Renata bludgeons bloggers, press over PHS production

A Victorian-era truncheon.

Never one to use a scalpel when a truncheon will do, fellow Plainfield blogger and Board of Ed president Renata Hernandez chose on Saturday to lambaste the rest of the blogging community and the press (see here) for failing to attend the 'final run' (I assume she means final performance) of the PHS production of 'Doubt' --

PLAINFIELD we are SOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo Failing our YOUTH with our lack of support! There was neither any of our infamous bloggers nor reporters in sight. In total, there MIGHT have been 15 people! What an absolute miss for this community!

Take that, bloggers! Take that, reporter!

I don't know about the rest of the bloggers, but I felt mugged. (Maybe they don't read Renata regularly; I read each of the blogs every day.)

First of all, who knew?

I am sure Mark Spivey would have put up a story as he has for recent school events such as the Youth Summit and tonight's 'Plainfield on Stage'. I'm guessing no one ever passed the word to him (nor to the rest of us).

If the intent was to support the production, why wouldn't folks have been invited to the dress rehearsal (the next best thing to the actual performance) to write it up BEFORE all the performances in order to give the blog audience a chance to get organized to go see the production?

Plan ahead?

Renata herself has a mixed record on that score. While she beat the drums for weeks for the recent Youth Summit (to good result it seems), she only noticed the fundraiser PAAAS carwash last Saturday on the day of -- and not only that, since I checked the blog shortly before 10 AM and the post was not up, her post appears to have gone up as the carwash was getting under way.

Is that any way to give readers a chance to support a worthwhile activity?

And if 'support' is measured by turnout of parents and community members, what is one to make of the fact that I appear to be the only community person who turned out for the administration's presentation to the Board on restructuring Hubbard and Maxson (see here)?

Meanwhile, today I learned by reading Dr. E=MC² (see here), that after lengthy preparations the Robotics Team showed up the day of the competition to find there was NO BUS TO TRANSPORT THEM.

What kind of support of our kids does that show?

The kids got their bus, but only after it appears (read the blog carefully!) the Interim Superintendent had to intervene to overrule her own administrators.

The Board made nice by inviting the Robotics Team to the April 19 session where the Cardinals boys basketball team and the Cheerleaders were honored. I was there, and I thought it was great the team was recognized (see my post here). Little did I realize it was a sop for their being previously mistreated.

Renata is right about the need for the community to show more support.

But the first responsibility is for the District to show its own support.

Should the Robotics Team have been better treated? What guarantee is there it won't happen again?

Would the student production of 'Doubt' have benefited from more and better ADVANCE promotion? And what guarantee is there future productions will get that promotional help to build support?

But accountability needs to start where it should: with the District administration and with the Board of Ed which is responsible for overseeing it.

I am reminded of the old joke about the man who complained bitterly to God each week the lottery winners were drawn and he did not win. Each week he offered to give a larger share of his winnings as the Lord would direct, if only he would win. Finally, when he got up to offering God a 75% share, a loud voice came from heaven: 'You have to buy a ticket first, dummy!'

Support for the kids begins by taking responsibility for the duty of building that support and then doing it. And don't bludgeon the people who might be helpful in the process.

PS: If you check the District's website out, you will see two news items on Middle School restructuring: Tuesday's Board meeting and Thursday's community meeting.

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• Standing in the Gap --
• 'Doubt':  "Ali, Graves, Nicasio | Remember these names"
• Carwash:  "What's good??!!!"
• Dr. E=MC²:  "This should be our focus" -- Revealing the Robotics Team mistreatment.
• Plainfield Today --
• Restructuring:  "BOE 'restructuring' presentation mystifies"
• Robotics:  "PHS Robotics Team recognized"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Unnamed Plainfield schools official involved in sports equipment fraud against District

An unnamed Plainfield school official allegedly took part in fraud against District.

 
Plainfield's school district was among a number in New Jersey allegedly defrauded by a sports equipment distributor, according to reports in today's Courier (see here), Lehigh Valley Live (see here), the New York Times (see here), and Forbes (see here).

An extended version of the story in the Courier's PRINT EDITION ONLY, lists the gift of golf clubs and a PalmPilot device (correction, only golf clubs were involved -- see 'NJ School #12' on page 19 of the indictment) to an unnamed Plainfield High School official as among the many items in the indictment (see here, PDF) against two of the firm's executives.

The firm would routinely engage in double-billing the victimized school districts -- apparently with the collusion of school athletic officials -- and would recoup the cost of such gifts as those given in the Plainfield case by submitting inflated bills.

In the same way, the firm would recover amounts donated to school fundraisers such as golf outings.

The investigation has been going on for about four years.

While many school officials are unnamed, it would not be unusual for the feds to pressure those who accepted gifts or participated in the fraud into testifying against those indicted in exchange for lesser charges against themselves.

So far, there has been nary a word from the Plainfield school district about who the official involved is (or was), when the alleged incidents happened, or what action has been taken.

Look for the Plainfield angle on this story to expand as the case unfolds.

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• Courier:  "Two indicted in fraud against NJ schools"
• Lehigh Valley Live:  "Executives accused of double-billing schools almost $1M"
  
• New York Times:  "Circle Systems Group accused of defrauding many schools"
• Forbes:  "2 sports gear firm execs charged in NJ fraud"
  
• Federal District Court, NJ:  "Indictment: Kurlander and Abeshaus (PDF)"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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BOE 'restructuring' presentation mystifies

Hubbard Middle School, along with Maxson, must be restructured.

My guess that there would be a large turnout at Tuesday's Plainfield Board of Ed meeting seemed to be confirmed when I arrived at the High School to find a sign taped to the door advising the meeting would be held in the Media Center instead of the Conference Room.

To my surprise, there never seemed to be more than about 15-20 people at the meeting, and I appeared to be the only non-staffer. (Given that 'restructuring Hubbard and Maxson' was on the agenda, I can see why staffers wanted to see and hear what was up.)

After Board of Ed President Renata Hernandez' remarks, the floor was given to Interim Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles to make the presentation.

With a team of district administrators taking the lead, the PowerPoint presentation eventually got under way.

(Advance preparation should have included knowing exactly how to control the room's lighting so that attendees could actually SEE the presentation. As it was, half the slides were so washed out they couldn't be read, until half way through the lighting was finally adjusted. Let's hope the presentation is made available online.)

The slides built up a picture of two Middle School buildings running at half of capacity (or less), and severe overcrowding in almost all of the ten elementary school buildings. There was a slide showing the 'negatives' of having 7th and 8th graders in the elementary buildings, and another proposing the 'positives' of having grades 6-8 together. Call it 'special pleading', since there were no counterbalancing views that I could see.

Mandated by the state to restructure the two Middle Schools on account of continuing failure to make AYP (adequate yearly progress), the proposal seemed milquetoastish, to say the least. Then it was pointed out that the elements are constrained: the principals have tenure and can't be simply tossed aside; the teachers are either at Hubbard or Maxson, and if they are moved (as the Trenton bureaucrats leave as an option), that would mean they would be shuffled from one situation needing restructuring to another situation needing restructuring. Does any of this sound like a recipe for real change?

To be fair, the presenters offered that there would be extra resources available to the teachers and that reporting and support would be reconfigured.

Nevertheless, I was recalling the phrase an old friend used to use: 'rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic'.

I was mystified because I expected to hear a clear plan about what is going to happen in September. What I heard was a list of the problems and issues ... with the unspoken possibility that the outcome will be to undo most of the shifts from the Middle Schools to the elementary buildings, returning these students to the Maxson and Hubbard facilities.

I think the plan to eliminate the Middle Schools had merit (for precisely the reasons it was badmouthed in the presentation), and was maybe one of the best ideas Dr. Gallon had. Too bad it seems on the way to the dustbin of history.

While easing the overcrowding at the elementary buildings can only be beneficial, the taxpayers, the Board and the administration are still left with the puzzle of what to do with the Middle Schools.

Board President Renata Hernandez, however, did offer some interesting ideas in her remarks at the beginning of the meeting, including developing a 'scorecard' for Board members that would include attendance, participation, training, community involvement and committee participation.

Hernandez also wants to institute 'Board Briefs' as a way of informing the public of issues resolved and pending (she noted that approval of minutes is a slow process, up to eight weeks or so).

She also advised that she and Interim Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles would be taping videos to be run on the city's Comcast and FiOS public access channels, as well as an email 'Ask The Board' feature, where questions can be emailed, to be answered at Board meetings (and maybe posted to the Web?).

Lastly, a very effective move -- Hernandez wants to have a podium in place for the 'privilege of the floor' segment, but off to the side, so that the public can address the board AND the public without having to turn backs on attendees.

Simple and brilliant. If only the rest of the District's problems were so easy.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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BOE: Food service on the chopping block?

Logo of the Plainfield school district's longtime
food services provider.

Is the Plainfield Board of Ed putting its longtime food services vendor Sodexo on the chopping block?

That's the hottest rumor from the teachers' lounge this week, and that the rumored move is to make way for another food vendor with whom a longtime Plainfield entrepreneur has a business connection.

And you thought the business of the schools was educating the children?

This is New Jersey, where every stool has three legs: contracts to the politically juiced, jobs to the politically dependent, and whatever the third leg is.

Not to worry, the 'i's will be dotted and the 't's will be crossed, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, the Interim Superintendent is slated to make a presentation on 'restructuring schools' at tonight's Work/Study session. To include Maxson and Hubbard Middle Schools, and Cook Elementary School.

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Board of Ed Work/Study Session

Tuesday · May 10 · 8:00 PM

PHS Conference Room
950 Park Avenue

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• Website:  "Sodexo USA Food Services"

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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State to District: Use $1M in Stimulus funds, or lose 'em

 

With nearly $1 million in Federal Stimulus (ARRA) monies showing as being unspent by the Plainfield school district, the state is warning it that if the monies aren't spent down by August they will be lost.

This is the end of the much-vaunted (and later reviled) ARRA, or Stimulus, program undertaken by President Obama soon after taking office.

The idea was to pump monies into local governments and schools districts to help stave off job cuts and stimulate the flagging economy in the depths of the 'Great Recession'.

Monies allocated to the Plainfield school district and remaining unspent as of April 2011 are as follows (see list by district here) --

PROGRAM	ALLOCATION	UNSPENT	%
IDEA Basic ARRA	$1,948,710	$271,972	14%
IDEA Preschool ARRA	70,038	61,870	12%
T1 A ARRA	1,652,096	955,588	42%
T1 SIA ARRA	105,673	0	0%
TOTAL	$3,776,517	$976,648

The State Department of Education is at pains to point out to local school districts that the ARRA funding does not contain the usual waiver allowing for a drawdown after an 'expiration' date providing programming is already in place and drawing on the funds.  As an article today on NJ Spotlight points out, with ARRA, if its not spent down by August, tough luck (see article here)!

Nor is the school district the only Plainfield recipient of ARRA funds. The city set up a special, separate web subsite to track its Stimulus/ARRA applications and funding (see here). Unfortunately, it has never been updated, so you will not be able to find out a) how successful the City was with its requests, and b) whether or not all monies received have been spent.

One item that comes to mind immediately is the $345,000 requested for a CCTV system to allow video monitoring of the downtown business district and high-crime areas.

City asked for $345,000 for camera system in 2009.
What ever happened?

Did the City ever get the grant? If so, has it been spent? Or is it in danger of being lost in August, along with the rest of unspent ARRA monies?

Another item was the job training grant. Originally awarded to PAS (Plainfield Action Services), there was hanky-panky with the grant while Marc Dashield was City Administrator (see here) and the grant was finally made to The Incubator (see here).

I have been told that among the questions FBI investigators have been asking in recent Plainfield interviews are plenty concerning the grant to the Incubator and the circumstances surrounding it.

I am sure the District, under the leadership of Acting Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles and BOE President Renata Hernandez will be updating the public with the status of the District's ARRA monies.

Would be nice if Mayor (and Acting City Administrator) Sharon Robinson-Briggs would do the same for the City side.

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• Dept. of Education:  "Spent and Unspent ARRA Funding, by District" (PDF)
  
• NJ Spotlight:  "State urges school districts to spend ARRA funds"
• City of Plainfield:  "Recovery Act (ARRA) Funding for Plainfield"
• Plainfield Today --
• "Somethin' funny with the (PAS) Stimulus money"
• "Incubator contract renews question of 'missing' money"
• "FBI in Plainfield investigation?"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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School Board in not-so-surprising reorg

New Board President Hernandez' first decision is to hold BOE meetings at a central location, which the above was NOT.

As Plainfield's Board of Education reorganized Tuesday evening, it was clear that the sweep by the Grand Slam team of a further three seats signals a new era for the school district.

Lisa Logan-Leach, who was elected last year as the compromise candidate for Board president, was nominated once again (by Pat Barksdale), as was Renata Hernandez (by Wilma Campbell). Board member Rasheed Abdul-Haqq was not yet present when the voting took place; and Brenda Gilbert was absent.

Voting in the order in which they were nominated, Logan-Leach garnered two votes -- Barksdale's and her own. The remaining five, all Grand Slammers, ABSTAINED (well, I THINK Edache abstained; he must learn to speak up louder), which always strikes me as the wussy way out.

Voting for Hernandez was -- SURPRISE! -- the flip side: the five Grand Slammers were in accord, with Logan-Leach and Barksdale gutsy enough to say 'no'.

Can anyone really doubt those who are up for election next year (Barksdale, Gilbert and Logan-Leach) are already targeted for removal?

Newly elected Board President Renata Hernandez offered brief remarks, noting that she was going to 'make the new Board work very hard'.

Acting Superintendent of Schools Anna Belin-Pyles offered the most micro 'thank you' to former members Lenny Cathcart, Keisha Edwards and Katherine Peterson I can ever recall. Edwards was the only one present as far as I could see. I can remember the days under Larry Leverett's superintendency when outgoing members were called forward, read a resolution of thanks for their years of service and given a memento (usually in the form of a varsity jacket suitably embroidered), after which the audience was invited to applaud their service. Have good manners also fallen victim to 'school reform'?

EXECUTIVE SESSIONS

As to the discussion of the timing of executive sessions which Bernice reports (see here), if there is 'a new law' regarding the timing, as she reports the Board discussing, I am unaware of it.


What I am aware of, and reported on in my 'Sunshine Week' post (see here), is that a New Jersey appeals court ruled against Rutgers on the matter of timing of closed sessions. The ruling (see here) strikes down the practice common with both the Board of Ed and the City Council of convening the public meeting only to go into executive session and then return to the public meeting later.


My understanding of the ruling is that the procedure now required is to COMPLETE the public portion of a meeting and then go into executive session if necessary. That executive session must be authorized by a resolution giving as much specificity as possible (without divulging sensitive details) that must be adopted by the governing body. Once the public is dismissed, the executive session is held and concluded WITH NO FURTHER RETURN TO A PUBLIC MEETING. This is the way the PMUA conducts its meetings, which is preferable to my mind.

Clearly, public bodies are in a state of flux and things will eventually sort themselves out, but the common sense trend seems to be to conduct affairs in such a way as not to unduly inconvenience the public.

LOCATION OF BOARD OF ED MEETINGS

I quite concur with Board President Hernandez on having the Board of Ed meetings at the High School as a central location. I was also pleased to see the reorg was held in the Library (I'm old fashioned, it's now called the 'media center' -- using two words instead of one).

The Library is a friendly room, well-lit, with good sightlines and miking (if the members use them properly) and can easily hold the ordinary number of attendees (last night I counted barely thirty people in the room, almost all staff as far as I could tell). By contrast, the auditorium is cavernous (seating 1,300), dimly lit (the Board is in perpetual shadows as are any folks called up for recognition), and with dubious acoustics.

Olddoc does note one concern however: being on the second floor, it is not immediately apparent that the Library is ADA-compliant. If there is an elevator, the Board should see to it that it is both accessible and its location publicized.

Congratulation to Board President Hernandez and to the new Board of Ed members.

Now is the time to show THE TAXPAYERS -- who foot the bill for public education in the hopes that it will actually serve the public good -- that THEY are the 'winners'.

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• Plaintalker:  "Notes on Board of Ed reorganization"
• Plainfield Today:  "Sunshine Week: PMUA get 'executive session' right on two counts"
• NJ Open Government Notes:  "Court forbids routine 'sequencing' of open and closed sessions"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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New Plainfield Board of Ed will have plenty on its plate

 

Congratulations to Plainfield Board of Ed election winners Jameelah Surgeon, Alex Edache and Dorien Hurtt.

With their election on Wednesday (see results here), the Grand Slam team has consolidated a definitive majority on the Board. Counting ally Lisa Logan-Leach, the current Board president, there is now a 7-2 balance on the nine member Board.

Best wishes to the winners as they assume their places at the table and join in tackling the many challenges facing the Board.

Having lost more than one seventh of its enrollment to charter schools over the past decade and with continuing problems with student achievement, leadership turnover, excessive administrative ratios, staff stability, pressure on state aid and property taxes, and a paradoxical overcrowding and excess capacity at the same time, the District certainly has its plate full of challenges.

To deal with all these challenges, the District has an admirable mission statement --

The Plainfield Public Schools
In partnership with its community
Shall do whatever it takes for
Every student to achieve
High academic standards
No alibis, No excuses, No exceptions!

As Renata so correctly says, 'Now let the REAL work begin!'

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfield BOE election results

Preliminary results of Wednesday's Plainfield Board of Education election --

Candidate	Tally
Edache	851
Surgeon	880
Cathcart	611
Hurtt	749
Budget Question	518 Yes 445 No

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Plainfeld school board election today

 

Whether you are voting in the PlainFELD or the PlainFIELD school board race, you must do it today, between 2:00 PM and 9:00 PM at your regular polling place.

Besides four candidates running for three three-year seats, voters will weigh in on the proposed local levy of $22,285,795 for the school budget for the 2011-12 school year.

I will be voting for Lenny Cathcart, Line 3.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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League of Women Voters Board of Ed candidate forum tonight

 

Plainfield's League of Women Voters will host a forum for Board of Ed candidates this evening at Washington Community School.

Agurs 'Lenny' Cathcart is the only incumbent among a roster of four running for three three-year board seats.

The school board election is set for Wednesday, April 27, from 2:00 - 9:00 PM.

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League of Women Voters School Board Candidate Forum
Thursday · April 21 · 7:00 PM

Washington Community School
427 Darrow Avenue
Parking in the Spooner Avenue lot and on the street.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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PHS Assembly: District's responses raise more questions

The flap over the assembly program at Plainfield High School last week that included local representatives of the Nation of Islam continues.

Courier reporter Mark Spivey has a story in today's print and online editions (see here), in which PHS principal Brian Bilal, BOE president Lisa Logan-Leach and BOE member Renata Hernandez defend the program.

Maria Pellum thinks that better communications by the District would have helped avoid misunderstanding (see her blog here). Olddoc is spurred by the incident and the reporting of it to ask plenty of questions (see his post here).

After reading the Courier story, I have even more questions.

Why are we just now being told that the program was put together by the guidance department? Both Ms. Belin-Pyles and Principal Bilal left us with the impression at the Board meeting Tuesday that the Assembly was in the principal's bailiwick and of the principal's doing. So now it's the guidance department? (NOTE: The commenter at 9:08 AM says Dr. Bilal did say the guidance department put the program together; I do not have that in my notes. I stand corrected on the commenter's say-so. -- Dan)

Spivey writes --

...several schools officials all described the assembly as a secular anti-violence program coordinated by members of multiple religions...

This is not exactly what was conveyed at Tuesday night's board meeting, at which Minister Muhammad spoke as though he was the sole organizer of the project. It was only later mentioned in passing by Board member Rasheed Abdul-Haqq that Chamber of Commerce president Jeff Dunn was a presenter. If it was indeed broadly based, why wasn't that brought out clearly at the Board meeting?

Lastly, the matter of whether boys and girls were separated for the Assembly has not been addressed at all. As I said in my previous post (see here), that seems to have been the matter that set off the wave of rumors, confusion and misinformation in the first place.

It still needs to be addressed in a straightforward manner.

Were the boys and girls separated during the Assembly or were they not?

If they were not, why not just say so outright?

If they were, please explain the basis for doing so.

As I said in my previous post, better communications would have shortstopped the matter.

They are still lacking.

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• Courier:  "School officials denounce criticism of assembly involving 'Nation of Islam'"
  
• Maria's Blog:  "More on ... the Assembly"
• Doc's Potpourri:  "Sidetracked again"
• Plainfield Today:  "Better communications by schools could have prevented kerfuffle"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Better communication by schools could have prevented 'Nation of Islam' kerfuffle

The Plainfield High School complex. (Google)

An event last week at Plainfield High School that caused a bit of a kerfuffle in the community was discussed at Tuesday's Board of Ed meeting, leaving more questions than answers and highlighting how better communications by the District could have avoided the confusion and rumors that were spread.

At the privilege of the floor, Minister Mustafa Muhammad told the audience briefly of an outreach to high school students made last week in an effort to engage them in a discussion about gangs and street violence, making good choices and what could be done to help. He thanked the District's administrators for the opportunity to hold the program and said he was anxious to build a citywide effort including all sorts of organizations to help address the issues of gangs and violence plaguing our youth.

In responding, Acting Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles alluded obliquely to building principals' having considerable latitude in setting up assemblies for their buildings' students. But that was it.

Maria Pellum related concerns that had been shared with her, especially that she had been told boys and girls were separated for the event.

PHS principal Dr. Brian Bilal offered more clarity. Saying he didn't often take the floor in this manner, he added he felt it was important to clear up some misconceptions.

It was not in any way a 'religious' event, Bilal said, but was an attempt to meet and talk with 10th grade students about stopping the violence on Plainfield's streets. Attendance was voluntary (one girl chose not to attend, and was accommodated in another class instead). Board member Rasheed Abdul-Haqq and an unnamed City Council member were said to be in attendance.

All of this helped settle things down, as far as I was concerned.

However, there are still unanswered questions, and it strikes me that the District could do a better job at communications by giving some thought to programs like this in advance and at least preparing a fact sheet that could answer any questions the public may have instead of letting rumors circulate for days before addressing the matter.

Unanswered questions include: Was a written proposal for the program submitted? How was the decision arrived at to have the program? Were the students given advance notice? Did it take the place of any scheduled instruction that will have to be made up? How many students were involved? Where was it held? Did anything emerge from the session that will involve followup or creation of some task force, etc.?

Board member Renata Hernandez asked the District's attorneys if the law had been violated and the Board was reassured that it did not appear to be the case, based on what had been discussed.

Board member Abdul-Haqq praised the program as one of the best he had ever witnessed in his twenty years of involvement as a parent and advocate, saying he was unaware of the boy-girl separation question, and adding that while he was there the principal speaker was Jeff Dunn of The Incubator -- a Christian, as Abdul-Haqq pointed out.

The possibility exists that some of the confusion and rumors arose because STUDENTS themselves weren't clear about exactly what was going on, and why boys and girls were separated.

That last seems to have been the key, as I had received a couple of phone calls after school that same day from folks who could only have gotten bits and pieces about what happened from those who could only have gotten it from students. I suggested these folks call the District administration and not just assume that they had gotten the facts straight as they had heard them.

How much simpler if there had been a one-pager put up on the District's website. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as they say.

For an institution whose mission includes teaching young people to communicate clearly and effectively, you'd think the adults would want to model best communications practices for the students.

The report card on this one has to read 'Communication: Needs improvement'.

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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On the Board of Ed race

At last, Plainfielders are becoming aware of salient information for the Board of Education race.

Olddoc posts a comment from Alex Edache about his relationship with John Campbell (see here), which had previously gone unmentioned in posts on the candidate by various bloggers.

In a community like Plainfield, with so many political operatives, prowling about, it is of course germane to know the connections of candidates to various of the political heavyweights -- if there are any.

Hence it strikes me as a little disingenuous for Mr. Edache to express surprise at the interest. As for being limited by a word count, one decides first what MUST be included and works from there -- as any editor will tell you.

Ever since Assemblyman Jerry Green put up a slate that first brought Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and current BOE president Lisa Logan Leach to public office, knowing where the political powers-that-be stood has been a touchstone for understanding the campaigns and what (money, and jobs) was at stake.

I was first introduced to Mr. Edache a number of years ago at a social event, as a business associate of John Campbell, so it has certainly not been a 'hidden' fact, though unremarked until now in the current BOE campaign.

It is also known that Ellen Carter-Haygood, who dropped out of the race, is BOE member Wilma Campbell's sister. In fact, someone pointed out to me that she is memorialized in the BOE minutes for having congratulated her sister Wilma at the Board's reorganization meeting in 2007.

If Ms. Surgeon or Mr. Hurtt have connections with the Campbells, it would probably be just as well if these were put out in the open.

That having been said, I am far less of the opinion that there is some nefarious plot by John and  Wilma Campbell to 'take over' the Board of Ed, than by the sad realization that there is no burning interest among the public to serve on the Board of Ed this time around.

Which is surprising, given the intense public interest during the struggle over removing Dr. Steve Gallon as superintendent. Then, we had multiple candidacies and slates, and a robust debate over the direction in which the Board should go.

This time around there is barely a yawn.

Assemblyman Green has publicly stated he is staying out of the Board of Ed race 'one way or the other'. This is good all around as the Assemblyman's name is 'box office poison', as they say.

Which is something that Tony Rucker will want to weigh in considering a run for the Ward 2 council seat.

An endorsement by Jerry would be the kiss of death, which causes one to wonder why John Campbell was so busy at last summer's Hillside Area street party/picnic trying to persuade Owen Fletcher, then presumed to be Jerry's choice to run as the Democratic machine candidate, to step aside in favor of Rucker.

There will be plenty to watch during the coming political season.

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• Doc's Potpourri: "Alex Edache"
• Plaintalker II:  "BOE filers revealed"
• Standing In The Gap --
• "Alex Edache"
• "Jameelah Surgeon"
• "Dorien Hurtt"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Sunshine Week: PMUA gets 'executive session' right on two counts

How about a nice, upbeat post about a Plainfield organization for Sunshine Week?

About fifteen people turned out for the PMUA's board meeting on Tuesday evening. The meeting itself was unremarkable, with a number of items covering routine matters, plus an item on renting some vacant land on Cottage Place and leasing five 'solid waste collection vehicles' on an emergency basis as the current lease is expiring and negotiations for a new one are unresolved (see the agenda here).

However, there was the need for an EXECUTIVE SESSION, and here is where the PMUA gets it right -- as contrasted to both the City Council and the Board of Ed.

FIRST, the PUBLIC MEETING is conducted first and then the Commissioners go into EXECUTIVE SESSION if necessary (as it was Tuesday night).

This comports perfectly with a February 18 appeals court decision (see here) ruling against Rutgers for routinely convening a public meeting for five minutes to then go into executive session, after which returning to a public meeting.

SECONDLY, the PMUA Commissioners adopted a resolution for the executive session that IDENTIFIED THE MATTER TO BE DISCUSSED WITH AS MUCH SPECIFICITY AS POSSIBLE -- in this case to discuss contract negotations on the lease of the vacant Cottage Place lot.

This also perfectly comports with the second portion of the above-cited ruling requiring public notice and the resolution --

"should contain as much information as is consistent with full public knowledge without doing any harm to the public interest"

The Board of Ed's practice in this matter seems to be exactly what the Court ruled against Rutgers for.

At last nights BOE meeting, the agenda (see here) contained its standard first page, announcing the opening  of the public meeting at 6:30 PM, to be closed for executive session at 6:35 PM and resuming the public meeting at 8:00 PM. This is EXACTLY the practice the court ruled against in the Rutgers case.

Additionally, the non-specific language at the bottom of the first page, detailing items to be discussed as merely 'personnel' and 'legal', do not meet the requirements of the court ruling.

To be fair, the PMUA is lacking in an archive of its agendas or the posting of minutes to its website, but it does get this one item right.

Is it time for others to follow the PMUA's good example?

---

• Ledger: "Bill would require local authorities to post budgets, meetings to websites"
• NJ Open Government Notes:  "Court forbids routine 'sequencing' of open and closed sessions"
  
• Sunshine Week:  "Sunshine Week website" | "Wikipedia"
• PMUA:  "Agenda, 3/15/2011" | Board of Ed:  "Agenda, 3/15/2011"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Laxity, lack of planning set stage for schools' security breach

It was like a castor-oil moment.

 

Thursday night's special meeting of the Plainfield Board of Education put me in mind of those end-of-winter spoonful-of-cod-liver-oil sessions my brother and I were subjected to as kids.

Mom, Dad and village wisdom all dictated that it was good for you, but that didn't make it any less distasteful.

The subject matter was a presentation to the public on the recent security breach of the District's web-based Genesis parent/administration portal (which I wrote about previously here).

Despite assurances by the District's I.T. staff and Interim Superintendent Anna Belin-Pyles that fewer than one percent of the system's records were vandalized and that no data was lost (well, it seems it actually was but it was later recovered, but that's a quibble), the bottom line is that laxity and lack of planning left the District open to the attack.

When the public was given time to ask questions, resident Scott Belin (who also chairs the Zoning Board of Adjustment), pressed the staff and interim superintendent on the District's I.T. plans, policies and procedures.

It came to light that while the District has a Disaster Recovery Plan for its computer networks and website, there is no Security Breach Incident Plan.

Ms. Belin-Pyles remarked that this was because 'security breaches are relatively new to the educational community'.

This took my breath away. For years now, those responsible for computer networks and Internet security have known, reported and discussed the ubiquity and persistence of attempts to breach, hack, vandalize and steal from their systems.

How could Plainfield's little corner of the universe have escaped noticing?

Best practice on the part of I.T. professionals is to ASSUME your system will be the target of attacks.

And to plan on it and have procedures in place for the eventuality.

It seems that the issue in this instance at Plainfield was laxity with regard to passwords.

Somehow, someone got access via a valid administrator's password to the system.

It does seem, from the crowing about the incident done by the intruders on public discussion boards, that the intent was to vandalize student records and wreak other sorts of havoc on the web-based system (such as $9,000 lunch fees) and not to STEAL commercially valuable data.

This is not the kind of behavior that serious hackers, intent on stealing valuable information (personal data, Social Security numbers, credit card info, passwords, etc.), participate in. They are intent on NOT BEING FOUND OUT, on NOT CALLING ATTENTION TO their intrusion.

So, the District caught a break this time.

And we were told there will be a tightening-up across the board: a new and stronger password policy, updated security procedures for all servers, and the development of a Security Breach Incident Plan including a clear chain of communication up the ladder.

That's all to the good, and we can hope it will be sufficient -- with vigilance -- to guard the District against future incidents.

After the public (there were five in attendance, if I count myself in) had its chance, Board members asked their own questions of the I.T. staff and Ms. Belin-Pyles.

This was where the scary side of small-d democracy came to the fore.

It became quite clear that the Board members, with all due respect, do not really grasp the nature of the problem. They pressed for details that can not be divulged while there is an active investigation, and showed a sketchy understanding of the District's computer network and internal policies and procedures concerning it.

That in itself is not so scary as realizing that the Board members will now be responsible for adopting policies and procedures to defend against future attacks. How will they know what are good policies and what are not?

It was surprising, and somewhat dismaying, to learn that only about 500 parents are signed up to make use of the Genesis student records system. I don't know how many parents (or households) there are for an enrollment of approximately 6,500 students, but surely 500 participants is a LOW number if not VERY LOW.

While the expense of the system may be justified by the number of teachers and administrators who use it (700, we were told), and the hours saved in preparing required submissions to the state, it would behoove the District to have a plan in place for increasing parental use of the system. What happens to those who don't participate? Are they simply left out of the loop? Or does the District have to go to the lengths of preparing and distributing duplicative paper-based info, which Genesis is supposed to do away with in the first place?

There was, however, one more issue that did not get any discussion: a District crisis communications policy.

Notice from District website

Following is the timeline presented by the I.T. staff and Ms. Belin-Pyles --

• Tuesday, January 18, the attack began approximately 6:30 PM; the system was vulnerable until approximately midnight;
• Wednesday, January 19, the Help Desk began getting calls that users could not log in at 8:00 AM;
• Wednesday, January 19, I.T. staff restored the Genesis system on, but limited access;
• Wednesday, January 19, a notice the system was unavailable was put on the District website;
• Wednesday, January 19, law enforcement and educational authorities were contacted;
• Thursday, January 20, principals and secretaries granted access to Genesis;
• Saturday, January 22, Interim Superintendent's letter posted to website;
• Monday, January 24, teachers granted access to Genesis; and lastly
• Monday, January 31, expected parents will be granted access to Genesis system.

Except for the brief, uninformative notice on the website, it took FOUR DAYS for the District to address the issue with a letter from Ms. Belin-Pyles posted to the website.

This is hardly comforting and suggests the lack of any clear crisis communications policy, a lack that should be addressed by the Board of Ed as it works its way through the aftermath of this security breach.

Ironically, when the letter from Ms. Belin-Pyles did appear, it seemed to follow an outline I proposed to Maria Pellum (see here) last week, based on my experience as the city's public information officer.

Part of the District's responsibilities to the taxpayers and other stakeholders is timely, accurate and informative communications concerning breaking and/or crisis issues.

It goes with the turf, and I hope this will be addressed in a formal manner with procedures and policies.

Lastly, the venue and sound.

Holding the meeting in an auditorium that holds 1,300 people for an attendance of 11 (including staff and lawyers) besides the Board was wasteful of taxpayer dollars (heating the space). It was like a Leni Riefenstahl setting, without the crowds.

Couldn't there have been a Plan B, such as using the much more accommodating PHS Library?

Also, the sound system was execrable.

Well, not the system itself, but the use made of it. I had to ask for Board members to speak into the mikes, but they soon relapsed into speaking without pulling them close; Mr. Bloom was clearly audible even without the mike, but Mr. Sears waved the mike around but failed to hold it close enough for us to get the benefit of all but a few words he said. This is just a matter of someone teaching folks some good manners about using mikes.

Surely there is someone on the District's 1,000-member staff who could do that?

---

• Plainfield Today --
• "Plainfield schools website breach: Worse than being let on?"
• "UPDATE: District notice on website's hacking"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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