Tassajara Prep Fact Check
The founders of Tassajara Prep would like to thank everyone who took the time to attend the recent town hall meetings. We received tremendous feedback from supporters who are excited about the promise of Tassajara Prep and stakeholders who expressed concerns. The concerns raised fall into four distinct categories:
- Harm
- Adequacy
- Need
- Affordability
We were grateful for the opportunity to respond to these concerns at the town hall meetings, and we would like to share our answers with the Around Dublin readers on the page “Myths about Tassajara Prep” at our website.
The founders respect the position taken by some of our fiercest critics. We applaud them for taking our volunteer initiative seriously and asking tough questions about Tassajara Prep. In fact, both Superintendent Stephen Hanke and Board of Trustees President David Haubert came to our first town hall meeting. The process of getting a charter petition approved is supposed to be grueling, and Tassajara Prep will ultimately be that much better because of the intensely critical feedback from our most vociferous and strident detractors.
4:59 PM on December 25th, 2009
I have read a lot of positive information about the new school on this site but lost a lot of respect for this blog when I read through the Dublin Learning Center’s website and found that the publisher of this blog is on the Board of Director’s and its Treasurer.
It is pretty basic journalistic ethics to disclose this type of information.
4:06 PM on December 26th, 2009
Uh, under what rock did you just crawl out of? Seriously, everyone in town knows where Mr. Zukoski stands on Tassajara Prep, since he is one of the founders. He also clearly discloses the information here:
http://www.arounddublinblog.com/author/johnzukoski/
Please learn to read and try not to make our public school system look bad.
6:02 PM on December 26th, 2009
John Z. has made everyone aware of his ties to the charter school efforts, and he couldn’t have been more visible at Day on the Glen, admirably championing the cause he believes in.
Why does this site need to comply to journalistic standards anyway? It’s just a blog about Dublin, and an awesome one at that. John doesn’t earn anything from it, and has no reason to do it other than his love and passion for this city. Real Dublin residents know what John is all about, and we are so incredibly lucky to have him here.
It boggles my mind how anyone can say anything negative about John, this blog, or the charter school. John is someone who cares so sincerely about seeing Dublin improve, and some people respond by fighting back. That’s gratitude for ya.
Don’t worry, John, 99% of the people reading this very much appreciate what you do. Please keep up the great work.
9:37 PM on December 27th, 2009
Actually I have lived in Dublin 7 years and had no idea who he is or affiliated with. I just wanted more info about the new school and google’d my way to this blog. Why should I have been skeptical about the information I read here?
Your mind certainly seems boggled to not be able to comprehend that there may be differences of opinion about your hero, blogs that promote of charter schools or charter schools. Don’t be such a baby when you hear a little criticism.
“has no reason to do it other than his love and passion for this city” hahahahahaha..try not to be so naive. He tried to use the blog to get on the city council.
11:17 AM on December 28th, 2009
If that were the case, John would’ve ended the blog once he wasn’t elected for the City Council (actually he WAS elected, since a spot was vacated and it should’ve gone to John since he was next in line in terms of votes, but Kevin Hart’s insecurity and Tim Sbranti’s unfair practices made sure that didn’t happen). I know John personally and can attest to his love and passion for Dublin. If he used the blog strictly to get on the City Council (which wasn’t his motive at all), then that would be pretty dumb because using a blog to get votes is a failed strategy. He did it because he loves Dublin, as anyone who knows him can clearly see.
4:26 PM on December 28th, 2009
You certainly seem to have a lot of strong opinions about John, and see no problem assessing his deepest motivations, especially since you “had no idea who he is” until recently. I applaud John and his dedication to the City of Dublin. I sincerely wish that every community could have someone like him.
11:36 AM on December 26th, 2009
Can’t say I am a supporter or detractor at this point, but I am having a hard time believing what you have to say about this charter school given this post.
Wow, I understand that a blog is an online opinion journal, no relation to anything that would rise to a professional journalistic standard. I’m fine with that difference, wouldn’t expect it here. However, I see that you are on the Board of Directors for Tassajara Prep and you are the author of Around Dublin and the Tassajara prep blog, but isn’t it a stretch to “fact check” your own organization?
George Orwell would be proud of the doublespeak employed here. How does one “Fact Check” on a blog and how accurate is an internal probe? Unless you have OneDublin or an independent newspaper actually complete a true fact check ,your musings are merely an opinion check. Words have meanings let’s stick with Websters and keep everyone honest so we can decide what is in the students’ best interests.
Doublespeak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Doublespeak (sometimes called doubletalk) is language constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a communication bypass. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., “downsizing” for layoffs) or deliberate ambiguity.
Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. – George Orwell
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/BLOG
Main Entry: blog
Pronunciation: \ˈblȯg, ˈbläg\
Function: noun
Etymology: short for Weblog
Date: 1999
: a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also : the contents of such a site
— blog•ger noun
— blog•ging noun
3:56 PM on December 26th, 2009
Oh please, “Can’t say I am a supporter or detractor at this point.” How stupid do you think most readers of this blog are? The only people who would bother to make such proclamation anonymously on anything remotely related to the charter school at this point are people who don’t want to see it happen.
There have only been three blog followers who would write monograph-length comments in an effort to make Mr. Zukoski look bad — the One Dublin Canadians, the Board member who hates Asians, and the principal of Murray. I don’t think Ledahl comes here anymore. As annoying as the Canadians are, at least they have the decency to state publicly who they are before spamming our blog with links to their pathetic website. Instead of wasting time on this blog like the rest of us, perhaps the principal should focus on expanding that Pathways Program to K-5? Seriously, 7 years in operation and they are still K-3?
5:05 PM on December 26th, 2009
Thank you for your continued support, Anonymous. That’s an interesting theory. Our records show that we have someone named “Rick” who posted many insightful comments. One of these comments included an article by Mr. Rick Boster from September 2009’s Cougar Den:
API Scores Are In
It is hard to know if those “Ricks” are indeed the principal of Murray. Of course, we welcome and respect the criticisms made by Anonymous “2009/12/26 at 11:36am”, and we are especially touched by the inclusion of George Orwell in the discussion. You are right — we DO have some of the smartest readers around. Happy Holidays.
9:49 AM on December 28th, 2009
Hi All,
This is the real Rick Boster, who is the Principal of Murray Elementary and DUSD GATE Coordinator. I don’t know how to validate that, since anyone who comes to the arounddublinblog.com site can type in anything they want into the submission fields. Right George? I agree it would be nice to add a personal account feature to the blog to validate those that comment, this may cut down on the negative bent of a few; however absent this feature, you can look me up on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/rick.boster
or follow the events at Murray Elementary by joining our FB group:
http://www.facebook.com/MurrayElementary
(I maintain that FB group as the admin, but anyone can join and post)
I know that in the past there have been “Rich’s” that post as well in addition to some other people who post lengthy informative comments that shed light on the blog posts. That is especially true in the “schools” category. Seems like it is one of the most followed as of lately. Sounds like you have hooked an English major there in the post. Sorry, my background is science, computers, and technology.
Since there are a lot of implied assumptions and allegations in a post above, I think that I need to publicly clear the air by saying a big THANK YOU to John and Jimmy for all of the articles they have published over the course of the past two years while I have been at Murray and in DUSD. For the naysayers, John does have a balanced approach to things if you would tally the articles, I have included a list of the ones with a Murray or DUSD focus that apply to projects I work on. Read the articles and draw your own conclusions. The blog is a good place to get information about Dubliner’s viewpoints and if the Facebook Fan page is any indication of those that follow the blog, it looks like he is nearing 500 fans. (I believed I joined awhile back when it was just above 200.)
Regardless of your viewpoint, the http://www.arounddublinblog.com is quite an accomplishment and should be applauded for the accolades that have followed its success. Congrats to the Around Dublin Blog Team!
Some of the sample articles that John has authored over the years:
http://www.arounddublinblog.com/tag/murray-elementary-school/
http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2008/09/congratulations-to-dublins-gifted-and/
http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2009/04/dusd-summer-camps-for-kids/
As for the charter school, it is up to the school board to make their decision. Parents of students should strongly advocate for their viewpoints. I wouldn’t expect anything less since parent involvement, in their child’s education, is one of the biggest factors behind their student’s success. You’re absolutely correct, I did post a comment http://onedublin.org/2009/12/14/charter-school-should-be-a-local-decision/#comment-13 concerning working with the district. I have had a great experience working with Sharon Kovalevsky and the Pathways program leveraging district resources while working with the program to build a school/program choice for Dublin families. Dublin is still small enough that you can get involved and help make the schools stronger on a tangible level. It is a well-known fact that small schools/ programs do face funding challenges due to scale of size. This is true of businesses as well. I would be interested in reading an article from John concerning how the finances will work for the new charter. I am sure it will be in their application.
Concerning the Pathways program, we have grown immensely from the first class of 20 that started the program seven years ago. Our present year enrollment is 60 (up from 50 when I started at Murray) and we do have plans to expand to 4/5 in the year to come. There are some natural constraints that impede the explosive growth of the program. For instance, all families participate in the classroom for an hour and a half of volunteer time per week and they must serve on committees that support the school. This requirement is based on the program philosophy. Not all families can make this type of commitment, but we have found creative ways for everyone to meet these requirements if they would like to make the effort. We hope we can achieve our expansion goal given the challenging budgetary times that all schools face. Presently during our break, I am editing an informational video that I hope will highlight this worthy school choice program. We are planning a media campaign beginning in January so please be on the lookout for more information. We target preschools in the Tri-Valley but I am sure that others may be interested as well.
For full disclosure, since it seems that some are really into that, I do have students in the Dublin schools, and yes they have attended the Pathways program. Furthermore, I do subscribe to both the http://www.onedublin.org blog and http://www.arounddublinblog.com as well as their fan pages on Facebook. I leave constructive comments where I can shed light on the subject at hand. Give me a call if you want more info, need API scores explained, desire to validate a posting, or just want to find out more information about the Pathways program.
(925) 828-2568 ext. 5401
Keep the dialogue going! I enjoy the more informed comments with substance and honest questions from residents vs. the trite, anonymous jabs that seem to proliferate some threads. However, it has been my experience that John typically catches those incidents and addresses the personal attacks redirecting the comments to constructive dialogue.
Have a Safe and Prosperous New Year!
5:13 AM on December 27th, 2009
You know you’ve struck a chord when your website is called “pathetic” by “anonymous”. For those interested in deciding for themselves: http://www.OneDublin.org. All nationalities including Canadians are welcome.
5:49 AM on December 27th, 2009
I’ve heard from members of the community that many negative “anonymous postings” are in fact written by John Z’s Around Dublin co-founder Jimmy. Didn’t believe it until now. Jimmy let that slip here: “before spamming our blog with links”. “our blog” – Jimmy – how about just posting under your real name instead of hiding behind “anonymous”?
10:25 PM on December 27th, 2009
I think it is fair for someone to use anonymous postings to defend when all the negative postings use anonymous IDs to attack.
5:03 PM on December 26th, 2009
This is certainly a good news for City of Dublin. However, I wonder if it will benefit the development around the Bart station where I had purchased a unit near the peak. are my kids allowed to apply for the new school?
Please advise.
5:18 PM on December 26th, 2009
Hi Anonymous,
Since Tassajara Prep will be a public high school, there will not be an application process. As stated on our page addressing the Myths about Tassajara Prep, Tassajara Prep will be open to ALL students in Dublin. Once in operation, “Tassajara Prep will provide families in Dublin a choice of two public high schools, so students may find the school that best meets their needs.”