| We think this example will demonstrate why we will continue to fail without a new school board 227
The role of school boards is to improve student achievement levels and to democratically engage the full school board, parents, and district community to achieve this goal. An effective school board is more than just about the school board majority hiring their friends and family on the district's payrolls. Rather, it is about children, community, accountability, assessment and evaluation, responsibility, ethics, monitoring student achievement, data analysis and addressing first as a school board and then with the superintendent what needs to be done to achieve our goals. Board 227 is responsible for putting in place the proper keystones for students to learn and achieve at the highest possible levels, but they don't care about that. Great school boards take responsibility for school success by hiring, evaluating, and developing strong leaders, retaining excellent teachers, and building a strong school community through welcoming, supporting, and encouraging full school board and public participation. An involved public is a committed public. Not understanding their roles, not facing reality, lying at every board meeting in putting on a false persona that is unreal, sitting on the school board, wasting the public's time at open board meetings and blocking communication, prevents the full school board and community from providing input in solving district problems and moving forward from tragedy and defeat in creating the quality public education that is fundamental to a strong democratic society. Muzzling our community and targeted board members prevents us from carrying out our responsibilities for creating equity and excellence in public education and for leading the community in helping prepare all students to succeed in a rapidly changing global society. Blocking communication is blocking our ability to move forward, make progress, and to solve problems. As a result, we have lost a generation of our district 227's under educated youth to a subpar education, under achievement, drugs, the prison industrial complex, unemployment, and living without purpose or meaning in their lives. In the 2011-2012 school year less than three out of every ten of our high school students were performing at grade level. We expect the community to plug the hole in district 227's sinking ship in the April 9, 2013 school board elections. Today, this school board wants us to thank them for what they have done to us and then vote them back into office on April 9, 2013 for a return to the wreckage that they have created in looking out just for themselves. As public officials we must continue to keep the communit informed by revealing here what we can never reveal at open board meetings before being rudely interrupted and closed down. This is all illegal and strips both targeted board members and our community our of right to public participation in solving our district's problems. In the public arena at open school board meetings, the public's questions don't get answered by the chair for the public. Answering the public's questions is the full board's responsibility and no one who cannot represent the full school board should hog the assembly's duties in correctly and timely answering the public's questions. Yet the board majority allows Betty Owens who still intends to keep us quiet and run everything her way, to get away with it. Betty Owens, the dictator, who doesn't represent the full board and certainly not our community whom she continues to fight in court has the gall to tell the whole board that we can't answer the public's questions either. The fact that the public's questions that are easily answerable by other board members don't get answered at public partcipation forums by transparent board members with integrity makes every board member look negiligent and inept. As a result, at open board meetings the public always leave with more questions than answers. On April 9, 2013 we intend to change this picture by revealing our plans for moving forward in collaboration, and community engagement with the necessary and essential partners for improving student achievement levels. An informed public is an empowered public. That's why the nontransparent board 227 majority doesn't want the community to be informed. They intend to keep it uninformed, misinformed, and in the dark. As we continue to bring facts and convictions to our plight, it turns out that facts and details matter. Today, it is clear that with their total disregard for both targeted board members, our community representatives and for our community who wants better for its children, they have no plans for our schools except for more negligence, business as usual, looking out for self only, and wasting our time. In case you know some parents, tax payers, and community residents who have missed out on the story or our plight, and what we have experienced over a decade, share some of the highlights with them. A TEN YEAR ACADEMIC HISTORY OF SCHOOL DISTRICT 227 LEADERSHIP | YEAR | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | | PSAE | 40% | 39% | 38% | 35% | 33% | 30% | 35% | 39% | 40% | 35% | 27% | | Made Annual Yearly. Progress? | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | | Board President | Burnette | Burnette | Owens | Owens | Owens | Owens | Brunson | Brunson | Norwood | Norwood | Owens |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment