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West ups the ante
04/29/2008 9:10 PM by John M
In line with recent discussion, this autumn’s school board races look to be feisty. Style Weekly’s Sabers Rattle, Missiles Launch In Schools Fight has more on Keith West’s tattered relationships with many of the other members and his move to rebuild the Board:
“Quality candidates will be running in every district,” West writes, warning that “of course, as always, money will be an important factor, and the issue has been addressed. I would imagine that, unless some wealthy benefactor intends to buy your seat, significant spending will be necessary for a competitive race.”
So who is running for school board in the 7th district?
I realize this is unpleasant business. I rank it right up there with having to take my toilet apart this week to remove what turned out to be a popsicle stick my three year old decided to flush.
I don’t see what other options I have other than to go along. The details of that audit should horrify- contracts given to relatives, procurements issued as emergencies to get around rules, large contracts broken into smaller parts for the same reason… Millions of dollars that you pay to the city in taxes.
And the Board shrugs. People who should have known about such things retained in $90,000/year jobs.
My reward for declaring such things unacceptable has been ostracism. They’ve tried to shut off the information flow so that I don’t know what’s going on.
That’s not how open government works. I will find out what’s going on, let the public know, and hopefully end up with board members who understand their role and take it seriously.
By withholding information, the superintendent and gang robbed West’s and Wolf’s constituents of representation. It doesn’t matter who likes/dislikes who. For example, Lisa Dawson received the information from the superintendent therefore can represent her district well. So when West is not sent the same info who does it ultimately harm? Seems illegal to me…and petty. Jewell-Sherman you’re not in high-school.
I had heard rumors that this was going on … Dawson, Sherman and Braxton decided who they “liked” and who they didn’t “like” and then they made sure that the rest of the “board” kept “secrets” from Wolf and West. Pathetic. Worse that pathetic — petty and stupid. We cannot get rid of these people fast enough. This doesn’t sound like government — this sounds like a high school clique at some girls’ school!
This makes me appreciate Wolf (a lot) and West all the more — imagine what it has to be like to suffer such asinine foolishness!
GRrrrrr….. This really burns me up! Bridges, Dawson, Braxton, Carr, Smith, Wilson …… ALL KNEW and ALL CONDONED treating their colleagues and the people who live in the 3rd and 7th districts with such utter disregard.
This is NOT A GAME, people. The Supt. and these “mis”leaders allowed their petty politics to deny equal representation to the citizens in the 3rd and the 7th.
Sorry folks, I did not receive the audit ahead of time, nor am I aware of other board members who did. I completely agree with the tenants of open government and have done nothing to circumvent that process–in fact, I have beenone of the more proactive board members in promoting regular and open communication (several 7th district residents are on my 1st District e-mail list and I welcome anyone else who wants to join to drop me a line at bridgesjk@aol.com.) However, Mr. West is right that the procurement audit should lead to swift, serious, action. It has and it will. In addition to the 20+ audit findings that have already been implemented, our Finance & Operations chief has brought in a temporary specialist (filling a vacant position, so it’s not costing additional money) to reengineer the entire procurement function. The board’s Legal, Legislative, and Policy committee is working on the policy changes that need to be implemented, the Internal Audit committee has put an oversight framework in place and is continuing to make changes–more are coming. I can’t change what happened during the years before I joined the board that led to these kind of audit results, but many of us are working very hard to make the systemic changes that will make these functions effecient and effective–and make no mistake, it does take work to produce change. On another note, I thank Mr. West as well for using his name and e-mail address rather than a pseudonym. Honest and open discussion is critical for any organization–RPS is not different.
What’s with the hasty retreat of Jewell Shermann, Braxton and the school’s financial chief? I know this is not breaking news, but no discussion on this blog that I can see.
What are they running from, and better yet, are they hoping to avoid conflict/scrutiny from the public? Yes, the audit has revealed a quagmire!
The mass retreat is more than coincidence, it seems to me.
Did y’all see this. Deborah Jewell-Sherman won the Superintendent of the Year award for Virginia: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-06-0205.html
The article states:
Jewell-Sherman was honored by the group for the school system’s academic improvements, as measured by Standards of Learning test results, during her six years in charge. During that time, the percentage of schools meeting state accreditation standards has risen from 18 percent to 84 percent
I know that when I attended the RTD Forum on RPS late last year, a representative from the Virginia Education Association (VEA) in Northern Virginia made it a point to attend and spoke at length at the progress of RPS. He said RPS had shown more progress towards meeting educational goals than any other school in the commonwealth. I am sorry; I cannot remember his name, although I did take notes which I will try to dig up.