2024-10-10

October 10, 2024

The October general meeting was held on October 8, 2024.  This meeting went by exceptionally smoothly; the only possibly contentious item was removed at the start of the meeting, probably because Baqir wasn't present to carry the vote.

Agenda item 5: Approval of minutes

Smith-Tucker removed her item about the syllabus from the agenda, probably because it wouldn't pass.

Agenda Item 8.01: Student representative's report

A few of the kids in Daniel's high school are interested in running the library, possibly as a means to provide volunteer hours for the students who need them for various reasons.  This could be pretty cool.

Agenda Item 8.02: Superintendent's report

This was Robert Andrzejewski's first meeting as (acting?) superintendent.  His contract officially began on October 1.

The big news was that the Department of Education is not approving any newly-submitted certificates of necessity.  This is infuriating and also very Delaware.  We go through all the trouble of telling the state what we need ("necessity" is in the name), and then they say, nah, maybe submit it a few more times and we'll help you out in a few years.  In order to repair the worst damage in our high schools and rebuild our middle schools, we'll have to take those items to the ballot at the referendum next year.  Oh well.

I met with Andrzejewski last week, and I generally like his approach to his newfound position:

1. He knows that he's out in 9 months, give or take.

2. He wants to focus on the future.

3. He wants to offload most of his functions to his cabinet and ensure that they are prepared to handle them.

4. He wants to make Christina School District a place where people want to send their kids.  In particular, he's interested in something like "magnet" schools or at least bringing back some of the stuff that we used to have in the district (an automotive program, a culinary program, etc.).

I'll have a separate post where I talk about my vision for the future of the district and how we can get there.

Agenda Item 11.01: July 9 board meeting

A FOIA complaint was made with regard to our recent meetings (in particular, the July 9 meeting) concerning the public outcome of certain votes.  At the time, we were using an electronic form of voting, but this made it difficult for the public to determine how everyone voted.  The minutes were re-uploaded with very clear vote tallies, and going forward, we're using voice voting again.