Four years have elapsed since I penned an open letter to Banta Elementary School District Superintendent Albert Garibaldi questioning his decision to intentionally undermine the success of his district’s first charter school. At the time, Mr. Garibaldi was attempting to destroy a thriving charter school seemingly in order to get a larger piece of the state funding pie for the school district and, of course, himself. Fortunately for River Islands Technology Academy, Mr Garibaldi’s efforts to shutter the school failed due to the unwavering support of River Islands project director Susan Dell’Osso. Unfortunately for the children of Banta, Mr. Garibaldi’s policies resulted in the redirecting of funds from Banta Elementary School District mission to educate children to the legal fees that were a direct result of his misguided leadership. It comes as no surprise that even his cronies on the Banta Elementary School Board recently convinced the disgraced superintendent to step down for the good of the district. And despite Albert Garibaldi best efforts to disenfranchise hundreds of innocent children, River Islands Technology Academy continues to thrive.
Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Chris Torres served as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy from 2005-2020 and currently is recognized as a correspondence chess master with the United States Chess Federation. Since 1998 Chris Torres has taught 6 individual national champions as well as led multiple school teams to win national championship titles. In addition, Chris Torres has directed and taught at 10 different schools which have been California State Champions at chess. In 2011 and 2012, several former and current students of Chris Torres have been selected to represent the United States at the World Youth Chess Championships. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists.
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