DPCC in Meltdown Mode As Leadership is Questioned by Unpopular and Uncool Non Male Members

angst

äNG(k)st/

noun

1. a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, typically an unfocused one about the human condition or the state of the world in general.

   "adolescent angst"

   synonyms:

   anxiety, fear, apprehension, worry, foreboding, trepidation, malaise,disquiet, disquietude, unease, uneasiness "business leaders expressed their angst over war and recession"

   • informal

     a feeling of persistent worry about something trivial.

     "my hair causes me angst"

Who was it said "A house divided against itself cannot stand?" Oh yeah it was that ugly dude with the beard and the stovepipe hat whose mug appears on the Five and the penny. I won't even bother with the manifest substrata of ironies involved in referencing this quote in a discussion of the Buffalo DPCC's current state of dissolution. But the Lincolnism sure seems to fit like that shoe in that other proverb so I think for now we'll just wear it. House DPCC is divided. Like never before.

Yes folks as much as it must pain the Buffalo News to report it, there appears to be trouble brewing in DPCC City. That's Trouble with a Capital T and that Rhymes with C and that stands for Cuomo! Yes friends the men behind the mask over at District Parents for Corporate Control are suddenly, uncharacteristically meeting with resistance from other members of their exclusive club. If you've ever talked to any of many disillusioned parents who tried to join this club and left feeling unwelcomed and unwanted you already know that resisting the will of The Men is futile. It is their club and they will have their way. Having their way lately has involved rallying behind Andrew Cuomo's anti teacher pogroms that call for more emphasis on standardized testing and an almost complete removal of any local input on teacher evaluations.  The remaining 15% percent not ascribed to test scores and an "outside expert observer" is paltry enough that even if your Principal says your maybe the next Piaget it won't be enough to save your job. Which is exactly the way Sheriff Andrew wants it. Sheriff Andy has also tied lemming like compliance to anything he says to receiving funding for your local budget. Sam and Bryon think this is great and it's all about quality education nothing else.

The men in charge over at DPCC, Sam Radford III and Bryon McIntyre want to slap the Governor with a congratulatory high five and go on record as being in his corner in this war against teachers and their unions. If you are a teacher in Buffalo or an employee of the district Sam and Bryon will not let you join their club by the way. According to them the teachers already have a union so they are not welcome in DPCC. The fact that about 90% of Sam's Club members are employed as Parent Facilitators in Buffalo Schools strikes nobody at DPCC as contradictory to their own policy. I mean it's their policy right? And they will do with it as they damn well please. And if you don't like it well that's just too damned bad...  Ahh but I digress...

Apparently some woman or maybe more than one - who do they think they are anyway? -- objected to Bryon's call for a vote to support Cuomo's ed reforms. A furious debate erupted when McIntyre attempted to end discussion and push for a vote in support of Cuomo.

-- hmmm, where have we seen this dynamic before? close down debate and rush to vote on something people aren't through discussing yet? Did DPCC borrow James Sampson's playbook for the night? --

The real kicker came later on when the parent in question went to review the videotape of the meeting that the district pays a company $13,000 annually to record. In true Rosemary Woods fashion the dustup had been excised from the tape.

Mine Dosluoglu, a City Honors DPCC representative, said her comments from the Feb. 3 meeting and the entire argument with Vice President Bryon McIntyre – who took over temporarily when Radford left – were deleted from both the videotape and the minutes. “In the actual minutes, the stuff I said is not there. Fifteen minutes of a conversation is not there,” she said. Melanie Matteson, Olmsted DPCC representative, said she didn’t even know the fiery portion of the meeting had been edited out until others informed her at a subsequent meeting of the Buffalo PTO. “Then I went back to the website and watched it, the entire thing ... I knew the moments I spoke. I wanted to see if they cut me out,” Matteson said, adding that she was not “completely shocked” about the omissions. “I was not surprised at all they would try to change their public image,” she said of DPCC officials.

What? A heated exchange that could frame one of the DPCC's main men in an unflattering, possibly dictatorial, power crazed light had been edited out of the tape? Say it aint so Bryon. Well Bryon's not saying much but Brother Sam as he tweets himself assures us this is nothing unusual and every tape is edited. Mmmmm yeauuuh. Sure they are. If the minds behind DPCC were looking to influence their public image I think they've succeeded. While I doubt they were looking to create a cloud of suspicion over themselves and their group this is exactly the result of their dubious editing job. It must be a bad week to be a Buffalo News editorial writer. With the DPCC coming apart at the seams and Old Bob Bennett out on his briefcase from the Board of Regents I imagine you can cut the angst with a bandsaw in the editorial bunker. Add to that the possible threat of Ken Ton Schools telling Cuomo and NYSED to kiss their royal arse at this week's Board Meeting, cancelling The April Fool's testing completely, it would appear that the 4 horses of the Ed Reform Apocalypse are nearly shod and ready to gallop with abandon through the streets of B-Lo. Anyone hear anything about Accountability Jim Sampson these days? I think I heard somewhere his name is coming up again and it's not for a Community Service Award either. Stay Tuned...