The Manteca Teachers Association is pulling no punches about its thoughts about Ashley Drain, the Manteca Unified School District board member facing felony charges about lying about where she lived on her candidacy papers among other things.
MTA President Ken Johnson alerted members this week about a widely circulated photo on Drain’s Instagram account that shows her husband with a Surface Pro 3 in front of him while the couple indicated they were working at the Michael David Winery. The Surface Pro 3 was issued to teachers, administrators and apparently school board members.
Johnson sent a screen shot with a massive e-mail blast to union members noting, “that’s a photo from Ashley Drain’s (Instagram) account with her husband. And that’s a Surface Pro 3 in front of him. You can see the district decal clear as day. I’m sure it was checked out to her as a school trustee. Of course, she’s using it to catch up on her trustee work. That’s why it is in front of him. Sends the wrong message though to the employees. Taxpayer supported equipment has to be accounted for.”
The screen shot appears on Page A8 of today’s paper with this column’s jump.
Drain’s text with the photo says, “Everyone deserves to work how they want, when they want, where they want. Today we brought the whole family to the Winery for work. Oh, and expense-100% write-off #Paycation #TravelClub #TaxGames #BuildingBillionaireBusiness.”
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MUSD’s expensive peacekeeper at board meetings
Manteca Teachers Association President Ken Johnson also takes aim at the ballooning legal expenses dealing with the apparent need to have lawyers at each and every open and closed Manteca Unified School District board meeting.
Here’s how Johnson explained it:
“Did you know that in the last two years, the school district spending on legal fees that deal with school board meetings has increased over 2300%? That’s mostly due to certain board members using their cell phones (a reference to trustee San Fant) during meetings. It’s not allowed because when you vote on a $190 million budget, let alone issues that affect kids, we want you to pay attention. Other board members brought it up, so the district has to pay legal fees to have a lawyer sit in during all closed and open sessions of every single school board meeting and keep the peace. I bet Dennis Wyatt doesn’t know that.”
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Kids get into ‘One Note Funk’
Want to see what kids think of the $30 million Manteca Unified Going Digital initiative?
Then go to YouTube where Miss Ballardo’s fifth grade class at Brock Elliott School has posted a 4:33 minute long video dubbed “OneNote Funk.” It’s named after the education software that the 3E Panasonic tablets employ.
The video, which can be seen by going to https://youtu.be/HCHPLCVk9yI had been accessed 3,460 times as of Thursday afternoon.
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Ripon resident is new principal for Modesto Christian High School
Shane Smith who ran for Ripon City Council last year has been named the new principal of Modesto Christian High School in Salida.
Smith felt he had to withdraw his candidacy since he was a virtual unknown in Ripon.
He has coached football at Modesto Christian.
Despite the fact he withdrew, his name remained on the ballot and he made a healthy showing at the polls.
