The Ellicott School Board held a special meeting held on Jan. 12 we managed to get quite a bit done. Policies were approved that will allow for a student representative to be on the school board. The seat would be a non-voting seat, since it’s appointed and not elected, but the school board wishes to get the opinions, ideas, suggestions, criticisms and more from the students as well as from the community. The requirements to be a student rep: GPA of 3.25 or higher and during the term of office maintain C’s or higher in all subjects and be an incoming Junior or Senior. One of the reasons the board choose to make the seat open to any student was there might be a student out there that is not on the student council or other such club that might be interested. We will take applications and draw a name for a primary seat and an alternate seat. The two students will work together to be available for meetings and then take the information they receive back to their fellow students.
We approved changes to a policy that will allow for input from our PTA and Booster Association at every meeting, input from Schriever AFB at every meeting, an input time for any district employee who has something to say and of course the public input opportunity. We removed the initiation of having a prayer at school board meetings based off legal advice.
Public input was changed and any taxpayer of the Ellicott District is again welcome to attend a school board meeting, sign up to speak, and then speak that night. If the citizen has questions that cannot be answered that night, for whatever reason, the school board president, Ernest Hudson, will take their contact information and respond to them in writing within seven days.
We added in an official working board session to each month, making two working board sessions and one regular board session per month. As we did in January, if there is a need for an additional board meeting, we will create a special meeting with plenty of notice to take care of business.
Because our elementary school is in priority improvement status, we were required as a district to create a Unified Improvement Plan for that school. Employees worked long and hard on the plan and created one for each school and the district as a whole, in an effort to go above and beyond. Due to time constraints the plan wasn’t put through the District Accountability Committee as it should have been, so when it was approved by the board it was with the caveat that it would be sent to the DAC and that they would render an opinion/recommendation at their February meeting.
A grant for the Improvement Support Partnership Grant was created by Mrs. Garduno in an effort to secure the district more than $150,000 to assist in implementing the Unified Improvement Plan. Because it was not ready to be sent before the last board meeting, the school board president had to sign it to get it up there and the board approved it after the fact. This is not ideal, but sometimes it does happen with boards. In addition, the district added Caplan and Earnest law firm to their choices for district attorneys.
After consulting with the new lawyer, the board determined in a unanimous vote of 5-0 to non-renew the superintendent’s existing contract. One reason for this is that the contract, as currently written, was a very poor contract for the district and for the school board. The board holds the responsibility of ensuring that the district is covered by adequate contracts and that we limit the liabilities of such contracts. One reason that the vote was unanimous is that all the board members took the time in executive session to get their questions answered about the contract. Before the vote was taken the motion was read aloud at least four times and one board member even verified that we were voting on the existing contract, which we did.
Overall, the board is very pleased with the progress they have been able to make thus far. We have a regularly scheduled board meeting Thurs., Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. and we have a retreat planned for the school board (Jan. 29 from 1-5 p.m.) to be hosted by District 38, where we will discuss such things as goals, plans, finances and more. We want to extend our gratitude to District 38’s school board for being kind enough to take us in and share their time, experience and knowledge with us.
Ideas and suggestions by concerned citizens of Ellicott District 22 on how to make the schools better
Friday, January 20, 2012
Saturday, January 14, 2012
What type of Community do we have that supports this type of behavior?
This is a posting from another blog - but is this how adults are supposed to behave? This type of behavior is exactly the same as Hitler and the "brown shirts" did in 1932 to silence anyone that had a different opinion than them.
I debated whether to write about Thursday night’s near riot or not and I think I will. I think I need to get this off my chest and just work through what happened.
At the end of a uneventful meeting, there was a clearly hostile crowd. Joe Nee had paced back and forth instead of sitting down for a majority of the meeting and when it was over he started popping off his mouth talking gibberish that I never did quite understand. Once he had done that then the crowd got to its feet and many were shouting and clapping. I had put on my coat and was trying to leave when I was trapped by people.
Johnny Adams got his hands right in my face and was aggressively and vehemently clapping while saying, “You did it now girl, you’re gonna get it now girl.” I was shocked. Did what? I am one of five people on a board. I believe this is the second or third time I’ve been threatened by Johnny Adams.
Gary Lake, standing right next to him was saying at the same time, “You’ve lost your mind now girl.”
Why was a former board member talking to me about losing my mind I still have no idea, but he certainly did nothing to protect me from Johnny Adams or his aggressiveness to me. I consider myself to have been verbally and physically harassed by Johnny Adams and I am looking into filing charges on him as such.
I again underestimated Gary Lake. As someone who goes to the same church as him, I thought, as a cowboy and a Christian, he would have been the first man standing to help me out of an assault. Once again I was wrong about him. And disappointed.
The crowd was in a semi-riot at this point and crowding around. Bea Twiss was also being verbally assaulted by audience members, some of them employees!
I walked out the door and into Brian Bradley and Chuck Howarth. I turned to Chuck to say something and Brian Bradley turned on me, all 6’3″ of him to my 5’8″ and he got so close to my face we could have kissed. I took a step back and he advanced on me again screaming in my face about what a bitch I am and how I was ruining this entire community. I was like, “Who ARE you?” and he said, “Brian Bradley.”
Now, you need to know that I have NEVER met this man before and I do not know him other than his hateful words in letters to the editor. I could not have picked him out of line-up before this moment.
I said that he needed to get out of my personal space or I would call the Sheriff’s Department and that was when Chuck Howarth stepped in and put himself between Bradley and I. It gave me enough time to get to my car, all the while Bradley was screaming after me (around Chuck) that I was a stupid fucking bitch and ruining the community with my “agenda.”
He then went back into the administration building and called me a “fucking c-nt” to which more than a few people heard. I continue to be shocked and frankly a bit frightened about a reaction like this. There is no rhyme or reason for this man to hate me to this extent and I am considering filing the same charges against him as I will file against Johnny Adams.
That won’t protect me in public though will it.
The faces that I picked out of the crowd were Joe Nee, Gary Lake, Fayne McDowell, Johnny Adams and Brian Bradley. A few of them displayed the strangest behavior I have ever seen in public. I ended up at the ER the next morning.
Not ONE man on the board was treated as Bea Twiss and I were treated and she wasn’t treated to even half of what I had to go through just to leave a meeting!
We have some serious issues in this community with men believing they have the right to assault any woman this way.
I would love to know the reasoning behind any man assaulting a woman who is simply trying to do the brand new job she was elected to do by other community members. These are grown men who for one reason or another showed up to show their support of the superintendent again.
I wonder if it makes them feel manly to know that I had to go to the ER the next day? I wonder if it makes them feel manly to know that I know I can’t fight against a man and come out ahead?
Brian Bradley wrote to me just today and confirmed his nastiness toward me, “I will attest to Mrs. Dahn’s account of what I said to and about MaryAnn Clemons. I heard it because I said it.”
The question remains – why would someone spend this kind of time and energy to hate someone he doesn’t know and who had no issue with him before the last meeting?
I debated whether to write about
At the end of a uneventful meeting, there was a clearly hostile crowd. Joe Nee had paced back and forth instead of sitting down for a majority of the meeting and when it was over he started popping off his mouth talking gibberish that I never did quite understand. Once he had done that then the crowd got to its feet and many were shouting and clapping. I had put on my coat and was trying to leave when I was trapped by people.
Johnny Adams got his hands right in my face and was aggressively and vehemently clapping while saying, “You did it now girl, you’re gonna get it now girl.” I was shocked. Did what? I am one of five people on a board. I believe this is the second or third time I’ve been threatened by Johnny Adams.
Gary Lake, standing right next to him was saying at the same time, “You’ve lost your mind now girl.”
Why was a former board member talking to me about losing my mind I still have no idea, but he certainly did nothing to protect me from Johnny Adams or his aggressiveness to me. I consider myself to have been verbally and physically harassed by Johnny Adams and I am looking into filing charges on him as such.
I again underestimated Gary Lake. As someone who goes to the same church as him, I thought, as a cowboy and a Christian, he would have been the first man standing to help me out of an assault. Once again I was wrong about him. And disappointed.
The crowd was in a semi-riot at this point and crowding around. Bea Twiss was also being verbally assaulted by audience members, some of them employees!
I walked out the door and into Brian Bradley and Chuck Howarth. I turned to Chuck to say something and Brian Bradley turned on me, all 6’3″ of him to my 5’8″ and he got so close to my face we could have kissed. I took a step back and he advanced on me again screaming in my face about what a bitch I am and how I was ruining this entire community. I was like, “Who ARE you?” and he said, “Brian Bradley.”
Now, you need to know that I have NEVER met this man before and I do not know him other than his hateful words in letters to the editor. I could not have picked him out of line-up before this moment.
I said that he needed to get out of my personal space or I would call the Sheriff’s Department and that was when Chuck Howarth stepped in and put himself between Bradley and I. It gave me enough time to get to my car, all the while Bradley was screaming after me (around Chuck) that I was a stupid fucking bitch and ruining the community with my “agenda.”
He then went back into the administration building and called me a “fucking c-nt” to which more than a few people heard. I continue to be shocked and frankly a bit frightened about a reaction like this. There is no rhyme or reason for this man to hate me to this extent and I am considering filing the same charges against him as I will file against Johnny Adams.
That won’t protect me in public though will it.
The faces that I picked out of the crowd were Joe Nee, Gary Lake, Fayne McDowell, Johnny Adams and Brian Bradley. A few of them displayed the strangest behavior I have ever seen in public. I ended up at the ER the next morning.
Not ONE man on the board was treated as Bea Twiss and I were treated and she wasn’t treated to even half of what I had to go through just to leave a meeting!
We have some serious issues in this community with men believing they have the right to assault any woman this way.
I would love to know the reasoning behind any man assaulting a woman who is simply trying to do the brand new job she was elected to do by other community members. These are grown men who for one reason or another showed up to show their support of the superintendent again.
I wonder if it makes them feel manly to know that I had to go to the ER the next day? I wonder if it makes them feel manly to know that I know I can’t fight against a man and come out ahead?
Brian Bradley wrote to me just today and confirmed his nastiness toward me, “I will attest to Mrs. Dahn’s account of what I said to and about MaryAnn Clemons. I heard it because I said it.”
The question remains – why would someone spend this kind of time and energy to hate someone he doesn’t know and who had no issue with him before the last meeting?
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