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From: Judy Gafa [mailto:gafaj@gpschools.com]
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2015 3:38 PM
To: ahmed@portraitplacegpw.com
Cc: Fenton, Christian; Summerfield, Brian (GPPSS); Roeske, Daniel (GPPSS); Valente, Lois (GPPSS); Pangborn, Cindy; Dean, Jon
Subject: Re: McMullen/Weertz Interest is Posting Qualifying Board Emails Retroactive to January 1, 2015

Fellow Trustees

I am respectfully requesting at this time no other board member forward their opinion to the entire board.  I will place it on a May agenda

Respectfully

Judy Gafa

On Saturday, April 11, 2015, Ahmed Ismail <ahmed@portraitplacegpw.com> wrote:

Mrs. Gafa et al,

First, to be clear, this is an informational email, and in no way a mass
solicitation or an attempt to mass deliberate the issue initially suggested
by Mr. George McMullen in his email (April 11, 2015 11:25:48 AM) and
supported by Mrs. Weertz in her email addressed to schoolboard@gpschools.org
(April 11, 2015 2:21:39 PM ) of going back in time and posting all of the
emails since the first of the year that meet the threshold set by the
recently voted on policy of posting emails wherein a board member has
emailed three or more other board members.

Three thoughts I hope the sponsors (if any) of a resolution along these
lines consider are:
1.      all of the emails that would fall under this retroactive posting
concept are not available to Mr. Fenton for review for potential posting;
2.      consider the cost of doing this and the burden it will put on an
already overworked Mr. Fenton and Mrs. Kilimas; and
3.      if this it to be a reality, in order that it dovetail with all of
our other 2014-15 school business and school records, please seriously
consider using July 1, 2014 as your retroactive date.

Again, I am specifically requesting that no one respond with their thoughts
to the above so as to in any way create the perception of  a "round robin"
discussion as referenced in MCL 15.263.

Thank you and best wishes to all,

Ahmed Ismail

P.S.  I received your response to Mrs. Weertz twice, as you "cc'd" board
members individually as well as "cc ing" schoolboard@gpschools.org, which
autoforwards the email to all board members as well as Mr. Fenton, Dr. Dean
and Mrs. Fannon.  Just thought you'd want to know.

Notice to Original and/or Secondary Recipient(s) of this Email:
The opinions expressed in the email above and its attachment(s) if any are
those of the author exclusively and are
not necessarily shared by the other members of any public or private boards
and/or their respective organizations on which the author serves.
This email is in no way an attempt to establish any kind of "round robin"
communication with other members of
any aforementioned organization(s) which may be subject to the requirements
of The Open Meetings Act.
Please proceed accordingly if you feel a response is warranted.


-----Original Message-----
From: School Board [mailto:SchoolBoard@gpschools.org]
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2015 2:25 PM
To: Harwood, Thomas; Fenton, Christian; Dean, Jon; Fannon, Rebecca;
cindypangborn@gmail.com; Lois Valente (valentl@gpschools.com); 'Daniel
Roeske' (roesked@gpschools.com) (roesked@gpschools.com);
summerb@gpschools.com; Ahmed Ismail (ahmed.ismail@comcast.net);
weertzm@aol.com
Subject: FW: FW: E-Mail Postings/Resolution


________________________________
From: Judy Gafa
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2015 2:23:31 PM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US &
Canada)
To: Margaret Weertz
Cc: School Board; Harwood, Thomas; Fenton, Christian; Dean, Jon; Fannon,
Rebecca; cindypangborn@gmail.com; Lois Valente (valentl@gpschools.com);
'Daniel Roeske' (roesked@gpschools.com) (roesked@gpschools.com);
summerb@gpschools.com; Ahmed Ismail (ahmed.ismail@comcast.net)
Subject: Re: FW: E-Mail Postings/Resolution

Mrs Weertz
Yes it would need to come in the form of a resolution and be a part of a
future agenda action item.
Respectfully
Judy Gafa

On Saturday, April 11, 2015, Margaret Weertz
<weertzm@aol.com<mailto:weertzm@aol.com>> wrote:
Ms. Gafa,
I am ok with Mr. McMullen's request to make public all emails since January
because, in essence, this was the start of our term. Should this be an
official vote of the board though?
Margaret

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 11, 2015, at 5:26 PM, School Board <SchoolBoard@gpschools.org>
wrote:
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: George McMullen
> Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2015 11:25:48 AM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time
> (US & Canada)
> To: School Board
> Subject: E-Mail Postings/Resolution
>
> Dear Grosse Pointe Public School System School Board
>
> Hope all is well and so far the Superintendent search at least from
> this residents point of view gets an A+
>
> But I digress from the reason for my note
>
> I wanted to write about the resolution passed  by a 6-0 vote at the
> March 13th school board meeting about posting e-mails that are sent to
> more than 3 board members by a board member on the GP School districts
> web site (see attachments above)
>
> Attending the meeting I quite frankly was a little skeptical about the
> resolution. I liked the concept but there seemed to be an issue for
> administration (adding more work when technically we are supposed to
> be educating students) and how many would be posted would it be of
> benefit to the community was it worth the effort etc etc
>
> But as I review the e-mails and there is now some history to go by
(although not a lot of time has passed ) I believe it's a wonderful policy.
As Trustee Summerfield stated and I paraphrase "it's not going to be a
million e-mails" and thus far it hasn't been. I review them constantly and
from what I have heard in the community it appears that they are being
reviewed and the policy is well received.
>
> Also I attended the policy committee meeting recently and there were
> many positive discussions on the issue..so it appears it's here to
> stay
>
> It has had the unintended benefit for me of the feeling of being closer to
the board and more involved in the process. Further it's has added to the
overall discussion of various issues and allows me more information to
prepare more for meetings and have a more focused public comment based on
better information.
>
> I believe it also makes our system the leaders in transparency above
> and beyond many districts in the state and perhaps Nation
>
> In short I love it
>
> My request and not now but perhaps when the budget is complete and the
> new Superintendent is seated that the board expand the policy and make
> it the postings of e-mails retroactive to the beginning of the current
> board to January 1st 2015
>
> Also I'm very sensitive to adding additional work for administration
> so I hope that is a consideration.and I have not heard any feedback
> from administration on this additional task assigned to them..I'll
> leave that to you to determine
>
> I believe it would be wonderful for the community and for the board to set
a tone the is beyond the transparency expected and dictated by the state.
>
> If I may be of help in this request please do not hesitate to contact
> me on this issue I will be following up after the current priorities
> are set and completed
>
> Yours in service
>
> Geo
>
> George  R. McMullen Jr.
> 1382 Hollywood Ave.
> Grosse Pointe Woods, MI
> 48236
>
> Phone: (313) 886-9959
> Cell: (313) 549-6363
> E-mail: george@grmcmullen.net<mailto:george@grmcmullen.net>
>
> <GP School board agenda 3.16 .2015.pdf> <GP School board Resolution
> 3.16.2015 .pdf>