Suggestions for Avoiding Ruffled Feathers

[Chris_Wendt]

With the next BoE meeting fast approaching, I would like to offer two suggestions for avoiding a repetition of last month's public relations fiasco, that impolite and thus impolitic rupture of civil discourse emanating from the dais.

• The Board should get together before the meeting and do some brainstorming about what questions about what kinds of topics they may face from the public, and then do some roll playing in a meaningful attempt to prepare themselves and especially their spokesman for how to actually discourse (give-and-take, back-and-forth, etc.) with an audience comprised of those people who elected them and who pay the taxes, the money which runs the schools of which they are the elected stewards.
• Take some green paper and cut it into 3-inch by 5-inch pieces, and print on it those specific topics which the Board President does NOT want to hear about at the meeting; staple these small sheets to the front of the printed Agendas that are handed out before the meeting. This same information could be posted on the District website, so that people who specifically wanted to address certain subjects embargoed by the school board could be alerted if their stupid topic was on the "I don't want to hear about it" list, and just stay home, instead.

I know that several people will be attending the upcoming meeting seeking honest answers from, and offering honest opinions and valuable suggestions to our Board of Education and the senior professional educational leadership of our school district; none of those people are in any way interested in some competitively clever repartee with the Board President. None of us are prepared to accept brusque machismo, condescension, or outright dismissal...in lieu of candor and transparency from the dais.  And speaking for myself, if last month's debacle is repeated and if the entire Board sits on their hands once again, then I will feel your shame for you, and for the Board upon which you sit.

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On a more serious note, the Superintendent and her deputies need to get this straight with the Board:

Whenever a member of the public, at a meeting, or on the phone, or in a letter, asks a pretinent question relevant to the duties and responsibilities of any member of the senior administrative team, then that member should answer such question(s) honestly, frankly, and candidly. Our senior educational and finance professionals should NOT fear negative reaction or suffer consequences from the Board of Education for honest candor, or, for NOT obfuscating the facts; the if there is fear generated by honest answers to legitimate questions from the public, then that fear should be the exclusive burden of the members of the Board of Education to bear, and NOT the burden or fear, not some "hot potato" for the professional leadership which we, as a public school district, employ and pay to lead and manage...professionally...and transparently.

If the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendents are expected by the BoE to sit at the dais like a trio of mute swans, then the three of them should stay home.  If the school business official, who is, under the LAW, The School Business Official cannot give a direct, truthful answer to simple direct and fair question from a member of the public because The School Business Official first needs "DIRECTION FROM THE BOARD", then I submit that our BoE has seriously over-stepped and over-reached its authority, and may have compromised the authority of the Office of the School Business Official in doing so. You see, my dear protégés, it is supposed to be the School Business Official who gives direction to the BoE, and NOT the other way around.

There should be little doubt in anyone's mind about what was driving that revolving door of leaders in-and-out of our district in recent years. I hope that door is not about to start spinning again.

'Round-n-'round'

Chris Wendt

[Chris_Wendt]

Well, here we have transparency at its finest!

Tonight is the November Board of Education Monthly Business Meeting.
In compliance with the NYS Public Officers Law, the "Open Meetings Law", you can go to the District Website and see the agenda and all the reports that will be discussed at tonight's meeting.
Here's the epitome of transparency: the agenda and the reports are beyond mere transparency: as of this writing they are totally INVISIBLE!

There is also no listing of any topics which the Board does not want to hear about tonight, so I suppose anything goes, as far as Public Q-and-A with the Board.

An·tic·i·pa·tion

Chris Wendt

[rr]

I see the agenda for this evening was posted a few hours ago...I have a feeling the dominant topic will be the silliness around this club and some people in the audience disagreeing with it being allowed - which is ridiculous. To me the more interesting topic relates to the budget adjustments in this agenda - looks like there were several very high $ adjustments made, curious what drove $101K addition to plant maintenance and a $95K adjustment to computer assisted instruction ($89.5K new line item called 'Software'), a $100K increase in Workers Compensation...those are a few items I'm curious about.

Somehow I have a feeling the majority of Q&A will focus on why we shouldn't allow a student to form a club...still a little early to start the spin cycle on testing and Common Core, that comes a bit later on when the papers need to drum up some headlines and the Facebook warriors come out to rage against the machine and come up with new rhetoric and internet memes.

Still not sure if I want to spend my evening at the BOE meeting - maybe I'll see you there tonight or maybe I'll come to my senses and do something more useful.

[Chris_Wendt]

It was a good meeting. Civility reigned. This is from my FB blog:

"The Christian Club was approved without debate, along with six (6) other new clubs. The Superintendent read a prepared statement which refuted the allegation that the principal had told the club's founder that the club would be illegal. A former WHS student addressed the Board, disputing the legal opinion that this club, at Wantagh High, is covered by the Equal Access Act, citing precedent, and reading from the dissenting opinion of a Supreme Court decision in a related case. The District's lawyers were on hand, thanked the former student for his research, but cited more relevant case law which they said covers this club at Wantagh High. The former student said he would not challenge that determination, and that he was glad the controversy was ended. So am I. The meeting was very cordial."

Good conversation following the meeting as well.

Chris Wendt

[greda]

It is nice to hear that everyone was cordial. Sometimes people forget that we are all just trying to do what is best