Last night I wrote a somewhat lengthy post about school board seats. It was a cohesive blog about the issues school boards are having now. I reviewed my own extensive involvement with our school district, as I served in numerous volunteer capacities over the 21 years my boys were in school here. As an active member of the community, I shared my opinion.
In the post, I explained my experience in running for an interim seat in 2018, who won the seat, and why what happened was a surprise. We are right back where we were four years ago with an interim seat up for grabs. The circumstances of the seat becoming available are not pretty, shedding light on poor choices, a lengthy-term, and what I would classify as feelings of omniscience.
There is a common theme I see in both of these situations and that is that people hold office for too long. The person who won their seat back (although, on an interim status) when she ran against me and two other candidates in 2018 did so after being voted off the board just weeks before in the general election. A vacancy created by another board member stepping down to pursue outside interests created an opening. After a forum in which all four candidates participated, the person who lost the general election was reappointed by the BOE by a 4-3 vote for the interim seat. I got the other three votes. She has since been re-elected once and continued to serve until this latest election cycle for a sum total of 25 years.
Recently, our board president resigned approximately two weeks ago after her use of a fake Facebook page was revealed. She has been on our BOE for 26 years.
The post that I wrote last night was much more eloquent than this one. And, it gave more details. But, when it comes down to it, I just want to ask our board of education to consider implementing term limits. It is my opinion that having term limits would have eliminated or greatly reduced the chance rules would be twisted or ignored and leave us with leaders who contribute but do so for only a limited time.
With term limits we would be regularly exposed to new ideas brought forth by new people. Term limits would reduce entrenchment and feelings of omniscience that come with serving long periods of time. Change might be more likely with the influx of new ideas and new people.
Please give it some thought!
Today is Slice of Life Tuesday. Thank you to TwoWritingTeachers.org for creating and hosting this weekly forum. I have participated since February of 2017.
The Apples in My Orchard 