The tipoff that the School Board was failing last night in an attempt to clarify only a miniscule corner of a dispute between activist parents and the District, came when Board member Laura Chardiet led off the discussion.
Baffled by the contents of a proposed document that avoided a head-on confrontation with the main issue in the community debate over adjuncts at El Marino Language School, secondary Ms. Chardiet peppered Supt. Patti Jaffe with about a dozen questions seeking linguistic interpretations.
If the language was not clear, the predicament for Ms. Chardiet and others was – the effort at clarifying a small patch of an already vague policy was itself hopelessly splattered with mud.
In a word, indecipherable.
As the fourth hour of the meeting ticked away in Council Chambers, Ms. Jaffe concluded, and Board President Karlo Silbiger concurred, that the section aimed at describing – and limiting – the heretofore unclear role of booster clubs on each campus, still was in messy, inaccessible condition.
Therefore, Ms. Jaffe announced that she and others would try to demystify the abstract language before the Tuesday, May 8, School Board meeting at District offices on Irving Place. She promised to send last night’s portion of proposed policy change to booster clubs to be critiqued.
The dispute over the validity of parent-funded adjuncts at El Marino, and a desire by other schools to copy their template, chugs along, seemingly not closer to resolution.
El Marino’s program, funded by the school booster group known as ALLEM (Advocates for Learning Language, El Marino)appears to be safe but other District schools are in a quandary. They cannot mount similar programs until a heavily revamped policy is finalized. The slow pace of the Board is frustrating them.
Here is the 101-word opening paragraph from last night’s discussion that was found hopelessly baffling.
Bolded words are new language.
Italicized words represent deleted language.
“School-Connected Organizations.
“The Governing Board recognizes that parents/guardians and community members may wish to organize parent organizations and/or booster clubs for the purpose of supporting the District’s educational program and/or extracurricular programs such as athletic teams, debate teams, and or musical groups. The Board appreciates the contributions made by such organizations supports such activities and welcome parental encourages their interest and participation in supporting District activities and helping to achieve the District’s vision for student learning. Parent/guardian clubs shall be especially careful not to seek advantages for the activities they support if those advantages might be detrimental to the entire school program.”
