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Written 6/12/2020 at 9:37am Dear Boone Elementary Parents and Families My Name is Tom Donohue, I have been nominated by Boone Staff to be the community representative for the selection process of the new principal. I understand for some this time is challenging with the termination of Dr. JK and given the process is continuing its imperative that we prepare and have influence in the selection process. I was informed of my nomination on Wednesday and told that we would be drafting questions on Wednesday afternoon and then submit final questions on Thursday. During this process I became alarmed when I started to inquire who the candidates were as we would be questioning these candidates Friday. I was informed that we the entire panel would not have any knowledge of any of the candidates until 30 minutes prior to the start of the interviewing process on Friday. Given that I represent the community I immediately became concerned that not only would I not have time to properly vet these candidates neither would the parents and families. Never in my professional life have I ever participated in a selection process where the selection committee didn’t have sufficient time to vet each candidate prior to the day of the interview process. Additionally, this means that the parents and families of Boone superstars also will be in the dark without any opportunity to offer feedback on the pool of candidates. With that said, I am taking this first opportunity to notify the Boone Community of this concern and the steps I’ve taken to try to address it at the very least I wanted to be transparent. Upon learning of this injustice I immediately contacted DCPS, I wrote to Ward 8 CM Trayon White, At large CM White, Silverman, & CM Bonds alerting them to my concern that DCPS has a selection process underway and asked each to join me along with others on the panel in requesting a slight delay while the selection panel has sufficient time to review the qualifications. I heard from CM R. White. He said, “Thank you for sharing this. I agree that it is not possible to properly vet candidates without time to do so in advance of interviews. I raised this with the Chancellor at today’s hearing and will follow up with him via email today.” Throughout Thursday I expressed my concerns with members of DCPS explicitly sharing my frustration with the process and insisting that whatever be done to re-schedule, however my efforts to have it postponed failed and the interviews are currently underway. I’m going to be very clear neighbors, I think the parents and staff at Boone have once again been dealt a bad hand by DCPS, I personally see these interviews today as part of a puppet show, we seem to only be present in order for DCPS to claim that the community was involved. In the three days that I have been on this committee I assisted with developing 10 questions, 8 of which will be presented to the candidates and a report is submitted to DCPS with our reflections. As far as the candidates we received access to the resumes of each candidate 30 minutes prior to the start of the interviews. This provided me no time to research anything on any of the candidates - I suspect this was intentional. Now as a community member I am not restricted to the policies of DCPS and therefore I have communicated with DCPS that I did not agree with keeping to the confidentiality request made by DCPS explaining that I felt that the families of Bonnie superstars had the right to know who DCPS has narrowed down to come before the panel and that I felt DCPS had an obligation to provide us with sufficient time to review the qualifications and event engage with the parents and families of those at Boone. I must apologize that was unable to be done. I have however decided that the Boone Community had the right to know who the Chancellor has narrowed the selection pool to and who we as a panel are/have interviewed. I will supply the candidates name and current position for privacy reasons I won’t share any other information however if you have any concerns I would directly contract true Chancellor to express them.
Please Note: Ufortunately this morning during the interviews I received a phone call from my father informing me of the death of my Uncle as a result I was unable to finish the interviews. It’s important that this information be shared among the community. Please note: we are aware of an issue downloading the pdf files, we are working to resolve it as soon as possible.Candidates Resumes
Various Emails Send by me and responses
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