Questions and Illusions

Tom Coale in his blog HoCoRising wrote this yesterday about citizen engagement in the budget process:

To allow for meaningful engagement, you need two things - 1) Clarity of issues, 2) Results. If you can't explain the process and underlying factual basis for decision-making, engagement is an illusion. Any engaged citizen will quickly find that their budget request will have more shelf-life if they can recommend corresponding revenue or budget-savings to pay for it. The next, much more important, element is showing citizens that engagement works. Time is valuable and engagement can quickly turn to frustration without some evidence that time was well spent. We will not agree on every issue, but we need to show citizens how their participation affected the process.

I am going to reframe that in terms of the School System and the Model Schools initiative:

To allow for meaningful engagement, you need two things - 1) Clarity of issues -- If you can't explain the process and underlying factual basis for decision-making, engagement is an illusion.

Question: Do you feel the Board of Education and Central Office have adequately explained the process and underlying factual basis for moving to the Model Schools initiative?

2) Results -- The next, much more important, element is showing citizens that engagement works. Time is valuable and engagement can quickly turn to frustration without some evidence that time was well spent.

Question: Do you feel that meaningful citizen engagement was encouraged? Do you feel that your efforts in trying to communicate your views were treated with respect? Was your time well spent?

We will not agree on every issue, but we need to show citizens how their participation affected the process.

Question: Do you feel that your participation affected the process?

In summary:

1) Do you feel that we have enough data to make this change, and was that data clearly and fully explained to stakeholders?

2) Was stakeholder engagement actively encouraged, respected, and treated as meaningful input?

3) If we elect the Board of Education, aren't we entitled to this level of citizen engagement?

If you continue to have serious questions, make your concerns known. In addition to writing the Board of Education, please write County Executive Ken Ulman, and the County Council. Now that County Government has stepped up to tout this initiative, it means they are also responsible to citizens for its implementation.

Is citizen engagement in the school system real? Or merely an illusion?

It's time to find out.

Posted with Blogsy

Comments

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...

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...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog