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August 11, 2008

Guest list clarification

Dr. Alonso's executive assistant sent out two e-mails to staff on Friday regarding tomorrow's back-to-school professional development day for administrators. The first, sent at 12:41 p.m., said this:

Principals, assistant principals and central office staff are invited to attend the CEO’s Leadership School Year 2008-2009 Launch at Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center at Morgan State University on Tuesday, August 12, 2008. 

At 12:57 p.m., she resent the message. It said:

Principals, assistant principals and central office leadership (directors) are invited and required to attend the CEO’s Leadership School Year 2008-2009 Launch at Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center at Morgan State University on Tuesday, August 12, 2008.

Not being a director at the central office, Jimmy Gittings took that as a snub that he and 80 percent of the rest of North Avenue were not invited to the event. I just checked with Dr. Alonso. He said everyone from the central office is invited, but principals, assistant principals and central office directors are required to attend.

Gittings also accused Alonso of writing some of the negative comments posted about him on this blog last week. I clarified that most of those commenting had submitted their e-mail addresses along with their posts.

Posted by Sara Neufeld at 1:10 PM | | Comments (4)
Categories: Baltimore City
        

Comments

Unfortunately, Alonso's admin frequently does this: sends an email that has errors, and then "recalls" it and reissues.

So Gittings felt snubbed because he cannot figure out what "invited and required" meant? If I, not someone who falls into any of the "invited and required" categories, had wanted to come I believe I could have walked right in. My memory of last years "event" was that the security was not checking names at the door - in fact there was no security at all. I don't think that this was an open invitation event for every person in Baltimore, but in reading the two emails it seems clear that the second one simply clarifies that the 3 groups mentioned are both invited AND required to attend.

Again, Gittings, get a grip on what's important. Maybe it seems to you that having everyone from central office out for most of a day, 2 weeks before the first day with students, is a great idea. I beg to differ. Frankly I think making all principals attend something when some of them have already begun professional development or have summer bridge programs running and most have work getting done in their buildings is bad enough. Actually, now that I think of it, maybe having Gittings at every event where AAA is speaking is a good idea - require him to come so that he cannot do more damage.

And as for AAA posting to the blog, does Gittings really think that Dr. Alonso has time to do that? I mean, and no disrespect to Sara, or the other posters here, but come on. And AAA says more by NOT saying things than most people (including me) do by going on and on.

VFST is correct in this. It happens quite often, but the flaw in the system is that the recalled message doesn't disappear until you've opened the recall notice. Since you (Sara) aren't on the BCPSS exchange server (that is, you don't have a BCPSS email address), you probably don't see the recall message at all.

What a difference a little proofreading would make! We ARE educators, after all.

great post

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