In the last election I had the opportunity to work with an amazing group of people who willfully subject themselves to public scrutiny simply to provide for the educational needs of our children. First, as a critic of the School District’s bond proposal and then after due consideration, a supporter, I came to appreciate the hard work and dedication that our volunteer School Board members have put into this process.
The Orcas voters have now made a clear statement that they cannot/will not support the current School District development plan. Those of us who supported the initiative may not like the outcome of the vote, but I do believe that we understand the resistance to the project as it was proposed. We know that in order to make many of the badly needed repairs and improvements to our campus we will need to reach farther out to the community to develop a new plan that balances the economic, educational and functional needs of our schools.
A new, viable plan will take the support of our community, reaching out and providing the School Board with the answers they need. A discussion that leads us down a path where our school board members are vilified, criticized and otherwise accused of malfeasance does not move us forward. I can only imagine that for many of them, a defeat in the next election would signal a relief. I know that for all of them, this process has caused mental exhaustion and was not done to further their high-paying political careers, but instead in an attempt to do what they felt was right for their community and their constituents.
As the discussion of school buildings, maintenance and quality of education moves forward in time, I hope that those vocal in support as well as in resistance step up to help formulate a new plan – one not focused on divisiveness, but instead on the best course of action for our schools.
Justin Paulsen
Justin,
Couldn’t agree more! Very well written and an excellent example to follow.
Well said,Justin.
The scool board need not languish in defeat but rather must take heart in the amount of support there is in our community for their efforts. I was surprised how close the vote was, given the broader issues of an economy in the trash and double digit unemployment.
Now, the board must double their efforts to solve the problems with the buildings and space. I worked in Japan for 9 years in my professional career and the first thing that I came face to face with from the first day there, was that nothing can happen without concensus and concensus doesn’t happen by announcement of what we want done. As we learned in the recent vote, it doesn’t take many dissenters to turn what has always been community support around.
Maybe the lump was just too big to swallow. Maybe the lump was so large that it couldn’t be explained within the length of the average voter’s attention span. Maybe the attention given to public debate about how many students there are turned voters away from the core issues. Maybe there wasn’t enough effort to reach out to the community for support for “fixing” each thing that isn’t working rather than concentrating on “the whole nine yards”
And the “maybes” can go on and on. One thing is certain. The school board needs input and not from just a few but from all. And it doesn’t make any difference whether we voted for or against. The school board needs help from the “trades”, from the professionals and from the parents – and most important from those who have no axe to grind or financial bias.
Charlie Binford
Deer Harbor