Posted on by grumpyoldteacher

Teaching the Full and Complete History of a Nation

February is Black History Month. If your first instinct is to snarl, whine, or otherwise complain that there’s no white history month, you can skip this post. Every month is white history month. Others need a point of emphasis once a year to remind us that their history is our history, too. The accomplishments, triumphs, defeats, hardships, and resilience of others have contributed to the history of America as well.

Great nations do not spin a mythology to proclaim their magnificence. Great nations face their past, the glorious and the shameful, to learn how to be a great nation. Great nations celebrate the contributions of all their people, the lesser and the more, that have made them what they are. Great nations do not shy away from the truth of their past because it informs and shapes their present.

That brings us to the joint statement released by the American HIstorical Society and Organization of American Historians regarding the January 29 Trump executive order regarding the teaching of history in school:

The executive order “grossly mischaracterizes history education across the United States, alleging educational malpractice.” “The executive order’s narrow conception of patriotism and patriotic education does more than deny the actual history of American democracy; it also undermines its own goals of a rigorous education and merit-based society,” the statement reads. “We reject the premise that it is ‘anti-American’ or ‘subversive’ to learn the full history of the United States with its rich and dramatic contradictions, challenges, and conflicts alongside its achievements, innovations, and opportunities.”

This month, we celebrate Black History Month and the contributions and hardships that Black people have faced as they live in the United States of America. We’ll follow that with Women’s History Month (March); other months will follow including Hispanic Heritage (mid-October to mid-November) and Native American (November).

We will also have Pride Month in June. All of these are Americans and their story is a part of everyone’s story. We need to borrow those red hats and change them from ‘Make America Great Again’ to ‘Make America Great as She Has Never Been Before but Aspires to Be.’

(But MAGASHBBBATBE doesn’t have the same ring, does it? Especially the stutter in the middle–not to mention trying to fit that on a baseball cap!)

The propagandization of a white-washed history has no place in our schools as the statement points out: This executive order, however, mandates ideological instruction and the politicization of history grounded in ahistorical thinking. The order draws upon the deeply flawed and roundly debunked 2021 report of the “President’s Advisory 1776 Commission”—a panel devoid of experts in the history of the United States—which the OAH characterized in 2020 as a partisan attempt to “restrict historical pedagogy, stifle deliberative discussion, and take us back to an earlier era characterized by a limited vision of the US past.”

It’s worth your time to click on the link and read the full statement. I’ll close by quoting their final paragraph, “Like all histories, American history is complicated and fascinating; learning about our past should stimulate discussion and debate rooted in evidence and professional scholarship. For that to happen, we must let our teachers do what they do best: teach without interference or ideological tests. And let our students learn how to think, rather than what to think.” [Emphasis mine.]

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Cold As Ice: Update

In my last post, Cold As Ice, I reported on a memo sent to my school district’s principals about what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at the door. At Tuesday’s February 4th Board meeting, the General Counsel who issued the memo, Ray Poole, Esq., gave an explanation for why he took that action.

The link to his explanation is below.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19vfFJgS48

“If the federal government were to perceive a school district as being obstructionist and not cooperating with federal enforcement efforts…the receipt of federal funds is tied to compliance,” Poole said. “If we don’t comply, or if someone in D.C. says, ‘I don’t think you’re complying,’ you can lose federal money — which pays for an awful lot here.” –from Jax Today, a local newsletter from WJCT, the public broadcasting TV & Radio outlet

Oh, that explains everything. It’s all about the money.

Not what’s best for students. Not about preserving the rights of immigrant children as the courts have ruled. Not about protecting students.

It’s about protecting the money.

Never mind that the Trump administration has no authority to withhold funds from state and local educational agencies if Congress has appropriated it.

Protect the money at all costs. That’s not a joke although it does sound funny as I say it.

The time is long past when this school board would take a principled stand on an issue if they ever did.

Ray Poole refers to reading guidance from many places like hospitals and it aligns with his before making an equivalency argument that giving ICE agents free access to school property is the same as having a resident School Resource Officer.

For such a wide-read man, he seems to be ignorant of what is really taking place in Washington. All that money he’s protecting that flows from the Department of Education …

Come Monday, there may be no Department of Education as it is the next target on the Doge-man’s list. If he follows his existing practice, he will sic his team on the Department late Friday afternoon after the federal workers have left for the weekend.

In that case, Ray Poole will be left holding the bag, an empty one at that.

The story goes on. Read Update #2 for the policies six Central Florida school districts have issued to their schools and employees.

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Cold As Ice

Long before ‘Ice, Ice, Baby,’ this was the quintessential song:

Please, please, Facebook algorithm, I’m sharing a YouTube video, not impersonating.

What a field day we could have with the lyrics! But this piece is about the legal advice recently given to principals in my local school district, Duval County Public Schools (FL), and while this post may embarrass them, which the Board is turning into a fireable offense, I am retired and beyond their reach.

What should school officials do if ICE agents (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) show up at the door demanding access to students?

The legal department issued a memo that outlined the approach school employees should take: ICE agents are law enforcement officers; therefore they should be accommodated no different than what the school system would do for JSO (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office) officers.

  • Allow them to come onto school property. They do not need a warrant.
  • If they ask to speak to a specific student, accommodate them but remember to notify the student’s parents immediately, stay with the student until the parents arrive, and remain present during the interview.
  • If they ask to speak to a group of students, call the legal department.
  • If they ask for access to student records, protect student rights. Call the legal department.
  • Do not give an exclusive listing of ELL/ESOL students. Any requests must include all students whose parents have not opted out of public directory listings.

Soooooooooooooooooooo, pretty much, go into a CYA approach and notify the legal department. There are no assurances about what actions they will or will not take.

To date, we are reassured, there has been no ICE activity in our county’s schools. But if you think that Stephen Miller and his minions haven’t figured out the schools are a weak point when it comes to resisting unlawful enforcement of immigration laws, we still have some worthless Florida swamp land for sale.

As with the tariffs, even the threat of ICE action has a detrimental effect. Canadians have pulled American imports off their store shelves as they refuse to purchase them. If you want a historical parallel, think back to 1983 when the Soviets shot down a South Korean plane that strayed over Sakhalin Island and, in response, American bars poured their stocks of Stolischnaya vodka down the sink.

Teachers across the land are reporting that some students have stopped coming to school out of fear of ICE arrest or detention or that while at school, their parents will be taken and they will come home to an empty house. (I’d love to show social media screenshots or cite sources, but well, you know that in cases like these anonymity is best. Do your own research if you don’t trust me.)

Is it time to cue the biennial NAEP hysteria about falling test scores and American students falling behind? It’s hard for children to learn when they don’t feel safe. Since January 20, there have been mistakes including challenging the citizenship of Puerto Ricans on the mainland because they were overheard speaking Spanish. But we are told that “there are no free passes anymore.”

It’s not a new problem. We are hearing about ICE deporting U.S. citizens, but this has been happening for a while. “Oops, my bad,” is not sufficient for getting this wrong. What child carries a copy of their immigration papers daily into school just in case? Are we becoming Soviet Russia, where every one of us has to carry an internal passport to leave our houses?

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me; hinder them not for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.”

What would he say today? Perhaps this: “You’re as cold as ice, you’re willing to sacrifice our love. You never take advice, someday you’ll pay the price, I know. I’ve seen it before …”

Someday we’ll pay. It begins with the children. What’s missing in that DCPS memo is what the principal should do when ICE says this child is illegally in the United States and we’re taking them with us. But hey, call legal.

Addendum: Since the original publication of this post, more has been learned:

Update : Duval County School Board attorney explains his rationale.

Update : Six Central Florida school districts have issued their own policies.

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Burn! (as That 70s Show Used to Say)

Wry humor, but with a kernel of truth. Often overlooked, safety is a huge consideration when parents try to choose a school for their children.

As we move into the third (or is it fourth) decade of school degradation and the end goal comes in sight, the charter wars have transmogrified into the voucher wars. Neither option is good for the preservation of a free and appropriate education for all children, but this is where we are as the second Trump administration takes hold of the levers of federal power.

As public education advocates continue to point out the issues and problems with using public money, that is, your tax dollars, to pay for private education that not all children can access, which include bankrupting state treasuries, first amendment issues as state resources are handed over to religious institutions, and the quality of education being provided … strange how the calls for school accountability die down when it comes to private education … all of which is appropriate and necessary, but are we forgetting a basic precept? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

No English teacher will sleep tonight as they hash over whether the above paragraph is a run-on sentence or not.

But that’s not Maslov. It’s a joke intended to make you smile before we dive into the gist of this piece.

I remember days gone by when parents would come into the school office griping about the school grade, “Wow. They have really bought into that BS.” And then trying to tell them about why the school is a good place for their children. Chief among those reasons are that we keep them safe.

I can’t speak for elementary, but when it comes to making the middle school transition, parents care less about academic quality, testing, and school grades than they do safety, fairness and equality (all kids are treated the same,) transportation, and food.

If you are on a level or in a stage of life where you can battle over funding and who’s getting it, I applaud you. You are doing good work to demand that states stop defunding public education.

But if you are a local teacher, administrator, or a low-level district staffer whose job is always on the chopping block of budget shortfalls, focus on that bottom level of the pyramid.

  • Will my child be fed or go hungry?
  • Will you provide reliable transportation?
  • Will my child be safe from bullying, fights, and other hazards of gathering hundreds of children into a building where only a few dozens of adults provide supervision?

If you can provide satisfactory answers to questions like these, parents will flock to your school to enroll their children. The fight to save public education will not be won at school board meetings, legislative town halls, or in the many avenues of opining.

It happens with each parent, one by one, to assure them that we care for their children as much as they do.

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The Five Musketeers

One for all and all for one … and in a modern update, One in Five, a Texas-based foundation that grew out of the Uvalde tragedy to help patrol schools and head off problems that show up on the sidewalk outside.

Musketeers without muskets, they want to patrol the perimeter of schools to stop violence.

They have a full mission, which can be found here. It’s well worth the two minutes of your time to click on the link and acquaint yourself with their desire to do it all when it comes to preventing school violence and dealing with the aftermath, not to mention their agenda and the laws they want passed.

This piece deals with this part of their self-assigned mission: “The Foundation works as well to actively provide additional security and safety training resources to enhance a schools individual security; for example situational awareness & uniquely, student organized, active shooter training & prevention.”

Why? Because they are coming to Duval County Public Schools, uninvited and unbidden, to address gang violence in high schools, in particular, Ed White and Mandarin High Schools. This is a response to recent fights taking place among groups of students.

According to the One in Five Foundation, “This in an effort to address the seemingly rising gang activity and to increase student safety throughout campus district neighborhood & provide additional community support for students, faculty, parents & school. Foundation officials say that it believes gang conflicts amongst several students of at least 4 separate district schools, including Ed White HS, are increasing off Campuses and spilling into campus conflicts and must be addressed immediately.“

Unfortunately, although this group may have a sincere desire to help, they are taking this action unilaterally. Neither the school district nor the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office have had any contact with them. Efforts by school officials to contact the group and find out what they have planned have been unsuccessful.

No one knows what a group of unknown individuals, dressed in some type of uniform, think they can do standing outside a school on a public sidewalk. But they believe they can do some kind of good never mind the fact that most students arrive on campus via bus or car and they will be on the campus, not crossing the sidewalk or that, without some type of official recognition or established relationship with students, the adolescent mentality will wonder, “Who were those creepy, weird-a$$, mofos on the sidewalk?”

As for the adults, we will wonder why they are bothering. If they have not been invited by district officials and are unknown to local law enforcement, doesn’t that make them vigilantes?

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Blatherskites

If you’re a C-Span junkie like me, you have been watching the Speaker vote in the House of Representatives, in which Mike Johnson fell short of election by two votes in the first round of voting, the official tally was delayed for about 45 minutes, two votes then switched, and the result was announced: Mike Johnson is re-elected Speaker.

The ceremonies commenced and Johnson is now blathering on about his agenda and his views on American government. Among the gems was this, “we must take back control of education from administrators and give it back to parents” or words to that effect.

As the late, great Joan Rivers would say …

Can we talk here? Will the blatherskites of education think tanks, Moms 4 Liberty, and foundations with an agenda stop for a moment? Can we just simply talk?

PARENTS HAVE ALWAYS CONTROLLED THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN.

THEY NEVER GAVE IT UP AND NO ADMINISTRATOR, TEACHER, SUPERINTENDENT, OR ANYONE IN BETWEEN HAS EVER SEIZED IT.

Maybe you’ve never been in a parent conference where the administrators danced around, berated the teacher, and ordered everyone within earshot to do exactly as the parent wants.

Maybe you’ve never received a district notice that a parent has lawyered up and everyone must appease the parent so the district doesn’t get sued.

Maybe you’ve never talked to neighbors about how they are sending their children to private school or parochial school because they don’t like their local public school option.

Maybe you’ve never attended a neighborhood block party where parents brag about ‘correcting’ the teaching of public schools and instilling their own values into their children.

Maybe you’ve listened too often too much to blatherskites like the late, not great Rush Limbaugh who never had children of his own.

What is a blatherskite, you may ask? From dictionary.com, it is “one who is given to voluble, empty talk,” which dates from the middle of the 19th century, was originally and remains mostly an Americanism. Blatherskite is a variant of Scottish bletherskate, which dates from the mid-17th century and is a compound of the verb blether or blather “to talk nonsense” and the Anglo-American slang word skate “person, contemptible person, broken-down horse.” Another variant, bladderskate, appears in the traditional Scottish song “Maggie Lauder,” which was popular among American soldiers during the American Revolution.”

Empty talk that goes on and on seemingly without end. You’re welcome for the new word of 2025 to add to your vocabulary.

But don’t be fooled, Parents are in control. Sometimes, they despair over their children’s adolescent agenda of breaking away. It is at those moments, during many parent conferences, when I would remind them that they remain the most important person in their children’s lives and that their children are always listening to them even when they seem to be most hateful.

As a wise counselor once said, “The adolescent must reject their parents’ values so that they can adopt them as their own.”

Parents have always been in control and will remain so.

Don’t let the politicians tell you different.

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Schrödinger’s Cat

Schrödinger’s cat is a famous thought experiment in which the renowned scientist pondered how a cat in a closed box could be thought of as simultaneously alive and dead as long as it is not observed and its fate depends upon a random event that may or may not happen. As long as the cat’s fate is not known, both possibilities are occurring. Once one opens the box, one finds either a dead cat or an alive cat. This visual observation or measurement collapses the differing outcomes into one.

In the midst of our interregnum, where we find ourselves between an election and the day when the winners will be installed into office, we are contemplating a closed box where many possible policies exist simultaneously. Until we get beyond the interregnum and see what policies actually take effect, we are living in a time of confused worry and angst.

Nationally, Donald Trump is doing his best Donald Trump. He has promised much, simultaneously saying he will do it and backing off saying he will not do it: tariffs, vengeance upon his enemies, mass deportation, on and on the list goes. His proposed leadership promises kooky policies that Trump says he does not support. Does he or doesn’t he?

Will the new administration deauthorize vaccines or not? Will they ban the addition of fluorine to public water supplies or not? Will an alcoholic run the Defense Department? Is he or isn’t he? Will the Education Department aggressively push federal school vouchers or will it be shut down?

I’m sure you can think of many things to add to this list of Schrödinger’s cats.

In my local school district (Duval County, Florida,) we too are experiencing Schrödinger’s cat as the new board members, aligned with Mom’s 4 Liberty either formally or by endorsement, have taken office. We have yet to see what new policy and curriculum changes they will make, if any.

I add the ‘if any’ disclaimer because new school board members are often surprised by how little influence and control they have over education decisions and policy in DeSantisland. Most of what must happen is dictated by Tallahassee.

Most of the rest of the nitty-gritty of running a school system is in the hands of the hired gun, the Superintendent. Some new board members are shocked to discover that they have no say in who will be named principal of the schools in their district. Further, most of what they have to vote on is put before them by the Superintendent and his staff. The school board mostly rubber-stamps decisions made by the professionals.

But they can cause a lot of trouble and upset the community. What will the new member from District 1 do about his campaign complaints that elementary teachers had placed litter boxes in their classrooms for the furries? You read that right, the classroom, not the bathroom.

Will he disrupt board meetings with ridiculous complaints and kooky policy proposals? Or will he settle down, chuckle at the gullibility of the electorate, and utter thanks to the god he believes in for August elections and low turnout?

How will the new member from District 5 behave given that he showed up to his first meeting with an attitude toward the chair? Other members took exception with one telling him that he has a chip on his shoulder.

All we know is that an ideological change has taken place. Duval County is Moms 4 Liberty’s dream come true. But the political scene is full of movers and shakers, behind-the-scenes powers and wealthy backers, it’s not like the school board is in its own little sandbox unaffected by others. The City Council, for example, has not shown reluctance to interfere in overt and covert ways even though the school board is a separate, independent agency.

What will happen? All we know at the moment is that we cannot see inside the box. Meanwhile, five of the seven board members will attend the School Boards for Academic Excellence conference in Orlando at taxpayer expense–they approved that at their December meeting. (Read here for background on the SBAE.)

There are too many possibilities to contemplate. For my part, I have been detoxing from all the angst of the cat and the box. (Moving away from Twitter has been an important step. Oh, the addictive nature of social media algorithms!) I plan to have a happy holiday, attend to some family matters of importance, and wait for this interrregnum to end.

I hope you do the same. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Prosperous New Year for all.

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15 Questions for the Candidates

Those citizens who fantasize about defying tyranny from within fortified compounds have never understood how liberty is actually threatened in a modern bureaucratic state: not by diktat and violence, but by the slow, demoralizing process of corruption and deceit. And the way that liberty must be defended is not with amateur firearms, but with an unwearying insistence upon the honesty, integrity, and professionalism of American institutions and those who lead them. David Frum, The Atlantic, “How to Build an Autocracy,” March 2017.

I open with this quote because it gives us these important words, “insistence upon the honesty, integrity, and professionalism of American institutions and those who lead them.” For example, an American institution like a local school board and the members elected to serve.

When I looked at school board candidates’ listed websites (some of which were only social media pages,) I found short bios and limited information about the candidate. What was missing were statements about policies and issues and where the candidates stood.

Neither were local media asking any questions about the pressing issues of the day. I decided it would be helpful for voters to ask a series of questions to give them this information, a much better basis upon which to base a vote than the dueling postcards that show up in the mailbox with hysterical statements about opponents.

My plan is to publish the responses as submitted without commentary, editorializing, or opining. I emailed the questions to all nine candidates in the four contested races on the ballot a month ago. Because of the length and complexity of what was asked, I suggested that they reply by July 8, which would give them three weeks to develop cogent answers.

Three candidates responded by saying they would send me a response by July 8. One followed up two days ago, asking if they could submit the next day. I was fine with that. The point is to get the information to the voters.

However, to date (July 10, 3:00 PM) I have received no response. That’s okay, this blog is not a major media outlet in the city. If the candidates decide to give it a pass, that is within their prerogative. But maybe, a major media outlet or two will pick this up.

After all, the taxpaying citizens, parents, and students of the school district deserve honesty, integrity, and professionalism from those who would serve on the school board. Here are the 15 questions:

General questions about being a school board member:

  1. What is the role of a school board member and what skills do you have to make you successful in that role?
  2. What do you believe is the optimal relationship between the school board and an appointed superintendent?
  3. What affiliations with outside advocacy groups do you have and how will they influence your decisions as a board member?
  4. Given the ever-increasing involvement of the legislature and Department of Education in the management of local school districts, how should school board members advocate for local control of their districts?

Hot issues in Jacksonville:

  • The Master Facilities Plan. What are the core values that should shape the future of the school district, e.g. retaining small neighborhood schools within biking/walking distance of their students versus the economy of consolidating into larger centers that reduce operational and maintenance costs?
  • If schools must be closed, what criteria would you use for making those decisions?
  • How should Duval County Public Schools address declining enrollment in an era of competition with charter schools, private school vouchers, and home school vouchers?
  • As the Superintendent and School Board grapple with closing operational budget gaps, what are your core values that the system should maintain above all else? E.g., small class sizes, elective offerings and elementary school specials, competitive compensation, etc.
  • Describe your philosophy regarding school discipline. Do you support restorative practices alongside traditional punishments like suspension and alternative school placement?
  • Should Duval County Public Schools embrace the Guardian program and place armed security personnel into all schools? Should they authorize teachers to carry weapons if they choose to do so and complete mandatory training?
  • Given the budget challenges facing the school district (and these challenges are being faced by most school districts around the country,) would you vote for a general millage increase in school property taxes to close the gaps?

Overall issues in Florida:

  1. Do you support availability of books in school libraries on an age-appropriate basis?
  2. Do you have any concerns with the new Social Studies standards? As a school board member, how would you address those concerns?
  3. Do you support the inclusion of all students in our schools, even if others disapprove of them, and will you adopt/maintain/advocate for policies to protect them? What should curriculums acknowledge or leave out regarding LGBTQ or religious minorities?  
  4. Should schools allow chaplains as part of their counseling departments and what should their responsibilities and limitations be?
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Correction to Last Night’s Post

Last night, I wrote this piece about the scheduled school board meeting and swearing-in ceremony for the new superintendent: Who the Hell Thought This Was a Good Idea? I was home trying to stream the meeting. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback that I got some things wrong.

I tuned into the meeting via the district’s website around 6:00 PM. After 25 minutes with no broadcast (others have said the meeting didn’t start until 6:30 PM,) the video began playing with the swearing-in of Dr. Bernier. Because there was no intro or clarifying detail on the web page, I believed I was watching something that was taking place in real time rather than a pre-recorded video of something that happened earlier in the day.

Thus, I was under the impression that the start of the meeting was delayed because they were having a reception. I posted several messages on social media, tagging the district with each one. They did not respond to clarify or correct. (I find that ironic as one of the items on the consent agenda was the renewal of a contract with a company to manage their social media accounts. Do they not think that they should monitor and respond during key events like a monthly board meeting? It was item 40 on the agenda, page 820 if you’re searching for it.)

As time went on, I wondered how long would the reception last and wrote my post. Actually, the Board meeting had gotten underway. Thus, under a mistaken impression, I blasted the Board for holding a party when they needed to get down to business. I was wrong about that and write this to correct my previous post.

I’m not taking down the post because this is what it’s like trying to provide information and a viewpoint in a never-ending cycle. News sites and journalists know this well as they try to meet deadlines and later have to edit their pieces as a fuller understanding emerges. I have chosen to write this follow-up to give more perspective for those who read Grumpy Old Teacher.

What in the post do I stand behind? I still believe that a special ceremony and reception was a bad look given the budget challenges the district is facing. They could have done the swearing-in at the beginning of the meeting.

I also expressed disbelief that the feed truly was experiencing difficulty. I was wrong about that, it really happened, but I stand behind my skepticism that I apply to statements from the school board and district administration. Often, they don’t give us the full story or will dissemble.

One of the challenges that the school board has is that many of us in the community have a low level of trust. Anyone following the saga of revising the Master Facilities Plan should pick up on that. Few of the people speaking out believe that the Board will revise their decision/plan based upon community feedback. This is a problem that the new superintendent will have to address. In his interviews, he expressed his understanding that trust has to be built in the community for a school district to achieve its goals.

I will also admit that writing a blog means the writer has to develop a style that fits the medium, that is, to apply wit and humor in a way that distinguishes the blog in the crowd. Sometimes, that devolves into unwarranted sarcasm and I am prone to that at times. It happened in last night’s post.

In closing, I want to thank the gentleperson who left a comment in a Facebook group about spending many years in charge of streaming the JEA meetings and the technical challenges in maintaining that are immense. Your perspective was a needed balancing for what I wrote.

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Who the Hell Thought This Was a Good Idea?

Tuesday, July 2, 2024, Jacksonville, Florida. It’s 6:00 PM, the published time for the monthly school board meeting. But it’s delayed. It starts 25 minutes late.

This is not the first board meeting in recent weeks to start late. I’m retired now, but if in my working days as a teacher, I started class 10, 15, or in tonight’s case, 25 minutes late, I would be immediately placed on an improvement plan, monitored daily, and terminated soon thereafter if I didn’t get my backside in gear.

But we had a superintendent to swear in notwithstanding the fact that said action had already taken place three and a half hours earlier in the day. Note the time on the original posting.

Instead of a Board meeting, we got a presser. The Chair, Darryl Willie, talked. He recognized every elected politician in the room, a process that was as wearying as a Ron DeSantis whine about the latest hair-up-his-behind issue of the day and all the assembled state officials doing obeisance at the mike.

The applause was not spontaneous. It only came in reaction to Chair Willie’s requests from the half-filled room in attendance.

Then came the oath in office. The new superintendent, Dr. Bernier, took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Florida Constitution … and then to be a faithful superintendent. Were we swearing in Biden’s replacement or a new Superintendent?

Next, Dr. Bernier made a few remarks. I’m going to skip over that because I’m getting to the point of this post. Willie wrapped up the presser by directing everyone out to the lobby for a reception: we have food and drinks! Let’s mingle!

What a terrible way to begin a new era in Duval County (FL) education. We have issues, urgent issues: a $1.4 billion dollar budget gap, declining enrollment as parents bail on the public school system, an inability to fulfill the promises of the plan to rebuild crumbling school buildings, the list goes on.

And what does the school board do? Let’s have a party. PAR-TAY people like it’s 1999.

Or maybe Marie Antoinette better sums it up.

To the queen: Ma’am, the people have no bread.

Marie: Then let them eat cake!

____________________________________________________________________________________

PS: It’s now more than an hour and a half two hours past the published meeting time. Must be a good party, the meeting has not commenced.

PPS: In Marie A’s time, cake was not the sugary confection that we know. It referred to a flour and water paste that bakers used to coat the sooty sides of their ovens so the bread would not be ruined. Afterward, they would scrape it off, place it in refuse buckets, and put it by the side of the street for pickup by sanitation services.

PPPS: In his brief remarks, Dr. Bernier said he would like to prolong the moment for family pictures, but it was time to tend to business. Let’s get the meeting underway. Willie took over with free food and drinks!

PPPPS: now we’re told “We are experiencing technical difficulties with the stream for the July 2 School Board meeting.  We are working to resolve these issues, and we will join the meeting in progress if possible. The meeting is being recorded and will be posted tomorrow.” Yeah, right, @duvalschools.org. I’m not interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge.

Follow-up piece: https://grumpyoldteacher.com/2024/07/03/correction-to-last-nights-post/