Three Alief Teachers test positive for Corona Virus
I want to know why the district nor district leadership has not informed our community of the Alief teacher at Owens Intermediate that tested positive for the Corona Virus back on the week of March 9th, before spring break?
This willful lack of communication has put all of our children, staff, loved ones, and community members in danger. One has to wonder how many more positive cases or presumptive positive cases of the Corona Virus the district knows about and has not notified the community, parents, or students of.
On Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 6:09pm Alief ISD sent the following communication out, “Out of an abundance of caution concerning the corona virus situation, all Alief ISD schools will be closed Friday, March 13, 2020. Please visit www.aliefisd.net/coronavirus or follow the district on social media for additional updates”.
The following day on Friday, March 13, 2020, while the entire school district was closed, School Board President Ann Williams, Superintendent Henry HD Chambers, Director of Public Relations Kimberly Smith, and others district associates or staff were at the Alief Career Center recording a podcast and live streaming that podcast on Facebook live.
This morning the video of that live streamed podcast had 3,300 views, the morning of the live feed 1,400 people were watching it live. There were 8,922 followers on the districts Facebook page during the time of the live broadcast. There was no, and has not been any mention by the district of the teacher at Owens Intermediate who tested positive for the Corona Virus.
Furthermore, several community members, including myself have repeatedly asked the district to live stream all board meeting so that our community members, staff, and students can be engaged in the business of the district that immediately impacts us by the boards votes and their governance of the district.
The districts response to our public requests to live stream all board meetings was to say, at the November 27, 2018 school board meeting, that district video records all board meetings, and that the recorded meetings that are posted on the districts website receive less than 30 views per board meeting video; in short, the district does the legal minimum to prevent our community from being engaged, and if the community truly had an interest in board meetings those views would be higher than 30 views per video.
District leadership went a step further and clarified that 30 views does not mean that 30 community members viewed that particular video recording, if one person watched the video 30 times, or six community members watched a video five times each, etc, that would account for even lower community engagement views in school board meeting videos; thus it was not in the best interest of the district to live stream school board meetings, and the district would and has continued to perform the legal minimum regarding community access and community participation in board meetings.
Let us not forget that all decisions should be made in the best interest of the community which the district serves, not the best interest of the district or district leadership as has been the unwavering case thus far.
It is time for district leadership, and our elected school board members to start representing the best interest of our entire community, and not just the selected subpopulations of our community, or the personal agendas of district leadership, including school board members or the board as a whole.
Video live streaming all board meetings and communicating all information to the public, not just the feel-good stories/information, is a step in the right direction for full community representation by the district. Stop providing us with the legal minimum in everything that you all do and expecting the maximum support from our community. We deserve better.
Damon Barone, Alief parent, Alief taxpayer, Alief alumnus
Apparently there is more than one case of an educator at Alief ISD who tested positive with the corona virus. It sure would have been nice to know this before hand. If you were not at the March 24, 2020 school board meeting then you were NOT and HAVE NOT been informed or notified of these cases.
A teacher at Owens Intermediate, a teacher at Crossroads, and the spouse of a teacher at Odonell Middle school are infected with the corona virus. Who knows if there are not more possible cases which are willfully not being shared with the community at this time by the district.
#WhatAboutTheMissionStatement