Strategic Plan Engagement Protocol

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October 2, 8:01 AM

by Charlie Mas, Seattle Public Schools Examiner

 

Two significant facts about these Draft Enagagement Protocols leap out at me.

1. Although the Protocols identify five types of engagement - Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate, and Empower - all of the steps they promised to take only apply to the lowest form of engagement: inform. Where are the steps they guarantee to take to consult, involve, collaborate and empower? Nowhere. If all they are going to do is inform, then I don't think this rises to anyone's understanding of "engagement".

2. Although the District "guarantees" this minimum level of engagement, they are not meeting that minimum standard right now. How, exactly, do we collect on this guarantee? For example, the District commits to web site postings including:

An overview of the project, including milestones

a fact sheet with answers to frequently asked questions

a timeline that clearly shows steps in the decision-making process

a staff contact for questions or comments

background information that is updated throughout the process

information about public meetings

Yet, if you check the District's Strategic Plan web pages, and the page on plan updates and implementation, you won't find any of this information there.

Just who do they think they are fooling? For one thing, they are fooling the Board. When this engagement protocol was presented to the Board last night (at their regular legislative meeting of 10/1/08), not one Board member asked about any plans for engagement beyond simply informing the public (although Director Martin-Morris came close to it), and not one Board member asked the Superintendent if she was currently meeting the minimum expectations set out in this document.

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