[Vision2020] Insulted

[Art Deco]

Keely, Jack, et al,

Jack's post below is an apt jump off for a comment about your response to my suggestion yesterday in which you wrote in part:

"Now you say we haven't been out there enough soliciting ideas; in the middle, I guess, is the media association in Boise's award to the facilities committee last year for statewide excellence in public policy openness.  The fact is, during the two years I was on the committee, we had numerous forums, hearings, workshops, weekly meetings open to the public, a survey, and a flurry of printed material, much of which I wrote."

Perhaps I didn't express myself clearly enough.  I do not believe that it is nearly enough just to have general public meetings just to get ideas or pretend to get ideas.

The purpose for neighborhood meetings is not just to get ideas, but to build relationships and to create a climate where people with various views will learn and work together toward compromise solutions, and to create a climate where those people will enthusiastically support and work for the compromise crafted come bond election time.  This is a long process and one which takes considerable patience and effort.

The idea of small continuing neighborhood meetings is that more people will feel at home and more willing to express themselves and to listen/learn from others in a conversational setting than in the formal "them" v. "us" organization and tone of general meetings where there is a physical as well as a psychological barrier between the board committee(s) and the public.  People will feel much more inclined to become actively and meaningfully involved in informal, friendly get-togethers with people they know.

The idea behind neighborhood meetings is that they are not conducted by a board member but by a volunteer and are free wheeling conversations not constrained by meeting rules and procedures.  If a board member chooses to attend such meetings, it would be without the status or the stigma of being a board member, but as just another peer participant willing to contribute and to learn.  The whole idea behind such a concept is that if people are provided with a process where they are meaningfully encouraged to participate and in which they feel comfortable participating in, they are more likely to endorse and to actively support the outcome of that process.

Quite frankly, many of us are getting tired of the holier than thou attitude of some of the remarks of some of the board members and school administration toward education supporters.  Pretending to listen is not the same as really listening.  Pretending to listen only alienates supporters as echoed in Jack's post below.  Working hard is not the same as working smart.

It is clear from the remarks of not only Dan, Joan, Saundra, Debi, and Jack but also recently from Sunil and Joe that the board has a huge, complex task before it.  It is clear that the board needs to build a lot more public support in order to achieve their general goals, almost all of which a vast majority of the public supports.

It is also very clear that whatever effort (and no one doubts that it has been enormous and sincere in intention) made so far has not been successful.  It is time to try something a little different like the neighborhood meetings/alliance concept instead of spinning wheels in the same old ruts.  If the board and administration is unwilling to try something a little different, then it is less probable that anything they propose will have a chance at success.  It is also probable that they will continue to alienate more potential supporters.

Keely, perhaps you will be kind enough to pass all the V 2020 posts of the last week on the subject of the bond issue on to your board colleagues and the school administration for their perusal, comment, and action.

Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
deco at moscow.com








----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jack Porter" <jporter at moscow.com>
To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 8:54 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Insulted


> Joan and Keely, you weren't here at the time, but I was serving on the 
> school board back when Gerald Ford was President.  Three decades later, I 
> was part of the group that started CQE and organized the campaign that 
> passed the 2002 emergency operating levy, after the district's first 
> attempt had failed miserably.
> 
> You're not the only ones who care about kids.  People should be able to 
> disagree with you about building priorities, or the wisdom or political 
> viability of a particular plan, without having their motives attacked.
> 
> If you hope to reach a 2/3 vote in a levy election, it doesn't help for you 
> to go around insulting potential allies.
> 
> Jack
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