According to transparent California, Arielle Curry receives total compensation of $221,361.00 annually including pension and other benefits. Every time I look at transparent California I want to puke over the obscene salary paid to public employees. Every time I have to interact with a public employee I want to barf over their utter incompetence. Ms Curry is a fine example of an incompetent, dishonest, unqualified boob overcompensated for doing a lousy job. She should be fired and replaced with another incompetent boob. There is one positive note to this and it is that students got a lesson not in how the world should work but in how it does work today. It is a shame but election cheating and promotions based in skin color, sex or ideology are all too common.
What led to the principal's re-positioning at an elementary school, after having been a principal of a much larger and more complex local Junior High?
Could this be a case of the discredited "Dance of the Lemons" happening here locally too? This is an unsavory practice rife in too much of union-driven public education. The court found this "Dance of the Lemons" to be established practice in Vegara vs LAUSD, when teachers unfit to teach but due to union pressures also could not be fired. So they got farmed out by the district to lower profile positions.
Lots of unsavory unfinished business remains hanging in this case. Hope SBUSD rises to the occasion and brings far more clarity for all concerned, since the missing elements and reputational damage retains a stench.
Time for a real life "teaching moment", SBUSD. I shudder for the presumed innocent students who got trapped in this adult web of manipulation. And I also shudder at the polarization now in evidence among the adults. May we all pray for the best outcome.
Controlling election outcomes happens too often Loweg. Well known: Students hear prospective graduation speakers, VOTE on who they want speaking at their graduation, to then be told administrator(s) have decided differently. Too often it isn’t even a student who participated in the try-outs! Rather it’s a bilingual student despite 12 years of tax paid instruction in English — not to mention, English is the codified, official language in the CA Constitution, and CA Ed Code. We’re told it’s because too few SBUSD majority-minority students qualify academically for merit “cords” at graduation and need to be showcased. Graduation speaker it is!
1990 - Trip down memory lane. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow delivers her high school graduation speech, intentionally defying her adult handlers. Past was prologue.
Jeff you nailed it: “students got a lesson not in how the world should work but in how it does work today.” I quickly forwarded Brian and Mark’s article to 27 SBUSD high school alum from 2010. Responses were immediate from 11 of them with 👍 or comments. “Nothing has changed!” since their years at our three public high schools. Another texted: “We learned voting results are decided by those in control. What better lesson to have learned to be prepared for our adult lives?” A third texted, “No better job/ job security than working for SBUSD. Do you know why Curry not kicked upstairs, promoted to higher pay at County Schools?” A fourth: “What happened to Washington parents? They use to be our advocates.”
Credit due to SBUSD high schools for producing life prepared students when it comes to elections and awareness.
And now for the rest of the story .........................Campbell writes:
......."Parents say the ugliness did not end with the vote. When the winning student’s mother challenged what happened, Curry reportedly made a serious accusation against the 11-year-old winner involving her daughter.
Parents also allege the retaliation continues, with school staff harassing parents who spoke up about the cheating.
If those allegations are substantiated, the lesson becomes: lose the election, change the result, install your own child, attack the winner, harass the parents who speak up."......
Common practice: retaliation! Montecito parents learn early in kindergarten: parents must be on campus at all times: library, cafeteria, band room, gym, hallways, etc. rotating schedules. It’s essential at the secondary level.
1990 - trip down memory lane. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow delivers her high school graduation speech, intentionally defying her adult handlers. Past was prologue.
There should be more outrage over this incident. More questions need to be asked, and more importantly, the questions need to be answered by the school and the school district.
Wow- the corruption starts at the bottom and explains the corruption at the top. Thanks for the clear summary of this fiasco. At least white privilege is not an issue and no one is blaming Trump … so far
Apparently there is a hierarchy of DEI privilege. It is kind of like paper rock scissors but in this case white loses to all the other benefitted classes including women, indigenous people, LBGTQ+, black, Hispanics and their even more powerful combinations or intersections. Curry sits in a high position being both black and a woman (whatever a woman is) and could perhaps be entirely untouchable if she was openly lesbian or trans. Clearly oppressed and downtrodden one cannot expect society would accept her losing her 200k job for installing her own child who lost the election, as class president.
Fire Curry! Teaching election corruption, and why NOT to vote (because results are changed by those in control), and to shut up are the three lessons taught well by SBUSD. Curry is a failed administrator from Franklin Elementary to Santa Barbara Jr High to now Washington Elementary.
When will more parents find the courage to take a stand, to be a force? Why condone, celebrate, applaud, tolerate bad, unethical, wrong adult actions? Property taxpayers: where’s your outrage?
Thank you authors Brian and Mark! You’re local admired heroes!! As described in the article, most PARENTS are our local problem, not the students.
Most parents go along to get along afraid of consequences that will be imposed on their minor student; or they are just plain negligent or stupid. I was a parent in the public system with 2 students from 1996-2012 (SBJr and Sr); and a public school activist since 1980 starting back when Supt Mike Caston and Debbie Flores enlightened Santa Barbara to reality. Our problems are major.
There are snakes, rats and worse in the SBUSD system. Changing election results is common practice; the edge of canyon. Be a force. Get informed. Develop networks; relationships. Teachers, office staff, custodians know much. (I still go to monthly coffees, breakfast or happy hours with educators to stay informed.)
Retirees, grandparents are needed to speak up, demand accountability because … working parents are overwhelmed juggling earning, home responsibilities, or with other priorities.
Our students are our future! Voter fraud determines our adult elections too!
We live with the results: a DSA controlled City Council; and F ranked Congress Rep Salud Carbajal.
VOTE BOB SMITH to Congress for needed top down change. How I wish I was a City eligible voter.i
What gives with SBUSD Human Resource Dept? John Becchio has made it clear: Do not apply unless you’re brown or bilingual UNLESS you teach hard sciences or advanced mathematics — then non-Hispanic white is apparently OK. He was VP at SBJr and then another short lived revolving door Principal at SBSr High. (He speaks Spanish, is son of SBUSD employed parent.) MIA Susan Salcedo & VP Becchio were followed at SBJr by horrible Lito Garcia, and later Annette Curry. Do you see a trend?
Too often we find that the school systems are rotten in performance and in character. We all pay for them. We should all take control. The political ruling class has not solved these problems, and never will, without public interventions.
The problem with "woke" is it encourages narcissism. Narcissists can never be wrong. Reminds me of watching all of those SBCC Board of Trustee meetings from 2020-2023 where they pushed out the Superintendent/President Utpal Goswami, for not imposing their repressive COVID mandates and then planned to hire 24 "diversity" professors despite having trouble making cost of living increases for the faculty they already had. Anyone who disagreed was vilified and persecuted.
I believe this is part of the reason Veronica Gallardo was attacked and censured. She filed a Title VII complaint about law violations during the Superintendent/President hiring process. This likely means she felt the only white male candidate was excluded due to his race and gender. The results of this investigation were never made public. The Superintendent/President chosen by that process, Erika Endrijonas, remains in place just like apparently Curry's child as elementary school president.
It was watching behavior such as displayed by the majority of SBCC board of trustees in the wake of the COVID psyop that made me realize that our culture is rotten to the core and the only way to fix this is to bring back the moral foundation of our civilization. We must put Christ back into the center of our society. Hedonistic will to power is not a moral system that can sustain a civilization.
Very sad commentary on our schools. Race DOES apparently matter when comes to grift, fraud and even violence. How else does one explain the MASSIVE fraud going on in Minnesota, committed by Somalian immigrants?
Race has become white man’s kryptonite when it comes to holding non-whites, especially blacks, responsible for even the most violent crimes.
The current controversy going on at San Marcos High School is yet another example of whites tripping over themselves for a stupid video of kids imitating others. Now all of a sudden we have a racial problem and are in need of remedial brainwashing.
Brian and Mark, What does this teach the kids at Washington and elsewhere? That is okay to cheat? It is okay to cheat since its apparently happened in the past. A hero's welcome? She should have come back and apologized to her colleagues and the students. She should have explained that she made a mistake and is sorry for that . I can only imagine what would have happened if this had been a white principal. Good to see that she is setting a fantastic example for her child. Finally, was the correct candidate installed as student body president.
Too many old, angry non-Hispanic women have changed Tribes. Their life expectations unmet for varied reasons. They’ve unlimited time to protest, disrupt, demand. Manipulating elections, allowing DACAs and other non-eligible residents to vote has been authorized, legitimized by our CA legislature and Governor. Who protested against?
Article reads that Washington parents have joined Curry’s Tribe in support of corruption and an inept principal. Not surprising tho given SBUSD’s support for retaliation against students of dissenting parents.
How can we expect change in our schools when we choose an “activist” as school board member vs. her opponent which is a “financial analyst?” All this does is assures power to the teachers Union.
Progressive Latina rights activist Jacquelin Inda has not yet been elected by D1 Eastside Voters. However D1 demographics favor Inda over her opponent.
SBUSD Trustee District 1:
39,000 residents and 21,271 registered voters.
66.5% high school degree or less;
60.7% incomes under $100K; 28% homeowners vs 72% renters.
72% is the highest of any SBUSD Trustee District
NOTE: Montecito was removed from D1 losing any and all influence over the D1 public secondary high schools: SBJr and SBSr High Schools. Montecito is now D2.
Are there minutes from the SB school board regarding this event ? They should be made public immediately...not a protracted FOIA request....and not limited to the general topic, but the detailed input from each and every board member. Full stop.
Clearly the SB School Board determined that "Black Lives Matter More". Shame on Curry, shame on her cohorts at Washington School and even more shame on the SB School Board. Heads should roll...downhill...not uphill...the usual result from these wagon circling miscreants. Curry acted with smug confidence predicated on her accurate understanding of the culture of not only the school board, but her workplace cohorts. Disgraceful.
Unbelievably, there was a parent on Nextdoor who was basically telling others not to weigh in on Curry “unless your child was a student at Washington.”
These are the same people who vote in the member majority of our school board, city council and the board of supervisors. You get what you for...and it's a demonstrable train wreck at every local and state level.
A number of years ago the voters blew an opportunity to vote for someone with integrity, intelligence and a value system that would be a major and missing asset to the SB school board...Brian Campbell. At the end of the day, it's always the voters.
I guess parents are afraid of being called nasty names if they try to fire this principal. I just don’t understand how you can have a principal who is a cheater and a fraudster and parents are OK with that. Kids know now that they can cheat and get away with it. Some students that is. If she rigs elections, what else is she doing that’s not on the up and up.
Also, I find it very interesting that activists are descending on to San Marcos high school trying to get some white girls expelled from school for doing an AI trend. People are willing to ruin the lives of 15 or 16-year-old girls and yet have no outrage over a grown woman who rigged an election for her daughter. Santa Barbara is lost.
According to transparent California, Arielle Curry receives total compensation of $221,361.00 annually including pension and other benefits. Every time I look at transparent California I want to puke over the obscene salary paid to public employees. Every time I have to interact with a public employee I want to barf over their utter incompetence. Ms Curry is a fine example of an incompetent, dishonest, unqualified boob overcompensated for doing a lousy job. She should be fired and replaced with another incompetent boob. There is one positive note to this and it is that students got a lesson not in how the world should work but in how it does work today. It is a shame but election cheating and promotions based in skin color, sex or ideology are all too common.
What led to the principal's re-positioning at an elementary school, after having been a principal of a much larger and more complex local Junior High?
Could this be a case of the discredited "Dance of the Lemons" happening here locally too? This is an unsavory practice rife in too much of union-driven public education. The court found this "Dance of the Lemons" to be established practice in Vegara vs LAUSD, when teachers unfit to teach but due to union pressures also could not be fired. So they got farmed out by the district to lower profile positions.
Lots of unsavory unfinished business remains hanging in this case. Hope SBUSD rises to the occasion and brings far more clarity for all concerned, since the missing elements and reputational damage retains a stench.
Time for a real life "teaching moment", SBUSD. I shudder for the presumed innocent students who got trapped in this adult web of manipulation. And I also shudder at the polarization now in evidence among the adults. May we all pray for the best outcome.
Controlling election outcomes happens too often Loweg. Well known: Students hear prospective graduation speakers, VOTE on who they want speaking at their graduation, to then be told administrator(s) have decided differently. Too often it isn’t even a student who participated in the try-outs! Rather it’s a bilingual student despite 12 years of tax paid instruction in English — not to mention, English is the codified, official language in the CA Constitution, and CA Ed Code. We’re told it’s because too few SBUSD majority-minority students qualify academically for merit “cords” at graduation and need to be showcased. Graduation speaker it is!
1990 - Trip down memory lane. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow delivers her high school graduation speech, intentionally defying her adult handlers. Past was prologue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-lG2YoZUQ
Jeff you nailed it: “students got a lesson not in how the world should work but in how it does work today.” I quickly forwarded Brian and Mark’s article to 27 SBUSD high school alum from 2010. Responses were immediate from 11 of them with 👍 or comments. “Nothing has changed!” since their years at our three public high schools. Another texted: “We learned voting results are decided by those in control. What better lesson to have learned to be prepared for our adult lives?” A third texted, “No better job/ job security than working for SBUSD. Do you know why Curry not kicked upstairs, promoted to higher pay at County Schools?” A fourth: “What happened to Washington parents? They use to be our advocates.”
Credit due to SBUSD high schools for producing life prepared students when it comes to elections and awareness.
And now for the rest of the story .........................Campbell writes:
......."Parents say the ugliness did not end with the vote. When the winning student’s mother challenged what happened, Curry reportedly made a serious accusation against the 11-year-old winner involving her daughter.
Parents also allege the retaliation continues, with school staff harassing parents who spoke up about the cheating.
If those allegations are substantiated, the lesson becomes: lose the election, change the result, install your own child, attack the winner, harass the parents who speak up."......
Common practice: retaliation! Montecito parents learn early in kindergarten: parents must be on campus at all times: library, cafeteria, band room, gym, hallways, etc. rotating schedules. It’s essential at the secondary level.
1990 - trip down memory lane. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow delivers her high school graduation speech, intentionally defying her adult handlers. Past was prologue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-lG2YoZUQ
There should be more outrage over this incident. More questions need to be asked, and more importantly, the questions need to be answered by the school and the school district.
No apology. And the true winners still have not been installed.
Welcome to a Democrat run SBUSD
Rules for thee, not for me.
Wow- the corruption starts at the bottom and explains the corruption at the top. Thanks for the clear summary of this fiasco. At least white privilege is not an issue and no one is blaming Trump … so far
Apparently there is a hierarchy of DEI privilege. It is kind of like paper rock scissors but in this case white loses to all the other benefitted classes including women, indigenous people, LBGTQ+, black, Hispanics and their even more powerful combinations or intersections. Curry sits in a high position being both black and a woman (whatever a woman is) and could perhaps be entirely untouchable if she was openly lesbian or trans. Clearly oppressed and downtrodden one cannot expect society would accept her losing her 200k job for installing her own child who lost the election, as class president.
Good grief; is that a termination offense? I hope so. That is pathetic.
Fire Curry! Teaching election corruption, and why NOT to vote (because results are changed by those in control), and to shut up are the three lessons taught well by SBUSD. Curry is a failed administrator from Franklin Elementary to Santa Barbara Jr High to now Washington Elementary.
When will more parents find the courage to take a stand, to be a force? Why condone, celebrate, applaud, tolerate bad, unethical, wrong adult actions? Property taxpayers: where’s your outrage?
Thank you authors Brian and Mark! You’re local admired heroes!! As described in the article, most PARENTS are our local problem, not the students.
Most parents go along to get along afraid of consequences that will be imposed on their minor student; or they are just plain negligent or stupid. I was a parent in the public system with 2 students from 1996-2012 (SBJr and Sr); and a public school activist since 1980 starting back when Supt Mike Caston and Debbie Flores enlightened Santa Barbara to reality. Our problems are major.
There are snakes, rats and worse in the SBUSD system. Changing election results is common practice; the edge of canyon. Be a force. Get informed. Develop networks; relationships. Teachers, office staff, custodians know much. (I still go to monthly coffees, breakfast or happy hours with educators to stay informed.)
Retirees, grandparents are needed to speak up, demand accountability because … working parents are overwhelmed juggling earning, home responsibilities, or with other priorities.
Our students are our future! Voter fraud determines our adult elections too!
We live with the results: a DSA controlled City Council; and F ranked Congress Rep Salud Carbajal.
VOTE BOB SMITH to Congress for needed top down change. How I wish I was a City eligible voter.i
Ask Curry why she was terminated from SB Jr High. You will find a pattern.
I was wondering that myself when I read the original article. What gives with this woman?
What gives with SBUSD Human Resource Dept? John Becchio has made it clear: Do not apply unless you’re brown or bilingual UNLESS you teach hard sciences or advanced mathematics — then non-Hispanic white is apparently OK. He was VP at SBJr and then another short lived revolving door Principal at SBSr High. (He speaks Spanish, is son of SBUSD employed parent.) MIA Susan Salcedo & VP Becchio were followed at SBJr by horrible Lito Garcia, and later Annette Curry. Do you see a trend?
Too often we find that the school systems are rotten in performance and in character. We all pay for them. We should all take control. The political ruling class has not solved these problems, and never will, without public interventions.
The problem with "woke" is it encourages narcissism. Narcissists can never be wrong. Reminds me of watching all of those SBCC Board of Trustee meetings from 2020-2023 where they pushed out the Superintendent/President Utpal Goswami, for not imposing their repressive COVID mandates and then planned to hire 24 "diversity" professors despite having trouble making cost of living increases for the faculty they already had. Anyone who disagreed was vilified and persecuted.
I believe this is part of the reason Veronica Gallardo was attacked and censured. She filed a Title VII complaint about law violations during the Superintendent/President hiring process. This likely means she felt the only white male candidate was excluded due to his race and gender. The results of this investigation were never made public. The Superintendent/President chosen by that process, Erika Endrijonas, remains in place just like apparently Curry's child as elementary school president.
It was watching behavior such as displayed by the majority of SBCC board of trustees in the wake of the COVID psyop that made me realize that our culture is rotten to the core and the only way to fix this is to bring back the moral foundation of our civilization. We must put Christ back into the center of our society. Hedonistic will to power is not a moral system that can sustain a civilization.
Very sad commentary on our schools. Race DOES apparently matter when comes to grift, fraud and even violence. How else does one explain the MASSIVE fraud going on in Minnesota, committed by Somalian immigrants?
Race has become white man’s kryptonite when it comes to holding non-whites, especially blacks, responsible for even the most violent crimes.
The current controversy going on at San Marcos High School is yet another example of whites tripping over themselves for a stupid video of kids imitating others. Now all of a sudden we have a racial problem and are in need of remedial brainwashing.
https://www.noozhawk.com/santa-barbara-school-district-meeting-blackface-incident/
Exactly.
Brian and Mark, What does this teach the kids at Washington and elsewhere? That is okay to cheat? It is okay to cheat since its apparently happened in the past. A hero's welcome? She should have come back and apologized to her colleagues and the students. She should have explained that she made a mistake and is sorry for that . I can only imagine what would have happened if this had been a white principal. Good to see that she is setting a fantastic example for her child. Finally, was the correct candidate installed as student body president.
Big Bird's alphabet lesson for the day: T is for Tribalism. Is this the crack in Big Bird's cosmic egg? If so, it will be a welcome conversation.
Too many old, angry non-Hispanic women have changed Tribes. Their life expectations unmet for varied reasons. They’ve unlimited time to protest, disrupt, demand. Manipulating elections, allowing DACAs and other non-eligible residents to vote has been authorized, legitimized by our CA legislature and Governor. Who protested against?
Article reads that Washington parents have joined Curry’s Tribe in support of corruption and an inept principal. Not surprising tho given SBUSD’s support for retaliation against students of dissenting parents.
How can we expect change in our schools when we choose an “activist” as school board member vs. her opponent which is a “financial analyst?” All this does is assures power to the teachers Union.
https://www.newspress.com/2026/08/12/activist-jumps-into-the-race-for-santa-barbara-unified-school-board/
Progressive Latina rights activist Jacquelin Inda has not yet been elected by D1 Eastside Voters. However D1 demographics favor Inda over her opponent.
SBUSD Trustee District 1:
39,000 residents and 21,271 registered voters.
66.5% high school degree or less;
60.7% incomes under $100K; 28% homeowners vs 72% renters.
72% is the highest of any SBUSD Trustee District
NOTE: Montecito was removed from D1 losing any and all influence over the D1 public secondary high schools: SBJr and SBSr High Schools. Montecito is now D2.
Are there minutes from the SB school board regarding this event ? They should be made public immediately...not a protracted FOIA request....and not limited to the general topic, but the detailed input from each and every board member. Full stop.
Clearly the SB School Board determined that "Black Lives Matter More". Shame on Curry, shame on her cohorts at Washington School and even more shame on the SB School Board. Heads should roll...downhill...not uphill...the usual result from these wagon circling miscreants. Curry acted with smug confidence predicated on her accurate understanding of the culture of not only the school board, but her workplace cohorts. Disgraceful.
TVW- Shame on the described Washington parents supporting Curry; for abandoning their own children under her control 5-7 hours M-F.
Unbelievably, there was a parent on Nextdoor who was basically telling others not to weigh in on Curry “unless your child was a student at Washington.”
These are the same people who vote in the member majority of our school board, city council and the board of supervisors. You get what you for...and it's a demonstrable train wreck at every local and state level.
A number of years ago the voters blew an opportunity to vote for someone with integrity, intelligence and a value system that would be a major and missing asset to the SB school board...Brian Campbell. At the end of the day, it's always the voters.
I guess parents are afraid of being called nasty names if they try to fire this principal. I just don’t understand how you can have a principal who is a cheater and a fraudster and parents are OK with that. Kids know now that they can cheat and get away with it. Some students that is. If she rigs elections, what else is she doing that’s not on the up and up.
Also, I find it very interesting that activists are descending on to San Marcos high school trying to get some white girls expelled from school for doing an AI trend. People are willing to ruin the lives of 15 or 16-year-old girls and yet have no outrage over a grown woman who rigged an election for her daughter. Santa Barbara is lost.