Skip to main content

Disdain Redux

Yesterday's big news was the post from Fatimah Waseem of the Howard County Times that the Chair of the County Council, Calvin Ball, was filing legislation authorizing the Howard County Office of Law to take legal action against HCPSS for lack of cooperation with the County Auditor. This move was approved unanimously by the council and now CB 64-2016 will move forward to a public hearing on September 19th.

Wow.

The County Council was really serious about that audit, but it appears that the school system didn't take that too seriously. This reminds me of the quote from Maryland State representative Terri Hill:

"It seems to me that they treat the public with absolute disdain, and then they go back to try to figure out how to manipulate within the system to treat them with disdain again," she said. "It's just really infuriating that the response we get from the school board as a whole is that there is no problem, and that the citizens and the rest of us must be imagining things."

This should provide some interesting topics of conversation at the next Citizens Budget Review Committee meeting as they attempt to make some headway in examining information which may or may not be forthcoming. I believe the issue of what to do if the school system refuses to cooperate with the committee's requests has already come up.

I wonder why.

In the meantime, I am hearing some disturbing reports of a whole lot of shredding going on at Central Office. I want to stress that this is "through the grapevine" information at this point. I can't verifiy it. But it does seem to be coming from more than one source, and it is persistent. Of course every organization engages in routine shredding of documents. Under ordinary circumstances no one would think anything of this.

These are not ordinary circumstances.

When the County Council is contemplating legal action against the Board of Education due to noncompliance with County Auditor requests, it kind of makes you wonder exactly what is being shredded out there. Possibly a whole lot of things we, as citizens of Howard County, ought to know.

This would be a good time to remind you that there's a school board election in November and that you have a chance to elect candidates who believe in transparency, responsiveness, accountability, and to remove an incumbent who is a contributing member of the team that got us into this mess. Howard County needs your vote. Don't sit this one out.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else.  Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not  chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more