Sunday, August 15, 2010

Dr. Bennett and the coming state takeover

Today we got Karen Frisco's take on the Columbia City presentation by Dr. Bennett and the IDE, which seemed to portend a state takeover of our FAIL schools. Eight years after the initial shock of seeing first hand the situation in the classrooms of my old high school, all I can say is "I told you so". After years of writing to board members, to Wendy, to the papers and in this blog I failed to convince anyone to change course. The Code Blue remonstrance campaign for "Academics not Buildings" had no effect. Maybe I should have been more subtle. Apparently Dr. Bennett was unimpressed with the musical chairs "reform" they just went through. He showed he's not a fool. We'll see how subtle he is if he gets his hands on the FAIL schools.

At the end Karen bemoans the possible fate of our schools under "the governor, his hand picked state board of education and the state superintendent" instead of our locally elected school board. Come on! The "local" FWCS board is hand picked by the superintendent, the teachers union, local building contractors, the Inskeeps and their editors at the JG. The state can't do any worse than the "locals", maybe they can even do better.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree.

The truth shall set you free...... said...

Nice job Code Blue. So many of my friends that had thought about running for school board and president have decided not to...they really think that FWCS is on it's way out and no one even cares. Somehow I do not think that the FWCS school issues are going quite as planned for the Inskeep JG regime...
I read a really sad article in the Waynedale News over the weekend from one of the custodians that was not hired by the new company due to his age and them wanting to pay the man $5/hr...he said he was also told or asked by Dr. Robinson NOT to file for unemployment...NICE
If that is true she is dumber than I thought..

Code Blue Schools said...

You're right, it's very sad. I graduated form FWCS and SSHS, but I don't volunteer that any more. It's no longer a source of pride.

What you say about people not wanting to run for the board is very revealing and disappointing. People have asked me to run but I'm already a two time loser. We've also gotten to like snow birding in South Carolina. Besides isn't there a law about locking up three time losers for life. Three strikes and you're out.

Phil Marx said...

Wendy Robinson, Rusty York, Tom Henry... the list goes on, and the problem is the same everywhere. The government is too big, too powerful, and is out of touch with the vast majority of the people it affects.

Would you expect a man to hear the screams of every ant he steps on as he lumbers down the sidewalk? That is all we are to most elected officials. The individual doesn't matter, only the large groups and the money.

Although I understand the position of betrayed citizens who become apathetic towards the election process, the simple truth is that they are just as much a part of the problem as the corrupt politicians. The system will never improve unless the vast majority of eligible voters pull their heads out of their butts and get involved in the process. Constant vigilence - that is what it takes to maintain a democracy!

Anyway, Evert, I'm very glad to see you've decided to give it another try. You've got my vote already, and I'll be glad to put out a yard sign if you have any.

Good luck on the campaign!
Phil Marx

http://thehudman.blogspot.com/2010/08/evert-mol-files-for-fwcs-board-position.html

Disgusted said...

Karen Francisco also reported how Wendy was able to "hand pick" the teachers at the FWCS Pb (plumbum) schools. All Wendy did was take teachers from one Pb school and hire them at another. I wish Karen or maybe Krista would say how many other non Pb FWCS teachers chose to go to the bottom 11.