Agenda
(Subject to Change)
September 6, 20111. Policies - Sixth Review
a. GBEE, Social Networking
2. Policies - First Review
a. Revisions to ECF, Energy Management Conservation
b. Revisions to JKF, Non-School Related Drug and Alcohol Violations
3. Questions and Comments from Residents
They did promise to record the meeting and post it on the District website. No mention of plagiarism or bullying policies on the agenda. I guess that is where Item 3 comes in, but if no one can attend, that sure makes it difficult. Too bad there is no teleconferencing for residents. "Operators are standing by. Call now."
Update September 5, 2011 10:11 PM According to page 13 of the 2011-2012 Student & Parent Handbook,
Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition, defines plagiarize as “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own: use (another's production) without crediting the source.” Examples of plagiarism include copying passages or visual downloads from the Internet or other texts; not documenting written or oral sources such as teachers, other students, critics; fabricating or manipulating a quotation or source and using free or purchased papers from the Internet or other sources. Students receive instruction about plagiarism in English and other classes and are responsible to discuss their questions and uncertainties with their teachers.
If anyone is going to the Policy meeting tomorrow, you might want to mention this.
5 comments:
Why should any committee of the school board, especially one as important as the Policy Committee, meet at a time during the business day when not only do board members have to take time off, but the public cannot be expected to attend or to exercise their right to observe?
I have been asking that question and in one of the Policy Committee podcasts I recorded, Larry Lebowitz explained to me that since he goes to so many meetings he would like to spend time with his children. He leaves work early to attend the 4:30 meeting. My question is why doesn't he leave work early and spend time with his kids so that the rest of us don't have to take time off of work too.
Well, I would like to spend time knowing how my children might be educated and how my labor will be spent by those who presume to decide what they will take from me without my consent. If service on the board is too burdensome for Larry, perhaps he should not have volunteered, as he did--I have to assume he knew what he was getting into. I find his "explanation" more of an excuse for the kind of secretive and anti-democratic behavior for which our school board is notorious. I like Larry, and am very disappointed that he thinks so little of the rest of us that we would credulously accept such a pastiche.
Perhaps Larry and the other school board members should consider why, by a margin of more than 6 to 1, those who express an opinion by voting in your poll think that some, but mostly all, of the incumbent school board members should resign. In a small and tight-knit community like Mt. Lebanon, any significant display of such strong feeling should cause some introspection and self-doubt among the school board members. It might also be good for them to consider, while they think that building grandly is the first priority of this community, that 75% of Mt. Lebanon residents do not have any children in the schools--and of those who do, a very large percentage find the tax situation here challenging to their financial ability to remain, with their children, in the district. The old saw about "too much of a good thing" comes to mind, but considering the details of the plan, it is still not clear that the school board's plan is really a "good thing" at all. When will the school board stop insisting and start reflecting on the net "benefits" of their plan?
I find it very disturbing that the school board disbanded the finance committee.
Sue Dixon
Post a Comment