(August 25, 2020, 6:25 p.m.) -- I'm walking the Chocolate Lab the other day in front of the Naples elementary school when I come across a couple of exuberant teachers emerging from a car.
"Why aren't you and the kids going to be here on Sept. 1," I ask in a friendly matter, referring to the scheduled opening of the Long Beach public schools. "Oh, we'd love to be," they both say in unison with smiles. And then one says something that shocks me. "But we're seemingly in the minority on this issue," she said. "It seems a majority of our colleagues would rather work out of their residences." Ridiculous! The Naples Academy is a K-6 school (kindergarten to 6th grade), meaning the age of the pupils are between 5 and 11, meaning the likelihood of any of these children being infected with the Coronavirus would be roughly tantamount to, oh, the state governor, Gavin Newsom, winning a popularity contest among voters at a California Restaurant Association convention. The Long Beach Unified School District had wanted its teachers to return and instruct on-line from their classrooms in preparation for the scheduled return of students to the schools on Oct. 5. But, natch, the local teachers' union, TALB, balked at such an outrageous demand, and the LBUSD was forced into a compromise, which allowed the teachers to decide for themselves whether to remain comfortably at home in their slippers and sweat pants or instead having to actually dress up and schelp their briefcases to work in their cars on the way to their classrooms. Shockingly, a majority of the teachers have decided to remain in the comfort of their private lodgings, which a former respected school administrator friend of mine told me isn't surprising one bit. "Of course, a majority of the teachers will choose to stay home," he said. "Why not? They're getting paid not to work. Socialism at its best." Of course, a majority of those Long Beach teachers who prefer to skip the classroom for the time being will recite to you the horrifying litany of Coronavirus dangers that will be lurking in their schools among their colleagues, the kiddies, the janitors, the volunteers, the cooks, the principals, etc., etc, etc. ad nauseam. What's going to happen on Oct. 5 when the LBUSD expects these truant teachers -- yes, I know I've coined a neologism since the traditional usage of truant is for AWOL students -- to actually show up at their classrooms in person? "I can't wait for us to start being real teachers instead of sitting at a computer addressing our young students on zoom," says one of the Naples teachers as she heads for the school's entrance. "At least I'll be doing it here at Naples. The kids should be here now. They're missing so much at their young ages -- socialization, camaraderie, playground activities and, most importantly, educational enhancement. Teaching these kids with their short attention spans in person is difficult enough as it is and doing it on-line is downright impractical..." [Scroll down for further.] |
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And, remember that most august, if not shameful body, the LBUSD Board of Education, thought so highly of Doc Baker that they enriched her with a staggering $58,000 annual raise over her predecessor, Chris Steinhauser. I find such a flouting of taxpayer money so astounding that I feel obligated to reiterate that the names of the four half-wits who voted her such largesse never will appear in this column to spare them lasting public ignominy. . . "L'Opera is going to look fabulous again when we come back," he says. "Things are coming along, but they've gone slowly in recent weeks because of insurance payments and the like." It's estimated that the LBPD's malpractice reaction to the looting frenzy that awful May 31st---it stood down and reacted too late to assist the 214 businesses that were looted---cost Mr. Antonelli more than $1 million. "We're coming back better than ever," he promises. . . "Our health department is so obsessive about the cleanliness of our restaurants, but doesn't give a damned about all these dirty scooters lying all over the city spreading germs,'' he says. ``You don't supposed to touch menus, yet how many people are touching these filthy scooters?" Mr. Kershaw attributes his magically sudden transformation to an intensive off-season fitness regimen. He had lost speed on his fast ball for the past four seasons, and yet he's throwing it 1.45 mph faster than he did a year ago, an historic leap. The only pitcher I can remember who regained lost speed on his fast ball in his 30s was Roger Clemens, who hasn't been voted into the Hall of Fame despite his 7 Cy Young awards and 354 major league victories because of his link to performance enhancing drugs that appeared in the Mitchell Report. . . I'm sure those in Long Beach who plan to hold a recall election on Mr. Garcia are wincing perceptibly at this possible horrifying development. . . LBREPORT.com welcomes letters/responses/comments to Mr. Krikorian's viewpoints. Click here to read latest. Email yours to mail@lbreport.com Include your name for publication (just like he does.) Submittedd content subjec to editing. Ad factum (on the merits) welcome; Ad hominem (on the person) ignored. Viewpoints and op-eds on LBREPORT.com are proudly those of their bylined authors but not necessarily those of LBREPORT.com or our advertisers. We welcome our readers' comments/opinions 24/7 via Facebook and moderate length letters and longer-form op-ed pieces submitted to us at mail@LBReport.com.
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