Yes, in fact...thanks to you.

Mark, your original post (April 7th) about the "secret" selection process got me interested. Then, when the governor convinced the board to announce 3 finalists, I waas grateful, and did a little research.

I posted numerous news clippings from Scottsdale and St. Charles about Barbara Erwin on my blog, Kentucky School News and Commentary. (I also posted information on the other 2 finalists as well.)

But I also shared that information with the state board, before they met!

So when Travis said he was unaware, I got suspicious.

To make sure the information was received, I wrote to Lisa Gross, who is in charge of communications for KDE.

I asked, "Did your office assure that all comments received from the public, before the state board met to select the new commissioner, actually made it into the hands of the members?"

She assured me that she, personally, opened every message, "copied the content and pasted it verbatim" into a document. She then "summarized the comments by breaking them out into themes...which they all read and discussed."

The sum of all information shows cause for concern in areas related to openness with the press and an overall tendency toward combativeness.

Let's give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was on the "right side" of every issue. But how can we tell if she won't talk about it?

So what does it mean when the state board of education meets, selects their finalist and then chooses to defer action until early May? Is this a period of public discussion - so that the board may confirm, or change its mind - depending on the public input or new information brought to light? Or is the decision made - and the state just needs a couple of weeks to work out the details - in which case, we can all just stay quiet, because it's a done deal?

This was a lousy process. Our children (and Kentucky's future economy) deserved better.

So I started wondering...Did Governor Fletcher just get publicly disrespected by the state board - after agreeing to more openness, clearly circumventing the governor's intent and quickly returning to their original plan to name one finalist?

Here's one of my favorite quotes: The Arizona Republic talked about Erwin's successor in January 2006, saying “To appreciate how far Scottsdale Unified School District has come with Superintendent John Baracy, you've got to remember how bad things were when he got here. After years of infighting and political maneuvering, School Board meetings had devolved into shouting matches. The board president had filed a lawsuit against three of her colleagues and Barbara Erwin, the outgoing superintendent. Not to mention that 571 students -- 2 percent of the district's enrollment -- had jumped ship that year, taking $2.4 million in state funds with them. Eighteen months later, the petty squabbles have vanished. There's civility among board members, and employees now smile on a regular basis. Everyone involved in the district has learned, as Baracy says, "to agree to disagree without being disagreeable." Barcy also reduced payments to legal firms from $650,000 annually down to $200,000.

Peace people

We love you

Mr. Hebert,

Thanks for making your analysis of the Erwin situation available.

This is a very serious matter at this juncture in our States's history.

What can we citizens do to reverse this course of action?

This almost an unbelieveable outcome!
Of course, many citizens are not following as they are numb from what has happened both locally and nationally for the past 10 years!

Proctor S. Burress
859 254 4528
B.A., M.A., University of Kentucky