Walton Co. School Board Meets about Blithe Spirit!!

[Garbo91]

Thank you very much :]]

 

[Bdarg]

Could you parents get together and create an email list of all caring parents, as a way to send out group emails regarding the school stuff? Seems to me like any decent school operators would have email addresses of all parents and maybe even make those accessible to the teachers, so that teachers could regularly communicate with parents regarding test scores, homework performance, and behavior.

I think that there would probably be some privacy issues and possibly liability issues with giving out students and parents contact information. The church on the other hand had that information that their congregation had given them freely, thus that were at an advantage when the meeting was scheduled and the time for the cattle call came.

 

[TooFarTampa]

You are making a request under the Florida Public Records law. It is very comprehensive. Responses are required. If not in a timely manner, a couple of phone calls will get you what you want and rather quickly. I run into this pretty regularly. But overall, Walton County is very responsive to requests for information. Google on Brechner Center and read their information. They even have a pretty good letter for requesting information.

Government in the Sunshine is one reason I love our state.

That you for your information. I will use it.
FOI, in my posts referred to Freedom of Information. The "F" was not meant to have a "federal" connotation.

FOI refers to the Freedom of Information Act, which is indeed federal and a lot harder to negotiate than anything dealing with Florida state and local government. In this state, even emails related to public business are public record; copies can (or at least should) be easily obtained. The Sunshine laws promote discussion and transparency.

This is the first time I have read this thread -- wow. It's a doozy. It sounds as if the SWHS students have learned a valuable (if painful) lesson that they will no doubt carry with them their whole lives. What galls me most is the apparent inauthenticity of at least some of the protesters, who went to the meeting not knowing exactly what they were protesting, just showed up because they were told to in order to demonstrate 'strength in numbers.' What kind of strength would that be exactly?

Kudos to those with the passion and the knowledge to defend their point of view.

 

[TooFarTampa]

Could you parents get together and create an email list of all caring parents, as a way to send out group emails regarding the school stuff? Seems to me like any decent school operators would have email addresses of all parents and maybe even make those accessible to the teachers, so that teachers could regularly communicate with parents regarding test scores, homework performance, and behavior.

This is done by the administration at my son's private school; they have a very sophisticated network set up actually. A parent would just have to click the mouse a couple of times to let fellow parents know about anything important. However, as bdarg points out, in public schools it seems there would be privacy issues regarding distributing parent information. The school itself would not be required to let parents know of a special school board meeting (and I wonder if it would even be allowed to make a special announcement). I think any parent joining a parent group like the PTA would be to access contact information for others who had "opted in" to the PTA, but that would be about as far as it would go. It definitely would make it tougher to get the word out.

 

[Jdarg]

This is done by the administration at my son's private school; they have a very sophisticated network set up actually. A parent would just have to click the mouse a couple of times to let fellow parents know about anything important. However, as bdarg points out, in public schools it seems there would be privacy issues regarding distributing parent information. The school itself would not be required to let parents know of a special school board meeting (and I wonder if it would even be allowed to make a special announcement). I think any parent joining a parent group like the PTA would be to access contact information for others who had "opted in" to the PTA, but that would be about as far as it would go. It definitely would make it tougher to get the word out.

Thanks TFT. This is what I am running into. As with many things in life designed to protect us and our privacy, it also hobbles us to do good things.

I think the time has come on this thread to maybe sum up and move on to the next level- which is quit the talk and start fixing, and that is on our agenda this week. We know this was a raw deal all around, we know there are communication problems between parents, students, and administration, we know that there are outside groups that tried and will continue to try and influence our school, and we know that these kids and the teacher need to get back to the business of learning and teaching. Continuing to hash on about the same stuff will not be productive and it is hard to find really helpful posts and ideas if it is buried in rants.

Let's maybe keep posts from here on out about suggestions of how to fix our problems instead of accusations and barbs. Now that we have all vented, it is time to pull in the reins and be constructive, not destructive.;-)

 

[wrobert]

This is done by the administration at my son's private school; they have a very sophisticated network set up actually. A parent would just have to click the mouse a couple of times to let fellow parents know about anything important. However, as bdarg points out, in public schools it seems there would be privacy issues regarding distributing parent information. The school itself would not be required to let parents know of a special school board meeting (and I wonder if it would even be allowed to make a special announcement). I think any parent joining a parent group like the PTA would be to access contact information for others who had "opted in" to the PTA, but that would be about as far as it would go. It definitely would make it tougher to get the word out.

I understand that there use to be an active PTO at SWHS. The person I spoke to that was involved no longer has a child in the system. It seems you have several students reading this list that could gather email addresses for you from other students of their parents. And you could also start trying to form the PTO again. You should be able to supply information to the school that they could send home with students asking for contact information.

 

[DuneAHH]

Thanks TFT. This is what I am running into. As with many things in life designed to protect us and our privacy, it also hobbles us to do good things.

I think the time has come on this thread to maybe sum up and move on to the next level- which is quit the talk and start fixing, and that is on our agenda this week. We know this was a raw deal all around, we know there are communication problems between parents, students, and administration, we know that there are outside groups that tried and will continue to try and influence our school, and we know that these kids and the teacher need to get back to the business of learning and teaching. Continuing to hash on about the same stuff will not be productive and it is hard to find really helpful posts and ideas if it is buried in rants.

Let's maybe keep posts from here on out about suggestions of how to fix our problems instead of accusations and barbs. Now that we have all vented, it is time to pull in the reins and be constructive, not destructive. ;-)

Hear! Here! Well stated.

 

[chunkychobie]

I really dont think it is any of your business where i go to school and it is really has no concern to this thread but just to make you happy i am attending OWC as part of dual enrollment full-time so that i will have my Acting Associates Degree when i graduate from high school. I am apart of SWHS International Thespian Society and i was in all three plays last year. I have been to two performing arts schools where i have majored in theatre and musical theatre. I have directed two full length musicals and i have been in four plays. I have also performed in Trumbauer music and theatre competition for solo comedic male song in the district and state competition. And yes my parent does know that i post stuff on this site and she doesnt have a problem with it. So there, are you happy? Any other questions?

I am new to this lovely little sowal network, so i suppose it is now my turn to voice my opinion on ther current subject!!!!!!

first of all the above quote is completely ridiculous and has nothing to do with the entire point of this message board! everyone on here could care less about your prior achievements because it is quite obvious you do not truly know what you are talking about. Blithe Spirit is a play, it is nothing more, nothing less. the fact that you call yourself a true thespian and then are completely against this play seems kind of hyprocritical to me. i think that there can only be two possible reasons why you and everyone you takes your position on the matter can possibly be enraged about blithe spirit being performed....

1) you all have run out of better things to do and must keep yourself busy with stirring up the commmunity with stupid things such as protesting a play like Blithe Spirit.


2) you yourself were not personally asked to be a part of the play and feel that voicing your immature point of view will help compensate for your shortcomings.

so, truethespian09, you might as well start raising hell about plays such as romeo and juliet and the sound of music, because they simply conatin "dark" material. mabye you should look up the word drama, because obviously you don't know the definition of that word!

 

[Garbo91]

Yes CC. You are amazing and me love you long time ;]]

And yes, agree with with you. Get a life protesters!

 

[chunkychobie]

thanks so much, love you too!!!!!!