Board Testimony for May
I'm working on my testimony for the board meeting coming up in May. I will be talking about the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting. In that meeting there were twelve motions brought and not one of them had any community engagement. The board pitched a twelve inning shut-out. That calls for recognition. I'm thinking of making up these really nice certificates for the Board members in honor of their special achievement in suppressing public input.
The certificates will be nice enough to hang on the wall, or they could show them to the Alliance for Education as a sign of good faith and their sincerity after the Board had the bad taste to fire Dr. Goodloe-Johnson.
Given that the new Board Action Report template has dropped the community engagement section and with the summer is coming up, I think the Board is capable of breaking Hershiser's record. I think they could shut out the public for sixty consequetive motions. They are certainly capable of it. We'll see if any of the motions on the May agenda include community engagement.
The certificates will be nice enough to hang on the wall, or they could show them to the Alliance for Education as a sign of good faith and their sincerity after the Board had the bad taste to fire Dr. Goodloe-Johnson.
Given that the new Board Action Report template has dropped the community engagement section and with the summer is coming up, I think the Board is capable of breaking Hershiser's record. I think they could shut out the public for sixty consequetive motions. They are certainly capable of it. We'll see if any of the motions on the May agenda include community engagement.
Comments
You need to realize that these are budget restricted times and greater efficiency is certainly needed.
It is most apparent that in all but the most highly unusual situations public input from the public engagement process is completely ignored and thus "public engagement" is a waste of resources.
This certainly seems to be a wise choice "Eliminating public engagement" until hopefully new directors replace M-M, Carr, Sundquist, and Maier in November.
Think of "limiting" as something like "Martial Law" during extraordinary times. It is simply called for under the circumstances.
Speaking of the Alliance and LEV etc. don't miss the praise heaped upon them by Education Reform Booster ...Reuven Carlyle.... HERE.
"The beauty of representing the good people of the 36th District is that I can continually attempt to force open the door to courageous honesty about the power and comfort of the status quo. As all parents strive to teach our kids, through failure comes the light of opportunity for success.
I do want to thank the Excellent Schools Now Coalition, League of Education Voters, Stand for Children, Partnership for Learning, Seattle Public School District and many other supporters of the proposed legislation who were willing to ask difficult and uncomfortable questions about what it takes to carry one of the most important education titles: Principal.
Your partner in service,
Reuven
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Note: much about the status quo may be poor.... but many of the Ed Reform changes that Reuven is pushing will be a lot worse.
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On a similar note ... the complete failure of the Legislature to Delay the adoption of the (CCSS) common core state standards ...... will produce a continuing disaster in math education... The Charles A Dana center that was unable to produce decent math standards at the super high bid cost of $700,000 + .... will be a major player in the CCSS standards and assessments.
Read about it here.
By the time the Common Core Fiasco gets going with all the big money pushing it, Seattle's pathetic ineffective k-12 math program maybe right on track .... with the "Race to the Bank" for vendors....
Proven materials and practices as well as small players innovations that are very likely to work will never be tried. JUMP MATH => be sure and read comment #1....
There is so much that could be brought up in testimony in May..... #1 Why are evidence based decisions seemingly impossible to make in education?
Why are supposed Leaders unable to do "Due diligence" ....(??)
Yikes! The Dana Center involved in developing a model for the nation... Rotten to the Core.
The more I think about the Board and the Legislature and the lack of engagement on the true substance of K-12 education issues, it appears that most of these politicians are unequipped to argue a case with facts and reason.