Send this story Print this story

Adjust text size

Uploaded: Saturday, October 27, 2007, 11:57 AM                                             

VIDEO: Superintendent Skelly speaks up
Stress, charter schools and 'the elephant in the room' topics at community Q & A with new PAUSD superintendent

by Arden Pennell
Palo Alto Online Staff

Posted by pa parent, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Oct 27, 2007 at 8:31 pm

Thank you, Dr. Skelly, for putting the elephant to rest in the room.

Fortunately all the school board candidates were there to hear you say that we all need to move on from the MI decision.

Posted by Parent, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2007 at 9:45 am

In response to PA Parent - who seems to want to keep this in the forefront:

Funny, MI is the only thing that Skelly wants to 'move on' from, but everything ELSE the board considered last year is open for revisit. Curious, why is that? 'Cause it's a political hot potato, and he'd REALLY like it if he didn't have to deal with it? (ie: wishful thinking)

The fact is that EVERYTHING about MI is in our future. The only thing that's in our past is the board vote to approve. The development, the site location choice, the pilot analysis, the district staff time to implement, the Ohlone site staff time, the lottery, the reporting for the feds, the student performance results, the Ohlone community impact, etc etc etc. All in the future.

Skelly might ~like~ the idea of moving on (ie: sticking head in sand) but the sorry fact of the matter is that NONE of us get to move on and ignore MI. Unfortunately - for everyone - (including Skelly), its ALL out in the future to be dealt with.

And that cold hard fact is even MORE true for the supporters of MI than for the opposers.

Nothing would be more beneficial to the district than if we could actually put it behind us and move on.

Posted by WatchOutForBacklashParent, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Parent:

You're down to a party of one at this point on your MI rants.

People are tired of hearing the SOS.

Keep going if you want, but at this point no one's listening, even the newly installed Supe.

Posted by Different Parent, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2007 at 2:10 pm

Don't worry. MI will have to be heard in about three years' time when the discussion turns to where MI will be housed next!!

Posted by Yet another parent, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, on Oct 29, 2007 at 9:31 pm

Parent's not down to a party of one.

This whole thing was an absurdity from the beginning. How it was rammed through I am not sure. The only thing I saw was the public threats that MIers delivered.

Posted by reality check, a resident of the Greenmeadow neighborhood, on Oct 30, 2007 at 7:50 am

Yes, MI has a future, including monitoring and assessment of the program to determine if three years from now it should move forward. It may not.

However, MI is not in everyone's future, and I hope the party of two won't spin too many wheels trying to make it a clinging part of TownSquare's future.

There's many more important things in the school district's future than MI.

Posted by Different Parent, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 30, 2007 at 8:27 am

If you don't want to read the MI threads on Town Square, you don't have to. However, I suspect it will be on Town Square for years to come and since most of us remain respectful and present our thoughts eloquently, I don't see a problem.As with any Town Square thread, if you don't like the content, don't read the thread. But leave those of us willing to discuss the matter courteously to do so.

Thank you.

Posted by Partyer, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Oct 30, 2007 at 8:59 am

Here's another poster joining the party. Grace Mah, PACE and the school board have taught us well how to get what we want in this district. Be relentless. Be persistent. Keep the issue on the school board agenda. Never give up. Don't take "no" or "not now" for an answer. If all else fails, threaten a Charter School.