For the citizens of Blaine County School District, budget concerns and a public records lawsuit have our immediate attention. These issues, however, are just offshoots of the district’s fundamental challenge: its governing hierarchy desperately needs resetting.
Like most American school districts, BCSD is owned by its residents. Functioning via the collective policy-making decisions of these resident-owners, its governing structure is also typical: residents elect school board members (trustees) to receive the public’s wishes; “the board” then transforms these wishes into district policy; once defined, policy moves to the superintendent (the board’s sole employee) for implementation.
Conversely, district staff answer to the superintendent, who answers to the board, which answers to the district’s residents. Thus is BCSD controlled and directed by its citizens; a microcosm of American democracy—of the people, by the people, for the people.
In theory.
In practice, this citizen-directed hierarchy needs constant upkeep; many administrators, past and present, accommodated over the years by various perhaps well-intentioned but poor-performing trustees (and the district’s long-employed, unabashedly pro-administration lawyer), instinctively work to usurp the public’s authority.
Not surprisingly, administrators (who admittedly provide crucial input) increasingly see policy-making as their domain. The past several years’ instances of deception and fear, originating from within our “district leadership team”—trustees and top administrators—are simply examples of humanity’s default choice for sustaining such distortions. Also not surprisingly, an admin-driven model has bestowed favor on administrators at the expense of all others. Said favor exists as plush administrator remuneration and as new powers to subdue/control the public process.
Granted, for trustees who reject, forget or never knew that their paramount mission is facilitating our district’s citizen-governed system, an administration-driven approach is the path of least resistance. Three of our five current trustees—board chairman Shawn Bennion (elected by residents of Zone 1- Carey/south Blaine County), Rob Clayton (appointed by the board to replace a trustee resignation in Zone 4- Ketchum/northwest Wood River Valley) and Carole Freund (elected by residents of Zone 3- Hailey/Croy)—have heretofore been on this path. If these trustees can’t immediately begin facilitating the district’s citizen-directed governance, they should honorably stand down in favor of others who will.
BCSD was created by the sole desire to provide its youth with the best possible education (relative to funding and state/federal requirements). Today, it exists for the same singular reason. In operation, BCSD also strives to be a positive community member (as a good employer, good neighbor, good environmental steward, etc.).
These goals, of course, mean different things to different people. Thus, we accommodate varied opinions through a well-defined legal process of open public dialogue. Critically, this process is designed to treat everyone equally. Yet, much of our district leadership team frequently overlooks, with far too much impunity, basic democratic principles.
Fortunately, the route back to a district directed by its residents—and reflective of our community’s values—is quite straightforward: just three (preferably all five) objective, appropriately principled board trustees can easily restore and maintain citizen-directed governance. With such a ‘reset,’ most of our district’s challenges, some quite divisive and disturbing, will quickly fade.
Jeremy Fryberger
Ketchum resident