Trustees Talk Educational Philosophy

Cheryl Bradley: "Once we open the door to an outside agency, what are we opening this district up to?"

AISD District 1 Trustee Cheryl Bradley touched on a raw nerve at the March 30 board meeting when she talked about how the district deals with its drop-outs and kids with disciplinary problems. "We just cannot touch on some issues, because we become scared," she said.

The discussion (and evisceration of the board's inaction) came up when Superintendent Pat Forgione and staff proposed the radical step of letting private firm Community Education Partners set up an alternative learning center.

While staff were impressed by CEP's facilities in Orange County, the firm has a less than impressive record in other cities, including a civil liberties lawsuit in Georgia. However, CEP could have handed out free cookies for everyone and their reception last night would still have been cool.

The proposal became a serious misfire for Forgione, who admitted early on that there actually wasn't really the money available, and the debate was more a philosophical one. Every member of the board re-iterated three bullet points: One, thanks to staff for their work; Two, something needs to change; Three, remind CEP to not let the door hit their collective corporate asses on the way out.

The board accepted that something needs to be done: Board President Mark Williams was most generous to the concept of bringing in help, saying that the district was already over-stretched (and even raised the concept of hiring more staff.) Karen Dulaney-Smith took a scalpel to the figures from staff and CEP, and asked why the district wasn't just doing these supposedly miraculous solutions if they were so workable. Christine Brister said she was "disappointed" that Forgione didn't seem to believe that the district could solve the issue in-house – an opinion backed by At-Large member Annette Lovoi, who said that it was really a money and resources issues, and the board should wait for the next superintendent before taking such a serious step. Lori Moya was pretty furious about the way that "thinking outside the box" meant thinking outside the district. Sam Guzman went deeper, savaging the whole process by both the in-house and CEP solutions for lacking "cultural competency."

Even Bradley, who seemed warmer to the proposal than her fellow trustees, warned them to consider what such a contract should mean. "Once we open the door to an outside agency," she said, "what we are opening this district up to?"