Saturday Director Community Meetings
Directors DeBell, Martin-Morris and Sundquist are all having Saturday community meetings in their districts. Check the Board calendar for times and places.
At the Board meeting, Director Smith-Blum referenced being at a Squire Park community meeting tomorrow but I can't find it at her webpage or at the Squire Park Community Council page. (You could e-mail her for this info if you are interested. She also said she was going to have coffee at different schools in her district soon so again, check with her for dates and times.)
Betty Patu has no meetings listed at her webpage. Does anyone know if she has had any community meetings? I think she may be following Cheryl Chow's path of few community meetings. I just don't get this from directors who serve an area that has been ignored a lot in the past.
(I am very disappointed in Director Patu. I have found her charmingly blunt on some occasions but she openly admitted at the Board meeting that she didn't read up on the performance management policy. She said she had been absent from meetings the last few weeks for family issues and was uncomfortable voting for it. She could have abstained in this case but didn't. She also asked questions that made it clear she does not come to the Board meetings prepared. She clearly didn't read the NTN contract nor was listening to the answers staff gave to questions because she asked questions that they had answered previously. I have to wonder about her commitment to this position and whether she will last 4 years. It doesn't seem like she wants to do the job.)
At the Board meeting, Director Smith-Blum referenced being at a Squire Park community meeting tomorrow but I can't find it at her webpage or at the Squire Park Community Council page. (You could e-mail her for this info if you are interested. She also said she was going to have coffee at different schools in her district soon so again, check with her for dates and times.)
Betty Patu has no meetings listed at her webpage. Does anyone know if she has had any community meetings? I think she may be following Cheryl Chow's path of few community meetings. I just don't get this from directors who serve an area that has been ignored a lot in the past.
(I am very disappointed in Director Patu. I have found her charmingly blunt on some occasions but she openly admitted at the Board meeting that she didn't read up on the performance management policy. She said she had been absent from meetings the last few weeks for family issues and was uncomfortable voting for it. She could have abstained in this case but didn't. She also asked questions that made it clear she does not come to the Board meetings prepared. She clearly didn't read the NTN contract nor was listening to the answers staff gave to questions because she asked questions that they had answered previously. I have to wonder about her commitment to this position and whether she will last 4 years. It doesn't seem like she wants to do the job.)
Comments
I, too, have been unimpressed by Director Patu's lack of engagement - with both the public and the job. I'm also very curious about who wrote her amendment to the transition plan that made SouthShore the only Option school with a geographic zone this year.
I disagree with Melissa on Patu's no vote. I could argue that the rest of the directors were also ill-informed, but voted yes instead of abstaining. (They likely ill-informed on EVERY vote by relying too much on staff info, but let's not go there.)
KSB and DeBell basically acknowledged that the policy wasn't perfect, or complete, that they need to do more work to assure appropriate autonomy and room for teacher creativity, yet they voted to unleash this monster anyway.
Maybe Patu needs an intern....named charlie...but at least she isn't gutless.
I'm looking forward to the meeting as attendees may or may not have much experience with SPS. Always seems good to bring discussion of school related issues to the wider community.