Persona Non Grata
Okay, so I'm convinced now because it happened yet again. Every time I ask for information, basic information, from any staff member (usually people up the food chain), I get a polite message that my request has gone to Joy Stevens (the public disclosure person for the district). I'm thinking there's some e-mail saying, "Don't give this woman information or at least make it take a long time." I suspect Charlie's in the same boat.
This is basic stuff like terms (seismic diaphragm versus seismic upgrade versus seismic mitigation). Yes, I could look it up online but, as we discovered from Meg's work, the district sometimes has its own language and definitions.
I understand not having multiple people trying to answer the same question but I know who to direct a question to (and I try to ask if I have the right person if I am not sure).
I suspect that the pushback the State Auditor is getting from the district on BEX information isn't just inability to access it or find it but the district dragging its feet because they don't want the audit to come out before the levy election.
It's pretty frustrating.
This is basic stuff like terms (seismic diaphragm versus seismic upgrade versus seismic mitigation). Yes, I could look it up online but, as we discovered from Meg's work, the district sometimes has its own language and definitions.
I understand not having multiple people trying to answer the same question but I know who to direct a question to (and I try to ask if I have the right person if I am not sure).
I suspect that the pushback the State Auditor is getting from the district on BEX information isn't just inability to access it or find it but the district dragging its feet because they don't want the audit to come out before the levy election.
It's pretty frustrating.
Comments
But I could see where it might not be seen that way...
Keep knockin' on those doors! You do a great job of trying to keep us all informed, thanks.
The District has not... its provided some emails saved to disc, which we cant open (error message says we dont have permission!), and it hasnt transcribed the videos etc...
District is complaining about having to provide somewhere around 10-20,000 pages of documentation...
Which it doesnt already have archived somewhere???? If not, why not?
We are filing a motion on Monday re this contempt for the Court's Directive to provide a full record of the closure process...
A friend of mine asked for minutes from a specific High School Steering Committee meeting, and was told by "legal" (who also serves on that committee) that she had to submit a public records request.
After submitting the request, the response was that the meeting had never happened, thus no minutes!
What a waste of our tax-payer's money---
I've also experienced similar run-arounds, asking for simple information such as a link to a document, only to find my request routed to either the public records request or to "legal."
I guess it keeps our tax dollars at work.
Above all they haev to be consistent. They can't answer one persons questions by phone, and not others. So they take the approach that all requests follow their established procedures.
She has sent me any number of things over the years, including minutes from meetings of the program placement committee, strategic plan documents, and school transformation plans.
Fortunately, most of these documents are now electronic, so you don't have to pay the copying cost and you don't have these big stacks of paper to store.
Susan Enfield knew who I was before I introduced myself. I suppose that means that she thinks she knows something about me before having met me, which I don't think is helpful.
I suspect that people within the District talk about me, and I doubt they say nice things. I don't care. Whether they like me or not, whether they respect me or not, whether they think twice about me or not just doesn't matter. It's not about me.
But I suspect you are probably right about people at the district knowing of you because they talk about you at the district, which, although creepy, is actually a really GOOD thing!!
My point is that they drag things out. In the case of the BTA, I think they would like to get as little data to me as possible. As far as the State Auditor's report on BEX, I think they are REALLY dragging their feet (in addition to not really knowing how to gather all the information because it is scattered far and wide).
Please don't ever ever stop what you are doing. You are doing great work holding the district's feet to the fire and insisting on accountability and transpairency.
If there is anything you think that I as a teacher could provide to you, please let me know. You knwo how to contact me.
Do the people you contact respond to you? Because quite often, I've found that I simply get NO response of any sort until I contact Joy Stevens (who is invariably polite and professional). And then Ms. Stevens responds and I wait until my request can be fulfilled. It's a little odd, and not the experience at all I've had in contacting other districts.
Think of the folks who are deep in their bunkers and they are the same folks who are deep in the internal District politics, who silo information, who build fiefdoms, and who will admit no wrong.