I\u00a0am confident we all want the same thing from our school\u00a0district: successful students. I\u2019m sure everyone would agree that good\u00a0teachers, staff and administrators are essential. So the debate isn\u2019t about the end goal, it\u2019s about how to get there.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The BCSD board of trustees ultimately determines that\u00a0path. In the BCSD\u00a0Staff Engagement Survey,\u00a0only\u00a021percent of respondents said they feel a strong sense of teamwork among the\u00a0board of trustees \u2013 a dismal\u00a0approval rating.<\/p>\n
\u00a0This begs the question: Who do we want to lead our district?<\/p>\n
\u00a0There will soon be an opportunity to choose. Trustee\u00a0Freund from Zone 3 has stepped down. Idaho Code requires the board to fill this\u00a0position within 90 days of\u00a0announcing the vacancy. Ideally, a well-qualified Zone\u00a03 resident will apply and be appointed so that residents from all five zones will\u00a0have representation on the\u00a0board.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The Coalition for BCSD Accountability, a small but\u00a0vocal group, will be seeking an applicant to support their views. The Coalition\u2019s Jeremy Fryberger told me he believes the\u00a0current school district leadership team is\u00a0\u201cmorally and ethically corrupt\u201d. People who know them would find that hard to believe. He added that it may \u201cbe time for a different approach.\u201d\u00a0The Coalition\u203as approach is clear. They harassed and\u00a0insulted Mike Chatterton, the district\u2019s\u00a0business manager for 29 years, until he retired early. They regularly sent\u00a0disparaging emails to the board, exacerbating\u00a0Trustee Freund\u2019s health problems until\u00a0she had to resign.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The BCSD board\u2019s Code of Ethics does not allow\u00a0trustees to have a hidden agenda or to surrender their judgment to special\u00a0interest groups. Yet Trustee Corker\u00a0exchanged 364 pages of emails with the\u00a0Coalition over just 10 months last year (see BCSD Public Records Request,\u00a012\/11\/2015). The Coalition and Trustee Corker\u00a0have insisted that the district\u00a0be transparent. Yet the Coalition\u2019s own membership and mission are opaque \u2013 see\u00a0their website:\u00a0www.coalitionbcsd.com. The Coalition\u00a0and Trustee Corker demand that the district be fiscally\u00a0responsible. Yet when Superintendent Holmes painstakingly and successfully led\u00a0the district to balance the\u00a0budget for the first time in years \u2013 as directed by\u00a0the board \u2013 they have ostracized and harangued her. Even worse, Pamela Plowman,\u00a0Barbara Browning and the Coalition have just filed a frivolous (i.e., expensive)\u00a0lawsuit against the district.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Trustee Corker claims to put students\u2019 needs first,\u00a0yet promoted adding Syringa as an innovation school at a cost of over $2 million this year and $1.3 million\/year thereafter. Trustee Corker and the\u00a0Coalition demand good leadership. Yet their disrespectful treatment of the\u00a0administration at board meetings and in the press has\u00a0the entire staff on edge,\u00a0and is making hiring a new business manager extremely difficult.<\/p>\n
\u00a0So who DO we want to lead our district?<\/p>\n
\u00a0The Coalition would have you believe that there\u00a0are only two options: either you agree with their agenda or you don\u2019t care\u00a0about students.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Ridiculous.<\/p>\n
I believe that choosing to treat each other with\u00a0respect will lead us to actually respect one another. Having respect breeds\u00a0trust, which facilitates constructive debate.\u00a0That will improve our district\u00a0far more successfully than anger and animosity.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Please consider carefully who you want to represent\u00a0you. This appointment can tip the balance of the board. Be vocal. Engage others\u00a0in the community in a\u00a0discussion, and be willing to listen. Embrace differences\u00a0of opinion. Invite a rational debate. And above all \u2013 communicate with the\u00a0board. Make sure your voice is\u00a0heard \u2013 not just the angry extremists.<\/p>\n
\u00a0To learn more about nationwide challenges to improving\u00a0school districts, I highly recommend the book\u00a0\u201cSchools Cannot Do It Alone,\u201d\u00a0by Jamie Vollmer. Join the conversation.<\/p>\n
Lara Stone<\/b><\/p>\n
Blaine County resident<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u00a0am confident we all want the same thing from our school\u00a0district: successful students. I\u2019m sure everyone would agree that good\u00a0teachers, staff and administrators are essential. So the debate isn\u2019t about the end goal, it\u2019s about how to get there. \u00a0The BCSD board of trustees ultimately determines that\u00a0path. In the BCSD\u00a0Staff Engagement Survey,\u00a0only\u00a021percent of respondents said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-education","7":"category-letters-to-the-editor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}