I've seen this lack of transparency issue brought up before. Evidently, it's bothering more people than just me. There's also been some discussion about problems about some of the times they've scheduled meetings that have blocked working people from attending. Here's Conrad Turner's opinion in today's paper.
July 03, 2011 6:00 AM
Conrad Turner
Odessa
The Ector County school board has decided to have three board members meet on issues of importance and then inform the other four as to how they should vote on that particular issue. The purpose of this devious policy is to circumvent the law requiring a public posting of the purpose, place, time, etc. of meetings where a quorum (four) of members is present.
Underhandedness and hiding transparency has now become the policy of the ECISD board. The voters elected all seven members to be informed timely on issues by the superintendent and his staff or outside consultants and not by Board Chairman Tom Pace and two of his minions telling the other four pigeons how to vote.
As disgusting as that prospect is, that is not going to be the worst result of this new policy. The worst result is that our board of Trustees is communicating to the staff and the students that skirting the law for lazy and incompetent reasons, dealing in secret with tax dollars and telling little white lies is now accepted in ECISD.
A pox on all of their houses for their unethical and unprincipled actions.
http://www.oaoa.com/opinion/board-67926-ecisd-policy.html
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6 comments:
One other thing in this area that has bothered me for several years and has not been resolved yet... when I first brought up the migrant student thing, Randy Rives and Ray Beaty were not aware that they had voted to approve this trip. How could that happen?
Ehhhh, get over into things that bother me and more just keeps cropping up...
I have plans to start attending the school board meetings and reporting back on them. But, you know... I went to all the trouble to apply for permission to speak to the board, get 60 some-odd petitions, which by the way is more than the 50 which are required for them to run for election, write a dang speech, and then to speak before them and talk about it on radio and tv. That was no small effort. Speaking publicly is intensely uncomfortable for me. They could have at least let me know something. Nary one word. Rude.
As in all things political, the more people one can keep from knowing what is happening "behind the curtain", the easier it is to be able to "pass off" things one wants to obtain, whether lawful or not. All public servants should be watched very carefully and made to be open and forthcoming with all their dealings amongst themselves and with the public at large.
Public servants, in this case, ECISD officials, should NEVER be rude to constituents who, through assessed taxes, pay the salaries of these same public servants. It would behoove these public servants to pay more attention to those who pay their salaries, if they truly value their "public service"!
The whistle blower at OHS, who got moved because she reported the funny business dealings with PEIMS reporting, special education violations and predetermination of ARDs to TAKS M, CATE funding, High Qualified violations, TELPAS and TAKS cheating is still pending reassignment. All of this in-spite the documentation the whistle blower has. Dr. Steve Brown was the one running interference for the principal while at OHS and Bowie. Unfortunately this is who the whistleblower reported all this to in December and January. He did nothing and allowed for the offenses to get worse. Now that he is gone, will the district sweep this under the rug? Will the district over look the fact that the principal enrolled 30+ GED students without their knowledge and told the registrars and the whistleblower that she wanted it done. She went on to say that it was worth being indicted for and wearing the orange suits. Has anyone realized that PHS followed all the rules and district directives and is now academically unacceptable while OHS, due to all the cheating and lack of having to follow the directive to move over identified TAKS M to regular is academically acceptable? What kind of message does that send? Dr. Brown condoned the unethical practices at Bowie and then OHS. Employees at Bowie also have supporting evidence. Anyone ever wonder why the Bilingual Director was removed from her post last year? Well there is another story there, it is tied to her alerting Dr. Brown of HQ violations out of intentional out of compliance issues. Special education teachers got moved and the counselor has enough documentation to indict the principal, but nothing.
Perhaps the board will start asking the 3rd floor questions about this situation and right the wrong.
You're published, anonymous. Action taken. Let's see what crops up.
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