Comments for MyAACPS.net

Comment on Bob Burdon, “Chamber Notes: What makes a good school board nominee?,” Capital, May 10, 2009 by J.H. Snider, “Critique of the guest column published in the Capital expressing adulation for the SBNC,” Citizens for an Accountable School Board, May 27, 2009 | MyAACPS.net

Wed, 27 May 2009 20:30:27 +0000

[...] the May 10 guest column in the Capital expressing adulation for the Anne Arundel County School Board Nominating Commission, I have never [...]

Comment on Bob Burdon, “Chamber Notes: What makes a good school board nominee?,” Capital, May 10, 2009 by jsnider

jsnider — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:27:45 +0000

For a comment on Burdon's guest column, go to the relevant post on May 27 or click here.

Comment on Eric Hartley, “Leopold’s ‘un-denials’ unconvincing,” Capital, May 12, 2009 by jsnider

jsnider — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:08:20 +0000

In this country, you are innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of proof rests with the accuser, not the accused. In most countries, even today, this is frequently not the case (America being one of the exceptions). It has been a long, tough, historical battle for America to get to this point, if only because demogogues and the less educated public have historically been all too willing to place the burden of proof on the accused. (Eric: I’d suggest you watch the classic movie, 12 Angry Men.)

Yeah, I think we can be pretty sure that Leopold feels uncomfortable about disclosing certain information. But this hardly makes him different than 99.9% of the public, including the Capital’s publishers and the author of this column.

The question is not whether Leopold is withholding information but whether the information he is withholding has a direct bearing on the allegations against him. Here the Capital has simply not done its homework. It is relying on innuendo and that’s not good enough.

It is very appropriate for the Capital to raise the questions that need to be answered. And it would be even more impressive if the Capital were willing to devote the resources to answering some of the questions itself (hooray for investigative journalism!).

But right now both the Capital’s reporting and commentary on this smacks of sensationalism. This is undoubtedly good business (sensationalism is a cheap way to build readership and profits). But it is bad journalism. I’m sympathetic to the Capital’s financial plight, but this is not an appropriate solution.

In the end, the Capital’s hunches may well prove correct. If not, it owes a heartfelt public apology to Leopold. And the Capital won’t get off if it manages merely to embarrass Leopold; it must find evidence that supports the particular allegations it has made.

Comment on Eric Sullivan, “Anne Arundel County-Wide CAC Board of Education Report to the Board of Education on March 04, 2009″ by Jo Ann

Jo Ann — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:58:14 +0000

Teachers in our school were just informed that teaching positions are to be cut for next year. This will result in 30 – 36 students per class in grades 3-5 with no aides in the classrooms. I realize that our county (and nation) is having a difficult time financially, but to cut the areas with the biggest and most direct impact on our kids’ academic success baffles me. This trend appears to be the norm across the country. I am wondering why there isn’t a larger, louder outcry from parents. I am sure that the county and the school system can find other areas to cut which are less hazardous to our children.

Comment on Elisabeth Hulette, “Wanted: School board applicants: No one has applied for the at-large seat,” Capital, March 25, 2009 by jsnider

jsnider — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:31:03 +0000

Last year 21 candidates applied for the two seats, one of which was contested by an incumbent. About half dropped out after they saw the competition. The incumbent was reappointed. My guess is that this year there will not be the same last minute rush. The system was new last year and there was much more uncertainty among potential candidates. This year I expect potential candidates will be much more cautious about entering a competition they have no chance of winning. However, the SBNC clearly judges its success, like highly competitive college admission offices, in part by how many people they can get to apply. The SBNC has genuinely gone out of its way to try to get people to apply, even people who have no chance of winning. Perhaps this effort will succeed in generating a large pool of applicants like last year.

Regardless of the outcome, however, the deadline should not be postponed unless no candidates apply. Changing rules after-the-fact is awful democratic procedure; it invites all sorts of abuses and should never be done except under truly dire circumstances.

Comment on J.H. Snider, “AACPS Democracy,” Capital, January 31, 2009 by Cindy Mumby

Cindy Mumby — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:51:59 +0000

I can share an experinece from Harford County where several years ago, a Citizens Budget Advisory Committee was established to advise the Board of Education. I was a member of that group and we reviewed every line of the superintendent’s proposed budget and reported our findings, suggestions and priorities to the BOE. Many of our recommendations were adopted by the Board, but we were disbanded after a few years without explanation. It is very difficult for the average citizen to make budget recommendations other than “save this or that program” if the public only sees the proposed changes each year, across broad categories of expendatures. In the information age, detailed budget documents should be more widely available to the press and to the public, so that interested citizens can offer informed recommendations.

Comment on Is the SBNC illegal? by MyAACPS.net » Blog Archive » J.H. Snider, “Follow-up: Is the School Board Nominating Commission (SBNC) illegal?” Citizens for an Accountable School Board, January 24, 2009

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:39:21 +0000

[...] October 21, 2008 I sent you an e-mail presenting arguments why the School Board Nominating Commission (SBNC) may violate the law of…. Five Anne Arundel County delegates replied to my e-mail and two queried the Maryland Attorney [...]

Comment on Elisha Sauers, “The Watchdog: Sidewalk placement upsets middle school parents,” Capital, December 29, 2008 by jsnider

jsnider — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 18:18:47 +0000

Hmmm. I appreciate that Ms. Sauers seeks to take on the role of watchdog. I’m also impressed that she went out to the community for at least a few sources independent of the school system’s PR apparatus. But a watchdog is supposed to do more than get some he-said, she-said quotes. A watchdog is expected to care about the truth and ferret it out. Unfortunately, this type of watchdog reporting doesn’t meet that test. The key issue here–an issue Ms. Sauers completely missed–is the subversion of due process. Due process was used to insert the sidewalk provisions in the original plan. But backroom power politics was used to take them out. Democracy requires symmetry in law making and law unmaking. It is true that this type of backroom power politics is hardly unusual in Anne Arundel. But that doesn’t make it good governance, let alone consistent with our elected officials’ professed democratic values.

Comment on E.B. Furgurson, “Lothian school updating classroom teaching tools: Uses student math-a-thon, other events for fundraisers,” Capital, December 13, 2008 by Chris Doherty

Chris Doherty — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:29:05 +0000

An interesting bit of editing by the Capital. In the Thursday edition of the South County Gazette, the same story included a quote from AACPS’ Val Emrich, stating that each school had a budget to spend on technology and it was up to each principal on how to spend it. That quote was edited out of the version which ran in the Capital on Saturday and posted here.

A year ago this month, after the former principal at Lothian had made a few references to such a budget, I filed a request under the Maryland Public Information Act to AACPS, requesting the budget documents for each elementary school in the County, and in denying my request, was told no such budget existed. Interesting that its the one piece of the article that was edited. Pat Furgurson, the reporter, says the edit was made for space purposes, but its worth noting it was the only edit and on a topic which AAPCS has refused to provide public information.

As I wrote in the Capital earlier this year, the performance director overseeing Lothian, Christopher Truffer (recipient of the 33% raise) couldn’t cite any specific programs, funding or initiatives to turn around the declining test scores of the school when he met with parents last year, but he did offer up that he wanted Bob Mosier to get more publicity because of all the complaints about South County Schools.

Comment on Nelson Hernandez, “Md. Lawmakers Question County’s School Headquarters Plan,” Washington Post, December 9, 2008 by Helen O'Neill

Helen O'Neill — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:51:02 +0000

Harford County is also interested in a school board nominating caucus similar to Anne Arundel even though it is apparent that it is problematic. They want no transparency either. I deeply appreciate this website directing me to articles and information about important topics related to education across the state and nation. It has been extremely educational and informative.