Who will take Responsibility for CMSD "public relations" culture?

At face value, the PD 11.27.'10 editorial "..Sanders needs to level with residents.. [1]" is the kind of community service expected of local media, a call for a public official and the public to be responsible.

Responsibility is exactly what we need in Cleveland. Learning responsibility demands from top to bottom in our city to learn something new, something not present from the day a search began for this CEO to today.

Who will accept the responsibility for creating a CEO search process that assumed that public relations was what Cleveland most lacked in Sanders predecessor?

Who will accept the responsibility for the community forums that accompanied that search where Board and consultants translated residents statements for a leader who understood community involvement into "you mean public relations"?

Who will accept the responsibility for the first Five Year Strategic Plan of this CEO, based on the same public relations techniques and short comings observed at the Langston Hughes Center?

It's a long list and won't fit here. The point being that no one in Cleveland is surprised to read that public relations is the core demonstrated skill of the CEO and his Administration.

Even the Greater Cleveland Partnership after all its praise and support for the District wants another look at the District administration and finances before investing further. Working with the same consulting group(BCG) hired by the Cleveland Foundation for the District, it seems they even may want to touch on academics, at least in the case of special education.

Cleveland parents, voters and residents have a more direct experience with the District and even more reason for concern. The cost for a parent with a gifted, average or special education child is very high.

Calling for responsibility is the right call if we recognize a much broader and deeper responsibility than getting the CEO to use the word "levy" in public settings. The past points to, as I am fearful does the moment, that the only form of responsibility that will be tolerated is something familiar and less than what the children and residents of Cleveland require and should expect.