I won't be a part of that. Teachers at Elementary Y also say they have little input on curriculum or anything else. I tell them to go to the suburbs. There is no learning unless there is some tension. Then you know people are speaking with conviction.
Teachers read about the issue in advance.
During the discussion, each has to back up her or his opinion with a passage from the reading. And every teacher participates. The School Improvement Plan is handled in a similarly democratic way, teachers say. A committee of teachers drafts the plan, and the entire faculty critiques it point by point. Instead, we're the ones who find the answers.