"Those who make the rules get to break the rules"

Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski answers questions from the press following Thursday night's Huntsville school board meeting. (The Huntsville Times/Michael Mercier)

Did the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education violate it's own naming policy, and does the local  news media even care?

If get all your news from AL.com, or the local television stations, you are aware of the J.O. Johnson High School closing/renaming controversy, and calls for the resignation of school board representative Laurie McCaulley.  If you've been reading this blog, or The Geek Pavaler's blog, you would know that in their haste to treat the taxpayers of District 1 like second class citizens, the HCS BOE violated it's own naming policy.

Last night the Huntsville City School Board of Education violated their own policy on the Selection of School, Facility, and/or Property Name (Policy 2.9, presented September 5, 2013) by concluding the process and voting on the new names approximately three weeks before they were allowed to do so.
On September 5, 2013, the board met and discussed during their work session a new policy entitled, “Selection of School, Facility, and/or Property Name” (Policy 2.9). This policy was necessary to ensure that the process of receiving new names for schools would be as open to the public as possible. Laurie McCaulley, who was at that time serving as the School Board President, assured the public present that evening that the public would have every opportunity to “have input on these changes.”

Now you would think this would be breaking, front page news, but there's not been a mumbling word about this in the mainstream media. I wonder why?  Usually the news media is all over it when students, principals,  parents , teachers,  coaches,  and  support personnel  violate HCS/ BOE Policies.

I  wonder why the media is silent when the school board violates it's own policy?

Culture of fear of reprisal develops in which teachers, principals, staff, even parents feel afraid to speak up against the policies of the district or the superintendent.

Ballooning of the central office at the same time superintendent makes painful cuts to schools and classrooms.

Superintendent attempts to sidestep labor laws and union contracts.

Superintendent lays off teachers for questionable reasons.

Your school board starts to show signs of Stockholm Syndrome. They vote in lockstep with the superintendent. Apparently lobotomized by periodic “school board retreat/Broad training” sessions headed by someone from Broad, your school board stops listening to parents and starts to treat them as the enemy. (If you still have a school board, that is — Broad ideally prefers no pesky democratically elected representatives to get in the way of their Supt's and agendas.)

 Local newspaper fails to report on much of this.

 Local newspaper never mentions the words “Broad Foundation.”

 Broad and Gates Foundations give money to local public radio stations which in turn become strangely silent about the presence and influence of the Broad and Gates Foundation in your school district.

 “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
― Edmund Burke

All Politics is Local

What if the Security Officer forces parent to stop recording Huntsville board meeting issue is being used as a media enabled weapon of mass distraction from the fact HCS superintendent Casey Wardynski used a photo of a young man wearing a hoodie to justify  building a $600,000  fence around, and installing a guard shack, I mean welcome center, at the new prison, I mean  Lee High School?

The four students from Lee High School who filmed a fight in a school bathroom and posted the video to YouTube did so as a gang initiation, Huntsville's superintendent said.
Dr. Casey Wardynski said the fight, which came to light Jan. 20 after the video went viral, wasn't an ordinary skirmish between students.

"It was a gang initiation; these students went to lunch together afterward," Wardynski said.

Not so, says the certified gang expert

"We have gangs in our schools," McDuffie said Monday. "That's not a hidden fact. It's here, and we know it's here."
McDuffie declined to call the incident at Lee "gang-related," though.
"It has all the earmarks of a gang-related incident, but we can't say for sure," he said. "The reason we can't pinpoint it is that there's no concrete evidence."

What if the reason parents were met with metal detectors at the last school board meeting is because they got wind the Concerned Parents of North Huntsville (i.e. black) were being encouraged to to attend to the school board meeting to protest black students being forced to wear orange jump suites, I mean uniforms to schools?
 
Huntsville/Madison County NAACP Branch

May 3.There is an important school board meeting for the Huntsville City Schools on Thursday, May 3rd at 5:30 p.m. The main issues are the building of the fence and guard shack at the new Lee High School and other impending changes for next school year including changes that MAY result in a proposed stoppage of transfers to other schools in the district as well as why schools in the North side of town... will wear uniforms while the south will not. Your presence and voices are needed. Our children need strong, intelligent cheerleaders. . Your attendance will be greatly appreciated. The meeting will be held at 200 White Street Huntsville, AL 35801.  This information is via Concerned Citizens Of North Huntsville organization.

What if Al Langford is the fall guy?

When asked if he agreed with Lankford's decision to stop Winn from recording the meeting, Blair declined to discuss it.
"I'm not going to Monday morning quarterback the actions," Blair said. "We're there to do the business of the board, to move the school system forward. I'm not going to second-guess Al's decisions."

Does David Blair think tax payers are stupid enough to believe Al Langford has decision making authority and the power of the purse?  Does David Blair think the tax payers haven't noticed longtime, African American teachers/principals/administrators employed by the Huntsville City Schools are being fired/demoted and being replaced by friends with no training or experience?

In the army we call that whining.

In the civilian world we call that Intitimidation.

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Principal  Signs Contract, Then Looks at Map