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Working on a recap of a few things from last week’s Dallas ISD board briefing, but I can’t seem to get out of this wormhole I’ve found myself in. I’ve been trying to decipher this 11-minute Elizabeth Jones speech/question/rant/thing, and I just can’t do it. Maybe you can help.
First, go back and read this post from Jim Schutze in 2013, specifically this part:
Not one of Jones’ questions to Miles about the training program for principals made any real sense. There’s a pattern. She starts out talking about things that sound very precise, like performance metrics, bench strength, internal capacity and businessy stuff like that. But then when Miles or other board members ask her to name the metrics she wants, she retreats into hippie talk and says she just wants to “wrap my head around it holistically.”
Now watch the video above, starting at the 1:08:20 mark, and continue for exactly 11 minutes. (I can’t embed it to start at that point. Click here if you want to simply pull it up in another window and it will cue to that mark.) What you’ll find — well, what you’ll find that I can accurately describe or figure out — is Jones explaining to someone what she’d like to see in terms of lobbying for ISDs at the upcoming legislative session. The person she is telling this to works for Moak, Casey & Associates, a lobby and consulting firm. This firm helps write the school finance laws and knows them better than everyone in the state (possibly including TEA staff). Moak Casey’s lobbyists are well respected in Austin and in school board rooms across the state.
I think that’s all the context you need. Enjoy, and then please summarize her point for me.
P.s.: I ask that you note Mike Morath’s reaction about 15-20 seconds in when Jones says she’s performed her own study of the situation (and the subsequent, logical, very unanswered question Morath later asks).
P.s.s.: Please note Dan Micciche’s attempt to lean back so far he’s fully horizontal, as well as his chin sinking so far into his chest it touches his spine.
