Marketing Mayhem

Have you ever wondered why you, as an English speaker, have to read El Nuevo Herald to get any news critical of Crew or MDCPS?

Would the fact that MDCPS pays The Herald an average of $70 thousand a month versus $24 a month to El Nuevo Herald for the same period of 20 months have anything to do with the apparent bias? (see http://checkregister.dadeschools.net/ and type in your favorite favored vendor). Notice the $200k this past February and again last October!

Why wasn't the Herald notified/present at UTD's Stewards' march on the School Board 3/20/08? Kathy McRory said UTD never notified her. I sent them a press release the day before and they showed up late after we'd left.

Do the Herald/UTD/MDCPS have something to gain by suppressing teacher unrest while proclaiming the woes of administration?

Consider the Miami New Times coverage over the last couple weeks: news of Evelyn Greer's son's Carlisle Group being lobbyied for (to the tune of $5 million) by Rudy Crew (on behalf of the school board, a move that had NOT been discussed by the board) while the Wall Street Journal (March 12) proclaims Greer's son's company is in trouble with failed financing. Isn't this newsworthy? The memo Crew wrote is widely circulated and was offered to the Herald, they did not respond to the offer.

How about the recent revelation in the New Times that the School Board warehouses dozens of teachers in administrative offices because they engage in critical activities (consider the cases of Shawn Beightol and Patrick "Taz" Williams, the former "locked away" for questioning publicly the burgeoning downtown administrative salaries, the latter for questioning his school's Small Learning Communities grant status - an issue highlighted by the auditor general's February 08 report - when it showed in the red - both exonerated with "No Probable Cause") - No press from the herald when such activity strains the budget further by causing double payments.

How about the recent revelation that the current administrator in charge of night school/adult ed is has no college degree and was placed in his position by Cuevas and now purchases curriculum from Cuevas' company, New Century Learning?

How about Evelyn Greer's botched land sale that was covered by Wakefield in the Sunpost?

I guess conflict of interest is not news when the news organ is also guilty of violating this ethical principal.

The culture of fear that has been engendered by the current MDCPS administration is pervasive and effective - information is suppressed to help control the populace.

Regards,

Shawn Beightol
UTD Designated Steward,
Michael Krop Sr. High