Welcome!

First, let me state clearly that I am not writing a blog.  Suzan had the right idea, but it's not just one person that should write, but all of us that should have a say, from all of the sides of the school board issue.  Of all of the people who write on Voices or CDT Online pages, I am one of the least eloquent.  I just want to have another spot where people can voice their opinion on the actions of the State College Area School District Board of Directors.  David Hutchenson has a blog here at Voices, and he has interesting content.  However, he stopped addressing what was going on with the school board once the public began pressing him on his comments and actions. He can continue to write about whatever conference he went to or the latest theory on socialization or whatever.  Hope springs eternal so I will keep trying to engage David on the real questions of the school district residents, looking for a moment of truth.  I hope that everyone else does the same and encourages other people to do likewise.  I believe that he has many of the answers, he just refuses to share them.

The CDT, well that's a different story.  They have rushed headlong to the defense of the Old Board Members, ignoring their behavior entirely to attack the new members.  My original thought for this site  would be to have some public area where people can post the comments that the CDT rushes to pull down once the tide is clearly against their position.  They don't pull it down because it's offensive content, they can pull down individual comments they find offensive.  It's because the comments are a challenge to their point of view, and since their articles they publish overwhelmingly favor the minority position of the board/community, those comments cannot stay posted.  I am hoping that someone more tech savvy than me will find a way to post those comments here to give another (tiny) audience for their statement.  Maybe with time maybe this will grow, or someone will build a better site (Wikki perhaps?), or maybe this will just fade away if there is no need for this.  It doesn't matter to me.  However, I think that the discussion needs to be kept alive outside of the CDT.  (On a side note, I also find it humorous that in their latest Op Ed piece the CDT states  "Power", "Control" and "Ego" are motivation factors for the new members.  It's humorous because this is exactly the main reasons why over 80% of the population went to the polls last November and threw the Old Guard out.)  

Finally, let's not kid ourselves into thinking the old board members will work with the new board members. I really had high hopes that Gowen or Hutch or maybe LouAnn might work out.  To be fair, except for the open board seat and the concession stand they pretty much have done their jobs.  My criticism of Hutch and the gang are not personal.  But those two were bellweather issues on what you are about.  The attempt to steal the open seat and the mysterious motivations behind  the concession stands show their true interests moving forward.  They are operating with and eye toward the election in 18 months, public be dammed.  Much like the SOS website had some classic ads dripping with Hypocrisy, (the professional "They're not listening" ad),  I can't help but think their new transparent mantra will emerge, perhaps it's the "They get nothing done" will be reverberating from the pages of the CDT, despite the obvious progress.  It's not over yet.

All that being said, I will hope that someone posts some of the CDT comments on here, some other observations and insights, or not!

Best wishes. 

D6