Work Session on District Vision today

I'm not sure what this is about, but here it is:

The Board will have a work session this evening from 5:00 to 6:30 on the District Vision.

Here is the agenda:


  1. Call to order:  5:00 pm
  2. Work Session: District Vision
  3. Adjourn 6:30 pm
Yep. That's it.

Board Policy 1005, Responsibilities and Authority of the Board, says, in part:
Acting on behalf of the people of Seattle, the Board will fulfill the following functions:
Vision: The Board, with participation of the community, shall establish core beliefs and create a vision for the future of the district, formulate and adopt a theory of action for academic change, and shall formulate the goals and define policies and outcomes that set the course for the district.
So the Board needs to work on this Vision thing, and a work session is appropriate, as well as their Retreats, but I'm wondering where the "with participation of the community" part comes in.

I'm not able to get to the School District Headquarters by 5:00pm to witness this meeting first-hand because I have one of those job things, but I will look forward to reading the minutes of this meeting.

Comments

mirmac1 said…
HMM peremptorily asks "whad ah we doin' heah? Fuhgeddibahdit!"

A vision exists. End of story.
10/30/12, 5:29 PM
mirmac1 said…
I'm terrible at notes but I liked Director Peaslee's suggestion to forestall negotiating the CBA until a new SPS Strategic Plan is in place. I agree, otherwise it's putting the cart before the horse.

Another commenter said we can't come up with anything unless we find the money to take from somewhere else. Wrong. Define the vision, then build your org from scratch (without sending the retreads out to schools as APs) and build a zero-based budget. Then every function and role is analyzed for its purpose and necessity.

All they do now is, well, we gonna to be over on this so we gotta cut that, so sorry.

The vision discussion started getting drowned in minutia like "how 'bout some elementary teachers only teach math, or only teach science then we only have to provide PD for some." Or how the "digital natives" are the ones to teach 21st Century life skills. Sometimes I gotta wonder how the U.S. became the leading industrialized nation in the 20th century without an IPhone app for that.

The asst supts and EDs were there. Everyone felt compelled to say something, even if it wasn't vision-y. Frankly, I think staff (but for Banda) should sit there and listen; when it's over they salute and say "whatever you say boss."
10/30/12, 8:17 PM
Charlie Mas said…
The Board still can't seem to distinguish between vision and management.
10/31/12, 6:55 AM
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