Friday, May 30, 2008

Supervisors may need supervision

This situation with the Everett School District is quite the fiasco. Superintendent Carol Whitehead and the district require the Kodak paper to submit copies for review prior to printing. Seems like a reasonable request given that the target audience is children and the paper's publishers are also children, using district equipment and supplies paid for by taxpayers.

The district slaps some heavy rules on the newspaper. Teacher Kay Powers openly supports the kids in their First Amendment lawsuit against the school district. The next group of kids publishing the underground version of the paper violate those rules and Ms. Powers disobeys adminstration directives. The district tries to fire Ms. Powers only to turn about in the face of strong union opposition.

Then we hear that the district may have hidden a camera to spy on Ms. Powers, the discovery of which may have been behind their decision to reinstate her. Through late last week, Ms. Whitehead vehemently denies knowing about any videotaping. Then days later she turns around and says she was consulted on the original decision to install the camera months ago. Is there a blatant and very public lie in there somewhere? Maybe "it depends on what the meaning of the word 'videotaping' is."

You could make a soap opera from the whole thing. If only it weren't playing out in front of the kids. The original intent of the request by Whitehead to review the school newspaper before publication appeared to be a show of concern for the children and youth who would read it. It appeared that there would be some adult supervision added where it has seemed lacking of late. I'm thinking that the adult supervisors may be the ones who need supervision.

Read the rest of the letter by clicking here.

John Smith
Snohomish

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tracy's husband who is Bipolar, leads her straight to nowhere. Tracy is not a supervisor, but does need constant monitoring because of him.

Anonymous said...

So why did the Edmonds School District install a camera at Martha Lake Elementary? Who knew about it? Why wasn't there a protest over a hidden camera?

Anonymous said...

I SECOND THAT STATEMENT!! WHAT A TWOSOME THEY ARE....

ESD15.org said...

The camera was installed by Guardian Security, in the custodial office and approved by district management.

The project manager for Guardian, that coordinated the installation, moved on to HSM.

Like any other installation, they sought to track activity in the custodial office.

Anonymous said...

The camera must of worked at ML they are hiring a new custodian!

Anonymous said...

Where is our Tracy from HR out again, hope she finds a different job soon!

Anonymous said...

And guess who is out with her again? Hey, at least they support eachother! It costs the district just slightly less when they are both gone. "I don't like working." Again, the excuses given by both of them this week are absolutely hilarious. They have any fourth grader in the district beat like a rented mule. I'd like my children to be able to lie that well at their age, but at a capacity like drama. Not much use for lying to your coworkers and supervisors though. Or anywhere else for that matter. Could I ask a big favor from the both of you. Knowing a little bit about anatomy, I would be proud of both of you if you could stop referring to body parts, conditions, diagnostics, medications, measurements, applications, movements, and recommendations as "THINGS."