Below is an email I sent to the JCPS Board of Education to be included with the official minutes from last night’s Board meeting. It asks a series of questions about internal investigations and secret settlements, but it also addresses the superintendent’s raise and the untold headaches and disasters employees and students are about to face due to a perfect storm of so many changes happening at once.
Here are some excerpts:
Continuing to create an imbalance between the C-Suite executives and those literally working themselves into sickness and death to keep this ship afloat, is exactly the opposite of what taxpayers want. Those same individuals, now, also have to be your buffer between lost, misused and abused students, angry parents and ignorant community members, as they get bombarded by the bell schedule changes, student assignment changes and everything else all at once.
How do you think it makes them feel to see while they’re doing all of your dirty work and only getting scraps, their kings are feasting? “Tone deaf,” would be an understatement. Not to mention, you gave fodder to the hypocritical GOP, some of whom are the same members who continue to skate by with a nod of endorsement and financial support from the most powerful union in the state. Find your backbones, please. Stand up to the powerful elites who continue to exploit our public school system for their own personal and/or political benefit.
These are the questions I asked:
- What are the types of cases and what changes are being made to prevent them from recurring?
- How much are these recurring settlements costing taxpayers?
- [After an open records request was unsuccessful.] Do you know if there is another method or report that we could request in order to find out the information?
- If it’s paid by insurance, who is the insurer and how much do taxpayers pay in premiums each year?
- Also, when will the tax increase dashboard that was promised in 2020 be made available to the public?
- What kind of reporting exists for the complaints that are submitted via the intake form on the JCPS website?
- What types of incidents are reported, how are they resolved, what systemic changes are made to prevent them from happening again or leading to lawsuits?
Read the entire thing here:
2023-07-25 | Email to JCPS BOE to Include with Minutes – Dear JCPS
Also during last night’s meeting, the board refused to protect trans students from oppressive and discriminatory legislation passed by vengeful and ignorant Kentucky lawmakers, at least for now. They tabled the vote until up to August 15. At least they passed a resolution giving lip service to them, which is more than they were willing to do for Black students.