Board Retreat - September 17, 2011

Here is the agenda for the Board Retreat of September 17, 2011.

Here are the minutes of the retreat.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Was HM-M even there?

signed,

tired of hmmdrum
10/6/11, 7:34 AM
Dorothy Neville said…
Yes, Harium was at the retreat but he was mostly quiet. The one notable exception was when Don was discussing board role of governance vs management and Harium expressed deep dissatisfaction with citizens complaining to him when he WAS properly governing instead of managing. It was all I could do to sit there quietly and not go all Hermione Granger and raise my hand for Don to call on me. Of course the examples I would have shared -- approving the NTN contract without reading that the terms conflicted with what staff said and approving the CSIPs without any verification that they existed -- showed he believes in "Trust but don't verify because that would be rude" which is NOT what us ordinary citizens expect of governing.
10/6/11, 7:51 AM
Paul said…
Harium is completely unfit for public office.

The only honorable thing for him to do at this point would be to resign and withdraw from his re-election campaign.

Then he could be free of any obligations whatsoever to voters and could spend more time with his apparent leadership guru: Cheryl Chow.

If he insists on staying on, he should at least pretend to be interested.
10/6/11, 7:57 AM
Ed Diagnostician said…
McAdams is just another of the Broad Academy's tentacles.

Look out for "theories of action" and lots of BS that moves board members FARTHER from their constituents....

http://broadeducation.org/asset/1049-091203.dm.pdf
10/6/11, 8:02 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Paul is quite right. Cheryl Chow took all the newly elected people from the last school board election under her arm and "schooled" them on governance. Cheryl is a no-nonsense cheerleader for the district and never really represented anyone least of all the SE (this from various people in the SE who have complained to me over the years).
10/6/11, 8:37 AM
Anonymous said…
and Harium expressed deep dissatisfaction with citizens complaining to him when he WAS properly governing instead of managing

I Am: Aghast
10/6/11, 12:09 PM
Patrick said…
I am expressing deep dissatisfaction that Martin-Morris has confused rubber-stamping with governance...
10/6/11, 12:37 PM
Charlie Mas said…
"Superintendent Enfield gave her welcoming comments and presented the four pillars she is focused on this year."

She's not asking them; she's telling them.
10/6/11, 4:00 PM
Jan said…
True, Charlie: how nice it would have been to read:

"Superintendent Enfield gave her welcoming comments and presented her comments as to how she intends to address the four pillars that the Board has asked her to focus on this year."

If this is really true -- then we DO definitely need a new Superintendent search this year. If the deal REALLY IS that the Board hires the Super, and the Super comes in with whatever program, pillars, agenda -- whatever you want to call it -- they think is best -- then it is obvious that the Board needs to figure out first what agenda (not what person, but what agenda) it wants -- and then go hire the person whose agenda matches theirs. Whatever other problems there might have been with a fast hire of Dr. E., there clearly was no time for the Board to vet and understand her agenda for the District. So, we had better get started figuring out what plan we want, and who has that plan as a selling point.
10/6/11, 4:36 PM
Charlie Mas said…
From my reading of the minutes it seems that the Board has a long list of goals, but they wanted to put special focus on only about 3-5 of them. They went through and explained the meaning of all of the goals on their list (where did the list come from?) and then they recommended a few for priority.

Director DeBell nominated instructional materials waivers. He wants that done by the time of the superintendent's evaluation. At the Board Retreat they agreed to make this a priority for 2011-2012. Unfortunately, at the last C & I Committee meeting Director Martin-Morris unilaterally decided to defer any more work on that project to June. Tough luck, Director DeBell.

Other projects nominated for priority treatment will also see action deferred into the future.

Program parity or program access, was determined to be a 2011-12 priority, but not due until September 2012. That means it will be reflected in the program placement decisions made in the winter of 2012-2013 for implementation in the fall of 2013. Not exactly fast-tracked.

Bell times faired worse. It was promised to be a focus in 2013, with a status discussion at the 2012 spring retreat.

Summer school/credit retrieval, faired worst of all. It was withdrawn for the purposes of the day's discussion.

So the Board made a number of proposals and the staff were able to reject them all.
10/6/11, 5:22 PM
Charlie Mas said…
I find it highly ironic that the Board insists on this deep divide between governance and management oversight, but refers to management oversight as governance, puts all of their focus there, and refuses to do any governance.
10/6/11, 5:25 PM
Anonymous said…
Where is the discussion of the achievement gap? I don't see that on the agenda.

go wall street occupation movement! Perhaps the only way change will happen. We need the masses to demand it.

pissedoffanonymous
10/6/11, 10:45 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
10/6/11, 10:54 PM
Anonymous said…
I find this whole process very odd given the retreat occurs on 9/17 to establish priorities for 11-12. The timing doesn't make sense given that schools is already in process. Two outcomes with high probability: 1) If the Directors changes priorities, it would be very disruptive to District staff and Schools; 2) Staff just lost 1 or 2 months of the school year to work on the priorities!

Interesting, I noticed that Mr. Boesche or Mr. Harman were not present at the retreat.

Who is Don McAdams? He gets mentioned a lot.

Are the agenda and minutes actually available on the District website? I am having a hard time finding it.

I agree with Jan (@4:36) regarding coming up with the Agenda first for the next several years and then go look for the right person whether it be the existing interim or someone else.

A friend of Seattle
10/7/11, 2:05 PM
dan dempsey said…
Dear A friend of Seattle,

About Don McAdams look HERE.

Remember the Houston Miracle under Rod Paige, which was eventually revealed to be a complete scam. Of course this came after a huge realignment of policies and practices to make the miracle happen elsewhere.

I may not be a big McAdams fan but he has some good ideas on Government and management that the Board apparently pays to hear at retreats and then disregards.
10/8/11, 2:09 AM
dan dempsey said…
Are the agenda and minutes actually available on the District website? I am having a hard time finding it.

Click on the HEREs that are linked at the original Board Retreat posting, which started these comments.
10/8/11, 2:12 AM
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