Village Green/Town²

Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? Dan Furman 1. Mr. Furman states, " While no board member has individual power per se - the power conveyed to the Board, as a whole, is vast and wide reaching." He goes on to elaborate that the Board has "total and complete authority over the public education system in Howard County." 2. How to best use that power? Elected board members should take actions that benefit Howard County students and citizens, seeking out the opinions of constituents to inform their decisions. Board members should work to form consensus. He begins in the negative, " Board members should not be reactive and constantly wait for staff recommendations..." But goes on to explain, "... they should be more proactive in using their powe...

Here is the response from Dan Furman. Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? The power of the position is given and defined by the Maryland General Assembly. While no board member has individual power per se - the power conveyed to the Board, as a whole, is vast and wide reaching. The Board, within the bounds of law has total and complete authority over the public education system in Howard County. The school system (i.e. the Superintendent and all staff that report to her) are completely and totally subordinate to the Board. The best use of that power is for elected board members to take actions that they believe that are in the best interest of the students and citizens of Howard County. It would be impossible to run the board by poll but board members should actively seek ...

What is this thing? Is it an ordinary local plant or an invasive variety that could wreak harm by spreading? I put that out to my Facebook network of friends yesterday after I came across a group of these while I was digging up dandelions . I don't have an answer yet. I have a lot of suggestions... For some reason this put me in mind of Columbia, and who are the "real" Columbians. A specious question, when you consider that the People Tree was meant to represent a vibrant community of diversity. And yet somehow the question keeps coming up. Election turnout results make it clear that fewer and fewer are even hearing the question, or know what the big deal is. As if weeds and Columbia are not enough, I'm going to take a leap and play the Star Trek card. Remember V'GER? Originally a NASA probe, it had been repaired and altered in such a way that it became a entity of massive destruction. It viewed human life forms as infestations that needed to be eradicated. It h...

  I believe In neighbors who say hello, and smile, help you dig out after the big snow, and in the Dogfish 60-minute that comes in a heartbeat at the Second Chance. I believe in the beautiful photographs of nature shared by friends who love our community and the love of farms and local food that opens our eyes to bounteous living. I believe in moms who fiercely support their kids and who stand up to power when decision-makers are wrong. I believe in music and the arts, and in teachers who talk the talk and walk the walk, every single day. I believe in friends who care and work for change, serve, share, write, talk, listen, think, and believe when others do not care or understand. On days when heartbreak threatens faith, and disillusionment clouds our precious truths, I stop. I think about what I can believe and do believe and will believe. I treasure what is beautiful so that the darkness cannot consume me.       While today's title is borrowed , the ideas expressed ...

Columbia in a way, was an experiment. Well, folks, the experiment has failed. Where James Rouse saw possibilities of a diverse community, the truth is that Columbia is enchained in segregation. Segregation by age. If ages were taken along with ballots, and if a requirement of generational diversity were as important as making quorum, we'd be doomed. This article by Luke Lavoie looks at lack of participation in Village Elections. I care a lot about these elections, and so do many of my friends, but as a whole, most people my age and younger don't know or care about them. While I implore you to get out and vote in your village today, my underlying feeling is that the whole election thing is broken. I have nothing but admiration for Village Managers and staff who publicize and encourage voting, plan activities, and keep residents informed throughout the year. Despite their best efforts, important decisions about Columbia's present and future are largely being determined by o...

Recaps for Board of Education Responses 1-5 are here . Recaps for Board of Education Responses 6-9 are here . I'm not going to name the four who haven't answered yet because it feels wrong to give extra name recognition for late responders. (And because I have already nagged once .) The HCEA has announced their endorsements for Board of Education. Read about it here . Blair Ames, new Education Reporter for the Sun, has begun profiles of the Bd of Ed. candidates. Yesterday, Instructional Facilitator for Music for Howard County Public Schools, Rob White, announced his retirement after 36 years with the county. His staff of music teachers stopped the meeting to give him a long and heartfelt standing ovation. His leadership will be sorely missed. All eyes will be on this space to see the direction of Music and Arts education in hcpss. Village elections are tomorrow. Vote . ***** Sometimes it feels like the bad guys are winning. I'm going to try to live today like they're ...

Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? Cynthia Vaillancourt 1. Ms. Vaillancourt comes right out of the starting gate challenging the notion of "power conveyed" by the office of Board of Education member. Such power as the Board of Education may wield is given to her/him to be expressed as a body, and not to individual members, she asserts. The individual member has the "opportunity and access to represent the voices as advocate for the needs of the community..." 2. The best use of that power, then, is to advocate for the education of citizens through good decisions on educational matters, use of funds, and providing a "safe, nurturing and supportive community..." 3. The Board of Education is responsible to "all the citizens of the county in mat...

It's that time of year again. Warmer weather, sunshine, and rain bring a lush, green lawn and...dandelions. And the battle begins. I get my old paring knife and spend ten or fifteen minutes trying to eradicate them. I almost always tire of bending over before I have gotten them all. What is this voice inside me, year after year, that tells me to dig up dandelions, to cut down to the root and extract them? It's my mother. My mother went after dandelions like a revival preacher casting out sin. Why? I don't know. Probably because she felt they were bad for the lawn. But deeper than that was this: if you don't dig up the dandelions, other people will think you are a bad person. Neighbors will look askance at the person who doesn't maintain a dandelion-free lawn. They may not say anything, but... "Cluck, cluck, cluck. Look at all those dandelions. There goes the neighborhood." Now, this was before weed killers and lawn services. It was Mother and the paring...

I found a well-used tote bag yesterday, given to my husband at work. It made me think about what is going on in our school system right now. As I have said before, it is not about the money. Or, if you will, it's not only about the money. We all need to be fairly compensated for what we do, so it is silly to ignore that. But the heart of the matter is not the amount of an increase in wages or the number of years in a contract. It is about appreciation. Appreciation that means something. Placing a value on teachers which is shown through actions: sincere negotiation. Truly including teachers as valued stakeholders in program changes. If teachers go to work in the morning and come home at the end of the day feeling supported and respected by our school system, from the top down, we have succeeded. If they do not, we have failed. Why? Because they are actually performing the task that the whole system is set up to achieve . They hold our children, and their futures, in their hands....

Take a look at the photos from Saturday's rally for the old (Cy Paumier) Symphony Woods park plan. As the old controlled vocabulary readers would say, Look, look, look! See, see, see! Are you ready? Who do you see? No, really. This is a test. Look at the pictures. I'll wait. ***** These photographs are shocking in their complete absence of generational diversity. To give you an idea of what I mean, I'm going to run down a list of the kind of people I know and hang out with in Columbia: Kids under the age of five. Elementary aged kids. Middle school kids. (We don't socialize with many high schoolers, but my husband teaches them daily. Same with college-age kids, the ones we know are primarily my husband's former students.) Twenty-somethings making their start in Columbia. Folks in their thirties and forties: parents, bloggers, community activitists, school volunteers, some getting involved in politics. Folks in their fifties--more of the same but perhaps less schoo...

Margo and I are doing yard work. Alice is getting her house ready for Easter guests. Kids are playing outside. Friends are enjoying Ellicott City's Spring Festival. There's Beer Club down at the Second Chance. It's warm and I wish I had a sun hat, maybe even shorts. Neighbors pass by, waving, remarking on the change of season. The pictures on the left are from February 24th. On the right are the same bushes today. Where hungry deer had munched them down to almost nothing, they are now lush with new growth. Around me there is a mood of renewed life: gardening, cleaning, enjoying temperate outdoor weather. I feel the urge to get out and walk more, be more active and get healthier this year. While I am out here enjoying plants and bird song and new life and getting excited about plans for the future, Richard is at the Oakland Mills Interfaith Center, providing music for a community memorial service for Tyler Johnson. I don't know how to feel.   "To everything there...

Thanks to candidate Bess Altwerger for submitting her response: Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? As a parent of two HCPSS graduates and current HCPSS teacher, a career-long teacher educator, and passionate public school advocate, I believe that the primary responsibility of the BOE is to provide the best education possible for all of our students. We are fortunate to have elected rather than appointed school boards in our state. This means that the BOE is a representative body that should solicit input and be responsive to all of their constituents. These include teachers and their representative body (HCEA), parents and families and their representative body (PTA) and various segments of the general community. I believe strongly that all BOE decisions regarding policies a...

Here is the response from Sandra French, a current member of the board: Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? The Annotated Code of Maryland assigns power to the entire Board as a corporate body when a quorum acts in a legally constituted meeting. Individual Board members have no authority other than the powers of presence, persuasion, relationship- building and collaboration to effect change. Legally, the Superintendent manages the day to day operations of the system, and serves as public advisor to the Board. The Board governs by adopting policies and goals for the future direction of the system, and then evaluates the Superintendent’s performance in meeting them. It adopts a budget that reflects both legal requirements and community preferences. More details on responsibili...

On April 1, 2012, I wrote this post to address naysayers of the Symphony Woods park plan. Recall that this was the plan before the Inner Arbor Plan. Take a moment to read it, if you haven't before. I went as over the top as I could to paint a picture of folks who couldn't see the forest for the trees, as it were. This week it is all coming true. Yes, now life is imitating art in the wackiest of ways and Cy Paumier has announced he and his group will be leading a protest to the current plan in order to build support for his (rejected) plan. It is as though they have taken their strategy from a satirical April Fool's Day post and are carrying it out in dead earnest. Anyone who tells you that everything was hunky-dory before the introduction of the Inner Arbor plan for Symphony Woods is just plain wrong. Are they fibbing? Is their memory poor? I don't know. But you need to know the truth. Many of the same people who are fighting the current plan were actively fighting t...

Thanks to candidate Olga Butler for submitting her answer: Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? As an elected official, a member of the Board of Education is accountable to the citizens of Howard County. Board members are responsible for establishing policies and procedures, which enhance the teaching and learning experience. In addition, they are to provide direct oversight of the school superintendent.   This is a very important position in that Board members hold the combined power to influence the current and future path of education in our public school system.   As a liaison between the children, parents, educators and the community, board members must be cognizant of the power of the position and use it to forge positive, healthy relationships amongst all stakeholders. D...

Current board member Cindy Vaillancourt leads off our next round of responses: Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? 1. "Power" feels like a weird word when applied to individual Board of Education members, unless it is defined as the opportunity and access to represent the voices and advocate for the needs of the community, the students, the teachers, the administrators, parents, and other supporting staff when decisions are being made about the direction of the school system, allocation of resources, and philosophy of education that are the most effective, efficient, and valued by the residents of Howard County. 2. Board members can and should be the ultimate advocates for the most important civic responsibility of our society, the education of our citizens. 3. How...

Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? Corey Andrews 1. Mr. Andrews gives the most weight to "providing oversight" and "providing vision." 2. He appears to suggest there are times the best use of power is to "step in", "change direction", and/or "provide direction," rather than to "micro-manage the day to-to-day operation of the school system." 3. The Board of Education member is "accountable to every citizen of Howard County" and to that end should be "responsive, visible, and open-minded." Keywords, or things that stuck in my mind: use of the term vision (perhaps consistent with this definition) and the mention of micro-management as something he doesn't want. Dwelling on what you don't want...

Response number five comes from Dr. Zaneb K. Beams: Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? The Board of Education (BOE) "is responsible for setting local education policy consistent with state and federal laws governing public education." (www.hcpss.org) A BOE member should use their position to ensure optimal education, creating the best available learning and development environment for all learners. That means working to craft policies that address the needs of every child, teacher, and staff, in every school, in every corner of our great county. Any power conveyed by the position represents the voice of voters. Elected leadership is responsible to constituents- students, their families, teachers, staff, and administrators. A BOE member should reflect these stakehold...

Now that we have four responses in our survey of Board of Education candidates, we appear to be at a natural pausing point as other candidates work on their own answers. I'm going to use this moment to review the question.   Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? (250 word maximum) Tomorrow I will offer some analysis on the responses received so far. Specifically, I will be looking to see if the respondent actually answered the questioned I posed, and, if so, what their answer is. I chose my question quite carefully. I truly hope candidates will understand that, and address it in a meaningful way.   Apparently candidates have been given a number of surveys to complete from a variety of groups. I really look forward to seeing the results of these. At the moment there is very l...

I have been teaching in Howard County for eleven years. When I first started traveling from school to school I sat at a desktop computer and went on Yahoo maps and printed out every single connection. Timing is important. If I can't get between schools in well under thirty minutes, I can't make my schedule work. I kept all my printouts in a folder in my car until I memorized the routes. Now I have a smartphone and an ipad and directions are much easier to come by. This year I got to travel to a brand new school: Ducketts Lane. I figured a route from Oakland Mills to Ducketts Lane in only minutes. It's a beautiful school; the teachers and staff I work with are great. The kids are wonderful. But due to a fluke in scheduling, I have to teach there an hour earlier than I normally teach. Not the end of the world, but I almost always arrive wishing I had more coffee. Every other week as I would follow my plotted route I'd grumble that there was no convenient place to quickly...

A brief tribute this morning to a group of women I will call the Mominators, for want of a better term. I have been incredibly lucky this year to fall in with a group of wonderful moms who are going through the travails of having a middle school daughter with me. They have become my go-to group for any number of questions. Whether the topic is teen behavior, a question about a difficult teacher, community issues, local politics, or changes in the school system, I know I have someone to talk to. Just as we hope our daughters have a support network of friends to get them through the difficult years, we need that, too. The other night the conversation turned musical. What is the song that makes you think most about your spouse? Best breakup song? Song whose message you would choose for your daughter? After a while it was clear we were sharing the most precious playlists of our lives. As a teenager I was so obsessed with myself and my own problems that I don't think I was very good at ...

We finish off the day with this response from R. Michael Smith: Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? As a member of the Board of Education, I will be able to serve as a liaison between the community and the superintendent and as the people’s voice when decisions are made regarding the school system. I can best use my position to, among other things, dispel the misperception among some Howard County residents that all is well in our schools, when in fact, a large gap exists between the quality of education provided here and in several nations, such as Finland and Singapore. That gap is much worse for children from poorer families. Renee Foose has been telling anyone who will listen about the need for fundamental reform to rectify that situation. We must first acknowledge, ho...

Thanks to Thomas Baek for sending his response. Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible?   A Board of Education elected member’s function is essentially two-fold: 1), To carry out the duties and responsibilities, as set forth by statute, to effectively sustain, oversee, and guide our schools regarding all relevant components of education, administration, and policy; and 2), To work on the Board as one member of a team of elected members in collaboration and in cooperation with all stakeholders and partners – including the Superintendent, Educators, Staff, Citizens, and Parents – for the singular purpose of making our schools the best that they can be for our children. In carrying out this public service duty, an elected member of the Board is empowered by the citizens of our count...

So far, Corey Andrews and Leslie Kornreich have submitted answers to the Board Of Education question I posed on Sunday. Six others have touched base with me by email: Allen Dyer, Zaneb Beams, Cynthia Vaillancourt, Sandra French, Michael Smth, Christine O'Connor. I have heard nothing from the rest. One of the respondents told me that candidates wouldn't respond unless there was a deadline. I assured that person that they would, and that I would stick to my plan of printing responses as I received them. Don't leave me hanging, people. Two brave souls put themselves out there, willing to be seen without checking first to see what the others would say. I am looking forward to hearing from more candidates. Aren't you? Posted with Blogsy

Sometimes we get really excited about things and go all out, and then the moment passes and our feeling of empowerment fades. We forget to keep paying attention. Often we lose the chance to influence the outcome because we don't keep our eyes on the prize. It's just human nature. But that doesn't mean we should just accept this state of affairs. If we truly care about the outcome, we have to find a way to stay focused. So today, some follow up: What has happened since the March 13th Board of Education meeting where parents expressed concerns for cuts to arts education? Do we have specifics on whether small-group instruction for instrumental learners will be maintained? Do we have specifics on maintaining instructional time for General Music and Art classes? Do we have specifics on how parents and teachers will be included in program changes? If you wrote a letter to the Superintendent and/or the Board of Education, were your questions adequately addressed? Hmm. Still have...

On Thursday, March 27th, Lisa B. Mrs. S. wrote : This Post Is A Little Bit About Dennis Lane. The title leapt out at me and I have been carrying it around in my heart ever since. Why? Well, because every post I have written since Dennis has been gone has had a little bit of him within it. And I know I am not alone. Those of us whose lives were touched by his exuberance, insight, and wit carry a piece of him and it infuses our work. Whether in a blog, a morning jog or race, a song strummed on a guitar, a political campaign, or act of community service, our lives are a little bit (or a lot) about Dennis Lane. Yesterday, on her birthday, my friend Mickey posted these words: Some people are, "...like ghost stars, still shining their light upon us long after they are gone." - Neil deGrasse Tyson, from Cosmos Although it wasn't her intent, the words made me think of Dennis. And what Lisa wrote. And the horrible void I felt when Harry Schwarz said to the blogging community, ...

Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible? Leslie Kornreich writes: Being a Board of Education member conveys the power to collaborate with the other Board members to make far-reaching decisions about the direction and future of our school system. It is one that should not be taken lightly, since Board decisions have the power to affect the educational paths of thousands of students and the career paths of thousands of teachers. Our school system is the reason many families move to Howard County, and those families deserve the best schools we can possibly deliver. The best use of the power that comes with being a member of the Board of Education is to realize that, like any elected official, you serve the community of voters that have elected you. You cannot assume that you know e...

Last Spring, on a rainy evening in front of Oakland Mills Middle School, Reg Avery commiserated with me about my loss in the Oakland Mills election and told me, in front of my daughter, that he had voted for me. He also told me they were going to keep an eye on Alex Hekimian to make sure he didn't say one thing and then do another--hold him accountable. I found this pretty stunning. It was generally known that Reg had been a part of Alex's campaign. Had he really gone to all that trouble to campaign for Alex and then vote for me, just to make sure all his bases were covered? Or, perhaps more stunning, did he think I was stupid enough to believe he voted for me? I belong to an elite club of honorable Oakland Mills residents who ran against traditional, Pioneer-style candidates and lost. Ian Kennedy, Phil Engelke, and I share similar battle-scars. The way you win in Oakland Mills is to go around and whisper untruths about your opponent and get people riled up. So it is not surpr...

Question, "What do you think the job of a Board of Education member is?" Please address the following: 1. What power does the position convey? 2. What is the best use of that power? 3. To whom is the Board of Education member responsible?   Thanks to Corey Andrews for getting the ball rolling! In the simplest terms, the job of a member of the Howard County Board of Education is to provide oversight of the Howard County Public School System. The Board is to provide a "vision," one that is consistent with the will of the people of Howard County, to guide the Superintendent and school system administration. The Board must step in when it sees the school system straying from the goals it has laid out or when it is time to change direction. It is not the Board's job to micro-manage the day-to-day operation of the school system. The Board provides the vision, while the school system administration determines the most effective way to implement it. In cases where an im...