Director Carr finds her voice

I watch the Board pretty closely and I have noticed a change in Director Carr. She is beginning to find her voice. In this past week she made - and got passed - two clear amendments to the Student Assignment Plan and the Capacity Management directive that spoke directly to public concerns and was also really effective at the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee meeting speaking on behalf of community participation in the curriculum alignment project.

Sherry Carr is, perhaps belatedly, becoming the Board Director that a lot of us hoped and thought she would be. She is starting to advocate not only for the public, but also for the public perspective. I know that we can all think of times in the past when she did not, but I see a shift in her of late and it has been really positive.

I really wish more people could have seen her at that Curriculum and Instruction Policy meeting. She was really brilliant. Not only in the perspective she was working, but in how successfully she worked it. When she said it, the way she said it, everyone was nodding their heads in agreement that of course that is how it should be. And when the Superintendent asked her how that would look - which is often used as the killing question - Director Carr was ready with a wonderful answer.

Mel Westbroook introduced me to Sherry Carr before the election two years ago and she really impressed me tremendously. She seemed then to be appropriately skeptical of the District staff and appropriately focused on the challenges of governance in a dysfunctional organization. Then, for the past 18 months as Board Director, she didn't resemble that person I met. Now I see her again and I'm happy to welcome her back. I hope she will continue along this path as a strong and effective advocate for the community.

Comments

adhoc said…
I feel the same way about Sherry Carr.

At the JA meeting a couple of weeks ago sherry Carr seemed to be the only Director that was truly listening to what families had to say - she understood, and she CARED. Not only did she understand and care, she FOLLOWED through - with an amendment to the SAP, which allows JA to remain a K-8 through 2013.

JA is not even in her distirct! It's in Peter Maier's district.

Peter was at the JA meeting too. Peter said and did absolutely nothing. In fact when I sent Peter an email letting him know that I couldn't commit to a school that the district couldn't and wouldn't commit to, and that I was going to Shoreline, he said, and I quote " I am sorry you feel you must leave Seattle Public Schools".

Thanks for your sympathy Director Maier.
dan dempsey said…
It was probably lost by Director Maier that Shoreline just adopted "Prentice Hall" for high school math. "Discovering" had almost no support at all .... the teachers in Shoreline mirrored the Seattle public in this regard.

It seems if Director Maier's goal is to remain uninformed, he does an excellent job.
I think the line that Directors have to walk to work with the Superintendent, get the staff to work openly and transparently AND remain attentive to parents and community is very difficult.

Good for Sherry.
seattle citizen said…
I agree that Director Carr is strengthing her voice. I was veyr impressed watching her at the last board meeting. She was articulate, thoughtful,and(as far as I could tell, given my limited knowledge of the issues she was discussing) she was neutral and looking for that balance Melissa notes, that working relationship with administration, the board, and teh stakeholders.
Bravo, Director Carr!

WV says that, unlike Director Carr's recent stength, lots of current, national edu-speak is ickhotic.
Unknown said…
she also had the Lowell APP walk zone added to the closure plan
Sherry found her voice before;
'They argued that textbook adoption was too important to waste any more time. "How many classes are we willing to graduate while we disagree over textbooks?" said board member Sherry Carr.'

So is expediency over the
overwhelming concerns of both parents and the state to not lock in many years of poor math education what we expect from a
director?

She has no blog, does not answer email and has no outreach to those of use who are very concerned over both the math decision and the general direction of education in our state.

We voted for her and she has underperformed for 18 months - two
amendments do not compensate for the damage she has done.
adhoc said…
"She has no blog, does not answer email"

I don't know Sherry personally, but I have sent her several emails, all of which were replied to in a meaningful and thoughtful way and in a timely manner.

I can not say the same for Cheryl Chow, Steve Sundquist, or Mary Bass. They have NEVER once answered one of my emails. I wonder if they even read them?

Peter Maier answers my emails once in a while, but his answers are always brief and dismissive. I always get the feeling that he thinks he must defend himself.

And, yes, Sherry Carr did get off to a slow start - thus the title of this thread "Sherry Carr finds her voice". Perhaps there is a learning curve? Perhaps she had to figure out the lay of the land before she dug in? Perhaps it is intimidating to go up against the Super, the staff, other board directors, and an entrenched bureaucracy? Whatever it is, or was, Sherry seems to be taking a stand now. She seems to be "finding her voice", and I am very happy about that.
Dorothy Neville said…
Funny, I have never gotten a reply from Sherry, but have gotten thoughtful replies from Steve.
Hi Adhoc,
Perhaps you should go to Steve's
coffee hour (http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2009/06/opportunities-to-speak-with-board.html)
and ask why! If only Carr would
give us such an opportunity!.

On the campaign trail it seemed she
honestly wanted to be an advocate for better education and community
involvement. I thought she would
take the concerns of parents in her
district seriously and act accordingly; even if that action
was to respectively disagree. Instead she will not communicate
with us (less you) and has been
nothing more than a rubber stamp for
almost half of her elected period.
If I'd known that it would take her
18 months to 'roll her sleeves up'
[to quote the campaign] we would
not have wasted that vote.

Having said that I do honestly hope
she turns this around since she
represents the district my child
attends; however I expect her to
communicate with us and build
on these fledgling signs she is
'finding her voice'. I hope it does
not take another 18 months for her
to find it.
adhoc said…
ConcernedSPSparent can you request a meeting with Sherry Carr? At that meeting you can voice your concerns and let her know that families really value public interaction (coffee hour, community meetings, blogs, etc)? Also, ask her what the best way to contact her is (email, voice mail, etc)

I would also remind her that Harium and Michael DeBell have blogs, Mary and Steve have coffee hours and community meeting, and Harium gives out his cell phone number (which he always answers).

Ask her what she is willing to do?
She seems genuinely willing and open, and I bet she will offer something.
Well adhoc I've tried again and we
will see what happens; however my
patience is running thin and her
continued silence and thus inability
to defend her vote on the math
textbook decision suggests she
does not care or does not know.
Either way I feel betrayed by her
campaign rhetoric. If she decides
to meet I will post my thoughts; as
I suggested before we do hope that
she does perform but she has burned
some bridges, only she can decide
if she wants to rebuild them.
Wow, Sherry Carr finally responded;
unfortunately she refused to (or could not) answer any of the questions I posed on the math adoption and instead suggested I look at the 4 hour recording from the school board meeting. I get the strong sense she thought "we have to do something, this is something, let's do it". I find it very sad her sole
response to a set of well thought out and researched questions was to
refer me to what I'd already seen.
Better than nothing but far less than we deserve.

FYI interestingly she has finally decided to have community meetings; here. :)

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