Who would gather parents, superintendents and administrators, school board members, union leaders and members, legislators, and community members all in one room and hand a microphone around? No one is that crazy. Yet last Thursday night, that is exactly what happened. Only a humble and gracious person could have a room full of all these firecrackers and still manage a civil dialogue. That person is State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Elsie Arntzen. About 100 people attended the Billings-area public education event hosted by Arntzen at Montana State University Billings December 15th.
Let me set the stage. Arntzen has seen the need and heard the call for parents and community members to be heard by the education establishment in order to move forward and tackle some tricky situations and growing needs for students. The state superintendent announced the meetings with community last month saying that she wanted to get people together to discuss education. I had no idea it would be open mic. As per usual, the education establishment assumed the worst of Arntzen and of Montana parents.
The president of the Billings Education Association (BEA) teachers union along with Montanans Organized For Education (MOFE) put out calls from their leadership to show up.
Doug Robison, BEA President, sent an email to the entire membership pre-emptively accusing attendees of sharing misinformation requesting a “strong showing” from union members,
“It is Critical that we have loud, composed voices from the classroom to combat any misinformation,” said Robison.
Jennifer Murnane Butcher, Deputy Director for MOFE, sent a message to Montana librarians and “like-minded folks” to also show out to the event also throwing out accusations, accusing Superintendent Arntzen of “activat[ing] the extreme minority base that will disrupt school board meetings and generally harass public school teachers and administrators.”
“The legislators representing these areas have voting records that advocate against our public schools-such as funneling public funds to private institutions,” MOFE Deputy Director Butcher said. “These meetings are quite obviously to activate the extreme minority base that will disrupt school board meetings and generally harass public school teachers and administrators. We are also worried about book banning efforts in both school and local libraries.”
When my husband and I arrived at the event Thursday, we saw Elsie walking down the aisle introducing herself to everyone and shaking hands. This may seem like no big deal, however, many people in that room had slandered Arntzen behind her back and denounced her in public letters. In fact, Billings School District 2 Superintendent Greg Upham, who was also in attendance, was front and center in that effort. Upham, an interim superintendent, and 6 other superintendents from across Montana signed and sent a letter last December to teachers, unions, and Arntzen that stated, in-part, “We write to express our disappointment in your leadership as our state’s chief public education officer.”
Ironically, after over 2 years of myself and other parents and community members reaching out about a variety of topics concerning schools and students, Upham never organized a single opportunity for community members to collectively tackle tough subjects. Upham is not the leader he imagines himself to be.
During the evening, Arntzen introduced topics and handed the microphone to anyone that wanted to speak. The event went about how I thought it would. A lot of admin level staff from the Lincoln Center cowardly kept to themselves. And, of course, there was the occasional eye roll. Upham however, was in full political mode.
Superintendent Upham arrogantly talked over speakers and added comments even when he did not have the microphone. At one point he even spoke over a State Senator. At another point, Upham mocked a person wearing a mask saying, “Hey Clementine, I can’t read your lips.” Obviously, this was also a shot at the many parents in the room that had fought the mask mandate. His comment came across as pompous and callous. His behavior during the event did not land well on either side of the aisle.
Many topics were brought up including, budgets, district funding formulas, students below benchmark, mental and emotional issues for students, and special education needs.
To the surprise of many, Superintendent Upham said out loud, “I don’t think you can throw money at these things to fix the issues.” Perhaps it was because there were conservative legislators in the room. Perhaps he is trying to come across as more centrist as I believe he will be running for a higher position soon. At this point, however, only time will tell. Whatever the motivation for his comment was, it came across as insincere. Just last year, Upham ignored and denied special education kids in SD2 the opportunity to discuss graduation requirements citing concerns about money.
Though I did not detail every conversation during the event, I will summarize the overall perception I walked away with after attending the meeting: If you mentioned the error in masking and other COVID-related procedures, school administrators would not take any responsibility instead deflecting by saying things like, “Let’s not concentrate on the problems, just the solutions.”
For families and the community at-large, it is difficult to trust the same people who continually deflect responsibility for poor decision-making during COVID with the solutions to problems in Montana schools that were brought to their attention repeatedly over the past 2 years.
Many parents believe they should be in partnership in their child’s education. Many education leaders believe that the institution of public schools is the answer and that parents need to support the institution over the individual child. Establishment education leaders said they wanted students in school for longer hours, more days, and wanted health clinics in schools.
Superintendent Elsie Arntzen is a winner here. She brought this cast of characters together to speak and to listen after a period of time where education leaders across the state would not even give parents the time of day.
