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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Is it time for a public meeting on the schools situation?


A brief post by Renata on her blog yesterday (see here) got me to wondering if it's time for Plainfield residents and taxpayers to have their own public meeting on the schools situation.

Frustration among attendees at Board of Ed meetings is palpable, and many then turn to the forums to vent their feelings, exchange bits of information (and MISinformation), and grumble about the state of affairs in the school district.

What Renata proposes is an editorial board meeting for the community.

I suspect the Courier is not likely to entertain an 'editorial board meeting' (EBM) that could likely involve a hundred or more residents for two reasons, 1) a mass meeting cannot really be understood as an 'entity', the point of view of which the editors could conceivably endorse (not to mention that there would likely be several points of view expressed), and 2) EBM's are ipso facto conducted at the newspaper's offices, which could not accommodate a very large crowd of people.

That doesn't mean this may not be the perfect time for a public meeting to air the issues.

As a candidate, Renata is in a perfect position to call for, and moderate, such a meeting.

It would be a sign of her commitment to getting to the bottom of things and could possibly help energize her school board campaign.

Plus, it would certainly be newsworthy -- and that means that the Courier would send a reporter to cover it.

And afterwards, they might even write an editorial.

Is it time for the issues to move off the online forums and away from Board of Ed meetings, where the public is not in charge?

What do you think?


-- Dan Damon [follow]

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I received a memo from the PPS Superintendant to parents and its message is quite different concerning the meeting with the media. He states that he met with them a several months ago where the article says they met in Somerville on Tuesday. His memo to parents is an extention of how he does NOT answer questions when asked directly during BOE meetings or any other time.

Anonymous said...

I think we should close down the schools, and send our children to either charter schools or schools in the surrounding areas.

Let these kids get an education instead of Plainfield turning out kids who barely know how to speak the English language, or have skills to help them get ahead in life.

I keep hearing how Plainfield loves their kids. HA! I say to you. If you did, this school system would not be in this mess.

Dan said...

@ 9:17 -- I have the memo too. It seems to have had a strange distribution. Some say it went home with kids. A teacher told me they saw it at the Bravo supermarket on W. 7th, but no copy was ever distributed to faculty.

Not to mention it was addressed 'Dear Colleague' -- now who would that be?

You may be misreading the letter about the timing -- 'Several months ago, I requested to meet' -- suggests to me the Supt is suggesting it took them a long time to get around to him, not that they met with him months ago...

RASRAHMATAZ said...

Hey Dan -- I've been at an all day conference and I'm just catching up on all the blogging matters...

This is Brilliant! I will start the PLANNING Immediately.

Can I count on you to help coordinate this effort???!!! Would love to have your expertise!

Anonymous said...

There were two letters.One was sent by e-mail to all school staff and the other to parents.

Anonymous said...

Fire him.

Anonymous said...

Send him packing, along with his girls from florida. He is a hustler. Plainfield you've been had. They are laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of the children.

Anonymous said...

what a joke... a real joke.. I went to Mr Gallon to have a paper signed to have my daughter go to a school out of district and he claimed he did not get the letter I wonder how cause I saw the secetary place it on his desk. Then I called to ensure he received it. I even had a copy of the letter date and time stamped from their office. Strangely it arrived signed by him 3 weeks after the closing date for applications. I would love to see his big head on a platter. As far as I am concerned he can kick rocks...I bet his kids would not attend these public schools.