LTISD Info

Texas School Business published a “Bragging Rights 2008-2009″ article about Rocky and his brain child “Leadership Lake Travis.”

Oh boy, it is filled with some very insightful information:

Rocky finds that his propaganda is not effective and a new strategy must be implemented:

“‘I found as I went around and spoke to various groups in the community that there was a shallow understanding of how the school district operates,’ says Superintendent Rocky Kirk.

To remedy the problem, Kirk and his administrative staff hit upon an idea to make advocates out of community leaders by engaging them in monthly seminars.”

Rocky wants to only gather those who have already “drunk the cool-aid” rather than convince skeptics:

“Says Kirk: `The motivation behind the program was to gather 20 to 25 people in the community who are friendly to the district and public education, and bring them together with administration to try and dig below the surface and answer whatever questions they might have.’”

Why is Rocky so wrapped up in people trusting him? Rocky says “trust me …” all the time. Makes you wonder …

“According to Kirk, after months of careful planning and preparation, the program emerged with the goals of building relationships, understanding, partnerships and trust. `We didn’t start with trust, because you have to build toward trust,’ Kirk explains.”

Even Rocky doesn’t have the follow through for his own project.  He asks the participants to attend, yet his interest wanes. Another indication of Rocky’s commitment or should I say lack thereof.

“Kirk and his senior staff attended every session during the inaugural series, but nowadays they take turns. `Logistically, getting busy people to commit to an eight-month endeavor was a challenge,’ Kirk says. `But I’ve just been amazed at the attendance rate and how seriously everyone takes it.’”

Even Jim Cummings becomes enlightened! Now we know why he didn’t run for re-election this year.

“Even Lake Travis ISD School Board President Jim Cummings had his moments of enlightenment.”

““I was blown away,” Cummings says. “Technology is changing the face of education.””

Rocky continues on his trust theme.

“Kirk adds that trust is at the root of these partnerships.

“No doubt if you don’t have trust within your organization, you’re not going to get much done,” he says. “Because of the complexity of running a school district and the political environment, if you don’t have trust within your community, then you really don’t have a foundation for moving forward.””

Finally we wrap full circle back to the purpose of Rocky’s plan:

““Sometimes people are hesitant to ask those hard questions of the administration and staff, but if they can talk to their neighbors, that’s pretty powerful,” Kirk says.”

Of course they are afraid to ask hard questions of the district, the district sues those who ask those hard questions. Who dares question the “brain trust!”

You know, this “Leadership Lake Travis” thing has been most “low key.”

Will the LTISD continue this “success” next year?

Will Rocky re-commit to only fizzle out again over time?

Again, another news opportunity for our overpaid superintendent Rocky Kirk to advance his cult of personality.

Only one press release?! Just why hasn’t our  Minister of Disinformation been pushing this at every party meeting?

I can only find 2 working links to “Leadership Lake Travis” on the district’s web site. (A third search link is broken, so much for effective communications through the Internet.)

1. The LTISD 2008-2009 District Improvement Plan
   
2. Rocky’s own bragging site where he only mentions such a significant successful program with so little fan fare. After reviewing Rocky’s bio page, you might wonder just what has he accomplished for the district and his salary?
   

“In 2007, the Superintendent launched the first class of Leadership Lake Travis, a district-initiated program designed to annually bring approximately 25 Lake Travis community members into a year-long district/community collaboration project built around the values of relationships, understanding, partnership and trust.”

(There he goes with that “trust” thing again. You keep getting the impression he doesn’t believe that he is trusted? Why?)

Marco should look at the history of those who have failed Rocky in the past. Perhaps it would be instructive for Marco to look back at another similar paranoid schizophrenic, Joseph Stalin.

As an example, notice how people were simply erased as though they never existed, at least until “De-Stalinization” took place.

One day your the confidant …	the next day, you never existed!