Public School Wannabe Candidates-Board of Ed Administration Failures

Our public schools are run by the folks that we taxpayers elect into those positions; namely The Board of Education. They then become the boss for your local Superintendent. Each time the election process comes into play, you may see these ‘public school wannabe candidates’ standing outside a local department store, supermarket or they may even go door to door introducing themselves. They usually paint a pretty good public relations scenario that they pitch to you and if they are really good at it then you can be sure that they will be elected and get into those positions.

That is all fine and dandy, but have you ever had an issue or a real problem that required you to approach these elected folks? I have. What I found absolutely absurd was how many hoops I had to jump through to get my message across. I ultimately wrote a two page typed letter and attached all the documents to that letter. I then sent my letter to all board members via certified mail. I used a very large over-sized envelope that was not deliverable by mail rather it forced them to go to the post office to sign for the envelope. I wanted to be sure that they received my message and they all did.

What transpired from that was astounding. Out of 9 elected officials only one contacted me. When she and I spoke the very first thing she said to me was, ‘I am not supposed to be contacting you at all, but your letter moved me to tears in the parking lot of the Post Office that I felt compelled to contact you. If I am ever approached, then this conversation never happened and it is my word against yours.’ She and I spoke for about 10 minutes and I was able to nail the topic down which threw even more red flags in her line of sight.

This Board of Education official instructed me to contact the Superintendent. What I found very frustrating was that when I approached the Superintendent her secretary said, ‘I am sorry, she is in a meeting and won’t be available to meet with you.’ I should state here that nobody knew who I was or what was going on, I was just your average town citizen attempting to set up an appointment. In addition, when I spoke to this secretary, the Superintendent was 15 feet away laughing with a colleague about a funny joke that she had told. I did hear that joke and was tempted to ask the secretary if that ‘was her meeting’ but I refrained. The secretary said she would give her the message and Superintendent was very good at returning calls. That call never came. A few weeks later I sent an email to the Board of Education stating that I had never been contacted and that email was never acknowledged. When I called several weeks later to follow up on the never answered email, they conveniently said, ‘We never received an email from you.’ Funny thing is, I used the Official Town Website to contact them via email just by a click on the ‘contact’ field. Hmmmm, I guess they need their webmaster to look into that!

I found it very interesting that people whom we elect (the wannabe candidates) will always say the right things during an election year, but they are really never approachable after the election. We can now call them ‘Public School Wannabe Candidates – Board of Ed Administration Failures’.
When that woman did call me and said ‘this call never happened’ it made me feel like I was talking to nobody really. Nobody that would take my issue to the top and fix the problems that is severe enough and moved her to tears. To date these problems are still there and nothing has been done to fix them. For the record it has now been 3 (almost 4) calendar years.

The public school system that is run by the people described above is in a shambles. How bad is it?

- I pulled my youngest child out of public school and began to homeschool her. The Board of Ed tried to bully me about doing that, too.
- The officials could not accommodate our needs or I should say would not even abide by their own policies to ensure that every child was safe.
- Our church has lost 80 percent or more of younger families who have moved out of town because the system stinks and the officials can’t find their way out of a paper bag.
- Veteran teachers who added great value to the system finally gave up and quit.

When my older daughter went through the public system, I had to fight for what she needed and that was like running a 20 mile marathon backwards! I had some success, but I think I was in the right place at the right time; the officials didn’t have time for the average person in their own town to assist me. I had one teacher who stepped way out of her bounds and helped lead the way down this very uncertain road. Unfortunately she is no longer with the school system; she got fed up, too, like so many others.

So what’s the average parent to do? That is the million dollar question. Here are some thoughts and ideas:

- When these ‘public school wannabe candidates’ people step into the limelight and say ‘Vote for Me’ you need to drill them with some questions. Make them feel very uncomfortable by moving off topic or their ‘platform’. They have a predetermined speech or topics that they want to cover and are well rehearsed. Don’t let them! Force them to answer your topics and see what kind of person they really are before they get elected. If you get a lot of ‘ummm’s and I don’t knows’ are they worthy of your precious vote?

- Possible questions:

1. What is the school policy in regards to bullying? How is that enforced?
2. If my child has a special need, how can I be sure as a taxpayer that it will be met?
3. What tools of measurement are in place to monitor such programs?
4. What is the student sick policy? Do you send kids home who are sick or do you cater to the parents by letting them stay in school to infect everyone else? How is that enforced?
5. Who on the Board is assigned to the school that your child is in?
6. If you want to call them and talk ‘on record’ will they accept that phone call?
7. How much monies are appropriated to each school, what programs are they for and how is that monitored?
8. Are there bank accounts for each school? If a parent wants to view the budget for each school and see where the monies are being spent, can they see it?

Let them know that if they do get elected and they will not honor your comments or suggestions, then maybe the local newspaper or TV station would like to hear that story instead. Expose them! I am NOT suggesting slander; just lift the covers so everyone can see what is broken because it needs to be fixed. Hopefully you will not have to go down that road, but don’t rule it out either.

Right now we have no children in the public school system. We are asked to vote on budgets to provide wonderful things for these public school children. I can say that I have voted every budget down. It is a no brainer for us because we know that the problems are still there and they have not done a thing to fix what I had documented for them in the first place. They do not deserve any raises and their claims to improving or adding are just smoke in the wind. Towns around us are publicly stating their budget cuts, no increases and officials are taking pay cuts. We don’t see that in this town.

I have found that being a strong advocate as a parent and a taxpayer does have its benefits, but be warned about the energy and time needed to pull these efforts off. I hate politics and I hate liars. What really gets me even angrier is when there is an article in the newspaper or a story on the local TV news that make these people come out smelling like roses. This has people saying the most ridiculous things; example: Oh they are wonderful. I read that in the paper and I feel very comfortable with what they are doing…yadda yadda yadda! I feel very strongly that the taxpayers need to step up to the plate and stop electing the public school wannabe candidates-Board of Ed Administration failures. If you really don’t have a vested interest in your town or care where the monies you fork out for taxes are going, then I want to ask you ‘Why not?'

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