Thursday, September 17, 2009

What do you think about tonight?

I'll start.

They lived up to every bit of the reputation they had. This experience has opened my eyes to what people have been saying for a long time. They don't listen. They don't care. They will do what they want anyway.

I realize that they don't always make decisions that everyone is going to like, but you really didn't ask us and you stopped us from asking others. You really didn't talk about the YMCA. You really didn't look into it. You played a good game of pretend like the children we are trying to educate.

You can make excuses for your actions, but we won't forget. I won't forget. And if this has done anything for me and other parents, we have formed a bond and we know we can fight and stand up united together. You saw what we did in three days. The election is in three years.

Come election time or hope-willing earlier, we will band and vote. And we will be loud. And we will fight again to find good representation to help the future of our children and for this community to be a better place.

All we asked was consider it. We didn't ask for you to vote in favor of the YMCA. We asked that you take a closer look. Answer the unanswered questions. Take a little more time before making a decision. You are making us wait until January 2011to move to the Regina portables. What difference will a month make?

Tom Neild is the only true Watchdog on the board and I commend him. I commend his courage to stand up for what is right and for listening to us and taking the time out to answer our phone calls and concerns. I commend that he sits in that seat meeting after meeting and gets out-voted and goes back to continue to seek the truth and get answers about where our money is going.

And I commend every parent who got up tonight and took a stand. For whatever they believe in. It takes courage to get up and speak in front of a room full of people and try to articulate your feelings to a largely unreceptive board.

What will the future hold? We will be watching very closely. Every move. Every dollar. Every schedule change.

And if we aren't in those portables by January 2011. We will remember. And we will be back.

So I said my piece (at least for now). What do you think? Post your comments below.


15 comments:

  1. Three years? Heck! I'm hoping to see a change in just a few months. I'll be looking up the election recall documents tomorrow.

    Hey, maybe BISD could have spent that 4 hours they spent on our blog today actually looking into the Y proposal!!!!!!

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  2. I love how Caroll Thomas sat there with his hand on his face staring into space during every public comment. Tom Nield was the only board member with any eye contact engagement. Yep, it's just like we were warned, "in one ear and out the other."

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  3. Are you really that ignorant to think that they did not look at every possibility? You have to remember. We are all in it for the kids. Even though we might not like the decision that the board made does not mean they didn’t spend time researching. I’m sure they had a very good reason for choosing the option they did. You should not accuse people of things that you really have no idea on. You don’t know that they did not look at the other options for sure do you? Were you there in the meetings? I think not. Just because they didn’t side with you does not make it right for you to accuse people of things. Sure maybe it’s not the best choice, but I’m sure in the long run, they all just want what is best for the kids.

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  4. Caroll Thomas himself sat up there and said he had only received the proposal Tuesday (The board secretary had them on the 8th which was a week ago) and had not researched it. He even had to ask the legal team what the possibilities were. And you mention meetings, what meetings? There were no Board meetings on this issue. History proves true, Nield gets out voted 5 to 1 again!

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  5. Anonymous, are you seriously that ignorant and blind yourself? All they asked was for them to listen and look into one more option before they voted. Did they really listen? Did they really ask questions?

    No. No. No.

    They had their minds made up.

    And please, next time you are having lunch with Janice, tell her we are still pissed.

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  6. Put it in perspective, we are talking 18 months here. All of this temporary campus mess and razing perfectly good schools is utterly ridiculous to start with. My child just left Curtis a few years ago and it was a fine building. It makes me sad to see all of these schools being torn down instead of renovated. However, I also voted against the $$$$$ bond. You don't get better educated kids by throwing more money at the problem. Just this week I had a Westbrook English teacher that she cannot even assign a short story for overnight reading, because the overwhelming majority of the students will not read it. Folks, it is not about building new elementary schools.

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  7. Well..... I don't have lunch with her. Who said that I agreed with what she or the others said. I just know that I try to see it from a perspective that is not so sided. I just know that none of us were with them when they did the research. So how can you say they didn't do any? Did you actually sit down and look at all the legal parts of moving to the Y's land? Are you willing to dish out more $ to get the Y? I have just been trying to look at it from other ways. I'm not happy with the vote either. But before we cast stones let +s all take a step back.

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  8. First of all, I was being sarcastic about lunch.

    Secondly, don't you call the blogger ignorant? That's not very nice either. Now who is casting stones? Kettle?

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  9. All the Board has in mind is MONEY. As for WestBrook students whose teachers won't do a short story as an overnight an assignment because the majority of the students won't read it well, sounds to me like those kids need more structure, discpline, and a lot less freedom. My son does what his teacher and parents expect of him without question. But the name of this blog is Parents For A new Curtis. The Board did not look enough the Y property becasue they didn't want to, they had their mind up. Other then Tom Neild, they care more about money than how to get the best possible education for our children.

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  10. Why are they even on the board at all? I mean seriously. What does Brassard and the rest of them think they are doing?

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  11. Set up an escrow accountSeptember 22, 2009 at 12:23 AM

    I found watching the board meeting fascinating on a number of different levels. To begin, I feel Mrs. Brassard took some of the comments made at the original town hall meeting entirely too personal. At both meetings she seems to have been very defensive in her attitude and speech, which I think ultimately translated into her decision making. She completely ignored numerous public comments critical of delaying construction and arrogantly highlighted only receiving “two phone calls” between meetings. To pretend like she had no idea how people in her district felt about the issue shows willful neglect. Her tone at both meetings was condescending, and unprofessional at the least, and I hope she will be held accountable for those actions at the next election.

    Secondly, honest criticism does not seem to be welcome at BISD board meetings. Mr Neild’s inquiry of spending in the bond appeared to result in threats of assault from a fellow board member. Other than Mr Neild, I didn’t see anyone question anything Dr Thomas said during the meeting. This was particularly evident when Dr Thomas claimed to have only received the YMCA packet two days prior, and yet detailed why he felt that plan wouldn’t work. If your voting to potentially delay a project a year and a half at the least, why not take 2 weeks to fully evaluate alternative options? Especially if the majority of parents involved favor the alternative. From the very first town hall meeting, the language of every representative of the board indicated their decision had already been made. Not one board member outside of Mr. Neild expressed the slightest interest in delving deeper or contradicting the wishes of Dr Thomas. Completely ignoring an option that appeared to be win-win for all parties involved is highly suspect.

    Their choice may have been the best decision, but their approach was highly questionable. Everyone paying taxes to BISD should have new motivation to see the procedures of this board become more transparent and less ambiguous. For starters, I would like to see a bid for the YMCA option to compare with Dr. Thomas’ $3 million claim. I would also like to see if the original bid for Sallie Curtis involved setting up the portable buildings. If that’s the case, it would be interesting to see if the district would truly build cheaper, or redirect the money to other projects. It would also be interesting to see if rent is being paid on the Regina Howell land compared to the free rent offered by the Y. Most importantly though, it would be worth investigating whether the amount bid out to fix Sallie Curtis could immediately be placed in an escrow account of some kind to protect this project from being scaled down in the future.

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  12. Someone needs to request the paperwork detailing the 3 million dollar estimate that Thomas quoted. I also request the bids from contractors that support the 3 million. Next request the detail for what it cost to build the Regina site. Also, I think it would be interesting to see a breakdown as what the athletic complex has cost thus far and compare that to budget.

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  13. BISD owns the land wherethe Regina Howell portables are constructed.

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  14. Who cares if BISD owns the land where the Regina Howell partables are? What does that have to do with anything?

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  15. I hear from a RH parent that the portables are already falling apart. If they are having issues with them now, what will it be like...whenever the SC kids get there. If I can swing, my son will be in private school next year. He needs an education in a safe environment. Not from a school district that believes a sports complex takes a front seat when they are SUPPOSED to be using bond money to build schools. BISD will build the sports complex as they want and if there is ANY money left, the schools will get new buildings then.

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