Lessons Learned/Questions Still Unanswered

This has been a long couple of weeks. Many of you are aware that I served on our charter school's board for the past two years and recently resigned my position. I would like to walk you through the events leading up to these moments.

Several years ago, our parent population had issues regarding our Head of School (HOS). In an effort to make their thoughts known to the board, a serious governing restructure took place whereby new board members were elected, new by-laws were written, a grievance process was created and all new committees were formed. I was part of this process and assisted primarily in the committee creation. Additionally, a new HOS was hired with processes and procedures in place to review him/her annually so that going forward if there were issues, people had somewhere to go.

Initially, I ran for and served on our school's Accountability Committee. I served as its first Parent Co-Chair. Our Accountability Committee is different than other charter school's. It serves as an oversight for the Board and Operations to ensure everyone is doing their job properly. It seemed like a logical step 2 years later to run for the board. I knew and understood the governance structure, the role of the board and wanted to be a part of this continued new direction. It seemed that we were finally on our way to becoming the "great school" we all thought we were destined to be.

Over the two years, we spent a lot of time mired in the creation of processes to keep this new, large governance structure in place. I served as a liaison to two committees, Fundraising and Community Relations. Many weeks, I had a meeting EVERY SINGLE night of the week and never put my own kids to bed. I believed what I was doing was really going to make a difference.  In Board Meetings, we could argue for 2 hours over how a Parent Survey would get done but then have no time for the big picture items that I really wanted to do - Strategic Planning, Policy Review, Budget and how best to spend all those Fundraising Dollars that I had worked so hard to raise.

In the process of reviewing the HOS this year, it became clear that, while the school was functioning operationally; the kids were learning, parents were predominantly happy; there were other issues surrounding our HOS. When presented with the annual evaluation, the HOS became clearly agitated. What has happened since then can only be described as an uprising.

Facebook exploded - parents were saying things on there that only could have come from someone who had attended the executive session where the HOS received her review from the board. Board Members were being threatened by parents via e-mail and Facebook. It became clear that we, the Board, needed to meet sooner than we had originally intended.

A "flash mob" of parents and staff attended a board meeting that was intended to be a continuation of the HOS Evaluation. The parents didn't understand why the HOS had received a less than favorable review. The Board could not explain. About 30 parents and staff members stood up and told the Board why they thought the HOS should stay.

Interesting points that were made - "If she hasn't done anything egregious, can't you work it out?" Seriously, is this your high water mark? We just want someone who isn't a child molester as our HOS? Don't we want more than that? Don't we want someone who can take us above and beyond as our children are capable of doing? AND "You should get the community input before making a decision this big." I am sorry, do you understand the concept of representative government? We were elected to make these decisions on your behalf as you would have no contact with the HOS as a board member.

Not one person at that meeting stood up and said "We elected these people to make these types of decisions for us, we should trust them." It was very disheartening. Other things that were never asked - "How do all these people know this information?" "What type of person would allow their review to go public?" Does anybody else wonder this? I do. What do we care more about: our job/position on the board or having an amazing school that teaches our amazing kids to do amazing things? I know where my priorities lie.

It was after this meeting that I felt it necessary to resign - if all these people felt this strongly, maybe I could no longer represent them properly. It hadn't been my intention to cause another uprising. We were finally healing the scars from the last one and I was just wanting to move us into the  next phase.

Since then, I have heard from many of you saying you do trust me to make the right decisions and that while you don't understand the issues surrounding the HOS review, you know I would never do something to hurt the school. Those kind words have meant more to me than you can imagine. Sometimes I wonder, did I give up too soon? Of course, there is no going back, I can only hope that we can move forward from this.

Nasty comments and backlash continue to occur from this event. Come June 30, the HOS contract expires and a new board is installed sometime shortly thereafter. Whatever they decide to do going forward, they need the community's support. We can only succeed if we all work together. Trying to take each other down, will take everyone down.No good will come of that.

Board Resignation

Two years ago, I was elected by this community to serve on the Governing Board of Directors. I have always taken this honor very seriously and acted to be what I believed, in the best interests of Stargate. It became clear to me at last night's board meeting that my opinion does not necessarily reflect many of those in the community; for that reason, I resign my position effective immediately.

This has been a long, arduous journey for myself and my family. We appreciate your respect in this situation.

Serious Shutdown? Serious Disappointment

Seriously? A Shut Down? They can't figure this out? Makes me sad, disappointed, and even angry. Does anyone in Congress actually care about real people or just their own ideologies?

I blame both parties. The Democrats should have taken care of this before the end of the year when they had control. Instead, they left the hard choices up to "later". Well, later is here. The Republicans are allowing themselves to be beholden to their right wing constituency. They believe they were sent with a "strong message" from the electorate. Yep - the message was "we aren't all that thrilled with what we have, so let's see what you got." The message was NOT "we think you, the Republicans are awesome and can do the job." Will they ever figure this out?

I say to both parties, "get over yourselves".No one wins if the government shuts down.  You have 7 hours to get this done, now go to work like we asked you to. If they cannot compromise, I think that the members of Congress, the President and his staff shouldn't get paid and all the other government workers still go to work and get paid. Then we can see how long it will take for the politicians to work out a deal.

Feeling Frustrated

Two years ago, we voted for Change. Change to the system, change of the current government system and a change to the ideals that the government in power was supposedly standing for.  What have we seen?

Health Care Reform that not many people supported. I do believe that President Obama believed that solving the Health Care Crisis would do much to alleviate the Economic woes in this country and I don't doubt that our soaring Health Care Costs and increasing number of un- and under-insured are a part of the reason our economy is in the mess it is in. Most Americans are very weary of this plan and are unsure how this will affect them. Will my taxes go up? Will my coverage go down?  I don't know and I haven't been able to find a good source of information about how this new program will affect my family.

An over $600 billion stimulus package that most Americans do not feel the benefits of. We see the construction signs on the side of the road, but few of us actually have anything to show for it; especially in our pocketbooks.  Instead, we continue to see a shrinking of the middle class and a widening gap between the "haves" and the "have nots."

It is very frustrating to me, as a life-long social liberal, fiscally central-liberal to watch this all play out. I am concerned by the lack of progress we have seen over the last 20 months.  Yet, I am also concerned about the so-called "Tea Party." This group claims to have no social agenda, yet many of their candidates when questioned support an extreme social agenda.  This does not seem to be a viable alternative to me.

My husband can close his social side and vote for what he considers more "fiscally responsible" candidates. I however; cannot. I cannot vote for someone who is pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and wants to remove evolution from school curriculum. I also cannot vote for someone who wants to continue to spend our hard-earned tax money on programs that just do not seem to be working.

So, here I sit 6 weeks from election day unsure where my loyalties lie. It is very frustrating.