From FBN --
Magee: FBISD Community Input On Attendance Zoning Loses Out
Nov, 2007
In an effort to “streamline” the process of deciding school attendance zones, the Fort Bend Independent School District Board voted Monday night to approve the administration’s new proposal, which effectively eliminates the revised Board Policy FC-R, which was amended two years ago to provide three community meetings with the school board.
The plan approved Monday night sets up a building utilization committee made up of nine administrators and NOT ONE PERSON FROM THE COMMUNITY, to meet together, decide what to propose to the board, and without even one parent from the affected zones, will then make a recommendation to the board.
After the committee makes the recommendation to the school board, the administration will then conduct ONLY ONE PUBLIC HEARING, to receive input from affected individuals.
Does this sound familiar to what was done three years ago and farther back? You bet it does....(see link below for more)
Follow this link for more: http://www.fortbendnow.com/opinion/3534/magee-fort-bend-isd-community-input-on-attendance-zoning-loses-out
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FBISDWatch comment: Why would the upper administration team even suggest this to the BOT?
10 comments:
Recent FBN comments:
1 Muckraker - Nov 14, 07:26 PM
“which effectively eliminates the revised Board Policy FC-R, which was amended two years ago to provide three community meetings with the school board.”
Mr. Magee,
Please continue to open up the process and share inside information with the public. I can’t think of any reason for them to reduce public involvement unless it is akin to what happened during the supposedly open bond meetings, which turned out to be a very carefully selected steering group.
Please help keep the process open and the general public/taxpayers/voters involved. I’ve served on a “rubber stamping” committee for the school district. We don’t need these and they are an insult to any thinking person.
Thank you for getting this out to us!
2 Rodrigo Carreon - Nov 14, 08:32 PM
Voter agree that elected officials that fails to work with the public, Must step down ! As a FBISD bond committee member and present board meeting(11/12/07) attendant, I agree with Mr. Magee wording, that the public has to be included for all re-zoning actions. The board has deny public inputs from the previous re-zone plan that left Fresno students divide out for two middle school (Lake Olympia & Christa McAuliffe).
Administrators are un-experience with communities they’re not from or don’t live in. They’ll be directed to follow FBISD zone plans or risk losing job? School district Residents or taxpayer should know their communities and school campuses to be re-zone, of FBISD they pay taxes to.
3 Carlos - Nov 14, 10:14 PM
One more reason why the public should have said NO to the bond. Now we have NO leverage at all. Although I’m not happy about this.
I TOLD YOU SO!
As far as I’m concerned you ALL voted for this when you gave them their Half a Billion Dollars of OUR money. Nows guess what STAN – you helped them get where they are. You and your PRO BOND kiss the rich developers a@@‘s voters can sleep in this pig pen, after all you built it!
l’m putting my child in private school.
more:
4 Carlos - Nov 15, 12:31 AM
Muckraker – “very carefully selected steering group.
Yes a VERY select steering committee to which Mr. Magee was party too and a very integral part of which makes me wonder about his motives NOW? Please share with us Mr. Magee why you are suddenly turning on your pals? I can’t wait to hear this one. Let me get my hip boots on.
5 Muckraker - Nov 15, 07:46 AM
Perhaps an election is coming up. Does anyone have the last several disclosure filings for Magee and the other board members? Do you Mr. Cain have a cross-list of vendors and contributors?
6 anonymous - Nov 15, 08:27 AM
I see no issue with this. This is why we elected them. Communities control the board through the elections. Once elected they are in charge of making the tough decisions. On attendance zoning, the only public input they have or ever will get is from people who don’t want to go where they are being assigned. As I see it I would rather they be making the decisions than many who post on this site.
Carlos — you told us so, I assume you now feel better. I am happy to suffer in the “pen” we built, thanks for making more room.
7 Bob Dunn - Nov 15, 09:14 AM
The topic of this opinion piece is the FBISD Board’s policy toward changing school attendance zones.
I am politely reminding posters to stay on topic or, if you want to discuss something else, compose a suitable letter to the editor and take the topic of your choice to that resulting comment thread.
8 Jimmy Kilpatrick - Nov 15, 11:18 AM
The issue at hand is community involvement. We may elect people to position of trust but open and honest input is required.
Considering parents are limited to three minutes before the board we need public input on zoning. I hope this isn’t common trick or racially based con by the administration since the white population in the district is dropping.
Where are the checks on line Mr. McGee?
this reminds me of the monday bot session where it looked like they were silencing a group of parents from sienna. i had to get what was going on from the houston news.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=5762399
The idea of placing accounting records online for the public is a good one, but it doesn't appear, after recent board votes, that they are headed in this direction.
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9 Muckraker - Nov 15, 04:19 PM
“On attendance zoning, the only public input they have or ever will get is from people who don’t want to go where they are being assigned. As I see it I would rather they be making the decisions than many who post on this site.”
I see anon it is better to not allow the public any input in a democracy, because it will only lead to complaints. I believe Pol Pot would agree with you.
10 Carlos - Nov 16, 02:03 AM
This is just one more example of what we can expect in the future. Less parent input. After all we are “Partners” with FBISD. Now maybe the public will realize we are “Minority” partners at best. At worst – I hate to think about it. One more step towards communism. We’re like those happy little crabs in that pot of cold, hmm warm water – until… and then it’s too late!!!
11 anonymous - Nov 16, 08:35 AM
“I see anon it is better to not allow the public any input in a democracy, because it will only lead to complaints.”
Not what I said. I said input should be at Voting Booth, or better yet running for a position.
Also, they are allowing for public input on what they had determined to be the best plan rather than letting the sqeaky wheel determine the plan.
Rather than spending time listening to parents who will likely not be affected by it they will limit their time to people who will be directly affected by it.
Is it the best plan? No. Is it better? Yes.
12 Jimmy Kilpatrick - Nov 16, 09:04 AM
Facists may be a better term!
13 Muckraker - Nov 16, 10:06 AM
“Is it the best plan? No. Is it better? Yes.”
Sounds like an opinion, but not one those in democratic societies should support. Let’s take for example the national presidential primaries going on. Much of that involves people directly impacted and much positive and negative comments are being exchanged. I don’t think applying your logic in a supposedly open system is effective. Again I’m sure many closed totalitarian systems utilize just such tactics, for them I’m sure the strategy is sound, but not for those paying the taxes and voting.
I support open systems and ongoing discussions, especially if we are not to be hypocrites. Public schools are democratic institutions answerable to the many publics they serve…not elitist closed systems…(is this your version of semper fi?)
i've never seen our form of government characterized this way,
"letting the sqeaky wheel determine the plan."
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14 Muckraker - Nov 16, 10:36 AM
“Not what I said. I said input should be at Voting Booth, or better yet running for a position.”
How does giving voters a very limited choice of hand picked insider candidates give them access to publically addressing concerns in a democracy? Taxpayers have every right to speak up in fair and open forums, that is democracy. I suppose you think China’s actions in Tiananmen square were justified…
15 Rodrigo Carreon - Nov 16, 12:46 PM
Elected official must step forward to open doors for more public input an issues, or step down/back thence take care ofr own personal issues at home. Leadership from more public input.
16 anonymous - Nov 16, 02:00 PM
“Let’s take for example the national presidential primaries going on”
Again, now is the time for public input. After they are elected I do not want them holding public input meeting after public input meeting before they do something. If this is what you want, then why even have elected officials, just leave everything up to public input and vote on every thing that needs to be done.
“Again I’m sure many closed totalitarian systems utilize just such tactics”
Elected officials are not in a totalitarian system.
You should vote for people who will best represent what you want. If that person does not exist, you can either run for the position yourself or wait for the next election.
Officals should be held accountable for their actions. We have the right be kick someone out of office or not elect them should they choose to run again.
17 Anon - Nov 16, 02:25 PM
Muckraker – - seems like an appropriate name based on your comments. You really don’t understand representative government at all, if you think this is how our system operates. “A few elitist candidates?” Are you kidding me? Look at who has run for the school board very closely before you sound off. I don’t think that Rodrigo Carreon would appreciate being called an elitist, or Ann Hopkins, or Noel Pinnock, or Larry Danna, or on and on and on. The truth is any citizen can file and run for the school board, or any other office. Why don’t you give it a shot? But before you do, I think you need to study up on democracy and the representative form of government. I do not understand how a change in an administrative policy, that does not impact anyone negatively is the equivalento of fascism (Jimmy Kilpatrick), Pol Pot (Muckraker) or Communist China in Tianmen Square (Muckraker again) has any bearing on the school board in Fort Bend. You folks need to find a better hobby!!
18 Muckraker - Nov 16, 02:44 PM
“Elected officials are not in a totalitarian system.”
Elected officials are not in totalitarian regimes? That’s an interesting misnomer. Even in the old days of the USSR and currently in China they claim to have elections of party officials by the party, not much dissension with the tanks to keep the public quiet. Yes they do have elections. I can just imagine your system with no town hall meetings or other forums and the very few hand picked insider candidates to give off the facade of a democratic venue….what a wonderful world for the few elites running it, right anon?
So I see your official position is that only the candidates should be seen and heard and not the public. What pseudo-meritocracy BS….have you had a chance to visit and talk with the retired Fidel yet?
Very reminiscent of last days of the Weimar Republic….
19 Muckraker - Nov 16, 04:17 PM
“Tianmen Square (Muckraker again) has any bearing on the school board in Fort Bend. You folks need to find a better hobby!!”
Keeping an eye on people like you anon, anonymous or whatever handle you choose is a great hobby in a real democracy…at least until it’s outlawed by the elites. As for the list of mostly indpendent candidates that lost, the answer is simple. Move towards direct elections through individual districts, which I believe is what one or two of those were advocating during that election cycle.
You also forgot to mention the author of the OP/ED piece we are commenting on, a current board member. Obviously he is very concerned about less public involvement/voice, while you only offer political apologetics with little understanding of schools place in a democracy…yes corporatism is not representative government, but that sounds like your background…
This doesn't appear to me a very healthy course that FBISD is charting.
More:
20 Cheryl Hill - Nov 16, 10:02 PM
What Mr. McGee reports is not surprising; it’s actually more of the same. What everyone seems to forget is that high level employees, regardless of their titles, are just employees; and, the individuals voted on by the voters are just individuals voted into office. We get so caught up in living well that we forget to be vigilant about substance because we get caught up in the fluff of things like the architectural beauty of buildings rather than the substantive quality of the learning. In forgetting, we lose our way, and the result is: The children, who? While we are not looking, our children’s education and what we thought we voted for become hijacked.
21 Kyle Stanley - Nov 16, 11:26 PM
Mr. Magee,
All I can say is that the BOT’s decision to reduce community input on attendance has a chilling effect. First, when ordinary citizens are prevented from taking part in democracy, it reduces the overall scope of community input that is vital to the health and well-being of our educational services. Second, it also has a negative effect on future decisions such as new schools (e.g. placement, naming) as well as diluting the overall perception of the district in the public eye.
In other words, if a school district is going to set a positive example for all of its residents, then it needs to encourage taxpayers who care about education to get involved, not shut them out.
22 Muckraker - Nov 17, 09:02 AM
“In other words, if a school district is going to set a positive example for all of its residents, then it needs to encourage taxpayers who care about education to get involved, not shut them out.”
Kyle,
Please contact the BOT and admins and let them know that you do not support this decision. Get others in your community/neighborhood to do the same. The special interests controlling our current board need to be sent a strong message!!!
“While we are not looking, our children’s education and what we thought we voted for become hijacked.”
Very good point Cheryl!
23 Cheryl Hill - Nov 17, 09:26 AM
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”-Abraham Lincoln
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