ATC speaks officially at the PUSD BOE meeting
for the first time ever, walter olszewski and i spoke officially on behalf of the altadena town council at the pasadena unified school district board of education meeting on tuesday, april 24, 2007. when we both went up to speak during public comment on items not on the agenda, board president peter soelter tried to silence us before we got two sentences out on the grounds we were trying to comment on an agenda item. superintendent edwin diaz silenced him and let us speak, and we went about expressing our (town council's) desire to establish a cooperative, productive relationship with PUSD. when we went up to the podium to speak on the agenda item regarding the proposal to place Rythms of the Village Charter High School at Blair High School, i made the following remarks:
"Hello again Mr. President, school board members, Mr. Diaz. On behalf of the Altadena Town Council, I want to say we are not against any of these schools in question. We want what's best for Rythms of the Village, NIA, and Blair, and what's best for those respective communities. At our recent meeting, the community surrounding Edison and members from both Rythms and NIA clearly expressed their sentiment, and the town council agreed, that the combination of these two philosophically different high schools at Edison Elementary would be detrimental to the growth of both schools. There's just not enough space, and it's clear the Blair community feels the same way about their situation. So on behalf of the Altadena Town Council and the community we represent, I implore you to explore other, more suitable sites, whichever they might be, whether it's the Armory building, or the service center, or any number of other district sites, in order to allow Blair and NIA to continue to flourish, and to give Rythms of the Village the chance to grow that it surely deserves. Thank you for your time and once again I'd like to personally invite all of you to our Education Committee meeting tomorrow night at 7pm at the Altadena Community Center in the spirit of establishing a positive, productive dialogue and relationship between PUSD and the Altadena Town Council, because we want to work with you on this and many other issues. Thank you."
i would like to commend mr. diaz for changing the agenda item regarding Blair/Rythms from an action item to an information item, and for calling for a special school board meeting (although it will take place before the new board members take office on May 7) to decide this issue on Thursday, May 3. thank you also mr. diaz for allowing mr. olszewski and i to speak when the board president was less than cordial.
mahalo,
justin
"Hello again Mr. President, school board members, Mr. Diaz. On behalf of the Altadena Town Council, I want to say we are not against any of these schools in question. We want what's best for Rythms of the Village, NIA, and Blair, and what's best for those respective communities. At our recent meeting, the community surrounding Edison and members from both Rythms and NIA clearly expressed their sentiment, and the town council agreed, that the combination of these two philosophically different high schools at Edison Elementary would be detrimental to the growth of both schools. There's just not enough space, and it's clear the Blair community feels the same way about their situation. So on behalf of the Altadena Town Council and the community we represent, I implore you to explore other, more suitable sites, whichever they might be, whether it's the Armory building, or the service center, or any number of other district sites, in order to allow Blair and NIA to continue to flourish, and to give Rythms of the Village the chance to grow that it surely deserves. Thank you for your time and once again I'd like to personally invite all of you to our Education Committee meeting tomorrow night at 7pm at the Altadena Community Center in the spirit of establishing a positive, productive dialogue and relationship between PUSD and the Altadena Town Council, because we want to work with you on this and many other issues. Thank you."
i would like to commend mr. diaz for changing the agenda item regarding Blair/Rythms from an action item to an information item, and for calling for a special school board meeting (although it will take place before the new board members take office on May 7) to decide this issue on Thursday, May 3. thank you also mr. diaz for allowing mr. olszewski and i to speak when the board president was less than cordial.
mahalo,
justin
posted by Justin Chapman at 10:35 PM
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