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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Banda Road Show Empty Talk?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Banda Road Show Empty Talk?:


Banda Road Show Empty Talk?

I attended the first community meeting for Superintendent Banda at Mercer Middle School last night. I think this is the first time that he has actually been exposed to Q & A from the community.

It was a grave disappointment. I don't know what I was expecting -  a little candor would have been nice - but all of his answers were empty talk that sounded reassuring without actually giving any reassurance. It was political to an extreme, so slick you'd think the guy had been dipped in teflon.



Nearly every statement he made was contradicted moments later by himself. We're starting by listening and getting to know the city and the culture, but we're taking immediate action, but only on existing initiatives, except for some new initiatives. We're getting to know the culture and we're working to change the culture, but a lot of the culture has already changed but there's still a lot of work to do but it will take time and you should see progress soon. We're going to get a permanent Director for Special Education as soon as possible, but we're not looking for one right now. We just hired a totally qualified replacement for Bi Hoa Caldwell, whats-his-name, another retired principal who doesn't have any particular expertise with special education and he's going to do great things, but he's not going to do anything new, but he's going to continue our existing momentum, but we