By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 13, 2008

Montgomery school board members soon will be able to phone it in.

Language in an update of the Board of Education Handbook, approved unanimously by the board Tuesday, creates new rules for "absentee participation." In an emergency, a speakerphone could stand in for a live board member at a meeting. The member could soliloquize, question school-system staff and even cast votes, all by telephone.

Some county residents objected to the board's handling of the proposal.

Janis Sartucci of Potomac, a leader of the advocacy group Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, accused the board of presenting the change with insufficient notice, a few days.

"For the vast majority of county residents, this change will only be made known to them after the vote on Tuesday," she said in a statement that was distributed under the heading, "MCPS Board of Ed no longer required to attend meetings."

And how does the school board define an emergency?

Suzann King, a school board staff assistant, said in an e-mail that language in the handbook "has been carefully crafted to discourage abuse of the privilege. The expectation is that this option will be used sparingly by Board members. Based on their individual situations, they will make individual judgments as to what constitutes a bona fide emergency. The Board will be monitoring this closely and will make revisions as necessary."

Last year, the school system upset some parents by shelving its annual survey of employees, parents and students as a way to save money.

This year, the survey is back, but in a new format, one that could invite mischief.

School system leaders decided last December to delay the annual survey until the 2008-09 academic year, citing its $184,000 cost. Leaders of the county PTA and the teachers association objected, noting that the survey provides valuable data. It asks about drugs and alcohol, teasing and bullying, communication between administrators and parents and a host of other factors.

Community superintendents can use responses from teachers, which are not released to the public, to spot problems with principals. Schools use the results to measure progress in School Improvement Plans, an academic version of the corporate strategic plan.

Previous surveys were mailed to parents and processed by hand -- hence, the six-figure cost. The new survey is online, faster and cheaper. This year's cost was closer to $10,000 in terms of postage and printing. That figure does not include staff costs for scanning and programming and part-time help for processing surveys.

But critics from the Parents' Coalition contend its design allows misuse. The survey is anonymous. People can vote -- twice, if they like -- on a school their child does not attend.

"Vote early and vote often for the schools of your choice," joked Louis Wilen, a Parents' Coalition leader, in a posting last week to the group's e-mail list.

School-system officials did not laugh. In an unsigned response, posted to a county PTA e-mail list, they accused Wilen and company of encouraging a sort of ballot fraud.

"This week, an advocacy group is urging parents to submit surveys for multiple schools, numerous times, in an attempt to influence the survey results," the note states. "Unfortunately, this will result in invalid data for the schools involved should parents engage in this behavior."

The posting says the school system has some ability to root out improper returns, apparently by looking for schools with atypically high response rates. Shenanigans could invalidate the results for a school. "This," the note states, "would be an unfortunate result."

School-system officials contend the survey was never completely immune to tampering. "This is a feedback mechanism, not a scientific study," said Brian Edwards, chief of staff to Superintendent Jerry D. Weast.