Even more orchestration and manipulation school officials?
Today the following email blast was sent by Monica Mora, Teachers Advocate for WOCUT (West Orange County United Teachers) to Huntington Beach (and other area) teachers and organizations in support of tomorrow’s anti-Rainbow/Republic protest being held at Oak View Elementary School an organization calling itself “Comunidad.”
The teacher that shared it with me, who works in the Huntington Beach City School District, was disturbed by it: “I found this highly inappropriate. For one, I do not even work in the Ocean View District. So why is every teacher getting this? Also, the wording of it all I find very suspicious. I’ve followed this issue very closely in the media and on Facebook. This seems to be a highly organized and orchestrated event, not the “grassroots” event that has been promoted. Who wrote the information in this email? It reads like pure propaganda. Did anyone bother to even fact check it? There are some big problems with the information. Did the union write it? Or just cut and paste it? A lot of questions need to be asked about this. This is wrong.”
Here is the email:
From: “Mora, Monica” <MMora@cta.org>
Date: Oct 27, 2015 11:17 PM
Subject: HBETA: 5:30 PM @ Oak View – Please Join Us
To: “Mora, Monica” <MMora@cta.org>
Cc: “oakviewcomunidad@gmail.com” <oakviewcomunidad@gmail.com>, “ovtapres@yahoo.com” <ovtapres@yahoo.com>
Did you know that Oak View Elementary School, near Warner & Beach Blvd., in Huntington Beach is the only school to exist across the street from a dump?
500+ Elementary and Middle School Teachers from the Ocean View School District are working diligently to support the students, teachers, and Oak View community.
Join us to support a grassroots community effort to enclose the dump across the street, literally a few yards away from 1,000 Oak View Pre-school – 5th Grade Students and their Teachers.
Thursday, October 29th, 5:30-7:00 PM
Oak View Elementary School (The Field)
17241 Oak Ln.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
v STOP THE STINK! Rainbow processes up to 4,000 tons per day of raw garbage and this spreads sickening odors in all directions of the city. They have received dozens of Notices of Violations for creating a public nuisance.
v STOP THE TOXIC DUST! Rainbow processes friable asbestos at the public dump and has stockpiled and crushed dangerous concrete and drywall. They spray chemical deodorants into our air. This is not safe.
v STOP THE GREED! Republic Services recently bought Rainbow for $112 million. Republic makes millions of dollars in profits at the expense of the residents of the Oak View community.
v STOP THE ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE! Republic, are guilty of the greatest environmental injustice in all of California because they are operating the only Transfer Station and garbage dump across the street from a school. Stop the abuse
<END EMAIL>
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As well, from two eyewitnesses in two different Ocean View School District middle schools: in advance of the “Comunidad” protest tomorrow against Rainbow/Republic, official protest flyers were distributed today in both teacher lounges and mailboxes at both schools.
This is the flyer distributed at the school:
I contacted Rainbow/Republic to get some information about the claims being made by the flyer, the same one shared by the teacher’s union. A spokesperson shared:
- There have not been “dozens” of Notices of Violations filed.
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Rainbow’s permit does NOT allow the acceptance or processing of any hazardous material, only solid waste, green waste and C&D based upon their permit. Here is a link to CalRecycle where you can see their permit provisions. http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/SWFacilities/Directory/30-AB-0099/Detail/ Under “Permit details” Click on that and you’ll see what they can accept. Also you can look on the tab “enforcement actions” and you can see there are none. There is a lot of interesting info on this page, FYI.
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Their misting solution was approved for their use by AQMD for odor reduction and mitigation.
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As the district has been told many times, they stopped concrete crushing in 2011 after the school district complained.
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The flyer states that they receive 4,000 tons a day of raw garbage. They have not received anywhere near that amount. The Local Enforcement Agency can provide what they receive based upon their scale house computer system. Every arriving truck is weighed on a state certified scale which is entered into their system. That is reported to the LEA.
As well, I was in touch with and sent several questions to Comunidad spokesperson Barbie Iman regarding union involvement, fact-checking their flyer, etc.
1. Have you received any funding or support of any kind from any teacher’s union or anyone specifically connected to the OVSD Board of Trustees?
2. Who paid for/printed the flyers?
3. Do you have any idea at all how they wound up in at least two middle schools this week? (in teacher mailboxes)
4. Do you stand by the veracity of each of the bullet pointed claims made on the back of the flyer?
Once I learned of the union email, I asked about that too.
I shared with Ms. Iman that she had three-then revised to four hours- to answer these before I filed this, and have yet to receive a reply. I will update if/when she answers.
I also reached out to OVSD board president Gina Clayton Tarvin And Trustee John Briscoe to ask the following: I saw the union email sent out today about the protest tomorrow. I’d like to ask, for a piece I’m writing for surfcitychronicles.com, did either of you approach the union about getting involved? Do you know who wrote the copy? Was it fact-checked? Do you have any information about the protest flyers being distributed at at least two middle schools this week in teacher mailboxes? Thanks.
No response as of yet, but if I hear back I will update this article.
More as it develops.
UPDATE: At 4:55 pm I received the following from Dr. Carol Hansen, OVSD Superintendent: “It is normal protocol for the teachers’ union (OVTA) to place flyers in teachers’ mailboxes. OVSD was informed that the flyers were being distributed and proper protocol was followed.”
Surf City Chronicles 
I’m glad they don’t teach GAAP accounting in elementary school. WHEN Republic encloses the dump they’ll either use cash reserves or borrow money at nothing interest rates. The enclosure won’t be treated as an expense it will be capitalized and add value to the property. You can be for enclosure but against the hype.
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I’d like to know where they think the smells are going. I’m at Goldenwest and Warner, so not far from Ocean View High School, and never have we smelled a thing from there.
This whole thing screams set up as usual. I’d love to know why not one of them had a protest set up over why their school wasn’t fixed up before Hope View and their kids were put at risk in the school because of that whole asbestos mess.
Oh and a little off topic but as I was reading this the OVSD sends a message out to beg for those that can to apply for free/reduced lunches. The lady said even if you don’t use it to apply as the schools will get more money for those that apply and qualify. I was a little annoyed with that message. They should have thought about money before they recreated the mess they are in.
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I had another thought on this after reading through some recent threads on Huntington Beach’s poorly conceived and moderated Facebook forum called Huntington Beach Community Voice. Comment after comment is slamming Chris. Now obviously, people have every right to their opinion and if they don’t like what Chris is doing but so be it. But I also have a message for those same people: Chris is a writer and journalist and thus writes for a living. It’s how pays the mortgage, puts food on the table and is putting his kids through college. You may not like or agree with his opinion or method, but I will tell you what: He believes there is something weird going on here to the point where he is sticking his neck out big time. Reputation and livelihood are on the line. Right or wrong in the end this still has to mean something and command some respect. But yet, he is completely demonized. Some even argue he is on the take from Rainbow. That actually is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. Given Chris’ revenue streams from previous and future work, Rainbow would have to be paying him millions to risk everything. Think about it, take the emotion out of it just for a second and think about it objectively.
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I had another thought on this after reading through some recent threads on Huntington Beach’s poorly conceived and moderated Facebook forum called Huntington Beach CommUNITY Voice. Comment after comment is slamming Chris. Now obviously, people have every right to their opinion and if they don’t like what Chris is doing so be it. But I also have a message for those same people: Chris is a writer and journalist and thus writes for a living. It’s how he pays the mortgage, puts food on the table and is putting his kids through college. You may not like or agree with his opinion or method, but I will tell you what: He believes there is something weird going on here to the point where he is sticking his neck out big time. Reputation and livelihood are on the line. Right or wrong in the end this still has to mean something and command some respect. But yet, he is completely demonized. Some even argue he is on the take from Rainbow. That actually is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. Given Chris’ revenue streams from previous and future work, Rainbow would have to be paying him millions to risk everything. Think about it, take the emotion out of it just for a second and think about it objectively.
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