2008-06-21 School Board

It is both flattering and an honor when people suggest that I run for school board, something that has occurred a few times even with the election several months away. I am extremely appreciative of those who are willing to take on this time-consuming and thankless job and for this reason have to respect anyone who goes through the effort of candidacy for this office even if their views differ from mine.

We all want people who care deeply about the district in these positions but it’s hard to wish this job upon anyone. I hope that many qualified people do in fact run for the open seats in next spring’s District 204 School Board election, but for several reasons I am not planning to be one of them.

One is time. A friend mentioned that it’s like scouts, it only takes up a few hours a month. Yes, this seems to be true. Both scouts and the school board seem to be organizations that theoretically only take a few hours a month and in reality can suck up dozens of hours in any given month. Although I could almost certainly carve out the time required for regularly scheduled school board meetings and maybe even the too frequently added special school board meetings, so much more time is required. Even in calmer times the school board has a lot of reading and e-mailing to do outside of meeting times, and just last year spent numerous additional hours on the district’s search for a new superintendent.

Though I am glad to help stuff and deliver campaign information and signs and attend candidate forums and take extensive notes to share with people, I have no desire to undertake the commitment of being the candidate. I like to believe that I am fair-minded and able to take a district-wide view of issues but I would not have enough time and energy to live up to my own expectations for a board member at this point in my work and family life.

Another reason is that while I have worked very hard on the issues that are important to me, including referendums and air conditioning for the elementary buildings, the school board has to deal with much, much more than that. Many of the items on the board meeting agendas are issues that I’m glad I don’t have to spend time learning about and helping to make an educated decision on. These include budgets, curriculum, contracts, staffing, federal mandates, etc.

This year with land and boundary and legal issues there have been extra meetings, court dates, decisions made that affect thousands of people for years to come, and thousands of e-mails from people whose opinions cover the entire spectrum and are frequently at odds with each other.

After dedicating countless hours of effort to the school district, how is a school board member compensated? There is no financial reward. Their reward is simply in knowing they have done the best they can for the district. Those who are satisfied with what the board is doing often don’t take the time to let them know, but those who are not tend to voice their opinions, and in this time of electronic communications this is quite easily and often done. A person must have a thick skin to deal with the almost constant criticism and questioning of their motives. Virtually everything they say or do will be seen as wrong by some segment of the population.

In the coming months we need some strong and tireless people to step forward who care deeply about their community as a whole, who are intelligent and interested in the entire range of work required by a school board member, who are not afraid to ask and answer tough questions, whose views remain consistent, who have a history of positive involvement in the district, who can work well with the other board members, and who can brush off the negative feedback and do what they think is best and right. I know there are competent citizens who could become productive school board members and I can only hope that some of them are willing and able to devote themselves to this honorable cause.