 Not the MISD Home Page DISCLAIMERThis is Not the MISD Home Page, a place for opinion and commentary on the McKinney Independent School District. It is not created by the MISD nor endorsed by the officials of the McKinney Independent School District. Actually, it's apparent from their threats of legal action that they'd really, really like this page not to exist. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author. BACKGROUNDThis web page is a counterpoint to the official web page for the MISD. My goal with this site is to shine a light on technology problems at MISD in the hope that they will be addressed instead of being bandied about and not corrected. I am a parent of two children in the MISD. I also work in the computer business and I have extensive experience in UNIX, MS-Windows and the Internet. I've been a McKinney resident since 1989, and I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. I enjoy living in McKinney and (for the most part) am content with the quality of education at the MISD. INTRODUCTION This web page is the result of my experiences in the 1997-99 school years with the MISD. During that year, I approached several school district employees at many different levels with an offer to volunteer to help in areas relating to technology in the MISD. I was keenly interested in initiating Internet-based projects such as the MISD web site. I began participating in meetings at the district and campus level, where I soon discovered what state the district's technology was in (i.e. see the Lomax Audit). At the time, the MIS director (Jimmy Lee) was leaving. So was the technical lead at the ACT Academy (the school infused with computers and networking technology). The district was in the middle of a technology audit that eventually revealed twenty-seven major problem areas. The people responsible for maintaining the technology equipment on each campus were under-trained, unsupported and utterly overwhelmed by the amount of technical problems backing up on their campus. I saw need for help and an opportunity to make a difference, to step up to the plate and contribute directly. I began contacting anyone in the MISD that I could locate about helping with technology problems. In some cases, I was received with open arms by overworked staff who gladly accepted any time I could volunteer to fix immediate problems (e.g. resetting the drivers on a PC so the CD-ROM drive would work). But some of the overworked staff reacted very negatively to my presence, primarily because (I can only suspect) they were insecure about their skills and considered me a threat. And the people in charge at the top of the MIS department started giving me mixed signals. Eventually the signals became all too clear: I was not welcome and I'd best stay away. There is little point in detailing the slights and the overt threats made to me, the bottom line is that many MISD employees in charge of the technology of the MISD reacted to my presence as if I was a virus that needed to be repelled. I didn't make an effort to ply my way into the good graces of those in charge; I am an engineer and not a politician -- I wanted to step in and get my hands dirty fixing things, not talk about what needed to be done in endless meetings. Many campus techs inhibited me from assisting teachers with problems, and the interim MIS director threatened me with legal action if I didn't stay away (all at the beginning of a meeting called to organize a technical partnership with parents). I came to the MISD to help (they clearly needed my help) and I was rudely turned away. When I began to openly question the policies and practices of the MISD in meetings and privately with MISD staff, I discovered that the very people I was assisting suddenly became very nervous and even hostile when I came around. I discovered to my great disappointment that the one thing that parents and volunteers can never do is to be critical. It didn't matter how much work I did and how much I contributed to the MISD, the fact that I would not obediently parrot the official line meant that I was a threat, and not an aid. Even parents I had been working with as volunteers refused to stand with me when the district brought it's big guns to bear. That was the final straw; I stopped making any pretense of sweeping problems under the rug and have now devoted my energies to educating the public about the technology issues that plague the MISD. In my frustration, I have decided to initiate this web site in order to document the problems I encountered in the district, and to inform parents and potential new residents of the issues at stake in the MISD. I am a computer professional who understands the issues that the MISD faces but I will also offer solutions to the problems I detail on this site. I would be ecstatic if the MISD took note of these suggestions and started making headway against the backlog -- nothing would make me happier than to be able to reduce this web site to a long forgotten memory. Despite my problems with the MISD, there are some districts that have shown great progress. I'd like to point out a quote from the TENET web site that clearly shows that some districts are able to work with volunteers and use all the resources of their community:
CALL IN THE LAWYERS [2-5-1999] I received a letter (and my reply) from the new superintendent of the MISD (Dr. David Anthony). Among the various demands (his words) to eliminate my MISD web content was an explicit warning not to communicate with MISD personnel "not involving your child" otherwise I would be conducting "criminal trespassing." My lawyer will respond next week. In the meantime, I have permanently removed all content I created for the MISD and it's students -- only this page remains of the original MISD web content. I do this with great reluctance, but I've reached the end of a long, agonizing effort to contribute. [3-18-1999] The fact that I have had to hire an attorney to represent me before the MISD further underscores how poorly the MISD handles parents. My attorney was flatly refused a meeting with the Superintendent, and the MISD lawyers he met with stated that I was now and forever more a persona non gratis with the district. How would you feel about contributing as much as I have to the MISD only to find yourself effectively banned from the schools? I pay these peoples' salaries with my tax dollars, entrust my children in their care, and this is how they treat me? There's only one thing that can change this: vouchers! I hope Gov. Bush pushes them through the Texas Legislature and soon. IN THE NEWS Quoted from CNN.com AllPolitics (2 Sept 1999): The Texas governor never used the politically charged term "school voucher," but he entered the debate over vouchers as his proposals would allow federal money to go to private schools. "All monopolies are slow to reform when consumers have no power to express their frustration. In education, parents who have options have influence," he said. I couldn't have said it better. COMMENTARY [11-17-1999] Miracles do happen. This last month, the tech rep at the ACT resigned or was fired (I'll likely never find out which -- I'll have to settle for the fact that this person is gone). This person is likely the instigator of the complaint against me that led to the infamous Dr. Anthony letter of 2-10-1999; libel law prohibits me from saying anything more on this issue. From what I can tell, this change of staff comes at as great sigh of relief at the ACT as things were going from ugly to horrible with regard to computer resources. Today is the first day of a new tech specialist, who I hope is someone who enjoys working with children and can treat them with the respect and consideration that the previous specialist could never muster. [7-14-1999] The MISD School Board and the new Superintendent have instigated a stringent dress code, allegedly in response to the Columbine HS incident. The MISD has banned symbols such as swastikas and pentacles from students wardrobes, and even hinted that merely wearing black clothing will be grounds for suspension. On top of the Constitutional issues this raises (some students have protested the ban on pentagrams because they are Wiccans, and are being persecuted for their religious beliefs -- a position I heartily agree with -- imagine the reaction that banning Christian crosses would create), there is also the anachronism of this decision: will forcing students to dress "normally" really make a difference in future student violence? That's 1950's thinking, and I would hope that by now most adults realize how narrow-minded and un-American it is. Columbine happened because of the tension that exists in oversized schools (McKinney HS is one of the top ten largest High Schools in Texas, according to a recent Dallas Morning News article) between the minority of students engaged in officially sanctioned activity (i.e.. football, football and of course, football) and all the rest who, for all practical matters, don't matter to the administration other than as numbers in a spreadsheet that they tally up daily and report to Austin for the school's tax subsidy. I'm not saying that these students don't matter as individuals or especially to teachers, but rather that the school administration, in it's zest for the best football team, the best cheerleading squad and the best band, flat out ignores the other 90% of the students in these megaschools. The resentment that builds up is an unavoidable friction between the "endorsed" and the "disenfranchised" students. Combine this with an upper-middle class affluence (i.e.. access to expensive weapons and/or explosives) and you get another Columbine massacre. Instead of punishing students for being nonconformist, the administration should first and foremost actively work to remove the privileges secretly and overtly meted out to the "endorsed" students. The "endorsed" students should take the same tests, and follow the same rules of engagement that are applied more strenuously to the" disenfranchised" ones. Secondly, they should begin campaigns to bring the disenfranchised back into the school community. This might be accomplished by opening up school endorsed clubs for nontraditional activities. Community awareness meetings which put endorsed and disenfranchised kids together (ala "The Breakfast Club") might begin building social bridges that would do a lot to relieve the misunderstanding that runs deep in both groups of students. Finally, the school administrators and school board members should rethink the idea of megaschools in the first place. I attended one such school, and the experience was often terrifying. If we scaled Middle and High Schools down in size, the student populations would not be filled with unknown faces of "disenfranchised" students, but rather with a community that encourages diversity and interaction. If you're looking for a good example, visit the ACT Academy some time. It isn't perfect, but it's a far better community experience than MHS. STUDENT'S RIGHTS One of the things about the public education system that disturbs me is how much it resembles the penal system. The students of public schools are treated, for the most part, much the same way that low-security incarcerated citizens are. This is not the way it should be, and one organization that is doing something about it is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Visit this link to see their content devoted to student's rights. ARTICLES
|
