Why did Huntsville City Schools pay a former FBI agent to spy on black students? Because they could?

  #hsvboe members Elisa Ferrell and Walker McGinnis, Laurie McCaulley, Superintendent Casey Wardynksi

Alabama media group state enterprise reporter Challen Stephens investigative reporting of the Huntsville City Schools SAFe program garnered national attention.  Although they were tardy to the party, the story was eventually picked up by mainstream blogs,  print media, and television. Oh the shame of it all!

So how does Huntsville City Schools respond?  The newly installed President of the board, who didn't know nothing before she knew something, announces they cutting the security consultant services from the budget and will operate the program internally with the district's security team headed by Al Lankford, the system's chief security officer.   Nod Nod Wink Wink

Uh, how do you cut services from the budget that were never in the budget?  And is this the same district security team whose budget was just slashed and work force reduced?  Is this the same chief security officer who thought he was talking to the NSA (National Security Agency)?  Oh, OK

Now, let's separate fact from spin.

HCS is NOT ending the program.

They have NOT answered any questions about the origins of the program.

We still do not know who authorized the expenditure $157,190 for Mr. McRae.

We still do not know exactly how the $2,295,608.00 that we've paid T&W Operations since 2013 has been spent since only about half of that was approved by the board.

They are attempting to sweep this under the rug in the hopes that the public will forget.

 A better question, perhaps, is whether Alabama — land of the fiscal conservatives — should be spending $110 an hour looking for kids bragging about their pot-smoking exploits online. At the very least, they should've funneled a little more cash into designing that logo.

We must laugh to keep from crying.

All spin all the time, unfair and unbalanced, distorting what we decide, this is the media we have, instead of the media we wish we had

I sure do miss the good old days when the mainstream media used the public airways to inform the public with just the facts so we could make informed decisions.  Of course that was back in the day when the media was a voice for the people and not a corporation answerable to shareholders. Now it's all about controlling the message and  the outcome.  It's also why so many people  vote against their economic self interest, but I digress.

Huntsville School Board President David Blair's   media  enabled attempt to discredit Commissioner Bob Harrison crashed and burned when it was revealed on WEUP Talk with David Person the 2006  letter to former Superintendent Ann Roy Moore wasn't about demanding to close J.O.Johnson High School in exchange for his vote,  but an attempt  to leverage his position  as the swing vote for a proposed sales tax increase.  

Harrison said the Blair's accusations take the 2006 dialogue with Moore out of context. The discussion with the former superintendent was about bringing an International Baccalaureate school to North Huntsville and combining two high schools, he said, not closing Johnson.
The issue now is about unitary status and getting away from racially segregated schools, which is totally separate from the discussion about helping North Huntsville eight years ago, he said.
The statements by Blair, Harrison added, are coming from a political candidate seeking attention. Blair is seeking the Republican nomination for the District 7 state senate seat held by Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville.
"He's trying to get all the attention he can get at this time. So he's engaging in the process of prevarication," he said.

Next up this headline/post:   Huntsville City Councilman Vows to stop "calling out" Supertindent,School Board,  accompanied by an interview with Councilman Richard Showers by Venton Blandin.  You can read/ watch/listen to the interview for yourself,  but I didn't hear Showers vow to stop "calling out" the super and the school board. I heard a lot of carefully edited sound bites and I read a lot of  editorializing.

Huntsville City Councilman Richard Showers is ready to drop his public fight against the Huntsville City School Board and its Superintendent.
Whatever you call it, bickering, grandstanding or advocacy, started earlier this month. Most black elected officials in Madison County were upset Huntsville school leaders were leaving out their voice on big decisions. Councilman Showers is now taking a step back.
Commissioner Harrison came out swinging. Councilman Showers was his back up.

Ventin Blandin doesn't get it.  We the people aren't stupid. We know better than to believe something just because it's on TeeVee.  As they say on one my favorite TeeVee Shows, let's go inside the headlines.

Showers vowed not to call out the superintendent or any school board member going forward. He says he’s now happy to give the money to the schools
“I am not going to deal with that anymore,” added Councilman Shower. WHNT News 19 asked, “But why say it?” Councilman Showers replied, “I said it because I wanted to get the attention.”
What did those words do?
“Before then, the superintendent would not meet with us. After that, I got a call and email asking, will you meet,” added Councilman Showers.

Psst Ventin! I didn't hear Showers say any of that and the meeting with the elected officials isn't going to happen because Wardynski doesn't want the meeting to be a media event, and,  he wants to make BOE member Laurie McCaulley the token, I mean, centerpiece.  You might want to call Commissioner Bob Harrison or WEUP Talk's David Person and get the real dealio.  According to Harrison, it doesn't look like that meeting is going to happen.

Speaking of WEUP Talk be sure and tune in to 1190 AM and 1700 AM, Monday, March 31, 2014 at 5:00 PM to hear long time Alabama media group education reporter/ state enterprise reporter Challen Stephens weighs in on the state of the Huntsville City Schools.

You see the problem with Huntsville City Schools is they don't realize there is no right (pun intended) way to do the wrong thing. If they weren't hell bent on maintaining a separate and unequal school system they wouldn't be in this mess. It's expensive to operate a dual educational system.

It's the media. They think we are stupid.

 ". . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right." (as cited in Padover, 1939, p. 88)