Emergency Board Meeting Agenda 

8 AM, Thursday, May 10, 2040 

I. Welcome

The Kuneco Executive Committee would like to express its gratitude to the Board for convening on such short notice. Together, we remain confident that in light of yesterday’s events we can maintain the integrity of the Kuneco value proposition/business model. 

II. Agenda for Board Approval 

• Given General Council’s recommendation, Executive Committee recommends immediately terminating Martha Nenon (ID 103KG) and placing Fabrice Castanelli (ID 104MS) and Michelle Da Silva (ID 838RH) on a formal leave of absence for the duration of this investigation by the Iteration Taskforce.
• Given his peripheral role in this incident and excellent track record at Kuneco, Executive Committee recommends that Tim Wagner (ID 408FF) be elevated to a two-year term on the Iteration Taskforce effective immediately. Executive Committee is confident that it will not be a problem for him to manage this responsibility on top of his standard workload and his recently announced role as Kuneco’s 2041 Happiness Officer.
• Kuneco will file a Class 1 Recommendation to the New York City Sackler Family Department of Education today requesting that New York public school teacher Jesimon Forrester be fired from his posting for inciting conspiratorial action. To further make the case, Executive Committee recommends additional letters of support filed by Kuneco Board Members Priscilla Chan and Eric Trump.
• To address the anticipated blowback when the community forum reverts to normal operation, Executive Committee recommends the formation of a teacher community advisory board to give teachers a new outlet to air their frustrations and contribute to our mission.
• While yesterday’s events are still unfolding, it seems clear that the curriculum development team demonstrated unsatisfactory levels of empathy with teachers and students when developing curricular modules about The Clashes. Therefore, Executive Committee recommends that Director of Content Samantha Burns (ID 226JF) be terminated from her posting effective immediately and, furthermore, that Kuneco enlist McKinseyIDEO in the search for a new Director of Content. 

III. Detailed Timeline of Events

• 5/9/40 11:30 AM // Seamus Martin (ID 199YY) first reported community forum disruption to Hildi Brendlemeyer (ID 101CT).
• 5/9/40 12:15 PM // Hildi’s staff conducted internal communication scan to uncover origins of disruption (included as Section IV of this Board pack).
• 5/9/40 3:45 PM // Executive Committee met to discuss the issue, and notified Board of request for an emergency meeting. Fabrice was not present as he was flying back from Seattle. 

–1–

• 5/9/40 5:15 PM // Martha, Fabrice, and Michelle were placed on temporary leave of absence. Their communication devices, building access cards, and credit lines were put on hold. Only their company FitBits have remained active, as we are neck and neck with GrassRoots in the #EdTechTeamSteps competition.
• 5/9/40 10:30 PM // General Council determined that the compilation of emails that Hildi’s team uncovered was sufficient evidence to terminate Martha without severance due to deliberate actions taken on her part to harm Kuneco. Council also determined that Fabrice and Michelle should remain on leave of absence until their intentions can be better understood by the Executive Committee and Iteration Taskforce.
• 5/9/40 10:45 PM // Executive Committee began working with Public Relationships Director Harold Greenlaw (ID 929YZ), who led Facebook’s 2018 “Here Together” ad campaign, on a video message for Hildi to share directly to all classrooms, letting them know that we hear them and that we are committed to doing better. This message will be embargoed upon completion and only be released if the Executive Committee feels that all other options have been exhausted.
• 5/10/40 6:00 AM // Executive Committee reached out to corporate content partners about offering new perks for teachers to mitigate adverse teacher feelings towards Kuneco in light of these events. So far AMC has committed two free movie streams for all Kuneco teachers this summer and Purdue Pharma is offering a 50% friends and family discount on naloxone for all Kuneco staff.
• 5/10/40 7:00 AM // Recognizing the limits of our SeeBothSides™ curricular approach, General Council conferred with the U.S. Department of Patents Trademarks and Intellectual Property to secure rights to the tentative name of a new proprietary pedagogical framework called “ChooseASide.” Hildi scheduled a meeting with the Department of Education at 10 AM today to discuss emergency funding for this initiative.
• 5/10/40 8:00 AM // The Kuneco development team is still trying to identify how to roll back superuser permissions that Martha granted to all site users yesterday morning. This process is going slowly after a suspicious number of our most veteran devs called in sick today. In the past 24 hours, 42,193 users have made a total of 164,183 posts on community discussion boards. This is compared to average daily activity of 1,119 posts from 542 users.

1. IV. Background Documentation
3. Compilation of Relevant Emails Dated April 10–May 9, 2040

-2-

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2040 10:13 AM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM

Subject: Something I noticed

Fabrice (cc content team),—

I’ve been digging into last month’s numbers in advance of our product service meeting and I came across something pretty major: Not only is the time that teachers spend in training modules continuing to trend downwards, but this past month it decreased by a full 4%! Furthermore, student-reported satisfaction with their teachers is higher than ever. I know we generally don’t place much credence in teacher feedback, but, for what it’s worth, the teacher satisfaction index is also going up. This is all a pretty drastic change from what we’re used to seeing, and from what I can tell, the anomaly seems distributed across the 11,000+ school districts that use our software in the US. Happy to conduct a more in-depth analysis if you think it would be helpful before our meeting.

Thanks,

Michelle

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2040 11:44 AM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM

Subject: Something I noticed

Thanks for flagging, Michelle. Please go ahead with that analysis. Also, can someone remind me how we measure teacher satisfaction in this instance?

F.

–3–

From: Burns, Samantha (CONTENT)

Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2040 12:19 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Wagner, Tim (SALES)

Subject: Something I noticed

Hey all! I can chime in on this. Fabrice, here are the relevant entries from our Stats and Data Glossary (which is on the company wiki):

T3 (teacher training time) is the number of hours that teachers spend in our training modules each week. Generally, between 5–6 hours per week.

Student Metrical Instructor Lightning Evaluations (SMILE) are just-in-time prompts that students receive between 6–12 times per day asking them how well their teacher is engaging them at that point in time.

Responses are used to queue the right learning modules for each student’s personalized playlist, and this data is also aggregated monthly and published in the Best Teachers Supplement of US News & World Report. This data is all anonymized so that students feel comfortable responding honestly about their teacher’s performance.

Teacher satisfaction index (TSI) is composed of teacher’s answers to a set of weekly prompts:

• How likely are you to recommend Kuneco to a colleague?
• To what extent has the Kuneco platform improved overall classroom atmosphere this week?
• To what extent has Kuneco positively influenced your role as a teacher this week? 

As Michelle indicated, TSI is a fairly small piece of the overall data profile that we develop for each district—the lion’s share of our analytical resources go to student pattern identification, which allows us to do what we do best: sending teachers daily reports on how students are feeling, automating parent-teacher conferences, using machine learning to optimize our summer internship matching processes, sorting students into academic, vocational, defense, and carceral tracks, identifying infants for the preKtoPhD pipeline, etc.

All of this being said, the Sales Ambassadors tell me that a lot of school districts and university procurement officers refer back to TSI before they re-commit to partnering with us. I’ve copied Tim Wagner here, who can jump in with more.

– Sam

DM me on kCHAT

–4–

From: Wagner, Tim (SALES)

Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2040 2:46 PM 

To: Burns, Samantha (CONTENT); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT) 

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM 

Subject: Something I noticed

Sure thing, thanks Sam (and hi all from sunny Boulder, Colorado!) 

Samantha is absolutely right! We find that when it comes down to signing the contract, more than 70% of school officials refer back to TSI. Between us, I think that they get a bit intimidated by all the data we throw at them, and the TSI is a human-centered index that helps reassure them that what they are doing is best for their students and school communities. 

I’m curious to see what comes out of your analysis, Michelle. One immediate thought is that I *believe* that TSI and SMILE are reported to our dashboards as 3-week rolling averages, whereas T3 is weekly. Perhaps the anomaly can be understood as just a variation in the timeframe of the datasets that you are comparing?

— Tim 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Be the change you wish to see in the world. – GANDHI

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Vote for me to be Kuneco’s 2041 Happiness Officer!!!

–5–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040, 10:06 AM 

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT) 

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Wagner, Tim (SALES); Nenon, Martha (DEV) 

Subject: Circling back 

Hi all,  

I’m circling back about the anomaly I noticed last week now that I’ve had some time to dig into the numbers across multiple regions. I couldn’t get our dashboard tools to give me the level of granularity I needed, so Martha from the dev team (copied here), helped me pull a .cvs file of country-wide data and we analyzed it together. 

As a disclaimer, it should be noted that teachers never fulfill as many training hours as we think they should (much to the chagrin of our Gamification Design Lab!), and this happens for a lot of reasons, including life interference (many teachers are also parents) and the generally unmotivated nature of some teachers. But when we control for this anticipated level of failure, we still see a significant teacher drop-off from our training modules beginning on March 12, which was the day we released our explainer modules about The Clashes at the state houses in Lansing, San Juan, and Annapolis. 

Furthermore, our disaggregated classroom-by-classroom analysis points to a causal relationship between the decrease in T3 and the increase in SMILE and TSI. It is the very districts that reported a drop-off in teacher training module time the week of March 12 that self-reported better classroom experiences for the rest of the month.

Last time a teacher cohort went off-script, we filed disciplinary actions with their superintendents and held a User Feedback Festival in their district. However, that was just one city, and the pushback against our modules here is multi-regional. Curious how others think we want to manage this.

—

Michelle Da Silva 

VP of Product Services 

Kuneco Charlotte 

DM me on kCHAT

–6–

From: Wagner, Tim (SALES)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040, 10:08 AM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: Circling back

I think you mean .csv file not .cvs file 🙂

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Be the change you wish to see in the world. – GANDHI

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Vote for me to be Kuneco’s 2041 Happiness Officer!!!

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040, 10:13 AM

To: Wagner, Tim (SALES); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: Circling back

Yes, .csv. Good catch!

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040, 10:14 AM

To:  Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Fwd: Circling back

tim is such a dick

  ___
 (‘V‘)
((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 
  ^ ^    

–7–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040, 10:15 AM

To:  Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: Fwd: Circling back

Oh haha, no Tim’s ok—I think he’s just trying to help . . . and I shouldn’t be making mistakes like that anyway. But thanks for your message, Martha, I appreciate it 🙂

(Btw . . . aren’t you worried about saying things like this over work email? Don’t like 20% of our emails get randomly screened by the Work and Wellbeing Taskforce? I’m not even sure I should be writing this . . .)

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040, 10:17 AM

To:  Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Fwd: Circling back

They do, but it was I who originally installed the monitoring system so I’ll make sure this thread gets removed from the review queue. 😉

  ___
 (‘V‘)
((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 
  ^ ^  

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040, 10:44 AM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: Circling back

Thx for this analysis.

–8–

@Michelle, pls schedule some 1-1s with teachers with low T3 to see if you can catch a more qualitative angle on what’s happening. If possible, try to talk to at least one faculty from the UC system, as I have a meeting w/ their Chancellor next Tuesday and it’d be good to be able to reference the fact that we are engaging teachers on a face-to-face basis.

@Tim, has anyone on your team caught wind of anything like this?

F. 

From: Wagner, Tim (SALES)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040 3:21 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: Circling back

Not yet, but I’ll see what I can gather on my end from the other sales ambassadors. I’ve definitely heard some grumbling from teachers in the past about being contractually obligated to spend time in the training modules, but even then it’s mostly lighthearted, as they know that it’s in the best interest of their students. I’ve definitely never seen an inverse correlation between teacher training time and classroom satisfaction before. 

Oh, and a reminder that tomorrow is a state holiday here at the Boulder office, so I’ll be out of pocket.

Tim

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Be the change you wish to see in the world. – GANDHI

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Vote for me to be Kuneco’s 2041 Happiness Officer!!!

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040 4:14 PM

To: Wagner, Tim (SALES); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: Circling back

–9–

I tend to agree with you, Tim. Our research is rock solid on the correlation between time spent in our teaching training modules and increased student test scores and higher workforce placement, so I agree that this has to be some sort of anomaly given that we are comparing apples and oranges with these two data sets.

There are good people on both sides of The Clashes, so personally I’m surprised that our modules on this topic aren’t resonating with students . . . but in any case content team pls do a sectional scoping analysis on the Clash explainer modules Michelle mentioned.

F.

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040 4:19 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM

Subject: Circling back

Or perhaps there’s more to education than testing and jobs? 🙂

  ___

 (‘V‘)

((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 

  ^ ^  

From: Wagner, Tim (SALES)

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2040 4:20 PM

To: Nenon, Martha (DEV); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM

Subject: Circling back

Ok Paulo Frerie. :p I mean obviously there is more but you know what we mean.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Be the change you wish to see in the world. – GANDHI

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Vote for me to be Kuneco’s 2041 Happiness Officer!!!

–10–

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2040 9:05 AM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Any luck with uc???

Meeting with UC Chancellor this AM. Any luck connecting with a teacher here for 1-1s?

F.

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2040 9:11 AM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Subject: Any luck with uc???

Yes! Sorry, I should have told you. I’ve had 4 meetings so far, with 2 more scheduled for tomorrow, including a UC adjunct professor.

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2040 9:13 AM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Subject: Any luck with uc???

Great. I fly from SFO to DCA tonight and will be back in office Friday.

@Larysa, can you pls book the Bushwick Room for Friday to go over Michelle’s analysis? 2:30–4:30 should work. Invite Sam Burns, Michelle, Martha, and set up a link for Tim in Boulder. Ask Sam if she wants others from Content.

F.

–11–

From: Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2040 9:21 AM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Any luck with uc???

Certainly. It is done.

Best regards,

Larysa Ahmed

Assistant to Fabrice Castanelli

Kuneco Charlotte

–12–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2040 1:13 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); Nenon, Martha (DEV)

cc: CONTENT-TEAM

Subject: Feedback from teacher 1-1s

Hi all,

I met with six teachers over the past week (1 middle school, 2 high school, 1 community college, 2 university) and these meetings definitely added some depth to the anomaly that I noticed two weeks ago. I’ve attached edited notes from each meeting as a .ppt. 

As suspected by Martha and my initial analysis, the teachers confirmed that the explainer modules about the recent Clashes led to them going off platform for portions of the school day. We’ve done explainers on the Clashes in the past with no problem, but many teachers pointed out that this latest bout of violence was unique in that it all got started with the revelation that school superintendents across the country were exposing illegal students to Homeland Security in exchange for makerspace grant funding from the Ford Foundation. This revelation brought the Clashes directly into the classroom in a new way, and destabilized many student’s trust in school, and therefore, in Kuneco explainer modules as well.

If I try to extrapolate a bit what I heard from teachers, I would say a lot of students right now are looking less for an explanation of the Clashes happening across the US, and more for an affirmation of themselves as humans in a complex world, and a validation of their right to bring their own feelings into the classroom. Our SeeBothSides™ Explainer Modules seem to be falling short in this regard, despite their production value and immersive 4D 6K experience.

Recognizing this, teachers have started developing an old-school style of classroom management akin to a group discussion to talk about the Clashes together and, despite all of our research which suggests otherwise, this is really resonating with students. In one instance, a teacher even invited a student’s sister who was protesting at the so-called “Baltim-roar” into the classroom to share her experience. This young woman has no training with any classroom management, let alone a Kuneco Certificate Degree!!! The teachers didn’t seem to be under the illusion that these discussions were going to help reach testing standards, but then again they also didn’t seem to particularly care.

Two other things:

First, it’s still not clear how the teachers are able to teach without accessing our training modules. Ever since we deployed our Innovation Nodes at education graduate schools, teacher training programs across the country have been predicated on the understanding that teachers are using algorithmic playlists to drive teaching. Everything that teachers need to engage students during class comes through during the training modules, so I have no idea what teachers are drawing on to teach about something as delicate as The Clashes without any training. I know that sometimes startup disruptors will give away lesson plans and assessment rubrics for free to drive teachers to their platforms . . . I hope that’s not what is happening here!

–13–

Second, one teacher mentioned something about teachers sharing lesson plans with each other, but when I pressed him on it, he sort of shied away from the topic. I know that we don’t allow teachers to make curricular recommendations in our online discussion forum, and teachers don’t have any other way to communicate with one another, so I’m not sure what he was getting at, or even whether it would be possible for teachers to share this sort of info online without our community moderators noticing it (???).

Anyway, I look forward to discussing this with you all tomorrow at 2:30.

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2040, 1:59 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Subject: Feedback from teacher 1-1s

I’m not sure I buy that there is any larger issue with the SeeBothSides™ approach, but it does seem clear that there were some fundamental content failures that need to be addressed.  

 @Larysa—pls uplink Michelle’s .ppt to my smart desk. I’ll be back in office tomorrow for meeting.

And Martha, can u follow up on Michelle’s comment about teachers sharing lesson plans? If there’s non-Kuneco curricula circulating, then the schools will fall out of Dept of Ed compliance and our workforce partners will be pissed. 

Not sure how it could be possible but worth looking into.

F.

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2040, 3:02 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES)

Cc: CONTENT-TEAM; Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Subject: Feedback from teacher 1-1s

Sure thing boss.

  ___

 (‘V‘)

((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 

  ^ ^  

–14–

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, April 27, 2040, 11:15 AM

To: Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Cc: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: delayed

Regional hyperloop service is replaced with Amtrak again today, so not going to make it in time for meeting. Can u set up a multi-link?

F.

From: Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, April 27, 2040, 11:25 AM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT);

Cc: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: delayed

All,

Please click here at 2:30 to enter a secure multi-sensory feed with Fabrice.

Best regards,

Larysa Ahmed

Assistant to Fabrice Castanelli

Kuneco Charlotte

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, April 27, 2040, 2:31 PM

To: Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Cc: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: PASSWODR???????

Says I need Kuneco pw to join the feed. Pls share.

F.

–15–

From: Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, April 27, 2040, 2:32 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Cc: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: PASSWODR???????

Hi Fabrice,

The password is stored in KDRIVE:\Kuneco\Kun-CLT\CharlotteOffice\Communications\Team\Passwords

It is against company policy to share any passwords over email.

Best regards,

Larysa Ahmed

Assistant to Fabrice Castanelli

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, April 27, 2040, 2:34 PM

To: Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Cc: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: PASSWODR???????

Can’t access. Pls set up dial in.

F.

From: Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, April 27, 2040, 2:35 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Cc: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Wagner, Tim (SALES); CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: PASSWODR???????

All,

The dial-in information for this afternoon’s call is:

1-224-505-3058

Pin: 618 004 229#

Best regards,

Larysa Ahmed

Assistant to Fabrice Castanelli

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

–16–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, April 27, 2040, 5:19 PM

To: Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Cc: Wagner, Tim (SALES); CONTENT-TEAM; Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: PASSWODR???????

Hi all, circling back after today’s call with action items:

• Content Team is going to revise the modules in question and roll out a teacher assist guide free of charge for all users, even those who are on the legacy UrbanLite plan that were paid through federal grant funding.
• Tim will loop back with Sales Ambassadors to make sure they are keeping an extra ear open to any feedback that we may leverage into the upcoming 5.0 software release.
• Martha hasn’t found anything yet that indicates teachers are communicating with one another without our knowledge, but she will keep looking.
• Fabrice has an Executive Committee meeting next Tuesday, and will mention this to the other execs purely as FYI at this stage. He’ll update us afterwards.

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2040 2:44 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: follow up on exec meeting

Michelle,

Exec team met today and has some interesting ideas in play that correspond to your findings. Apparently the shortcomings of teacher training models have been known for some time and should be addressed in the 5.0 release on Thursday. Hildi says that some beta-testing near the BNA office has had positive results, so I am en route to Nashville right now to learn more. Given the news out of Houston over the weekend, pls check in with Deborah and Jaime in the ATX office to see if anything seems off in the metrics so far this week.

F.

–17–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2040 3:06 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Subject: follow up on exec meeting

Got it. Will check in with Austin team immediately and await your further instructions. Should we be worried???

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2040 3:07 PM

To: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: Fwd: follow up on exec meeting

Why does Fabrice always abbreviate our office locations with city airport codes?

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2040 3:13 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Fwd: follow up on exec meeting

He’s done that ever since I met him, even during the flygskam craze. I guess he thinks its . . . cool?

  ___

 (‘V‘)

((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 

  ^ ^    

–18–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2040 4:00 PM

To: ATX-TEAM

Subject: checking in

Hey Austin team!

Just wanted to check in and see how team Texas is holding up in light of what’s going on right now in Houston—I know that everything can be bigger there! 🙂 Can one of you run an Insights Report on T3, SMILE, and TSI over the past two months, fully disaggregated? This comes from Fabrice, so ASAP please.

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Ignacio, Deborah (SALES)

Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2040 4:09 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

cc: ATX-TEAM

Subject: checking in

Hey Michelle, yes we’ll get right on it. Lars, pls run reports today.

-Deb

…

Intuited by my iPhone16++

From: Nilson, Lars (SALES)

Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2040 5:01 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Ignacio, Deborah (SALES)

cc: ATX-TEAM

Subject: checking in

–19–

Sup M. All good in Queen City? Missed you at South By this year.

Attached find the reports you asked for.

Lars

—

Lars Nilson

Sales Ambassador & 2040 Kuneco Happiness Officer

Kuneco Austin

DM me on kCHAT

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, May 1, 2040 5:17 PM

To: Nilson, Lars (SALES); Ignacio, Deborah (SALES)

cc: ATX-TEAM

Subject: checking in

Thanks!

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

–20–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Wednesday, May 2, 2040 8:46 AM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Subject: texas data

Fabrice,

I reviewed the data from Texas (attached), and there is something particularly disturbing—in a few cases where T3 had been decreasing since March alongside an increase in TSI and SMILE, we are now seeing NO TEACHER OR LEARNER FEEDBACK from the past three days. It’s almost as if our explainer modules have somehow driven people completely off of our platform, but in a good way (???). Please advise.

Best,

Michelle

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Wednesday, May 2, 2040 9:10 AM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Ahmed, Larysa (PRODUCT)

Subject: texas data

Jesus christ How is this possible?????? Not to mention the fact that this is in direct violation with the contracts we sign with school districts.

@Larysa pls uplink Michelle’s attachment for when I’m back. Also, pls reschedule my flight to the Public Good Venture Fund meeting in Seattle next week; I’m going to leave straight from BNA first thing Saturday.

F.

–21–

From: Brendlemeyer, Hildi (CEO)

Sent: Thursday, May 3, 2040 10:02 AM

To: KUNECO-FAMILY

Cc: EXEC-TEAM

Subject: 5.0 launch

Dear colleagues,

It is with great excitement that, after many years of hard work, we are initiating our beta release of Kuneco 5.0 today, shipping to all member schools in the coming weeks.

When Theo and I founded Kuneco twenty years ago, we knew that in order to provide educational content delivery and classroom management at a national scale, we’d need to engineer a way for students to receive agency and empowerment. This value has been baked into our code from day one – it’s why students can unlock secret modules if they finish homework early and it’s why we host global learning competition leaderboards between Platinum member school districts.

However, the unfortunate Clashes that have spread across the US over the past two months have left many students feeling underwhelmed by our educational offerings, and they want more. When teachers see this disengagement on their dashboards, they lose faith in our teacher training modules and go off script.

Oftentimes, the first place students and teachers go when they leave our platform is Google’s voice app. They’ll ask a question, and then perhaps subscribe to a free trial from one of our competitors to engage with a few of their modules or sign up for a membership with a GoogleBoosted content creator. What we’ve noticed is that this very act—leaving our modules to try and find answers for oneself—can actually increase the agency and empowerment that we want to nurture in students. While this is great, there are lots of forged GoogleBoost accounts and when students leave our platform we have no way of knowing what they are doing, and—of utmost importance after the last election—whether they are confronting true facts or counterfeit reporting. So the question for us leading up to the 5.0 release has been “how might we continue to empower students while leveraging them to plant the seeds that expand the boundaries of the Kuneco garden?”

A hallmark of 5.0 is a new web-based operating system called Kun:ecosystem. This is a transformative product that allows us to continue to monitor student and teacher traffic even after they leave our platform. By installing this OS on all Kuneco tablets, headsets, and implants, students will have the freedom to explore the world outside of the Kuneco products they know and love, without blinding administrators to the vital data that helps them better manage their school districts. With 5.0, we’re extending the Kuneco support we’re known for into the home, the city, and the world—seamlessly realizing the potentials of true lifelong learning!

–22–

District managers will all be coming to Charlotte next week for Kun:ecosystem training, and we expect to train all Community Partnership Stewards and Sales Ambassadors on this exciting new software by the end of May. As part of our deep commitment to Social Corporate Responsibility, we’ll also be conducting free training seminars for our industry content creator partners.

Kuneco is so much more than a company. We are a community of lifelong learners who grant tens of millions of students the gift of education every day. We want nothing more than to provide a safe, friendly e-learning environment to nurture students’ minds—a trusted space where they can learn both sides to every story and get a balanced view on everything from biology to current affairs. Trust is the key to our work, and with trust we can continue to set the spark that fills the education fire buckets of children’s minds day after day. 

Cheers,

Hildi

Hildi Brendlemeyer

Co-founder and CEO, Kuneco

Experience my TED talk

Read my pitch in Forbes 40 for 2040

Fund my lifestyle on InfluenceStars

Verify my personal LEED carbon offset

From: Wagner, Tim (SALES)

Thursday, May 3, 2040 10:03 AM

To:  Brendlemeyer, Hildi (CEO); KUNECO-FAMILY

Cc: EXEC-TEAM

Subject: 5.0 launch

🙌🙌🙌 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Be the change you wish to see in the world. – GANDHI

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Vote for me to be Kuneco’s 2041 Happiness Officer!!!

–23–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Thursday, May 3, 2040 12:02 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Subject: Fwd: 5.0 launch

Hey Fabrice,

I wanted to check in with you about Hildi’s email. I’m totally on board with this new lifelong learning approach, I think that’s super important, and I know that at Kuneco we are empowering all students to improve the world. But something about this new Eco:system product left me feeling sort of – for lack of a better phrase—“icky.” Maybe it’s because my son just started at a Kuneco preschool last fall…or maybe I just haven’t gotten used to it yet? I’m not trying to ruffle feathers here; I guess I just wanted to know what you thought about all of it.

Best,

Michelle

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Thursday, May 3, 2040 12:59 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Fwd: 5.0 launch

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for your email. I understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t reach the same conclusion as you do. Of course we want to empower children; that is why we are called Kuneco, the Esperanto word for togetherness. I’m a bit older than you, so maybe you don’t remember that companies like Pearson were already doing this in the late teens and early twenties with very little backlash. You should have seen what it was like back when Kuneco got started with a small grant from the Obama Foundation—thousands of edtech startups, for-profit companies, and government organizations trying to carve out their own little piece of the education pie.

–24–

With so many separate companies, it was very difficult to gather any consistent data about what was happening at our schools. Back then, some people tried to claim that we shouldn’t try to measure everything, and that the best way to work across platforms was to take a stronger stance against copyright in the classroom, but I think these people just couldn’t imagine that a socially minded nonprofit organization like ours could grow into one of the largest companies in the United States and reach more than 75% of American schoolchildren, college students, and adult learners every single day (let alone our growing international network of Ivy Prep Charter Schools, Global South Mission Outposts, and Climate Refugee Floating Learning Centers!) All of this success and growth has only been possible because of the centralized approach we’ve taken to content development, teacher training, and data analysis. 

You’re a smart person and a hard worker, and I appreciate this pushback, AND I just want to remind you that Kuneco has every learner’s best interest at heart, including your son! Happy to talk more when I’m back from SEA—ask Larysa to book one of the small conference rooms like Roslindale or Pilsen.

F.

–25–

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Friday, May 4, 2040 1:17 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: teacher lesson plans

Ok, so Michelle mentioned last week that a teacher said something about teachers sharing lesson plans and I just found something. I didn’t want Fabrice to have a heart attack if I told the wider group, so I’m just sharing this with you two for now.

Michelle, you probably don’t know this, but about a decade ago we tried implementing a teacher peer review system. We video recorded teachers through the Kuneco Smart Boards and then randomly generated a connection between two teachers who could review one another’s teaching style. This feedback was also shared with a group at Kuneco that was then called the Teacher Success Team.

The feature never really took off, so about 3 years ago we stopped recording video and merged the Teacher Success Team into the community mod team. However, it seems like we neglected to disable to the script that randomly paired teachers with one another, and the dialogue where teachers could leave feedback for one another has remained active all this time, accessible from the “Community” tab on teachers’ dashboards (with the exception of the UrbanLite users, who don’t have access to community features). We hadn’t noticed this before now because notifications of new teacher feedback were sent to a mailing list that has been unmonitored ever since we sunsetted the Teacher Success Team.

There are a few different prompts on this teacher feedback page, with questions like “does the teacher’s body language demonstrate confidence through the use of power poses?” and “how could this teacher better manage her or his classroom?” Somewhat ironically, most of the feedback that has been shared lately was input into the final field on the page, which has the prompt: “Is there any other feedback you’d like to share with the Kuneco team? We’d love your input!”

Quickly skimming the database, it seems like feedback has gone through a few stages. Some earnest feedback about teaching style was followed by cynicism when people started to realize that the feature was underutilized (“is there anybody out there?” and “echo, echo” were both common pieces of feedback in 2037). By 2038, it appears that most users who used this feature tacitly understood that the feedback was not being shared with the Kuneco team and, at this point, some teachers began to, I guess you could say, test the waters. A few teachers started leaving critical feedback about Kuneco, and others shared information about upcoming events that they wanted other teachers to know about.

–26–

Because this was never built to be a long-term communication tool, it took a while for any sort of real teacher organizing to pick up steam. Each teacher could only send one message per week, and then they were randomly matched with somebody else, with no way to get back in touch with past pairings. Sure, they could try finding past matches on our community forum, but any messages of that nature would have definitely been flagged by our moderator team. It seems like, in neglecting to follow up on conversations on the community forum, teachers both knew that a) they were doing something illicit and b) that this illicit something was worth protecting.

It was towards the end of last year that a real grassroots movement took off within our system. Many teachers started to write their personal (i.e., off-platform) contact information alongside lesson plans and resources that they were looking for and wanting to share.

By December, a fairly standard messaging format had developed between teachers who communicated with one another. I can’t decipher everything—it seems like teachers have developed their own shorthand for communicating here—but my best guess is that the numbers in parentheses after each bullet point are the grade level that the teacher’s resources are aimed at. Given the variety of grade level ranges in each message, it seems like teachers are looking for things not just for themselves but for other teachers as well. This indicated that teachers are keeping extensive documentation of these conversations outside of our platform.

There was a huge uptick in daily messages in mid-March. This message between Jesimon Forrester in the Bronx and Sarah Jacobs in Wichita from last week is fairly indicative of the type of conversation that has been happening roughly 9,000 times a day for the past six weeks.

———————————————————–

:: Message from Jesimon_F ::

Bronx NYC, 718-579-4244

Sharing:

• For teachers: How to return Ford Foundation grant funding
• Listening notes to accompany The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (all)
• Hacking iPads to install personal solar (7–12)
• Video: How our students forced fossil fuel divestment in our city (13–16)
• Discussion prompts for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s The World House (10–16)

–27–

• Peer learning exercises for middle school language classes
• Exercises in forest bathing and outdoor meditation (all)
• Toolkit to start learning circles in your neighborhood (10+)

Seeking:

• Primary sources on 1893 U.S. invasion of Hawaii (9–10)
• Video interviews of ICE detainees from late 2010s (7–12)
• Gluten-free peanut-free desserts that students can make w/out oven (4–5)
• Copy of “Civil War in Yemen 2015-2022: How our universities were implicated”
• Documentation of UC’s 2019 boycott of Elsevier
• Link to episode 6 of the 2029 documentary “Representation without taxation: Philanthropy in the United States 2000–2025.” (I have episodes 1–5 and 7–8).

:: Reply from Sarah_J ::

Wichita, KS, 316-261-8500

Seeking:

• Send over Lauryn Hill pls
• Send MLK prompts to Jim Hughes—404-526-8900
• We never took any Ford $$ so don’t need that & already doing learning circles :p
• Share link to episode 7 of Representation w/out Taxation please!!!

Sharing:

• Primary sources on Hawaii: call Fran 808-586-3500
• Nothing on ICE, but add me if you find
• How about s’mores? Franklin Bros. makes good gluten-free graham crackers
• Will send you Yemen pdf

Also Seeking:

• I heard about a .pdf going around on protecting students from DHS—anyone seen it?
• Copy of NAFTA: Capital Se Mueve Libremente, La Gente Se Queda.
• Examples of middle school activism in support of UN 2050 Urgent Recovery Goals
• Activities for DIY hardware programming (4–6)
• Advice for high school students whose parents are pressuring them to become entrepreneurs

———————————————————–

–28–

So as you can see, teachers are developing their own lesson plans and activities and sharing them with one another over their phones, off-platform. It’s sort of cool, actually.

  ___

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((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 

  ^ ^    

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, May 4, 2040 1:31 PM

To: Nenon, Martha (DEV); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: teacher lesson plans

Jesus Christ. This is bad. Not cool at all. The school systems will flip out (rightfully so) if they catch wind of this. None of what these teachers are talking about here is aligned with any of the testing standards, and I can’t believe it’s going to help our workforce preparedness metrics either. Can you shut down this feedback form immediately? Also, I’m confused. Are you saying that the teachers started using Grassroots within our platform? I’m not sure how teachers could use a competitor’s software within our environment.

Do you even remember why we tried this peer review thing? I’m not surprised to see that it caused only trouble.

F.

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Friday, May 4, 2040 1:38 PM

To: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: teacher lesson plans

Oh come on Fabrice, live a little. This is important stuff that the classrooms are talking about and I think it’s pretty badass how teachers have started coordinating like this. It’s technically easy to shut down, but, honestly, if it just disappears, might that not lead to bigger problems? Perhaps you should raise it with others Exec Committee members first and then we can decide what to do from there.

Re: why we tried the peer review tool in the first place: When we went back to the Obama Foundation to help finance our 501(c)3 IPO in 2029, a question they raised in the funding discussions in Chicago was how we would nurture agency among teachers. You, Hildi, Theo, and I sort of just made up the peer review thing on the spot and they seemed happy enough with it at the time and then not terribly bothered when we stopped the program a few years later. As I recall, we stopped it right around the time that you got promoted to Director of Product, and we were scaling so fast we didn’t have time to properly sunset the feature.

Also, I didn’t mean the edtech company Grassroots—I meant, you know, like, grassroots . . . local collective action…

–29–

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((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 

  ^ ^

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, May 4, 2040 2:06 PM

To: Nenon, Martha (DEV); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Subject: teacher lesson plans

Fwiw, I agree with Martha—can’t we sit on this for a while? Maybe there’s a way we can leverage this to work for both us and the teachers? I actually know this teacher Jesimon that Martha mentions—he and I did a Raytheon Global Citizenship Fellowship together eleven years ago. I can reach out to try and learn a little more about where he’s coming from with all of this.

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Friday, May 4, 2040 2:11 PM

To: Nenon, Martha (DEV); Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: teacher lesson plans

If we tell the other exec members, they’ll want to tell the Board and if that happens then hammers are going to start falling. Hard. Michelle, go ahead and meet with this Jesimon character asap and see if you can find out more about the extent to which this has been going on. I want to know how he found out about this, how frequently he’s sharing, and whether he’s coordinating outside of our platform. I want this shut down, Martha.

F.

–30–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Monday, May 7, 2040 8:19 AM

To: j.forrester@ny.k12.edu

Subject: Advice

Hi Jesimon,

How’s it going? Did you have a Derby party again this year? I’m writing because you sort of came up in a meeting last Friday. I wanted to check in and get some feedback from you about some things.

Michelle

From: j.forrester@ny.k12.edu

Sent: Monday, May 7, 2040 4:44 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Advice

Hey Michelle—happy to talk, and yes, the Derby party did happen! Funny that you remember. Cinco de Mayo was the same day as the Derby this year, so we were drinking both bourbon and tequila all weekend 😉 If you’re serious, I think it’s best to connect in person. Can you come to New York?

— Jez

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Monday, May 7, 2040 5:11 PM

To: j.forrester@ny.k12.edu

Subject: Advice

Thanks, Jesimon. I can come tomorrow, does that work? Say 5 PM at that café you took me too once in your neighborhood with the arepas?

From: j.forrester@ny.k12.edu

Sent: Monday, May 7, 2040 5:19 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Advice

Cachapa Cachapa! Yes! Sure. See you then.

— Jez

–31–

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2040 9:47 PM

To: Nenon, Martha (DEV); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Subject: Meeting with Jesimon

Hi guys,

I’m at LaGuardia (ugh), heading back to Charlotte in a few minutes. I just met with Jesimon and honestly, after meeting, I think I see a bit more where Fabrice is coming from. Jesimon had some pretty disrespectful things to say about Kuneco and I feel like if he was so upset, then he should have joined one of our monthly community calls or raised the issue to his local Kuneco Sales Ambassador.

He was really energized about the peer feedback and he was joking that this simple messaging board is the most useful piece of technology that Kuneco has ever built. He had all of these ideas about even connecting with non-Kuneco classrooms and involving students in curricular decisions . . . I tried explaining to him that science demands that curriculum needs to go through randomized control trials before it’s brought to market, but he would barely even let me finish.

My flight is boarding—I can tell you a bit more in person, but I think I agree that we should shut down the teacher communication tool and try to put this anomaly behind us.

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2040 10:01 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT); Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Subject: Meeting with Jesimon

Aw, I’m sorry to hear this. I thought you might be swayed by your old friend 🙂

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((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 

  ^ ^    

–32–

From: Castanelli, Fabrice (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2040 10:01 PM

To: Nenon, Martha (DEV) ; Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Meeting with Jesimon

God damn it Martha, can you get over yourself? I know that you love to be the cynic (how many Kuneco Disobedience Awards have you won? Seven?), but save your radical little ideas for when you retire. We aren’t 25 years old running a startup anymore. We have a fucking company to run and the fact that you are still here after all these years means that at the end of the day you aren’t as different from me as you like to think you are. So, as your superior, I am telling you to shut this peer feedback tool down NOW.

F.

From: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2040 10:19 PM

To: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Subject: Meeting with Jesimon

Hey Martha (just to you)—not sure if I was supposed to be left on copy for that last email from Fabrice . . . I really feel like this whole thing is all my fault and I’m so so sorry for stirring this all up. Do you know why Fabrice is so angry? Am I missing something? And now I feel like I might have jeopardized Jesimon’s job by pulling him in to all of this—has Fabrice said anything about that? Do you know? And then I’m also worried that the weight of this is going to come down on me . . . and I really don’t want to get fired over all this . . . it was just a stupid thing I happened to notice!!

Sorry for spewing all of this at you, but I guess I’m just wondering if you have any advice for me? What should I do?

—

Michelle Da Silva

VP of Product Services

Kuneco Charlotte

DM me on kCHAT

From: Nenon, Martha (DEV)

Sent: Tuesday, May 8, 2040 11:01 PM

To: Da Silva, Michelle (PRODUCT)

Subject: Meeting with Jesimon

Advice? Sure. The only life you can ever truly know is your own.

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((___))  Transmitted via LetterDove. 

  ^ ^    

–33–

From: Sinclair, Remy (MOD)

Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2040 8:59 AM

To: Martin, Seamus (MOD)

Cc: DEV-TEAM; COMM-MODS

Subject: URGENT COMMUNITY SITE PROBLEMS

Seamus –

Something is going haywire on the site right now. A new user posted a thread to the community forum at 7 AM this morning with the subject line “education is not a gift, it must be stolen. Rise and tear down the walls of Kuneco.” We see posts like this every now and then, and we usually just mark the post as spam, suspend the user, and work with the school district to ensure disciplinary action is taken. However, this morning, the post was quickly un-deleted and pinned to the top of the community forum BY ANOTHER USER. This is worrying—it seems like teachers are somehow un-deleting posts that we mark as spam and also pinning their own topics; these are actions that only superusers can take. Toggling to admin view, it seems like every user across all of Kuneco has been elevated to superuser status. Usually we see between 800 and 1,200 posts a day from teachers, but this morning we had more than 34,000!

I don’t know how this could have happened. Someone on our team would have had to change all these permissions. But in any case, we can’t seem to roll back user permissions to “member.”

Please advise!!!!

/remy

Kuneco community moderator

DM me on kCHAT

From: Martin, Seamus (MOD)

Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2040 9:04 AM

To: Sinclair, Remy (MOD)

Cc: DEV-TEAM; COMM-MODS

Subject: URGENT COMMUNITY SITE PROBLEMS

I’m looking into this presently.

There is no easy way to rollback superuser status without deleting user accounts. This is a legacy issue that we’ve known about for a while but haven’t prioritized, since we (wrongfully) assumed that we wouldn’t have a mutiny on our hands. Can you talk to dev team to get their take? Is Martha in?

Seamus

///

SEAMUS MARTIN

Director of Community Operations

Kuneco

DM me on kCHAT

–34–

From: Sinclair, Remy (MOD)

Sent: Wednesday, May 9, 2040 9:19 AM

To: Martin, Seamus (MOD)

Cc: DEV-TEAM; COMM-MODS

Subject: URGENT COMMUNITY SITE PROBLEMS

I just went over to talk to Martha and she’s not there. There was just a note on her desk that says “education is the practice of freedom.”

/remy

Kuneco community moderator

DM me on kCHAT

–35–