Gracious response from Trustee, more thoughts on communication with parents

I got a very nice phone call from DISD Trustee Ms. Bernadette Nutall in response a letter I wrote to the Board.   She reminded me that she has been calling attention to the possible school closings in her district since March 2011.  In fact, she had her first community meeting with constituents in her district that month.  She had more in Fall 2011, and had community members coming to one of the Fall Board meetings to speak against the school closing because of them.  (I remember this, but don't remember which one it was.  I can look that up if anyone wants to know.)

She went on to remind me (I remember this, too) that she asked that all bond projects in District 9 (her district) be put on hold until the school closing issue was decided.  She did not want to spend money on schools that were ultimately going to be shuttered, even if the money came from the bond budget and not the General Operating fund budget (the one the cuts are having to come from).

She is right.  The issue of schools closing is not new, and both her and Mr. Cowan (District 7) have brought up the topic in Board Briefings on multiple occasions.  I am glad she reminded me of that, and that is why I am posting her response here.  This needs to be acknowledged.


It also highlights, though, that the current system of communication with parents is still very hard to manage.  Ms. Nutall, who has a full-time job and young children, spent a great deal of time organizing and attending meetings to give her community a heads up so they would not all be blind-sided by the school closing issue.   In spite of all her work and sacrifice, there still were many who were surprised.  This bothers me.  Her effort and dedication were spot on - that inspires me!  What bothers me is that although she worked the system as hard as she could, the system still failed for some people.

I hear that "Good Communicator" is the #1 attribute the public wants in a new Superintendent.  This bother me, too.  (Aren't I hard-to-please today?  Sorry.)  This bothers me because here we are again "waiting for Superman."  We have serious systemic problems, and we need to change the system.

In one of my first posts, I suggested that the ultimate solutions to communication will need to come from the community.  In my letter, I suggested the Board needed to find the solution.  Maybe the real answer lies in both.