July 13, 2021

Nearly two hours into a three-hour CMS Board of Education session to listen to public comment, former board chair and longtime Forum participant Arthur Griffin offered, in his allotted two minutes, his thoughts on three of the biggest issues facing the board:

• Student outcomes-focused governance, a review of how the school board can refocus its attention on, as Griffin put it quoting the board’s facilitator, “what students know, and are able to do”;
• How the board can provide teachers the training they need amid debate over critical race theory, implicit bias and the like;
• Making good on the board’s December promise to examine CMS’s failure to build into its school improvement plans the standards that will ensure that all children on graduation day are prepared to receive the diploma endorsements that would certify them as college- or career-ready. “If you want student outcomes to change,” he said, “adult behaviors have to change.”

Griffin served on the CMS board 1985-1986 and 1988-2003 and was chairperson 1997-2003.