While taking time off to heal from my many procedures this year I took the time to sit down with students at all grade levels in LISD schools, and talked with some teachers and administration and have discovered things that the community may not be aware of that should if you are a concerned parent or tax payer. First and foremost I would like to thank all the hard working teachers and administration who do want what is best for or education. Now that this has been said let us get down to the knitty gritty. After sitting down with students of all age ranges and asking them questions here is how our children have learned to manipulate the system due to the corruption of our current administration “THE HILL”. These children tell me that there is no way they can fail, that the lowest grade on their report cards they can get is a 70. Teachers is this true? Are you being forced to pass our children so that our failure rate as a district looks good? Are you being reprimanded or looked down on if you fail a student who honestly just sits in class and snap chats? I have received and seen many videos on cell phones taken by concerned students of classrooms out of control, and teachers who just sit at their desk with their feet propped up reading a newspaper. Yes I have seen this, and yes I was pissed off. I have also seen videos of teachers trying to get control of a class, and the students being so loud and disrespectful that the teacher is almost in tears. We are letting our children and the corrupt administration run our schools into the ground. We have employees that I can’t even call teachers that just sit on their ass and collect a check and could care less if a student learns a damn thing. Well it is time for this crap to stop. It’s time for teaching our kids only to take a test to stop, and it’s time for our part time superintendent to get off his ass and do something about it. Dr. Wilcox you want to prove to us that you are the superintendent we need? Then let our teachers teach, let the grading be up to the teachers, get the disruption out of the classrooms, get rid of the so called teachers that are just sitting on their asses, and do away with the unneeded positions on the hill that are a waste of our tax payers money. By the looks of it your board is about to change and their opinions are the same as mine, We need a full time superintendent and one who truly care about education not building more facilities that you can’t even fill with qualified employees , because no one wants to work for LISD anymore. I am asked on a daily basis “Why do you even want to try to make LISD better, it’s just full of thugs and criminals?” Yes this is what I hear all the time, this is what people think about our district, and I know it is not true. Let’s not let a few bad eggs ruin the batch, let’s just throw those eggs to the curb. From the outside looking in LISD looks like a great school, but from deep in the inside of the beast it is crumbling and our teachers and children who want to learn are suffering. As we start preparing for the “STUPID” STAARS test I have a quote you should all here: Standardized testing is at cross purposes with many of the most important purposes of public education. It doesn't measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, perseverance, problem solving, creativity or curiosity, yet those are the qualities great teaching brings out in a student. The HILL does a great job of using smoke and mirrors to fool you, but take the time to look into what is really going on in our schools, this is your right as a tax payer. If any of you have ever known my father, who was a great businessman he would never pull any punches and would tell it like it was, and as my mother says I am unfortunately my father’s son. Lol But he used to tell me this one saying that is crude but has a meaning that describes our LISD administration, and SOME board members. “Putting sugar on crap doesn’t make it a brownie! Thank you to the true hard working teachers, employees, and administration at LISD schools your hard work is appreciated. Thank You, Jason Bates