…which should have occurred before the PTA legislative assembly.
As I posted previously, there was never a debate allowed by the Washington State PTA (WSPTA), there was no other side of the issue provided and in fact most of the members of the PTA didn’t even know that a charter school proposal was to be voted on until it was too late. See: Whoa, where did that come from Washington State PTA? Charter Schools?!, Whoa, where did that come from Washington State PTA? Charter schools?! Part 2, Washington State PTA and the lack of transparency and Final thoughts on the Washington State PTA
Since then, several PTA members, including myself, have written letters to the Executive Director asking for the list of schools that were represented See: Can’t get a straight answer from the Washington State PTA.
After receiving the same response from the Executive Director multiple times, we researched the PTA by-laws and discovered that Robert’s Rules of Order, the PTA’s parliamentary authority, states that an organization has to divulge the information on the number of members attending who participated in a vote. What we wanted to know is how many schools in the state were represented and was it a fair representation of all of the children that the PTA is said to be advocating for.
I then sent the following e-mail to Bill Williams, the Executive Director of the Washington State PTA, and copied Ramona Hattendorf who is the Government Relations representative, aka “lobbyist” for the WSPTA.
Mr. Williams,
I am requesting, for the second time, a roster of PTA members who were sent to the legislative assembly by their schools, basically, the attendance record. This is to assure there was a quorum during the voting. According to the PTA by-laws, 3/4 of the regions must be represented.
The names can be redacted. I am only interested in the number of voting members who attended from each region and the number of schools represented in each region.
Your timely attention to this matter would be appreciated.
Dora Taylor
PTA member
Seattle, WA
Their response? Silence.
I have since sent another letter requesting the minutes to the legislative assembly.
Whether I receive them or not, I will let you know.
The PTA is now having a after-the-fact “forum” on charter schools with two “pro” speakers, two “con” speakers and Ramona Hattendorf who will be touting the company line on why the WSPTA will be supporting charter schools.
The forum will be held tomorrow, January 17th at 6:30 PM at Washington Middle School.
There will be a Q and A period but the PTA has decided to have written questions only because they are concerned that folks in the audience might not remain “civil”. One must control the message as much as possible. The sense that I get is that there are a lot of people in our state who do not want charter schools, feel that the pro-charter crowd is trying to make an end run around the democratic process by going directly to the legislators and that the PTA should NOT be pro-charter and at best should remain neutral. And I also think that the WSPTA is starting to get that message.
Here are the details for the forum:
The Washington state PTA region 6 (Seattle, Shoreline, Northshore and Vashon Island) will host a public charter school forum on Tuesday, Jan. 17, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Washington Middle School, located at 2101 S. Jackson St. in Seattle.
The speakers will include:
- Ramona Hattendorf: Government Relations Coordinator, Washington State PTA
- Olga Addae: President, Seattle Education Association
- Rosalund Jenkins: League of Education Voters (LEV)
- Dr. Wayne Au: Assistant Professor, Education Program, UW Bothell, Editor, Rethinking Schools
- Robin Lake: Associate Director, Center for Reinventing Education, UW Bothell
- Moderated by C.R. Douglas, Political Analyst, Q13 Fox News
Should be interesting.
Dora
Seattle Education 
Thank you for bringing attention to this issue. I know it was a real shock to many teachers at my child’s school and I think they feel somewhat betrayed as do many of the parents who were not aware of this and have strong feelings about the issue.
In terms of getting the answers, it will validate or invalidate the WSPTA’s position on charter schools. If it invalidates it, then Ramona and Bill should not be going to Olympia and cheerleading for charter schools.
Dora
If it invalidates it then it also calls into question every vote the WSPTA has ever taken at legislative assembly. For better or worse, the questions you raise are not limited to the Charter vote, that is merely the straw that highlighted the questions.
So be it.
The PTA has to live by their own rules.
If they don’t, then what is their value?
The WSPTA was quite a stickler with the rules when it came to parent’s requests to provide alternative information at the assembly regarding charter schools in terms of receiving approval for what was written, where it could be handed out and when the leaflets could be handed out.
What’s good for the goose…
Dora
That is great news.
Dora
Even if you get your answers it will not change where we are today. The critical piece is how we shape the future to make certain we get as many advocates for our children involved in the process as possible. To that end, we are forming a small committee to look at options for adjusting the education / voting process for WSPTA to see if there are better options. That may include posting all of the measures online with a pro / con discussion associated with each and perhaps a mail-in or electronic ballot system that could expand the voting to a larger percentage of the membership. This is not to discount the importance of the legislative assembly and that face to face interaction, but your concerns about the limits in those able to attend are valid and I do think we need to explore options to address that.
whether it was during my time as a nobody in the 36th District Democrats BEFORE Howard Dean in 2004, or as a nobody after the new crop of Precinct Committee Officers in the next 4 or 6 years, or as a nobody in the Seattle Education Association in the last 3 years … or as a nobody grunt in countless “Democratic” !! “Grassroots” !! campaigns over the years,
a CONSTANT is different cliques pushing their agendas with limited input.
HERE are my ideas to kill the cliques. All of them – even mine.
The following model is based upon representatives meeting once a month to vote on proposals, and it has sample time lines and agenda ideas so that people can participate, have input, AND, get stuff done.
http://www.liemail.com/openefficientmeetings.html
bob