Vacation is Over

I guess when my E-mail gets this full of requests to blog, I’d better blog. I’ve been on hiatus for many reasons I won’t bore you with. But I am going to make a concerted effort to blog at least once weekly.

A quick note about the superintendent and treasurer’s evaluations... The Falls News Press was a little off. I gave the evaluations directly to the employees. It was not a different evaluation from the rest of the board. It was the same form. Why did I give them separately from the board? Because the last two years of evaluations have turned into a fiasco. Two years ago, Barb Gunter gave the lowest scores possible (all “1”s) and infuriated fellow board members. In turn the board majority chose to break protocol and give the individual evaluations rather than a compiled form. This action caused distrust, embarrassment and community outrage. Last year it was agreed that a compiled score would be given but Barb Gunter, as board president, decreed that she was changing the rules and releasing individual scores. This caused another member to go ballistic. And sorry to disappoint my detractors, it wasn’t me.

This year it was known from the start that individual scores would be given. I saw no reason to revisit the controversy of the last two years. If the individual scores are given, why do they need to be averaged for a man with a PhD and a district treasurer? The simple answer is, they don’t. In fact, I would say it’s safe to say that they probably look at individual scores along with member comments, and ignore the average score entirely. The board agreed to give individual evaluation scores, and I gave mine. Perhaps they’re just ticked they didn’t get to preview it first.
Next on the agenda...The renewal levy. I’ve had quite a few people ask me to explain my statement comparing the school district to a drug addict. Actually I compared supporting the renewal levy to supporting a drug addict. You see, years ago one of my best friends became a drug addict. So I have experience with the processes people and families go through. The biggest mistake people make when a drug addict is in their lives is bailing the addict out of tough situations they’ve got themselves into and supporting the addict through thick and thin.

When there is no incentive to change, bad habits continue or get worse. Why stop using drugs when mom will pay your mortgage, dad will make your car payment because he’s the co-signer, your sister will buy groceries because she can’t stand to see the kids go without, your friends will give you gas money so the kids will get to school.

With me so far? So, in the case of the school district, the taxpayers are the friends and family support. Taxpayers don’t necessarily like how their money is spent, and are having a hard time paying their own bills, but they aren’t willing to let the children suffer.

In the case of the drug addict, the monetary support had to stop before she was willing to make changes in her lifestyle. And yes, she had to watch her children suffer before she took steps to change. The same can be said of the school district.

There is never any forward thinking. I have numerous times voted against pay raises, increased benefits, and expensive projects in an attempt to avoid new levy requests. Yes, I know this is a renewal but supporting bad spending is supporting bad spending. Giving 3 years of guaranteed raises to administrators, rather than reviewing yearly what the budget can handle is one example of what I’m talking about. We all know how volatile a school budget is. It’s no secret how often the State giveth and the State taketh away. By supporting a levy, you are supporting this type of thinking. Lock in raises regardless of what our financial status may be in the future.

Meanwhile the rest of the working world is taking pay cuts or layoffs, or the new craze- unpaid furloughs.