26May2018

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