RS for RS offers a suggestion to the Rockwood School District BOE…..Simply LISTEN
June 4, 2012 2 Comments
This coming Thursday, at the Board of Education meeting, Dr. Borchers will present potential options for a community engagement process. (See our previous post – May 29th).
Stakeholders spoke at the polls on April 3rd and there was a 10% loss of community support in construction bonds from 2010 to 2012. To find the reason for the loss of community support we suggest Board Directors and District Officials;
simply listen
- listen – without an elaborate complicated “process” that takes 6 to 9 months.
- listen - without delivering “key messages”, which you have already done through the Guiding Change Processes of 2010 & 2011, and the Superintendent’s Listening Tour of 2010.
- listen without a formal presentation.
- listen without an immediate rebuttal.
simply listen
- hold a number of meetings with stakeholders during the months of June and July
- have a fair number of Board Directors and Superintendent Cabinet personnel present at each meeting to hear and acknowledge the stakeholder input
- provide a variety of meeting locations and times (early morning, mid-morning, afternoon and evenings) reaching the different segments of our district community
- record the stakeholders’ input so there is public record of the feedback
seek answers
Request the stakeholders to answer 4 basic questions
- What do you value in Rockwood?
- What do you want changed in Rockwood?
- What are you willing to do without in Rockwood?
- What are you willing and not willing to support in Rockwood?
move forward
“First we need to know what is valued. Before we can make any kind of decisions. The intent is not to do one thing or another, the intent is to get information and then move forward based on the information gathered”, Board President Janet Strate
make decisions
“We can’t adopt a process that is going to take us into the middle of next year. We need to make some decisions fairly quickly it seems to me”, Board Director Steve Smith
represent the people
We have witnessed the decision making process of the Board of Education, Dr. Borchers and his Cabinet and how the results of those decisions have affected our community; good, poor or indifferently
It is time to turn the tables on the process and simply listen to the people who are represented by the elected Directors on the Rockwood Board of Education.
About Rockwood Stakeholder
He## yes! DO it. Prove to us this ‘engage the public’ catchphrase isn’t just BS.
Unfortunately, the Board cannot even get on the same page long enough during an OPEN meeting to determine IF, let alone HOW, to “engage the public.”
Evidently, Mr. Smith, you have not given enough credit to your constituents’ IQs (those public “commoners/citizens” who voted FOR you). You’ve now disagreed publicly with the Board’s unanimous recommendation to engage the public and simply LISTEN? Of course, you obviously and clearly state that you simply want to plow through with another bond request (not free for RSD, you know). We told you NO just a few months ago, and NOTHING has changed, other than the raises you have approved for almost every employee of RSD and the resignations of the Mighty Minnesota Mob.
We don’t trust you, Mr. Smith, as you have long-term, deep financial interests and pockets in passing yet another bond issue for your employer, Glen Construction Co., to “manage” and pass along some profits to you. If you honestly cared about RSD or its students, you would RESIGN from this Board. You care more about sitting in a position of “control” and using your tyranny to demand more public monies (bond issues/increased taxes) to support YOU, not the patrons of RSD, than you do about our children’s education.
We said NO a few months ago; and you will receive another NO, as long as you sit on your throne with nothing but hidden agendas and conflicts of interest involving RSD, you, and your employer. And I thought you were going to ABSTAIN from discussions about bond issues. Why are you recommending that another one be placed on the ballot “soon” without public input?
It seems that as an attorney, you would be concerned about white collar crime, and would know as well as anyone, that eventually ALL your connections/friends turn on you when the stove gets hot. The stoves will get scorching prior to completion of the State Audit on you and your employer. Give us a break. Move on. Take Borchers with you. Please bring us a local, invested, experienced Superintendent who can LEAD by example! I’m sure we can find someone more suitable for the job with an offer of $250,000/year plus benefits and $8,000 car allowance.