By smf for 4 LAKidsNews
20 Jan 2014 :: The L.A. Time’s Howard Blume writes in his article L.A. SCHOOLS’ iPAD WATCHDOG COMMITTEE SET TO DISBAND on the ongoing iPad fiasco misadventure* in LAUSD:
Materials from the most recent meeting of the bond oversight panel were not included in the information packet prepared for the board and the public. These materials included support for the panel's analysis that fewer iPads were needed. http://bit.ly/auDNT3
I mentioned this oversight by the superintendent’s staff in my testimony to the Board of Ed on Tuesday – ‘oversight’ being the committee I serve on’s middle name. (I’m making light of this because if one doesn’t laugh one must get angry – and it’s a holiday weekend celebrating a prophet of nonviolence – which is anger management at the extreme.)
The Bond Oversight Committee’s position was hardly secret. It had been reported in the news. It was posted on the BOC website. I posted the BOC resolution on my website.
But the superintendent’s staff’s failure to include it in the Board Briefing Book was an egregious - and I suspect intentional - failure to communicate. The staff is an extension of the superintendent’s office. The responsibility for the failure - if not the decision - is entirely that of Superintendent Deasy.
This is the information transmitted to the Board in the briefing book for the Meeting of Jan 14th. Item 1/pp 5 of 480:
True on the face of it …nonetheless False in the extreme.
Because the BOC also met and adopted a resolution on December 18th. It is this resolution that addresses the Board Report of Dec 10th; the Board Agenda Item #1 of Jan 14th.
HERE IS THE BOC’s ACTUAL RESOLUTION of DECEMBER 18th – BOC Resolution 2013-36-A – reached after lengthy and far deeper debate by the BOC than that of the Board of Ed. The BOC position on numbers of devices needed for testing is totally in line with what Ms. Galatzan seems to believe is her original idea of “Not-to-Exceed permission”. It’s just that her permission is excessively permissive.
On the Monday before the Jan 14th Board of Ed meeting the BOC delivered copies of the missing resolution and the report of BOC’s Common Core Technology Subcommittee to the board member ‘s offices – but there is no evidence that they were received by the actual board members, inserted into their briefing books – or even read by staff or the boardmembers.
At the Board of Ed meeting on the 14th Bond Oversight Committee Chair Stephen English addressed the Board and attempted correction of whatever misapprehension may have been created …but at this point I believe whatever damage was done was done.
Bond Oversight Committee Chair English presented a PowerPoint in his presentation to the board – which follows. He was also prepared to answer any questions from the Board with a continued presentation – which specifically identifies why the BOC believes that the 38,500 iPads for Testing the BOC approved was generous if not excessive. But the board asked no questions – essentially treating Mr. English like another public commenter who interrupts what even Ms. Garcia described at the meeting as “our nonsense”.
To cut the superintendent an inch of slack – it appears that he is going to initially order the iPads only in numbers recommended by the Bond Oversight Committee.
I thank him for that – but I don’t trust any public official any more than I trust a contractor or motion picture propmaster or a middle-schooler-borrowing-a-credit-card to come in with a number much less than a “Do Not Exceed” maximum!
Miracles happen …but they wouldn’t be miracles if they were dependable!
Quoting Michael Jackson:
If this town
Is just an apple
Then let me take a bite[chorus]
If they say -
Why, why, Tell 'em that is Human Nature
*A “fiasco” is one of those straw-wrapped bottles Chianti comes in. In deference to the late Ms. LaMotte: It’s gonna take a pitcher of Margaritas to get through this mess!
- ·The first 6 pages of the following is BOC Chair English’s PowerPoint presented to the Board of Ed,
- pp 7 is intentionally blank.
- the next 10 pages were created to answer the unasked questions.
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