Public School District Bills Parent Thirty-Three Million Dollars for Requesting Information about Curriculum

[Seymour Flops]

This is the kind of thing that public officials giggle about when they discuss taxpayers/parents who want to exercise their rights to know what government is doing.

When they go to these lengths to avoid making a simple search of emails and providing it to the people whose taxes pay their salaries as well as for the email accounts, it tells you that they have something that they are desperate to hide.

Something about how they handle the children with whom they are entrusted.

 

[White 6]

View attachment 1056314

This is the kind of thing that public officials giggle about when they discuss taxpayers/parents who want to exercise their rights to know what government is doing.

When they go to these lengths to avoid making a simple search of emails and providing it to the people whose taxes pay their salaries as well as for the email accounts, it tells you that they have something that they are desperate to hide.

Something about how they handle the children with whom they are entrusted.

I look forward to seeing this on Lehto's Law.

 

[Unkotare]

Every parent of my students who comes in for parent-teacher conference nights get a copy of the curriculum of my class and a detailed explanation of each step therein including hard copies of samples of exercises we do in class. Every parent who emails, calls, or texts (I provide them with all of my personal contact information) gets the same sent to them.


No charge.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

View attachment 1056314

This is the kind of thing that public officials giggle about when they discuss taxpayers/parents who want to exercise their rights to know what government is doing.

When they go to these lengths to avoid making a simple search of emails and providing it to the people whose taxes pay their salaries as well as for the email accounts, it tells you that they have something that they are desperate to hide.

Something about how they handle the children with whom they are entrusted.

This is a known tactic used to dissuade the requestor from continuing to pursue their line of inquiry.

The agency deserves to be sued out of existence, there is plenty of case law to support prohibitions on these types of tactics.

Here in Washington State we have wonderful agency that serves as a watchdog for all levels of government when it comes to compliance with RCW 42.56 Public Records Act (RCW = the Revised Code of Washington)
WashCOG - Washington Coalition for Open Government

 

[Seymour Flops]

Every parent of my students who comes in for parent-teacher conference nights get a copy of the curriculum of my class and a detailed explanation of each step therein including hard copies of samples of exercises we do in class. Every parent who emails, calls, or texts (I provide them with all of my personal contact information) gets the same sent to them.


No charge.

Right? Good teachers love involved parents. I have absolutely nothing to hide from parents.

I run a behavior program that is regulated by a published book that my district pays for. I provide a copy of that book to every parent whose child enters the program before we have our ARD meeting so they know what they are signing up their kid for. I send them the data I take on their child weekly, unless they ask for it daily, which I happily oblige.

 

[Unkotare]

Right? Good teachers love involved parents. I have absolutely nothing to hide from parents.

I run a behavior program that is regulated by a published book that my district pays for. I provide a copy of that book to every parent whose child enters the program before we have our ARD meeting so they know what they are signing up their kid for. I send them the data I take on their child weekly, unless they ask for it daily, which I happily oblige.

I had 3 IEP meetings just last week.

 

[Seymour Flops]

I had 3 IEP meetings just last week.

Thanks for what you do for your students with disabilities! I know the meetings are a pain for Gen Ed teachers. Done right, they are well worth it.

Not sure that they always are, unfortunately.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Right? Good teachers love involved parents. I have absolutely nothing to hide from parents.

I run a behavior program that is regulated by a published book that my district pays for. I provide a copy of that book to every parent whose child enters the program before we have our ARD meeting so they know what they are signing up their kid for. I send them the data I take on their child weekly, unless they ask for it daily, which I happily oblige.

Every parent of my students who comes in for parent-teacher conference nights get a copy of the curriculum of my class and a detailed explanation of each step therein including hard copies of samples of exercises we do in class. Every parent who emails, calls, or texts (I provide them with all of my personal contact information) gets the same sent to them.


No charge.

I'm sure that the transparency that you both practice with your student's parents goes a long way in establishing confidence and trust that their children are well taken care of.

However what this parent was requesting if I recall correctly has more to do with what was being said between the administrators et al in emails, and perhaps even in other documents although a LOT of communication today happens via email.

Furthermore, their estimation of what it would take to find what she's requesting is absurd. She was looking for emails containing a single word - "anti-retaliation". There are tools to do an email search and producing the documents in electronic form (.pdf) should eliminate most, if not all of the costs to fulfill the request.

Now the school district looks like its doing exactly what she was looking for - retaliation and what measures are being taken to address it.

 

[SweetSue92]

View attachment 1056314

This is the kind of thing that public officials giggle about when they discuss taxpayers/parents who want to exercise their rights to know what government is doing.

When they go to these lengths to avoid making a simple search of emails and providing it to the people whose taxes pay their salaries as well as for the email accounts, it tells you that they have something that they are desperate to hide.

Something about how they handle the children with whom they are entrusted.

Well, the district was clearly in the wrong. I remember that incident surrounding Covid madness.

But

Some parents are also nuts. I mean just nuts. Some parents would tie up school time and resources with these requests for the most inane reasons. So there must be a limit on these requests, imo

 

[Seymour Flops]

I'm sure that the transparency that you both practice with your student's parents goes a long way in establishing confidence and trust that their children are well taken care of.

However what this parent was requesting if I recall correctly has more to do with what was being said between the administrators et al in emails, and perhaps even in other documents although a LOT of communication today happens via email.

Furthermore, their estimation of what it would take to find what she's requesting is absurd. She was looking for emails containing a single word - "anti-retaliation". There are tools to do an email search and producing the documents in electronic form (.pdf) should eliminate most, if not all of the costs to fulfill the request.

Now the school district looks like its doing exactly what she was looking for - retaliation and what measures are being taken to address it.

Exactly correct. The school was pretending that someone would have read through each email looking for those words.

This is not much different from how the DOJ/FBI has been stonewalling congress when it seeks information from them. They don't charge congress, but they do pretend that looking for certain electronic documents is a years-long, painstaking process whose completion cannot even be predicted.

Bottom line is that the DOJ/FBI and certain school districts do not WANT taxpayers/voters to know what they are doing.

 

[martybegan]

Exactly correct. The school was pretending that someone would have read through each email looking for those words.

This is not much different from how the DOJ/FBI has been stonewalling congress when it seeks information from them. They don't charge congress, but they do pretend that looking for certain electronic documents is a years-long, painstaking process whose completion cannot even be predicted.

Bottom line is that the DOJ/FBI and certain school districts do not WANT taxpayers/voters to know what they are doing.

I think their excuse was they can search for those words automatically, but each one found has to be read and redacted of any non material information to the request made.

It's still bullshit.

 

[Mac-7]

We need cameras in the classrooms

 

[Mac-7]

We need cameras in the classrooms

Practically the only people resisting cameras in the classrooms are public teachers and libs/democrats

 

[hadit]

Practically the only people resisting cameras in the classrooms are public teachers and libs/democrats

Not necessarily. Consider that you are talking about images and videos of the faces and bodies of minor children possibly being available to non-parents. We would have to find a way to gain the positive results of cameras and avoid the negative. I can easily see a scenario where a student has an embarrassing mishap in class, the video gets out and he/she is bullied to the point of suicide.

 

[Mac-7]

Not necessarily. Consider that you are talking about images and videos of the faces and bodies of minor children possibly being available to non-parents. We would have to find a way to gain the positive results of cameras and avoid the negative. I can easily see a scenario where a student has an embarrassing mishap in class, the video gets out and he/she is bullied to the point of suicide.

The only person parents need to see is the teacher with something to hide

But if we want to pan the entire classroom modern technology allows us to blur the faces of the children in real time

Plus access to the video can be restricted to parents only and not the general public

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

We need cameras in the classrooms

I didn't know you were a perv and liked to watch kids!

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

The only person parents need to see is the teacher with something to hide

But if we want to pan the entire classroom modern technology allows us to blur the faces of the children in real time

Plus access to the video can be restricted to parents only and not the general public

That's some awfully damned expensive equipment and software. Imagine equipping a high school with close to 200 classrooms.

How about you pay for it since you seem to be the only one wanting it?

 

[Mac-7]

That's some awfully damned expensive equipment and software. Imagine equipping a high school with close to 200 classrooms.

How about you pay for it since you seem to be the only one wanting it?

You are about 20 years behind the technology

I hope you arent a science teacher

But given the results in our public schools you certainly could be

But hey, as long as your pension is safe to hell with the kids, right?

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

You are about 20 years behind the technology

I hope you arent a science teacher

But given the results in our public schools you certainly could be

But hey, as long as your pension is safe to hell with the kids, right?

No, I was the technology coordinator for my school and also a school district technology instructor, smart ass! Our wi-fi worked about 50% of the time or less and we never had the bandwidth to use most of our computers at the same time. I had a school with Apple Notebooks given to every student. They were up about 60% of the time.

The results of our public schools are a direct result of society in general. Poor students make for poor students of all stripes. Minority students do not have the family structure to be successful most of the time, unless they are Asian.

My pension is based on my contributions to the fund based on 10 years of service. Nothing more, and nothing less. Why do you have a problem with me getting my own money back?

 

[Mac-7]

No, I was the technology coordinator for my school and also a school district technology instructor, smart ass! Our wi-fi worked about 50% of the time or less and we never had the bandwidth to use most of our computers at the same time. I had a school with Apple Notebooks given to every student. They were up about 60% of the time.

The results of our public schools are a direct result of society in general. Poor students make for poor students of all stripes. Minority students do not have the family structure to be successful most of the time, unless they are Asian.

My pension is based on my contributions to the fund based on 10 years of service. Nothing more, and nothing less. Why do you have a problem with me getting my own money back?

I struck a nerve

Or maybe several nerves

Public teachers have your excuses for failure memorized and you are no exception