Good evening, Board Chair Causey, Vice Chair Henn, Superintendent White, and members of the Board.

On this Teacher Appreciation Day, CASE would like to take this opportunity to thank all the hard-working teachers in BCPS. The vast majority of CASE members were teachers, and we recognize and appreciate the dedication and perseverance necessary to be successful in the classroom. Again, thank you teachers!

Transparency—currently one of the sexiest terms in our society. I Googled the term and came up with over 12 and a half billion results! Transparency is regularly touted as standard operating procedure in government at the federal, state, and local levels, and yes, even by this school board.

For the sake of discussion, I’ll use the definition of transparency found in Wikipedia. Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed.

Last month CASE requested of this Board that, in the spirit of transparency, they share the names of the 2–3 finalists for BCPS superintendent and bring each of them into our community for a day to meet with various stakeholder groups. This is common practice in superintendent searches nationally.

CASE appreciates each member of this Board, and the hard work and dedication you have, and continue to, put into this search.

That said, CASE is challenging the Board go on record tonight to either commit to this transparent practice of meeting the superintendent finalists or maintain the current plan, which is to call a press conference and announce the permanent superintendent.

The Board needs to decide which of these choices exemplifies the level of transparency it espouses. CASE sees it as an easy choice. We think the members of this Board should see it that way too.

Thank you,

Tom DeHart, CASE Executive Director