A sham survey from a district in hiding

The Bellevue School District has come up with another community survey purportedly to find out how we would like to receive communication from the district. This attempt at posturing reveals itself as a way to validate the district's continued hiding from the public.

The district - along with the teachers union - is clearly intent on making drastic cut backs on education. The recent 1.9% pay cut handed to teachers come on the heels of significant lay offs, health care premium increases over the last two years. Last year, the district officials called several large meetings where the superintendent and members of her cabinet tried to explain the reasons for their attacks on our children's education.

This year, the large meetings where the officials - including the superintendent who runs a private company related to education - have to stand up and face the public have been eliminated. It is clearly because the district finds it difficult to keep lieing. As a community, we have been tempered by the continued erosion of the public school over which these officials have presided. We have discussed and written about these issues and analyzed the reasons for their actions. We have exposed them for deceivers and in fact determined that this is in fact their whole job - deception of the public.

So today, faced with the prospect of facing a politically conscious community, the district hides. As it hides, it tries to build cover for its hiding using a survey. The survey is meant to give us the illusion that the district is clueless about the most effective method of imparting information to us. The fact that they have more than a clue is clear from the single choice they omit in this particular question number 10:

We are not allowed to vote on a choice such as : Hold public meetings where the superintendent and her cabinet addresses the public.

The superintendent has replaced the larger public meetings with "Coffee Meetings". These are small meetings set deliberately in a cordial setting where the superintendent can never be challenged. The smaller number of people cozying up to the superintendent over a warm cup of coffee do not create an atmosphere of accountability for the district officials. Clearly that is why the coffee meetings are the district favorites this year.

In a large public meeting where the district officials are on stage with us plebeians below them, the separation is clear. We instinctively feel that the two sets have different interests, opposing interests. They are on stage to dismantle our children's education by whatever means they can, and we are there to ensure our children get a high quality education.

Over coffee, with a smiling superintendent to your left, it is easy to forget this. And in this setting, the superintendent also has considerable help from a small group of parents who support the district. We saw this happen once with what I called the "center table phenomena" where a small group of parents kowtow to the district and attempt to stop public discussion of key issues. These parents are not just misguided, they have connections to the district, they have relationships built with the high up officials of the district as well as possible ties to moneyed interests intent on privatizing public education. In a large setting, these parents do not have the nerve to shut down the democratic voice of the people, but they are certainly emboldened in a setting where they hold well over a quarter of the attendance.

It is also quite troubling that the district is aware that these surveys can be taken multiple times by a single person. If the superintendent or one of her friends from the "center table" wants a certain outcome, she can take the survey multiple times and tilt the results.

Following is the result of the short email conversation I had with Jacqueline Coe - Director of Communication and Community Engagement of BSD - which clearly shows that the district is aware of possible breaches and is indifferent to them:

Their indifference to the quality of the survey is similar to the contempt shown to the non-English speaking population who according to them must wade through a full page comprising twelve questions in English, and somehow miraculously know to answer in the affirmative to this question that is the third on the second page of the survey:

As these halfhearted attempts show, the district is trying hard to appear friendly. But a politically conscious community is never fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing. As the district continues these attacks, they will at some point be forced to discard the sheep skin. We need to be prepared because anger alone will not be sufficient to save our schools. We must mobilize independently to create our own plan for a public school system, give a voice to our hard working teachers and take up this fight for the sake of our children's future. It is of paramount importance to wrest leadership from reactionary groups like PAGE, the PTA so that our independent strength can be realized.

thank you.