Dear Delegate James,
I am writing to express my disappointment in your sponsorship of HB 806. HB 806 would create an oligarchy to control Harford County’s voice in the appointment of our school board members. I believe that this bill is directly in opposition to what is best for good government, positive education decision-making, and the people of Harford County.
The greatest accomplishment this bill could achieve is the creation of additional bureaucracy. Your bill would give the power to special interest groups, chosen by a means unknown to the public, to choose dues-paying members of their clubs to sit on a government-created “commission.” The commission would then make, using the criteria it creates, a list of the individuals the collection of special-interest representatives believes should serve on the school board.
The governor would then be able to review the list, and could reject the list until an individual the governor believes to be “qualified” is included on the list. The governor could select any individual from the list, meaning that the commission can essentially only eliminate candidates—the individual that Harford County’s commission of indeterminably chosen special interest groups’ selected members deems, by the method they develop, to be the most qualified is no more likely to be chosen than an individual the commission determines to be far less qualified, but whose name must be submitted in order to fill out the list of suggested individuals.
That all certainly sounds like a dilution of the process—the governor couldn’t be blamed for moving through lists and suggestions until an acceptable individual is chosen. Of course, once the individual is chosen, the people will still never have the opportunity to have their voices heard, or to hold the individual accountable for his or her decisions. Then again, oligarchies typically preserve their elitist status and don’t give the public an opportunity for input, so this process would be true to form.
Your bill has been introduced as a counter to the Harford Delegation-sponsored HB 779 and SB 306, which would create an elected school board in Harford County. 96% of the nation’s boards are elected, the majority of Maryland’s boards are elected, and thousands of Harford’s residents have vocalized support for an elected school board. Even opponents of elections, such as entrenched school board member Mark Wolkow, said at the public hearing for SB 306 that “if you put it to a referendum, you’ll have an elected school board.”
Of course, these few opponents of elections do not have faith in the people of Harford County. They do not believe that the citizens who determined that you, Delegate James, should serve in the House of Delegates were proficient, or intelligent, enough to do so. Mark Wolkow continued to state, “But I don’t think it’s necessarily because people would really understand what that means and what the difference is.” What Mr. Wolkow fails to understand is that it is the people who have the right to replace those representatives who don’t “necessarily” understand what their votes mean.
Harford County is home to a well-educated, highly involved, and caring community. The citizenry is fully capable of understanding what it means to have the right to vote, and to exercise that right appropriately. There are frequent community discussions on issues such as this, as is evidenced by the articles and discussion over your bill on the news outlet www.daggerpress.com. The people of Harford County oppose oligarchies and support elections—the citizens of Harford desire an elected school board.
Sincerely,
Brian K. Young
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Great letter Brian! If you get a response, maybe you could also find out how HB 806, which failed in the delegation vote (2 in favor, 6 opposed), got a hearing date set ahead of the delegation’s elected school board bill, (6 in favor, 2 abstained) which is still not on the calendar.
It’s pretty clear that Mr. Wolkow has fully inhaled the ether of school board voodoo. It actually takes years of practice and measured detachment from reality to turn a normal, concerned parent into someone who could utter the mind-numbing bureaucratic convention: We have a duty to the people to protect them from their own ineptitude. How did Del. James get that choice hearing date? It’s sort of a twist that her argument is for keeping politics out of the school board — which involves keeping some of the biggest business interests in the county fat and happy. Good work as usual, Brian.
Bravo, Brian! Well put. Thanks for the reader participation!
Seeking to maintain an appointed Board of Education has nothing to do with smelling the ether. The people who currently serve on the Board, and the people who have served in the past – virtually without exception – believe an appointment process is better for HCPS children… regardless of party, regardless of age, regardless of sex, and regardless of whether he/she was booted out by a governor after one term. I suspect that is because we know the job; we know the realities; and perhaps most importantly, we know the folks in other counties who are elected, and we know how that affects things.
We are held accountable for results. That means we have to make decisions that some of our constituents don’t like. It goes with the territory. But those are the very decisions that are in fact easier to make if we’re not worrying about who contributed to a campaign war chest and whether we’re going to get elected again.
Can we communicate better with the public, with staff, with elected officials? We sure think we can – that’s why we commissioned an audit on our communication practices. But that’s not going to change the fact that we make decision people don’t like – and if just one person doesn’t like it, then we’re not being “accountable” to that person. The whole accountability issue is almost laughable, because elected Board members here exactly the same thing all over the country.
Your rhetoric about special interest groups, which has been picked up by most of the folks opposing an appointed board process, is most fascinating. I’m not sure people like parents, teachers, students, farmers, leaders of the Community College, and volunteers in an organization like the Harford Business Roundtable for Education would consider themselves “special interest” groups. And none of these constituencies would have more than 2 of the 19 votes on the Commission. But if you want to talk about special interests putting people into office, I think you’ll find that particular groups have been involved for many, many years in Harford County’s political races – and with rare exception have been very successful in their endeavors. So if you really want to see narrow special interest groups get their way, the more elected offices the better. The not-so-veiled innuendo about businesses preferring a commission so they can stack a Board of Education — well, it just isn’t true.
As for the further innuendo that businesses – particularly ones on HBRT – stand to gain contracts by pushing a commission bill. Clearly, you do not understand either the makeup or purpose of HBRT, nor our procurement process. And you also must not know the individuals who currently serve on the Board. You see, we put our names in to serve children. Not to make money (that’s pretty obvious, given what we “earn” and we forego by serving). Not to get to a higher office – that typically happens when there are elected Boards. The fact is, having seen what it takes to compete in an election, I’d never want to run for an election – for School Board or anything else.
The bottom line is that we need a system that works for kids. There is no evidence to support any claim that elected boards produce better results than appointed boards. Just isn’t there.
Its an easy argument to equate elections with democracy. But peel back the onion a layer or two, and you’ll find thousands of qualified, competent, people at Federal, State, and Local levels who have been appointed to jobs that they carry out effectively and efficiently – and with little political influence.
I’ve served on the Board of Education for 5 1/2 years. I’ve never received a call from Annapolis on any local issue, and I don’t know any Board Member who has. The important thing is to get something passed this year, because an appointment process that is closed to the public is wholly inappropriate. We need a public process like the Commission, which is, in my opinion, the best of the many inadequate methods for selecting members to a local Board of Education.
Mark
Thanks for the great post Mark. It is a stinking shame, however, that the appointed board is seen by a huge majority of us as a failure. Set aside all the NEA crap, disregard the voodoo nonsense. We want an elected board, we want to have accountability, we want to be able to hire and fire, just like all the other appointed and elected folks. We are the saps who foot the bill and watch, impotently, as the board does what it damn well pleases. I do know several of you on the board, and know that you are really trying to do the right thing, but there is far too much evidence of failures all through the system, and we can’t do anything about it. Give us the right to elect you and then it’s partly our fault too. How hard is that to grasp? Get down from your pedestal and think like all of us poor slobs who give up a significant chunk of our paycheck for your “experiment.”
Thanks for the comments, Mark. I would argue that those few special interests who are members of the HBRT are going to get business from the school board and involve themselves in politics one way or another; therefore, we the people might as well have a check on the membership of our school board, which approves the big contracts – that is to say, if they’re going to be involved, so should we. I’m sure everyone on the HBRT has the school system’s best interests at heart, but when a civic group testifies before the legislature on a divisive issue, that group opens itself up – and rightly so – to scrutiny. In this case, it was my understanding that HBRT and supporters of the James bill would have been happy to downplay contractual links between some HBRT members and the school board. That’s why we wrote the story. Not to suggest some seedy relationship between the board and architectural-engineering firms that do good work, but to shed a bit light on the politics of the deal.
And, let’s be honest about how we got to this point – and this I think we can all agree on. Jim Harkins, Nancy Jacobs, and to some lesser degree, Bob Ehrlich, did all the deciding on patronage appointments in Harford for the duration of the Ehrlich administration. Surely, Democrats did the same before that. This is what left the PNC and everyone else in the public out in the cold, and this is what solidified the question of an elected school board for a lot of people. Appointments to the school board, and to a lesser degree (and depending upon which way the wind is blowing) the community college board, are already political. One could argue that we the people elected cynical windbags like Harkins and Ehrlich, and therefore had a say in the who they deemed fit to serve on the board. But I stand by the notion that we deserve more than that.
Mark,
I take exception to your comments that people that complain about a lack of accountability are those who haven’t gotten their way. I feel accountability is accomplished by responding to ‘constituent’s’ concerns by taking actions to investigate, question, or survey the issue. Why did the BOE say, when they implemented block scheduling, that they would follow up, but never did. That is, until parents started complaining. I also ask why it took so long for the board to even respond to the offer by the APG analysts to do a TIMELY survey for free, and then were turned down. You could have at least used them, in addition to the contracted consulting company that was ultimately hired.
Being accountable means being responsive. Whether the BOE gives the public the answers they want is not the question. Responding to concerns and following up with investigation is all we ask. I’m glad that the board is planning to do this going forward. It’s too bad that it takes such an upheaval by the public, as well as ‘commissioning an audit of (the BOE’s) communications practices” to bring this about.
Mark,
It was interesting to read your response, thank you. I stand by our need for an elected school board. Can you give us some examples of how you feel you are held accountable? I see no evidence of the board being held accountable to anyone except yourselves. If an ethics complaint is filed, the ethics panel, who is appointed by the board of ed., makes a recommendation to the BOE, who then decides on whether or not to accept that recommendation. How is that accountability? Also, lets look at the redistricting, or balancing enrollment. Because of redistricting, Fallston is under capacity and Patterson Mill is over capacity. We all knew it was going to happen and I STILL haven’t had anyone tell me why they wanted it this way. I’m not saying you aren’t accountable because I didn’t like the decision, I’m saying you aren’t accountable because you don’t even have to give us the reasons. If you all felt that you wanted Patterson Mill to open overcrowded shouldn’t you have had to explain why? This leads us to wonder if it was because of pressure to have Fallston opened up to development, as some believe, or as I believe, to start the process of redistricting some Patterson Mill families to Edgewood when the new, enlarged, Edgewood High School opens. We deserve to know the reasoning behind your actions.
Thanks for the well reasoned, rational response, Mr Wolkow. Run for election on the platform that you’re overarching, heartfelt desire is to work in the childrens’ best interest, and I’ll vote for you.
I find some of your reasoning, however, to be the thing that is “laughable.”
1) Worrying about who contributed to a campaign war chest.
-do the job you’re elected to do, do it well, communicate with your co
constituents, and get re-elected in a landslide. No war chest necessary.
2)none of these (special interests) would have more than 2 of the 19 votes on the Commission.
-if I understand the proposed bill, the COMMISSION itself is a “special
interest group” conglomeration. What about the largest group? The ones
paying the bills?
3) Its an easy argument to equate elections with democracy.
-this one sells itself. In your “thousands of qualified, competent people”,
how many of them hold sway over nearly half of the collected tax revenue
of a political subdivision?
I didn’t want to believe it, but y’all think we’re a bunch of idiots..THAT’s laughable…
Sandy,
Execellent examples of what I was saying!! It’s not that the BOE doesn’t give that answers that we like, it’s that they don’t feel they have to give answers AT ALL!
Mr. Wolkow states that the BOE “commissioned a study” on their communication practices. I hope that this did not involve any tax payer money to an outside entity. Does anyone have an answer to this question?
Thank you for your response, Mr. Wolkow. Your response appears to have been addressed particularly to my letter to Delegate James, and not to those who support elected school boards in general (i.e. the public at-large).
If this is the case, I ask you to reread my letter. I have made no innuendos. I have certainly made no innuendos concerning businesses or their interests– in fact, a search of the letter demonstrates that I did not mention the word “business” even once. That’s actually pretty surprising, given that I support business involvement in education (see my positions on apprenticeships, internships, shadow days, and business administration of schools for examples). If I made an innuendo–particularly one that wasn’t veiled– without in any way mentioning what you are imputing was intended, I request that you submit my shabby writing for a Pulitzer.
I employ no rhetoric– I have stated what I believe, and that is that an oligarchy comprised of members of selected organizations is a collection of special interests. We may debate whether or not the special interest groups are devoted to the right things– such as the will of the people and what is best for students and schools– or not, but I contend that no rational person could take the position that HBRE is not a special interest group. If they had no special interests, there would be no purpose for the group’s existence. Other citizens have demonstrated concerns over HBRE’s motives– I have not done so, whether by innuendo or otherwise. I have simply stated that I don’t believe that the policy of having a private organization– however selected and regardless of what the organization exists for– appoint two, or three, of its members to a government commission is a policy conducive to good governance.
I am also concerned at your point that these groups would choose only 2 members out of 19. You seem to have missed the point of my letter. I have no problem with those 2 members having their say–in fact, I encourage it. The problem is that those 2 members would have a say, when approximately 280,000 other Harford residents would not.
You have made several points to explain your favoring appointed boards. Appointed boards have, however, no advantage over elected boards in these areas. The elected members of the County Council “put [their] names in to serve children. Not to make money (that’s pretty obvious, given what [they] “earn” and [they] forego by serving).”
As per your argument regarding “stepping stone” positions; individuals may try to advance to higher office from an elected school board. Personally, I think that any individual who can make a case for being a good public servant on a school board would deserve consideration for any other position they could apply for. But this isn’t any different from appointed boards. Members of your own board have, in fact, considered positions for higher office—and this is in no way a bad thing for Harford County.
There may be competent people in many areas of government. There may be competent people on the Harford County Board of Education. But accountability—that laughable concept that makes our government work, while organizations like the United Nations struggle—is not simply about competent people. And it is not about every individual being able to hold their representative accountable for every decision they disagree with. It is about that representative’s decisions being subject to the review of the populace—of thousands of citizens in a regulated republic. It is not about removal from office of those who perform poorly, but the maintenance of an office that performs competently.
19 members of an oligarchy of private interest groups cannot provide this accountability as the public can—and this bill does not even attempt to do so. We do need a public process for selecting members to the local Board of Education—and the best process is that championed by the people. Whether this misguided legislation (however well intentioned) passes and creates an oligarchy to make the situation worse or not, the people of Harford County will continue to call for the right to elect their school board.
Sorry to all for such a long post; I was succinct as I felt an adequate response to Mr. Wolkow’s post would allow. Thank you, Mark, for caring enough to post in what is evidently a forum that does not agree with you.
I’ll try to address the comments raised succinctly…
Dave – I’m not sure why you believe our appointed board has been a failure, given our results, by every measure, are typically in the top 1/4 to 1/3 in the State despite spending dead last (or sometimes 23rd of 24). What elected boards are doing better — that aren’t spending thousands more per student? With what Montgomery and Howard spend, they’d be on top regardless of how they chose their boards.
Matt/Brian – My understanding is that HBRT was formed primarily to a) provide a bridge between the business and education communities and b) help the BOE and elected officials develop better communications. Although HBRT did try to fill the gap in interviewing candidates after the PNC died, none of their recommendations have been taken by sitting Governors.
As to the politics of appointments, I agree with all the statements made — the point of having a commission is to ensure that local people have the final say in who the nominees will be, with the Governor continuing to make the final selection. I would continue to argue this is much less political than an election.
PWH – Perhaps we did not communicate well enough, but our plan on block scheduling was to do the appropriate, independent follow-up from day one. In fact, when we passed the HS Reform (CSSRP), we also passed the parameters for measuring results at the same time. Anyone involved in a major change in their profession – whether its implementing a new software package or changing a policy – knows that the results may take time to evaluate. This is especially true with CSSRP. Based on all available data – and I went online and saw all the pros & cons about block scheduling before I voted on this – the pros clearly have the potential to far outweigh the cons. But if it doesn’t pan out, then we’ll work to make it right. But I don’t believe turning the whole thing off without ever knowing if it is working is the right thing to do. As for the APG folks who offered their support, we’ve taken their suggestions and will use them as appropriate. I (along with the other Board members) felt it was not appropriate to have them fill an “independent” evaluative role – because they are not independent.
Sandy – How am I accountable? 1. My children were in the system (they’re now in college). 2. My neighbors know where I live… and most of their children are in the system. 3. My friends’ children; my wife’s family’s children; my wife’s friends’ children – most of them are in the system. 4. I pay taxes in Harford County, and want to see them used as effectively as possible. 5. People write, call, and testify all the time about a variety of issues, so I want to ensure they feel that we are doing the best job possible, and spending their money wisely. 6. If we do something poorly, we’ll hear it from whoever feels “wronged”. 7. We’ll hear it from our elected officials – sometimes even when we’ve done the right thing – but that’s another issue.
As to redistricting to satisfy developers, Frank Hirsch and others in the development industry would find that implication amusing. I am a founding member of Friends of Harford and continue as a member of their Advisory Board, and have been at odds with folks in the development community for about 20 years. If we had an elected Board and the developers wanted someone whom they could sway, they’d all contribute to anyone running against me.
Dell – I don’t believe I said or implied that anyone was an “idiot”. But as to the simplicity of being re-elected, I would disagree. In fact, a very well-respected, talented, and from what I can gather quite effective Board member in Howard County recently decided not to seek a second term. Why not, I asked. Her response; “The campaigning and the fundraising.”
As to holding sway over significant moneys, I would agree that our budget comprises nearly half the county expenditures each year. But it is clearly not the Board of Ed who makes the call on how much money is spent. That authority in Maryland is vested in the local gov’t. As an aside, should that ever change – i.e., the Board of Ed gain taxing authority – I would agree in that case that the Board should be elected. That is why most Boards of Ed are elected in the U.S. – because they have taxing authority.
SZQ – The NASPRA’s Communication Audit certainly was done with taxpayer money. They are a professional organization; they do professional work; and they provided us with a professional product… one that doesn’t pull any punches about what we’re doing well and where we need to improve. Indeed, one of the reasons I decided to respond to this blog was their clear focus on improving two way communications — specifically in electronic media.
Sorry for the length… but there were a lot of questions…
Mark
Mark, I think you deserve credit for being open to this dialogue and for sharing the thought processes behind your positions. But I hope we can all agree that while we are entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts:
1. Montgomery County is not among the top performers as measured by the lastest available HSA data. And Baltimore City, which receives the highest funding, ranks last in performance. This anecdotal evidence holds true in research studies which have demonstrated that increased funding does not improve student achievement. Harford County has been last in funding (with few exceptions) for many years. When we were dead last in funding, we were not just in the top half, we were ranked #2 as measured by MSPAP scores and the high school assesments in place at the time. So that in Harford County, our performance rankings have declined while our rank in funding has remained the same. This is not to say that funding has not increased. The operating budget (unrestricted funds) was $232 million in FY 2001 and it has almost doubled since that time.
2. The Harford Business Roundtable was formed as “advisors to the Superintendent of Schools” according to the June 2004 issue of Harford Schools, the HCPS newspaper.
3. The decision to implement the block schedule was not controversial because of a failure to communicate. It was controversial because the research did not support the decision. Bob Thomas, who was BOE president at the time said “there is no clear right or wrong answer with respect to scheduling” in a letter dated May 10th, 2005 (he later voted against CSSRP and the block schedule) and Dave Volrath, who authored and promoted the plan, was quoted in The Aegis saying essentially the same thing.
The lack of clear, empirical evidence that the block schedule, which reduces instruction time and frequency in core courses such as math, science, English and social studies so that students can take an extra elective improves student achievement, is the source of the controversy and the reason that teachers, parents, students and a few brave administrators questioned the decision at the time.The follow-up study is necessary and overdue, but in the meantime, thousands of high school students have been subjected to a plan that was a 50-50 shot at best.
4. Your answer to the question of accountability reveals your intentions and your feelings: you care about kids, you care about education and want kids to do well and you sometimes feel you get grief you don’t deserve from disgruntled citizens. I don’t doubt any of the above, but that is not accountability. Not even close.
Whatever standards this board of education (or any board of education) is held to by state and federal agencies measure the bare minimum of student achievement. Beyond that, there are almost no consequences for inaction or poor decision-making. The citizens of Harford County who, as Brian said, are well-educated and highly involved in our communities, want excellence, we want to decide which board candidates are best suited to achieving this purpose and we want them to be motivated by the check and balance process of elections.
5. Lastly, the issue of the budget and taxing authority. None of the 17 elected school boards in Maryland have taxing authority. Lots of elected officials don’t have taxing authority, including the President of the United States, but they set policy and make other decisions that directly affect the citizens they serve, and so they are elected.
Locally, taxing authority falls to the County Council, which is one of the reasons the council supports school board elections. The council only approves the bottom line of the board’s budget request in broad categories (such as Instructional Salaries, Administration, Maintenance & Operations). The board submits a detailed budget, but that is not what the council approves. They approve the bottom line, which means that thousands of decisions about how that money will actually be allocated within each category are up to the board, either beforehand as they create the budget or afterward as they are free to make changes they deem necessary.
I’ll add my apologies for being long and end here except to say how much I appreciate the level of discourse on this subject. It reinforces my personal belief that there is tremendous interest in education in this county that is suppressed because parents have been relegated to spectator status, in part due to the appointment process. Mark, you have noted that there is no research demonstrating that elected school boards are more effective than appointed boards and this is true. But research does demonstrate that elected boards are effective when parents are involved and the community is engaged. I think the citizens of Harford County pass that test.
BOE: I am your king.
Citizen of Harford County: Well I didn’t vote for you.
BOE: You don’t vote for kings.
Citizen of Harford County: Well how’d you become king then?
[Angelic music plays… ]
BOE: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your king.
Concerned Parent: [interrupting] Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony…
(LATER)
Concerned Parent: Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I’m being repressed!
BOE: Bloody peasant!
Concerned Parent: Oh, what a giveaway! Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m on about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw him, Didn’t you?
Mark;
I’ll try to be a bit more succinct. First though, thanks for attempting to communicate. You wrote: “Dave – I’m not sure why you believe our appointed board has been a failure, given our results, by every measure, are typically in the top 1/4 to 1/3 in the State despite spending dead last (or sometimes 23rd of 24). What elected boards are doing better — that aren’t spending thousands more per student? With what Montgomery and Howard spend, they’d be on top regardless of how they chose their boards.”
I think this board is a failure because I think the school system is a failure. I’m just an old Army guy – tell me my mission and I’ll carry it out. When that’s done I’ll try to get a bit more done. Our school system undoubtedly can’t even state is mission in one sentence so I’ll try to lay it out there for you: TEACH THE CHILDREN TO READ, WRITE, DO MATH AND HAVE A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD AND OUR PART IN IT.” Anything that any teacher does that is not in direct support of that mission statement is stealing our money. When I look at a recent high school graduate who can ‘t read at the second grade level, I have to ask how much of my money was stolen.
It isn’t so much that our school systems are failing us, but rather that they are failing our children. If an underprivileged peasant child in China has better math and science skills than any student of ours, the system fails.
All of my comments actually criticize the entire system nation wide. What has that got to do with elected boards here? Everything, because change begins at the bottom. This board is not accountable to the majority. As you told the Senate the other day, if left to us we would demand an elected board. Guess what, that’s exactly what we are doing. Come out of the box and start thinking.
Mark,
I think it is wonderful that you have agreed to debate these issues, it is a step in the right direction. Thank you. As for your specific responses to me:
1. Being open to the opinion of your neighbors isn’t accountability. We want formal, legal accountability, not just social pressure.
2. You have answered the question to say that the redistricting wasn’t development related, and I agree with you, but you STILL haven’t given us a reason why. Again. Should I assume that I am correct, and Patterson Mill was temporarily overcrowded to prepare for the redistricting when the new Edgewood High School opens?
The block schedule has ruined my daughter’s education. While I am waiting for you all to evaluate, my daughter is struggling for the first time. You can’t use the same curriculum and teach it in less time and expect BETTER results. That’s just common sense. I gues there is a long shot that it would work, but please don’t subject our educational system to a long shot idea.
Mark et al,
If you will refer to an earlier thread on this topic- Cindy’s re “ours being a great republic if we can keep it”- I sincerely argued the case for an updated, a-political, PNC selection process. I do believe that the demise of the DNC process can be directly attributed to the political croneyism of Gov. Robert Ehrlich. I continue to be concerned that a BOE election will be de facto political in this county where a majority vote based exclusively on party and are not necessarily informed regarding the qualifications of the candidates. One of the benefits of the DNC process is that those who vote are required to become highly informed about each candidate. Most of our current BOE members are political Ehrich appointees- and I find it interesting that the one such appointee who came out against the BOE’s official stand on this topic is a major player in Harford’s Republican Party. My take is that now that there is a Democratic governor, the effort in this arena is being made to insure a Republican majority and a conservative agenda on Harford’s BOE. As a taxpayer, I also want to be represented. At this time Harford also has ZERO elected minority leadership. An elected BOE will be less diverse as well. How will a one party, one race BOE represent and serve all of our children? I believe that there is more possibility of balanced representation through an effective PNC process- as evidenced by the many years of diverse BOE representation prior to the Ehrlich years. One of many examples, was Bob Thomas, who was appointed by a Democratic governor who respected the recommendations of the PNC. In other parts of this country, elected BOEs have blurred the line between church and state in many significant ways. As a steadfast proponant of a public education that serves ALL children of our community, I have deep and abiding concerns about a homogeneous BOE.
Cindy asks: “how HB 806, which failed in the delegation vote (2 in favor, 6 opposed), got a hearing date set ahead of the delegation’s elected school board bill, (6 in favor, 2 abstained) which is still not on the calendar. Is this not political?
On another note, At the Elected School Board hearing, the NAACP and Col. Chandler testified that an elected school board would essentially prevent an African American from serving on the board. Col. Chandler in particular noted that Harford County had not changed much since the days of segregation and that only one African American had ever been elected in the county.
First let me state (with all due respect) that the Harford County Chapter of the NAACP is not representative ALL of the African-Americans in Harford County. The NAACP is made up of indigenous Harford County African-Americans. It is essentially a closed shop (just as the school board would be if the selection process is maintained). There is a new crop of African-Americans in Harford County, for whom the views and strategies of the Harford County NAACP are simply outdated.
It is true that Harford County has elected only one African-American to a county- political office (excluding Judge Angela Eaves). But let me also share with you that the Harford County Government to include the Sheriff’s Dept, and Harford County Public Schools together employ only one (Frank Boston-Manager of Human Relations) African-American in a decision/policy-making position. I mention this because the Harford County NAACP has known this for decades and has done absolutely nothing to change this fact.
If the NAACP is interested in African-American representation, they could start by addressing the issue of underrepresentation within these government entities.
In addition, the fact is that the Harford County Chapter of the NAACP has done little to identify, prepare and support African-Americans candidates for elective office in Harford County.
The Edgewood community (home to a sizeable number of African-Americans) is attempting to change this. We believe that the Edgewood/Joppa/Joppatown community can field qualified African-American candidates for school board and other elceted positions in Harford County.
The Route 40 corridor (from Joppatowne to Havre de Grace) is home to the majority of African-Americans in Harford County and our numbers and influence are growing.
An elected school board would provide a vehicle to develop talented African-American candidates who will sooner rather than later (as the result of selection), compete for higher elective office in Harford County.
While the appointed school board process would possibly ensure that “one” person would be appointed to the school board, it would do nothing to prepare other African-Americans to run for and/or hold other elected/appointed offices/positions in Harford County.
I am in no way forgetting the past. Nor am I some naive individual with this polly-anna view of our (African-Americans) situation in Harford County government. But, I am hopeful for the future and I believe that the selection process would do more harm than good for talented African-Americans who don’t want to join the NAACP or any other special interest group in Harford County.
One thing I do know is that if we continue selecting school board members, then African-Americans will continue to get the leaders that someone else thinks we ought to have.
Jansen;
Your piece is great. I am a member of the NAACP and have been bothered about the direction and thrust. You have helped to open my thought process quite a bit. Would you mind if I share this with the board? Change does begin at the bottom and maybe you and I can make something a little bit better.
Dave – I would really like to chat with you in person about the school system and what we are trying to do, what constraints we have, and how we’re trying to improve achievement across the board. This forum doesn’t lend itself to that kind of discussion.
Sandy – We have so many ways in which we are held accountable on a regular basis it would take a significant post to list them all. We are audited more than any agency in the county – internally; externally; by independent firms; by the State Legislature; by 3rd parties. In every case, we have passed muster – and in many cases (eg. financially; our budget documents) – we have received awards for excellence per national criteria.
As to the redistricting question, the answer is no. We had one primary goal: Balance enrollments. No plans to move students to EHS once it was rebuilt.
Dell – I loved the Monty Python reference. I disagree totally of course with your intent, but you and I obviously have something in common — I’m assuming you knew the words from memory — as I do ( having seen the Holy Grail and listened to the album far too many times to ever forget most of the lines)
Cindy – The level of dicourse is good. And there are obviously a dozen or so people who are interested at this level. And another 30 or 40 (on all sides of the issue) who have testified at some point or another, and a few others who have written letters. But let’s agree on this: By far the vast majority of people are (appropriate) focused on their own children – how they are doing academically and how best to support them day in and day out. Some also get involved in Band, or sports, or other activities in which their own children participate. But the vast majority are not focused on how members of the Board of Ed are selected. Not because it isn’t important – but because they have so many more important things to do in their lives. We can certainly disagree about the method of selection, but in the final analysis what the Board does, how it goes about its business, and how successful it is at leading the school system depends much more on who is sitting in the seat – not how they got there.
One disclaimer: All of my daggerpress comments are my own. Although many of my opinions may coincide with that of the BOE, and indeed the BOE has a stance to support an appointed vs. elected Board, I make no representation that my comments are blessed by or represent the Board.
Enjoy the All County Band concert if you are attending this evening – Harford County excels in its music program, usually placing way more than our share of students in the All-State Band, Orchestra, and Choir.
Mark
As one of the APG analysts who volunteered, I’d like to address the comment about the analysts from APG not being ‘independent’. Being independent analysts for the Army, means that we essentially are evaluating systems for which we have no stake. The organizations that we belong to are not affiliated with the operations/systems that we are evaluating. We are neither for nor against those operations/systems, merely evaluating those operations with a non-biased view, as we have no stake in them. This is the same basis that we would have used in this case as well. Hence, to us, we are independent.
Dave Yensan:
Please share with the NAACP and/or anyone you feel can benefit.
Mark,
First, I’d like to commend you for taking the time to respond to those writint to The Dagger Press. This type of dialogue is what the parents have been yearning for.
I was interested in your most recent reponse to Cindy. You stated ,”…the nast majority are not focused on how members of the Board Of Ed are selected. Not because it isn’t important-but because they have so many more important things to do intheir lives.”
Mark, if this is the case, then why doesn’t our nation switch to appointing all our leaders? For if I’m not capable of selecting leaders to make decisions which affect my children and the children of Harford County, how could I be knowledgeable enough to choose leaders for our state and nation given the complexity of the issues that they face?
Mark, if the only goal was to balance enrollment, then why vote in favor of a plan that didn’t balance enrollment? This is what doesn’t make sense to us. Fallston is way under capacity and Patterson Mill is overcrowded. If the only goal was to balance enrollment, then the board failed, miserably. This leads us back to accountability. How can we hold board members accountable for poor “job” performance?
Sandy – We did achieve the goal of getting all enrollments below 95%. Our goal was not to have the exact same percentage in each school – that’s neither appropriate nor reasonable. Its also not an exact science… as you know there are a multitude of factors involved in redistricting — bus routes; the way that streets and communities are layed out and the way they are joined together; and many others. And sometimes enrollments just change — people with children move into an area (or out of an area) that are not predicted. If you still believe we did a poor job at redistricting, you will have even more opportunity to comment earlier in the process the next time around — check out the tentative timetable for the elementary school redistricting that will be coming up for the new schools to be built.. should be on our website from tonight’s meeting.
As to how to hold a Board member accountable, I would suggest communication is the key. As folks in all communities (whether appointed or elected) know, if you count on removal of a Board member for accountability purposes, you are very limited in your options: basically, you can hold the person accountable one time – after already serving 5 years. There’s no accountability before the first term … and since MD has a two term limit, you can’t hold them accountable after 10 yrs. So I would ask you to consider this: if there is a Board Member who is truly “underperforming”, how is it easier for that Board Member to be removed? a) holding an election where those who understand the problem try to convince the electorate to unseat an incumbent (who the vast majority of folks don’t know), or b) working with a representative body like a Commission that is already engaged in education issues, probably understands how the Board works, and likely has communicated with Board members personally on issues. My point is that accountability is way more involved than being able to win an election — or being reappointed.
PWH — Apples and oranges. I said nothing about the capability of voters, merely their priority.
Ann — As noted earlier, I can’t speak for the Board. But my view of independence is that the individuals have no relationship to the school system at all – i.e., not children in the system; not an employee of the system; etc.
And if you want to see some incredible work, check out the HCPS website tomorrow – the EMS Alternative Governance Board’s restructuring plans that were presented to the Board tonight will be posted. If you look up collaboration in the dictionary, you couldn’t find a better example than how the staff, administration (both from the school and central office), parents/community, and a Board member came together in an incredibly short time frame to put this together.
Mark
My only concern about an elected school board is that the Board can vote that they need to spend everything under the sun, but do not have to worry about the other side of the coin on where that money comes from. Perhaps they should have their own taxing authority and then they would be completely accountable for their actions.
Mark, Thank you! This is the first time I have heard that the goal for balancing enrollment was to get all enrollments under 95%, not to “balance” enrollment. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you telling me that because I have been trying to get an answer that made sense for a long time. I knew it factored in, but I didn’t know it was the goal. Now, I don’t agree with that goal, but no one ever said I had to agree with it. It is great to finally know what you all were thinking. You didn’t completely meet that goal though, Patterson Mill is above 95% capacity. Was that intended or was it a mistake? I still think it would have made more sense to keep more kids at Fallston, since their enrollment is so low now, so that you could have less kids at Bel Air. This way, you could have kept Patterson Mill under your 95% goal and saved room for a magnet in the new BAHS. What is the reason that wasn’t done? I will certainly be following the next redistricting process, I couldn’t make it to the meeting last night, but I definitely plan on attending future ones.
Accountability… With an appointed school board our only option will be to try to get someone else appointed to the seat next time around. Granted, that is more than we have now, if the PNC is interested in public opinion. I have tried everything to speak with someone in the governer’s office, Ehrlich and O’Malley, and there is no one interested in listening. With an elected school board I think we would have more options than just “kicking someone out.” If there were elections there would be more discussions. It would force board members to listen and explain, which is really what we are asking for. I wouldn’t want to remove someone from the school board just because I disagree with him or her on an issue, or even because he or she made a mistake they were willing to try to correct. An election would give us the answers we deserve. There isn’t anything in the PNC bill about accountability either so I’m not convinced they would be interested in listening to the public after someone is appointed.
Mark –
I must take exception about your comments about “accountability through communication”. The public was not allowed to communicate directly with the BOE members during the most recent redistricting process. Our community attempted to meet with various members of the BOE, but we were denied. The BOE members actually seemed to prefer to get ALL of their public input filtered into them from the Superintendent’s Technical Advisory Committee (STAC).
I think the communication between the BOE and the public has improved since then, most likely because of the ongoing movement to change the selection process for future BOE members.
But please don’t forget, that the April 2006 “Final Redistricting Plan” to balance enrollments at about 95%, had to be modified in Dec. 2006 to grandfather about 150 Fallston HS 9th graders, so that Bel Air HS would not be over 100% of capacity in 2007. Bel Air HS is still projected to be over 100% in 2008, for the last year in the old building. C Milton Wright HS is currently at 104%, and projected to remain over 104% through 2015, except in 2009, when it is projected to be 1 student under capacity. I’m sorry, but the facts don’t support your statement that “We did achieve the goal of getting all enrollments below 95%.”
If C Milton Wright is that overcrowded, why were 44 boundary exceptions allowed at that school? I thought the threshold was 95%. That brings up the other issue which is that if the Board is so insistent on magnet programs, they have to consider the enrollment at that particular school. What that means is that if a school is overcrowded and someone starts in a magnet program, they should not be allowed to continue if the school is overcrowded – look what has happened at Aberdeen. Granted Aberdeen SMA is a special case because that program and the initial funding was provided by the federal government and grants, other magnet programs are not and the county taxpayers are going to have to support those programs. Where is the discussion about this from the BOE and the staff?
Mark,
I understand your skepticism of the public support for elected school boards. Often, there is a only a vocal minority involved in an issue. Your doubts with this issue make sense if you believe that there are only a dozen or so people interested in this issue.
There are far more citizens involved in this than a dozen. That there have been more than a dozen individuals involved in posting on a fledgling news site is a sign of more support. The over 1,000 signatures in support is a sign of more support. The length of time, and the intensity of the discussion, with this issue being in the forefront is sign of more support. The dozens of letters to the editor are a sign of more support. The dozens of citizens who have approached me, outside of lobbying efforts, to ask what they can do to support elected school boards is a sign of more support. As you’ve said, most parents are at home carrying for their children, and are not heavily involved in this discussion. This is not because they don’t care whether or not we have elected school boards– they continue with their own pet projects, errands, and parenting because there are enough people leading the call for an elected school board that they believe it will happen.
Hi Brian and to all engaged in this discussion. It has been interesting to follow the discussion on the pros and cons on the method to select members of the board of education. I’m not going to get into the debate on how data and information has been used to support certain positions. But I do believe that data and information can be utilized – without proper context – to gain support for any given position. There is a reason why people want an elected board of education but I don’t believe there has been an honest discussion on what the reason is. I’ve heard accountability and communication. Communication is an inherent challenge among people and groups of people due to many factors – some of those factors begin with perceptions that have been defined by culture, standpoint, social roles and personal experiences. Accountability is another word that is defined differently among situations and people. What defines quality communication and accountability and who gets to define it? The board of education is guided by state rules and regulations but I have not heard anyone discuss CoMar – the law that defines accountability for boards of education. (Although I have seen CoMar quoted ot of context) I would think that if the task of the board of education is challenged, the rules that guide their work should be understood. But I digress from why I originally wanted to post. I’m not a believer in petitions and as someone who use to write petitions, I know that the outcome of the petition can be swayed by the presentation. Penn and Teller did an interesting study which you can find on YouTube. They went out to prove that you can get anyone to sign anything if the correct amount of passion is behind the request. The purpose of the exercise was to see how many people would sign a petition to ban H2O. You have to see the manner in which the petition was presented – everyone was appalled that that chemical was used in baby formula and other things. The petitioner was able to get 1000’s of people to sign a petition to ban water. If you are interested, here’s the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw. I found it interesting!
I’d like to respond to Mr. Wolkow’s comments: “My neighbors know where I live… and most of their children are in the system.”
That last part of the comment is true up until the point that they hit fifth grade and then these children flee from HCPS. Many of my neighbors now attend St. Margaret’s or Trinity Lutheran starting in fifth grade. Abingdon Elementary is a WONDERFUL school, and I’ve heard teachers lament about how once these students hit fifth grade they are lost to the school system — at least the ones who can afford it. Some move, while others bear tremendous financial burden to attend private school.
This is not a race issue asome have argued. It is a performance issue. The Edgewood schools continue to fail. Imagine being a few miles from the boundary district of a new state-of-the-art school with flat screen TVs on the walls. Your tax money went to pay for this school, while your children are forced to attend a continually failing school. I attended the alternate governance committee meeting a few weeks ago where Superintendent Haas said that Edgewood was faced with a “tremendous” opportunity. You know what an opportunity would be for these students — to go to a school like Patterson Mill. I’m tired of the “rah rah Edgewood is great” I keep getting from the county. I keep waiting for the school system to admit there’s a problem. Instead we were invited to a pep rally for Edgewood schools. Are you kidding? An elected school board may not be the answer, but at least at some point they will be accountable to someone other than special interests or themselves.
Superb point MCB. Look at the miserable situation at Aberdeen High School. That school was designed to be overcrowded the day its doors opened. There are lots of rationalizations and excuses but the bottom line is that the decision makers, sniffing the rarefied air in Bel Air were not about to build any excess capacity down here lest their lilly white chilluns would be redistricted down here with us. Can you imagine the disgrace of having to leave Bel Air or C Milton to be amongst us the unwashed masses? This decision was racist! The board has not one stinking student’s welfare at heart if this is the type of decision making we have to observe.
Before one of the upper crust jump in and point out that the County couldn’t afford to build AHS to its projected capacity, let’s take a look at the process that did just exactly that for Patterson Mill. Sorry Mark, I know your intentions are pure, but your actions tell me otherwise.
Dave very well said, but lilly white chillun’s? take a look at the idiot’s that designed bel air hospital. it did’nt take a rocket scientist to figure it could not support the mass’s.
and now there trying’ to expand & no way to go but up. no parking etc and very limited heart diagnosis. pack your dittie’s good ole’ st joe’s is the way to go.
Deb:
I would just define communication as a response to an inquiry by a member of the public – not necessarily an explanation but just a response. How’s that for starters? When the current BOE President took over, he pledged to personally respond to every e-mail and make sure the correct staff person got the correspondence. That was quite a statement that has turned out to be untrue. He then proceeded to go to the County Council and talk about parents who are complaining about CSSRP and how they basically should not be be listened to. Parents in this county do not have a choice about where to send their kids to school – we are all subjected to the same start time, same curriculum, etc. Some schools have a much better selection of classes and much better teachers than others but if your kids are the ones stuck in a school that doesn’t , then guess what – you are pretty much stuck unless that school is failing. I know you say you could go somewhere else but depending on the enrollment in that school and a parent’s availability to get that child there, then they are stuck trying to deal with it. So if a parent feels desperate and wants answers to why things are being done a certain way and their kids are coming home telling them how bad a teacher is or how they don’t have the textbooks to support the block schedule, or they have a music teacher teaching Living in a Comtemporary World, I think they have a right to an explanation. Yes those are all personal experiences and when you tell Board members about them, many of them have nothing to say except “so sorry.” I guess I’m hoping an elected board might care a little more and even if there is nothing they can do about certain issues (NCLB and COMAR), then at least they could communicate better with the public and be willing to admit wrongdoing and poor decisions. The parents and students depend on them to make major decisions about curriculum too and that has nothing to do with taxing authority.
Also, parents have been accused of being angry about redistricing and that’s why they want an elected school board. There are many reasons for that and a few I have already mentioned, but one of the things that was really insulting to so many parents was the response of some of the Board that the students would just “get over it” and the parents were the ones with the problems. WOW! I’d like to have them talk to some of the 8th graders who spent the first two years in one middle school and got yanked out their last year and are seeing their friends do things they always thought they would be doing their last year and when the redistriciting discussion took place, nobody cared one bit about those kids. It’s been a very difficult year for a lot of 8th graders. We’re talking about 13 year olds and they are not very flexible and their friends are very important to them.
So if you wanted some “honest discussion” that is just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll take my chances on an elected board because if nothing else they at least might give me the “perception” that they actually care about what I have to say instead of excoriating the public they are supposed to be serving.
Kate —
Well stated response to Deb. With a displaced 8th grader in my home, I agree 100% with your assessment of the trauma faced by a 13 year old (the school councelor said that this is the worst adjustment period for the group redistricted eight graders that they have ever seen).
It often feels like the concept of communication with the BOE is like being in a lecture hall. As long as you sit and listen to the lecture, they will continue to communicate, but should you ask a specific question about a discrpeancy in the data that supports the lecture, then the bell rings and class is over — subject closed!
Yes, I am the parent of a displaced 8th grader as well. It has been horrible! I tried many times to talk to the board about this and never got a response. This wasn’t just about friends, although that is definitely a concern. The new school is a completely different environment, different rules, different expectations. The kids feel as if they are treated like babies. That may be fine for a child who started out in that school and never knew anything else, but it isn’t fine for those used to more freedom and trust. Try this…take your 13 year old child and remove many priviledges for no reason. Start following their every move even though they have already earned your trust and you have no reason not to trust them. See what happens…. You end up with a very angry tennager. Is that conducive to learning?
CoMar only effects procedures, it has no bearing on common sense. If the BOE breaks the law, then you may have recourse. If they make a bad decision, if they manipulate data, or if they just remain silent on a very important issue, CoMar is useless.
I’m also tired of hearing the excuse that parents are represented on the PNC bill. No, they aren’t. HCCPTA may be represented, but a parent should not have to be a member of the PTA to have a say in their children’s education. When did PTA become mandatory? There are parents who disagree with PTA politically, and please don’t try to tell me that national PTA isn’t political when they clearly advocate political positions. ALL parents should have a say!
Deb: You didn’t really say anything in your post. But thanks for the incoherent stab at educating the unwashed masses on the concept of what a petition is.
What you posted was, at best, a weak, pseudo-intellectual attempt to discredit the messengers; to undermine the positions of those who have delivered a reasoned and thorough indictment of the political appointment process, regardless of what party the governor comes from; to those who have exposed the broken, dysfunctional system that this process has created; to those who overwhelmingly exposed your PNC BIll as the disingenuous folly that it was.
And it is now apparent that the small group of you who seek to self-servingly defend or deny the failures that subject our children to mediocrity and worse, can now only resort to wordplay and misdirection.
I think we’ll be okay without your guidance. And it is now time to allow us to begin the process of creating accountability and competence in education for our students and citizens once and for all.
And if you don’t know what that means…….don’t worry, the rest of us do.
Mark’s quote from 2/25 is very interesting. He states,
“And if you want to see some incredible work, check out the HCPS website tomorrow – the EMS Alternative Governance Board’s restructuring plans that were presented to the Board tonight will be posted. If you look up collaboration in the dictionary, you couldn’t find a better example than how the staff, administration (both from the school and central office), parents/community, and a Board member came together in an incredibly short time frame to put this together.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to have this type collaboration BEFORE a school gets taken over by a governance board! Maybe the mass exodus from the school by highly qualified teachers over the past few years would not have taken place if communication was open from the start. HCPS has identified finding a “distinguished principal” to take over the school as a top priority. If communication is soo good, then why has at least one HCPS employee with distinguished ratings throughout his/her entire administrative career not even received acknowledgement of an application sent in on the first day of the national advertisement? I know of at least one applicant with a perfect distinguished rating and documented successes in turning around an under performing school in a different system that has applied and not even received a “no thank you.” If your own employees can’t have open communication with the BOE and Central Office, how can we expect communication to improve with the parents of the children in the system. Even people on the “inside” can’t get a straight answer! The answer does not define accountability. ANY answer does just so long as it is given and supported.!
And one more thing Deb. It’s time for you and Mark (and the 6 or 7 other handful of people who fight this sensible initiative) to stop perpetuating the myth that you shamelessly created: That “the elected school board movement consists of a few malcontents who didn’t get their way on board decisions”. This is a lie, and it permeates your writing, Mark’s testimony and the Supertintendent’s Harford Business Roundtable’s rhetoric. It is insincere, and unfair to our children to continue it.
And the fair and right thing for you all to do is stop it. Thanks again for weighing in.
Many of the issues raised recently are perfectly valid issues – ones that concern your child and the treatment you believe he/she is (or isn’t) getting. I can’t address them all right now (if I’m going to find some time to sleep tonight), but there’s a common thread to many of them. An issue arises. The BOE takes an action (with what we hope is timely input from the public). There is a mixed reaction from the affected communities. In other words, some people will like the decision; some won’t care too much; and some will dislike the decision. So then what happens?
With the increasingly high stakes of public education, I don’t believe the Board can afford to change direction every time someone has a negative experience. So for example, if the Board had changed the HS schedule this year, as some folks have insisted that we do, and then changed it again next year because some folks insisted that it was not working for their children, and on and on, the Board would be villified for having no backbone; not sticking to a plan; flip-flopping — you name it. I’d rather be villified for taking the time to research an issue; get professional input from staff; make a decision, and then evaluate in an timely manner to make changes as needed. I understand many of the decisions the BOE makes will not be popular with parts of the community – I had 13 years as a parent of HCPS students, and I’ve fought many a battle on the other side of the table from the BOE before being appointed.
I’ll address one other item: Aberdeen High School capacity. I don’t know why this is so confusing, but here is the simple fact. The BOE asked for a larger building; designed a larger building; had every intent to build a larger building, but the County Executive simply did not fund it. End of story. I will not speculate as to why he didn’t fund it – I don’t know the reason. The Board knew it needed a larger building – that’s why they requested it. And, as we all know, we’re now putting on an addition that should have been built in the first place. Most of the folks that I recognize on this blog have followed the BOE closely enough to know that I have been up front in public about admitting when we’ve screwed up (unlike some elected officials, who often just don’t seem to ever actually make mistakes… or at least ones that they admit to publically… perhaps because they know it isn’t good for the “next” election… but I digress). AHS was not a BOE mistake. This was a County Administration mistake, plain and simple. There was never any question about the capacity and what was anticipated in terms of student population.
So I’ll end this post with two questions: Would an elected Board have provided a different RESULT in the case of AHS? Would an elected Board have had the backbone to stick with the block schedule this long – or would they have dumped it before anyone could have proved that it had a positive (or negative) result on student achievement?
Mark, I agree that an elected board could have had the same result at AHS, but here is our difference of opinion that I don’t think you understand. An elected board would have learned from that mistake. Instead, our appointed board then went ahead and opened Patterson Mill over capacity. And compounded that mistake by not allowing enough space in the new BAHS for the Medical Arts magnet. And we still don’t know why………
As for the backbone to stick with the block schedule? Really? That certainly isn’t the way I see it. Maybe an elected board would have the backbone to stand up to the administration. You have succeeded in ruining the education of quite a few students. How many more are going to suffer before someone realizes that less instruction time in math and science is not going to improve learning? Maybe there is a way to address this without going back to the old schedule, but we aren’t doing that. You have to either fix the problems NOW or go back to the old schedule, at least until you can work out the bugs. Working out the bugs during 3 years of a student’s education is inexcusable!
Mark,
Your comments highlight the fact that the BOE has the backbone of Gumby. Why is it you have a backbone with the public and not central office? Is it really tough to not respond to people you never have to answer to? Or stick with a block schedule that was forced down our throats by central office? The backbone is absent when you allow major changes to take place without baseline data showing a need for the change and you let it go through because the head of secondary ed has an agenda. Maybe a public display of a backbone would have been nice when the data you were promised never materialized. Or maybe some backbone would have been nice when you were told by central office that it would take about 7 months to get the data, even after countless administrators and ex-administrators told you it would take a total 15 minutes to pull GPA data and Discipline data from the Office of Technology database. The problem is that the BOE hides behind policies, some which they create themselves, when a backbone is truly required. A true backbone is when you look the superintendent and administrative personnel in the eyes after breaking bread with them one a weekly basis and hold their feet to the fire during a public session. That is what is missing. I believe that members of the BOE are not stupid people. In fact they are successful and caring people. So if they possess the intelligence, then why do they allow themselves to be manipulated? The only choice that is left is…Gumby.
Dear Mr Wolkow,
I would be very interested in seeing some empiric eveidence about the great job the BOE and the Superintendent has been doing. I was at the BOE meeting when Dr Haas gave her Stae of the Schools Report and linked effectiveness by using statistic taken from 2000 vs 2006-07. I thought that was comical. What about attendance, test scores,GPA. and disipline scores since ,oh say, 2005 or 2004 versus 2006-07. I was amused when it became apparent that Dr Haas was drawing a correlation between weakening scores and problems in HCPS and poverty in the region. It, of course, had nothing to do with the controvesial topic of block schedules and CSSRP????? No of course not “it is the ecomony stupid” . Well Mr Wolkow you have to teach the children of Harford County whether they “are rich men poor men or Indian Chiefs” (tho I perfer Native American Leaders) as the term goes. I realize all these factors have an effect on the scores in school I just want all reasons including CSSRP to be examined. Who knows maybe next year we can say it is the lack of uniforms..or the fact that we have uniforms?!?!?!?!
Kathleen: There is nothing comical about test scores. Whether you or I like it or not, they drive many of the decisions that are made today in public schools. We all have NCLB to thank for that (not whether the BOE is appointed or elected). The BOE and Superintendent know very clearly that we have to teach every child. If you pay any attention at all to Dr. Haas or to members of the Board, you will find we are in absolute agreement on that.
As to working on ways to deliver instruction so that all students learn, that has been one of Dr. Haas’ primary focus areas since she took the job. Two (of many) significant changes that she has implemented to improve instruction are a) instituting Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and b) moving mentors and instructional facilitators out of the Central Office and into the school buildings. Talk to any teacher in the system and you will hear about the impact of these two moves. And as for focusing efforts on schools that have not been as successful on test scores, that is in part what CSSRP is all about. What people sometimes forget is that most of those changes were based on hard research in schools all across the USA (as documented in “Breaking Ranks” and “Breaking Ranks II”). People also sometimes forget that CSSRP was hotly debated not only in the public but amongst members of the Board as well, and that accountability parameters were passed to ensure those changes would lead us in the right direction. Those will hopefully distinguish between what CSSRP can and does impact, and what it is not impacting. We need to be especially careful about cause and effect, because if we get that wrong, then any changes will surely lead to unintended consequences.
As for uniforms, there is not doubt in my mind what the result of that issue will be: If we do not go with them, we will be cursed by those who want them (a pretty significant majority at this point), and they’ll be calling for an elected board who will listen to them. And if we go with uniforms, we’ll surely be cursed by those who don’t want them, and they will call for an elected board who will listen to them. Trust me, we’re listening to everyone, and there are great arguments on both sides. Fortunately, I am not beholden to any group that helped me get elected, so I can try to make the best decision possible with not too much political influence… but even that is no guarantee that the decision the Board makes will be the right one… elected or appointed, we’re all human beings.
Chris: The discussion about backbone is an interesting one. Do you really believe that the seven individuals on the BOE – all mature, reasonably worldly, and as you point out caring and successful people – would simply cowtow to the Superintendent just because… well, I’m not sure because of what? I don’t know if you know any of us personally, but there are seven very strong personalities on the BOE. None of us – to a person – is afraid to speak our minds… and we all have opinions. The fact that our Superintendent does her homework on issues, is on the leading edge of what is happening in education today, and whose proposals happen to make a great deal of sense, I view as a good thing.
Many issues that get to the BOE for a vote have been long vetted along the way. There is staff work; there are scenarios run by a board member or two – usually the President – before a proposal is presented publically. That’s the way business works, and that is the smart way to do business. If I were Superintendent, I would do sanity checks to make sure things I was working on were not going to generate a very negative reaction from the Board. I wouldn’t present something that take the Board by surprise. What the “no backbone” argument appears to want is public dissention; more conflict; more action. Well, that action is more likely to happen in a one-on-one phone call than in public. It is not my goal to embarrass or berate the Superintendent in public. That doesn’t serve any good purpose. I think the Board asks quite a few good, probing questions during Board meetings. Perhaps we should ask more. But if I have an issue with Dr. Haas, I’m going to pick up the phone and call her, not wait to do it in public. We don’t agree on everything, but we do agree on most things… if we didn’t, we would not have re-hired her for another 4 years!
Here’s what takes backbone: Having a politician threaten certain things if we do/don’t do something, but we do/don’t do the thing anyway because it is the right thing to do for kids.
Here’s another thing: Changing the start time of HSs to start 15 minutes earlier even though no one in the County wanted that to happen – but if we don’t do it, the money we’d spend on more busses/drivers will come right out of programs that benefit kids.
How about just attempting a countywide redistricting plan. Forget about whether anybody liked it or not… just taking it on took a great deal of backbone – at least from my perspective.
To me, no backbone means taking the easy way out and trying to please everybody, and not worrying so much about what is right. Whether or not you agree with what this Board has done, I don’t think anyone can say that we’ve sat on our hands and “went along to get along”.
But let’s end on a positive note. In addition to serving on the BOE, I am also a Director of the Greater Edgewood Education Foundation – which was formed to develop community partnerships to support educational excellence in the Greater Edgewood Area Schools. The Foundation funds student leadership programs; teacher recognitions; and has begun a College Pathways program, and this Wednesday evening will host its second annual Student Art Show & Sale at the Richlin Ballroom. If you want to see some of the great work our HCPS students can do, stop by between 5 and 7 pm and support our students and the Foundation. Tickets are only $20.
Mark:
I appreciate the fact that you are least responding. I can’t say that about everyone in your position which leads me to the next question. If parents have LEGITIMATE concerns not being handled properly at the school level who are they supposed to talk to. I can tell you that there are ramifications for principals whose parents go out and speak to the public but there are situations that are beyond their control. Or what if a parent has gone to a principal repeatedly and that principal is really good friends with someone in the administration. A lot of CSSRP is unproven theory based instruction including Professional Learning Communities. As you are well aware, all of the best “theories” and “Intentions” do not necessarily equate to proper execution especially without adequate support. Do you think that perhaps members of the Board have become so close to the superintendent that they stop seeing things objectively? Or could it be that since the Board decided to give her a huge salary increase, you don’t want the public to think there is anything wrong with what she proposes. I believe she has great intentions too but you also mentioned putting instructional facilitators and teacher mentors in to the school. Again herein lies the problem – if the principal is unwilling to listen to parents when they are concerned about a teacher and what is being taught (or not taught) in the classroom, where do we turn? When you have 10 parents in a class concerned about a teacher and nothing changes in her classroom (tested area in HSA), and you tell the administration and they do nothing, tell us what to do next .
It’s obvious from the discussions there are many concerns and reasons why most people favor an elected school board. I’ll add another. The survey asking whether there should be uniforms in Harford County schools was given to teachers and sent home with students for their parents. More than one copy of the survey was sent home – one with each student in a household. Teachers who are also parents of students got more than one vote (probably even a vote for each child, plus themselves) since they received copies from the administration and at home. The results posted on the HCPS Web site say parents’ responses were divided, with 58.4% indicating agreement and 41.6% indicating disagreement. How many of those parents in favor of uniforms are also teachers in the schools? How can the survey results be used if anyone got more than one vote?
We do not favor school uniforms for our children. We strongly believe that as children grow, they need to be able to express themselves as individuals with growing freedom, and to dress within appropriate boundaries. We see that the school system does not enforce its existing dress code. We see children walking through the hallways wearing beer t-shirts and slogans that are a step away from pornography. If the administration wants a better learning environment, one step would be to enforce the existing dress code.
Our children are individuals and have the right to express themselves. Taking away their freedom of choice by instituting uniforms is not the answer. Enforcing the current dress code would go a long way toward maintaining a better learning environment.
We have already given our support to the elected school board bills and are looking forward to the public hearings about uniforms. Hope to see you all there.
jlk
I agree with you’ 100% percent. a simple dress code could be inforced.
jean’s & tee shirt’s were common attire for the kid’s in the late 50’s& 60’s
farm kid’s mostly.
then there were the juvenile delinquent’s, the drapes the beatnik’s & the hippie’s just kid’s being given the right to express them self’s.
and the world is no worse for there attire.
most psychiatrist’ agree it’s best to name your child as and individual not after the father.
so why do we want to take there right’s, as individual’s away.