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No, Thank You Brita
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This editorial by Director Brita Butler-Wall appeared in today's PI. Well-said, Brita.
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Anonymous said…
While I appreciate the effort Brita made to move to the middle during her tenure, I find it interesting that most of the accomplishments she cited occurred with a superintendent she refers to as a non-educator.
I think the 2003 board is giving themselves a lot of credit for work that was the result of the efforts of a lot more people than just the board, specifically, very dedicated staff members.
Anonymous said…
Brita, you are right. This board accomplished A LOT.
You personally accomplished A LOT, and you were always available to your constituents.
You should be proud of what you accomplished, and I am honored to have had you leading the board.
I wish you would have run again, but I certainly understand why you didn't. Who wants a thankless volunteer job, that can accomplish so much, with so little recognition. Not only little recognition, but continual bashing, and vile public outcry at every turn.
I don't blame you one bit for not running.
I thank you for your service and wish you the best in your new endeavors, whatever they may be.
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read). end of update Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board. To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up. But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting. In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance. - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Comments
I think the 2003 board is giving themselves a lot of credit for work that was the result of the efforts of a lot more people than just the board, specifically, very dedicated staff members.
You personally accomplished A LOT, and you were always available to your constituents.
You should be proud of what you accomplished, and I am honored to have had you leading the board.
I wish you would have run again, but I certainly understand why you didn't. Who wants a thankless volunteer job, that can accomplish so much, with so little recognition. Not only little recognition, but continual bashing, and vile public outcry at every turn.
I don't blame you one bit for not running.
I thank you for your service and wish you the best in your new endeavors, whatever they may be.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU