Accountability. LEAs (local education agency) will be part of the focus of this blog moving forward. I think there is growing concern about the direction of our system here in Kingsport. It is time to talk. No more silence from me.
1. Something to think about as we proceed during the coming months…how do we as the public need to get information from the bureaucratic arm of our local schools systems, specifically here in Kingsport? Much of the information that we get is polished and scraped of anything remotely incriminating. I will have a more in depth post next week about this.
2. Community driven surveys. This is exactly what it means. As a community we have every right as guaranteed by the Constitution. We have every right to petition the government as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. If we feel that promises have been broken or not kept, we have every right to petition our local governing agencies. The idea here is that the community builds, delivers, and compiles the data independently from the school system. These will be similar to building walk throughs. Areas which(as a community) that we feel need to be a focus, those are the areas which are surveyed. “You get what you expect.” Potential surveys will be short, but to the point.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt1-10-2/ALDE_00000223
3. We will also being discussing expectations of administrative conduct towards subordinates, and the consequences (if any) which are written into local board policy. Where are the consequences?
4. Show me the money. It is also time to begin taking a look at the finer points of our local school budgets, i.e meaning looking at itemized lines being spent on benchmark assessments and test prep…and more
5. The potential for more active community participation at BOE meetings. It is time for oversight of the bureaucracy in Central Office. Packed school board meetings have influenced policy in other school systems. After recent elections, our current BOE has a clear mandate to clean house. We expect that. We voted for that. It certainly feels like the motivation to reform Central Office has stalled and even regressed. How do I know that? They all still have a job. The people who shut down our school system. The folks who thumb their noses at normal people. The folks who haven’t been a classroom and/or school in decades. Still there making decisions. We may never have a better time to reform our system.
6. Hiring diversity within our school system. It ain’t happening. There are rules for this….We are hiring only one demographic at the elementary level. They often aren’t people who are African American, and they aren’t men. During most of my years of teaching, my grade level was reasonably diverse(gender, economically, and by race). We were much better because of it.
7. Retaining our best people. The loss of our best employees has slowed, but it hasn’t stopped in Kingsport.
8. Continued discussion about the absurdity of where Kingsport is placing two new elementary schools, especially when we need housing development and infrastructure in high demand areas along our interstate corridors. People in Colonial Heights, Edinburgh, Indian Springs, Cooks Valley, and Eastern Star need to organize and get their people voted onto the BOE and BMA. Those areas are not seeing their tax dollars returned to their communities. Those dollars are being spent on pet projects in other parts of the city. Those aforementioned areas are under-represented in relation to the amount of tax revenue they are providing the city. There is one school in those areas – one. Those areas are the most attractive to prospective middle school families. We are selling out our future by not building in those areas. We will whither on the economic vine as a city with these decisions. Go look at Gray, TN. It is booming. It is along the interstate corridor, and where young people are pouring into. That is what we should be aspiring to be – growing! Does anyone think that elementary schools in Lynn Garden and on the old North campus are going to create sustained growth? No way. As an anology, we are building a Studebaker when we should be working to build F150s and SUVs.
9. This is one which is being kept under wraps. It is a kind of mystery box. Light the beacons. “Hope is kindled.” Stay tuned.
Pro Tip: No taxation without representation.
