Comments on: MDUSD board president asks superintendent to be more welcoming and transparent to press and public regarding meetings

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:55:57 +0000

You’re welcome. There was also a great deal of interest in how the district will decide where to place special ed students next year and who will receive transportation. A detailed handout was passed out, which I’ll try to upload to googledocs. I also shot video of Carolyn Patton’s discussion of it with the CAC, which is at http://qik.com/video/57143017.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:43:12 +0000

Thanks for the updates, Theresa

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 04:57:32 +0000

Speaking of this, Trustee Lynne Dennler reported to the CAC tonight that the board has done some “bonding” during its closed sessions. Also, Board President Cheryl Hansen told me she’ll ask why it is taking so long to release the FCMAT report.

I shot some video of the infant presentation, which I’ll upload to http://www.youtube.com/tunedtotheresa. I also shot the assist. director’s report, which should be uploaded now at http://www.qik.com/tharrington.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 02:56:02 +0000

I agree G. but when you have people like Linda Mayo who believes in the ” We can’t tell the children” approach to government; we being the children, of course; it creates the cesspool of incompetence and distrust that we’ve experienced the past four years.
The good news is we seem to be moving in a new direction with a board president who believes in being open and accountable and two new board members who, hopefully, believe it too.

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 02:37:03 +0000

Here’s a blog post with the agenda for tonight’s CAC meeting, in case anyone want to comment on it: http://www.ibabuzz.com/onassignment/2013/02/05/mdusd-special-education-community-advisory-committee-to-hear-report-on-infant-services-tonight/

By: g

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 01:14:45 +0000

I ran across this quote and thought how fitting it is, but how sad that we are sitting here in 2013 still wrangling with something that shouldn’t even be an issue; simple, easy, hyper-local, school district accountability to the taxpayers!

“It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error,
It is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.”
– Robert H. Jackson, 1892-1954.
Chief Judge at the War-Crimes Tribunal in Nuremberg

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:40:19 +0000

On the subject of transparency, our Oakley reporter says that city is planning to allow residents the chance of scanning a QR code to pull up a meeting agenda and all the backup documentation on their smartphones! If MDUSD did that — AND if MDUSD posted its Powerpoints BEFORE the meetings — people could follow along more easily.

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 01:59:16 +0000

I would hope that Dr. Newling can match Toby’s 57 point API gain before he got fired so she could replace him.

By: Theresa Harrington

Theresa Harrington — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:37:14 +0000

Speaking of the great gains being made with SIGs, Mary-Louise Newling invited me to come to Meadow Homes Elementary to see how they are implementing their grant, when she saw me at the Equity Advisory Team meeting. (She didn’t seem to be concerned about my presence at the meeting.) I appreciate the fact that she is excited about showing the press and public how the SIG money is being spent. As Wendy points out, all district administrators should share this commitment to transparency about every aspect of the district budget.

By: Doctor J

Doctor J — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:44:58 +0000

The key to the SIG schools improvement was the “increased instructional time” mandated by the SIG grant which when the audit exposed that Steven Lawrence and Rose Lock had not complied with the promises in the grant, the Feds and State cut off the funding until a “Corrective Action Plan” required the increased instructional time: the results were impressive — massive gains. Now Steven Lawrence will cut off the SIG schools from increased instructional time — it will be back to underpeformance. What a crime against the humanity of these children.