Opinion: More Data, Please
A message to the community and this administration
At yesterday’s board meeting, Anthony Alaniz delivered an incisive speech during public comment. Notes from this meeting are still being processed, and will be published as soon as possible. We did not learn anything new about the $750k “misallocation” as the auditor was absent. I’d like to call attention to a point Mr. Alaniz made:
If you’ll respond to things on social media with FAQs and coy attacks, then you most certainly will respond to questions here offered in a public meeting, and if not someone will write an article about this meeting, find a big beautiful word to describe it, and hope it results in another FAQ, or maybe a public response for all instead of one-on-one behind closed doors.
Excerpt from Anthony Alaniz, public comment, Sept 26, 2025
I named this blog “Educate Tecumseh” as a bit of a play on words. My focus is education, but my purpose has always been to educate. To publish the data you’re not getting. To provide the best perspective on the data that I can because we’re all too busy getting kids to practice or working a second job to attend a board meeting held at dinner time.
Your TPS administration should be doing this. Our city council does this. Our neighboring school districts do this. We have only this year begun recording meetings. We made progress thanks to Mr. Hilton, amid kicking and screaming from Trustee Simpson. After a year of promises, we still can’t manage to stream meetings live. Meetings might get uploaded in a week. Sometimes two. Maybe they’ll have decent audio. Maybe not.
Mr. Alaniz goes on in his comment to ask why we, the public, are always having to fight for information. In an ideal world, Educate Tecumseh would be a *free* supplement to our district. Educated and experienced members of the community (and there are many) donate their free time to dissect and explain the complex issues our district faces. It was designed as a community resource for working parents, not a rival to the Herald.
Kelli Glenn spent an entire hour explaining district finances to me when I was a candidate. I benefited from her guidance and perspective when I wrote my year-end financial review article last year.
Vic Pratt, our former communications guy, always made sure I could get my camera set up when I live-streamed meetings. He explained problems they ran into, and was very patient and kind with questions on social media.
Josh Mattison is our Director of Operations. He’s a great guy. He once helped explain a building matter to me for an article. Once again, his willingness to lend guidance and perspective on an issue enabled me to write an informative article from every angle.
Former trustee Mary Tommelein has reached out to me to provide clarification on articles in the past. I’ve received guidance and advice from many former board members. Mr. Hilton has even reached out to me to correct an announcement I made.
I bring these examples to your attention, dear reader, to make the point that the purpose of this blog is to Educate Tecumseh, not bash the administration. For a time, we seemed to be achieving those goals. There are many factors that have led to a souring of this relationship, but I remain optimistic that enough folks in this administration want the same thing.
Make no mistake, I am not seeking to be the Public Relations arm of this district. We already have a newspaper for that. My goal is to get all the information I can out to you. When I see trustees being mocked, interrupted, or silenced, I’m going to call it out. When I see trustees trying to hold a meeting open but outvoted by incumbents, I’m going to call that out too.
While many prominent members of this community have reached out to provide guidance or clarification, many other equally prominent members of this community have reached out pleading with me to dig deeper. When I wrote The Problem With THS, I received support for the article from staff within THS, for instance. This blog is here to support the parents and educators first.
This blog is a friend to those who strive for transparency, and there are many in this administration who do. For those who try to block info by harassment, or charging ridiculous fees for FOIA requests, or whatever reason, you turn an asset into an enemy. To anyone who says, “you don’t have the facts!”, I say this: whose fault is that? We have a common enemy: ignorance.
Finally, dear reader, this is your blog as much as it is mine. I have already added two parents this week as co-writers. We’ve grown to 200 active subscribers averaging 4.3k views in 90 days. If you see something out of place, or want to add a “community note”, speak up! Leave a comment! The more interaction we have, the better this blog will be.
Thank you all, once again, for your support.