"Email shows plan in Huntsville City Council" District 1 Race

Alabama Political Reporter has obtained an email in which members of a special interest group appear to openly discuss how they hope to influence the Huntsville City Council in return for their organization’s campaign donations.

The author of the email writes, “If Devyn wins, that balance of power will definitely shift, and our mayor/council leadership teams in both Huntsville and Madison could be the strongest in years. We need to all be very active in making that happen by reaching out to everyone we know in Huntsville District 1.”

Mission Accomplished

EYE pray for the residents of District 1.  Did they got rid of one misrepresentative, only to gain another one?   This is yet another example of those who don't live in District 1 deciding who represents those who do.

RedEye, tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray for District 1.....

What a difference a lone African American school board member makes

Huntsville City School Board President, Laurie McCaulley

Current school board President Laurie McCaulley was elected in 2008 to fill the seat of the late Dr. James I. Dawson, representing District 1 Schools. McCaulley has the distinction of being the first African-American female elected to the HCS board of education, and the lone African American member.  McCaulley's term expires this year, and she is running for re-election against Pat King, who she narrowly defeated in 2008.

Dr. Dawson was known as a fighter for justice and equality.  He boasted of being "Unbought and Unbossed" by special interest.  Unfortunately for the students and parents in District 1, I can't say the same about his successor, who goes along to get along, often at the expense of the people she was elected to represent.

Dr. Dawson would never have allowed non-certified Teach for America teachers to replace certified teachers  in Title 1 ( predominately African American) Schools, in order to circumvent the Alabama Education Association, with a 1.9 million dollar no bid contract.

Dr. Dawson would never have allowed the students (black) in his district be mandated to wear uniforms while other students (white) were not.

Dr. Dawson would never have allowed the  board to close the Fletcher Seldon Alternative school and outsource the program to a heavy-handed, private, drug and behavioral treatment center, with no accountability,  or oversight, where parents don't even know about the program until it's too late to protest.  Nor, are they aware their students get no legal representation.

Dr. Dawson never would have allowed Teachers, Administrators, and most importantly, the public, to be harassed  and  intimidated at public board meetings, then hide behind the letter of the law.  When it's convenient that is.

Dr. Dawson would never have allowed the board to replace textbooks with laptop computers without making sure all students had access to the Internet, their online safety protected,  and without weighing the possible negative effects, because saving money is more important all of a sudden.

The School Board named an old school with 300 black students after Dr. Dawson, but they should have renamed the new Lee High School  after him.  But no, they would rather keep the name of  the Confederate General who fought against everything Dr. Dawson stood for.

RIP Dr. Dawson, you are missed more than you will ever  know.

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Update-The South Huntsville Civic (sic) Association has taken over the Huntsville City School System

Let's recap for those who haven't been following the continuing saga of the sad, sorry state of the Huntsville City School system. Public Education is under attack in Huntsville, Alabama led by well funded group known as the South Huntsville Civic Association.

The South Huntsville Civic Association hosted a town hall meeting for the recently appointed Huntsville City Schools Superintendent. I am sharing an email I received from someone who attended the meeting with their permission and updated links inserted for clarity.

I attended this Republican cheer leading event at Grissom last evening. It was sickening. I’ve never seen so many Republicans in my life. There were 7 elected Repugs on the stage. Could well have been the Republican convention. They used these “civic” meetings to win the election for Mo Brooks, and it is absolutely the bailiwick of school board member, president, head honcho, Jennie Robinson. I have asked the school attorney how they could use a public building for political meetings, and he said "anybody could use it if they paid for it".

There’s a subtle movement to privatize/corporatize school systems across the country. That’s why this incompetent board - not including Morrison & McCauley - even though they’ve gotten us into a 20 million hole of which they’re getting off scott free, insisted on a nation-wide search for a new superintendent (never mind Huntsville’s history of engineers & rocket scientists). They came up with a man from Colorado, Casey Wardynski who has never even been near school children. He was the chief financial officer in Aurora, Colorado for 10 months – which he left IN a $25M DEBT.

Wardynski is a retired army colonel said he got a Masters at Harvard, then got a “PhD” at Rand Institute (a PhD mill) where he was accepted into the Broad Superintendents’ Academy. Here’s where it gets interesting: Broad doesn’t want people with experience, loves army types , but wants to train them fresh to take over school systems and start from scratch, get rid of the old, bring in new. They trained not to like teachers, won’t accept tenure. He’s already bringing in from Colorado a finance chief, and looking at a friend of his from Mississippi as assistant superintendent. ( Robinson is from Pennsylvania and is of the same philosophy, bad mouthed AEA throughout her campaign, said AEA wanted to raid school finances to give themselves a raise. Big business, including Committee of 100, Home builders Association, Chamber of Commerce gave her over $60,000 for her campaign; her Democratic opponent had only $12,000 but because of my help and that of others, she won by only 101 votes out of 5600 cast. Democracy almost worked.)

He believes in constant testing, which means that little to no subjective teaching/thinking can occur. If a goof-off kid refuses to behave and learn, then the teacher is out the door. On 6-10-11, HTimes said that “Leadership Huntsville/Madison County, an executive training program released Sarah Savage to support Wardynesky during his first 90 days. They’re doing it for free.

Look for strange goings on in the Huntsville School System.

Stay tuned for some of those "strange goings on".