Submitted by John Arbeeny.
I attended the Clover Park School District meeting on 15 June 2021 where there were several public speakers who addressed the District’s “equity journey”, critical race theory and academic performance. Each speaker was limited to 3 minutes which was barely enough time to get their points across unless you can speak as fast as the FEDEX man! There were also several emails on the same subjects which were read by Board President Marty Schafer, some of which took more than 3 minutes to read.
While the Board did not reply to any of the issues or questions raised, one Board member, Carol Jacobs, who has been on the Board for decades, did have an observation and recommendation. She remarked that some of the emails were taking longer than 3 minutes to read and suggested that they too be limited to the 3 minutes read time.
This is what’s wrong with this Board. Rather than expand the public comments to a more reasonable time, say 5 minutes, the Board’s “solution” is to limit all comments, in person and emails, to the same short 3 minute format. Given the option of expanding public participation during Board meetings, the Board instead seeks to further limit public participation.
Indeed there were only about 10 public comments in person or emailed. It’s not like that expansion was going to drastically extend the Board’s agenda which was largely administrative in nature: recognition awards, Superintendent report, consent agenda, adoption of policy and Board member reports most of which was set in concrete the previous working group session.
Interestingly there wasn’t a single agenda item dealing with the District’s dismal academic performance but there was one adopting a policy of “Social Emotional Climate! “Feelings….nothing more than feelings….”. If the Board really valued transparency it would do everything in its power to expand its interface with the public instead of treating it as just a box to check off with the least amount of bother actually listening to them.
“We see you” is the Board’s equity journey refrain but when it comes to “we hear you” you only get 3 minutes to speak. Apparently they have 20/20 vision when it comes to your skin color but are stone deaf when it comes to listening to what you have to say.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
Put your kids in private school or homeschool while you can. These people aren’t interested in hearing opposing opinions; they just listen to the equity bullies.
It has almost come down to private school or home schooling despite paying through the nose for public education………or is it now indoctrination? However we do have elections coming up for the school Board so choose wisely in the primary (3 August 2021) and general (2 November 2021) elections. Our school Board must become something more than a lapdog to the administration. The Board has to drive the train when it comes to District policy and accountability. The primary goal of Clover Park School District must be to provide an academically challenging educational experience for all students which prepares them for adult life, be that in the family, trades, business or on to college. Anything that distracts or detracts from that goal must be eliminated, but it takes a Board with guts to do that. The choice on election day is yours to make.
The Board should at the very least spend time identifying specific goals to improve school performance. ALL current indicators indicate increasingly poor performance.
This school district, like most all the others in the country, has become nothing more than a daycare and a cafeteria, and soon-to-be indoctrination center. It’s regretful that more parents didn’t offer comments about the district’s dismal academics. My kids attended private schools (K-12). Put a dent in the budget but the best decision I ever made.
I believe more people would speak up and share their thoughts, feelings, opinions more if the board allowed for more time. I felt that, what anyone said or read had little value to most who were sitting there. They gave no sense of value to listening to anything. And the fact that this is just a listening time is ridiculous. I wanted to ask questions of many of the speakers and of the board members. Yet, I guess I am supposed to feel thankful for small time allotted.
I know this may be because of covid, to accommodate social distancing, but having board members with their back to the audience, says from the start that no one outside their circle matters.
This board could set themselves up so as to be social distancing and look at their audience as well as, be engaged with their audience. Their current set up has you feeling uncared for and left out, talk about a bad social emotional environment.
The board reports frustrated me. I understand not all members will have something to report, but if you are going to report that you spoke with the superintendent about the last legislation session and how it affects the board and schools, then expand!!! Tell us specifically what ones and why. If need be, set a date for more detailed session.
The fact that they don’t advertise or send out reminders to involve and engage the public is telling as well.
Simply putting it on the school calendar you send home and on your website doesn’t do much. Assuming people aren’t coming because they think the board is doing an excellent job is mostly likely false, it’s more likely they don’t know!
In order to become better informed before pending elections I attended the Clover Park School District Board meeting on June 14. Given that it was a meeting where community members could express their concerns I thought the meeting would provide the double benefit of hearing citizen concerns as well as gaining awareness of board members and procedures. The event came across as a perfunctory duty of the board carried out to check off “providing input from stakeholders” off their list. The arrangement of board members’ desks in a U-shape formation facing inward toward each other, rather than panel style facing the visiting community, strongly conveyed indifference. Covid 19 guidelines are not an excuse; other forums have managed to arrange seating for effective communication between groups. Two of the board members actually sat with their backs to the speakers, never bothering to turn their chairs around to look at those expressing concerns. Depending on where community members were seated, we only saw a side-profile of other board members’ faces which usually were not turned toward the community speakers. The most active interest demonstrated occurred when the board president rose from his seat and crossed the room to cut off a speaker who had progressed a few seconds beyond the 3-minute time limit. At meetings when public comment is allowed the procedure is that the board does not respond immediately on site in order to provide time for consideration; follow-up occurs by way of later correspondence from the district. It will be informative to learn from the concerned speakers if the follow-up responses contain substance or are pro forma generic replies, which I have heard from others is often the case.
The one time I spoke to the board I was allowed my 3 min. However, some others who spoke in favor of the policy the board was presenting were given additional time to complete their thoughts. The day after the meeting, (I was a teacher) I was confronted by my principal for not keeping my thoughts to myself. Of course if I’d been in favor of how the board was proposing to spend the funds I’m sure I would have heard no feedback. I did report this to the union and eventually got an apology, but the was the last time I said anything in a public forum. I then realized why many other teachers only speak out if they agree with board policy.
To the Board members, please read the studies on early starts and who benefits and who needs a later start for better performance. Years ago Dr. Ben Keller listened to his students request to have their Jazz Choir start before normal start time. Why can’t sports practices do the same?
Well stated John