A lot of damage to our school in just 1 year

I just returned from meeting the Marin Parents for Public Montessori (I admire that their name includes the word "public") meeting where the parent are struggling to be heard by the board. They have seen a big cut in the number of instructional aide hours and the District has assigned aides that don't meet their needs because they are not available at opportune times, do not know their children or the program.

The program parents voted to pay for more aide time out of their own precious parent pledge funds. I hope the two incumbents who joined me heard them. Yet, considering how both Denise and Richard spent nearly all their time touting their great deeds only Richard responded to the parents by repeating the need for what they just voted to do.

The District cut aide time District-wide by 75% in the past two years (although it has restored some this year). This has not only increased the workload and stress of our teachers (I volunteer on Monday mornings so the 2nd/3rd grade Waldorf teacher can go to the bathroom) but is subtly shifting the burden to pay for teachers to us parents. According to California court precedent it is unconstitutional to require parents to pay for their children's "public" education.

At the Q and A last week with the two District unions Denise denied any money is being spent on teachers. This decision tonight demonstrates either that she is mis-informed or mis-informing.

However, the refrain from both the incumbents is that "everyone knows me" but "no one knows Robert Ovetz." I know they both graduated from high school and college a long time ago (Denise does not credit herself as having ever attended college) but a google search on the internet for "Robert Ovetz" is quite straight forward to do. I have a long record of working and advocating on behalf of the public interest, the public sector and the environment—including 3 years in Forest Knolls.

It may have taken the incumbents nearly 50 years to build up our amazing programs but look at the damage they have caused in the past year, just 1 year.