Update: State Board of Ed responds on Twitter, IT IS PUBLIC. Anyone may attend! Hopefully, they will amend the agenda to reflect this.
@ED_IN_DE Yes, it is a public meeting, as are all SBE meetings and noticed accordingly, It was mentioned at our July meeting as well.
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DE State Board of Ed (@DEStateBoardEd) August 06, 2012@DEStateBoardEd Agenda fails to indicate it is public. Has a specific invite list. Closest it comes to public is "stakeholders" unspecified.
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John Young (@ED_IN_DE) August 06, 2012Update #2, State Board now says there is no invite list:
@ED_IN_DE It does not have an invite list, but the target audience is school board members. It is noticed just like every SBE meeting
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DE State Board of Ed (@DEStateBoardEd) August 06, 2012So what is this?:
From: Moore Dani
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 9:29 AM
To: Moore Dani; howard.weinberg@dsea.org; deborah.stevens@dsea.org; Christina Marconi; pherdman@rodelfoundationde.org; sfrancis@edsba.org; KendallM@decharternetwork.org; Strauss Wendy; Jenner, Frederika [DE]; Yvonne Johnson; Johnson Julie; ojohnsonharris05@verizon.net; kathleenhaynes@juno.com; Lewis Andy; Sass Kay; POLASKI FRED; Laws Joseph; sbritt34823@comcast.net; 57lakers@mchsi.com; jaschulties@lf.k12.de.us; juris1@hotmail.com; Emory, Patrick; lynchjf@verizon.net; Ford Jeffrey L; Davis Leah F; cdunncontractors@hotmail.com; lnewlin@udel.edu; pcooper.st@gmail.com; breedingmryan@aol.com; mmatos@thelatincenter.org; athompson@desu.edu; Vhostin73@vahoo.com; Bunting Susan; Burrows Matthew L; Curry Daniel; Daugherty Mervin B; Fitzgerald Kevin; Fulton Robert; Gehrt Vicki; Henderson, Sylvia; Holodick Mark; Joseph Shawn; Kohel Phyllis; Lathbury Aj; Linn Dorothy; Nave Dorothy; Ring David; Thomas Michael; Wicks Deborah; WILLIAMS FREEMAN; ZYCH DEBORAH; allen tara; Baldwin Charles; Brewington Tennell; Browne Lamont; Draper Pam; Edward J. Emmett Jr.; Erschen Audrey; Hermance Trish; Hughes Charles; Jennings Linda; Johnson Howard; Ann Lewis; Lopez-Waite Margie; Maldonado Sally; Meece Gregory; Oliphant Patricia; Pastis Jacqueline; Perry Jack; Righos George; Rodriguez Noel; Stephenson Keith; Thomas-EL Salome; Wintermantel Jack; Becnel, Irwin; boyce, lamar; Boynton, Kimeu; Casson, Canon; Chambers, George; Coker, Joan; Copeland, Charles; Coté Marc; Curry, C.T.; Dressel, Stephen; Jones, Abraham; Jones, Yardise; Kirkpatrick, Laura; Major, William; McDowell, Charlie; Mell, Donald; Pinkett, Ronald; Rivera, Jaime; Savino, Louis; Sbriglia, Dorothy; Shapely, David; Wilson, Charlie; vdimauro@integrateglobally.com
Cc: Johnson Donna R; Murphy Mark; Cruce Daniel; Rogers Linda; Rogers Karen Field; Kough Theresa Vendrzyk; Hickey Catherine T.; Hindman John; Ruszkowski Christopher; Curtis Brian; Wells Kim; Kerr Sara; Haberstroh Susan Keene; Carwell John; Kay-Lawrence Sheila; Collier Margie; Coverdale Gregory; Gray Teri; Heffernan Pat; Hughes Randall; Melendez Jorge; Rutt Barbara; Whittaker Terry
Subject: RE: Meeting with State Board of Education and Stakeholders
Just a reminder to share this notice with your board members and to RSVP by next Friday, August 10th, if you plan to attend. Thanks so much.
Subject: Meeting with State Board of Education and Stakeholders
Dear Board Presidents, Chief School Officers, Charter School Directors and Community Stakeholders:
The State Board of Education would like to invite you and your board members to attend a professional development and networking opportunity on Thursday, August 16th at the John W. Collette Center in Dover, DE. Dinner will be available at 5:00 p.m. with time for networking and open dialogue. The program will begin at 6:00 p.m. and conclude at 8:00 p.m. Please share this information with your entire board.
The agenda for this meeting includes an update on Delaware’s Education Plan from Secretary Mark Murphy and a presentation by Brian Curtis and Kim Wells on Delaware’s new plan for Accountability and Support which was established as a result of the state’s proposal for flexibility from certain requirements of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). There will be an opportunity for questions and answers throughout the program. We hope that you will be able to join us for this event hosted by the State Board of Education. We have had the opportunity to host events on topics important to local boards and charter boards and look forward to these continued opportunities to bring information pertinent to a variety of groups in these forums.
For planning purposes regarding space constraints and sufficient food preparation, please RSVP to Dani Moore, 302-735-4010 or dmoore@doe.k12.de.us<mailto:dmoore@doe.k12.de.us> by August 10th.
Donna Johnson
Executive Director
State Board of Education
401 Federal Street, Suite #2
Dover, DE 19901-3639
302.735.4010 (T) 302.739.7768 (F)
drjohnson@doe.k12.de.us<mailto:dmoore@doe.k12.de.us>
This email and any attachments may be confidential or legally privileged. Any dissemination, copying or use of this communication by or to anyone other than the designated and intended recipient(s) is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy this communication immediately.
P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
Dani L. Moore
Administrative Assistant for State Board of Education Delaware Department of Education
401 Federal Street, Suite #2
Dover, DE 19901-3639
302.735.4010 (T) 302.739.7768 (F)
dmoore@doe.k12.de.us<mailto:dmoore@doe.k12.de.us>
This email and any attachments may be confidential or legally privileged. Any dissemination, copying or use of this communication by or to anyone other than the designated and intended recipient(s) is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy this communication immediately.
P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
So you mean to tell me that CSD doesn’t send an advance email out for meetings to targeted attendees at a meeting, especially a workshop aimed to provide certain pertinent groups information? Come on, John! It seems to me this is just a way of making sure that school boards were aware of the meeting, they probably don’t all constantly check the state public meeting calendar, so I would think the school board association would be sharing the information as well. Sounds to me like the State Board is trying to provide communication on issues that perhaps local boards don’t have an opportunity to hear about directly. As much as we complain that local boards and charter boards don’t receive enough information or training this clearly seems to be addressing some of the issue. So your complaint is that they asked local boards to rsvp – well gee John, just seems like they want to make sure you have a chair and don’t have to stand. what’s your beef here? Are you upset they are having a meeting to provide a workshop around what local board members have to know about the new accountability system, really??? Come on, I have thought many of your recent posts and bringing awareness to certain closed door issues were spot on, but this just seems like you are griping to gripe.
Not at all MHS, they are simply behaving like the poorly run entity they appear to be. Targeted invitations, then claiming non exist, and a less than full throated acknowledgement of the meeting being available to the public.
If they had a clue how to behave they would just amend the agenda to match their tweets, and publicize the meeting. A shallow invite list actually works to ensure as little public involvement as possible. This isn’t about the local boards being communicated to appropriately, it’s the taxpayers of Delaware, whom the State Board says are welcome. All I am asking is the communication about the meeting put the welcome to al out front, not buined/non-existent while sending an invite out to only select people.
CSD does not send out advance e-mails to a target audience to specifically obfuscate a fully public meting. If the meeting is PUBLIC, then its agenda and advertisement thereafter the posting is PUBLIC. Why are you defending a duplicitous, specious process that seems to disenfranchise the public’s awareness of the meeting?
We agree to disagree, one insider to another.
Is this meeting not noticed publicly? I thought that it was or perhaps it actually doesn’t have to be yet – 7 days right?
I am not arguing the “noticed publicly” aspect whatsoever. I am arguing intent to genuinely welcome the public by using targeted invites and a public notices that does not specifically list the public (See .pdf above). There is no intent to genuinely invite the public as currently noticed and internally advertised.
also note, my former school board did send out agendas to all “stakeholder” groups. The PTA, DSEA, teacher association leaders, administration association (DASA) etc would all get an FYI about the meeting agenda above and beyond the public notice that went out on the website, paper, wherever. To me it sounds like they are having a public meeting, but are trying to make sure that the targeted audience for the session is aware of it and from the line at the bottom “For planning purposes…” they are not requiring the RSVP’s but want to make sure they have it set up and arranged as much as possible for the anticipated numbers in attendance. You can never be sure how many people will attend a public meeting. I’ve seen them sparsely attended or standing room only. It doesn’t seem snaky to me, just trying to plan for the audience. Hey at least they are bringing a workshop at an issue that is new to most local board members. I give them credit for that, did you go to the last workshop they had? It was about DPAS, right? I think its a step in a good direction, not a bad one.
I’m glad you do.
DPAS, you mean the vile, anti-teacher, based on no credible research teacher evaluation tool? No, but I did go to the ESEA flexibility hearing meeting. They had staffers there yelling across the room intimidating teachers.
Furthermore, I didn’t say there are no invites while sending an e-mail to a list and using the words “The State Board of Education would like to invite you and your board members ” and “RSVP”. Also, it is not structured like a public meeting either. It is openly marketed as “professional development and networking opportunity”
The public is paying for refreshments and a BUFFET DINNER for a “professional development and networking opportunity”?
Hmmm.
UPDATE: So the state board has updated the calendar wording to indicate public meeting. Easy. Helpful. Right thing to do. Let’s change the agenda document attached and I’ll post the revised copy as well!
Thanks John, this reminded me that I wanted to check on a NCC housing ’roundtable’ meeting that was noticed in the news items in Saturday’s News Journal to see if it was actually a public meeting. After checking, the NCC Council staffer told me I could come. She said she wasn’t sure if the meeting was supposed to be public and put in the paper but now that it was, they’d let me attend.
Sometimes just getting the foot in the door is a HUGE step toward transparency and accountability.
Speaking of transparency, Earl Jaques told me last week that his nomination to the new Blue Ribbon Ed Reform Charter Law Amendment Task Force has been accepted by the Governor. Has anyone heard or seen the complete list of who is now on the TF and when and where it will meet. I assume, that like being able to observe our government at work at leg hall, this TF will be something that will be noticed and that I will be able to observe upon occasion and read through minutes, etc.
The list, its timing, and the TF membership have been an ultra secretive process thus far. Making the likelihood of real change less and less by the day, if you ask me.
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