sheila warren
9/17/14
To: Christina Albo, beam.consulting@gmail.com, vbanuelo@pps.net Cc: simplysheilas@msn.com, linea king, dawnneshal@gmail.com, Tobin, stephanie hunter, tamtarv7@gmail.com, goodlittlebird@hotmail.com, etta harris, mary.williams@portlandoregon.gov
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Thank you all again for stepping up as a team to encourage accountability to Carol Smith since she agreed to
show up at the Recommendations Committee gatherings.
Yesterday an the day before
Our pushback was successful. Those from PPS did go back and tell Carol and Lolenzo that
we are unhappy they didn't show.
Lolenzo called and said he is representing Carol and apologized for not letting us know he
had a family emergency. I reminded him that he and Carol both committed to showing up. Of course there are exceptions because folks are busy and yes we have our families and they do come first. Saying that, I reminded him that he has been respectful in letting us know if he can't be somewhere. He happened to be in family crises this time. I also mentioned that it is important for Carol to be there for families to hear her commitments face to face. Showing up for families shows that she cares. No one can represent that!
We cannot allow anyone to say they represent Carol unless there is some kind of agreement with Carol that this can happen.
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Carol needs to be at the table and if she can't sometimes a rep. from her office, her chief of staff. Lolenzo is the equity and community partnership person. Both need to be there and/or each of their representatives as we said - sometimes. Both offices need to be represented at the table at all times.
Lolenzo reiterated that whatever PPU needs he will support. He says he is committed as well as Carol and they want us to take the lead. We want to hear that directly from Carol..
We talked about the sensitivity around Carol talking about the 50% initiative and not mentioning the MRC collaboration. Lolenzo explained that they did not mention MRC intentionally so not to undermined PPU's work? I explained that not mentioning it looked like two separate approaches and by not mentioning MRC did exactly what they claimed they did not want to happen... From the first meeting when 50% was first introduced, PPU was under the impression that the 50% would be put on the MRC table as one of the considerations when coming up with the Moratorium Initiative. As some of you remember PPU did not sign on to the 50%. Thank you Veronica
for taking the initiative to contact Carol right away.
Up date: today
I talked with Carol, she called me. She claims she is committed to showing up to this work. She will try to show as much as she can but will send a team in her place as well as Lolenzo and/ or his assistant. They recommitted themselves and agreed that the 50% should be rolled into the moratorium. I have her and Lolenzo's personal Cell...
We're moving on.. She admits that our reminder messages was not getting to her ? and she was unaware that she was supposed to be there. Even though I met with her and Lolenzo early on and both said they are committed to coming. We will keep the meeting on Second Wednesday during the week of action.
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It will be a great time to reflect on When, Where and Why /Solutions not Suspensions/ and the Model Code. The Committee management team will get hold of everyone to coordinate this. The facilitators will lead us.
Forever Grateful
Sheila Warren Director/Founder
Portland Parent Union
503-880-9145 Cell
503-287-3768 PPU Phone
ppuportlandparentunion@gmail.com
"Parents have become so convinced that educators know what is best for their children that they forget that they themselves are really the experts."​​
​Marian Wright Edelman