School boards and venting parents

This past year, I served as the School Advisory Council chairperson for both my daughter's school and Camp Zama in general. In that role, I led bi-monthly meetings designed to address parent concerns.

It was a far easier job than many school board president positions I've read about, and definitely this one in West Chester, Pennsylvania. [Source] For one, the meetings I ran were not designed to address curriculum or human resource matters. They were oriented more toward "quality of school life" kinds of things -- lunch room procedures, safety issues, and COVID concerns.

Second, the principals did a fantastic job of addressing parents' concerns on an individual level, so that it never became a broader issue that escalated to the Garrison level.

So while I can definitely understand West Chester school board president Chris McCune's desire to have a nice, orderly meeting, I fault him for a couple things:

1. He was rude. "McCune then stood up, approached the public speakers podium, took the microphone, faced Anita, and told her to go....'We’ve had a respectful meeting up until you. You bombarded up there, and now you want to monopolize the meeting. Not happening. You’re gone.'” That's not how a board president should act.
   
   
2. He didn't set up a system for vetting speakers beforehand. What I found works best is to broadcast-email a solicitation for speakers. Respondents should be contacted individually beforehand, to see if their concerns can be handled individually or if they really need to address the board as a whole. "Open mike at the school board" rarely works well.

From my experience, I've learned that -- in a lot of cases -- parents just want to be heard. They're thinking about something that worries them and they want to avoid something that might harm their children. It seems parents in West Chester didn't have a good avenue for that.

What’s happening in our district right now is, our school board has been dismissive of parents for the last 18 months,” Beth Ann Rosica said. “I think what you’re seeing now is that is all bubbling to the surface, whether it’s around masking, whether it’s around critical race theory.”

What I see in these board meetings where where parents protest against Critical Race Theory but are shut down is that they're speaking out against the wrong thing in the wrong place to the wrong people. But that's because they don't have a better avenue for feedback.

I recognize parents don't want their children indoctrinated to hate America. I also understand that's not what Critical Race Theory is about. And I know what it's like running a public meeting. But this situation where a school board president publicly shuts down a ranting parent and have security escort them from the building -- that's all kinds of messed up.

That's a battle that was lost before it even started. And that's McCune's fault.