Here is a copy of the letter I sent to the Nashua Board of Education, and posted as a comment to the Nashua Telegraph article about our Open Letter of Support for the Nashua Teachers Union. The article: Wednesday, March 12, 2014: Nashua school board members apologize for drafting letter that flouted “spirit and purpose” of Right-to-Know Law (nashuatelegraph/news/1031145-469/story.html) Dear fellow members of the Nashua Board of Education: I cannot be with you this evening, as I was called away Friday on urgent business to Chicago for this entire week. I know the topic of the Open Letter supporting the Nashua Teachers Union will come up at some point today, and I ask our Board Clerk, Kim Muise, to read this at the appropriate time. First, I feel I owe an apology to several Board members, who expressed disappointment at the process I followed. I am sorry if you were disappointed. It was never my intent that the Open Letter would be mistaken as representing a Nashua Board of Education. voted resolution. It was clearly stated in the opening paragraph, that this was a letter signed by individuals. As for transparency, I felt nothing could be more transparent, than an open letter. I drafted the entire letter on my own. A small number of people (below quorum) had learned I was going to write this open letter, and offered to be co-signers. I shared the draft letter with them, blind-copying them on my draft. Since I wanted to be fair, I distributed a copy of the original NTU letter (and not the draft of my open letter) to other current and former members of the Board asking if they would like to be added to the list of co-signers. At the end, the number of people who agreed to sign the letter reached six current members, and one former member. I distributed a final draft with seven signatures on it. This was the final opportunity for signers to review their signatures, correct spelling errors, and make other minor edits. The letter was then sent out - in its final form - as an open letter, on February 27. Some members tell me they were disappointed because they did not witness the entire drafting process. I could not do this, without exceeding the quorum of four members. Some signers did not understand what an open letter was, or realize that only some members of the Board saw the draft letter. Again, I apologize for any misunderstanding or disappointment. It was not my intent violate our transparency rules. However, if this is the case, then the fault is entirely mine, and not that of any of the letters co-signers. I did not believe this Open Letter should have been on the Board agenda at this time. We have so many things we are dealing with, including budget deliberations, the selection of a new principal, and other issues. I did not feel that more contentious debate on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, the opposition to the SBA by AFT-NH, or the NTU, should distract the Board while we were deliberating other important matters. Yet, the courageous letters written by Principal Nelson, and later by the NTU, caused substantial pubic criticism of their position by proponents of the Smarter Balanced Assessment. This included criticism from our own Superintendent, writing as an individual, in the email used to distribute the NTU letter to our Board. Much of the criticism came from SBA proponents from outside of Nashua. I am happy the signers showed solidarity with our teachers and parents concerned about administration of the SBA next year to our children. I apologize once again to members of our Board if they felt disappointed by my process. Please understand I did not set out to circumvent transparency in any way. This was meant to be, and is, a letter signed by individuals. It is NOT meant to be a policy statement by this Board. That may be the subject of a future motion. Instead, it was meant to reassure our teachers and parents that we have listened to their concerns, understood the issues, and stand with them. Thank you. David Murotake OCDS Ph.D. March 10, 2014
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 08:05:33 +0000
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