"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

Redeye's Week in Review and Rant

All politics is local. You won't read it in the Huntsville Times or see it on TeeVee but the Merts Center Monitor has the scoop on the past and present Superintendents, and one HCS Board members' travel expenses for non travel.

Did ex-Superintendent Ann Roy Moore travel 1455 local miles in June?

If not, once again, the Huntsville City Schools have paid money for nothing.

What do you want to bet if this were about a Councilman getting 40 dollars worth of gas for his daughter in the after math of a natural disaster or a school principal falsifying documents, or a high school football coach being arrested for drunken driving on campus this would be all over the news? Speaking of the fired Grissom High School football coach, check this out about the interim football coach;

Football coach resigns after five seasons at helm

Madison Academy became the fourth metro area school that is searching for a new football coach when Matt Clouser offered his resignation Friday after five seasons.
The Mustangs join Grissom, Bob Jones and Westminster in seeking a new coach.
"We'll start the search immediately,'' Madison Academy president Bob Burton said. "We'd like to have someone in place to go through spring practice.''
Burton said logistics was a key issue in Clouser's resignation. Clouser operates his own business, is not employed by the school as a teacher and couldn't get to the school until late afternoon.

Hmmmm. I wonder if they got that little issue worked out? See, this is why teacher tenure and due process is important, so employees can't be fired because someone in the community reports them being drunk on campus and replaced with cronies.

Talk about a waste of time. Ardent Terri Sewell fan, I mean supporter, LiA editor mooncat is longing to attend an issue forum sponsored by, the Congress Socialite, Socialite, I mean woman, during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Legislative Conference later this month, entitled Voting Trends in South in the Age of Obama where do we go form here? WTF? Psst Congresswoman Sewell, in light of the voter suppression laws being passed by southern governors, including your own, don't you think a better issue would be Dismantling the Black Vote? That's where we are going from here in the "age of Obama". And send mooncat a ticket. :)

Can't let the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina pass without comment. Six years after Katrina the battle for New Orleans continues.

The anger at the changes in New Orleans’ black community is palpable. It comes out at city council meetings, on local black talk

radio station WBOK, and in protests. “Since New Orleans was declared a blank slate, we are the social experimental lab of the world,” says Endesha Juakali, a housing rights activist. However, despite the changes, grassroots resistance continues.

I wonder how we can get a radio station like this to combat a radio station like this?

Despite the fact the USDA says food stamps kept more people from going hungry the republican governor of Michigan signs a 48 month welfare limit bill. Our resident righty HOPES Alabama's republican Governor follows suit despite the fact Alabama is number 1 in the nation of people on food stamps. I guess they want to people starve to death.

Rant over.