Even though they are getting hard to justify in these times of increased technology and decreased travel funds, I find that in my job face-to-face meetings and conferences, even if held in "apparently" nice places, are invaluable - even beyond the value of the actual meeting topic/conference, a lot of business is conducted - ideas are formulated, problems are solved, and the all-important working relationships that are so important, are forged and strengthened. Is nothing at all good coming from this Ocean City Conference?
Please ask the Board of Education what comes from these conferences? To date all they ever report on is awards to themselves.
Further, your assumption is that somehow the people meeting are some how connected. They are not! They are Boards of Education from individual counties in MD. They have no legal connection to each other. They make no decisions together, they hold no group power. They are not an entity.
In our county we ELECTED individuals to run our local public school system. They are not elected to run any other county system. Some other MD counties do not even have elected boards of education, some are appointed by their local officials for the governor. Our county public schools are not all run by the same organization.
There is NO purpose to these meetings. There is nothing gained for public school students. (Oh, but Board members get an open bar cocktail party paid for by a no bid vendor!)
What does happen is that quorums of local public bodies are together out of the public view in violation of the Maryland Open Meetings Act. Vendors, who have paid a high fee to attend, are given alone time with county board members. This circumvents our public procurement process and should not be tolerated.
We are already paying for no bid contracts hatched at this conference, and in other counties they are getting 3 cell towers on every public school playground as a result of this conference. Again, these contracts are being hatched outside of the public view with no public oversight and no accountability.
Last year the MCPS Board of Education spent over $70,000 on MABE. That's the loss of one or two classroom teachers for what? Absolutely nothing. Board members think they "deserve" a vacation and that is exactly what this trip to Ocean City represents.
Even though they are getting hard to justify in these times of increased technology and decreased travel funds, I find that in my job face-to-face meetings and conferences, even if held in "apparently" nice places, are invaluable - even beyond the value of the actual meeting topic/conference, a lot of business is conducted - ideas are formulated, problems are solved, and the all-important working relationships that are so important, are forged and strengthened. Is nothing at all good coming from this Ocean City Conference?
ReplyDeletePlease ask the Board of Education what comes from these conferences? To date all they ever report on is awards to themselves.
DeleteFurther, your assumption is that somehow the people meeting are some how connected. They are not! They are Boards of Education from individual counties in MD. They have no legal connection to each other. They make no decisions together, they hold no group power. They are not an entity.
In our county we ELECTED individuals to run our local public school system. They are not elected to run any other county system.
Some other MD counties do not even have elected boards of education, some are appointed by their local officials for the governor. Our county public schools are not all run by the same organization.
There is NO purpose to these meetings. There is nothing gained for public school students. (Oh, but Board members get an open bar cocktail party paid for by a no bid vendor!)
What does happen is that quorums of local public bodies are together out of the public view in violation of the Maryland Open Meetings Act. Vendors, who have paid a high fee to attend, are given alone time with county board members. This circumvents our public procurement process and should not be tolerated.
We are already paying for no bid contracts hatched at this conference, and in other counties they are getting 3 cell towers on every public school playground as a result of this conference. Again, these contracts are being hatched outside of the public view with no public oversight and no accountability.
Last year the MCPS Board of Education spent over $70,000 on MABE. That's the loss of one or two classroom teachers for what? Absolutely nothing. Board members think they "deserve" a vacation and that is exactly what this trip to Ocean City represents.
Welcome to reality. The function of government has shifted to collecting taxes and then telling us what we cannot do.
ReplyDeleteThis is the Apple Ballot reality. Keep voting for the Apple Ballot and this continues.
Delete