Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Now that David Linzey has withdrawn his application, I’m wondering if the Nevada Union Joint High School District dodged a proverbial bullet.

I did not jump for joy when I researched his background, and I’m not talking about taking gum away from the students, as I previously reported.

First, Linzey went from principal of a large compulsory high school — Huntington Beach High — to chief academic officer for the Alliance for College-Ready Schools to a consultant for Lynwood Unified School District. That sounded kind of backwards to me, unless he had some non-career related reasons for the job changes.

Linzey also had applied for — but did not get — a superintendent’s job in Pomona. In fairness, it went to an insider but Linzey had worked at the school before, as I first reported.

In addition, he didn’t seem to have recent experience working with unions in the difficult task of reducing costs while maintaining the quality of education or the bigger world of business.

Lindsey was offered a one-year contract or year-to-year contract, just like his predecessor, my sources said. But he turned it down.

I don’t think the headhunter did a very good job of finding the right candidate — something I’ve experienced in the business world before. I also think the school board could have more closely scrutinized the hire, though many are not that experienced in education.

All told, I’m hoping that round two will be more successful. Our schools are at a crossroads, and we depend on them to add to the quality of life here, both for residents and newcomers.

I wish the local media would dig deeper in its school’s reporting, and I wish the schools would do a better job of communicating with the community than just handing a press release to the local newspaper.

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This press release was emailed from the Nevada City Chamber:

Longtime community leader Gary Tintle has been named recipient of the 2010 Elza Kilroy Award for outstanding community service.

The prestigious Kilroy award, established in 1969, is presented annually by the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce to a citizen whose efforts help make Nevada City a better community.

The Nevada City chamber also recognizes other contributions to the community with the following awards:

The Dr. Leland and Sally Lewis Visual Arts Award for 2010 goes to Andy Howard, owner of the Emma Nevada House, for his volunteer contribution in filming a video promotion of Nevada City for the Nevada City Downtown Association.

The Chamber’s Stan Halls Architectural Awards goes to: Carl Novak for his role in remodeling the Bel Cappelli Salon-Spa building and the Pine Street Market.

The 2010 Live Music Award will be presented to: Maggie McKaig & Luke Wilson.

The annual New Construction award goes to: Gold Flat Service Station and Port of Subs Express Market Building at 407 Hollow Way,

The Dr. Leland and Sally Lewis Performing Arts award will be presented to: Air Aligned.

The award winners were nominated and selected by the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. The awards will be presented at the Nevada City
Chamber of Commerce 109th Annual Installation and Awards Dinner on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011 at the Miners Foundry.

For information about the dinner – call the Chamber office at 265-2692.

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You Tube videos are now out on local resident Mark Meckler et al.’s 40-year plan for the tea party, discussed at a rally this past weekend at the Elk’s Club in Grass Valley. This is the most detail so far on the group’s plan. The top video is part 1 and the bottom video is part 2.

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We’ve discussed before how the tea party — here and elsewhere — has made anti-intellectualism its rallying cry, but Alternet.org — providing an excerpt from a book “Griftopia” by Matt Taibbi — does a good job of explaining the group’s strategy. The article is here.

“Our world isn’t about ideology anymore. It’s about complexity. We live in a complex bureaucratic state with complex laws and complex business practices, and the few organizations with the corporate will power to master these complexities will inevitably own the political power,” according to the article. “On the other hand, movements like the Tea Party more than anything else reflect a widespread longing for simpler times and simple solutions — just throw the U.S. Constitution at the whole mess and everything will be jake.

“For immigration, build a big fence. Abolish the Federal Reserve, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education.”

By rallying behind Sarah Palin and Michele Bachman, the tea party has made anti-intellectualism itself a rallying cry. It adds: “The tea party is arguing against the very idea that it’s even necessary to ask the questions you need to ask to grasp bubble economics.”

Around, here people like Todd Juvinall are good “foot soldiers” for the cause, for the same reason.

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A pal sent me the email that was sent out to the NUHS district staff about David Linzey withdrawing from the Superintendent search. It is here:

Good Day Everyone,

As you may be aware Mr. Linzey was selected as our top candidate in the Superintendent search. We would like you to know that Mr. Linzey has since withdrawn his application. The decision was based on an unsuccessful negotiation of terms in the contract.

We will continue the process in looking for our next Superintendent to after the first of the year. Our new target date to fill the Superintendent position is July 01, 2011. This will allow time for the two new Board members, Wayne Klauer and Richard Baker, an opportunity to get up to speed and be involved in the process. In the meantime, we will be interviewing and then hiring an interim Superintendent to help manage the District.

Thank you for your continued patience,

Mark Heauser and the Governing Board

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Mother Jones has been “digging deeper” on the tea party patriots and its co-founder and county resident Mark Meckler, as I reported previously, much to the chagrin of his local fans.

When I had the audacity to point out last month that “Mother Jones has an article investigating county resident Mark Meckler and the Tea Party Patriots, titled ‘Is the Tea Party movement like a pyramid scheme?’” the hard right contingent, including its diligent blogging corp, went ballistic.

“Just a rung short of a ladder is the most charitable way I can characterize the attempt by a locally loud leftwinger to proclaim that he has finally found the evidence to nail Mark Meckler, one of the national coordinators of the Tea Party Patriots,” Russ Steele’s blogging pal George Rebane wrote in one of his characteristic screeds. He was referring to a positive comment about the story by local gadfly Steve Enos.

Michael Kesti even shot me, “the messenger”: “I believe that bona fide journalists would be ashamed to consider this article an ‘investigation’ and that presenting it as such strongly demonstrates the biases and ethics of the presenter.”

Well now — whether he likes it or not — Russ’ own reporting is being used by Mother Jones to show what Meckler is up to lately — in a new report titled “The Coming Tea Party Civil War.”

The thesis: “With the elections over, the movement’s fault lines are starting to show, and tensions between the tea party’s social conservative and libertarian wings are poised to explode into an all-out civil war.”

Russ’ own reporting helps Mother Jones fill in the blanks. (There’s no comment from Meckler, needless to say).

“Meckler laid out more detail about the group’s 40-year-plan for world dominion in a video address to a local tea party group,” MJ wrote, referring to Russ’ blog post this weekend after he attended the gathering at the Elk’s Lodge in Grass Valley. “In it, according to a California blogger who saw the video, he said that the group’s goals include ridding the schools of teachers who are filling the heads of innocent children with progressive ideas and rating judges, an old idea employed by social conservatives fighting abortion and school prayer in the courts.

“Apparently, TPP also plans to take on popular culture through boycotts, an old staple of groups like the virulently anti-gay American Family Association.”

There was a link to Russ’ weekend report.

Congratulations Russ for helping out Mother Jones with its reporting on Meckler and the tea party.

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched his third Governors’ Global Climate Summit at the University of California at Davis on Monday.

The two-day summit, co-hosted by the United Nations, has attracted more than 1,500 attendees from more than 80 countries, according to the Sacramento Bee.

“He said this month’s landslide defeat of Proposition 23, a ballot measure backed by oil companies that would have rolled back the state’s landmark climate change law, shows broad support among voters for policies to cut greenhouse gases,” the Bee added.

In our county, the latest figures show Prop. 23 to be a more than 10 point loser:
Vote Count Percentage
YES 19,965 44.9%
NO 24,549 55.1%

Prop. 23 was endorsed by several of our county supervisors, including Ed Scofield, Ted Owens and outgoing board member John Spencer, as well as the county tea party patriots and CABPRO.

On the Prop. 23 defeat, Schwarzenegger said: “I hope that our success here in California encourages you to fight when you have those challenges and keep fighting and fighting because science is on our side, the economics is on our side and the people are on our side.”

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Sarah Palin’s word “refudiate” has been named the Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

Its meaning is a general sense of rejection, a definition of filling in where neither “refute” and “repudiate” seemed to precisely fit.

“Famous for her folksy diction and writing talking points on her hands, Palin’s new-found literary recognition will tickle and torment her supporters and critics in equal measure,” as the L.A. Times wrote.

It beat out others such as “retweet,” “nom nom” and “gleek.” Last week’s word of the year was “unfriend,” a Facebook term.

Palin’s full tweet read:
“Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.”

My two cents: I would have chosen “retweet” and wonder if Palin meant “refute” or “repudiate” in the first place. It’s good p.r. for the dictionary, though, a longtime tool that apparently is losing its luster.

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The Stonehouse building in Nevada City has a storied history: Built in 1882, it was a brewery, Chinese restaurant, bowling stable, even a dance hall.

Now the building — which formerly housed the Stonehouse Restaurant — has reopened as the Stonehouse Hospitality Academy.

The academy is a case study in forging a public-private partnership to create new jobs, in this case for hands on training in the hospitality industry.

“We provide a work environment where youth can prepare and serve food, book events and manage them,” says Bill Finley, executive director of the Oroville-based Private Industry Council, in charge of the program. The group has worked closely with county officials on the novel plan.

The Stonehouse Hospitality Academy has been booking weddings, conferences, board meetings, anniversary, birthday parties and retirement dinners.

Expansion plans are in the works to provide catering for the Miners Foundry in Nevada City, a one-of-a-kind venue made of native timber and stone. The Center for The Arts in Grass Valley, which hosts big-name talent, also is interested.

The idea is to compliment, not compete with, local restaurant and catering businesses, providing them with well trained workers. The youth typically are 18 to 24 years old.

“Our philosophy is that it’s better to teach in a work setting rather than a classroom,” Finley says. Training is provided for cooks, host and hostess, sous chef, waiters, caterers and event planners.

In Oroville, which has fewer fine dining resturants than western Nevada County, the council helped open a restaurant called Checkers with trained workers.

It has evolved from a youth training program to a fully functioning lunch and dinner destination with area youth running the show (under careful supervision from an experienced chef).

The dining room features white linens and a seasonal menu prepared with fresh, local ingredients. “The best thing we can teach is customer service — it’s a dying art,” says Finley.

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