Local education afficionados, here is an example of your teachers' union and all the wonderful things it's doing. This is also the biggest news story not covered...er.... anywhere that I've seen this morning. And that's a shame.
So the HCPSS would like to submit a four year, $30M grant under the Federal "Race to the Top" program to enhance teaching resources and directly benefir about two dozen county schools, including those that are chronic poor performers and/or those with large percentage of free and reduced meal price (FARM) students. In other words, poor schools. Starting with Superintendent Foose, HCPSS officials feel very positive about receiving the award. And you can see more about this-- in fact, the video of the Board of Education meeting about this yesterday-- here.
Sounds terrific, right? Not so fast, my friends! The grant can't be submitted yet because the HCEA has to sign off on the application. So enter Paul Lemle, HCEA President, to explain his..errr.... his board's.....err, the membership's problems with the grant. Although, well, y'see... the problem really isn't with the grant! Paul's kinda annoyed that teacher evaluations are based so much on standardized test score results, and unless that changes...well, he's not going to support any RttT stuff. (You may remember I posted about this last week)
The definition of selfishness and shortsightedness.
So all of this went on for about another hour and a half! During which, BOE members showed their basic lack of understanding about how to write a grant (Ms. Vaillaincourt) and lack of ability to dress properly (Mr. Dyer), as well as their ability to spew words from their mouth for three minutes and say absolutely nothing (Mr. Meshkin). Great stuff.
The outcome is that a motion was put forth at the meeting to have the Superintendent, on behalf of the HCPSS, negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the HCEA to make the union feel all comfy-cozy that the system is really going to work with them on the teacher evaluation issue. The understanding would then be that Lemle would sign off on the grant. The motion failed. Incidentally, Ms. Siddiqui, why would you abstain from voting on this motion? I believe, in retort, that I shall now abstain from voting for you when I go to the polls between now and Tuesday. So there! Don't worry, you'll still win, I'm sure. Though maybe you shouldn't.
After the vote the Superintendent, who was pretty clearly annoyed by all the nonsense, said that she would continue to negotiate with HCEA towards a memorandum of understanding that would allow HCEA to sign off on the grant.
So there we have it. And this, boys and girls, is why sometime in Howard County, we can't have nice things. Because there's some single minded fool or ship of fools with an outlier's agenda who is willing to throw a wrench into things.
The last chapter has yet to be written on this one, true believers. And rest assured I will continue to watch this. Hell, if I could sit through over 2 1/2 hours of a board meeting stream yesterday, I can manage to continue to watch this!
Update, 10:20am: here is a link to an article in the Sun about yesterday's meeting, written by the awesome Sara Toth!
Not surprisingly, The Amazing Meshkin has his own take on the proceedings.
http://www.brianmeshkin.com/2012/11/01/snatching-defeat-for-our-kids-from-the-jaws-of-victory/
Nice to see he's finally admitting that he has magical powers! Previously, his magic had been limited to making all of the money in his string of failed businesses disappear. But imagine what he could do with thirty million dollars!
Posted by: Skeptical | November 01, 2012 at 07:52 AM