Here is the set up. Town hall to talk about the budget quickly devolves into tense
talking about the name of Forrest high school. From the times Union, Part of
the tension of the meeting boiled down to whether Forrest was even supposed to
be a topic in the meeting hosted by board member Jason Fischer.
“The original attempt at this
meeting was for Mr. Fischer to talk about the budget. This meeting was not
intended to be a conversation about Forrest,” said Superintendent Nikolai
Vitti.
But was it really? Earlier in the
day Fischer said he was outraged (by a letter), and the letter was one reason
why he wanted to address the Forrest High issue at the town hall meeting.
While the town hall meeting at
Mandarin High School is not in the same district as Forrest High, Fischer said
he’s interested to hear what his constituents think.
And
this isn’t the first time; this former Westside resident has mentioned Forrest
high school either.
Look
I think the name should be changed which is probably one of the few things Mr. Fischer
and I would agree upon but the super was apparently oblivious that the subject was
going to be brought up especially since the school board had agreed not to talk
about it for the next 30 days.
Again from the Times Union: The
School Board decided during a Friday meeting to give Board Member Connie Hall
30 days to talk with officials, teachers and other individuals associated with
Forrest High. After that time, she will report to the board, and it will
discuss what to do about the situation.
Here is the rub; Fischer obviously wanted
the subject to come up and it seems like the super was unaware of that and Fischer
wanted it to come up despite the fact the board agreed to keep silent on the
issue for the next 30 days. All this begs the questions is Fischer just
passionate about the issue or is he putting his individual goals above the
boards and how will this affect the board moving forward.
How could the superintendent be unaware the issue would come up when it had been reported in the media for a couple of days before the meeting? Even DCPS Communications had it in the "Morning Briefing" we receive in our email. My hypothesis would be that Dr. Vitti, not being from Jacksonville or paying attention to local issues before he came, was surprised by the passion the issue provokes. He is focused on the budget since he needs people to understand why so many hiccups occurred this year and why on October 1 he and his team are still working to fix it.
ReplyDeleteBTW, IMO let's rename all the schools and be done with it: Forrest, Jeff Davis, Stuart, Kirby-Smith, etc. We're living in the 21st century now. As a compromise, let the schools keep their mascots for a historical reference: Rebels, Raiders, and so forth.