October 18, 2022 Patron Presentation, Damon Barone
Greetings, Damon Barone, Alief ISD parent, taxpayer, and alumnus.
During the March 22, 2022 school board meeting this board voted to shorten the community’s time to speak during patron presentations from 5 minutes to 3 minutes; since then, you all have continued to spend more time discussing, presenting, and commenting in great detail on items that have nothing to do with student outcomes.
Please put items that are not related to student outcomes on the consent agenda. Such as:
1. The donation reports;
2. The board recognitions,
3. And the hiring of administrators. You all do not recognize teachers, custodians, bus drivers, or mechanics and their family members when you hire them, so why is this being done only for administrators?
The board also stops during board meetings to take multiple pictures, then you all take an additional 5 - 10 minute break to take more pictures and have conversations.
The board scheduled all of the special called meetings for the superintendent search for 4pm and 5pm, so please take pictures, shake hands, and have personal conversations with recognized individuals between 4:00pm and 6:29pm before the 6:30pm board meetings.
Board members routinely state that you do not have questions or comments after district administrators publicly present.
1. If board members do not have questions because you all are discussing, emailing, or communicating your questions or concerns privately, then those communications should also be shared with the public.
2. Please develop a process where parents, community members, and staff can express questions and concerns regarding the district’s presentations, and receive a response for those questions.
An example of my concern is that for multiple years Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, DOCTOR Elizabeth Veloz-Powell stated that many employees do not fill out the exit survey information when they leave the district; yet, when the information was presented to the board during the September 20, 2022 board meeting, allegedly 29.5% of staff retired. 29.5% of what number?
The three people who filled out the survey, or 29.5% of the 390 teachers who quit according to the Source-Forecast slide? Those percentages paint a different picture when the numerator and denominator are provided; not to mention each resigning employee is also allowed to select multiple options within the exit survey, which further skews the percentage points.
In unit 13 of the districts 3rd grade math pacing guide (2017-2018), our kids are taught about numerators and denominators of fractions, and what those parts and wholes represent; yet, somehow each year, and each school board meeting, this board allows “highly qualified” staff to present data of percentages with no numerator or denominator attached to them.
District leadership should be held to higher standards than our third graders.
Damon Barone, Alief ISD parent, taxpayer, and alumnus.