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Seattle Superintendent Jose Banda Announcement (2012)

Jose Banda

A few months ago, a new Seattle Schools Superintendent was announced and Jose Banda is his name. He said in his own words that he, “plans on taking it slow” to look at all the data.  Supposedly, he likes reviewing the numbers/data before making the hard decisions.  We of course have reported the issues with the previous Seattle Superintendent Maria Goodloe Johnson.  I would like to give Jose Banda the benefit of a clean slate since he is just starting out but we unfortunately are already starting off on the wrong foot.  I blame the Seattle School board and the City Council for this mess and you should also.  I have said it time and time again on the Emerald City Journal and that changes in the School Districts must start at the top.  Upper management spends all the money on themselves, and the pennies left are trickled down to the Teachers who are usually forced to pay for their classroom supplies (and other student expenses). This doesn’t just happen in Seattle; however, you’ll see this bad practice all over the state and the teachers just accept it as their problem. Teachers shouldn’t have to be ok with paying for their own supplies. That is not ok.

Previously, Maria Goodloe Johnson was being paid a fortune and it turns out Jose Banda got an even better deal.  His annual salary (with 3-year contract) is $270,000.  Are you kidding me? He also will be making (it’s unsure if this is additional or included) an annual $22,000 and $700 per month car expenses to help him out.  Obviously, money is not an issue at the Schools here in Seattle!  Seriously, it’s just corruption to pay something this much when the school could have hired 3 superintendents for that kind of money.  3 Superintendents working together to clean up the schools would have produced better results in the end.

Take note, you heard the complaint here first and when the question comes asking for more money (I expect that anytime), you’ll know who to ask to borrow a few bucks from (Welcome Jose Banda).

The press release indicates that during Wednesday’s School Board meeting (May 2), the full board anticipates formally identifying Mr. Banda as their preferred candidate, with a subsequent vote on the contract slated for May 16. Subject to approval, the incoming Superintendent would assume the role post-July 1. Mr. Banda is set to succeed Maria Goodloe-Johnson, who was dismissed last year amid a financial scandal. Notably, two other candidates for the superintendent position—Steven Enoch from San Ramon Valley, near San Francisco, and Sandra Husk from Salem-Keizer, Oregon—withdrew after their interviews. Mr. Banda brings with him four years of experience as superintendent of the Anaheim district, serving 20,000 students, while the Seattle district, where he is poised to serve next, is the largest in Washington, catering to over 47,000 students.

Update about Jose Banda: June 20, 2014, Jose Banda announced he was a finalist for Superintendent of Sacramento City Unified School District and wouldn’t be renewing his contract in Seattle.

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Arsonist Arrested For Fire At 6710 Corson Ave. Georgetown

The SPD Blotter has reported that the Arsonist for the fire at 6710 Corson Ave. in Georgetown has been arrested. I thought the report should be copied and pasted verbatim, but now want to add my spin to the on going saga with some pictures.  The previous article about the Arson fire was posted the morning after the fire and at that time all the officials that were talking to us all gave me the impression that the building would be torn down. I was standing talking to the owner Allen Hua at the time and I think he thought it was going to have to be bulldozed. They had not let him in to look at it yet. That was then and this is now. I am posting 3 pictures taken 2/16/12. If you look at all three you can see the entire top floor was on fire. The flames were shooting out of the windows until the fireman could get the people off the roof and cut holes in the roof so the fire could go straight up. If you look at the white light in the first picture you can see daylight through a hole in the roof.  The night of the fire I could stand on my balcony (I was very close to the fire and could see the fireman going to the roof from inside). That being the case it had to burn the ceilings all out and I am sure it could not have missed doing damage to the studs or beams or whatever holds a roof up. Partitions are all burned. One fireman told me the entire top floor would have to be torn off at the very least but said he was not a building inspector. That is not happening now it seems.

The place has been nothing but a hot bed of trouble for years. Drug sales, prostitution, fights, and all of us neighbors get to listen to the most filthy talk. It appears the owner is going to just be able to cobble it together, cover the burned stuff with plywood. His last fight with the city at another slumlord complex (he owns 6) he fought on the fact that they were discriminating against a poor Chinese farmer. He lives in a million dollar home in Issaquah and keeps these dumps open because he will rent to people who do not dare fill out a credit check or prove anything. I read where he makes approx $195,000 a year on these so called “low rent” places. We neighbors have no recourse, police, fire department, everyone is aware of the problems at 6710 Corson but do absolutely nothing to correct the situation. I would think after a certain amount of drug over doses, people sitting on the curb hand cuffed, the place would be boarded up. I have had to have bars put on my windows and have always been expecting the place to burn up. You can’t have 11 (single occupancy rooms) with several buddies (visiting) 24/7 doing drugs, fighting, drinking and not expect something bad to happen. One time I thought one guy was going to kill another one (yelling that he was). I called 911 and they arrested the fellow. I ended up with a subpoena to come to court. Wasted a whole day. I got paid $10.00 before taxes and neither guy even showed up.

I do not know how to end the cycle there but felt I should put it in the paper for Independent Thinkers and hope some of  you will get to thinking and leave comments below. LLL

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Arson Fire in Georgetown

During the night of Jan. 22 and morning of Jan 23 there was a huge apartment house fire at 6710 Corson Ave. This fire was ARSON. It is a three story building and the entire top floor was engulfed in flames. This happened right between wind storms or the house right beside it would be gone too. At least 8 people lost their homes and everything they owned. No one got killed. The tenants were lined up across the street for a few hours with nothing but what they had on their backs when they escaped. Approx 3 hours later a red cross car arrived and handed out blankets. Another couple hours later a red cross van came and took them all away.  A photographer took pictures of that so it was basically a Red Cross photo op.

This apartment house has been a hot bed of trouble. It might be what you call low low income people but I want to expand on that a little. These were housekeeping rooms and I believe there were 2 apartments that had their own bath, so there was a lot of people that had to go down the hall and share a bathtub on the main floor or go to the basement or upstairs to share a shower. Lots of street people or people who would park an old motor home on a side street would come and use the facilities. It was impossible to know how many or who really lived there. The police and fireman came at least once a month for drug busts, or over doses or fights, you name it and it happened over there. This was an accident waiting to happen. Why I wanted to expand on low income it appeared to be non working people who paid HIGH RENT because this was a place where the landlord did not do a background check. He got paid double what the room was worth and if you didn’t like it you couldn’t just move because half didn’t even use their right name. One would rent a room and a few buddies moved in. The place should have been closed down years ago but somehow managed to exist. Fights where yelling was I am going to kill you etc. over and over and over. Until the 23rd.

Fireman, detectives, a tenant that lived there, and the owner of the building all have told me it was ARSON. Right on the start they said it was. I am not sure how they could tell immediately but that seemed to be obvious to them all. There have been several versions which is common to any story. But when I asked one fireman if he thought a firebug was loose and we neighbors were in danger he said he didn’t think so. He said this fire was set to hurt or kill someone on the top floor. It was set in the doorway at the top of the back stairs. A fire bug that wants to watch a fire would usually just torch something at the ground level and make a fast get away. Also, a tenant said just before the fire there was a loud explosion which woke them and they all escaped because of that. Of course the detectives, fireman or police are not going to tell any of us neighbors the details and we know that but none the less this was a BIG BIG STORY. That being the case why was it not on the front page of the Times? Why was it not on every TV channel as a leading Seattle news story? KIRO and KOMO had about a 2 second spot of the red cross handing out blankets. No story about how big the fire was, no story about ARSON.  How can that be. It is scary to think you are actually getting the news when you read the only paper in town or watch the local news. If a story this big and important wasn’t mentioned how many other really important things are they NOT telling us. My point completely is we are only told what officials want us to be told.  That is very scary. I am going to try to find out from the times why they did not even mention it at all. Hope all of you readers do too. I am sure you can check with the fire department to know my story is true. At least 3 blocks of Corson Ave was full of fire trucks, medics, etc. LLL

 

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We Cant Bring Back Yesterday

We cant bring back yesterday. What we do today is all that counts. Tomorrow might not ever come. Monday morning quarterbacking is always easier than playing the game. The prison guard is dead.

I want to base my article on what I think was a preventable death of Correction Officer Jayme Biendl. She was murdered on the job by Byron Scherf. He was serving a life sentence for rape and I am not sure what else. He had nothing to lose. He hid in the chapel and waited for her. I want to state very clearly I don’t know a thing about the rules and regulation of the prison system or its Correction Officer. I am doing “independent thinking’ how yesterdays laws and rules and protections all failed. This is hypothetical and I am not faulting anyone. But the first thing that comes to mind is how did a beautiful little blond female get the job of guarding a chapel full of THREE STRIKE RAPISTS and other criminals? This is where the laws and rules come in. I think she got her job because some law said she was entitled to it as much as a man. If she had been turned down all sorts of Agencies would have jumped in and raised a big stink. I don’t know the exact names but this is close enough, Human rights, Female rights, discrimination rights, Equal Opportunity all fight to make sure a female can be a fireman or policeman or anything that a man can. They can train, they can be smart but they can never be equal to a man when brute force is needed. You cant train to be taller, or fight like a man. But we learned that yesterday in her case.  She was an accident waiting to happen and she had expressed her fear, but she had a job and had to stick to it. I am a 4′ 11′ female(really old and grey now) but I could not train to be a nurse or be a WAAC in WWII because you had to be 5’7” to be strong enough to lift patients. I understood that. No law could make be bigger or make them let me join.

Why do these losers get to leave their cells and go to a chapel? I suppose all sorts of laws about religion come in to play. That rapist did not need to go to the Chapel. He could say his “I lay me down to sleep” prayer right by his steel bunk with bars on his door. If God was supposed to hear him he would. I have a feeling while he was hiding in the chapel waiting to rape and murder her if someone had offered a prayer, he would have said “go ahead and pray but do it quietly so you don’t disturb me”. He was busy planning his evening FUN. He had absolutely nothing to lose. He had his pants down. If it had been a 250 lb male on duty “yesterday” she would be alive “today”.

If you had a room full of ordinary people, no lawmakers and asked if a beautiful little blond female should be put in charge of a chapel full of life sentence criminals they would all say NO. It did not have to happen.  Byron Scherf says he did it, says wants to die for doing it but now comes in some more rules/laws that says he has to have a trial. This is nothing more than an employment agency for lawyers it seems.

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