Hmmm. A commenter clued me in to an ASD meeting scheduled for tonight at 5:30 at Treadwell Elementary. Treadwell Elem. is one of the 14 schools that may end taken over by the ASD.
I took a look at the ASD website, and sure enough, nothing is posted about any meetings after the Operator Night at University of Memphis that occurred on Tuesday night.
So I called Treadwell Elem., and they were able to confirm that the meeting is happening.
So why would the ASD not post such a meeting on their own website? In the latest article that AchievementCommunications commented on, the ASD's taxpayer funded PR person explained that their methods of publicity included robocalls to parents, letters home to parents, and local media announcements. Let's assume that the ASD has properly advertised the meeting to those families who will be directly affected by the ASD's takeover. And let's assume that the paper, or all of the news channels, or whatever other media they notified chose not to publish any information about these public meetings. Why is it not on the ASD website - right now - about three hours before the meeting?
I certainly wouldn't want to speak to their intentions, but we must acknowledge that not publicizing their own meeting to the general public has the affect of suppressing community turnout at the meeting. Since it coincides with a Special Call School Board meeting also at 5:30, it likely means that no sitting School Board Commissioners will be able to attend. At the meeting, I attended earlier this week, Commissioners Chris Caldwell and Kevin Woods both attended. My guess is that they will not skip the School Board meeting to attend the ASD meeting - and they should not. But why would the ASD schedule a meeting that they know that School Board commissioners will not attend?
Again, I certainly wouldn't want to guess about what the ASD's intentions may or may not be, but I do believe that everything that the ASD does is intentional. And purposeful.
Hmmmmm.
Also, they did not list the address of the meetings on the the letters they sent home to parents. With less than a week's notice and considering that these parents may not have internet access, they should have included not only the address, but also a map to the location.
ReplyDeleteThe notice was given in the Commercial Appeal the day before the meetings, far too little notice for parents working the night shift.
And finally, no notice was given to homeowners in the affected areas who do not take the paper. The ASD should have sent a letter to community members listing these meeting times and locations. They have the obligation to send that notice to stakeholders for all future meetings.
Yes. It's not that the ASD doesn't know how to do it. It's choosing not to engage with the targeted communities.
DeleteNO Letters were sent home in the Treadwell community there first effort was to inform the teachers and then place in the paper that additional stores were added to list....
DeleteI had trouble commenting when I was using Firefox. You might want to look into that or tell people to view your blog in Internet Explorer. Maybe it was just me.
ReplyDeleteThanks. This is just the default comment option for google/blogger/blogspot. I initially tried a different one (a "plug in"), but I couldn't see it in IE. I think there's just not one that works on all browsers . . .
DeleteWe have started a petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/achievement-school-district-stop-efforts-to-gain-treadwell-into-its-district
ReplyDeleteAlso in the quote on quote COMMUNITY mtg, they asked for concerns and how we(ASD+Treadwell family)work together...
In the beginning of the Q and A Chris Barbic told the audience that he knows about the Dual language program and does not need 15 different ppl coming to the mic telling him how good it is.... Well most of the ppl were already offended and didnt want to hear what he was talking about... Constantly throughout the mtg he kept referring to data and studies (which NONE were present at the) of how Treadwell is in the bottom and BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH..... #furiousparent!!!!!
Thanks for writing. I've reposted the petition.
ReplyDelete