Tonight was the School District Board meeting in Richmond
Besides meeting the chaperones for the trip, we also got to sit in on the School Board meeting. It was interesting to see how the Board transitioned quickly in some areas and dreadfully slow in others. I was a little concerned after a measure was brought up to release a certain program over from the district to the county offices. A number of people spoke against the measure saying that the Board should postpone the ruling until more information was gathered and released to the community. However, the Board ruled against the speakers and voted on the measure anyway. It seemed that the Board hadn’t paid any attention to what was said at all.
Despite this concern, the Board did a fantastic job of recognizing the Ivy League Connection and its supporters. I felt that I was making the district proud as well as the members of the community. I give my thanks on the behalf of the PENN cohort as well as all of the members of the ILC to the generous donors how give their time and money to helping the students in the WCCUSD. I also give special thanks to Don Gosney, Madeline Kronenberg, and Charles Ramsey for making this program available.
It can be easy, Mike, to walk into a meeting like this and make judgments based only on what you see and hear at the meeting. Many people never get a chance--or dont’ make the effort--to check into things more carefully.
ReplyDeleteThose people who rose to speak against this measure were the attorneys who are suing the District and have already collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and they were arguing that the District continue to spend millions of dollars to support 2-3 students--and their ongoing fees. The District chose--not to ignore those students--but to minimize the overhead expenses to the taxpayers and run the program more efficiently.