Citizens for 13J Excellence is a community organization devoted to supporting the schools of Central School District by championing communication and transparency, and by rallying the community to the needs of the schools
I wish this group the best of luck as they do what they believe is right. I truly do. However, less than one third of the ballots were returned. I don't think this is "the people" have spoken. I think this is "the people who wanted Susan gone" have spoken. Just today as I talked to a couple parents, they truly had no idea what all of this was about.
According to your site, you want to get people better informed. I hope you do and can get more involvement.
I believe Citizens for 13J Exellence has tried to give information that is factual and informative. If one "has no idea what this was about" then they should have taken the time to ask questions. The people who took the time to vote knew what was going on in our school district and they made their voice known. I know that Citizens for 13J Excellence will continue to work to help our school district be the best it can be!
Anon 1, I think it's difficult to divide "the people who wanted Susan gone" from "the people," since one of the most significant complaints about her leadership was that "the people" didn't feel heard. Some of them got frustrated and active while many decided that, since they could never know what was going on or if their comments mattered, they would simply check out. Though the number may seem small, for a special election the turn-out is pretty remarkable; I expected far less and didn't think the results would be so overwhelming. Still, part of the reason it seems like there was a small number of frustrated people was that few people were willing to do the very hard work to figure out what was going on. I hope that greater transparency will increase public involvement. Though it would be great for Ms. Stoops to reflect on the meaning of this election, that's really irrelevant now. My greater concern is that the board will say, "Well, that's over and done with so let's move on." I think they need to spend some time reflecting on what this says about the way information was controlled and the public was kept at arms length. This was never a vendetta against Ms. Stoops (at least until she intimated that the entire community lacked a moral compass). This has been about the community's stake in its schools. It's also been an inspiring civics lesson for all of us: If the superintendent can't or won't do his job, the board has the responsibility to provide oversight. If they can't or won't, it's the responsibility of the community to step up and make them. This community stepped up, and I'm very proud to live in a place where voters took their role in education seriously.
A 30% turnout is low but it's twice as many as voted in the last regular school board elections. The lack of knowledge/involvment in our schools on the part of many parents is unfortunately not new. That's what allowed people to drive by the beautiful new high school and think that everything in our schools was just fine. The story behind that brick facade was not so pretty.
One way of reading this election is that it represents an upsurge in interest in the real workings of our district. Those who have been paying attention and those who took the time to ask questions now have the chance to make a difference. I hope that people will start coming to school board meetings and will continue to ask questions and voice their opinions.
We have our regular school board elections coming up, in fact ballots were being mailed out yesterday. There will be video of our candidate's forum posted on this site later today. If you were not able to attend the forum, I hope you will take the time to watch the video before casting your vote. Sometime soon the board will be choosing a replacement for Susan Stoops so if you know someone from her zone who you think would be a good board member, encourage them to apply. Beyond the composition of the board, the most immediate concern is to improve communication at all levels throughout the district and to choose a new superintendent.
As John says, this is just the end of the beginning. Where we go from here depends on all of us.
I wish this group the best of luck as they do what they believe is right. I truly do. However, less than one third of the ballots were returned. I don't think this is "the people" have spoken. I think this is "the people who wanted Susan gone" have spoken. Just today as I talked to a couple parents, they truly had no idea what all of this was about.
ReplyDeleteAccording to your site, you want to get people better informed. I hope you do and can get more involvement.
I believe Citizens for 13J Exellence has tried to give information that is factual and informative. If one "has no idea what this was about" then they should have taken the time to ask questions. The people who took the time to vote knew what was going on in our school district and they made their voice known. I know that Citizens for 13J Excellence will continue to work to help our school district be the best it can be!
ReplyDeleteAnon 1, I think it's difficult to divide "the people who wanted Susan gone" from "the people," since one of the most significant complaints about her leadership was that "the people" didn't feel heard. Some of them got frustrated and active while many decided that, since they could never know what was going on or if their comments mattered, they would simply check out. Though the number may seem small, for a special election the turn-out is pretty remarkable; I expected far less and didn't think the results would be so overwhelming. Still, part of the reason it seems like there was a small number of frustrated people was that few people were willing to do the very hard work to figure out what was going on. I hope that greater transparency will increase public involvement. Though it would be great for Ms. Stoops to reflect on the meaning of this election, that's really irrelevant now. My greater concern is that the board will say, "Well, that's over and done with so let's move on." I think they need to spend some time reflecting on what this says about the way information was controlled and the public was kept at arms length. This was never a vendetta against Ms. Stoops (at least until she intimated that the entire community lacked a moral compass). This has been about the community's stake in its schools. It's also been an inspiring civics lesson for all of us: If the superintendent can't or won't do his job, the board has the responsibility to provide oversight. If they can't or won't, it's the responsibility of the community to step up and make them. This community stepped up, and I'm very proud to live in a place where voters took their role in education seriously.
ReplyDeleteA 30% turnout is low but it's twice as many as voted in the last regular school board elections. The lack of knowledge/involvment in our schools on the part of many parents is unfortunately not new. That's what allowed people to drive by the beautiful new high school and think that everything in our schools was just fine. The story behind that brick facade was not so pretty.
ReplyDeleteOne way of reading this election is that it represents an upsurge in interest in the real workings of our district. Those who have been paying attention and those who took the time to ask questions now have the chance to make a difference. I hope that people will start coming to school board meetings and will continue to ask questions and voice their opinions.
We have our regular school board elections coming up, in fact ballots were being mailed out yesterday. There will be video of our candidate's forum posted on this site later today. If you were not able to attend the forum, I hope you will take the time to watch the video before casting your vote. Sometime soon the board will be choosing a replacement for Susan Stoops so if you know someone from her zone who you think would be a good board member, encourage them to apply. Beyond the composition of the board, the most immediate concern is to improve communication at all levels throughout the district and to choose a new superintendent.
As John says, this is just the end of the beginning. Where we go from here depends on all of us.