The community has been invited to a series of meetings to engage in a dialog with consultants who are getting paid to help the school board decide how to deal with the district's student enrollment decline.
The first meeting, at Green Central started after 6:45 PM yesterday evening. The question and answer segment was cut short because it was turning into a discussion. God forbid that a discussion should happen at a meeting that is advertised as a dialog with the community. Comments related to school closings and teacher layoffs were specifically deemed "off topic." The Q and A segment of the meeting was over by 7:00 PM. The rest of the community disengagement process consisted of having community members go to stations, which consisted of a flip chart and at least one consultant. People spoke to the consultants at each station and put green and / or red dots on the flip chart next to one or more of the listed criteria, then moved on to another station. What was accomplished at the meeting? Flip charts were covered with green and red dots. A large majority of the crowd consisted of district employees, the paid consultants who were running the meeting, other vendors who work for or with the district, and other persons who I recognize from board meetings and other school-related events as supporters of the board. -Doug Mann, King Field Mann for School Board www.educationright.com - REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
