Sometimes when I talk about the city's elite and how they want to run and profit off of public education and how they don't have our schools and teachers best interests in mind, I feel a little bit like I am off in the woods by myself.
Then the Civic Council, Chartrand, Rummel, Petway, Haskell, Weaver and others rear their ugly heads and I don't feel so alone after all.
Let me just let their words do the talking for them.
From the Times Union:
A powerful business organization, the Jacksonville Civic Council, complained to Duval’s School Board on Wednesday that they have not been given enough time to weigh in on the type of superintendent the district should choose.
Then the Civic Council, Chartrand, Rummel, Petway, Haskell, Weaver and others rear their ugly heads and I don't feel so alone after all.
Let me just let their words do the talking for them.
From the Times Union:
A powerful business organization, the Jacksonville Civic Council, complained to Duval’s School Board on Wednesday that they have not been given enough time to weigh in on the type of superintendent the district should choose.
The district held a meeting for business people to provide input at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Springfield but only two people attended.
The meeting was one of 10 community and stakeholder meetings that are supposed to help the Duval County School Board create a profile for the superintendent search. However, most of the meetings have been sparsely attended so far.
Board Chairwoman Paula Wright said many community members have already voiced their opinions about what they want in a new superintendent in four community forums held months ago to discuss district strategic plans, so she was not surprised at the small attendance of fewer than a dozen people at most of the recent community and stakeholder meetings.
Another community meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at The Legends Center, 5130 Soutel Drive.
A letter to Wright and the rest of the board sent later in the day indicated Civic Council members felt they didn’t have enough time to clear their schedules to attend. Civic Council president Jeanne M. Miller wrote that council members needed more than 10 days notice, at least two weeks, “due to the exceptional demands on their individual travel and work schedules.”
Miller noted in her letter that Wright apparently scheduled a meeting with the JAX Chamber’s board of directors for March 16. She asked Wright to make a similar accommodation to meet with Civic Council members.
“On behalf of the Jacksonville Civic Council, I wish to express our disappointment that you have declined our request for a timely noticed meeting,” she said.
“The Jacksonville Civic Council stands ready to provide you and the entire school board with insight from this region’s top employers on the workforce needs of the future .... As the leader of one of the state’s largest and most complex school districts, you cannot afford to leave the foremost employers of your eventual graduates out of this conversation.”
... The Civic Council has said this is a rushed process, urging that the decision be delayed so that future board members running for open seats could be included in the selection process.
So let me get this straight, the couldn't be bothered to attend any of the community meetings that us regular folks were able to attend, ten days notice wasn't good enough for them and they want, no demand their own private meeting to discuss who the next superintendent should be.
Oy vey, if I was the school board, I wouldn't let them anywhere near the process because they don't want to get their two cents in, they want their hand picked superintendent in place and they figure if they wait to next fall when hopefully they have collected a few more school board members they can make sure it happens.
They are not like us, they are used to having their way and that is part of the reason where we find ourselves. It's time the board said, no, to the Civic Council, because we know who ever they want would represent them and not the people of Jacksonville.
Of the four most recently scheduled meetings, three were north and west of the St. Johns, with the fourth at Wolfson High. Does the Board not think that the citizens who live in the 14 miles between Wolfson and the coast should have input? Of course, we know all of this is just for show, and they are going to do what they are going to do regardless of our opinions.
ReplyDelete