Charter petition is going, going, gone...really?

Charter school advocates sent a letter to the board of Trustees announcing that they are withdrawing the charter petition. This letter is misleadingly signed by the "Parents Council" as well as the "Administrative Council" although no announcements that a vote would or had taken place have been made and by my reports few parents attended last Monday's meeting. Curiously, although parents were ready to vote on the question of whether to withdraw the charter petition at the PC meeting on the previous Friday, May 25th the chair of the meeting prevented a vote from taking place. Instead she scheduled another meeting for Monday at 10 am—the morning of Memorial Day at the end of a long 3 day weekend when it was assured that few parents would and did attend.

The letter makes several points about equity but the reputation of those that pushed this charter petition in an undemocratic fashion have blown their credibility. They appear to be futilely holding onto the charter and pointing it at the head of the District like a loaded gun. Matt Andrews hinted as such at the May 25th meeting I attended and in an excerpt from the letter quoted in today's Marin IJ article. Andrews is quoted as saying "Although we are withdrawing the charter petition, as a document it is very alive for us, and beautifully illustrates what our program could be when stable and with the full support of those involved." Would it be accurate to assume that since Andrews is credited for the quote in the IJ that he signed the letter he wrote himself as if it was approved by a vote of both the AC and PC?
Instead of issuing a letter of demands the Administrative Council should be submitting their letter of resignation. Mr. Andrews' name should appear on the signature line of that letter too.

And now for something really fun...

A couple of dads made this hilarious Dylan inspired music video addressed to my fellow LWIP parents urging them to remove their names from the now defunct charter petition. What a talented bunch of parents we have in the District.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ssspVf6v_k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Enjoy!

Parents 1, Charter 0. It's over (for now): The charter petition has been withdrawn

According to parents who attended the Board of Trustees meeting this evening the charter petition has been withdrawn. However, its proponents did so with a threat that it could be revised and resubmitted at a later date.

It seems the charter proposal is dead. For now.

Good work to all who have worked so hard to stop it dead in its tracks.

Now it's time for those LWIP parents who have pushed this ill-conceived charter petition to apologize and resign from the LWIP Administrative Council for undemocratically pushing this on all of their fellow parents in the program and across the campus. It has been a monumental waste of everyone's time and has drained the District of valuable money and other resources that should have otherwise gone to educating our children.

The lesson we can all learn from this battle is that a well informed and engaged community is the best defense against the corporate privatization of our public schools under the guise of charter schools. As the powerful abolitionist campaigner and former slave Frederick Douglass once wrote, "Forewarned, forearmed, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance." (The Nation's Problem, 1889)

Keep tuned to this blog for coverage of other District issues and policies. If you have any to suggest please write me at rfovetz [at ]  riseup.net.

Response to comment concerning Public Records Act request

A reader made the following comment below: "Do you plan to make the entire group of documents public? If not, why not?"

Thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately, I do not yet see a reason to post all 3400+ emails and pages of notes I am told I will receive on this blog. Hundreds of other pages of related documents are already available on the District website for download. Part of the issue is that I was given electronic versions of only a fraction of the documents so far. The rest of the documents would cost me 25 cents per copy to obtain a copy which would quite costly. Also many of the documents are redundant copies of the same emails CC'ed to each recipient. I understand that the District may be willing to provide more documents electronically but I am not yet convinced that a data dump of everything I receive a la Wikileaks would be useful. However I will be reporting on what I think is newsworthy and relevant. If anyone would like to take a look at what I receive please contact me. I could use the help going through it all. I am happy to share.

KPFA's The Morning Mix covers charter school issue

KPFA's The Morning Mix ran my commentary opposing the charter school proposal this morning during its 8 am prime time drive slot on 94.1 FM. You can listen at 34 min and 30 sec.

Trustee Sloan's curious reading of the CA Public Records Act

On April 18, 2012 I filed a California Public Records Act request with the Lagunitas School District requesting access to all documents and communications concerning the LWIP charter petition. This past Friday, May 25th, the District began making some of the documents available to me. One of the documents I have received so far is the following curious email from Trustee Richard Sloan. After reading Mr. Sloan's email I wonder if and when he will be turning over all the emails from his official school district and personal email accounts concerning the charter petition. After reading his email you may also be wondering the same thing. He can be reached at: r.sloan@comcast.net.

 

If you do contact Trustee Sloan please ask him if he is implying in his email that a concerned citizen using the state Public Records Act law to peer into the inner working of local government and our elected representatives is "delusional, time wasting" and "chickens***." Trustee Sloan advised my fellow LWIP parents in several LWIP AC and PC meetings I attended in 2010 and 2011 to go charter. This move is now costing the District a tidy sum in legal expenses that may or may not be reimbursed by our broke state government. Perhaps Mr. Sloan assumes the District spending even more money defending itself (on his behalf) against a subpoena would not further add to the growing legal bill.

Full disclosure: I ran against Richard Sloan last November for the Board of Trustees.

Charter schools in the news: The scourge of privatization

Charter schools have been in the news a lot in the last several weeks. The New York Times recently reported that charter schools in New York City are driving the re-segregating of the city's schools. Democracy Now! also reported on Philadelphia's school district announcement last month without any advance warning or hearings that it would completely privatize its schools in the next few years by handing them over to for-profit and non-profit corporations to run them in networks (eg, chains). This weekend Free Speech Radio News is running a 30 minute Memorial Day investigative special report about charter schools and privatization. For an overview of the impact of charter school privatization you can now watch the documentary The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman on line. It is a case study of the movement against charter schools in NYC produced by city teachers. Yours truly will also appear on KPFA's The Morning Mix program soon to speak about our own fight against the threat of charter school backdoor privatization of our school district.