Thanks to trustees, except Caswell of course. Time to get real and focus on doing the right thing for students.

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Huzzah!

Another perceptive, helpful, right-on editorial.

It'll be a relief to see our district finally move beyond this matter.

Thank you to the new board.

Dear Editors:
You missed one. OCR settlement agreement. It may not have been a big deal to others, but it was the reason anyone who needed a 504 after us was actually able to get procedures instead of a runaround. Having to be the "fall guy" for that problem also did a lot of damage in our lives and to our child's ability to trust adults, and the person most responsible has never changed or apologized.

It was also a reason we were treated in an increasingly hostile and even retaliatory way by employees especially administrators and why we and esp our child felt unsafe at school, unable to really address the issues in the 504 and educational, and unable to remain in the district schools. We have never sued, never threatened to sue, yet have never been allowed much less welcomed to give the copious evidence of backbiting and retaliation, clear evidence of violation of the 504, and seriously unprofessional treatment. We have instead been treated to repeated and gross violations of records laws in our attempts to simply be sure there aren't old libels in our child's records to haunt in later life. We have a right to be given and to correct those, even if we continue to feel unwelcome and unsafe to ever return to PAUSD schools.

I think a certain person doesn't understand that we have clear evidence of staff plotting to hold the 504 meeting without us, trying to mislead us into signing our agreement, trying to re-evaluate the 504 to strip it when they thought the OCR wasn't looking (they didn't succeed, but the attempt is well documented), misrepresenting correspondence in ways that can be objectively disproven, deliberately mistreating our child, baiting us parents, etc, and thus that person has compounded the problems by violating all state and FERPA records law (probably thinking if they didn't provide records, they might thwart ever having to admit their misdeeds to themselves?) we have not pressed it, because when we did in the past, it triggered the escalating retaliations and backbiting.

It's all documented, by the way. Board knows who to reach out to. Just an apology and an attempt at truth an reconciliation, and recognizing what went wrong, would go a long way. This district talks a big game about how it wants families to try to work things out rather than going to the OCR, but if you do anything but make it clear you will make their lives hell you will be ignored at best, mistreated more like. Much could have been done to help a lot of our kids be healthier and safer in school as a result of what we went through, and that was lost in the district's inexplicable behavior.

I appreciate this editorial, but I don't think some of the core problems will be truly fixed unless certain personnel leave or have a Road to Damascus (er, road to ethics) conversion. I think it's a shame because the unnecessary CYA was their proverbial shooting themselves in the foot, and I think hampered what could have been a triumphant tenure for McGee. I look for this board to do more than just go for bandaids for what were truly deep wounds inflicted by the district. That OCR letter debacle was quite a slap, the district needed to look at its own behavior with its families. Still does.

There still doesn't seem to be a mechanism out if the echo chamber at the district office. Administrators still don't understand how off the rails they can go/be, when they can look only at one side, use only their alternative "facts", and reinforce their own biases in self-serving ways, and there is no one impartial to discuss problem with and work for solutions. This City needs an ombudsperson position, established by the City, with independent authority, so we can take care of our own.

Good going Dauber, DiBrienza and Collins! Thumbs down for Casswell.