West Side redistricting meeting scheduled, public forum is not

The APS School Board has scheduled a meeting to revisit the issue of school board district boundaries.

The agenda, link, includes no public forum.

Because it is a "special" meeting, there will be no webcast and only audio will be recorded.

This, though they are sitting in front of $150K worth of recording equipment and people and could easily do it.

The meeting is scheduled in our $1M "community room".

It will begin at 5pm and be over long before anyone who works
until 5, can get there.

They will;

Redistricting (Discussion/Action)

It is hard to imagine how one could be less specific.

Reasonably, they will decide only whether to revisit their roundly criticized decision on school district boundaries, and not try to decide upon a new map.

The Journal, link, reports to the contrary;

"They plan to meet next week and consider a map
that is more palatable to the West Side."

Have they learned nothing? The problem wasn't the map.
The problem was their failure to engage stakeholders and to
have them feel they participated meaningfully in decision-making that affected their interests.

Interest holders and board members need to engage in open and honest two-way communication about district boundaries. Citizen stakeholders have legitimate questions and are entitled to candid, forthright and honest responses from the politicians and public servants who are spending their power and resources.

The question is;

Will redistricting be revisited?

Any answer except yes, means no.

Yes or no, the answer should be delivered to constituents face to face.

The leadership of the APS have individual obligations to role model the character and courage they expect from students. They can do that only by looking their constituents in the eye when they answer such an important question.

Especially, if their answer is no.