A Huntsville City Schools spokesman said they didn’t have time in their schedule to comment about the disciplinary report numbers and arrest numbers.

In the past 51 days of school, Huntsville Police Department School Resource Officers have made a total of 81 arrests according to a report yesterday, and updated today, on WAFF. While HPD Sgt. Bates states that this number is “pretty consistent with the first few months of school,” this number is twice as high as the reported arrests in the Birmingham district over the same period of time. (Birmingham has about 2,000 more students than Huntsville and has had a total of 39 arrests of students in school over the same period. Perhaps we should have begged the state to take over our schools, too. They seem to be doing a better job in Birmingham than our board is here.)

Propagandizing Student Discipline Problems

On September 20, 2012, Dr. Wardynski had Judy Rushton, the director of Pupil Services offer a report in support of the new digital initiative claiming that principals were saying to him, “Dr. Wardynski, we don’t have any discipline problems, anymore.”

Ms. Rushton went on to claim that for the first 20 days of school that the district’s in school suspension and out of school suspension rate had been cut by approximately 56% when compared to last year. She made no mention of the number of arrests made during that time.

Dr. Wardynski then went on to explain:

And I asked the principals why that would be. Three of them volunteered, right off the bat, the students are engaged. They are now engaged, and uh, we don’t have discipline problems anymore. That’s what we expected to see. What drove us in this direction was Project RED study which was done nationally, 2,000 observations across schools, school systems. And the key findings are when you take this [digital conversion] approach, not just one to one technology, but content, professional development, leadership, uh, the key pieces have to be in place, uh, the things you’re going to see, uh, dramatic decrease in student discipline problems, dramatic increases in student achievement.

In other words, he was specifically using the “dramatic decrease in student discipline problems” to support his unplanned and poorly implemented digital initiative that even has the Secretary of Education talking.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

As I pointed out about a month ago, it’s fairly easy to show a dramatic decrease in student discipline problems when you control the reporting of incidents.

And that is exactly what Dr. Wardynski and the district have done.

• He has hired consultants (despite falsely claiming that he hadn’t), who train teachers on the importance of reducing discipline referrals.
• He has engaged in a systematic attempt to blame the victim when someone is attacked and bullied while at school.
• He denies any responsibility, and the board ignores physical abuse of at least 5 Huntsville City School middle school students whom he placed at The Pinnacle Schools.
• And he has, as has been reported here and now on WAFF, ”told all principals and teachers to change the way they report incidents to the district to manipulate  discipline numbers.”

Putting Children At Risk

This man is systematically putting our children, your children, at risk so that he can brag that his digital conversion has resulted in a “dramatic decrease in student discipline problems.”

While he may control the teachers and principals in his schools through fear and intimidation, he does not control the Huntsville Police Department. He does not control their data and actions.

And their data unequivocally shows that there has not be a reduction in the number of student discipline problems as a result of the digital initiative. As Sargent Bates told WAFF, the 81 arrests is average:

“It’s pretty consistent with the first few months of school,” he said.  ”They haven’t spiked, they haven’t dropped. It’s right where we expected it to be.”

Arrests have not gone up. Arrests have not gone down. And they certainly haven’t been reduced by “nearly 60%” as Wardynski likes to claim.

So now we know that Dr. Wardynski has been manipulating the data to serve two purposes: to make himself look good and to make teachers jobs even harder so that record numbers of them quit or retire.

And The Board Ignores The Issues . . . Again

And still the board of education does nothing to address this problem. They do nothing, absolutely nothing (there has been no mention of the abuse at Pinnacle by the board at all), to hold Dr. Wardynski accountable. (Funny, over a year ago, I wrote a post asking for the same board to hold Dr. Moore accountable for her illegal plan to segregate special education children across our district. They didn’t hold her accountable for her actions. They’re not holding Wardynski accountable for his actions. I think we’ve found the problem.)

A Paucity of Leadership

Dr. Wardynski likes to call himself a strong leader.

Strong leaders don’t blame the victim.

Strong leaders don’t use fear and intimidation to run off amazing teachers.

Strong leaders don’t manipulate data to make themselves look better.

What a shame that he has no idea what leadership actually is.

Maybe then we would have someone who wouldn’t run from the press and parents who ask questions by claiming we don’t “have time in [our] schedule to comment.”

Strong leaders don’t run and hide like a frightened bully when those he has been abusing stand up to him and say, “Enough.” 

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If you want to be a part of a group that is working hard to stand up to bullying in our schools, please go like S.O.S. – Support Our Students and volunteer to help get the word out. When we work together, we can change the world. Changing this school system is easy by comparison. Especially when it’s being led by someone who is scared to answer questions. But then I guess tonight is Halloween.

Hey, Dr. Wardynski?

Boo.

The post District “Doesn’t Have Time” To Discuss Student Discipline appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Well, tonight was interesting. It seems that the superintendent was concerned that there might be a video mob of some sort at the board meeting tonight. I wonder why he would be concerned about that?

There were no less that six district security personnel at the board meeting tonight. And even more disconcerting than that, there were at least five marked Huntsville Police Department cars and one unmarked police car present at the meeting tonight.

During the citizen comments, which I think were nearly cancelled tonight as they were left off the agenda, there were approximately 10 security personnel in the board room.

And that was after all the general public entered the building through a metal detector again.

The only time this level of security was present was during the removal of the Lee High name from the new high school. Then I think there may have been three district personnel and perhaps two or three armed police officers.

Oh, and there was no metal detector that night.

I have heard through the grapevine that security was concerned that there might be a video flash mob of sorts tonight

And of course that would have been just terrible. It’s absolutely terrible when the public pays attention to what elected and appointed officials say and do.

There was at least one person there tonight who did record at least part of the meeting in an open way. This person, and no it wasn’t me, was recording the meeting in the full view of district security and Huntsville Police, and yet she/he was not asked to leave or stop recording.

I chose not to attempt to record the meeting tonight as it was fully broadcast on ETV, and frankly, because I wasn’t interested in spending the night in jail.

However, every time I turned around, there was yet another security personnel walking up toward me.

This despite my standing in the hallway the entire night watching the meeting on the TV monitors in the hallway. (I gave up my chair a few times to various people, and so ended up in the hallway.) It was kinda crowded tonight.

I wonder why the board and superintendent would be so worried about people paying attention to them that they would feel the need to have HPD present for additional security?

I wonder why there were so many of them actually in the board room while I was speaking?

It seems that perhaps I was being singled out tonight despite Mrs. McCaulley’s claims on Sunday night via email that I wasn’t being singled out.

I wonder how she feels now?

I was allowed to speak tonight. I believe that the superintendent and the board were genuinely surprised when I didn’t make the entire three minutes about me. If you’re interested, here’s what I had to say:

In honor of the Rave Cinemas support of the autism community at the beginning of the month with their “Avenge Autism” walk, I considered wearing my Hulk Smash gloves tonight, but then I was concerned that Mr. Blair might be the only person here to get the joke.

So I left them at home.

After all, I wouldn’t want anyone to think I was intimidating, disruptive or threatening as I have been called.

For the record, it has never been my intention to intimidate or threaten any one, and I’ve gone to great lengths to avoid disrupting the board meetings in any way. I haven’t even allowed my comments to run over the three-minute limit.

I’m not here to threaten anyone. I’m not here to intimidate anyone, and I appreciate having heard from Mrs. Morrison, Mr. Birney, Mrs. McCaulley, and Mr. Blair that they as individuals have not felt threatened by me. It would be nice if the board could publicly state that, but I’ll take what I can get.

I do not, however, apologize for asking questions and expecting answers.

Education without the free ability to question isn’t education. It’s indoctrination. And I’m sure that we can all agree that is not our goal here.

In that light, here are a few questions:

How is it helpful to students to tell their teachers that they’re being moved to another school while the students wait in the hallway? Teaching while holding back tears doesn’t seem helpful to me.

Why are we still discussing Dr. Wardynski’s bonus while teachers’ step raises are still frozen and starting salaries are still set to the state minimum?

Why are we on a pace to spend 7 million dollars less than the published budget on Special Education, which is exactly the same projected surplus that Mr. Spinelli is predicting for the end of the year? In other words, why are you balancing the budget on the backs of special education students?

Questions aren’t intimidating to people who believe they are doing the right thing.

Thank You.

Not one board member spoke to me tonight, and the superintendent chose not to respond to anything I had to say.

I did get a nod from Mr. Lankford at one point, but no direct communication.

There was a significant amount of intimidation, disruption to normal events, and fairly overt threats tonight (and this week). But it didn’t come from me. It was instead the superintendent through his security team who was attempting to intimidate the public into silence.

The post Intimidating the Public appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So there’s another board meeting tomorrow night at 5:30pm at the Merts Center, 200 White Street. I’ll be there, and supposing that there aren’t any technical issues that halt the broadcast as there was two weeks ago, you can watch it at home on ETV (Comcast 17, Knology 99), and at the Huntsville City Schools website. I’ll be whining away on Twitter @russwinn during the meeting. You can also catch my posts on the Geek Palaver Facebook Page. All of this supposes of course that I will be allowed to attend the meeting.

The agenda for tomorrow has been published, and they’re going to talk (again?!?) about evaluating the superintendent, the new school calendar,  and just how wonderful hiring countless numbers of consultants has been for the district.

So, again, while teachers salaries are still set at the state minimum, while teachers STEP raises are still frozen, on a night when they are going to discuss “Principals’ Terminations,” the superintendent will likely walk home with a $10,000 bonus in his pocket for successfully passing the test that the board specifically designed for him to be able to pass.

(One of the standards of evaluation that was placed upon Dr. Wardynski was to raise AP participation rates. As he himself indicated even before they voted to approve that as one of his goals, he had already accomplished that. It’s nice when your standard for success includes items that you’ve already completed.)

Yes, they will be discussing this bonus even before they discuss the new state assembly mandated school calendar.

Concerning the calendar: it seems that Dr. Wardynski and the board should actually thank the assembly for providing political cover for his decision to remove fall break from the calendar. Remember tomorrow night when Dr. Robinson calls for citizens to complain about their loss of a fall break to their representatives in Montgomery that she, along with every member of the board except Mr. Blair, had already approved a school calendar that removed fall break.

Here’s a listing of the significant dates including closed dates:

• August 20, 2012: First Day of School
• September 3, 2012: Labor Day
• No Fall Break (This was already gone in Dr. Wardynski’s original calendar for 2012-2013)
• November 12, 2012: Veterans Day
• November 21-23, 2012: Thanksgiving Break
• December 24-January 2: Christmas Break
• January 21, 2013: MLK Day
• March 25-29, 2013: Spring Break
• May 23, 2013: Last Day of School

There are no built-in weather days, but it is unclear at this time how weather days will be handled. It is at least possible by one interpretation of the “Beach Bill” that those days might be allowed to occur after May 23, 2013. Another interpretation would mean that the school day would be required to be extended until the hours are made up. I would be quite surprised if even our esteemed representatives know for sure.

It’s always nice when education suffers as a direct result of industry lobbying. I love the Alabama Gulf Coast, but this is an evil decision they have forced upon the state. It’s remarkably similar to Dr. Wardynski’s decisions to privatize so many of the district’s functions. Again, if it weren’t for the district taking his control, Dr. Wardynski would, I’m sure, love the sentiment behind the decision: namely that public education should be run by private organizations, industries, and businesses.

There will, after all, be at least four new contracts approved tomorrow night with private organizations.

After this discussion they will move on to an encomium of all the amazing, wonderful, fantastic, astonishing contractors who don’t cost us anything, they save us money. I’m sure it will sound nothing like a (warning: stereotype ahead) woman coming home from the store with three-hundred dollars on the credit card talking about all the money she “saved.” Verifiable evidence will be in short supply.

Oh, and there’s an ominously titled item called “Principals’ Terminations” under new business.

And finally, despite my best efforts to clear all of this mess up before tomorrow’s meeting, I still don’t know if the board or Dr. Wardynski will allow the public to video record the meeting tomorrow night.

Here’s the question I asked of Mrs. McCaulley as School Board President:

Will I be allowed to record future public board meetings in accordance with Alabama State Code 36-35A-6? [This section states: "A meeting of a governmental body, except while in executive session, may be openly recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic, photographic or video reproduction provided the recording does not disrupt the conduct of the meeting. The governmental body may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation of this section."].

To this question, Mrs. McCaulley responded on Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 9:28pm:

Response: As president of the board you have my permission to operate within the perimeters of the law. After I read the Alabama State Code Section 36-35A-6, you cited above, I noticed it used the term “may be openly recorded”   therefore one could interpret openly recording is not a mandate or requirement but optional.

You’ll note that she has not stated if I may actually record the meeting tomorrow night without being asked to leave the meeting again, and without being told I was “intimidating the board” as Mr. Lankford said, or called “intimidating and threatening” as Mrs. Anderson stated in an email to the Huntsville Times last Tuesday.

I followed up this non-response from the board President by asking:

“If on Thursday, May 17th, I attempt to record the board meeting in exactly the same manner as I did on Thursday, May 3rd, should I expect to be asked to leave the meeting?”

I have received no response to this question.

So, if I should attempt to record the meeting tomorrow night, I have no idea how the Superintendent will direct his staff to react.

Please note, it is not my intention to “intimidate,” “disrupt,” or “threaten” anyone or anything.

I am grateful to Mrs. McCaulley for saying that I have not intimidated her. I also appreciate the communications I received from Mrs. Morrison and Mr. Birney saying the same thing. Mr. Blair chose to state in the press that he had always found me “pleasant and cordial.”

So I’ve got that going for me.

I have not, however, heard anything at all from my board member Dr. Jennie Robinson. Neither have I heard anything from Dr. Wardynski.

I suppose that when Mr. Lankford said I was “intimidating the board” by recording them, and when Mrs. Anderson stated that I “had been described as intimidating and threatening” (that, by the way, was the first time that I’ve been informed that I was “threatening”) for doing so, that they were talking about how Dr. Robinson and Dr. Wardynski felt. They are, after all the only ones left.

I have asked for any specific documented evidence that I have intimidated, disrupted, or threatened anyone at the district level.

The only response I’ve received from Mrs. McCaulley is:

Again to your inquiry about any written incidents reports concerning you, to my knowledge there are none.

Thus there is, at least to Mrs. McCaulley’s knowledge, no documented evidence that I have done any of the things I’ve been accused of doing.

I have also, not received anything approaching an apology for the district staff’s response to me, but that’s okay. I’m not really sure that it would mean much at this point anyway.

And frankly, I’m certain that they were only following orders.

You see, I don’t actually care what they say about me. And truthfully, I don’t care if they allow me to record the meeting or not.

None of that is important to me.

What is important is that my children receive an appropriate education. I am convinced that cutting Special Education by seven million dollars (or the exact amount of surplus the district is anticipating at the end of the fiscal year) has kept my boy from having an appropriate education. I am convinced that merging my girl’s school without discussing it with parents first will keep my girl from having an appropriate education.

I am convinced that having a demoralized faculty and staff in our schools keeps my children from having an appropriate education.

I am convinced that having people who don’t want to be teachers, teach keeps my children from having an appropriate education.

I am convinced that having a CSFO who can spend $28,790 without documentation keeps my children from having an appropriate education.

I am convinced that having district leadership that attempts to intimidate parents and teachers for asking questions keeps my children from having an appropriate education. When people aren’t allowed to ask questions, education has been replaced by indoctrination.

This is what I’m concerned about. These are a few of the issues that really matter.

The post An Appropriate Education appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So, anyone read anything interesting in the paper today?

In case you missed it, here’s a link to Crystal Bonvillian’s article about the events at the board meeting last Thursday, May 3, 2012.

If you’ve missed my account of the evening, you can read about it here and here.

There are just a few follow up points that I would like to make.

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First, citizen comments are typically placed at the end of the meeting once all the business is completed. For some reason, I’ve been told it was an accident, the citizen comments portion of the meeting was not broadcasted this past Thursday. The last time citizen comments were broadcast was on April 19, 2012. That evening a teacher, who is well known by the board and Dr. Wardynski, Mrs. Pam Hill, stood to speak. She was frustrated at the way teachers had been treated that night.

This was not a typical comment by Mrs. Hill, but I fully understand her frustration. You see the board, last summer, voted to freeze teachers step raises and reduce teachers starting salaries to the state minimum. And yet at the meeting Dr. Wardynski, who was playing round robin with principals again, claimed that principals, and not teachers, would be rewarded for their teachers’ hard work during the year.

The interesting part was how Dr. Wardynski chose to respond to Mrs. Hill.

Here’s the clip.

Yes, rather than simply ignore her as he typically ignores me, Dr. Wardynski decided to “caution” her. He said:

Ms. Hill, you’re an employee of Huntsville City Schools. You do not represent Hampton Cove Elementary School. So that was a misrepresentation. Uh number two, you stood there the night I read the specifications against Principal McGhee. Uh, Principal McGhee was relieved for a whole host of reasons that where upheld in court. That had to do with poor leadership, ethical questions. And so we will relieve such leaders, we will relieve such teachers, and so I would caution you when talking to your employers to speak to them as your employers. The Board is your employer.

And that was the last time citizen comments were broadcast via eTV.

After I completed my comments on Thursday (which I began by saying thank you to Dr. Wardynski), I received several texts letting me know that the eTV broadcast had been turned off at the beginning of the citizen comments. Since Dr. Wardynski indicated that he wanted to respond to my comments, I decided to record his response so that I wouldn’t miss anything he had to say. (Normally, I record the broadcasts on TiVo, but since it wasn’t being broadcast that wasn’t possible.)

I was able to record approximately one minute and fifty-seconds of the remaining comments before I was asked to turn off the iPad.

The only reason I was attempting to record the rest of the meeting was because it wasn’t being broadcast.

__________

Second, I have written to Mrs. Laurie McCaulley to ask for permission to be allowed to record the board meetings in accord with Alabama State Code which states:

“A meeting of a governmental body, except while in executive session, may be openly recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic, photographic, or video reproduction provided the recording does not disrupt the conduct of the meeting. The governmental body may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation of this section.” Alabama Code Section 36-25A-6.

She has not yet responded to my request.

__________

Third, I have not as of this writing, heard from any of the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education members in response to the events on Thursday other than the brief conversation that I had with Mrs. Morrison following the meeting. As I wrote on Thursday, I offered her my apology if I had indeed intimidated her. Her response was to laugh at the unnecessary apology.

To date no one on the board has confirmed that I have the right to record the public portion of the board meetings.

__________

It’s been a busy day on the blog. For any new visitors, I’d like to say thanks for stopping by. I appreciate having the opportunity to be heard. If you have questions, or if you disagree with anything I’ve written here, please take a moment to ask them or raise your issues in the comments.

Alternately, you may email me at geeks@geekpalaver.com. Palaver means holding an in-depth conversation, in case you were wondering.

For all my regular readers: Thank you for taking the time to read my wordy posts. Believe it or not, I do actually trim them down!

Finally, if I may be so bold, I would ask that you remember this one thing:

My being asked to leave the board meeting for recording it is nothing, absolutely nothing, in comparison to the stress and pressure that our teachers, instructional assistants, therapists, staff, custodians, lunch staff, principals, administrators and our kids–especially our kids–have had to face this year, all year without relief.

My being asked to leave is nothing compared to the stress and pressure that our Special Education kids have had to deal with in the face of constant changes to their lives.

If you’ve had an employee of Huntsville City Schools behave in a way that was less supportive than you expected, keep in mind the amount of stress they’ve been under and respond by telling them how much you appreciate their service to our children. It is, after all Teacher (and all our other educators) Appreciation Week.

If you feel a need to do something about the events last Thursday, I would ask that you consider the following:

1. Thank a Teacher/Educator for her or his dedicated service to our kids.
2. Call your board member and ask them to make responding to the public a much higher priority than it’s been before.
3. Continue paying attention to the board meetings. Yes, they’re boring, but the decisions that Dr. Wardynski makes and that the board approves will impact your children’s education for a long time to come. At a minimum, you need to know what those decisions are.

The post Thank You Teachers Everywhere appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So there’s been a lot said about security at board meetings lately. Take Saturday’s article by Crystal Bonvillian of the Times, “Huntsville school board meeting audience met with metal detectors.”

Laurie McCaulley was told that Al Lankford, the district’s security chief, was concerned about “body language and demeanor at some of the meetings.” This is quite a curious statement.

You see, as someone who regularly attends board meetings, I am, of course, concerned about security at the meetings. Heck, my daughter was in attendance at the board meeting on March 15th, so of course I am interested in making certain that these bi-weekly meetings are safe. Every sane person shares that concern.

If I didn’t believe the meetings were safe, I wouldn’t go. If I didn’t believe they were safe, I certainly wouldn’t have allowed my daughter to attend.

But I do, and I did. And I’ve been at every board meeting since April 7, 2011 except two. In fact, if we count simply the bi-weekly board meetings for the past year, I’ve probably attended more of them than Al Lankford has attended. (For some reason Mr. Lankford wasn’t present from the January 17th meeting until about a month later. I was pleased to see him return.)

In other words, I’ve seen nothing in the audience’s body language and demeanor that would lead me to the conclusion that someone was behaving in a threatening manner. What I see at board meetings are people laughing, talking, applauding, saluting, and mostly sitting quietly and listening to the meeting.

Now, granted, I’m not there to watch the audience; I’m there to listen to the business being conducted. I’m also not a trained security officer. I know for a fact that a trained police officer is capable of “seeing” more than I.

But I am a writer and a teacher. I take my subject matter from observation of people as a writer, and I know when my students are alert, engaged, interested and learning (and I know when they are not) on the basis of their body language. So, while I do not have the years of training that I am sure Mr. Lankford has in identifying a threat, I do believe I am capable of seeing and noticing when someone is behaving in a threatening manner.

So while this is just my unprofessional assessment, not once have I seen anyone in the audience behave in a way that would cause me to be concerned about my safety.

But then I don’t see the world as Mr. Lankford, (or Dr. Wardynski for that matter) sees it. For example, Mr. Lankford, during our conversations on Thursday night asserted that sitting quietly and holding an iPad recording the Superintendent’s comments was an intimidating action. During that same conversation, he also referenced my sitting quietly at the State of the Schools address and holding an iPhone directed toward Dr. Wardynski and his presentation as an intimidating action.

He even claimed that my standing silently for 80 seconds as I waited for a response to my comments as an “intimidating action.” He stated multiple times that I was “intimidating the board” and that he wasn’t going to allow me to do that. He even implied that my sitting silently with my head down, live tweeting the meeting was questionable.

So it seems to me that he sees a threat where I do not.

It seems to me that Dr. Wardynski also sees threats in things that just don’t seem threatening to me. For example, during his presentation to the board concerning his recommendation to put a fence and a “welcome center” (read: guard shack) around the new Lee High campus, he asked for several photos of the neighborhood surrounding Lee High to be displayed for the board and the public.

Here are just a few of the photos he showed to establish the “aesthetic” of the new Lee High campus “neighborhood.” I’ve photographed these shots off of the eTV Broadcast on Thursday night.

And like any true showman, he saved the best one for last. Here’s what Dr. Wardynski said when he introduced the picture below:

This is in the neighborhood. That fence there is, which fence is that, Glenn? Coca-Cola Plant, and what’s the one on the left? That’s the soldier’s home? So the solder’s home has an ornamental fence as well which adds to the character of the community.

Here’s the picture that accompanied the text that Dr. Wardynski was using to justify the $600,000 fence around Lee High School:

So, what’s the central detail of this photograph? What’s the first thing to catch your eye? What’s the single detail that will convince much of America that additional security around Lee High is necessary?

Don’t see it? Here’s a close up:

Evidently Dr. Wardynski didn’t see it as he didn’t comment on it, but I see a faceless figure, probably male, approximately six feet tall wearing stained jeans, a dark tee-shirt underneath the scariest item of clothing known to at least parts of America: the Hoodie.

Yes, in order to convince the board to support the new fence around Lee High, he showed them a picture of a person in a hoodie. (Truthfully, I think the board had already made up their minds on this matter. I think this was intended to drive the need for a fence home to the general public.)

Now, for the record, I am not opposed to the fence around Lee High. I think it’s overpriced. I think that the price should have been included in the $40 million spent to build the school, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Many schools have a clearly defined parameter.

But the superintendent’s methods of getting what he wants are at best questionable here. While I’m sure he would claim to either not noticing the person in the hoodie or not understanding that it might communicate something that he didn’t intend to communicate, it would seem that he is at least inadvertently using fear, uncertainty, and doubt to get what he wants.

One might even say that he is intimidating others into supporting his recommendation.

So there may have been some acts of intimidation taking place on Thursday night, but if there were, those actions weren’t initiated by me. I was sitting quietly in my seat listening, tweeting, and eventually attempting to record the superintendent’s words until I was ordered to stop.

One might argue that security was being used to intimidate members of the public for undertaking state statute protected activities. One might argue that the superintendent was attempting to influence the board and the public by using emotionally charged, racially charged images. One might argue that the superintendent was the one attempting to intimidate others the last time that citizen comments were broadcast in his comments to a teacher who stood up for what she believes in.

(I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the citizen’s comments to the board weren’t broadcast during the board meeting immediately following the superintendent’s “cautioning” of a teacher. You know, the meeting where the citizen’s comments worked against him.)

In the article, Mr. Lankford is quoted as saying, “We’re tired of getting threats;” I’m sure that our teachers, administrators, staff, and parents all agree with him on this.

I’m certain the metal detectors will help with this problem.

The post Intimidation at Board Meetings appeared first on Geek Palaver.

For some reason, I was told it was an accident, the broadcast of the board meeting tonight on eTV was cut off just as Citizen Comments were about to start. (And yes, for the record, I believe that it was an accident.)

There was little to no indication of this in the meeting, but I received many texts, tweets and Facebook comments concerning this. After I completed my comments, which I’ll post below, Dr. Wardynski indicated that he wanted to respond to my comments about spending more money on Instructional Assistants. He was asked to wait since there were other comments to follow mine.

Dr. Wardynski decided to wait to respond.

As my typical readers know, I like to make an attempt to capture Dr. Wardynski’s comments exactly as he shares them.

Knowing that the recording had been cut off, I decided to record the superintendent’s response. As my iPhone’s battery was running low, I got out my iPad to record it.

This is allowed under Alabama’s Sunshine Law:

“A meeting of a governmental body, except while in executive session, may be openly recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic, photographic, or video reproduction provided the recording does not disrupt the conduct of the meeting. The governmental body may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation of this section.” Alabama Code Section 36-25A-6.

I was not standing, moving, or blocking anyone’s view with my recording. I do not believe that I was disrupting the conduct of the meeting in anyway. I was not talking, and the video makes no sound. Furthermore, the meeting continued even while Mr. Lankford of security was asking that I turn off the recording and step outside to discuss it.

I complied with his requests.

I was told that I could not record the meeting because it was an intimidating action on my part. And since I had done other intimidating actions before, (referring to the time when I stood silently for about 80 seconds at the end of my comments waiting for an answer), I would not be allowed to record the meeting.

It seems that the board and the superintendent are intimidated by someone attempting to convey their thoughts and ideas to others.

{By the way, yes, those are cameras that you see in the background over Dr. Robinson’s right shoulder. I did not attempt to use them.)

__________

I spoke with Mrs. Morrison after the meeting was over. I told her what had happened, and I offered her my apology if my actions intimidated her.

The former principal laughed. Which was nice.

After the meeting I also ran into Mr. Brooks, the board attorney. He offered me his hand and said, “Good job.”

The school board attorney didn’t seem too intimidated by a parent in a purple tee-shirt.

Before the meeting began, and granted, before I recorded any portion of the meeting, Mr. Blair sat down beside me and asked how things were going with my family.

He and I had an extremely pleasant conversation in which I shared with him much of what I planned to say during the public comments. He was compassionate and sympathetic.

He was also friendly and funny.

I greatly appreciated his time and willingness to engage me in a conversation.

He did not seem to be intimidated. (I suspect that as Mrs. Morrison had done, he would have laughed if I had asked him if I was a intimidating him.)

Although I had spoken during the citizen comments, and yes, I did make eye contact with Dr. Wardynski while I was thanking him for coming to the Autism Awareness Month kickoff and the PTA Reflections Award Luncheon in Mobile, I don’t believe that I was threatening in any way in my comments. Feel free to judge for yourself. (Since the board broadcast was turned off, we don’t have a video recording of these comments.)

Dr. Warydnski, I want to thank you for your presence at the Autism Awareness Month kickoff at Hampton Cove Middle School on April 11th. I also want to thank you for your presence at the State PTA Reflections awards this past Saturday in Mobile. Your support of those of us with children on the spectrum and of the arts is greatly appreciated by myself and my family.

I’m here tonight to ask for a little more help.

At the January 19th board meeting, I shared with you and the board just a few of the never-ending changes in my son’s classroom at Challenger. That night I mentioned the revolving door of aides, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, and even an entirely altered classroom.

As we saw with my son this weekend in Mobile, he doesn’t handle change well, and yet change seems to be forced upon him non-stop in his classroom.

Since I reported this to you in January, the rate of change has increased. In February, both of his aides, or two-thirds of the adults in the classroom were take out of his room. So the revolving door of aides continued into the second half of the year.

Then after a little more than a month another of his aides quit to take a better paying job. This isn’t at all surprising since EPSCO aides make approximately nine dollars an hour without benefits.

Honestly, a McDonalds employee has a better deal. McDonalds offers their employees health insurance and retirement.

Is it any wonder that the aides are so quick to leave?

It’s more surprising that so many of them returned from last year when they took about a $2.00 an hour pay cut to keep working with our kids.

We have to do better. Our kids deserve better. Change hurts everyone including those who aren’t on the spectrum.

For example, my daughter came home in tears on Monday because of the radical changes that are being planned for Mt. Gap Elementary. she’s losing “her” library, and that breaks her heart.

Dr. Wardynski, we need for these things to be resolved now. At the March meeting with the Mt. Gap PTA, you told us that you would be announcing who our new principal would be, and I quote, “in the middle of April.”

It’s now May 3rd, and we still don’t know. And our teachers still can’t plan for next year. And our little girls are still coming home in tears.These words don’t seem intimidating to me, but clearly I’m not a good judge of that.

So, as a public service, I would again like to offer my assurances to Dr. Wardynski, Mrs. McCaulley, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Morrison, Mr. Birney, and Dr. Robinson and anyone else who regularly attends board meetings that it is not my intention to make you feel intimidated.

I’ll fully own up to my intention to pay attention and to question what you do. I’ll also own up to my intention to speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves. But it is not my intention to intimidate you in any way.

Fear and intimidation are a coward’s approach to getting what he wants. I’m attempting to reason with the district’s leadership. Nothing more.

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