Carla Ranger - Dallas ISD Education Blog: Consent agenda being used to deny public discussion of public issues

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Consent agenda being used to deny public discussion of public issues

Several months ago Trustees Bernadette Nutall, Mike Morath and Lew Blackburn re-instituted a Board policy requiring two Trustees in order to pull an item from the agenda for a separate vote.

Trustees Bernadette Nutall and Mike Morath insisted that the policy be passed.

This had been done years before by Trustees Lew Blackburn and Ron Price but was finally corrected. Both times it was intended to make opposition and dissent more difficult - especially my opposition and dissent.

Why should a Board majority be able to hide items on a Consent Agenda and deny a Trustee the right to vote against an individual agenda item? This policy goes against the idea of public discussion of public issues.

If one of the Board agenda items below was not pulled for a separate vote, it was because no other Trustee requested that the item be pulled.

Before the Bernadette Nutall-Mike Morath-Lew Blackburn policy change, all of the items would have been immediately pulled for a separate vote on Thursday, January 12, 2012.

There were important items that were not noted at the Board meeting because of this restriction on Trustee voting rights.

On Thursday, January 12, 2012 I requested that several items be pulled from the Consent Agenda. I made the request either because some of the agenda items are troubling or the items are of public interest.

If pulled from the Consent Agenda, this would have provided the opportunity for public discussion or simply a separate vote on the following items:

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"Will need a second" means a second Trustee must request that the item be pulled for a separate vote.
Thursday, January 12, 2012 - Board Briefing

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board Policy EIA (Local) Academic Achievement Grading/Progress Reports to Parents (No Funding Required)
Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second. (... Public Interest)

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board Policy EIC (Local) Academic Achievement Class Ranking (No Funding Required )

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second. (... Public Interest)

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board PolicyFMH (Local) Student Activities Commencement (No Financial Impact)

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second. (... Public Interest)

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board Policy DFBB (Local) Term Contracts Non-Renewal (No Financial Impact)

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second (... Public Interest)

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Amendment to Board Policy DGBA (Local) Personnel-Management Relations Employee Complaints/Grievances (No Financial Impact)

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second (... Public Interest)

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve the Recommendation to Terminate Excess Chapter 21 - Fall/Spring Leveling Probationary Contract Employees at the End of the Contract Period, Pursuant to Chapter 21 of the Texas Education Code (No Funding Required)

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second. (... Public Interest)

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve the Recommendation to Non-Renew Excess Chapter 21 - Fall/Spring Leveling Term Contract Employees at the End of the Contract Term, Pursuant to Chapter 21 of The Texas Education Code (No Funding Required)

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second. (... Public Interest)

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve Use of Texas Education Code §21.207 Hearing Process for Proposed Chapter 21 Term Contract Non-Renewals

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second. (... Public Interest)

Consider and Accept the STAR Employee Commission’s Recommendations

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second. (... Public Interest)

Consider and Take Possible Action to Approve the Recommended School Consolidations (No Funding Required)

Ranger - Pull for Separate Vote. Will need a Second (... Public Interest)

A Teacher's Creed

"In the classroom on the first day of a new school year, I am eager to meet my students. I have rehearsed my greeting and first day’s remarks, but no matter how many years I’ve prepared for this procedure, it’s always new. My heart pumps a bit harder, faster; I feel adrenaline like an athlete, or like an actor, or maybe like a novice public speaker. It’s a marvelous feeling, this first day, because I know that something special is going to happen, and I know it because I’ve experienced it before and I know that I will experience it every time I meet a new class throughout my venerable career. And then they’re seated before me and I smile at this special feeling. This is an assembly of students, yes. But there’s so much more, because each of these young persons is more than just a student entrusted to me. Each of these students has a story to tell, a lifetime, however brief, of experiences, a history in volumes whose richness and depth I can barely begin to fathom. And so as I absorb the first glimpse of these young charges, I must appreciate the extent of my responsibility, of the privilege I’ve accepted in presenting these young souls my special knowledge. In offering them my talent and passion, I am adding an enormous array of new bright stars to the vast firmament of their minds, stars that will never have time to fade in their lifetimes. I will be part of their story. And I know that each of them will always be part of mine. And that’s a good feeling, a feeling that is perpetually renewed, revisited, and rewritten in A Teacher’s Creed."