Thursday, September 13, 2007

The Return of Liz Brown

Liz Brown made one of her rare appearances at an Orange County Board of Education event earlier this evening. Her presence alone is so rare an event that it warrants comment, but in classic Liz Brown style, she succeeded in being divisive by just being herself.

The occasion Liz chose to grace with her "moraler-than-thou" presence was the Board's last scheduled "community listening session" on the merger of Central and Hillsborough Elementary Schools.

During last Thursday's "listening session" at CES, I wondered why Liz chose not to attend after reappearing from a nearly three-month hiatus from her Board responsibilities. I guess I now understand.

At CES, her message might have yielded something more than the stunned silence she received this evening at HES. She publicly confirmed what I have been saying for 6 months - the academic performance of children at CES (and presumably at HES) "doesn't matter at all" to her.

In her eyes, the Orange County Board of Education is simply a tool to impose her "deep inside" moral views on the parents, children and citizens of Orange County - whether they agree with them or not also "doesn't matter at all."

Thankfully, the parents of Orange County aren't stupid and, as one CES parent noticed, she was creating a racial issue where none existed.

Don't just believe me. Watch her yourself.



Liz, maybe you should have taken tonight off too.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The video captured the truth about our board! Does the entire board feel that segregation is the issue? Does this explain why Efland Cheeks continues to be ignored? I thought we elected these people to ensure the academic success of our students. CES is on a successful course, HES is successful, EC NEEDS HELP! So why is the board focused on disrupting the success and ignoring EC?

WHEN IS OUR (ECES) LISTENING SESSION?

THE BOARD NEEDS TO LISTEN TO US AND FOCUS ON US -- WE'RE IN REAL TROUBLE, HES and CES ARE NOT!

Anonymous said...

This is perfect proof that the Board was trying to eliminate HES. Dennis was made a comment about "Save HES" mentality last night, believing we were overreacting. New flash Dennis--Liz HATES HES. She's made the comments at the meetings she's willing to attend about closing HES. That's why this site is up and why we are going to call it like we see it.

I wish that all of our Board members could talk. The only one's I heard from were Al, Dennis, Ted, and Liz, with Debbie speaking up 2-3 times. I want to hear what Susan and Anne are thinking right now. Please speak up because we will listen.

Anonymous said...

In a nutshell:
-Liz's comments were illegal in light of the US Supreme Court's ruling that race may not be a factor when districting schools. Orange Co. is no exception to this ruling. Liz needs to be very careful when speaking re: race. Her comments were out of line and are very alarming.
-I finally understand why CES parents are so upset. The board is pretty much saying you are poor and stupid and we're gonna fix this situation for you - b/c you don't know any better. Good God!!! I was mortified. CES is doing very well. It IS hard to teach the underprivileged, but they are not idiots. And I thought HES parents had a right to be angry.
-To the teacher from CES that said she felt fear - implying that HES parents were afraid of the poor children. Hello!! That was rude. We are all part of the same community. We play ball with these kids, dance together and go to church with these families. There is no fear, only frustration. The emotions are from the passion we feel about our respective calendars not fear from going to school together.
-If board members can not contribute in a helpful manner - they need to resign. Enough said.

Anonymous said...

The comments I find to be the most troubling is how many times Liz said "I don't know" or "I might be wrong". Where is the leadership? If she isn't certain of the outcome, why is she promoting the change (merger)? She comes across as just plain silly. Liz obviously knows what she believes, but she does not know what she is doing. I believe that makes her an ignorant crusader.

Woe to the children of Orange County.

Anonymous said...

Dennis was made a comment about "Save HES" mentality last night, believing we were overreacting.

Dennis Whitling is always critical of discussions he cannot control. There is nothing more he would love than to shut this site down (gavel it down).

Just ignore Dennis and keep posting. If he has noticed (and is afraid of) this website, then we have been successful. Dennis has a re-election to worry about.

Anonymous said...

Wow did one parent draw a fabulous parallel last night. She commented on the fact that the BOE is all white. Let's see. The board fills out the application to run, gets elected and then starts working. They have no control over who ELSE runs for school board. They are open to the idea of having diversity on the board. They don't even care if someone gets elected who doesn't have a lot of money. Nonetheless, they are up there all white looking elitist. Hmmmmmm.....sound familiar? HES parents fill out the application, get in and go to school. We have no control over who ELSE applies. We are happy to have diversity and we are happy to have FRL kids. Yet somehow we look bad. Very enlightening.

Anonymous said...

Liz Brown said last night that she was 'Open to any ideas'

How about resigning? She could even give her seat to a CES parent. I think that would best serve the community. CES could elect a representative from their parent population and just take that seat. Let's give this some serious thought.

Anonymous said...

Amen to that. Ms. Brown should give her seat up to a minority and go promote her political agenda elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

Don't you love all of the hand gestures Liz is using? Whenever she gets nervous and talks about something she's not familiar with (education, common sense), she tends to use a lot of hand gestures. Check out the video clip.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what the ACLU would think about Liz's comments. She obviously does not feel it is morally right the have a "minority majority".

The Board needs to apologize for Liz's racial tone at this meeting. This is not the type of talk that is acceptable. Maybe they should try to stick with educating our kids than to make some sort of statement.

Anonymous said...

This clip is wonderful. Maybe Liz will use it in her re-election bid in 2008. I'm sure the Efland Cheeks families will be glad to know that test scores are not anything to worry about.

Anonymous said...

Okay, there is no way Liz Brown will run for School Board again, right????

I will spend every waking moment making sure she doesn't get elected to ANYTHING should she decide to run - even Girl Scout Troop Leader. She is not fit to lead anyone, anywhere, anytime.