Downstroke

But it’s not a slap in the face; the missing money was Brown’s own idea, much like last year, when Brown said he couldn’t in good conscience accept a raise amid state budget cuts and stagnant salaries for teachers and other employees in the Chico Unified School District.

“I don’t know in these economic times how anybody gets a raise, and as superintendent I should take the lead on that,” he said in an interview this week.

Even so, Brown won’t be hurting for cash by Chico standards. His salary totals $131,187. He started five years ago at $115,000 a year plus a $6,000-a-year car allowance.

Brown acknowledged that, as with all employees, the district’s cost to provide his health benefits went up, so in that respect it’s kind of like he’s getting a raise.

The evaluation has taken longer than usual this year, perhaps in part due to public scrutiny surrounding Brown’s role in reassigning popular Marsh Junior High School Principal Jeff Sloan. Several Sloan supporters showed up at school board meetings to urge trustees to give Brown a negative evaluation—the first time the public has expressed an interest in the process since the superintendent was hired in 1999.

President Steve O’Bryan is expected to have the written evaluation, which will remain confidential, done within days.

Let ’em learn it in the streets like we did: If kids are going to learn about bestiality, fellatio and orgies in school, they’d best get permission from their folks first.

That’s the goal of a March 2006 ballot initiative being promoted by Tony Andrade, a Republican businessman and one of the key figures behind the recall of former Gov. Gray Davis.

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley announced this week that Andrade has qualified to petition to restrict sex education in public schools by amending the California Education Code to add additional parental-notification rules.

The initiative, among other things, proposes that before such subjects as “homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, sadism, masochism, sodomy, pederasty, pedophilia, transvestitism, bisexuality, transgenderism, transexuality, necrophilia, domestic partnerships, cunnilingus, fellatio, orgies, or masturbation” are taught in grades seven through 12, the school must send prior written notice to the parent or guardian and get approval, which is good for only one day of instruction.

Andrade said that what he calls the “Civil Rights for Families” initiative would deter pedophiles from using public schools as an avenue for their perverted schemes. Andrade, who concedes that sex education is a deterrent to teen pregnancy and the acquisition of sexually transmitted diseases, also believes that the public school system promotes homosexuality in a place where it need not be promoted.

“It is not an attack on homosexuality,” said Andrade, who nonetheless asked, “Why do kids in public schools need to know about homosexuality?” Andrade believes some districts are trying to create a sense of “normalcy” when it comes to homosexuality, rather than leaving the topic up to parents to discuss with their children.