Candidates For Bridgeport Spaulding School Board Seats This November 8th, 2016

MLive has a voters guide out for the November election.  They have a listing of each of the candidates for the Bridgeport Spaulding School Board, including their answers to questions about why they are running etc...  There are four seats open and five candidates running.  Please choose wisely Bridgeport - The future of our district depends on it.

There is only one candidate that I know that I and my family members will be voting for.  That is Marti Sageman.  Mrs. Sageman has dedicated decades to this school district and the future of our children, and also the community of Bridgeport.  I know that Mrs. Sageman is NOT in it for self glorification or power, but is in it for her love for our children and the future of our community.

Bridgeport Spaulding School Board Candidates - MLive

Being A Team Player

Most people think of sports teams when you talk about a team player but it also applies to any work setting, organizations, families, and society as a whole.  What is teamwork?  In the words of Vince Lombardi: "Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work."

What behaviors or characteristics make for a bad team player?  Here are a few that I can think of.

- A team member that shares confidential or sensitive information about other members of their team or situations going on within the team with someone that is not part of the team.  Especially if the goal for doing so is to undermine another member of the team.
- A team member that either cannot or makes no effort to hide their dislike of or frustrations with other members of the team.  When the disharmony becomes obvious to the public, perhaps it is time for that team member to step aside.
- A team member that would rather push aside, ignore, or drive out other team members instead of making the effort to get all members working together as a whole for the betterment of the organization.  Working together as a team requires dedication to the cause, if you can't step up to the task or are not willing to, then maybe you should not be a member of that team.

When looking for new members of a team, these are some characteristics in people that you may want to avoid.

- A person that thinks they are better or smarter than others. A braggart.  Know it all's and braggarts tend to never make good team players, they are a one man show, grandstanders.  If they do become part of a team, they most likely will never be content until they are the top dog, the one running the show.  And they tend to step on anyone who stands in their way.  Know it all's also tend to be some of the dumbest people in the world.  Braggarts also tend to exaggerate the truth especially about themselves.
- A person that says things about others like "We can't control him" or "He doesn't see things our way".  Also things like "I think we have him under control now" and "I think he is seeing things our way now".   Those are not the words of a team player, they are the words of a controlling person that will never be able to work together as a equal with others in a team setting.  It will always be their way or the highway.
-  A person that makes accusations against other people with no facts to back up the accusations, only speculation.  Maybe the basis for the allegations lies within their own goals?  What was their true goal?  If they are willing to make accusations against others with no proof, what will happen when they become part of a team?  Will they continue their ranting, grandstanding, accusation slinging ways within the team?
- A person that inflicts harm on others and then revels in watching their suffering.  Revels to the point that they brag about it to others and want others to join in the revelry in watching another suffer. 
- A person that will not admit when they are wrong or apologize for their actions that harmed others.
- A person that wants to be a team player, part of an organization, should be happy for any successes or benefits that come to the organization.  If they belittle or ignore any good events that benefit the entire organization, then it would appear that they don't really care about the betterment of the organization.  Is it  due to petty dislikes or petty jealousies? Is it because they are not the ones who will get the credit? 
- A person that belittles another's accomplishments or successes in any situation.  Petty shallow people never make good team players.
- A person that will participate in underhanded, backstabbing, backdoor dealing, ethic violating ways with a goal to undermine and destroy others that are members of a team. If they are willing to do those things from outside the team, imagine what they will do if they ever actually become part of the team?  Team members should be very wary of people like this!!
- A person that sees their own glory, their imaginary fame, rather than the truth about a situation as the main goal or result of their actions.  EX: "My video will go viral"  "I'm going to be on all the national news shows"
- A person that is dishonest.  A person that lacks morals and conscience.  A person that shows no remorse whatsoever for wrongs they have committed.  A person that shows no understanding, no empathy, no compassion towards others.

Bridgeport Spaulding School Board Meeting October 24th, 2016

There was another Bridgeport School Board meeting tonight but I only stayed for part of it. There were no speakers during the public comment period. There was an update/presentation by the schools accounting firm of Yeo & Yeo. They also held a workshop for the school board members with a member of the MASB. I only stayed for part of that. I didn't include it with this very brief video because it was only part of the workshop, also probably is of no interest to the public and the audio is too low to hear for most of it. It was going to be a long workshop and the longer videos take too long to upload etc...
There was nothing else on the agenda for the evening after the workshop.

**updated February 3rd, 2017 - I did add the video that includes the part of the workshop from the MASB.  It is the second video below**

Bridgeport Spaulding School Board Meeting October 10th, 2016

On the agenda:
- Blueprint for Rapid Turnaround Overview begins at 2:26
- Priority School Quarterly Report begins at 19:40
- Curriculum Committee Report begins at 33:41
- Consent Agenda: Payment of bills etc... begins at 49:25
- Personnel Report & Hiring of new Athletic Director begins at 50:20
- Board and Superintendent Comments begin at 54:08
© 2016 Carla Citizen All Rights Reserved

Sorry I am two weeks late in sharing this video here.

Don't Be A Tool

Are you a tool or just being used as a tool by another?  What is the definition of tool?  There are so many definitions and usage for the word because it is a slang term.  Here are a few:

- an offensive comment, mainly aimed towards the male of the species, when one is being particularly nasty, stupid, or facetious.
- A tool is a dick, both in the literal sense (genitalia) and in describing someone who's unpleasant or full of themselves.
 - ...being a tool means being pompous or infatuated with oneself, whereas the urban dictionary and wiktionary write that it means one is being used without knowing it.
- When someone is called a tool, it indicates that they lack personal convictions, and generally go along with what they believe is expected of them without bothering to question the higher purpose. 
- One who lacks the mental capacity to know he is being used. A fool. A cretin. Characterized by low intelligence and/or self-esteem. 


A few hypothetical situations that might involve being a tool:

-  Perhaps someone like a public official, lets call them Person A, wants to smear another person.  They can't do that publicly without making themselves look bad, petty, so they enlist the help of another person, lets call them Person B.  So Person A and Person B devise a plan where A will make a brief reference to something that was said but doesn't follow through on it any further in their remarks.  Then Person B reacts to that slight reference by asking for a little more information and then they plan on requesting something like maybe a copy of a letter or email that may contain the information or remarks or whatever that was "briefly" referenced by A.  Now the plan is that B will then try to enlist another person, lets call them Person C, to use as an accomplice to help A and B publicly smear another person.  The plan is for C to share the "information" on something like a public forum.
So in this hypothetical situation, Persons A and B are "the tools" and Person C is the one being used as the tool.  But if Person C wises up and gets tired of being used as a tool by others just to achieve their dirty little deeds, then the plan fails and Person C is no longer a tool.

- Person A comes in contact with Person B in some kind of situation and sees that B is in a desperate state and needs some help.  This provides an opportunity for A to offer assistance to B and thus they ingratiate themselves to B.  And maybe there is even a Person C.  In both cases A will ingratiate themselves with only a goal of self enrichment in the end.  Maybe their goal is financial enrichment through a crime like insurance fraud, or maybe even theft from one of the desperate persons needing help.
So in this hypothetical situation, Person A is "the tool" and persons B and C are the unwitting tools being used by A.

So are you "The Tool" or are you the one being used as the "Tool".  My advice is to open your eyes and wise up, don't be used as the tool.  Once you wake up and quit being used as a tool by others, they will turn on you.  So anyone who joins in and helps the user, don't cry when they turn on you too.  That is what users do.  And if you are a willing participant in the dirty deeds of a user, you deserve what happens.