#will never recover from the Escondido California one

[randomfoggytiger]

@o6666666's description of Mulder's "neurotic, gentle manner" is my newest favorite thing.

Linking her Three of a Kind AU because rereading it was a treat.

[running-for-a-cause]

End of Week Update: 8 Weeks Until Australia!

This week saw my longest training run to-date, runner’s foot, a trip to the mountains, and a total massacre!

For The Wilderness Society, we’re at $679 AUD (approx. $510 USD) to support the preservation of the Australian wilderness and to protect Australia’s many unique, indigenous, vulnerable and endangered species.

Despite the running injury, Monday started off right with a nice long 21-miler for Memorial Day. This was my longest training run to-date! I’ll be breaking that record soon enough though as I’ll up it to 22 miles in the near future. For the 21-mile run I ran from Oceanside to Escondido at a 7:25/mi pace. The run started off nice with an overcast morning keeping things cool, but in the last hour the sun decided to say ‘hello’ and brought with it some unwelcomed heat. The route itself had a nice gradual incline as I moved inland, with a total elevation gain of 1,000ft.

After arriving in Escondido at Kit Carson Park, I rested briefly before doing a short and easy 1-mile shake out run (at an 8:45/mi pace). This brought me to North County Mall where I feasted with my roommate at Cheesecake Factory and Cinnaholic (delicious custom cinnamon rolls).

Later that evening I joined the North Country Runners for a short 5k run at a 7:14/mi pace. Total Monday mileage was 25.1 miles!

Tuesday morning I took a detour on my commute to LA for a 4.1-mile run along the Santa Monica boardwalk (at a 7:26/mi pace), finishing at the small amusement park on the pier. Unfortunately, it was still early morning and the park hadn’t yet opened, so I wasn’t able to enjoy any of the rides, but that didn’t stop me from snapping a quick picture!

Wednesday was a rest day, and also packing day, as Thursday morning I would be flying out bright and early for my first Ragnar Relay in Utah, the Ragnar Wasatch Back – the location of the very first Ragnar originated back in 2004! It’s very fortuitous that my first Ragnar would be at the location of the first ever Ragnar, as the series as now grown to span across the United States.

The Ragnar Relay races are a 200’ish mile relay completed by teams of 6 or 12 runners. They’re known for being pretty intense as each runner has to complete 3 separate legs over the course of a 24-hour period with little to no sleep.

I’d been recruited several months ago by the captain for the Flying Tortoise Squad team, and was honored to be given the 12th position of our 12 runner team, meaning I would be the one who would cross the finish line for the team. What an honor for my first Ragnar!

Thursday morning I arrived in Salt Lake City first thing in the morning, where I checked into my hotel and worked remotely for the day. That evening I got in my first acclimation / shake out run. Since Salt Lake City sits about 4,000 feet higher than what I’m used to (Oceanside is near sea-level), I started off a bit winded. Thankfully I was able to get into my groove within the first half-mile, but I wasn’t able to fully adapt as each subsequent run in Utah started off with a similar ramp-up period, albeit they were at much higher elevations of 6,000+ feet.

For my Thursday evening acclimation and shake out, I ran 4.5 miles at a 7:13/mi pace.

Friday morning was race day, but I squeezed in another acclimation run early in the morning, running 2.3 miles at a 7:30/mi pace.

Then it was time to meet the team!

The members of Van 2 (each 12 person team is split into two vans depending on which half of the race you’re running) picked me up from my hotel, and we headed north to Logan, Utah, where we would begin our portion of the race.

For a quick explanation of Ragnar logistics, Van 1 carries runners 1-6, while Van 2 carries runners 7-12. The two vans only intersect at major exchanges, so their paths only cross a handful of times. You predominately spend your time with the people in your own van, who you essentially live with for the entirety of the race.

The race is then split into 36 separate legs, and each runner completes 3 legs in rotation based on their starting position. For example, I was the 12th position, so I was designated legs 12, 24, and 36. During the race runners will pass a baton (a slap bracelet) to the next runner at each exchange point, as the team completes the full 200’ish mile course.

Together, with the members of Van 2, we arrived at Exchange 6 in the mid-afternoon where we awaited Runner 6 from Van 1. The time was spent relaxing and getting to know one another as many of us had never met prior (though I was the only runner from out-of-state).

Once Runner 6 arrived, Van 2 began its rotation, as we’d follow our current runner to each exchange to swap out for the next. By 7PM, I was up, and after a good stretch and warm-up I was ready for my leg which was classified as “We Hope You Know What You're Getting Yourself Into”.

As Runner 11 rounded the corner to the exchange point, I took the baton and began my run of Leg 12. Spanning 7.2 miles with a total elevation gain of 1,752ft, it was brutal, but thankfully I’ve done quite a bit of hill training to prepare my body for these exact conditions. Well, maybe not “exact”….

The first 2-3 miles was all uphill. I passed a few runners here, which in Ragnar terms is referred to as a ‘kill’. Ragnarians often times count their kills and tally them on the sides of their vans. Vans are also decorated with all sorts of other fun things such as art, slogans, team names, etc.

After the initial stretch of uphill, there was a nice 1-mile downhill slope, which is where I got passed (killed) by another runner. This was the one and only time I got killed during the entire race, and had I known that would have been the case, I might have pushed a bit harder on the final 3 miles of uphill to re-pass that runner. That being said, the runner who killed me did comment on how I had been a monster on the initial hill and that he had been using me to pace, which is definitely flattering!

In the end, I completed my first leg of 7.2 miles in 1hr 1m 54s at an 8:32/mi pace. Total Ragnar kills was 5, and I was killed once. Combined with my morning shake out, total Friday mileage was 9.5 miles.

Once I passed the baton off to Runner 1 (our team captain), Van 2 had a bit of a break and lounged for a couple hours in the warmth of Snowbasin Ski Resort before heading out to begin our night legs.

I must say, by the way, that Utah is quite cold at night, which was a bit unexpected after the day’s heat. Nighttime temperatures were in the low 40’s, and my Southern California butt was freezing!

Now, my next leg was initially supposed to occur at sunrise, however, one of my teammates had become a bit ill after her first leg and we needed someone to step-in for her night run. I was up!

At 3:30AM Saturday morning, I was running through the dark wild of Leg 22, with a beautiful starlit backdrop to guide and inspire me as I ran the 5.9-mile downhill course.

Along the way I spotted two caribou crossing the road before me and a shooting star off in the night sky. This was a peaceful and serene run with only a handful of runners and vans to occasionally disrupt the tranquil experience.

With the fast downhill (nearly 1,000ft of elevation loss), I was able to move quickly, completing the 5.9-mile downhill in 40m 13s at a 6:46/mi pace. Total Ragnar kills was 6, and I wasn’t killed at all.

After passing the baton to Runner 11, I had about 90 minutes to relax before I was up again for my official second leg. And so, just after sunrise, I was up again for Leg 24. Fortunately this was my easy leg – a short 2.2-mile stretch of flat terrain. Being as it was so short, it didn’t leave me much room to score any kills, but I ran hard and racked up an impressive amount nonetheless!

I completed the 2.2-mile leg in 16m 34s at a 7:19/mi pace. Total Ragnar kills was another 6, and again, I wasn’t killed at all.

Once this rotation was complete and the baton was passed to Runner 1, our van was able to get some much needed rest. We checked into a hotel near the next major exchange where we all shared a large 6-person room. There, we took turns showering before taking advantage of the free continental breakfast in the lobby. I feasted like a king! Then we all took a short nap before getting up a couple hours later to begin our final legs.

As I watched the other runners of my van complete their final legs, I’ll admit, I was a little envious. This was the downside to being the 12th position – I had to watch everyone else finish their legs and begin to relax while I still had my final leg looming over me. And my final leg was going to be a doozy!

Come mid-afternoon I was finally up, for my last and final leg, Leg 36. This leg was classified as “Very Hard” as it was 7.1 miles with a near-900ft climb.

By this point in the race, runners from every team were feeling the fatigue. For me personally, I was already 15.3 miles into the race with less than 2.5 hours of sleep in the 24 hours prior. Not to mention, my first leg was extremely difficult and I’d picked up the extra leg for my sick teammate. I was in for a beating!

Leg 36 started with about 2.5 miles of flat terrain before entering the 3 miles of uphill stretch. For the first mile or so of the uphill I was able to keep running (while most everyone else was walking), before my body finally started to give and I, myself, had to walk for a brief portion as well.

But I walked with purpose! Charging uphill at a quick pace and still passing other runners. Once I’d caught my breath, I began running again. I ended up walking 3 times over the course of the uphill stretch, before finally reaching the apex and begin the downhill dash to the finish.

The last ~2 miles were a fast and winding downhill trail run with steep banks and turns. It was an enjoyable change of pace, one that I was well prepared for after having completed several trail running events prior.

As I continued down the final stretches to the finish, I could see my entire team (both Van 1 and 2) waiting for me just before the finish line. They stood together, forming a tunnel with their arms and cheering me home. It was a truly unforgettable experience! It made all the hard work and exhaustion worthwhile.

Crossing that finish line and bringing home the win for the team, I completed the final 7.1-mile leg in 59m 15s at an 8:15/mi pace. Total Ragnar kills was a whopping 25, and I wasn’t killed at all!

Our team, the Flying Tortoise Squad, had a total finish time of 31hr 27m 41.2 seconds for the beautiful and brutal 181.3 mile course from Logan to Midway, Utah. Together, we placed 66th out of more than 200 teams!

I’m very grateful to have been blessed with such an amazing team for my first Ragnar. They made it a memorable one!

Oh, and my final Ragnar kill count for the 4 legs I ran? 42 kills! What a bloodbath! And I was only killed once, in that very first leg (*grumbles*).

Total Saturday mileage was 15.2 miles. Total Ragnar mileage was 22.4 miles.

I passed out pretty quickly Saturday night upon return to my hotel, and while I had initially planned to get in an easy run Sunday morning, my body said otherwise, and I instead relaxed at the hotel until it was time to head to the airport and return home to San Diego.

Total mileage for the week was 58.6 miles.

This was an intense week, but I pushed through and I know I’m stronger for it. Australia here I come!

[weopenviews]

Sandy Huffaker/AFP/GettyPOWAY, California—Nineteen-year-old nursing student John T. Earnest, who was charged with murder Sunday as the lone gunman in the deadly Poway Synagogue shooting, played piano for hours a day and earned a 4.31 grade point average. His father was a church elder whom neighbors called “the sweetest man.”But somewhere on his path, Earnest took a terrible turn, claiming Adolf Hitler as an idol and writing what appears to be his own rambling manifesto that Jews “deserved nothing but hell.” He wanted to be the one to, as he put it, “Send. Them. There.”Police say someone purporting to be him posted the anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, white supremacist “manifesto”—which eerily mirrored the Q&A; style that Christchurch terrorist Brenton Tarrant used in his own pre-massacre diatribe—about 20 minutes before he walked into the Poway synagogue with an AR-15 style assault rifle and started shooting—killing one woman and injuring three others—before the gun malfunctioned and he was chased out by an armed security guard.Earnest was arrested by police a few minutes after the shooting as he fled, called 911, and told them where to find him off an exit on a California highway, authorities said. As an officer approached, he exited his vehicle, raised his hands, and surrendered. A rifle was recovered from the car. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.In his online posting, Earnest championed the likes of Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh six months ago, Tarrant, who killed 50 people in a New Zealand mosque in March; and Hitler.He used mainstream social media like Twitter and the fringe message boards 8Chan in what has become a proven way for terrorist groups and lone wolves alike to ensure that propaganda is disseminated to both those looking for it and those who are not. He posted the original screed on Pastebin.com and Mediafire.com, and linked to them on 8Chan. Like Tarrant, he promised to live-stream his killing spree, which he evidently failed to pull off. Facebook immediately removed the profile link he intended to use, but had somehow not seen the warning signs when he created the page.Sheriff William Gore of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said during a press conference late Sunday that authorities were carrying out searches in the suspect’s home and “looking into digital evidence and checking the authenticity of an online manifesto.” If it is validated as authentic, the student, who was previously unknown to police, found footing in the usual tenets of hate and the now all-too-familiar desire for infamy. Zach Keele, pastor of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, where Earnest’s father was an elder, or officer of the church, confirmed that he was part of the parish. “So John T. Earnest is a member here,” he told The Daily Beast. “We completely deplore what he did. That is not part of our practices, our teachings in any way. Our hearts, our prayers, our tears go out to the victims, to all those wonderful neighbors at the synagogue.”Keele said Earnest had never appeared to be the sort of person who would carry out this sort of an attack. “This is a complete surprise,” he said.In a service at the church on Sunday, Keele delivered a sermon on betrayal and forgiveness, offering condolences to the victims–but also to Earnest’s family. “We pray, Lord, for those who are hurting, and we pray for the victims of that synagogue,” Keele told the crowd of 50 or so parishioners. “We deeply mourn that this evil came out from us. We do not understand it, oh Lord, and we pray that you would forgive us for any such shortcoming, for any good deeds we left undone. We pray, Lord, that you will be with the Earnest family.”Speaking to his congregation after the service, Keele said he had spoken with Earnest’s parents the night before. They had spent the night huddled in their other son’s apartment close to the beach while their own house was searched by SWAT teams, he said. Earnest’s father plans to release a statement Monday morning through an attorney. “It’s a good statement,” Keele said. “They have good family support.”The minister added that Earnest must “suffer the full punishment of the law.” Still, he hopes he will “recant his hatred.” Keele plans to visit the young man in prison, if convicted, he said. After the service, Gerrit Groenewold, a board member at the Orthodox Presbyterian Church who happens to be the father of the girlfriend of one of Earnest’s brothers, told The Daily Beast that he had noticed Earnest had seemed quiet, and often tried to reach out to the young man, but with little luck. “I have tried to talk to John several times, but he is very silent and very reclusive. I noticed that he was quiet and just wanted to have contact... The other [members of his family] are not nearly as quiet,” he said. “It’s not good if someone is that quiet. He needs to be part of the community, to let them know what is going on.”Earnest also claimed responsibility for an attempted arson attack last month on Dar-ul-Arqam Mosque in Escondido, about nine miles from Poway, Security cameras at the mosque caught a suspect breaking a lock and pouring liquid on a side door but had failed to identify the person. Gore said investigators are now looking his “possible involvement in the arson and vandalism of mosque.”In a comment that was left after the synagogue shooting, someone asks, “How does a child of such privilege go so horribly wrong? Where does this hatred come from?”Late Saturday afternoon, California State University San Marcos president Karen S. Haynes confirmed that Earnest had been enrolled at the its nursing school.“We are dismayed and disheartened that the alleged shooter—now in custody—is a CSUSM student. CSUSM is working collaboratively with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to assist and gain more information,” Haynes said in a statement. “We are heartbroken by this tragedy, which was motivated by hate and anti-Semitism.”A man who identified himself as Earnest’s grandfather expressed shock at his grandson’s role in the deadly shooting on Saturday.“He did what?” the man told The Daily Beast when reached by phone. “That is out of whack. My heart is sinking into my chest. I’m going to hang up now.” By Saturday evening, police had barricaded the streets leading to the cul-de-sac in Rancho Peñasquitos, a hilly, middle-class suburb of San Diego about seven miles from the synagogue where Earnest lives with his family. More than three dozen law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, ATF agents, and cops, were at the scene. Eyewitnesses told The Daily Beast that the family left their home under police escort hours earlier.  Around 9 p.m. local time, law enforcement had secured a search warrant to enter Earnest’s house, which may well confirm the authenticity of his hate-filled screed and could possibly uncover how far he was willing to act on his hate. Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2UJuzKB

[epacer]

Martenizing the Unified District

Cindy Marten's fortune: leading San Diego Unified forward while suffering personal setbacks

Fortune #1,082: “You will have good luck in your personal affairs.” Years ago, Cindy Marten started finding fortunes — not the cookies, just the tossed-aside slips of paper — in random locations: under her seat at a Mexican restaurant, inside a supermarket, outside a gas station.

Marten, the San Diego Unified School District’s superintendent, catalogs these messages. Some are encouraging.

Others seem to be mocking her. That “good luck” fortune? She found it soon after losing control of a scooter on a city sidewalk. This May 12 accident sent her to the emergency room with a broken right arm, cuts and bruises.

Three days later, she was released from the hospital. “She comes out on a Tuesday at 10 a.m.,” said Mel Katz, a friend. “She’s had surgery, there’s a metal plate in her arm, a gash in her head — and she goes to her 3:30 p.m. board meeting.”

She stayed to the end of the six-hour session. “People think she is going to pass out,” Katz said.

But Marten, who next week marks her fifth anniversary as superintendent, was determined to honor her personal credo: “Work Hard, Be Kind, Dream Big! No Excuses.”

“You be there for joy and for pain,” she said. “You show up for it.”

In this position, showing up for five years is a major accomplishment. To lead California’s second-largest public school district, a mammoth enterprise of 181 schools and about 106,000 students, is to defy fate. This is a meat grinder of a job, a destroyer of reputations, a graveyard of bold plans and high hopes.

In the 10 years before Marten’s hiring, the district was led by four permanent and three interim superintendents. The position seemed so unworkable, the board of trustees debated scrapping it in favor of some less-punishing arrangement.

But roughly 24 hours after another short-term superintendent resigned, the board offered the job to an elementary school principal with decades of classroom experience: Marten.

Fans say this experiment is now showing signs of success. In April, the district topped the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called “the nation’s report card.”

“San Diego Unified School District blew the socks off this cycle of the Nation’s Report Card, which measures progress on reading and math at grades four and eight,” said Mike Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, representing 69 of the country’s largest urban public school districts.

“No other city in the country saw gains in both grades in reading and math like San Diego.”

Graduation rates have risen to 91 percent. Marten seems to have won over her five-member board and many of the district’s 12,900 employees.

“The good thing is she’s been a teacher,” said Myriam Pedersen, who retired this month after 30 years of teaching in the district. “It makes a huge difference when they talk about, ‘here’s our goals, here’s what we will do,’ if they’ve been a teacher.”

Still, budget cuts and layoffs are perennial issues. An achievement gap between students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds, while narrowing, persists. There are still under-performing schools.

While juggling these professional challenges, Marten has been hit with personal crises. In January Marten’s mother, Fern Siegel, the former president of Jewish Family Service of San Diego, suffered a heart attack. Visibly scarred from her scooter mishap, Marten bears invisible scars from the deaths of her father in 2014 and her husband in 2016.

“None of it affects her job,” said Katz, who is on the board of one of the district’s charter schools, the C3 Academy. “She has such a positive attitude and really, really believes that we are doing great things for the city.

“We are just starting to see what Cindy can accomplish in San Diego.”

Fortune #592: “You will find good fortune in love.” Marten is 51, two years younger than her brother, Charley Cohen — “the love of my life,” she calls him. As a young girl, Cindy rapidly surpassed her older sibling in most academic subjects, as he is developmentally disabled.

“I’m certain I became a teacher because of my brother, Charley,” she said. “I wanted to teach him.”

The Cohens moved from Chicago to San Diego when Cindy was 11, so Charley could enroll in California’s special education program. The family prized education — the father, Donald Cohen, was a lawyer and certified public accountant who spoke several languages; the mother, a CPA and community activist, was president of a synagogue (Temple Emanu-El in San Carlos) and led a campaign to build a residence for the mentally ill (Chesed Home: Hope Village in Escondido).

Cynthia Minette Cohen, the couple’s middle child, is the only one who was adopted and the only one without a serious disability. Her younger sister, Laura, was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic as a young woman.

Cindy attended local public schools — Hardy Elementary, Horace Mann Middle — before enrolling in La Jolla Country Day. For her senior project, she interned at the Aseltine School, then a special education academy where Charley had studied.

She idolized Aseltine’s energetic principal, Marian Grant. Years later as a young teacher, Cindy Cohen took Grant to lunch.

“What’s your secret?” the fledgling educator asked her mentor. “How do you avoid burning out?”

“You’ll never burn out,” Grant predicted, “because you are curious.”

Armed with a teaching degree from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, Cohen began her career at Beth Israel Day School in 1991. That same year, she married her longtime boyfriend, a dashing hotel manager from Mexico City, Sergio Marten.

After a stint in the Poway district as a teacher and literacy specialist, Marten moved to San Diego Unified and City Heights’ Central Elementary. There, she was a teacher, vice principal and principal.

She assumed that last position in 2007, just as her husband suffered a massive stroke.

“I had 1,000 kids counting on me, our son was 12 going on 13, and my husband, my soul mate, was in the ICU and we didn’t know if he would live or die,” she said.

To maintain her emotional balance, she vowed to take one photograph a day for a year, focusing on something that made her grateful.

Nature supplied most subjects — butterflies, sunsets, ocean vistas — but homey images sometimes appeared. Her feet, for instance, kicking off her shoes after a long day.

“The world doesn’t change,” Marten said, “but the way you look at the world changes.”

When the year ended, Marten continued this practice. She still does today.

Fortune #1,083: “An unexpected visitor will bring you good blessings.” Under Marten, Central was cited as a successful inner city school by experts local and national. The principal advocated smaller class sizes, established clear, measurable results for her teachers, and provided staff with additional training and resources.

When Richard Barrera, a local labor leader, began his successful campaign for the school board in 2008, he spoke with students, teachers, staff and administrators.

“Cindy was the most articulate educator I met in this whole process,” said Barrera, secretary-treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers’ Local 135. “She was able to take me and show me and articulate at her school how to create an environment where kids were thriving.”

When Superintendent Terry Grier resigned to lead Houston’s school district, Barrera tapped Marten to serve on the search committee for a successor.

“She became a leader in that process,” Barrera said.

That process resulted in the June 2010 hiring of Bill Kowba. Less than three years later, when he announced his retirement, Marten became the trustees’ unanimous choice without a search committee or any community testimony.

This was “virtually unheard of,” the Union-Tribune reported, and some were upset by the move. Marten disturbed some district employees and parents early in her tenure, as she replaced close to 75 percent of the district’s principals.

“She wants strong principals who support and hold accountable the teachers,” Katz said. “It’s all about proper training and doing the right things — supporting your teachers, giving them the tools they need and holding them accountable.”

Those tools include special teams dispatched to schools to share the latest best practices on math or reading instruction.

Observers say Marten benefited by inheriting a board of trustees that, unlike many earlier boards, is not split into warring camps. There’s an agreed-upon mission, to tackle racial achievement gaps and to provide every student a broad and challenging curriculum.

“We’re all pulling in the same direction,” Barrera said.

“I think we’re getting a lot accomplished,” said Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, another trustee. “We want every child reading by third grade and we're working on that. We want every child to graduate and we’re working on that.”

Part of that work involves the superintendent regularly briefing the trustees and keeping the surprises, good or bad, to a minimum.

“We meet weekly,” Whitehurst-Payne said. “That’s good access.”

Fortune #619: “You can be trusted to keep a secret.” In his retirement, Marten’s father became known as "Don the Can Man.” A longtime runner and bicyclist, Don Cohen often scoured San Diego’s streets for aluminum cans, keeping meticulous count of how many he had grabbed and recycled.

On his 80th birthday, Oct. 14, 2014, he scored his 4 millionth can. His goal was 8 million cans, but he would never reach that number. While bicycling near San Diego State University that fall, he was hit by a car. He died from his injuries on Nov. 7, 2014.

Marten had little time to mourn her father, as her husband’s health was deteriorating. In the summer of 2016, while in a rehab center, he seemed to be recovering.

Marten called him early on Aug. 21, 2016, the day of the America’s Finest City Half Marathon, which she had entered. He sounded fine, an impression reinforced by a positive report from the rehab center’s staff, and promised to see Marten after her run.

“I was running to honor my father,” she said. But the race soon took on an even darker hue.

At Mile 7, Marten’s cell phone rang. Sergio Marten’s heart had failed, and he had died at the age of 57. He and Cindy had been husband and wife for 25 years and a couple for 33 years.

Days later, the 2016-2017 school year kicked off with a rally.

“I went to school, went to the meetings,” Marten said. “I could have been the grieving widow, but you go.”

Her emotions were profoundly mixed — “there’s this great joy because the beginning of school is such an amazing time” — but she didn't want her own sorrows to cast a shadow over that special day.

“If I need to cry,” she said, “I cry.”

Even now, she tears up when discussing the Job-like series of calamities that has hit the family in the last four years. She mourns, but she also takes comfort in the loved ones who remain and the chance she has to move this district ahead.

“This district”? Scratch that.

“I don’t think of this as working for the district,” she said,. “I think of this as working for my community.”

As superintendent, she’s privy to inside information about principals, teachers, counselors, secretaries. Some of this is joyful — Marten is known for writing notes to staff, marking birthdays and anniversaries — and some is not.

On June 13, she testified for an hour in a wrongful termination lawsuit brought by an investigator who says he was fired after refusing to alter his reports on a sexual assault incident at San Carlos’ Green Elementary School.

On the witness stand, Marten was asked if she had urged anyone to “whitewash” the report by the investigator, Michael Gurrieri.

“Absolutely not,” she replied, “of course not.”

In an interview, Marten said she could not comment on this case, as a decision is still pending.

Intense scrutiny comes with this job, for better or worse. Tyler Cramer, a San Diegan who serves on the board of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, was present when superintendents from the nation’s top four urban public school districts spoke in Washington, D.C.

“Cindy did her presentation on math and she was amazing,” Cramer said. “You can see her panel on Youtube and she’s a knockout on it. This is playing in the major leagues at the playoff level.”

That’s one characteristic of a champion — the ability to play and win, even when hurt. *Reposted article from the UT by Peter Rowe of June 24, 2018

[djgblogger-blog]

Why giving cash, not clothing, is usually best after disasters

http://bit.ly/2w14Zoa

Unless you live near a disaster area, sending money may do more good than a mountain of toilet paper. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government entities, nonprofits large and small, and contributions from concerned individuals, a massive Hurricane Harvey relief effort is taking shape.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s “Help for Houston�� drive and countless other community collections illustrate the American impulse to help people whose lives have been upended by catastrophic floods. But like his campaign, these well-intentioned bids to ship goods to distant locales in Texas are perpetuating a common myth of post-disaster charitable giving.

As a researcher with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, an interdisciplinary center at Harvard University dedicated to relieving human suffering in wartime and disasters by analyzing and improving the way professionals and communities respond to emergencies, I’ve seen the evidence on dozens of disasters, from Superstorm Sandy to the South Asian Tsunami. It all points to a clear conclusion: In-kind donations of items such as food, clothing, toiletries and diapers are often the last thing that is needed in disaster-affected areas.

Delivering things that people need on the ground simply doesn’t help disaster-struck communities as much as giving them – and relief organizations – money to buy what they need. What’s more, truckloads of blue jeans and cases of Lunchables can actually interfere with official relief efforts.

If you want to do the greatest good, send money.

What’s wrong with in-kind donations

As humanitarian workers and volunteers have witnessed after disasters like Haiti’s 2010 earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan, disaster relief efforts repeatedly provide lessons in good intentions gone wrong.

At best, in-kind donations augment official efforts and provide the locals with some additional comfort, especially when those donations come from nearby. When various levels of government failed to meet the needs of Hurricane Katrina victims, for example, community, faith-based and private sector organizations stepped in to fill many of the gaps.

How can in-kind donations cause more harm than good? While ostensibly free, donated goods raise the cost of the response cycle: from collecting, sorting, packaging and shipping bulky items across long distances to, upon arrival, reception, sorting, warehousing and distribution.

Delivering this aid is extremely tough in disaster areas since transportation infrastructure, such as airports, seaports, roads and bridges, are likely to be, if not damaged or incapacitated by the initial disaster, already clogged by the surge of incoming first responders, relief shipments and equipment.

Dumping grounds

At worst, disaster zones become dumping grounds for inappropriate goods that delay actual relief efforts and harm local economies.

After the 2004 South Asian tsunami, shipping containers full of ill-suited items such as used high-heeled shoes, ski gear and expired medications poured into the affected countries. This junk clogged ports and roads, polluting already ravaged areas and diverting personnel, trucks and storage facilities from actual relief efforts.

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, many untrained and uninvited American volunteers bringing unnecessary goods ended up needing assistance themselves.

In-kind donations often not only fail to help those in actual need but cause congestion, tie up resources and further hurt local economies when dumped on the market, as research from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies determined.

From Joplin to Japan

Research confirms that a significant portion of aid dispatched to disaster areas is “non-priority,” inappropriate or useless.

One study led by José Holguín-Veras, a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute expert on humanitarian logistics, found that 50 percent to 70 percent of the goods that arrive during these emergencies should never have been sent and interfere with recovery efforts. After the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado and the Tōhoku, Japan earthquake, for example, excessive donations of clothing and blankets tied up relief personnel. The situation was similar after Hurricane Katrina.

Relief workers consider these well-meaning but inconvenient donations as a “second tier disaster” due to the disruption they cause.

And yet Americans are organizing this kind of donation drive in places like Sea Bright, New Jersey, Pleasant View, Tennessee, Escondido, California, Florida’s Treasure Coast, Chicago and Madison, Wisconsin.

What else can you do?

Instead of shipping your hand-me-downs, donate money to trusted and established organizations with extensive experience and expertise – and local ties.

Give to groups that make it clear where the money will go. Choose relief efforts that will procure supplies near the disaster area, which will help the local economy recover. Many media outlets, including The New York Times and NPR, have published helpful guides that list legitimate and worthy options. You can also consult Charity Navigator, a nonprofit that evaluates charities’ financial performance.

Many humanitarian aid organizations themselves have increasingly adopted cash-based approaches in recent years, though money remains a small share of overall humanitarian aid worldwide.

Evaluations of the effectiveness of such programs vary and are context-dependent. Nonetheless, emerging evidence suggests that disbursing cash is often the best way to help people in disaster zones get the food and shelter they need. What’s more, the World Food Program and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees say that people affected by disasters tend to prefer cash over in-kind aid due to the dignity, control and flexibility it gives them.

Exceptions

There are a few notable exceptions to this advice on avoiding in-kind donations.

If you live in or near the affected area, it is helpful to consider dropping the specific items victims are requesting at local food banks, shelters and other community organizations. Just make sure that the items won’t perish by the time they can be distributed. Examples of some locally requested items in Houston include diapers, cleaning and building supplies, and new bedding.

Charity is a virtue. Particularly when disaster strikes, the urge to help is admirable. Yet this impulse should be channeled to do the greatest good. So please, if you would like to help from afar, let the professionals procure goods and services. Instead, donate money and listen to what people on the ground say they need.

And don’t stop giving after the disaster stops making headlines. A full recovery will take time – and support long after the emergency responders and camera crews have moved on.

Julia Brooks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.