, we would have never explored the conversion process. In all honesty, if blame is to be assigned for NKC’s conversion attempt, the blame lies solely with the district, not NKC. Captain Ahab, you have achieved your goal. The “Carvalho Doctrine” is firmly imbedded in The People’s Republic of MDCPS, and no school in the district, including NKC would ever be stupid enough to exercise their lawful right to explore the conversion process. To do so would be to invite wholly illegal but unpenalized brutal retaliation by the People’s Republic of MDCPS. Everyone knows that Captain Ahab will continue to be fully funded by both the Federal government and Florida, no matter how blatant and obvious His flaunting of the law is. By continuing to persecute NKC for SIX YEARS, all you are doing now is bombing rubble. It appears that you will continue to persecute the NKC staff, and I will continue to write letters to the Florida legislature, and charter schools will become more and more abundant in Miami-Dade County, and at some point, even the meek and mild school board members that bleat at your every command will come to realize that they are better off without you (may that day come quickly.)

During World War Two, there were some German towns located right on the outskirts of concentration camps where hundreds of thousands of innocent people were brutally murdered. For a few years, the horrible stench of burning human flesh permeated these towns. It was impossible for the residents of these towns not to have known what was happening, but nobody, or almost nobody protested against the atrocity that was taking place right under their noses. After the war, these people defended their inaction by saying they feared that if they spoke up, they and their entire families would suffer the same fate. Mr. Gallon, Mr. Feldman, and Ms. Hernandez-Mats, this defense is NOT available to you. You are not going to be put into a concentration camp, you are not going to be arrested, and all three of you are being paid handsome salaries to report Mr. Carvalho if he goes off the rails, and Mr. Carvalho is so far off the rails that he may no longer be aware of where the rails are. Find your courage and do the jobs that you are being very well paid to do.

I have spent three years writing letters to every Florida and Federal politician that I can think of. The reality is that the brutal and unlawful actions of Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez (Screamer) have not diminished even a tiny bit, and they probably never will. In The People’s Republic of MDCPS, policy is altered NOT on the basis of worthiness, but on the basis of income for vendors, or embarrassment to the superintendent. If I continue writing to MDCPS bureaucrats, nothing will ever change, because I have no access to the press, and therefore no power. When I finish this letter, I am going to attempt to network with students from Parkland High School. They are presently nationwide media darlings. I have a hunch that they will not look kindly on a superintendent who appears to be willing to use severely mentally retarded children as bait to “get” teachers who attempted to explore converting to a charter school. They may also not be sympathetic to a principal who sent the best friend of an African-American woman whose daughter was brutally murdered right after her house was heavily damaged by Hurricane Irma to deliver the principal’s threat to involuntarily transfer this grieving grandmother to another school, for the crime of not being meek enough and servile enough when in the presence of the principal. Those students, who are not MDCPS employees cannot be bullied or silenced. If I can contact them and they agree to picket the NKC campus, or speak at a school board meeting, or picket MDCPS headquarters, the media might pick up on the story.

Sincerely,

Bill Detzner

Bill Detzner/7722 S.W. 99 Street/ Miami, FL. 33156

May 9, 2018

Hello Karla Hernandez -Mats,

My name is Bill Detzner, employee 146782. This is the FIFTH certified letter I am sending you. The previous certified letters were sent to you in April 2017, September 23, 2017, October 5, 2017, and October 14, 2017. You can access those four letters, along with the MANY, MANY illegal contract- violating actions of Superintendent Carvalho, and the two administrators at Neva King Cooper(NKC), principal Dr. Tracy Roos and assistant principal Mrs. Alicia Fernandez on my blog. My blog can be accessed at mdcpsallegations.com Karla, you did not have the professionalism, courtesy, or decency to respond to ANY of those four certified letters. Recently, I chatted with a friend who is still teaching at NKC. To my utter astonishment, he/she told me that he/she has had NUMEROUS, in-depth conversations with you regarding the on-going problems that have been plaguing NKC for years. He/She said you have done NOTHING to address those egregious contract violations Ms. Hernandez-Mats, for whatever reason, you CLEARLY are not up to the task of heading the teacher’s union of the nation’s fourth largest school district. An ethical person would step down and not seek reelection for another term as UTD president. I hope you will make that decision. The purpose of this FIFTH certified letter is to make you aware of still more contract violations at Neva King Cooper (NKC) School and ask you to do something that you have never done before, which is to ENFORCE THE CONTRACT. I am also asking that you share this letter with the National Labor Relations Board, any other appropriate

May 9, 2018

Hello Karla Hernandez -Mats,

My name is Bill Detzner, employee 146782. This is the FIFTH certified letter I am sending you. The previous certified letters were sent to you in April 2017, September 23, 2017, October 5, 2017, and October 14, 2017. You can access those four letters, along with the MANY, MANY illegal contract- violating actions of Superintendent Carvalho, and the two administrators at Neva King Cooper(NKC), principal Dr. Tracy Roos and assistant principal Mrs. Alicia Fernandez on my blog. My blog can be accessed at mdcpsallegations.com Karla, you did not have the professionalism, courtesy, or decency to respond to ANY of those four certified letters. Recently, I chatted with a friend who is still teaching at NKC. To my utter astonishment, he/she told me that he/she has had NUMEROUS, in-depth conversations with you regarding the on-going problems that have been plaguing NKC for years. He/She said you have done NOTHING to address those egregious contract violations Ms. Hernandez-Mats, for whatever reason, you CLEARLY are not up to the task of heading the teacher’s union of the nation’s fourth largest school district. An ethical person would step down and not seek reelection for another term as UTD president. I hope you will make that decision, The purpose of this FIFTH certified letter is to make you aware of still more contract violations at Neva King Cooper (NKC) School  and to ask you to do something that you have never done before, which is to ENFORCE THE CONTRACT. I am also asking that you share this letter with the National Labor Relations Boars, any other appropriate

investigative body, all members of the UTD executive council, all school board members, all members of the Superintendent’s Cabinet, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and with your chum, Superintendent Carvalho. Here are the latest contract violations at NKC. Dr. Roos has data chats with both teachers and para-professionals. If it is illegal for Dr. Roos to have data chats with para-professionals, I ask that Dr. Roos be ordered to stop this practice. During these para-professional data chats, Dr. Roos allegedly asked the para-professionals if they were in contact with me (Bill Detzner) during their off-duty hours. Contractually, Dr. Roos does not have the authority to ask staff about off-duty activities that are not in violation of the law. Dr. Roos then allegedly, (also during the para-professional data chats) forbade the para-professionals from having any contact with me during the para-professionals off-duty hours. Again, contractually, Dr. Roos does not have the authority to forbid staff from engaging in activities that are not in violation of the law during their off-duty hours. I suspect that Dr. Roos did this because many, many NKC staff are reporting the contract violations of BOTH Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez to me in their off-duty hours. My guess is that these violations are reported to me because UTD members at NKC have lost all confidence in UTD to enforce the contract, no matter how egregious those contract violations are. I also suspect that UTD members at NKC report contract violations to me because it affords them the luxury of remaining anonymous, and thus safe from retaliation from one or both NKC administrators, while still bringing those contract violations to the uncaring and apathetic attention of UTD. Karla, you give the appearance of suffering from terrible cowardice and timidity. If you can screw up your courage, (perhaps the UTD executive council can buck you up), you might want to send the very rarely seen Caridad Pupo (or whoever the UTD person assigned to NKC is) onto the almost never visited NKC campus and inform Dr. Roos that forbidding NKC employees from having contact with me is a bit like throwing gasoline onto a fire in an attempt to extinguish that fire. My phone rang off the hook with reports of this incident. This is NOT the first time that Dr. Roos has forbidden staff members from having contact with other people in their off-duty hours. As I explained to you in great deal in one of my previous UNANSWERED letters, after Dr. Roos allegedly tricked and trapped me by ordering me to write a letter urging parents to join the school PTA. Dr. Roos then read my letter, APPROVED it, and told me to have the school secretary type it up for mass distribution to parents. Dr. Roos then received one of her famous “anonymous” phone calls, informing her I had violated an obscure rule forbidding PTA business to be discussed on a paper containing the school letterhead. During the THREE subsequent meetings attended by both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez where I was SCREAMED at and spoken to very disrespectfully by both administrators, Dr. Roos demanded that I tell her (Dr. Roos) whether I was in contact with either of the two former NKC administrators (Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Henny Cristobol) who had been illegally removed by MDCPS from their posts as NKC administrators prior to the end of the school year. (This is covered in legal case DOAH13-1492) Although my off-duty contact with associates had NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with a PTA letter I had written, I was afraid that if I declined to answer this question, I would be written up for insubordination. Although at that point I had been a UTD member for THIRTY YEARS and had in the past been the UTD steward at my school for 10 years, my fear that was UTD would fail utterly to back me up if I reported this incident, and the look the other way when Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez then retaliated against me for reporting their illegal activities. I therefore very meekly and truthfully answered their illegal question, and I never reported the incident. However, I am now a retired member of UTD. Neither Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez can retaliate against me, so on behalf of the terrified UTD members of NKC, I am asking UTD to ENFORCE THE CONTRACT and forbid BOTH NKC administrators from asking any contractually unauthorized questions of NKC staff. To complete the story of what appears to be a deliberately set trap for me by BOTH NKC administrators, Dr. Roos threatened to place a disciplinary letter in my file for carrying out her order to distribute a PTA recruitment letter to parents that she ordered me to write, and then approved. I was saved from this NOT by UTD, but by a powerful friend who tipped off MDCPS officials who called Dr. Roos to a meeting and ordered Dr.Roos to apologize to me and not place a letter of reprimand against me. At that meeting, Dr. Roos promised not to retaliate against me. Dr. Roos word seems to be worth very little, as she failed to keep this promise.

Given the fact that both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez have BOTH engaged in numerous egregious contract violations over the past 6 years, I am asking Mrs. Hernandez-Mats to submit a written request to Mr. Carvalho asking that both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez be removed from their posts as NKC administrators as quickly as possible. Furthermore, if an investigation (preferably by an agency not affiliated with MDCPS) finds illegal activities by one or both of these administrators, I ask that penalties commensurate with their offenses be assigned to them. The staff at NKC have a fear that Mr. Carvalho, in an effort to further punish NKC for its legal attempt to convert from a public school to a charter school (DOAH13-1492) will appoint new administrators to NKC that are as bad or worse than the present administrators. (During His one and only visit to NKC, shortly after He illegally removed BOTH NKC administrators DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR) Mr. Carvalho made a very sinister statement to the NKC secretaries. He said: “This is a Miami Dade County Public School. This will always be a Miami Dade County Public School, and if anyone wants to change that, they are going to have to come through me.” To prevent possible further retaliation against the NKC staff, I am asking that Mrs. Hernandez-Mats submit a written request to Mr. Carvalho that principal Alberto Fernandez and assistant principal Mr. Henny Cristobol be named as the new NKC administrators. (They were the previous NKC administrators, prior to their illegal removal by Mr. Carvalho.) Due to the many egregious contract violations that have occurred at NKC, and I suspect throughout MDCPS, I am also asking Mrs. Hernandez-Mats to submit a written request that the National Labor Relations Board (or whatever the appropriate investigative agency is) do a system wide audit of MDCPS. Again, if violations are found, I ask that penalties commensurate with those violations be assigned to the appropriate officials. If possible, I would like to receive copies of the letters that Mrs. Hernandez-Mats sends to investigative bodies. I am including with this letter (as I have several times in the past) a paper titled “Fourteen Problem Situations at Neva King Cooper School.”

Here are some, but not all of the incidents that I believe merit both the administrator changes at NKC, and the MDCPS system wide audit by members of the National Labor Relations Board. As I have discussed these incidents at length in my blog, I will merely list them here. 1) Dr. Ross has allegedly physically assaulted at least one NKC staff member, (and perhaps more than one staff member) That alleged victim has since transferred to another MDCPS work site. If that person can be protected from retaliation by MDCPS, perhaps he/she may be willing to come forward and testify. 2) In DOAH145-2439, Ms. Luz Morales was improperly terminated from employment, on the recommendation of Dr. Roos. The case against Ms. Morales was so weak that MDCPS called NOT A SINGLE WITNESS to defend its illegal action, and Ms. Morales was ordered to be reinstated, recovering 50% of her lost wages. 3) Shortly after her home was seriously damaged by Hurricane Irma, an African-American para-professional at NKC named Mrs. Green experienced the tragedy of the murder of her daughter. The alleged perpetrator was Mrs. Green’s son-in-law. Mrs. Green’s five- year- old grandson was at home at the time of this brutal murder, and was seriously traumatized by the event. Possibly because she felt Mrs. Green was authorized more emergency leave time than Dr. Roos felt was merited, Dr. Roos then allegedly ordered an African-American custodian named Aaron Jackson to tell Mrs. Green that Dr. Roos was considering involuntarily transferring Mrs. Green to another school. Allegedly, when this incident caused unfavorable consequences for Dr. Roos, Dr. Roos then allegedly summoned Mr. Aaron Jackson to a closed -door meeting in Dr. Roos office and Dr. Roos allegedly threatened to terminate Mr. Jackson’s employment unless Mr. Jackson issued a statement stating that Dr. Roos had not ordered Mr. Jackson to deliver this threat to Mrs. Green. Although MDCPS scheduled two meetings with Mrs. Green to discuss this incident, MDCPS cancelled both of these meetings, and the meeting never took place. MDCPS gives the appearance of being so arrogant that Mrs. Green is not even entitled to an explanation of MDCPS inexcusable behavior. If Dr. Roos and Mrs. Frenandez follow their past practices, both Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Green will be left alone for the remainder of the 2017-2018 school year. However, during the 2018-2019 school year it is entirely possible that Dr. Roos may receive one of her famous “anonymous” phone calls, accusing Mrs. Green and or Mr. Jackson of sexually or physically abusing a child, or some other potentially career ending charge. 4) On very short notice, Mr. Rick Massa, a strong supporter of exploring converting NKC to a charter school, was summoned to a meeting downtown. Mr. Massa’s lawyer was not allowed to attend this meeting. At that meeting, MDCPS officials told Mr. Massa he had two options. Those two options were to retire immediately or be terminated immediately. What Mr. Massa was NOT told was that due to the fact that almost all charges against him had been dropped, due to a lack of evidence, and the only unresolved charge was of a very minor nature, he had a third option, which was to simply exit that meeting and continue his teaching career. Fortunately for Mr. Massa, his attorney made him aware of this option, which he exercised. 5) Mrs. Alicia Fernandez wrote up possibly career ending charges against Mr. Massa, charging Mr. Massa with cheating on the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA). The FAA is the high stakes annual achievement test given to Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) students. As only a few copies of the test are given to the school, the testing materials are shared among several teachers. When Mr. Massa received those testing materials, they had already been used by a first-year rookie teacher, who had circled in pencil the correct answer to each question. When Mr. Massa received those testing materials, he immediately took them to assistant principal Mrs. Alicia Fernandez, in her office and showed the marked testing materials to Mrs. Fernandez. THERE WAS ANOTHER ROOKIE TEACHER PRESENT IN MRS FERNANDEZ OFFICE WHO WITNESSED THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION BETWEEN MR MASSA AND MRS FERNANDEZ. Mrs. Fernandez thanked Mr. Massa for this information and ordered Mr. Massa to go to his classroom and administer the test. Mrs. Fernandez then waited 15-20 minutes, used her master key to enter Mr. Massa’s classroom, and was SHOCKED, SHOCKED to discover that Mr. Massa was “cheating” on the test. Mr. Massa then went back to this rookie teacher and asked if he/she would be willing to testify to what he/she witnessed. Due to the new rules, tenure no longer happens, and a teacher can be dismissed at the end of the school year for his/her entire career. This teacher said he/she had a family to feed, and greatly feared termination of employment if he/she testified. This teacher still works at NKC If this teacher can be protected from retaliation by MDCPS, perhaps he/she will be willing to testify. This will reveal that Mrs. Fernandez allegedly both knowingly and willfully filed false charges against Mr. Massa, and then allegedly perjured herself in her deposition at Mr. Massa’s pending lawsuit against MDCPS 6) A student in Mr. Massa’s class, who has it written on his Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that he is prone to choking incidents, began to choke on his food one day in the cafeteria. Mr. Massa took immediate appropriate action, and the child ejected the food without losing consciousness. The child then went back to eating his lunch. Although both our on-site nursing staff and the ambulance crew that Dr. Roos summoned to the school found the child to be fine, and suffering no harm, Dr. Roos chose to write Mr. Massa up on I believe child neglect/child endangerment charges. As the entire school eats in the cafeteria at the same time, and thus witnessed this event, the opinion of the staff is that Dr. Roos has made the decision to use choking incidents as a weapon to file potentially career-ending charges against staff she doesn’t like, even if the staff member takes immediate appropriate action, and is not responsible for the occurrence of the choking incident. As a result of this fear, a staff member who has a student who begins to choke, fearing his/her job may be at stake, may hesitate for 30-60 seconds before notifying administrators or the nursing staff, hoping the child spontaneously ejects his/ her food. That 30-60 second delay can mean the difference between life and death for a Profoundly Mentally Handicapped child, as it can take 2-3 minutes to dislodge the food a child is choking on. While it is true that our school has an on-site nursing staff, during the 3 near death stopped breathing incidents that happened while I taught at NKC, it was NOT the nursing staff, but a teacher who was also a fully trained paramedic who rode ambulances on weekends who saved those three lives. That teacher was Mr. Frank Lozada. Regrettably, Mr. Lozada has joined the LONG, LONG line of staff who have left NKC since Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez became the NKC administrators. I have sent Superintendent Carvalho FOUR certified letters telling him of this entirely preventable accidental choking death danger at NKC. Mr. Carvalho has not seen fit to reply to any of those letters, nor has he instituted any of the 3 steps I suggested that would eliminate this entirely preventable danger. Mr. Carvalho gives the appearance of being willing to use Profoundly Mentally Handicapped children as bait to get rid of teachers who dared to explore converting from a public school to a charter school, even if this tactic results in a horrible choking death by one or more profoundly mentally handicapped children. 7) Dr. Roos filed charges against Mr. Rick Massa for possibly sexually molesting a child. The entire NKC staff is aware of these charges. My guess is that these charges caused Mr. Massa a great deal of embarrassment, and loss of esteem by his colleagues. Investigators might want to interview any paraprofessional who worked with Mr. Massa during the year these charges were filed against him (I believe it was the 2014-2015 school year) to see if Dr. Roos pressured them (those paraprofessionals) to make knowingly false statements against Mr. Massa. 8) A yawning chasm seems to exist between the disciplinary action Dr. Roos appears to take against those teachers who supported converting to a charter school as opposed to those who did not support converting to a charter school. Those who supported exploring the conversion process seem to have draconian disciplinary charges leveled against them, with evidence that appears to be either flimsy, or even wholly false. Those who opposed the conversion process to a charter school seem to get off without even a slap on the wrist, even when they commit potentially career-ending offenses. An example of this occurred in I believe the 2015-2016 school year. A para-professional, who still works at NKC, came to Dr. Roos and reported that she (the para-professional) had witnessed a teacher using corporal punishment on a student. The teacher who used corporal punishment to punish a student was strongly opposed to converting to a charter school. He/She was also one of the very few staff that Dr. Roos appeared to approve of. Under law, Dr. Roos is OBLIGATED to report any suspected child abuse to the authorities. Failure to do so can result in the permanent revocation of Dr. Roos professional licenses. Dr. Roos allegedly failed to report this incident, and merely transferred the child to another class. That para-professional is still working at NKC. Perhaps if he/she is guaranteed protection from retaliation by MDCPS, he/she will be willing to testify. That would also make it possible to determine whether or not Dr. Roos followed the MANDATORY abuse reporting procedures. 9) Shortly after Mr. Brett Brown, the UTD steward at our school testified on behalf of Ms. Luz Morales at her illegal termination hearing (DOAH145-2439), Dr. Roos received one of her famous “anonymous” phone calls, alleging that Mr. Brown, and the two paraprofessionals assigned to his classroom, Ms. Yolanda Deya, and Ms. Zenaida Castellanos were using a ruler to administer corporal punishment to one of the students in that classroom. This happened during the end of the 2014-2015 school year. Again, it should be checked to see if Dr. Roos took the MANDATORY step of reporting this “anonymous” phone call regarding alleged child abuse to the authorities. 10) For the last six years, Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez have had some of the lowest ratings on BOTH the staff and parent satisfaction surveys in the entire MDCPS district. Additionally, the NKC staff turnover percentage rate is also among the highest in the district. Why do you suppose that is? In contrast, the previous NKC administrators, Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Henny Cristobol were very highly evaluated for several years on BOTH the staff and parent satisfaction surveys. BY MDCPS own measure, Dr. Alberto Fernandez was rated one year as the most effective administrator in the district. 11) The Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA) has been administered to NKC student for many years. When Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Henny Cristobol were the NKC administrators, NKC students performed very poorly on this test, year after year. In the 6 years that Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez have been the NKC administrators, student performance on this test has skyrocketed. Year after year, under Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez, NKC student are achieving test scores that are statistically improbable. It should be noted that Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez receive financial bonuses for these amazing test results. There are two people who are no longer at NKC who were heavily involved in the testing process who may be able to shed some light on how these remarkable test results have been achieved. If they can be protected from retaliation from MDCPS, perhaps they will be willing to testify.

A person not familiar with how MDCPS operates could be forgiven for believing that as a result of these actions, both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez had been dismissed from their posts, and awaiting trial, or perhaps serving prison sentences. Regrettably, MDCPS is not a typical school district. It operates more like a criminal enterprise, with Al Carvalho playing the part of the Godfather. Dr. Roos is a loyal and unquestioning lieutenant, appearing to be willing to carry out ANY order to rid NKC of all supporters of exploring conversion to a charter school. To my utter astonishment, I found that Dr. Roos was nominated for the highly prestigious Principal of the Year award this year. If Dr. Roos is one of the finest principals in MDCPS, can you imagine what the poorly performing administrators must be like?

Recently, a very fine and professional NKC teacher with over 30 years of teaching experience who is a UTD member, allegedly went on an uncontrollable crying jag at school that lasted for hours. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, I know what you are probably asking yourself: “What could she possibly be crying about? Doesn’t she know how lucky she is to have a boss who was one of the nominees for Principal of the Year???” Ms. Hernandez Mats, do you suppose that having to endure FOR SIX YEARS the strain of seeing several of your colleagues charged with potentially career ending offenses, and on any given day, knowing you could be next, on scant or possibly wholly false evidence, with UTD nowhere to be found, with administrators who have received not so much as a slap on the wrist for their numerous egregious contract violations, and a principal who is a candidate for Principal of the Year could have had an adverse effect on this poor soul’s well-being? Ms. Hernandez-Mats, that teacher pays $800 per year to be a UTD member. As far as I can see, all he/she gets for $800 is a desk calendar. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, do you think that is good value for money? If UTD members at NKC were offered a prize of one million dollars if they could identify the UTD organizer for NKC out of a line-up, I don’t think anyone, including the NKC building steward could collect on that offer. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, if you were a rank and file UTD member, would you vote to retain as president someone with your record during the last two years?

A few months ago, Hollywood was rocked by a scandal involving one of the titans of the industry. A few very brave women risked career suicide to step forward and accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse. It turned out that fear was the only thing keeping things quiet. It was common knowledge that if only one or two brave souls tried to be whistleblowers, they would be utterly destroyed. Once more than a few courageous people stepped forward, the dam broke, and it was revealed that Mr. Weinstein’s alleged abuses involved very large numbers of women and stretched back over decades. Then it was revealed that Mr. Weinstein was not a lone wolf, and that in fact, it was a fairly common occurrence for the powerful in the industry to abuse underlings who had little power. The “Me Too” Movement was born. You might be saying, if those actors had a union, this systemic sexual exploitation could not have been so widespread and so prolonged. That assumption is incorrect. The actors DID have a union. The name of their union is The Screen Actors Guild, and as you can see, it failed utterly to protect its members from unwanted sexual advances. Perhaps the president of the Screen Actors Guild thought it was ok if union members were sexually exploited, as long as things were swept under the carpet and he or she continued to receive a very generous salary as president of that union. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, would you and I be in agreement that a union that is either unwilling or unable to protect its members from exploitation is just a make- believe union? Ms. Hernandez-Mats, I am proposing that during your watch (and perhaps even before you became the UTD president),UTD became (and still is) a make- believe union, and either cannot, or will not protect its members from exploitation from both Mr. Carvalho and from school site administrators. For example, you have known for quite some time that Dr. Roos allegedly physically assaulted at least one member of the NKC staff. You have done NOTHING with this information. Has Dr. Roos and or Mrs. Fernandez allegedly physically assaulted more than one NKC employee? You don’t know, and you seem remarkably uncurious about the answer to this question. Have other school site administrators allegedly physically assaulted one or more of their staff? Again, I am betting that you neither know or are very curious about the answer to this question. How about alleged sexual assaults, either by administrators against staff, or staff against other staff. I am betting that you also do not know the answer to this question. I am hoping that physical and or sexual abuse experienced by MDCPS employees is NOT ok with you, even if it stays under the carpet, and even if in spite of this, you continue to receive your very generous six figure salary. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, MDCPS will NEVER investigate this matter. That is why I am urging you in the strongest terms to write a request for a systemwide audit of MDCPS by the National Labor Relations Board. Otherwise, in a few years, people may talk about how UTD members were exploited while you happily drew your six- figure salary.

Europe has experienced a massive influx of refugees in recent years. The internet now contains numerous stories saying certain parts of numerous European cities have become so dangerous and crime ridden that the police no longer venture into those parts of town. The areas of cities where European policemen no longer dare to go are called “no go zones.” Ms. Hernandez-Mats, does MDCPS have “no go schools,” places where abuse of the contract by school site administrators is so egregious and pervasive that UTD officials no longer dare to go there? I have a feeling you know the answer to that question as well as I do. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, I used to work in a “no go school.” That school is NKC. Not only do you and the union organizer Caridad Pupo not dare to go there, you don’t even dare to answer the 4 certified letters I have sent you! Is NKC the only “no go school” in MDCPS? I seriously doubt that. I am willing to hazard a guess that a significant and GROWING percentage of Miami Dade County Public Schools are becoming “no go schools” for UTD. I am also willing to bet that for all practical purposes, the “contract” between MDCPS and UTD no longer exists. My guess is that it is no longer a “contract,” but a “suggestion” that school site administrators are free to violate with impunity.

In biology, there is a term for an organism that takes from another organism without giving anything in return back to its host, and then either harming or even killing the host in that process. Biologists call such an organism a parasite. Ms. Hernandez-Mats would it be fair and accurate to say that UTD has become a parasitic organization? I think the answer to that question is an emphatic YES! Here is why I say that. UTD charges members $800 per year to be a part of UTD. The union has two basic functions, which are to secure adequate salaries/benefits, and to enforce the contract. UTD has failed utterly at both these tasks. How about the last part of the definition; the part that says “while harming or even killing the host in the process.” Recently, Mr. Carvalho torpedoed his chances of becoming the Chancellor of New York City Schools. Many UTD people, myself included, would say that Mr. Carvalho has by a landslide been the WORST superintendent MDCPS has ever had. Although MDCPS teachers have significantly improved test scores, wages have been frozen for years. Prior to Mr. Carvalho, the contract was largely observed by MDCPS. Under Mr. Carvalho, the contract has become little more than a worthless scrap of paper. When Mr. Carvalho hosted his recent “please beg me to stay” circus, you, Mrs. Hernandez-Mats willingly joined Mr. Carvalho’s amen chorus! I heard that you used UTD funds to host a party when it was discovered that we would not be rid of the curse of Mr. Carvalho after all. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, I know a great many UTD members who consider your urging Mr. Carvalho to stay in MDCPS, and then spending UTD money to throw a party when he took that horrible advice to be treason to the hopes and aspirations of the UTD rank and file. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, it seems that the goals of you as UTD president are diametrically opposed to the goals of UTD members. Mr. Carvalho is as welcome as cancer to most UTD members that I know.   Getting back to that poor soul from NKC who allegedly had an hours long uncontrollable crying jag on the NKC campus, will he/she be better off, or worse if UTD ceases to exist? My guess is that he/she will be better off if UTD ceases to exist. Here is why. At NKC, the contract has not existed for the last 6 years. If UTD ceases to exist, this poor soul will still be utterly at the mercy of Dr. Roos, but he/she will have $800 more in his/her pocket. Ms. Hernandez-Mats, this may be hard for you to hear from a 30- year UTD member who was also a building steward for 10 years, and a member of the retired UTD chapter, but if UTD ceases to exist, the only difference it will make is that former members are $800 richer. Only a fool or a sucker would pay $800 a year for an organization that does nothing except give them a desk calendar once a year.

I got a frantic email saying that if UTD is unable to achieve 50% membership of the bargaining unit, it will be decertified. Fifty percent membership seems like a ridiculously low bar to achieve, but as I said before, only a fool would give $800 a year to an organization that neither provides a decent salary or enforces the contract.

Many of my UTD friends are puzzled by the fact that even though UTD is literally fighting for its life, President Hernandez-Mats seems nearly catatonic. I hope I am wrong about this, Ms. Hernandez Mats, but I can’t help but think that you engage in activities that seem suicidal in terms of UTD’s survival (such as spending UTD funds to throw a celebratory party for Mr. Carvalho’s unfortunate decision to remain in MDCPS) because you have been captured by an anti-union organization. Is it possible that you have been offered a lucrative, multi-year contract with an anti- educational union think tank in exchange for your cooperation in the destruction of UTD?

Some of my friends have warned me that this letter may result in you (Ms. Hernandez-Mats) using scarce UTD funds to get a court injunction against me to silence my criticism of your leadership of UTD. I don’t know if my friends are being paranoid or realistic, but to protect myself, I have given several friends copies of this letter and copies of my blog, and permission to publish and distribute any part of my blog they wish when it comes time for the next UTD presidential election. In closing, Ms. Hernandez-Mats, I would again like to urge you in the strongest terms to NOT seek reelection as the UTD president. You clearly are NOT up to the task. Finally, I want to emphasize that my membership in the retired chapter of UTD does NOT mean I believe in the union or have any confidence in it. I belong to UTD ONLY to give me legal standing to report the numerous abuses at NKC that terrified UTD members there are too frightened to report.

In Unity,

Bill Detzner

Bill Detzner/ 7722 S.W. 99 Street/ Miami, Fl. 33156