The Times Stirs the Pot
As Scarlett O'Hara said, "What I wouldn't say if I wasn't a lady?"
Their latest editorial - full of tiresome terms, innuendo and flat-out hectoring - was printed today. And boy, are their knickers in a twist.
First, the ever-popular cry of "don't micromanage." No one is but they keep saying it whenever people they don't like get elected.
Then they treat McLaren and Peaslee like little children.
Then they call out Smith-Blum and Patu that they should read the policy 1620 as a reminder.
Do they call out Martin-Morris or Carr? Of course not.
They also say this:
One board member reportedly ordered Enfield to fire some employees.
To which I said:
You know, for a fact, that a Board member ordered Enfield to fire employees? Where is your evidence or proof? Because if you truth-challenged people HAD any, there would be a story by Brian Rosenthal and not an editorial.
Then they said:
At a recent retreat, another raised the idea of the board approving principal hires. The board should not be able to hire and fire anyone other than the superintendent.
Alas and alack -whether the people at the Times think they should not be able to, state law says they CAN. (These people NEVER do their homework.)
Here's what I said in the comments section:
Yes, at the Board retreat, newbie Sharon Peaslee, DID ask about the Board and principal hires. And guess what? It was explained to her that YES, Washington State RCW DOES give that power to school boards and ALL over the state, school boards hire principals.
In the larger school districts, most have given that power over to their superintendents. Michael DeBell, School Board President, said all of this at a recent Executive Committee meeting.
And then there's this undercurrent of "we will never attract anyone good to be superintendent with all this"?
But that's really the end game, no? For the Times and the powers that be in this town to smugly say, "See we were right" while THEY were stirring the pot the whole time. That's what Crosscut is doing as well.
It's a sad, sad thing but I still believe the Board will get a lot of great candidates. Even if others don't want them to materialize.
The Times gets more pathetic and desperate by the day, hoping that someone is listening to them when really, they exist in their own little echo chamber.
If Michael DeBell really cares about this district, he would be tamping this kind of nonsense down right now.
Their latest editorial - full of tiresome terms, innuendo and flat-out hectoring - was printed today. And boy, are their knickers in a twist.
First, the ever-popular cry of "don't micromanage." No one is but they keep saying it whenever people they don't like get elected.
Then they treat McLaren and Peaslee like little children.
Then they call out Smith-Blum and Patu that they should read the policy 1620 as a reminder.
Do they call out Martin-Morris or Carr? Of course not.
They also say this:
One board member reportedly ordered Enfield to fire some employees.
To which I said:
You know, for a fact, that a Board member ordered Enfield to fire employees? Where is your evidence or proof? Because if you truth-challenged people HAD any, there would be a story by Brian Rosenthal and not an editorial.
Then they said:
At a recent retreat, another raised the idea of the board approving principal hires. The board should not be able to hire and fire anyone other than the superintendent.
Alas and alack -whether the people at the Times think they should not be able to, state law says they CAN. (These people NEVER do their homework.)
Here's what I said in the comments section:
Yes, at the Board retreat, newbie Sharon Peaslee, DID ask about the Board and principal hires. And guess what? It was explained to her that YES, Washington State RCW DOES give that power to school boards and ALL over the state, school boards hire principals.
In the larger school districts, most have given that power over to their superintendents. Michael DeBell, School Board President, said all of this at a recent Executive Committee meeting.
And then there's this undercurrent of "we will never attract anyone good to be superintendent with all this"?
But that's really the end game, no? For the Times and the powers that be in this town to smugly say, "See we were right" while THEY were stirring the pot the whole time. That's what Crosscut is doing as well.
It's a sad, sad thing but I still believe the Board will get a lot of great candidates. Even if others don't want them to materialize.
The Times gets more pathetic and desperate by the day, hoping that someone is listening to them when really, they exist in their own little echo chamber.
If Michael DeBell really cares about this district, he would be tamping this kind of nonsense down right now.
Comments
"Throw me into a hurricane" Foreman wouldn't cringe at the monsooning disaster that is the Times' "reprint corporate ed reform positions and print them ad nauseum" commitment to "helping" Seattle Public Schools.
And Varner could experience the big wide world outside her tiny little mindset er cubicle. Perchance during an ice storm.
Huzzah.
"Media Savvy"
Curious
They don't make for good visuals unless you have
1) people picketing or
2) cute kids in the classroom...and how many cute kids in the classroom can the average audience handle in a week?
and
The issues are too complex for 30 second soundbites.
"Media Savvy"
It's clear that this was a strategy developed even before the new board members took office to hamstring what they feared would be an activist new majority. It's like a Republican talking point--like the way "flip-flopper" was pinned on John Kerry back in '04.
So the downtown folks--the Varners, Brewsters, Bridges, and Alliance types--have lost their control of the board majority, and this is their lame attempt to fight back, and they've made the "reasonable" Mr. Nice guy, Michael DeBell, their point man.
As I wrote in a comment to the Crosscut piece by Brewster, the narrative these downtown folks want everyone to believe is that there are only two choices--between, on the one hand, cool, competent professionals who understand the big picture, or, on the other, amateurish, single-issue, activist ideologues who will obstruct real progress as it has been planned out by the "professionals".
But as many have pointed out here and elsewhere, it's the professionals that have lost all credibility because on their watch some of the most egregious dysfunction happened precisely because the board was so passive. And yet continued passivity is what the professionals now call for from the board.
So let's give this "new majority" a chance to find a third way. All of us who know Marty and Sharon also know they bear little resemblance to the stereotype the "professionals" are projecting. Maybe this new board will deliver the good sense and probity that has been so lacking from those "professionals" who are so convinced they know better.
Here's a partial list to get started...
Crosscut:
RobMcKenna.org
SeattleFoodandWineExperience.com
Chinatown/International District Business Improvement Area
The Seattle Foundation (that’s a given)
Seattle Weekly:
UW Medicine Neighborhood Clinics
The Love Zone (kinky!)
PDXjazz.com
CityandSlope.com
Crystal Mountain
Seattle Times:
Take your pick…
Congress have their hearings all the time for this sole purpose. They can thunder away, shake their fists, hurrump, moan, cry, pffffsttt, show charts, rap, wax poetry and quote dead men. Make good TV, set the blogosphere abuzz, and sell papers.
More useless drama and pot stirring just highlight that it was never about kids and learning.
-politics and bad theater
WV: cocavent
Mr. White
We can start by posting FBing it for wide distribution, while sending signed copies to the advertisers.
What's the old rule of thumb...every angry letter = 100 people with the same sentiments?
Mr. DeBell's track record hardly qualifies him as a competent authority in school board management.
a) Teach for America? Check.
b) Silas Potter Scandal? Check.
c) Sale of MLK property to lowest bidder, $7 large walks out the door? Check.
d) Backing Goodloe-Johnson to the hilt while no-confidence motion by staff in progress? Check.
e) Repeated, ridiculously bad state audits? Check.
f) Purchase of stupid MAP test in no-bid contract from Superintendent's business? Check.
etc, etc, etc.
That he would provide this kind of reception to new School Board members duly elected by voters speaks volumes about who butters his toast.
Dear Advertiser
DeBell gave a great analysis of the lousy New Tech Network contract and then voted against it (Hooray) but it was still purchased in a 4-3 vote.
DeBell has been increasingly skeptical of the Centralization under the Strategic Plan and its big spending with few results.
DeBell has been critical of Discovery/Inquiry math.
----
HOWEVER !!!!
His recent actions seem like moving in the opposite direction..... Have we been conned or are we being conned now?
He looks too much like Harium and HMM's giant flip flop ..... which was needed when Cheryl Chow was no longer a director. Someone needed to be the "4" in the 4-3 majority votes and Harium took that role.
======
So NOW there are clearly three directors who are big on evidence and will NOT be on the flip-flop crew.
As DeBell, KSB, Carr, and HMM voted for TFA and did so on multiple occasions.... that could be the new "Four" vote majority.... Note to form this new "Majority Four" would require DeBell and KSB to jump to the other side of the fence from their usual positions.
SO FAR .... it looks like DeBell... is planning on supporting many things he spoke out against .. (I hope this is not so but) ... his wish for Enfield to stay is a desire to have a whole lot of the direction he spoke against continuing.
I do believe that Michael DeBell has made the major jump across the fence in the HMM style.
Now it is time to watch KSB as she is likely the only one that can not be assigned a spot in a group....
Group 1... Those that believe to improve a school system requires the intelligent application of relevant data.
Group 2... Those that believe that following the guidance of the oligarchs is the best plan.
============
Note DeBell publicly agonized about extending MGJ's contract an additional year after the SAO report came out ..... but he voted to extend MGJ's contract an additional year. ...... Now it appears he is all for continuing with Enfield for several more years.
Michael DeBell is apparently a group 2 guy. He should get marvelous campaign contributions for his 2013 reelection campaign..... Oh and were is Rueven Carlyle on a bill in regard to limiting campaign contributions for school directors?
I think you're right--the downtown types saw the board going south on them, with Sherry the only sure thing, HMM a wild card, and DeBell and KSB the swing votes. It appears that they have claimed DeBell, but have not (so far) claimed KSB.
As Brewster's Crosscut article earlier in the week pointed out, there's good reason to believe that KSB will remain independent or side more often than not with Marty, Sharon, and Betty. KSB felt marginalized by the Sundquist/Maier board and is now feeling a breath of new life, and does not see Sharon or Marty the same way DeBell does.
And she's right not to. DeBell is really being unfair to them. Rather than keep an open mind and give the new board a chance to gel, he's trying preemptively to impose the downtown agenda. I wanted to think better of him, but apparently he's happy to have become the archetypal "tool".
But I'm sure there will be a lot of pressure put on KSB to get in line since she's now truly the only swing vote, but I think now because she is no longer isolated, she will resist and keep an open mind for good ideas no matter where they come from, even neighborhood activists.
-reader
-reader
But Uxolo, I'm sure there are people already planning who might replace him. David Brewster at Crosscut threw that down in his last editorial.
Again, these people do NOT get the true nature of school board campaigns so they can get all the consultants and money they want. It rarely makes an election.
MC
MC
Dear yellow journalist
The Weekly: Crystal Mtn.
The Times: Fry’s Electronics (below the fold)
Crosscut: No commercial Banner Ads except for a large Rob McKenna for Governor advertisement (telling huh?)
Let's nip this slimeball lunacy in the bud.
WSDWG