If you haven’t read the Toni Konz piece from last night, you need to. It’s all about the school board trying to cover its ass like woah.
Some excerpts:
By now, you have probably read the statement/response that the Jefferson County Board of Education sent on Friday in response to Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday’s assessment of the district’s persistently low-achieving schools in which he compared the lack of progress being made to “academic genocide.”
-SNIP-
I knew each board member had opened my email because of return receipts I had attached to my note, but by Thursday evening, I had only been contacted by three of them – Diane Porter, who had returned my earlier phone call but had not read my email, so I asked her to read my email and then to let me know when we could discuss my questions; Linda Duncan, who emailed to say she could talk later on that night or on Friday afternoon and Chuck Haddaway, who emailed to say he was sick with the flu and would be unable to respond to my questions.
I heard nothing by my deadline of 1 p.m. on Friday from any of the school board members. At 1:04 p.m., JCPS spokesman Ben Jackey called me to tell me that the school board would be issuing a statement shortly and to be on the lookout for that statement.
-SNIP-
As of today (Sunday), only two of the school board members have contacted me in regards to my original email – Linda Duncan and Debbie Wesslund, but neither have elaborated beyond the board’s “unified” statement. I’ve left numerous messages for the others, including Jones, to no avail.
If and when I see or hear any other individual responses to my questions (either directly or indirectly) from other school board members, I will be sure to let you know.
The best part is that David Jones completely ignored Konz, saying a unified response was important. Only to share his personal opinion the next day when public pressure was mounting. (In other words, after he got Donna’s approval and consulted his PR execs.)
The school board is acting like Donna Hargens is the boss, folks, and it should be the other way around. People need to start holding these elected individuals accountable. Jefferson County students will remain screwed if board’s feet are never held to the fire.
There is no reason someone on Hargens’ staff should be speaking on behalf of the school board.
1 response so far ↓
1 J. Bruce Miller. // Feb 18, 2013 at 2:07 pm
I agree that David Jones’ first involvement with a public ‘curfuffle’ wasn’t particularly encouraging. As a matter of fact, I would have preferred to see him criticize BOTH the State Superintendent and whomever the local goober was who wound up ‘namecalling.’ They ‘both’ sounded like one of their students who’s attending one of the disqualified schools.
David Jones needs to ‘take charge’ here and act like a board member is required to act for a public company (of which he has distinct familiarity due to the Sarbanes/Oxley Act) and move with dispatch by requiring Ms. Hargens to ‘toe the line.’
He’s the only one on the board with the clout to do it, and it needs to occur immediately.
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