Fourth in a series
Re “Venturing into the Minds of UPCC’s Critics”
[img]2189|right|Scott Kecken||no_popup[/img]With a strain of melancholy, Scott Kecken, chair of the political action committee for United Parents of Culver City, was recalling his experience within the last year with the leaders of the Teachers Union and the classified employees union on the Community Budget Advisory Committee.
They agreed on three categories that deserved prioritization in the budget – salary increases, facilities maintenance and preparation for the mysterious arrival next year of thinly understood Common Core.
“Here is something that boggled my mind,” Mr. Kecken said. “On CBAC, we based our recommendations on the assumption the bond measure would be on the ballot in November, and would win.
“We wrongly assumed that. No one had any idea the bond was going to be delayed, maybe temporarily, maybe permanently.
“That,” Mr. Kecken said, “is a whole ‘nother can of worms for us. UPCC endorsed the bond early on because we wanted to focus on getting it passed. But it went up in smoke.”
Why?
[img]1994|right|Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin||no_popup[/img]While Mr. Kecken took a bite from his lunch sandwich at the Lyfe restaurant, Downtown, Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin, president of the UPCC, spoke up. “It’s really hard to say why,” she said.
Mr. Kecken swallowed and added that he was not at the July 1 School Board meeting where member Karlo Silbiger read a detailed prepared statement saying that an insufficient amount of information had been learned to justify a campaign.
“I had just assumed,” he said, “that people were going to talk about the bond that night and move onto the next step, the wording to go on the November ballot.
“If I had known what was going to happen, I would have taken off work and gone to the meeting. So that is not going to happen anymore.”
Since the meeting was on a Monday night instead of the regular Tuesday, Ms. Wisnosky Stehlin had work obligations but made a cameo appearance.
When she heard the bond consultants present the upside to a bond campaign, “I was so excited.”
She left, feeling encouraged, only to learn the dark news later.
(To be continued)
