Thank you Commissioner Henry for having the guts to present your open-minded and forward-thinking proposal today. We understand this is not a commitment to anything as of today, but it is very refreshing to hear your proactive outlook.
There are many who observe the situation as you did in your quote- "School needs are not being met. Dedicated teachers are getting discouraged and county employees are becoming demoralized because of their pay." And, therefore there are many who applaud you for being a solution-seeking, kid-focused voice in our community's quest to offer an awesome education for our students and a quality work situation for county teachers and other employees.
Your presence and interest was noted at the Annenberg Institute's presentation. Three cheers to you for taking action on at least these three of their recommendations to our community:
Find and focus on common ground around which HCDE constituents can join forces in support of public schools.
Increase community accountability for building more effective relationships with constituent groups.
Make communicating about and marketing the achievements, priorities and needs of HCDE a district priority.
Our community does value education and does respect an "OK, let's see what we can do about the situation" approach. So, no matter where your proposal goes from here it's super to see us engaged in kid-focused conversations. As long as we have kid-focused conversations about education the outcomes will be what they "are supposed to be," right?
Thank you also to Commissioner Vandergriff's continued support of action for our students.
Joe Harmon
digtowin@comcast.net