Subject: I know I don't have the bully pulpit but...
A decision that is not in the norm is one that will be questioned.
I know many are asking “why walk away?”
I think my letter outlined the primary reasons, but it is a mere chapter in the book. For those that question my “leadership” or “commitment”, I truly am sorry I have disappointed you.
It wasn’t until after I was elected to the Board when I began to understand the limits under which the work can be done. To quote Steven Covey “management works in the system, leadership works on the system.” Ironically, I discovered a seat on the Board doesn’t translate to an unfiltered voice at the table. Protocol, agendas, and policies have been implemented that create considerable constraints on what you can say and do as a member of the Board. Private Citizen’s, however, are not, although it is clear those who are respectful and informed are also better heard.
From my perspective the Board serves at the will of the voters, and the Superintendent at the will of the Board. If the citizens of our district want change, it is the job of the Board to deliver it. If citizens like things the way they are, it is the job of the Board to maintain. It is the voice of the community that should create the direction that our School Board follows, and as private citizens, we should all be keeping up with what is going on, and challenging it if we are not satisfied.
This public discourse must be able to take place without the fear of retribution. I have spoken to many citizens and parents of students who don’t want to speak up for fear of affecting the way their children are treated at school. I urge us to overcome this fear, stop being afraid, trust our teachers to do what is right, and to speak up if you have a concern. This fear of retribution only continues a cycle that must end … now.
I urge us all to stop the attacks and pursue solutions. It is time to look forward, and for us all to work together to focus making our district what we want it to be. We all want to believe the people we elected have our best interests at heart, (which I believe is the case even today). Whether you personally believe our school’s are great today depends on what your expectations are as a parent, citizen and taxpayer.
I decided to get involved because I believe we should always be striving to improve. I am also confident our teachers believe this too, and strive to achieve improvements each and every day, but no matter what you may personally believe in, it is hard for us to even know what our schools have set out to accomplish without an articulated long term vision backed up with a comprehensive Strategic Plan. This is the primary job of the leaders of our district, and I firmly believe we need to all let our Superintendent know we think his top priority should be to support and actively participate in the creation of a strong shared community vision that the majority of our community can get behind and be proud of.
I believe the one thing great school districts have in common is great leaders. Leadership is critical and our leaders need to work well together and be responsive to the priorities of the community. Next up is who will be the new chair from now until March. The six sitting at the table on Wednesday night will decide. Each year after an election I thought the public would weigh in on this. I thought for sure people would weigh in on who they believed should carry on this important task. Each year no one has, but after the fact there has been an outcry by many as to who the chair had become.
Wouldn’t it be great if people spoke up and said who they wanted the leader of the board to be before the vote? Please take this opportunity to state that yes you voted in these six, but here is who you would like to see be the leader. This power does exist, and it is up to you to exercise it.
This is your board, they work for you. Pay attention, participate and let them know what you think. I can assure you your comments can influence the people sitting around that table. During public comments at the start of each 7pm meeting you have your bully pulpit, use it, take part, and speak up for the kids.
Just so you all know, I will be cheering Jennifer Wednesday night as my co-chair and hope that the right thing will be done and she will simply become the chair. No matter what you believe, please show your support of the Board in continuing the important work of the district, and respect that they are all there for the kids, in different ways, and that is what makes a true democracy work.
Show your support by allowing people to speak up and listening to their point of view. Question and challenge ideas … not people. Let’s make our kids proud, support our teachers, and work together as a community.
Thank you,
Kim
Sadly stepping down only brought back in a "senior" member of the Board who does not favor progress, overstepped her role when she was Chair and does not want the Board to receive adequate training.
ReplyDeleteI am disgusted that Jennifer and Mark voted against Henry who seems to be one of the only voices (aside from Jocelyn) challenging the administration and looking to represent the will of the voters.
The meeting this evening was an absolute folly. The Board is talking about a budget they have not even seen in total. Mark and David do not want to challenge the staffing at this point in time--WHY?
ReplyDeleteHow much is the budget increasing AGAIN? It is well over the 2% they claim when you add in CIP and TIP $$$. When is it going to end? The town of Durham has a 0% increase. Why can't the District control expenses?
Last year we voted down the TIP to control spending--guess what? They "found" money in the general budget and funded many of the TIP projects anyway--AFTER WE VOTED AGAINST IT.
WHERE IS THE OVERSIGHT? WHAT IS THIS BOARD DOING? WHERE IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY?????
OMG ... what was that!?
ReplyDeleteAt least there was one bright spot at last night's meeting. It seemed as though Jocelyn found her voice and demonstrated she is by far the smartest and most articulate one at the table. I can only hope the rest of the board recognizes this and elects her to the role of chair next March.
Speaking of that, it seems pretty obvious the board chair does have control, simply by setting the agenda, even though no one except Jocelyn seemed willing to admit it.
For years Joanne was the master at squelching communication to the community, and ensuring nothing substantial was talked about or accomplished, all while leading an 8%/year budget explosion over the course of her tenure.
Though not without her own faults, Kim has been able to crack the cone of silence that has existed all these years and actually begin to share the results of surveys that had been kept secret all of these years (I assume because they were critical). For the first time in recent memory the Board gave the administration some guidance as they prepared the budget, even though they still haven't actually set an actual target. More interesting is we have actually begun a real Strategic Planning Process rather than waving a book in front of our faces, despite David's continuous objections. I am positive this never would have happened under Joanne's leadership.
Bottom line is the Board's leadership is important, and I beleive it is vital that we find a way to get Jocelyn to be the next Chair.
Was it my imagination or did Henry suddenly wake up right after Mark fell asleep?
ReplyDeleteRemember when Mark Townsend told us he believed in "change"?
ReplyDeleteSee: http://www.marktownsend.org/Blog/2EBFB5FB-5B74-4455-8DDF-2497B64B3F03.html
Apparently, Mark has forgotten the values he ran on. Not only did he vote to install Joann Portalupi as vice-chair, he praised her past record. This is a record that includes the squelching of dissent among Board members, aiding and abetting the cover-up of fiscal impropriety on the part of the administration, and public vilification of any citizen who might have the temerity to attempt to question any aspect of the oversight of our schools.
You fooled us once, Mark. We won't be fooled again.
Come on folks, Jocelyn is totally naive and isn't it transparent that Henry has only a hunger for power when he seconds his nomination as vice chair... It's obvious by the comments on this blog that most people are concerned more about the bottom line and tax dollors, not the students.
ReplyDeleteIf it was really felt that the Board needed to move forward by some of the posters here, then they would appreciate the fact that the majority of the Board had the forsight to include a new and senior member as part of its leadership efforts to move on progressively. Henry had to second his nomination because no one else would...how disingenuous and ungraceful!
I take offense at the comment previously about only concerned about the bottom line and not students.
ReplyDeletePlease take into consideration that if we eliminated waste and diverted the savings into new educational programs, or athletic fields, or no capital improvements, it would serve our students better.
Also, please note that the name calling must stop here. Discuss issues and voting records but calling someone naive or another person x,y,z is not good.
Now, I personally care for these students and as a parent strive to make the district the best it can be. I am dismayed at the infighting on the board and hope a cohesive board can move forward.
We shall see...however, this blog is NOT just about spending and bottom line. Look at the previous posts...while some are about costs and taxes, others talk to arts, athletics, educational program expansion, full day kindergarten, etc...
So, the person that is naive is the Anonymous posted before me. Please look and listen at all info before writing that garbage...ok, I just broke my own rule but dealing with school issues is getting to be SO FRUSTRATING!!!
Help us out...board!
Kim - thanks for the follow up letter. Time for you to be quiet. You chose your path, stated why, and are free to speak as a tax payer. Nothing more though.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me?! I for one want Kim to say anything she wants to say. Enough of these idiotic attempts to censure people of reason. Let's keep the momentum up, get more competent leadership and improve our schools before even more of us feel compelled to pull our kids out of this district and flee.
ReplyDeleteI now sadly have a very different opinion of Mark Townsend. He used the word "transparency" alot when he ran for this position, even if it is "legal" it is definately not doing things transparently.
ReplyDeleteJust a hunch, but two of the posts above, the ones trying to neuter Jocelyn as "naive", and silence Kim, sure sound suspiciously like the voice one of our senior board members, "folks". A shame so few people feel comfortable using their names, including me.
ReplyDeleteJust a hunch, your comment is meant to continue the negative rhetoric. I though this was for community opinions "guessing" and blaming any unknown comment on any school board member is unfair. This community blog only seems to want community input if it matches the opinion of the group running it.
ReplyDeleteI first would like to thank Kim for all of her efforts and time she gave the ORSD. Please remain an active advocate in our community. Secondly, As a senior citizen in Durham, with no agenda, I would like to compliment Joanne. Watching every Board meeting, she is one of the most thoughtful,intelligent individuals, I could ever imagine. We are so fortunate to have her serve our students and citizens. Let us stop labeling and instead work as a united community. This rhetoric only diminishes our effort.
ReplyDeleteFYI-
ReplyDeleteIf a warrant article (TIP) fails, you can not take funds from other sources to do those actions. You must wait a year before you can address it again.
If we keep electing people like David Taylor and Joann Portalupi to the board we get what we get - mediocrity and secrecy. We need a vision and transparency. Kim, Jen, Henry and Jocelyn all bring that to the table. It is unfortunate that they are getting bashed for trying to do the right thing for the taxpayers and our students.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that people only have the guts to post anymously speaks volumes. Stand up and own your comments like I have.
ReplyDeleteHey Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteNice job standing up!
Sincerely,
Anonymous
Hello Anonymous. Nice guts!
ReplyDeleteTo all who responded about my comments regarding posting anonymously, thank you for proving my point. Not a one of you put your name down. Pillars of the community who hide behind message boards, censoring, bullying, and voting for Obama!
ReplyDeleteYou can reach me at 603-868 (Sorry out of space)
What makes you think people who post here voted for Obama? Be careful of your generalizations. I hope people can appreciate what Kim brought to the table and the hundreds of hours she spent volunteering her time for us to try to make a difference. The people who are trying to tear her down should try to do what she did. It is easy to make comments but until you step up to the plate and volunteer and put yourself out there your comments do not carry much weight.
ReplyDeleteOur school district needs work. We have lots of good teachers but we have very average facilities (some below average), inferior outdoor athletic space and no real goals or direction for the district. We are spending more money than ever with fewer and fewer students to teach. Performance has not improved significantly. We should be doing better as a school district.
I am very pleased that the School Board is going forward with the strategic plan. I can only hope it results in a real plan that the Board and adminstrators will adhere to and allocate resources by. Kim initiated this effort and without her leadership on it, we would not even be this far along.
And instead of sitting back and complaining I am working on one of the committees (Operations) to hopefully help this along.
David Proulx
I think we need to cut out all girl sports. Seriously - this is a waste of our tax dollars and would allow us to better fund the boys teams.
ReplyDeleteWhy would we do that? What an idiotic statement. Anyway - the girls teams are more successful than the boys teams!
ReplyDeleteIf you watched tonight's meeting, you didn't miss much in the public comments. Arthur Bradbury and Roger Spiedel continued - yet once again - to complain about their taxes.
ReplyDeleteYES, WE KNOW YOU DON'T LIKE PAYING YOUR TAXES. We've heard that every two weeks for the last two years -- FROM YOU!
Please take a break. Let the board do its job. Your name calling, personal attacks and mean-spirited jabs are NOT productive and actually are a big reason the school board has become so disfunctional.
After watching last weeks meeting I find myself questioning if taxpayers are paying atention to whats going on?
ReplyDeleteI am not trying to be disrespectful to anyone but the tech people explaining the T I P for the budget didn"t seem to even know what they were talking about. I have no knowleged of tech stuff
at all and I could have done a better job.Didn't we just increase the positions and pay (if I remeber correctly about $ 30,000) last year ,for THIS!!!
" what is the cost to up keep the new phone system" response don't know didn't ask
" we have cat6 lines in all the schools" they stated As Mark pointed out NO WE DON"T
Until they get it together VOTE NO ON THE TIP
Custodial Supervisor HELL NO airmark should be providing the service we paid for. Look at the custodians contract we are paying head cust. 75 cents per hr per person to supervise thats almost
$6.00 per hr over thier pay ( @ middle & hs level) Thats almost $24,000 a year between the two schools.Don't get me wrong I think they do a great job' I say let them keep doing it they don"t need anyone else.
STOP CUTTING STAFF THAT WORK DIRECTLY WITH OUR KIDS ,CLEAN OUR BUILDING OR DRIVE OUR CHILDREN SAFELY TO SCHOOL EVERY DAY AND REPLACING THEM WITH MORE HIGHER PAID PEOPLE WITH FANCY TITLES THAT ARE NOT HELPING DO ANYTHING TO MAKE THIS DISTRICT BETTER
RUMOR MILL:
ReplyDeleteAlledgedly, Kim Clark is getting together a group of supporters (her email list is rumored to be 400 strong) who want to address the drug "problem" at ORHS by installing metal detectors and implementing drug-sniffing dogs.
Can anyone confirm or correct this?
The Pickle Boy
theoneandonlypickleboy@gmail.com
P.S. Stop taking yourselves all so seriously.
Kim Clark here, my e-mail list is strong. But I have no idea where this latest rumor came from. I have had conversations with many in our community in regards to the drug problem. My last conversation regarding drugs were in a coffee shop two weeks ago, and centered only on the benefit of opening a teen center in our town. The ideas presented in this rumor pickle boy are just that...ideas in someone elses head and once again a rumor that then is presented as fact and blamed on others.
ReplyDeleteIt continues to amaze me how rumors are presented as fact, and then passed around and given weight. Can we just try to stop this for a while and work from information direct from a source only, or verified from others? Thank you pickle boy for doing just that!!
Thank you, Kim Clark
Well Kim, Oyster River's nickname has always been Oyster Rumour among students. Perhaps now it has now morphed to the parents.
ReplyDeleteLong live Oyster Rumour!
Anonymous.
Well, the parents have never seemed to act much more mature than the students. I jest.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, just to clear up a few remaining ambiguities in your response above, would you state (just to be clear) that you are in no way involved with any movement to put dogs or detectors in the school? If someone else tried to make that happen, would you support their initiative?
The Pickle Boy
theoneandonlypickleboy@gmail.com
Hello Pickle Boy.
ReplyDelete1. I have never and never would suggest the use of metal detectors in our schools. I think that would be just a tad bit offensive, and overreactive.
2. I am not working to get drug sniffing dogs in our schools. I have spoken with many who would like to see this, and frankly having worked in schools that have utilized this method....see that it can be a good idea. If students have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear.
3. I am working on getting support behind a teen center.
4. I am working on parental education. The schools do a great job of educating kids. The parents however do not know how much the laws have changed. For example, there is no such thing as a designated driver if you are under 21. You offer to drive, your friends have been drinking, you the sober driver now have a violation. These and other laws have changed the game.
5.If someone wanted metal detectors I would fight that idea.
6. If someone proved drug sniffing dogs, and I mean PROVED with strong valid data that it would deter drugs from entering our schools, then yes I would support that idea. Just talk to some people who are on the front lines and they will tell you that drugs are a huge problem and something needs to be done.
7. I alone do not have any more power than anyone else with a mouth and a computer, the decision to do these things is with administration. However, if parents really want more done to curb the drug problem at Oyster River, they do have the power to do so.
In that they can ask for more parental education, because right now for kids the school is doing a great job. It is the parents that need to support the school in these efforts.
Pickle Boy,
ReplyDeleteMy wife, Kim Clark, suggested I read your posts.
First of all, I am not Kim, and believe me, I have never spoken for Kim and we frequently disagree on many topics.
I am a Town Councilor in Durham, and in that capacity was in part responsible for initiating a meeting between town officials and several of our school's administrators a few months ago, to discuss what is being done, and what else might be done, to address the Oyster River substance abuse problems that are evident in our surveys, graduate succcess rates and obituaries.
Many, but not all of the "allegations" your informant attributed to Kim, should have in fact, been attributed to me. Unfortunately, most of these allegations are either taken out of the context in which they were presented, exaggerated, or actually came from other participants in the meeting.
I am most disturbed, not by you Pickle Boy, who is just reporting what you heard, but by:
1. The fact that someone who was clearly in that meeting decided it was okay to speak out of school, and position my concerns more as a violation of human rights, as opposed to an attempt to save lives.
2. That rather than positioning my comments as an attempt to engage in a discussion that might lead to solutions, which they were, suggesting I am someone who has an agenda and am ready to rally as many troops as needed to get what I want.
3. And most importantly, that I, was actually just a mouthpiece for Kim ... which is about as far from the life we have together as anyone can imagine.
OK, so now that we have that cleared up, the important point is to keep the conversation going about what we, as concerned parents and citizens can do, if anything, to better address a substance abuse problem that becomes more and more dangerous, further jeopardizing the health and well being of our children, with each passing year?
This is particularly important to me because people very close to me have had their lives ruined as a direct result of the Oyster River Drug problem, and because I have two children currently in the middle school who are approaching the age when they will be exposed to this culture, and frankly, as I reflect on the number of ruined lives I am aware of and the number of obituaries I have read that were also a direct result of OUR drug problem, it scares the shit out of me.
Apparently this blog limits the length of the posts to 4,096 characters and I went well over that number, so I will try to copy the rest of my response to another post. If it doesn't work, I'll try to recreate it tomorrow.
Stay engaged Pickle Boy, and have a great year at school.
Doug Clark
Pickle Boy,
ReplyDeleteHere is the rest of what I began in the post above.
The reason we had the meeting is because I believe there are two steps that have to be addressed to be effective in our war on substance abuse:
Education: Which is equally the responsibility of the schools, community and parents
AND
Enforcement: Which is the primary job of the town, but to some degree also schools.
I have heard, and was directly told about all of the initiatives the school has taken to educate our kids about substance abuse and other high risk behaviors. I applaud these efforts, BUT at the end of everyone of these presentations about how hard everyone is working to educate, we are told that essentially none of these programs have proven to be effective or successful.
When I asked what else can we do about it ... I get the "shoulder shrug" with perplexed stares, and absolutely no concrete suggestions.
When I ask about enforcement as another tool to help in this battle, I am told:
1. The community would never support any inititive such as dogs, random searches or narcs, which by the way is standard practice in many public schools across the country and according to many high school teachers I am friendly with, these tactics do seem to help. (I did not suggest metal detectors and don't really see how these would help)
2. The court system is entirely ineffective at dealing with the problem and as soon as the first offender has his case dismissed in court, it would only embolden the rest of the students to continue on.
3. As soon as we arrest one of our own kids, there will be public outcry and accusations about witch hunts and how unjust the system is, and how these innocent little acts will destroy a kids chance of getting into college, getting financial aid, and so forth.
Your note Pickle Boy, certainly reinforces this claim, but I can also tell you, because of the very large email lists and constant communications my wife and I are fortunate to be linked to, that there are several hundred concerned parents who are as desperate as I to implement a better solution. I can tell this really ticked off the school administrators, and our Superintendent literally said he wished the residents of our community would stop using email to communicate. Obviously, I disagree, and think email and communication might actually be the tool that allows us to make real progress.
As an elected representative, I am just trying to represent the interests of my constituents who have asked me to see what can be done. The one thing I can tell you is the statistics are real, and they are frightening ... and even if I try to rationalize it by saying this is just kids being kids, going through a stage ... it doesn't alter the fact that this is extremely dangerous activity that happens to be very illegal, and literally and permanently ruins the lives of far too many of our promising youth.
I am trying to fight for our kids, not against them, and no, I don't think I take myself too seriously, I am just trying to give something back to the community that raised me.
One thing we did all agree on was that the first step is broad community awareness about the extent of our substance abuse problems, and dangers of this type of high risk behavior. After the meeting our Town Administrator began posting short blurbs about the statistics and facts on this issue in our Friday Updates, which is a widely read newletter from the Town of Durham.
I am also hopeful that the efforts that have been made to establish a Youth Center will be successful, and help to curtail our problem even just a little.
I am more than willing to engage in conversations about this issue, and why I think we need to do more.
I hope everyone who reads this can stay engaged and get involved.
Doug Clark
Thank you both kindly for your detailed responses. I am enthusiastic about the development of a youth center and applaud your efforts, so I hope I'm not attacking either of you on other aspects of this drug issue. However, I think a matter like this is one that is so student centered that it absolutely must be discussed in the most transparent way possible.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very sensitive issue, obviously, because it's undeniable that serious drugs such as cocaine or underage drinking put teen lives at immense risk. I agree that these are serious problems.
That said, ORHS's drug reputation is for marijuana, which I don't think can be fairly portrayed as a seriously high-risk activity. The risk, therefore, is that in trying to save lives, the community may end up ruining lives with legal reprecussions. If drug-sniffing dogs were routinely brought in to ORHS (keeping in mind that it is legal for them only to sniff bags and lockers, not students) would they find anything? Even if they did, would it save lives, or lead to arrests and suspensions? If that was the case, would that foster a community environment were students and the school could address the issue together. If this is to be a "war" on drugs, there will be two sides, and they will be pitted against each other; that is not how communities are built.
I admit that I may have just parroted the objections you've already gotten, but I don't think that this is reason to simply take no further action. Therefore, I would suggest that ORHS look at the results from its new cameras. Has this program (which seems to me to fall under the enforcement category) decreased drug use in the school? Hopefully, information about the cameras' impact can provide some direction to the district. We may find that they have seriously decreased drug use without tearing the school community apparent (and I don't think that they particularly have, because the students also recognize that theft and vandalism can also be reduced by addressing drug issues). If this were the case, the program could provide a direction for the school to move. If the camera's haven't done anything but moved drugs deals into the unmonitored bathrooms and locker rooms, we will be able to expect similar results from bring dogs in to the school.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to respectfully point out another concern I have: while drugs and alcohol are a community wide issue taking place in and out of school, these two arenas CANNOT be dealt with in the same way. The first concern should be moving drugs OUT of ORHS, so that they can be dealt with more effectively through enforcement without creating a war environment in the school.
Just the two cents of a mischevious teen, take it how you will.
Oh, and let's stick it to the mustache; add me to your email list!
Respectfully,
The Pickle Boy
theoneandonlypickleboy@gmail.com