Who should I vote for for at large council member?

[Anonymous]

I don't agree with Grosso on everything, but he seems to be smart and a decent human being, which is more than I can say for most politicians.

I'll be voting Grosso/White.

Side note: wasn't Shepherd just renovated? I heard the school is beautiful. What's the problem?

[Anonymous]

Exactly what oversight has Grosso done with DCPS? DCPS rides heard over him. As far as I'm concerned, a monkey would be just as effective. We need a leader with good, strong policies in charge of the Edu. Committee, not an empty suit.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what oversight has Grosso done with DCPS? DCPS rides heard over him. As far as I'm concerned, a monkey would be just as effective. We need a leader with good, strong policies in charge of the Edu. Committee, not an empty suit.

Given that no monkeys are currently serving on the Council, which current Council Member or candidate do you think would do a better job than Grosso? My bet is that the most likely replacement for Grosso would be Gray. Looking forward, Trayon White might be a good candidate, but he hasn't even spent a day on the Council yet. The position really should be held by a an At-Large Member, and while Bonds, Silverman, and White are certainly capable, I don't see them filling Grosso's shoes at this point.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what oversight has Grosso done with DCPS? DCPS rides heard over him. As far as I'm concerned, a monkey would be just as effective. We need a leader with good, strong policies in charge of the Edu. Committee, not an empty suit.

Given that no monkeys are currently serving on the Council, which current Council Member or candidate do you think would do a better job than Grosso? My bet is that the most likely replacement for Grosso would be Gray. Looking forward, Trayon White might be a good candidate, but he hasn't even spent a day on the Council yet. The position really should be held by a an At-Large Member, and while Bonds, Silverman, and White are certainly capable, I don't see them filling Grosso's shoes at this point.

Write in Catania?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Voting for Robert White.

Again, remember that you get two votes.

but you can not allocate them to the same candidate. (just voted)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly what oversight has Grosso done with DCPS? DCPS rides heard over him. As far as I'm concerned, a monkey would be just as effective. We need a leader with good, strong policies in charge of the Edu. Committee, not an empty suit.

Given that no monkeys are currently serving on the Council, which current Council Member or candidate do you think would do a better job than Grosso? My bet is that the most likely replacement for Grosso would be Gray. Looking forward, Trayon White might be a good candidate, but he hasn't even spent a day on the Council yet. The position really should be held by a an At-Large Member, and while Bonds, Silverman, and White are certainly capable, I don't see them filling Grosso's shoes at this point.

Write in Catania?

I think you're correct.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:While you may have a specific bone to pick with Grosso -- and if your school is Shepherd I have sympathy for you -- Grosso is still heads and shoulders better than the alternatives. Grosso has made a sincere effort to remove politics from the school modernization process. I can't say that his efforts have always been perfect, but at least he has been attempting to address a real problem and has made significant progress. Beyond that, considering the current make-up of the Council (which to be sure has a number of great members), who is better prepared to lead the Education Committee?

I would agree if the criteria for the school modernization did in fact take out the politics, but it has not. The criteria are still not transparent and schools that are in real need for renovation have not gotten done. He does and says nothing about Duke Ellington. I can go on and on. Yes, the "effort" to remove politics from the process, I'll give him a B+ but the execution is more like a D.

[Anonymous]

Grosso is a liar. He claims he has 4600 data points that he employs to rank schools for modernization. Ask him or his office for those points and methodology and the staffers are confused and Grosso won't return your calls or emails.

Truth is by moving money around an "At-Large" member of the council is able to garner attention and votes in areas that had little awareness of him or his programs.

Two of his metrics: money spent/sq. ft. and total amount spent are completely ridiculous. If you have a small school that's a shit hole your amounts per sq. ft. would be high, you're essentially penalized for having a small school that's in bad shape. Once again just because a large amount of money is spent that doesn't really mean anything other than your school was in really bad shape and a large mount of cash was spent. It does not measure its current serviceability.

Grosso also wants to legalize prostitution, disarm police, provide guaranteed minimum incomes and legalize drugs. He worked in a shelter for women and he wants to legalize prostitution.

Basically he's full of BS and should be working at some obscure liberal arts college or serving on the DC Council. Guess we managed to draw the short straw.

[Anonymous]

Catania had a "part-time" $200K per year job with MC Dean a provider of city services and infrastructure while he was on the council.

Suckers. Cheh makes $200K/yr. serving as an elected lobbyist for GWU. Call it what you want but call it corrupt.

[Anonymous]

*sigh* I wish I had seen a thread like this before I voted on Saturday. I think I just picked two random names. I wish candidates would mail out info on their platforms. It would be more useful than the junk I currently see stuffed in my mailbox.

[Anonymous]

Grosso will not get my vote. He does not support expanding language options in our schools even though there is huge demand for these.

[Anonymous]

First time voter here. How will my ballot indicate that I can vote for two candidates for this position? (Glad I'm reading this thread -- I like both White and Grosso and thought I had to chose between them).

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:First time voter here. How will my ballot indicate that I can vote for two candidates for this position? (Glad I'm reading this thread -- I like both White and Grosso and thought I had to chose between them).

The voting machine has a page for the At Large candidates. At the top it will say to select two and it will allow you to choose two. Mine said that I had to go to the second page before I could proceed, but there were no names on the second page, just a space for a write-in.

Here is a sample ballot, though this is different than the one I had (Grosso was the last name listed on mine):

http://www.dcboee.org/pdf_files/pn_1908.pdf

[Anonymous]

Grosso's "public bank" ideas seems pretty half baked, too.

Any thoughts on Carolyn Pelnick?

[Anonymous]

Grosso is a nut job. Too liberal like Nadeau and they do not care about educating upper class kids at all or juvenile crime rates I the rise.