The Radical Center

Listening to State of the Reunion just yesterday, I heard a story of cattle ranchers and environmentalists that were able to recognize mutual interest and act on it productively. These traditional enemies found that they are both interested in insuring the borderlands are both a productive resource and a preserve of nature. Turns out that the ranchers helping nature helps the ranchers and their cattle.

A key turn of phrase caught my ear: the radical center. It was described as the place that the Malpai Borderlands Group wanted to occupy, between the "pointy toed boots" and the "birkenstocks". The traditional positions of one or the other only saw victory in either unfettered grazing or pristine preservation. Everyone lined up on one side or the other. Turns out pulling together from the center was a radical approach, and produced novel and useful solutions.

I don't have to spell out that we're a highly polarized community of parents. How can we approach the center and pull together to bring in the fringe towards our common cause? How can we re-center on education instead of resource competition?

How did it all start for you?

I work developing software systems, more specifically I assess the level of quality of those systems. I've worked on any number of complex systems that all love to go wrong in interesting ways, some subtle and some glaring. The best possible outcome is that bugs or operational weaknesses are flushed out in the development and testing environments, but it's impractical to catch 100% of all possible problems there. After a production failure, I look at what the problem was, how it was detected in production and how we can prevent similar problems in the future by detecting them before they're in front of customers. This kind of root cause analysis is common across many engineering disciplines.

We've had recurring themes since the initial bond measure that passed and was followed by the closing of the Bullis Purissima campus which was followed by the formation of the charter school which was followed by everything else. However, I don't have a clear picture of root causes.

I'd like to try an exercise here. Every one of us has our own perspective on who was wronged by who and when, and what responses resulted. I'd like to crowdsource a catalog of all the offenses and construct a timeline that we might be able to use for a root cause analysis of just where this whole process went sideways.

My hope is that once we know how we got here, it might illuminate a path for getting to a more amiable place. If you want to contribute in the comments, feel free. If you want to contribute semi-anonymously, send me email at rob(dot)fagen(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll add your data to the thread.

Field of Dreams

I've heard something puzzling in conversations with other area parents. Specifically, the BCS kids attending at the Bullis Center for Innovation hosted at Blach have been restricted to a small patch of blacktop for recess. Apparently this is due to the terms of the facilities use agreement.

What's puzzling to me is why the terms are being enforced in such a draconian manner when I've also heard that nearby fields don't have any scheduled or unscheduled Blach Middle School student usage at the same time. I seem to recall that there was a reasonable sharing agreement in place between the principals, what happened to it?

I suppose there may be the usual safety concerns for age-appropriate spaces in play here. Even so, I'm having a hard time understanding exactly how a flat, grass covered space poses a hazard to schoolchildren of any age. Another really puzzling thing that I have heard is a report of adult members of the general public walking around the track during school hours.

If we're going to be draconian, shouldn't we be draconian in an even-handed manner? I'm more concerned about safety risks due to unknown adults wandering around on campus during school hours than I am of an elementary school child getting grass stains on their pants.

Ugh, really? Another blog?

Yes, really.

So much of what happens at Bullis Charter School is driven by parents, that there's value in gathering and sharing first-hand parental perspectives on being part of the BCS community. In the same way, so much of what happens at the Los Altos School District managed schools is also driven by parents, that there may be more common ground than we think.

I've been part of the BCS community for eight years (my 7th grader started here in Kindergarten). I'll be a part of the BCS community for another eight years (my youngest just started Kindergarten). I've been getting more involved over the last year or two in the discussions about facilities, and I've been doing what I can to move the conversation towards civility, objective fairness and (most importantly) a spirit of cooperation between the BCS and LASD boards in solving a mutual challenge. A mutual challenge that will require cooperation and mutual sacrifice at some level to solve.

My hope is that I can share my thoughts, desires and suggestions here alongside of other parents whose children also depend on the LASD Board of Trustees for facilities. My hope is that we can see each other as being more like ourselves, understand each other's challenges and work together towards a better way to share our extensive, but ultimately limited, resources. My hope is we can work together to continue providing the best possible education for all of our children.