胡大鹏刘雅文问答：Q & A for our election

[Molly Tang]

Dapeng Hu and Yawen Liu: Q & A for our election

各位家长，大家好. We have received encouragement and support from many parents
after
we sent out our election presentation. We sincerely appreciate your
cordial
support. Our near-term goal is to make sure that HXNY is operating
normally
and is ready for a new school year in Sept. We believe that we can do
it
with your help. We also got many emails with a lot of questions. Now
we'd
like to answer those questions openly:
**
**
*Q: According to bylaws the election must be hold at least one week
before
end of school year. Is it legitimate to have election on June 19th?*
**The election is totally legitimate. According to Bylaws 9.01, our
school
year starts on August 1st and ends on July 31st of the following
year.
* *
*Q: Why do you think having an election is a better solution than
having an
interim team?*
An interim team could have worked when I first proposed it three weeks
ago
-- at that time the board, Principal and PTA chair were still
functioning
and people still respected their decision. Now Principal was
impeached, the
board is in total limbo and some ex-officials have openly taken
sides. Any
interim team appointed by board/ex-officials not only sounds a total
maneuver but also suffers the lacking of real authority and
credentials. The
only thing left now is member's power. So at this time in order for
any
team to work, it must be an elected team by members. The members
instill
authority to the elected team through election and the team answers
to
members by design.
*Q: You are friends of Gary’s. Are you picked by someone in the board?
*
Everyone is engaged in relationships with many people and no one is
an
isolated individual. Gary is a one of Dapeng’s many friends. Our kids
play
well together, so we share some family activities. But when HXNY
crisis
caught our attention, we’d stand up and commit a considerable amount
of
time, energy, and resources for our children and our community, not
for
anybody else.
We were absolutely NOT picked by anyone; nobody could force us to do
anything we don't want. We are well educated professionals; we are
independent individuals who will not compromise integrities.
*Q: Can you state your positions on the school’s current crises?*
我们中文学校在快速发展过程中，规章制度管理模式没有完全跟上去。不健全的制度导致了日常工作中的许多矛盾。近几年每年选举总会有各种各样的问题。这些
矛盾经过
几年的积淀，形成了现在这种错综复杂的关系和小团体，最终导致这次的总爆发。冰冻三尺非一日之寒.
Combined with an impaired system, there are also human mistakes as
well—after all we all humans. For example even though the board
followed
the proper procedure to disqualify one pair, they should have stated
their
concerns in advance and should have let the members make the
decision. After
that, several impeachments on the board and principal had escalated
the
situation into an unprecedented crisis. Impeachment, although allowed
by the
bylaws, should be only used in extreme situations such as high crime
corruption or betrayals. After all, they are volunteers and elected by
the
members.
Enough is enough. We need to put an end to this chaos. With a
legitimate
election, we hope to start the registration, ordering books, hiring
teachers, etc. Our near term focus is to ensure the school’s smooth
operation. Afterwards we push for amending bylaws and enhancing
various
systems to ensure long-run sustainability.
*Q: What do you think is dividing the members in this current cris**is?
***
是合情和合法的冲突。现在两派都觉得对方很坏或者被坏人利用了。我不相信我们社区有这么多坏人， 也没有这么多很容易被别人利用的人。那么是什么把大家
分化了呢？
就是有些合法的事情不合民情。怎么解决呢？第一要有一个合法的选举， 通过选举体现民情--大家目前最想要的是尽快结束目前的混乱局面。第二，修改
bylaws,
新的bylaws要通过大家的同意，使长期情和法更好的结合。
* ***
*Q: Do you support the Board if it remains as it is currently made up?
*
Even though the board has followed the bylaw framework, in retrospect,
the
board has mishandled this crisis. There were opportunities for the
board to
address people’s complain in the early stage, to have better
communication,
and to give members more transparency, to right things up and lead
school
moving forward. In our personal opinion, after a new leadership is
elected,
the board collectively, should formally review of how this crisis
being
handled, learn the lesson, and take some responsibilities for
mishandling
the crisis.
我们支持废除校长家长会长自动进入董事会的制度。It is awkward that all board members were
ex-officials. Board members should be elected going forward. 我们会积极推动修改
bylaws
。Amending bylaws is the only way to improve how Board is functioning.
*Q: If the existing Board is not functional, the power struggle will
continue. The difference is that it will be between the new Principal
and
the Board. How would you handle that?*
Not sure we agree with your assertion of the power struggle will
continue --
the current board has suffered a large mistrust by many members and
hopefully they can learn something from this and take some
responsibilities
as well. If we are elected our responsibility goes to the members and
we
are elected to run the school operation. We will push for amending
bylaws.
The new bylaws shall lay out more clearly the rights and
responsibilities of
the board and the admin/PTA.
*Q: We don't have time to wait until the by-law is revised. We need
stability NOW. How do you plan to end the existing power struggle and
bring
stability to HXNY? *
A success election is already a big step in reaching stability. An
elected
team can ensure a smooth operation and lead us move on. Also one key
thing
what people are fighting for is settled by the election. We can then
push
for bylaws reform to ensure long run sustainability. If elected we
will
immediately start registration, book selection, teacher selection, and
other
preparation works to ensure the school’s smooth operation.
*Q: If you were elected, how would you monitor the HXNY members
emailing
system? How would you prevent anyone from using the master email list
to
manipulate and harass the members?*
Our plan is to outsource all mailing and all IT activities under the
name
hxny (onlin registration, web sites maintenance, newsletter publish)
to a
third professional party, since tech outsourcing service is more
robust and
not expensive at all now, so it won't be a big cost to us but we can
gain
huge benefit of easy transition to the next admin team, and not being
controlled by one or 2 individuals
* *
*Q: some parents complained about the current textbook, do you plan to
use
new textbook?*
We’ve heard parents’ concerns and as parents we have concerns we have
concerns suggestions about textbooks, we will discuss this topic with
interested parent and teachers, we can start experimental classes if
there
are enough students in the class; on the other hand, textbook
assessment/selection, teacher training and support are all factors to
be
considered.
* *
*Q: You don't have the experience, how can we trust that you can
properly
manage the school? *
Yawen has volunteered in the HXNY for many years, most recently in
Parent
Council. Dapeng had actively participated and supported many school
events –
he invited Jennifer Lee to HXNY for her wonderful presentation on
Chronicle
of Fortune Cookie.
We are non-profit organization, serving our members is the primary
goal;
meanwhile, in a school, teachers are our most valuable assets. We will
work
with both members and teachers, to understand what they need but the
current
system is not offering. As our plans outlined in our presentation, we
will
improve it according to your feedback.
We are experienced managers at workplace; we are team players and have
been
HXNY members for many years. More importantly we are educated in both
Chinese and English schools/cultures. Our experience and knowledge
will
allow us to lead a more attractive HXNY. Your participation and
support will
help to build a better school.
*Q: Do you think you will have time to manage the school*
We are busy at work and at home but when we announced our candidacy,
we’ve
made our commitment. To contribute our time to the School is our
dedication
and we will do our best to balance our time of work, family, and
School. Our
families are supportive. We are ready to scale back lots of our
other
social activities and cut some of our personal hobbies.
However we cannot achieve our goal for our School without your help.
You may
know that a single School event like the Chinese New Year celebration
had
almost 100 parent volunteers. Running a big school like HXNY needs a
hard
working team and strong parents' support.
We will carefully define the responsibilities for each team member,
build up
effective communication channels, and promote a healthy work
relationship.
We will also plan ahead of time for all school activities; give team
members
enough time and authority to perform. With many of your helping hands,
we
believe we can do it.