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some weirdly specific times on the agenda for tonight’s albemarle county school board meeting.
public comment is scheduled for 7:18pm. a new policy as of the last meeting requires speakers to be signed up prior to the start of the meeting at 6:30.
public comment is scheduled for 7:18pm. a new policy as of the last meeting requires speakers to be signed up prior to the start of the meeting at 6:30.
at least i’m in the right building & on time tonight. had some trouble last time 😂🤦t8iE
gaveling back in from their closed session now. the closed meeting was something about some land acquisition according to the published notice.
under va code, the first meeting of the year is an organizational meeting where they elect officers... so jr fascist and chief civility officer kate acuff may not be the chair going forward?!? 🙏🙏🙏
she heaped lots of praise on jonno alcaro before nominating him as the new chair. the voice vote sounded unanimous & she started to move on... when jason buyaki cut in to record his vote as an abstention. mildly spicy.
the gavel has been passed. alcaro is now chairing the meeting. oberg nominates graham hairston as vice chair. unanimous vote in favor, no abstentions.
koleszar nominates jennifer johnson as school board clerk (her current position) and she’s unanimously reappointed.
now onto discussion of this year’s meeting times. koleszar thinks the retreat should be in addition to rather than a part of one of their june meetings.
a lot of discussion considering we’re talking about several hours of their time six months from now. they’ve voted to TENTATIVELY have three meetings in june 🙄
whoooooops i’m so bad with names i can’t even do i right when i CAN see the nameplates. bernard hairston is the vice chair. graham is the first name of a different board member entirely.
with board appointments for the year done & the consent agenda approved, we’re on to announcements. superintendent haas is presenting outgoing chair & petty tyrant kate acuff with a commemorative gavel & flowers.
dr hairston is providing an update on the antiracism policy. the student work group met with the district’s equity committee last week. the policy will be introduced to principals next week. this is the first step in implementation.
next, a staff policy review committee will review the draft policy. they will update the policy & present it at a school board meeting at a time to be determined.
wonder who’s on that committee & how much they’re going to change?
wonder who’s on that committee & how much they’re going to change?
steve koleszar says he will not run for re-election. 24 years is a long time. he’s proud of the changes made since he’s been on the board, including a decrease in the dropout rate.
alcaro, acuff, and haas share some kind words about working with koleszar.
alcaro, acuff, and haas share some kind words about working with koleszar.
graham paige is referencing this change in policy
not policy related but paige says “internship” with the emphasis on the second syllable which makes it sound like “internment”
very different vibe.
very different vibe.
hearing from a student about the internship opportunities he’s had through the district’s health & medical sciences academy.
i’m interested in the perspectives of some educators on this program. i didn’t know we had it here, but i attended a similar program in HS in my hometown & it functioned as de facto segregation. hearing from this young white man has me wondering if that’s the case here, too.
alcaro is reading a statement prepared for him by albemarle county commonwealth’s attorney robert tracci about the penalties for disorderly conduct.
tracci organized the arrest of multiple parents at the august 30th meeting
tracci organized the arrest of multiple parents at the august 30th meeting
they’ve been exploring returning public comment to the beginning of meetings (as it used to be before the august 2018 meeting they adjourned 10 minutes in because they had a collective meltdown over people softly snapping their fingers)
first speaker is lara from @hatefreeacps.
she’s talking about an incident in which students were disciplined for distributing black lives matter shirts at school. the next day, other students came to school in confederate flag shirts to intimidate and antagonize them.
she’s talking about an incident in which students were disciplined for distributing black lives matter shirts at school. the next day, other students came to school in confederate flag shirts to intimidate and antagonize them.
“there’s a lot of lawyers on this board & i don’t know about y’all, but that sounds like a lawsuit to me.”
the board is AWARE of the use of this imagery to harass and intimidate students of color. they have sufficient legal grounds to ban it.
the board is AWARE of the use of this imagery to harass and intimidate students of color. they have sufficient legal grounds to ban it.
the speaker lists districts around the country that have already banned hateful symbols from their schools... including charlottesville city schools.
“what are you DOING?” she asks.
“this is your legal and moral obligation.”
“what are you DOING?” she asks.
“this is your legal and moral obligation.”
next speaker is aubrey from @hatefreeacps. she raises the issue of the board disciplining public commenters for saying the name of any board member. they’ve dug up the county regulation that contradicts this board policy.
the regulation lists ten kinds of behavior that may or may not be disruptive, one of which is speaking about specific public officers or employees. even personal attacks are specifically listed as protected, non-disruptive speech.
the next speaker says that starting off public comment with the threat of arrest is upsetting to her. she was arrested for speaking during the august 30, 2018 school board meeting.
can’t wait to hear what the board has to say about their frankly illegal policy about not speaking the name of any board member!
the board didn’t acknowledge the content of any of the public comments. moving right along to other business.
a speaker says burley middle school should be made a historic landmark
aahistoricsitesva.org/items/show/220
aahistoricsitesva.org/items/show/220
the request is to put the building on national and state registries — this requires a majority vote of the property owners. in this case, that’s the school board. supt haas says there’s no downside or cost, just a great way to recognize a historic place.
koleszar says he’s in favor of the move, but thinks it should be brought back as an action item rather than placing it on the consent agenda at the next meeting. he says having public discussion & a vote would give it more visibility. it’ll be on a february agenda.
ah damn it, kate acuff finally made good on her rescheduled speaking engagement at the senior center & i missed it! when she bailed on them last time, i got this gem insteadLDr
budget season may be the death of me
ineffective powerpoint slides, part 73752
talking about career planning, katrina callsen praises the junior ROTC program. allowing the military to prey on students that young is horrifying. keep the military out of our schools.
koleszar says our schools used to have ROTC, but we didn’t meets enrollment quotas - they require 10% of the student body to maintain the program.
talking about setting kids up for future success... how can you say that in the same breath as your willingness to sell children to the military? we are fighting wars that started before these kids were born.
katrina callsen asks why we aren’t using a local contractor for projects. debora collins says the contractor uses mostly local subcontractors. it’s contractors all the way down.
oh hell yeah i can’t wait to be bored nearly to actual death at all of these budget meetings.
meeting adjourned but these two are blocking the exit 🐷🐷
