Monday, August 23, 2010

Play by play - Episode 1, Director's Cut

You know you're a District 11 Pain In The Neck when you parse the same Board meeting every free moment for five days.  Part Two coming up tomorrow...which will include boundary maps and discussion on the upcoming Community Engagement meetings.

I'm not the best at editing movies...certainly, there's a lot for me to learn as far as transitioning goes. But I sold my fabulous laptop, and all of that stuff just takes too long anyway -- just uploading the movies takes FOREVER. So, please deal with it.

Meeting starts at the stroke of 5:30 with a quorum; Charlie isn't there; they vote to approve the agenda. LuAnn starts out slow and then speeds up, Bob and Al second quickly, "There should be no discussion I hope", twitters Jan, and all is said and done.


Funny that there was a "accelerated" change to the agenda, however...and a moment for citizen comments -- but who knew? No one was there to speak to it. 

Gledich starts out, rightly taking a moment to comment on the first day of school...faintly in the background, you can hear fussbudget Jan begin to quietly bark Danish commands at Gledich for him to move on.

LuAnn belches up dinner; Charlie walks in about 5 minutes late...but so much has already taken place.





Here's the talk surrounding the District's Referendum Against the TABOR Amendments.

I've gotta be honest with you; each member of the Board has a laptop that's capable of reading off selected text -- a feature they should utilize when it comes to reading off long proclamations; it'd be a HECK of a lot easier on the ears than listening to Bob Null drag it through the gravel.

Notice how Jan the Phony takes a stand on her job, and what's right for the District.

Did  you know that the word "ditto" in Danish translates to "I concur with Director Tanner"?

Reference is made to the passing of Mike Poore's grandmother.

Referenced also is an email sent by a concerned Lyman Kaiser.  Time and oxygen is devoted to and spent upon the explanation of loopholes around  Mr. Kaiser.

I really hope Mr. Kaiser and Mr. John Gartin pay close attention to the talk that occurs at this point, which starts around 45 minutes into the meeting. 

Watch Glenn standing next to Mike Maloney; it's something I've noticed with Jan also.  Jan, as she watches Gledich speak...and Glenn, as he watches Mike Maloney speak -- don't both Jan and Glenn remind you of ventriloquists?  Don't you want either or both of them to drink from a glass of water while the speaker is speaking, just to see?

Notice Mike Maloney's hands -- the hands of a story spinner.

Listen to Jan, Glenn and Gledich explain it all away, and LuAnn chiming in with all of her expertise.  Gledich is the personification of "mealy mouthed"...Glenn smooth, and in top form -- which I mentioned before, spells trouble for our city's school district.

Remember, Gledich arrived in Colorado right on the heels of his Florida school district's attempt to shut down 12 elementary schools...an action that was halted after being deemed racially discriminatory.  Gledich held the position of CFO in Florida.

A quick digression:  my neighbor -- Eagle Eye -- and I met with Gledich soon after his arrival to discuss our concerns regarding school closures and Jan Tanner's pizza contract; during that conversation, he admitted that it's a common practice for CFO's to keep two sets of books:  one to show the public, and the real one.  I have the audio of that meeting; Colorado is a one-party state, which means that when having a conversation, only one party need be aware it's being recorded.  I don't feel guilty about it though; Gledich didn't see me see him turn on his own voice recorder at the meeting's start.

Also, former superintendent Terry Bishop once told my neighbor -- who is well known in the district and once ran for the Board -- he said, "Eagle Eye, we can make the numbers say whatever we want."  Those two things always come to mind when I listen to Glenn talking his numbers. 

Charlie votes for tweaking; Glenn jumps on the tweak and Bogarts all of it.

They go over the draft timeline, and they try and make it all sound so mild...but from what I gather, it's exactly the same method they used in the 2008-2009 school closures...precisely the same timeline.  Only difference is that this time, rather than the public hearing the rumors of school closures after all of the studies have been completed and reviewed by the Board sometime in December, the rumors are coming to you in August courtesy of one purple spider.

Gotta admire how they try and make it sound effortless for the capacity committee to also act as the boundary committee.  I feel sorry for those committee members, certain to be surrounded by specially-selected Tanner-clique mouthpieces....believing earnestly that their input matters, when it's all just more lipservice and wasted time with the rah-rah crew.

Glenn describes the proposed process on breaking news of the upcoming boundary changes/school closures to the public.  Purple packet arrangements with John Kerr and Frank Bernhard are suggested, with these individuals cited as good picks for the job of "project lead"...

...a little surprised John Griego's name wasn't mentioned.  As an aside, methinks Frank Bernhard would benefit in general is someone slapped the constant smirk off of his face; it literally pains me in my heart to think that someone as openly condescending as Frank might actually "facilitate" this discussion with the public.

Gotta look up Western Demographics.

Part Two coming right up.

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