The Danger of Extemporaneous Speaking

Minutes were just published from Wednesday's meeting (link here) and it got a little messed up in translation.

Here was my verbal statement as printed in the minutes (errors in red):

Mark Horton [edit - name fixed in updated minutes] (Indian Hills) — lives in a high-density area close to Tobias. He and his wife are products of HSD schools, and he came to the meeting to better understand and come up to speed on the proposal. He is concerned about issues affecting his area west of Cornelius Pass Road, and he speculated on whether the “springboard” was drawn with the intent of eliminating the high-density areas from the boundary. He even tried out his own adjustments and found his idea matches the current proposal.

My actual statement was that I lived north of Rock Road in a high density area and that I was being moved to Tobias in the current proposal. I don't know why they decided to write that I live close to Tobias since my house is less than 650 ft from Indian Hills. That isn't editorializing from the committee, is it?

I think I did say that I was worried about the west side of Corn Pass. D'oh. But I gestured with my right hand and if one is facing north that clearly means an easterly direction, right? I own that one and realized I had said it wrong after I sat down.

Now the puzzling one.

I haven't "tried out my own adjustments", those words did not pass my lips. I made it clear that I thought the current proposal eliminated high density areas from the IH boundary, not an approving statement. I also said I was still coming up to speed. Not sure how that makes sense to anyone with a shred of critical thinking ability; that I would both be coming up to speed and simultaneously completed "my own adjustments".

Maybe this was just a misunderstanding, here is a possible theory:

• I noticed that I was getting some visits from the k12.or.us domain just before the meeting.
• Someone from the committee could have had a link to my blog.
• They saw my interpretation of a district map labeled as "PROPOSAL" and thought it was MY proposal when it was really just me redrawing the HSD proposal with zoning areas shown.
• They were looking for the slightest bit of validation for their plan and seized on this as some sort of support.
  

Here is the best part about that theory - someone on the committee read the blog.

I cleared up the titles on the maps to be clear they are the HSD proposals just in case.

Whether my little fantasy is true or not, the fact remains that official committee minutes include a statement that is factually incorrect and wasn't based on anything that was spoken inside the Board room.

I will try to clear that up at the next committee meeting. Maybe I will wear a nametag.

In case someone from the committee is reading my blog, let me be clear: MY IDEAS DO NOT MATCH THE PROPOSALS. The proposals so far maximize the thrash to all of the schools in the Brown Middle School area. I haven't shared any ideas with the committee and I told Carlos after the meeting that I wanted to send him a PowerPoint file with my input.

From now on, everything I have to say goes in writing and I read from the statement. And when I hold up my right hand, that means East.