Master Plan: We’re All in This Together
Published by Rob Siltanen May 8th, 2009 in AUSD Master PlanAs you may have read in today’s Alameda Journal or seen on Mike McMahon’s website or even noticed on AUSD’s own vastly improved (and improving) website, AUSD is launching a nine month master plan process. The result of the process is to be a master plan setting AUSD’s long-term course for the coming years.
For far too long and far too often, AUSD and Alameda have responded reactively and defensively to the many real challenges our schools face. With the temporary shelter from the storm that Measure H provides, we now have our last, best chance to come together, to be proactive and to move forward strategically. This is it.
We know our schools are the foundation of our community so that we all have a stake in the future. We’ve got to move forward together. Now. Supporters, critics, the engaged, the disenfranchised, and everyone else must join this effort.
On Wednesday May 20 at 6:30 at Haight School, please come to the first (of many) community workshops to listen, learn, talk and think about the future of Alameda’s schools so that together we will build the best master plan we possibly can.
Future workshops will be on Tuesday June 2 at Edison School, on Tuesday August 18 at Wood School, and on dates still to be announced for the fall.
See you on May 20th. Bring a friend or two or three.
“For far too long and far too often, AUSD and Alameda have responded reactively and defensively to the many real challenges our schools face. With the temporary shelter from the storm that Measure H provides, we now have our last, best chance to come together, to be proactive and to move forward strategically. This is it.”
We’ll watch and see how AUSD & the BOE act in regard to the across the board harassment problems and see if the BOE enacts a LGBT anti-harassment curriculum for K-5 only, instead of looking at a new program for the whole district that deals with all forms of harassment. If the current program is failing we should not seek to expand it.
If the BOE goes in the wrong direction we will lose the chance to move forward together, instead we will have years of court battles that benefit nobody but lawyers. If the District has legal means to squander; it should pursue an equitable ADA for all State students, not a legal struggle that keeps our community divided. Everybody needs to be respected even if we disagree with the dogmas of their faith.
You observation of this being AUSD’s last chance and the need for everyone to participate in the process and support the outcome are exactly right.
As the previous comment indicates, the timing of the LGBT curriculum issue could not be worse no matter how it turns out.
At this point, with so many questions regarding the proper scope and balance of the proposed Caring School Community curriculum modification(s) to be sorted through, the best interests of the AUSD and the students would be to start over on this issue with a committee that broadly represents ALL constituents AFTER the restructuring process is complete.
The current path and timing of the proposed CSC modifications is a divisive distraction that has the potential to disrupt the restructuring process and outcome based on a single, important but narrow, issue. That would be a shame for the district and its students.
I’ll be there May 20th!
wow. In ideal terms, I think the BOE should pass this Caring Schools Curriculum and let the objecting parents sue. But the circumstances and timing are terrible as you have all alluded. I am person who takes acting on principle very seriously, but even if I was a parent who objected to this 45 MINUTE A YEAR lesson plan, I could not sue over this considering the hugely negative impact of a law suit. I support the principle of taking one’s cause to court, but because of the dire economic crisis this feels like blackmail. Mike McMahon was quoted in the Chronicle as saying either decision will likely be challenged in court. That is lose, lose. It only takes one person with the means to file a suit, but of course the oppositions has already had outside organizations dedicated to fighting this come speak on their behalf. If the BOE is bullied into a no vote I hope the LGBT community makes a show of having the had the best interest of the whole community at heart all along and opts not to sue even if it should.
“Voting parent “wants to appear even handed, but their reference to BOE going in the “wrong direction” would appear to mean voting for the curriculum because it will a) bring a law suit and b) I also think this person objects to the curriculum because of the last line “Everybody needs to be respected even if we disagree with the dogmas of their faith.” If you think about it that cuts both ways, but empathy for LGBT is not a “faith”, some pejoratively insist on calling it a life style. It’s more like a fact of life and less of a choice to me than choosing a “faith”.
It would be nice if the people of faith would step up to their credo for once and try turning the other cheek.