Video of Lindbergh DESE Common Core Meeting. Crowd Refuses to be Delphied.

Body Language at Lindbergh

This is a followup to our reporting on DESE's attempt to use the Delphi technique at the Common Core meeting at Lindbergh School District.  We have two videos which show the refusal of the crowd to be divided into groups and asking questions to the officials.

Part 1

Officials explain the process and the people refuse to cooperate/collaborate in the process

Part 2

More citizen comments on the standards and the process

Unfortunately the storage on my phone reached its capacity and I couldn't capture the rest of the entire meeting but you can see and hear the anger and concern by the taxpayers.  They are well educated and didn't appreciate their questions not being answered or their concerns not seriously considered. 


More photos below:

Back of the room

No smiling faces in the room. 

You can see from the photos breaking up into groups to gather questions would have been impossible.  

Sign the petition for Missouri to stop the implementation of Common Core here.

The Delphi Technique Did Not Work at the Lindbergh DESE Meeting. People Were "Mad As Hell and They Were Not Going to Take This Anymore".

This did not happen at the DESE Lindbergh meeting

An overflow crowd (150 people estimate) packed a too small meeting room for DESE's presentation on Common Core.  Here is the press release announcing the statewide meetings for last night.  Apparently citizens were under the impression they would receive answers to their questions about Common Core but this was not DESE's intention.  At the beginning DESE representative Maureen Clancy-May announced DESE would not answer any questions.  Clancy-May stated that she may not even know the answer to many of the questions.  DESE was there to present, break up into discussion groups, gather the questions, reveal the questions to the larger group, then take them back to Jefferson City so the citizens can be informed at some other date.

This is a classic Delphi Technique used to diffuse and control the message as facilitators would ask the question, take the information and then present it to the larger group.  The people who actually ask the questions never get  a chance to ask the person in charge and receive an answer to their questions. 

This presentation may have been cursed from the beginning.  It began with a power point presentation read directly off the screen with videos that have appeared previously on DESE's website.  The videos did not work (which is ironic with the increased emphasis on technology and computer requirements for districts) and the citizens became increasingly agitated.

Finally, one person stated that people came to ask questions and receive answers.  The group already knew what DESE's position and didn't need to be told again.  Clancy-May insisted we break up into groups (which would have been impossible as there were no tables or enough room to divide up) and an elderly woman asked,

Do you not know how to deviate from your agenda?

The presentation was eventually stopped and the floor was opened up for questions.  No questions were answered by May but they were written down to be taken back to DESE.  What was very interesting, is that the citizens provided answers to citizen questions.  It was clear the governmental agency was unable/unwilling to answer the basic questions of common core.

DESE never did answer questions on cost or data.  These are the two issues Senator Lamping wants DESE to talk about in SB210 in the eight townhall meetings around the state with Commissioner Nicastro in attendance.   It is imperative to contact Senator Lamping to make sure this bill is passed so DESE finally has to answer to the Legislature and the people on these two critical questions.  If the bureaucrats cannot answer the questions, it is necessary to have the Commissioner answer these question.  It is her signatures on Common Core signed MOUs and she should be the person to answer citizen questions.  If not her, then Governor Nixon should appear since he also signed these MOUs.

We will be providing stories from the other DESE meetings as we receive them.  Most of what we heard from the attendees is that they did break up into groups and followed DESE's instructions.  It was DESE's agenda and it had the authority to run the meetings as it deemed appropriate.  However, what is important to know about this Lindbergh meeting is that DESE's agenda did not fit the attendees' needs.  Citizens came to get answers to questions about an initiative that has been put into motion for more than 3 years that has been done under the radar.  They didn't come to hear a presentation to hear about how great CCSS are, they wanted answers on why they haven't been told before now, why the Governor signed onto them before they were even written, the data collection required via CCSS, how much they were going to cost, why the Legislature didn't know about CCSS, why we are in a consortia and cannot direct/develop our own educational standards/assessments.

One woman told May we are adults and we will not divide into Delphi groups.

Anne's and my impression was the Lindbergh group stood up to DESE and basically said we are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore.  The people decided everyone needed a voice and a chance to ask their question in a larger venue vs small groups where their message could be altered or even ignored by a facilitator.  This is a significant moment.  It represents the taxpayers paying for these programs asserting their rights to ask questions and to receive answers on these programs.  This act is the beginning of regaining control of their schools and the programs directing educational policy.

James Shuls from Show-Me Institute was available for citizen questions in the lobby afterward and Anne and I answered questions as representatives from Missouri Coalition Against Common Core.  This meeting may be a game changer in our Common Core battle in Missouri and citizens in other school districts should take note.  DESE cannot pacify people with meetings where no real information is disseminated (only talking points) and taxpayers demand answers from bureaucrats spending our  money and using our children for these programs. 

The DESE folks were genuinely surprised by the reaction (this was told to an attendee) of the crowd.   When DESE doesn't even allow comments on their videos, a genuine forum to ask questions and institutes an agenda that has been hidden from public scrutiny for several years, it only has itself to blame for the distrust, frustration and genuine anger present at last night's meeting.

The media has been contacted been contacted several times and only a few print media were in attendance.  The story is as massive and important as the Department of Revenue debacle and the governor's involvement in lack of transparency and setting policy outside of legislative approval.  Why isn't the media covering this important issue?  Call them today and ask them that question.

We can't wait for DESE's official answers to the written questions.  Look for video and pictures to be posted soon.  We will also be posting reports from the other locations.  If you were at Lindbergh or other locations and have some observations, please post them in the comment section.

To understand the tone of the meeting last night at Lindbergh, watch this clip from the movie "Network" and "I'm mad as  hell and I'm not going to take this anymore":



 

Sign the petition here against the implementation of Common Core.

Job Opening: Interventionist for Government Liars, Wasteful Spenders, and Hoarders

I'm going to call A&E cable television to suggest a segment for its "Intervention" series. If you are not aware of these program, it deals with stories of people who are addicts to various substances. The interventionist tells the truth to the person about his/her addiction, and most of them ultimately agree to be whisked away for intensive treatment.



I suggest we contact the producers and report the Legislative and Executive branches of government for passing a $26 Billion Educational bill. Congress and the President should be reported for addictive spending and lying. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and President Obama tell us again and again...it's a crisis, it's an emergency...if we don't do anything, it would be terrible, awful, Armageddon. OK, maybe not Armageddon, but that's the gist of the shtick we've heard for the last 18 months as it relates to health care, energy, banking, GM, etc.



Imagine watching the "government intervention" segment: the first half hour of the show will concern the shenanigans and lies from the Federal Government. The second half hour will focus on state education departments for wasteful spending and hoarding the money so it can be used in next year's budget.



What's going to happen to the money given to the states to rehire teachers? It's probably not going to rehire teachers. Many of these states already have budgeted their expenses for the coming year, so this funding is a bit late to help them.



Could it be the state would like to hold on to this money to help it make it's educational budget next year? Wouldn't Jay Nixon look like Superman if he doesn't have to make more education cuts next year? This money isn't helping the Lindbergh School District which had to fire 35 teachers to make budget this year:



http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_e84ad70c-707d-5695-8ac3-2f33e2806684.html



Read it carefully. No one really knows where the money will be directed. The superintendents don't know, the commissioner doesn't know, the state budget director doesn't know. We think it will be parceled out via formula funding, meaning the Title 1 schools will receive the majority of the funds, and a school like Lindbergh is, well, out of luck. As Lindbergh's superintendent said, "It's not fun to be on the wrong end of irony". The district who had to cut the most teachers in the state will not get any money for which it is allegedly intended.



As the article stated, the NEA called the legislation "a victory for Missouri students, parents and public schools". I could not disagree more. I believe the main problem of this legislation has been described accurately by Michael Podgursky, an economist with the University of Missouri who studies education data. An interesting tidbit he shares: schools nationwide have added to payrolls in rates that have far exceeded enrollment growth". With all due respect to the NEA, our tax money should not be funding teachers who are not needed...this is not a victory, this is financial malfeasance.



If you operated your personal finances like these entities, you would be in jail...or your family would call in an interventionist to restore you to sanity. Anyone out there looking for a job? Perhaps some of the $190 Million being sent to Missouri could be used for an interventionist to change behavior of these out of control governmental agencies.