BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, FEB. 1, 2016) — Being on the road and off the computer for a few days does wonders for the disposition. Working on books also Trumps many other ways of making a living (“Here’s another clue for you all …”).

Fortunately for readers of THE PLANET and viewers of PLANET VALENTI TELEVISION, we do not engage in these two activities for a living. We do it for fun, which we define as that interval between the arrival of the last mosquito and the leaving of the final itch. Yes, we have a lot of it. That being said, no one works harder, if you call exchanging words for dollar bills “work.” THE PLANET does.

Catching up on new and old business, THE PLANET heard reports of the school department taking our name in vain. That is all well and good, since it indicates THE PLANET has accomplished our mission of stimulating debate while exposing the policies of officials, particularly the ones they would rather you not know about.

The ‘Nasty’ Things

For example, we heard PSD superintendent Jason “Jake” JIV McCandless and Kathy “Lady Boots” Yon have been giving us much publicity about “the nasty things” we’ve been posting about the school department. Notice, however, neither Fred nor Ginger could dispute any of our facts. We wish they would, and we have invited these well-compensated non-sequiturs to specify where our coverage of the sainted PSD is in factual error. Needless to say, they ignored our requests. When the phone doesn’t ring, I know it’s JIV and Lady Boots not getting back to us.

However, THE PLANET is nothing if not persistent. We sent the following e-mail to the head honchos at the PSD. These would be JIV (jmccandless@pittsfieldch.net); Lady Boots (kyon@pittsfieldch.net); Kristen Behnke (kbehnke@pittsfieldch.net), assistant superintendent for business and finance; and Joe Curtis (jcurtis@pittsfieldch.net), deputy superintendent.  Here’s what we sent:

——– 000 ——–

JAKE and KATHY and KRISTEN and JOE:

I am issuing this invitation for all or any of you to:
1) appear as guests on my TV show and
2) comment on THE PLANET’s posting about the PSD.

You have been critical of my analyses, and I invite you to directly share your criticisms with my viewers and readers. I can get you on the show as early as this coming Thursday, Feb. 4, @ 7 p.m. If that is not convenient, I can do it on the first Thursday following that is convenient for you. This being the beginning of the budget season, the public would benefit from your appearances on the TV show and on the blog. You should be more than ready to defend past policies and current requests in the face of my questioning.

Let me know if you
A) Wish to be on the show and when and
B) Want to submit a comment or article for THE PLANET.

I look forward to the exchange,
Cordially,
DAN

——– 000 ——–

Do you like the “Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice” effect of our salutation? We thought you would.

THE PLANET, alone, has exposed the shell game behind the recently signed contract between taxpayers and the Pittsfield teachers as mediated by the school committee and the PSD administration. This was a contract that gave pay raises of 16.2% to 18.2% not just to Pittsfield public school teachers but also, to quote from the contract, to “guidance counselors, department heads, team leaders, unit leaders, head teachers, supervisors of attendance, coaches, librarians, media specialists, teachers of students with special needs, speech therapists, caseworkers, clinical social workers, in-hour suspension teachers, peer mediation counselors, certified ESL teachers, supervisors of vocational education, instructional technology specialists, evening school teachers, ABE teachers, TPP instructors, mentor teachers, school nurses, school nurse leader, occupational therapists, physical therapists, academic coaches, and extra-curricular personnel.”

The Suits tried to hide the actual pay raises by publicly referring only to the contract’s “1% cost-of-living raises.” They counted on the local mainstream media to accept the ruse. They didn’t count on this nosy, investigative reporter and his team digging out the documents that provided the true picture of the actual raises received by the more than 1,000 school department employees covered in this contract.

Not one of your school committee members did this digging or asked the tough questions: Not Lady Boots, Josh “Grandpa Munster Junior” Cutler, Pam “Venus Hum” Farron, Tony “Cop Out” Riello, Dan “Tommy’s Brother” Elias, or Cynthia “Don’t Call Me Andy” Taylor. Each of these “profiles in courage” pulled the ripcord and bailed out on you. Your “representatives” sold you down the Housatonic. Only THE PLANET represented you when it came to the dirty work.

So JIV, Lady Boots, Kristen, and Joe. Let’s go. Let’s have it out. Live and out in the open. What say?

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“Lay me on an anvil, O God. / Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar. / Let me pry loose old walls. / Let me lift and loosen old foundations.” — Carl Sandburg, from “Prayers of Steel,” (1918).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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