I believe the entire problem here is one of process. The way the board gathers public input on difficult issues needs to change, and the involved, attentive
residents of this district should help and support the board in doing that. The processes used in decision making need to be more transparent and understandable. Criteria must be determined and then adhered to. More budget problems are coming. The good news is that Monona Grove has been very lucky to be one of the last districts in Wisconsin to face these problems. This means there are many districts who have already been through this. There must be at least a few districts who have engaged the public effectively, such that when the final decisions were made, most people felt like they understood the decisions and also believed their concerns were heard even if they did not agree with the final outcome. Until these process issues are addressed, this toxic dynamic will continue.
I too believe communication between the board and the community is problematic. Please comment on ways that this might be improved!
23 comments:
Very well put.
Here's more $.02 from me. I hope the new superintendent spends a fair amount of time meeting with people one-on-one. It's easy for him to know who the formal leaders are (chamber of commerce people, leaders of various community groups, etc.), so those are easy to identify. But in particular, he needs help in figuring out who the "tribal" leaders are. We all know our community is somewhat factionalized. Please don't take this in a negative tone. All communities have factions, camps, whatever you want to call them. But in our school community, people have had a hard time moving among and between the groups. They are not as fluid as they would be in a healthy dynamic.
As much as possible, I hope the board puts off addressing specific issues and concentrates on the process problems. With new leadership, there is great opportunity, but the window for optimism about change is short - don't squander it. In particular, the search should begin for districts who have addressed budget cuts in innovative ways. This old way of having the administration generate a shopping list of potential cuts isn't working for us. You must find out what the community values are first. What things, above all else, do we value in our schools? What do we want our kids to leave our district with? Do we value solid skills in reading, writing and math over a diverse experience in many electives and extra-curriculars, or vice versa? I do not mean to candy coat this, because tough choices will be made - we should not have to pick between valuable things, but we must. Those decisions will be less painful and more widely accepted if clear criteria for making them are established by the community first. The whole process needs to take place in public view, not behind closed doors at meetings of the administration. The school board should not have to go it alone with this tough stuff. I think the community would like to help and support the board, but they need to be invited into the process.
My thoughts:
The agendas of all school board meetings and all committee meetings should be posted one week before the meeting on the website. In addition, they should be listed everyweek in the newspaper.
In addition, the minutes of meetings should be posted immediately so that folks can know what happened.
Every week there should be a part of the newspaper where folks can find information about what the school board is doing that week. And how to weigh in.
The superintendent should have a monthly/quarterly column where he does a "state of the district"- not sports, not musicals, not test scores, but what is happening in the district itself.
School Board members should hold monthly "coffees" at local coffeehouse to hear from citizens about issues. You could do two board members at each one and alternate. Listening sessions.
We have had so much of the very small group of disrespecful yellers at the board, that you have closed down any forum for communication out of fear. People have other concerns, and it would be nice to be able to chat about them in a mellow environment.
I have more thoughts- and will keep sending them in. thanks for asking.
- thanks for your ideas.
Good ideas all, but:
Agendas should be posted as soon as they are finalized. It might be difficult to get them into the paper a week before the meeting as they change.
The system requires that minutes from one meeting be approved (and corrected)at the next meeting. The open meetings law prevents approval of the minutes before the next meeting. I don't know how you could get around this one, perhaps posting "unofficial" minutes, but that is also asking for trouble if there are errors.
Yes I think we can and should make better use of our local media for communcations as to what is going on in the district (although it should include a thorough discussion of test scores!)
And coffees are a good idea - monthly may be a too frequent considering the amount of time we already put in to board duties. We have to be careful we don't create a situation where the workload discourages all but those with lots of free time to participate. Nothing wrong with their participation, but we have many other talented people in the district on whos abilities we need to draw.
Peter is right!
We should encourage more than the local unemployed folks to represent us!
Clearly, we need to improve our percentages here.
Not to argue but....
Business Services met 3/25 and 4/23- last minutes posted 2/27.
P&P met 4/26 and 3/26- last minutes posted were 2/20
Ad hoc Athletic met 1/16, 2/6 2/27- last minutes posted were 12/19
And the board itself has met at least three times and the minutes have not caught up.
I understand that minutes may have to be approved, but it should then be live the next morning first thing.
And agendas? A week ahead is not an unrealistic time frame for folks to get the word and decide if they want to participate?
packets-what about board packets
Those are not easy to get....they could be posted.
Don't get me wrong, I certainly agree that minutes should be posted ASAP and that we may be behind. I was just saying that it would be difficult to post them immediatly as was suggested because of the approval process.
the city council puts their packets online now, I believe. The board could do that too....
I personally don't care if packets are online or not. I'm not going to read them, but I do look at agendas.
This thread was started on the subject of communication, and email or documents on the website are not the best forms of communication. There is little personal interaction, and without it, words can be misinterpreted fairly easily. The speed and volume of the internet can suplement communication well, but there first needs to be a personal connection and trust.
I think there are a few people in Monona who will not allow this trust to happen, and will critizize the board no matter what happens. The board should not see this as a failure.
I think the personal conncetion ideas in the above posts (meeting "tribal leaders," or "coffees") should be a greater focus then the technical ones.
Its my impression that there isn't much demand for the packets - and the decision to put them on line should be made by balancing the concerns of cost (the administrative time required) vs. the demand. If the demand is greater than I think it is, then perhaps we should change how we do this.
Informal meetings as suggested may be a more fruitful path.
The above rant is a perfect example of someone who does not want to see the acrimony end. It might feel good, but it is not helpful and it needs to stop. The same thoughts and experiences could have been conveyed in a much more reasonable manner. A good place to start would be to stop cyber-shouting with the cap key. I also encourage people to ponder what may motivate Mr. Kitslaar and other board members they disagree with. It is rather simple-minded to just assume some sort of nefarious motivation. It is also simple-minded to constantly assume conspiracy. Obviously they are not in this for the money. While most of us are home having dinner with our families, mowing our lawns, watching TV and helping our kids with their homework, they are slogging through an endless schedule of meetings. Try to think a little more deeply about the dynamic unless, of course, you have thought the last few years were a real blast and want to see it go on and on.
However, I do think the board packets should be made available as pdf files. It's not that much work. Confidential materails can still be left out (personnel stuff and other things pertaining to closed sessions.) This is not an uncommon practice and it would go a long way to helping rebuild trust. Not doing so does give the appearance that the board is trying to hide something. If the city of Monona can do it, the district can too.
Thanks for the suggestions. I will have some conversations to see what can be fit in to the system. I would like to know how many people would be regularly interested in the board packets. There will be costs involved and we need to consider that against the demand.
It does not matter-how many.
The public feels that YOU GUYS are not honest, trustworthy.....so you must be open to a fault where you can.
Peter, leave the scientist in you behind for a minute and understand that the public has a right to this information. Your cost vs. demand analysis is poppycock.
If you are truly trying to restore a trust in this body, you should be tripping over yourself to encourage that this information be made available!
In the time that you would waste trying to formulate a demand vs. cost calculation, you could have already:
1. Made the request that these packets be available
2. Trained the appropriate secretary in how to scan said materials (Max time once packet is prepared should be under 10 minutes, depending on scanner quality)
3. Showed said secretary how to post it to the web from the file scan.
This is not rocket science, so please don't try to make it so. Even us commoners who can't claim to be scientists can figure this out.
On another idea for communication-how about we have a super who follows-up with people when they have the guts to come to a board meeting and speak their peace.
Instead of finding reasons that there is something wrong with the person.
HECK!
SEND anyone who shows up to a board meeting a ty note from the super or brd president.
"It does not matter-how many.
The public feels that YOU GUYS are not honest, trustworthy.....so you must be open to a fault where you can."
Here is more shouting with the capitalize key. The thought is extremely important (probably the single most important thought anywhere on this blog), so take a minute to express it in a non-confrontational, supportive manner so it gets heard! Isn't that what you want? If an idea is worthy, it can be calmly and thoughtfully expressed.
Lily,
Tell that to the Board, please. Since any reference to names is promptly deleted from this blog, we won't use names. However, I have personally attended Board meetings where public speakers were laughed at. Unbelievable that this behavior from the Board is tolerated. I witnessed one lady actually ask a Board member if he could reserve his laughter until she was done speaking.
This Board needs some shouting at, Lily.
Yes, the board has a major responsibility in this dysfunction too. The process, such as it was, in this principal thing was a mess and people certainly ended up not feeling as though they were heard. But shouting at them will not help. It only causes a body like that to put up walls and stop listening. This entire dynamic is not unlike parenting. When my kids and I were/are upset with each other (and sometimes it is their fault and someitmes it is mine) we never get/got anywhere until the shouting stops. until the blaming stops. until we try to understand why the other is behaving the way we are behaving. Call a board member and ask to have coffee - just you and them. If bad stuff has gone down personally, offer to put it in the past. Talk to them like a real person. Try to understand and try to be understood. There are very few evil people in the world. I can
not stop another person from being unreasonable, from shouting, from belittling. But I can refuse to do it myself, and until I do that, I cannot expect the other person to do that either. This isn't hippy dippy crap - it is what needs to happen. Swords need to be laid down because this will end up hurting our kids and nobody, not even any of the board members wants that. How lucky that we all have that in common.
Lily,
I hope that you are kidding! Coffee with some of those Board members? No way. Not in a million years.
I am too busy making sure that my kids get a good education. No thanks to them! I wonder, Lily, if you hang out in these schools ever? Have you been there lately?
It is no longer about the children for this Board, Lily. It is soley about the politics. When the Board can't address the issues in a particular grade in Monona for fear of fallout from CG parents, it is a sad day. These Board members are out on blogs saying that parents who address the Board fail to remember that they won't get action if their concern doesn't relate across the district.
Sad way to do business, don't you think? They lost sight of the kids a long time ago. Right about the time that the district's test scores started taking a dive. Check out DPI - or leaf through last summer's Madison Magazine issue. MG is no longer a sought-after school district for many of these reasons. Perhaps this has something to do with declining enrollment figures?
The Board clearly was not prepared to deal with the decline this school year being as steep as it was. And they had no idea that it was going to be as extreme as it was, since the population projections didn't indicate it. HELLO?!?!?!? The way things are going, it will be interesting to see what happens with enrollment next year, even with the introduction of 4k.
You can drink all the coffee you want Lily. I reserve my coffee time for people that I respect and who respect me in return. I certainly don't count the Board in those numbers.
Lily,
I hope that you are kidding! Coffee with some of those Board members? No way. Not in a million years.
I am too busy making sure that my kids get a good education. No thanks to them! I wonder, Lily, if you hang out in these schools ever? Have you been there lately?
It is no longer about the children for this Board, Lily. It is soley about the politics. When the Board can't address the issues in a particular grade in Monona for fear of fallout from CG parents, it is a sad day. These Board members are out on blogs saying that parents who address the Board fail to remember that they won't get action if their concern doesn't relate across the district.
Sad way to do business, don't you think? They lost sight of the kids a long time ago. Right about the time that the district's test scores started taking a dive. Check out DPI - or leaf through last summer's Madison Magazine issue. MG is no longer a sought-after school district for many of these reasons. Perhaps this has something to do with declining enrollment figures?
The Board clearly was not prepared to deal with the decline this school year being as steep as it was. And they had no idea that it was going to be as extreme as it was, since the population projections didn't indicate it. HELLO?!?!?!? The way things are going, it will be interesting to see what happens with enrollment next year, even with the introduction of 4k.
You can drink all the coffee you want Lily. I reserve my coffee time for people that I respect and who respect me in return. I certainly don't count the Board in those numbers.
It is sad alirght. How sad that you believe yourself and others incapable of change, or putting the past in the past and attempting a new way of doing business. I am sure it is very difficult for you to stay engaged given your grim outlook and lack of any optimism.
I, too, am very worried about Monona Grove and Monona. The only hope is to work with the current board. It cannot wait until more new members are elected, and I refuse to believe this board is not more than a little freaked out about the future and unhappy with process in recent times. I think we all, including the board, need to distinguish between behavior that is helpful and behavior that feels good in the moment. I have seen the latter type of behaiovr win out again and again, both among some citizens and among some board members. I do not believe what we all want is so very different among most of us, and it is the processes, or lack of them, that is causing all of this ill will.
As for reserving your time for people you "respect," well, maybe a career in diplomacy is not for you. Some of he toughest yet most important conversations in life happen between people who have an acrimonious history. They only happen when they have a common goal, which happily we do. We all want a strong, healthy, high achieving school dstrict. If you believe the majority of the board doesn't want that, maybe it is has all been too much for you and you need to let some others pick up your torch for awhile.
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