School Board never even looked at the petition

School Board Member David Robbins was a guest speaker at a GOP ward meeting last night. After his opening remarks, he stood for questions. I asked him to describe the process that the board followed that resulted in the denial of due process for the petition submitted to the Board by the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication, link.

He said, he had never seen it!

Despite the fact that he, and the rest of the board, were all in their seats during the public forum where Rep Janice Arnold-Jones delivered the petition carrying more than a hundred community member signatures, Robbins claimed that whomever took the petition from Arnold-Jones, never passed it along to the board to read. He offered no explanation as to why none of them cared enough about petition to take the initiative and ask to see it.

When asked how it came to be that School Board President Paula Maes took it upon herself to write a "thank you note" as the board's entire response to the petition, he said, Maes was "authorized" to write the letter.

According to school board policy, the only authorization for an individual board member to do anything, comes from the entire board.

BB1 - Board Member Authority

Board of Education members shall have authority only when acting as a Board of Education in a regular, special, committee or emergency meeting. The Board of Education shall not be bound in any way by any statement or action on the part of any individual Board of Education member. No Board of Education member shall speak for or represent the entire Board of Education unless so authorized by the majority of the Board of Education. (emphasis added)

Maes could not have been authorized (by a majority of the Board), except in a meeting that violated the Open Meetings Act.

Yet Robbins steadfastly claimed the board never discussed the petition or their response to it. (Interestingly, the board just revoked a charter school's authorization, in part because of "... violations of the Open Meetings Act, link.)

As an aside; Robbins also conceded that there is a problem in the APS with (student) discipline. In my recollection he could be the most senior member of the leadership of the APS to admit there is a problem with student discipline. Yet if you look for any action the board has taken to address the problem district wide, you will find nothing; not even an admission that there is a problem.

The leadership of the APS has always had their head in the sand when it comes to chronically disruptive students and the lack of student discipline in general. Submitted as proof; they have not even taken the most basic step; creating a written an APS Discipline Philosophy to underpin their discipline policies.

Student discipline would of course, be one of the topics that the Citizens Advisory Council on Communications would try to put on the table for open and honest two-way discussion between the leadership of the APS and the community members they serve.