Cindy and Judy,

This kind of back-and-forth is of no use to anyone.  The bottom line is that back in August, no one was sure they were going to the MASB Convention, so no one committed to being the school system's authorized delegate.  The issue was never agenda' d up as a result, which is really no one's fault.  Had I remembered that it took a formal board resolution when I was able to rework my schedule a few weeks ago to be able to attend, I would have brought it up sooner.  Under Policy 166, I should have advised Dr. Niehaus to add it to the agenda yesterday, which didn't happen.

As I stated in my prior emails to you all, this situation is not worth the angst and discord that I am reading in the emails going back and forth.  All I was trying to communicate is that if we as a board wanted to have a voting delegate at the assembly, I was planning on attending anyway as an observer and would be happy to represent the board in voting on the issues being presented as outlined in the attached Delegate Assembly Handbook. 

Not having a properly authorized delegate at the meeting doesn't prevent us all from reading the attached manual and learning what other districts feel is important enough that they have sponsored resolutions for the MASB board to adopt.  As I stated in my previous emails and above, I am attending the assembly is any regards as a guest observer.  Any of you who would like to contact me directly after the meeting next weekend to find out the outcomes of any of the resolutions are welcome to do so.

Next year, we can plan better and have a voted delegate to the assembly.  Personally, it is much more important to me as a board member and as a resident that we finally have board members taking the time out of their busy schedules to seek out a formal education in school system governance by attending the meeting than it is that we have someone casting a vote on Thursday night at the assembly.

If anything has become clear to me from emails that have been flying back and forth on this issue it is that we need to go back to having an annual planning calendar and blocking out repetitive events when we start the year.  It worked very well when the board did it in the past and served as a great way to level the load at each board meeting and to give all of us a glimpse forward for the entire year of the required housekeeping/repetitive issues that need to be addressed and at which meeting they will be addressed.

Bottom line--let's move past this issue.  In the whole scheme of things, we have far more important issues to address at this point in time and the benefit of having the majority of the board seeking education in school governance by attending the conference is far, far more important (to me, at least) than if we are going to vote on the resolutions in the attached handbook.  The fact that I am not going to be the only person from our board attending these meetings as I was in the past is awesome!

Lastly, there are some great MASB classes coming to Waterford hosted by the Oakland ISD in early December.  If you are working towards your CBA certificate or if you are looking for classes in a certain area of school governance, it is a great opportunity close to home.  Information on the December MASB classes is on Page 32 of the attached Board Member Class Handbook.

Best wishes to all,

Ahmed