Truthfulness Accountability Communications Trust That was the Focal Point for the group of concerned citizens that met Tues. Jan 26, 1999 at the PUD, Public Utility District meeting room, Maple St., Snohomish 7 p.m. A Town Meeting per the sign directing people to convene. (Please, ref. my PSRoots Digest version, V99 #23, Topic #1 Subject: SNOHOMISH SCHOOL BOARD MTGS. in which I quoted a Letter to the Herald from Mrs. VAL BARSCHAW .).Date 1/25/99. My wife and I attended the mtg. per date. The item that struck my eye was the "artist's stand" that held a huge pad of paper that could be written upon, to one side of the erasebal- type white "pen board" a part of the mtg room. Vertically were the letters T A C T - an eye catching word familiar to us all, that later was added the key words that were to complete the meaning of each individual letter of the word, which I have shown above. (Para.>grin<). Say six people were scurrying around getting things organized as we were a half hr early as that room is not large, I knew. But, soon people came filing in and the room was full 25 + I told you the room was not large! 25+ mature acting, concerned citizens showed up. In time we were to find via various conversations that there were a number of teachers, some currently active, one with 20 years & others, retired teachers (claiming to be tired!) but no elderly ones, except for myself; other representatives - bus driver, school board member, persons with experience among school personnel such as custodian for many years, a printer (Dave Stuart- who is a printer of the Tribune, and many other publications that are printed locally - Dave is a printer, but is completely separated from the Tribune staff and therefore has nothing to do with it - just printing - indicating his independance from the paper itself); many walks of life, experience and concern were represented there. A very mature approach to their demeanor was evident throughout the mtg that was to be one and a half hrs, but turned out to be a good full 2 hrs of excellent input/exchange. Among the early-bird self introductions, was Mrs. Val Barschaw who had written the Letter to the Herald, which also appears in the latest Tribune. As I was getting to know Mrs. Barschaw better during the evening, I found that she has a 17 yr old son who attends Snoh. High now and had been attending Monroe schools previously as he wanted to attend a larger school, and loves basketball as an athletic activity. None of the person who attended that meeting were the activist, rabble-rousing, incensed demeanor that sometimes erupts at such meetings. The talks, discussion, the input of the audiance were all extremely mature - no finger pointing, no derogatory kinds of displays, but a genuine concern for students, kids, children, who attend our schools, and their families, + the personnel that they live with for the number of years that they attend school. Those bus drivers, custodians, and supporting personnel can tell a lot about the quality and focus of a school district, because they see and experience a lot more than many realize. Their input is valuable in knowing what goes on over the years, in addition to that which is the pattern among the professional staff that make up the educators, and the educator/ administrators of a district. It was brought out that the focus that supports the words that TACT stands for is $$$$$$ + Choices. They all work hand in hand - related. Three persons talked on their expertise, or calling attention to their Topics. I had not known of any of them before, so they were "new" and unfamiliar to me prior to this mtg. 1. A Don Finrow talked about the hand-out charts attempting to explain the financial overall outlay that it takes to operate a school district. Talk about statistics, and I am certainly not a statistition (let alone spell it correctly!) - in fact I was left in the proverbial dust by the charts for the various years of interim - and the complexity of what we heard and saw. Take it altogether and add the loopholes, and juggling to take from one program and dovetail it into another - legitimately, I guess - but what a maze of accountability is involved. Talk about being in the dark, most of the room was mindboggled, except those much more savvy on such things than the average person. A great presentation of a very complex subject, but well, done despite it being so. 2. Mary Lou Burns talked about $$$$$ also but more about teachers, administrators, and staffing salaries. Also about sources of funds from various sources, local taxes, levys,county, state, federal sources and influences. Another complexity of information that requires knowledge of the subject in depth. 3. Mrs. Val Barschaw, a parent, a business lady, and a very astute person in her own right, who was well prepared to discuss or explain questions or concerns among the audience gathered there. She claimed not be an attorney, but she savied a lot of law, just the same - having given the time to become better informed. One note that I jotted down was that "Boards may violate their own policies". Among the activities of Boards, and/or administrators of $$$$ may be loopholes, or slots provided in which changes of items may be exchanged, or maneuvered, apparently creating problems if not monitored and handled appropriately. Therein comes the concern that the group who gathered has for the key ideas that TACT stands for. I care NOT to inflame, politicize, incite, or otherwise start debate on PSRoots or any other website, or chat site. My purpose is simply point out that what Snohomish is going through right now; should be known to others, with the hope that others will not have to suffer degredation of their schools because historically they did not monitor and keep track of what the four letters of TACT stand for. Yes, this is Snohomish School District I am talking about here, but this is NOT intended to be "just a local issue". Just like the concern over Snohomish Cemetery may have seemed to be over a Local cemetery, but as we are beginning to see , that this has been, and is becoming, an increasingly growing problem in this country. In Judge French's Courtroom, we lost to the "loopholes" of Law that can be created to twist the case to suit a "view". The Agreement with Tulalip Tribes and the City Snohomish, caused a "turn" in the road. But, will the so called agreement do what they "stated that they would do". Will there be follow through. Or will it waver from law? After Time has passed, it will be swept under the usual carpet. Back to schools: The group that met Tues, will meet in Feb.- perhaps at a different loc. as there may be more people attending than the capacity of the mtg. room is allowed. We were informed that there is a website for this concern: To find it use- Infoseek Snohomish School District, as the website addr. is quite long. However, if we want to attain that longer addr for website we can e-mail findon@premier.net I have not done this yet, but I intend to do so and look it over for what it has to offer. I care not to start anything going on this like we had for Snohomish Cemetery - as that got exhausting. AWARENESS is the key - not for Snohomish Dist Schools but rather AWARENESS of all concerned about ALL school districts, and American Education nationwide. Politics are NOT my intent, forte, nor goal out of this. CONCERN for kids of all ages ARE! There is ENOUGH interference to Education, the learning process, and the Future for our world expertise in whatever field of endeavor - everyone counts - everyone must be allowed his niche in Life - the Teamwork of people working together in HARMONY makes for a better goal. If this has nothing to do with genealogy, or as John Sloniker aptly emphasizes it Family History, then it would probably be a " good idea " to Delete, Scroll, or otherwise, turn away from this reality. Just got the Jan 27, '99 Tribune. On the Opinion page are two Editorials 1. Continued instrospection will benefit district concerns the Management and Operational Review of Snoh. School Dist released this mo. accomplished by the WA Assn of School Administrators - an audit. One sentence that caught my eye as I scanned it was, QUOTE P. 4: "With this baseline established, the district should internalize the eye that watches over district practices." etc. The word "internalize" tho self explanatory basically was a bit "foreign" in nature for me, I checked my Webster's Collegiate & the yr (1884) preceded its def. - an old timer. Checking further in my 2 vol. World Book Encyc. Dictionary which has a little greater depth. the word comes from Psychology. I thought that reminded me of the kind of language we ran into in Educational Psychology 504, or some semblance thereof. It is interesting what intellectual paraguese can come up with when speaking or writing in the "professional mode". Clarity +, huh? Then another Editorial, same p. by Ken Estes, Snohomish titled Snohomish school board should not be rubber stamp. (Italics explains that QUOTE "Estes was Rep. Hans Dunshee's (D-Snohomish) Republican challenger in last Novermber"s election. Article relates to "how national and state administrators were spending the money they were allocated". and "these same poor practices have infiltrated our local district". And, "The School Board cannot be a rubber stamp for the administrtors they hire". Just samples of words being used to bring out the concerns that the TACT group wishes to address. These editorials then spill over to the Letters to the Editor section where Val Barschaw's letter entitled School Board should work to build harmony - the letter that I started out with in my former article 1/25/99 PSR. It was as a result of enough persons who e-mailed me directly and wanted me to continue, that I wrote this follow up. Otherwise, I would not have written it. I thank those who wrote and encouraged me to forge ahead - those darned torpedoes, & full speed ahead - thing. I hope these words do not fall upon deaf ears, nor dead pens, and that citizens do not allow their schools to deteriorate, nor desecrate, because of the lack of T.A.C.T. Carroll in Snohomish * * * 30 * * * ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]