During the HCEA report to the Board last night, President Paul Lemle began with the observation that there had been a failure to communicate between the employees' union and the school system. He placed the blame for that failure on himself. Then, near the close of the meeting, Board Member Frank Aquino addressed that communication failure, took exception with Mr. Lemle's shouldering of the blame, and suggested that there were communication breakdowns all around. "Remember, Paul, I first heard about this proposal in a phone call from you."
Ann De Lacy, a former president of HCEA and current Board of Education candidate, spoke during the afternoon session's public forum about communication failures. She noted the major imbalance of stakeholder representation on policy committees, which are dominated by central office staff. Ms. De Lacy argued for more representation from teachers, parents, and students on these committees. Failure to adequately involve teachers, parents, and students in planning for a variety of school system policies and programs has resulted in taking adult-centered approaches to things which ought to be child-centered.
Mr. Lemle's and Ms. De Lacy's testimonies tapped into a feeling I've had throughout my observation of the process to reform the Howard County middle school program. Several times during presentations from central office staff on this program, I thought, "Why didn't you say that during the initial proposal presentation?" I learned during the work session that a group of principals began working on reforming the middle school program two years ago. Two years! Dr. Janet Siddiqui said she remembers discussing such reforms since 2007. That's over four years ago! Yet, as a parent who reads the local papers, subscribes to the HCPSS newsletters, and actually watches the Board of Ed meetings, I only heard about this major reform a few months ago.
So, am I looking in the wrong places? Should I be talking to different people? Or should HCPSS do somethings differently in the way they communicate with the public?
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It could be that the discussion was phrased in a way that your radar didn't pick up the conversation. If they were talking about how to make more time for PE rather than getting rid of reading, maybe, you just didn't recognize what was really going on. Or the discussion could have begun way before you were paying attention and now that the reality of the whole thing is out there, the press is just picking it up and the talk has shown up at Board meetings and other places where you connect.
ReplyDeleteI just served on a huge, incredibly diverse committee that made a wide ranging effort to involve others in the discussion. I guarantee you, when our report comes out, someone will say, "nobody asked me."
Please don't think I am minimizing your concerns. It is just that there are a zillion things being talked about, discussed, and considered at any given time. It is tough to catch it all. Sure every public group can always do more to communicate, every citizen can do more to be informed, and yet, someone is going to miss the key piece of information they need to get into the loop. You just hope that someone else caught it for you.
Thanks, IP, I appreciate your comment. I agree with everything you said, and I think it's important for HCPSS to do more to communicate and partner with stakeholder groups. Also, I think HCPSS should think about communicating differently, as well.
DeleteI spent the day sick on the couch, and just with my trusty smart phone I learned that the Howard County Government is seeking applications for the local consumer affairs board. I didn't seek that info out, it came to me via Twitter. I think HCPSS could at least mirror the county government's use of Twitter and Facebook.