Filing a FOIA request, and learning to not be a people-pleaser, are really one and the same.

Filing a FOIA request, and learning to not be a people-pleaser, are really one and the same.

So, I filed a FOIA today. We’ll call it FOIA #1. You can see the request of FOIA #1 in the attached image - and the goofily redundant and circular language therein. Let’s call it just-this-side-of-mockery of legal speech. But it *gets the job done* and makes the point of what it is we’re looking to uncover.

I once had a boss tell me to use my language skills to write the most obfuscated response I could create, in reply to a customer who had screamed at everybody in the company, and probably would have done the same to all of our pets, had we put them on the phone.

These two things, are also one and the same.

I filed FOIA #1, because I find it fascinating that during the Board of Education meetings, the names of all the citizens who sent missives to the Board of Education, are read into the record…the actual content of those letters…nowhere to be seen. For the record, these letters are referred to officially as “Written Correspondence”.

What’s the point of only knowing who sent Written Correspondence? Wouldn’t it seem obvious, that we’d all like to know the actual content of the concerns of our neighbors, and whether or not the Board of Education has been responsive to said concerns? Or maybe it is clear to the members of the Board, that if the parents knew what our neighbors are concerned about, it would be a lot easier to organize…As I learned in school, every action has an equal and opposite reaction…and so inversely every inaction (by the Board) has an equal and opposite cause which requires action.

Silence is not our friend.

Upon starting to ask around about why the Written Correspondence is not readily available, it was implied to me that there’s no law or statute or rule requiring the Board of Education to make the Written Correspondence public. Such an implication implies that they could choose to make them public…but they don’t. Like most things on the narcissistic end of the spectrum it is difficult to prove a nothing - how many pages of the Connecticut General Statutes and Brookfield Board of Education Policy Handbook can we look through before we come to the conclusion there’s nothing to find?

No policy that says they have to release them. Can’t prove a nothing. Policy and ethics usually don’t walk hand-in-hand and usually are more foot-in-mouth. Those who would say there’s no law or rule, usually say so with the intention of ignoring morality or ethics. At least…that’s what I’ve learned from “adults” over the years.

The closest we have is in the current policy manual (https://s3.amazonaws.com/scschoolfiles/4147/communication_with_the_publi...), section 1100(a), item 1:

“The Board will transact all business in open meetings which the press, the public and school employees are encouraged to attend and at which time communications, both oral and written, will be received and taken under advisement.”

Received. Could simply say disseminated as well. Instead the only time communications are made public are when somebody speaks publicly for three minutes. But there’s a caveat…

When I spoke at the last meeting () the two public speakers are nothing but static on the livestream and what we both said is lost forever…and then just after the public speaking section the audio magically reappeared. But you can watch me gesticulate like an unhinged mime at around 11 minutes into this. Fascinating, huh?

Two hundred pages of policy about suspensions and expulsions but nothing about Written Correspondence. Priorities, people.

Schools are not prisons.

It feels related to the fact that we, as parents, get a dozen message each week through ParentSquare, informing us of (and I know I’m not alone in this) copious amounts of absolutely pointless information…but none of those messages have ever been a reminder that a Board of Education meeting is coming up. The closest thing we ever get is a reminder to vote on the school budget - a school budget that almost nobody examines the contents therein.

If the Board of Education, or rather the members of the Board of Education, or rather the administration that is the Board of Education, or the Superintendent (whenever we had one, or whenever we next get one), or anybody in that office whether hired or elected, wanted there to be parental participation, they’d make the point of there being outreach.

They’d make the point of having the public comment section at the beginning, as well as at the end, so that comments can be made about what was just discussed. But they don’t. And it’s a choice.

Every choice made by the Board of Education, tells us something. Are we listening?

But, like the policies-to-be-adopted, it is clear that both students and parents are meant to sit down, shut up, be quiet, or be dismissed. Are we listening?

We see videos around the country of Board of Education meetings flying out of control. Instead we get secrecy and silence. Which is the more damaging attack on our children? Not all violence is physical.

So, thinking I could get some information rather than implication, I called the Connecticut Association for Board of Education (CABE). While I don’t know much about them, they tout their mission as, “To assist local and regional boards of education in providing high-quality public education for all Connecticut children through effective leadership."

Their Vision is a lot of buzzwords, that say nothing, “CABE is passionate about strengthening public education through high-performing, transformative local school board/superintendent leadership teams that inspire success for each child.”

Further they state…“CABE represents nearly all boards of education across Connecticut. School boards are comprised of citizens, elected or appointed, who work with their superintendents to provide the best education possible in their communities.”

At the Board of Education meeting last week, there was discussion about when the members were going to be doing their CABE training. It was difficult to follow, something about annual training and…they seemed none too happy about it, nor about trying to find a day of the week that worked for all of them. But that’s not my point.

The first person I spoke with at CABE, after listening to my question, wondering if they might have an idea as to how many municipalities are using Shipman & Goodwin or another law firm to write their revised policy handbook, told me that since I am not a member of a Board of Education they could not give me any information. About my question? About anything? They just keep repeating they couldn’t tell me anything. An organization, a non-profit, who essentially does training for almost every school district in the state, will not give any information about anything to a citizen.

Why are private organizations running our public governments? Again. More. Locally now.

So after some grousing they passed me along to a second person who was even more avoidant as the first. I finally asked a direct question about the policy audits that they do - for on their website (https://www.cabe.org/services/policy-services) it states that part of their policy services “Assures your policies are valid under Connecticut law.”

I asked if they also reviewed things to be compliant under Federal law (see the previous writing about the policy-to-be-adopted about sit-ins and walk-outs) and I was just told over and over that I really needed to ask my local Board if the policy was compliant.

The what?

Hello, Brookfield Board of Education, do you think your policy is compliant? Oh, do you get to decide if what you want is compliant and allow no say otherwise? Kind of feels like another part of the policy update in which students wanting to appeal suspensions or expulsions are in kangaroo courts presided over by the people who want them suspended or expelled.

I mean, we know that habeas corpus being undermined is all the rage these days but…but I digress. That is another article for another time.

Finally after repeatedly asking, they confirmed for me that a CABE policy review does also review whether the policies are legal under Federal law - a.k.a the Constitution. Mostly, I think they just wanted to get me off of the phone. But here we are - a law firm is hired to write a policy, a private non-profit gets paid to review it, a member of said law firm gets to decide what education bills get voted on in the general assembly…

Generally, what is being assembled, is a lot of policy that I don’t think most parents would agree to for our students.

I guess an organization that hides behind a veil of silence isn’t going to do much other than to teach other organizations that silence is the way to preside. I suppose if I want to learn more about CABE and their influence on our schools, I’ll need to get on the Board.

The thing is, filing a FOIA is a simple piece of paperwork, but it feels like I’m bothering the people in government. Asking them to find all of the papers related to a certain topic, then they have to go through and redact anything that might be private, and then…

…and then I remember that all I am doing is asking for that which we, as citizens, have a right to see…

…and then I remember that a fear of asking is exactly how people take advantage of people pleasers in the first place…

…and then I remember that not asking is exactly what systems want - to be left alone to do their needs and deeds under the shroud of silence in the shadows cast by the institutions that exist not to help but to simply propagate the lifecycles of said institutions…

…and then I remember that I have to trust that when the FOIA is fulfilled, that what I’m given is actually everything. But how, since it isn’t available for me to go through their files, do we know that they really gave us everything?

…and then I remember, the fact is, we don’t.

Fact is, if they wanted it available in the first place, we wouldn’t have to ask.

Fact is, if I ask enough times, every month, for that correspondence through a FOIA, would they eventually just add it to the minutes for everybody to see?

Fact is, they should. Fact is, is this a big issue in the mountains of beans - no - but it is symbolic of something greater…

Because wouldn’t that be the easiest and most direct response and a way of showing a willingness to actually be open?

Or, would it be even more telling if month after month, FOIA after FOIA is sent for those letters, and they just refuse to do the right thing.

From the Brookfield town website (https://www.brookfieldct.gov/home/webforms/foi-request):

“The Town will acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information request within four (4) business days. Likewise, pursuant to Connecticut General Statute Section 1-206 et seq., any denial of the right to inspect or copy records that are deemed exempt under Connecticut General Statute Section 1-210 will be made in writing to you within four (4) business days. The Town will promptly gather all responsive documents to your request and the town will notify you when our search has been completed.”

I guess we’ll wait and see.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

Moorash Unaffiliated
For Board of Education
Vote Row C on Election Day

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