I am looking forward to these public meetings. I hope they are well attended. Two of the dates happen to be during Winter Break; hopefully that won't hurt impact attendance very much.

Does anyone know if any of the meetings will be recorded and posted to YouTube or the like, for viewing by people who aren't able to make any of the meeting times? Or for people who don't find out about the meetings until after they've happened?

MVWSD Trustee Chiang has offered to video one of these (Graham) but we may have it more done (hopefully by at least semi-pros, for the audio is especially had to get right). Note - Nick is correct that I think the process is a bit short. During the school Board meeting I whole heartedly supported the Public Comments of Jim Pollart, a man with 25 years experience in public project meetings. If you ask for the recordings of the last Bd. meeting, you will hear that Mr. Pollart asked for 10 meetings with half at completely different times (of day and of-the-week). We will see how this much shortened version goes! Wish us luck!

The school board trustees will discuss tonight whether to have a video stream of their meetings for people who can't attend in person.

I'd like to see the MVWSD ask for teacher input before they remodel the facilities.

A while back, after thousands of dollars had been paid to architects and other consultants, I asked my child's Science teacher what s/he said when the district asked for teacher input on the facilities plan. The teacher had no idea whatsoever what I was talking about and had never heard of the Student Facilities Plan or the bond measure.

Maybe the people who work inside these buildings all day long should have some say. Would you want someone who comes to visit a couple times a year to be in charge of remodeling your house?

Allison and Waverly Park reader, the Board did have a discussion on video of our regular meetings. The KMVT Executive Director kindly came and gave public comment and a two page summary of possibilities they could support. No decisions (on regular meetings) were made. Please email trustee@mvwsd.org if you have comments on this topic. You may also ask the MVWSD or KMVT for copies of their suggested options.
The first (Feb 12) public meetings will be used as test cases. District will video and later uplink (to UTUBE) the Crittenden 90 minutes. I understand Trustee Chiang is going to try to do a live webcast, through Google +, from Graham.
There will be later Board discussion on how this went and if staff will be directed to "make it so" (hey that's my era). :)

Teachers are being consulted much more throughly this time around. Myself and Trustee Chiang made this a part of our campaigns. The teachers union president is actively looking out after their interests. We (all) will have a chance to publicly review this at the Feb 28 Board meeting starting at 7 PM.

As much as I am in agreement that there should be community input - after all, the community has to look at the facilities every day; I work here! I want, need, to make sure that the money is spent making the environment for both students and teachers workable. The last time the district did a remodel one of the schools ended up with chalkboards and not enough space to display student work and charts unless you were willing to climb on a very tall ladder. Yes, we want to make sure that the facility is safe and that included in the plans are well placed outlets and a place for projectors and document readers to be mounted so that they don't take a chunk of much needed space out of the middle of a small classroom. We want enough space so that in a classroom of 30+ students they don't have to sit so close to each other that there is no room to move and do group activities and experiments. I work here! Please allow my input and that of fellow district teachers to have more weight than that of the community. Aesthetics is great, but the education that goes on within the facilities should rank much higher. It can't if the teachers voices are outweighed by that of the community. In a teachers world, the child comes first; their education and well being are top priority. I don't design your workspace, please don't try to design mine!