Post by Chris_Wendt on Nov 18, 2014 7:49:40 GMT -5
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.
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.
On a more serious note, the Superintendent and her deputies need to get this straight with the Board:
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
- 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.
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