It appears that there was verbal altercation between a school board member who made an unannounced visit to a school and a principal who the board member called racist due to a letter written by the school's site council. (How's that for a run-on sentence?)
[Article Link, via Star Tribune]
I'd love to hear thoughts from outside my little world and the bloggers I follow.
My questions so far:
Where is the professionalism from both sides disrupting a calm learning environment where students are making academic gains?
Why do school board members divide up the schools and only visit them once a year? (Quote from the article, "Stewart said board members divide up the district's schools and visit all of them at least once a year.") Shouldn't they be in the buildings regularly to see what is happening? How can they make decisions if they don't know the students, staff, administrators, engineers and buildings?
If two people were in the altercation, why is only one on paid administrative leave? The entire school board needs to review this situation. If two students are in a fight at school, the both get suspended.
What action is the district taking besides putting a principal on leave to solve the situation?
There is a lot of background on the incident involving district-wide changes that are too deep and un-concrete at this point to elaborate on. These are my initial thoughts after taking time to calm down and begin to think about this.
You see, I'm a teacher in Minneapolis but I'm also a resident and parent who pays taxes and will have students in these schools. I'm a tad frustrated that my elected officials and tax dollars are supporting this type of activity in the schools I love. Done ranting. Thanks for listening.