I spent the first weekend of February – only ten days after the inauguration and just as negotiations were beginning over the economic stimulus package - at the Federal Relations Network (FRN) conference in Washington, D.C.. It was an extraordinary time to be in the capitol.
The FRN is the branch of the National School Boards Association that is responsible for influencing federal education policy. Having school board members from across the country speaking with nearly every legislator, on the same day, is a good way to have an impact.
School board members make unusual ‘lobbyists’ in that they don’t typically speak as partisans or on their own behalf. Because they are seldom endorsed by political parties when they run for office, they are not beholden to a particular political perspective.
For example, school board members are not necessarily aligned with the teacher unions, with whom they have to negotiate every few years. Rather, they represent the entire education community, students in particular.
It’s essential that our representatives in Harrisburg and Washington hear from constituents who are not only well-informed, but who also understand the impact that state and federal policy has at the level of the local school. It doesn’t hurt that we share with them the perspective and experience of being an elected official. Considering the overwhelming spectrum of issues about which our representatives need to be knowledgeable, I don’t think you can overstate the value of providing them with an opportunity to hear a perspective that is relatively unbiased.
I’m of the opinion that while school board members are primarily accountable to their local communities, we are also citizens – as is everyone - of the broader community, and therefore we have a responsibility to be engaged at the state and national level. It’s part of how we create an informed national education policy.
Petitioning the government
- schoolboardblogger hutch153's blog
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Comments
Criminal
This guy should be beat upside the head with a stupid stick. Thank you so much for trying to justify the expenditure of public dollars so that you can allegedly "lobby" for the SCASD aka take vacations with tax dollars. I would like to see specifics on numbers, dollars, programs, grants how one damn dime that you spent has been returned to the district from your so called lobbying efforts. If that 3-4 minute of off the cuff comments that you give at board meetings is your report, spare me the presentation.
"...hear a perspective that is relatively unbiased?" Are you nuts? Do you expect us to believe that you or Evans or whoever was traveling with our money actually went to Harrisburg or Washington during those months when the community was kicking and scratching to get you to listen and said "at home, we are embroiled in one of the biggest school controversies in the history of Pennsylvania and our hates our decisions" or "we attempted to push the most expensive renovation project on our calendar into the fast track so that we can avoid the public referendum in Act I but got caught doing it." No. In fact, we know that the interactions of the former board at PSBA, NSBA, in Harrisburg and in the press disrespectfully pointed to the people who demanded accountability on the incredible waste of money as being the "vocal minority." 89% of the vote later and we still don't have our $5 million. Unbiased? Cut the crap.
I think we should demand that NO more money be spent on travel until these jokers are out of office. Clean sweep of the old board and then start all over.
As you are preparing your re-election materials, get ready for the question that we plan to ask you at every meeting, debate and in the press. WHERE IS OUR $5 MILLION?
School Board Members ARE Primarily Accountable to Their Local Co
Truer words have never been posted on Voices. Mr. Hutchinson, YOUR local community as assessed your work on our behalf and find it severely wanting, bordering on malfeasant. Basically, you are out of your depth in a puddle of rainwater. Somewhere out there is a village looking for its village idiot, and I do hope the two of you are able to reconnect before you embarrass yourself by running for re-election.
Oh, and we DO know where our $5,000,000 went.
stupid stick?
I kinda feel the same way about these attacks
I hear that Borderline - I don't know what these folks are on, but it seems to make them loose their power to effectively present their attacks.
I keep hoping somebody will give me/us some kind of clear presentation of exactly what all the hoopla and rage is about.
Near as I can make out, there are some right wingers who really hate somebody named Queeney. And it makes them froth that ole Hutch here doesn't devote every single word to anti-queeneyism. If he talks about education they go totally nuts.
Every once in a while they name-drop various figures - $75,000 and $5mil come to mind - and at the mention of actual figures, my interest is piqued. But I never see a coherent explanation of either the specific financial decisons or the realpolitics behind this all, at least not anything that informs me as to what is actually happening and what the voters are supposed to do about it.
It all has the heated, fetid, smoke&mirrors backroom politics feeling about it. Who's really representing who? What's actually going on?
And most importantly, who, why, and when are the voters supposed to do something about it all?
I think the $5M is the
I think the $5M is the amount of money that was paid to pay off Kimball Architects for the design of the mega school (a plan that was clearly a bad idea from day one and was hotly contested and that people warned the district could not be built for what they said it could be built for). Low and behold, the bids came back too high and it was not built and somehow, the district did not protect itself well and had to actually pay the architects $5M for essentially nothing but drawings of a failed plan. There is anger about that. I'm not sure it makes sense to spew the anger the way it is often spewed - but the anger is a normal and appropriate reaction to the incompetence, arrogance to not heed sound (and accurate it turned out) advice, and laziness of the old board - of which Mr. Hutchinson is part of and has never - not once - admitted any responsibility for.
What we need is a schoolboard wiki or cliffnotes
I know I've asked the various critics before to write up their summaries of the schoolboard story - I guess mostly I've suggested they start blogs of their own, but what I meant was write out a point-by-point presentation of the issues and people involved.
It still seems like a good idea to me.
I'm tempted to suggest a "wiki", that is, a group edited presentation, altho the vitriol and the politicking could get out of control.
When is the next election?
Great explanation
Exactly YYY. I remember when the whole thing started that some guy stood up at a board meeting and predicted that eventually the old board would use the excuse "we've already spent too much money" as a reason to continue. At that time, they were about $700,000 into the project and were still talking about demolishing the South Building with a fairly new wing attached and outstanding debt on it of up to $1 million. That guy should have purchased a ticket at the races because he was smack on. They didn't stop then and it cost all of us. The old board ignored the public and dismissed experts who had predicted the bids would come in too high and who had provided documentation that the project was not viable on that property or in the SC community. All came true. The old board ended up paying out over $5 million to architects and construction managers for a POS plan and were never held accountable. Now Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Roper are running for office again and Hutch continues to try to show us how smart he is on this blog. We don't need smart, we need RIGHT. Had he listened to his constituents we would have $5 million more to fix up the elementary schools (rather than line architect pockets). They will never answer the questions. I think people have the right to be angry and to demand accountability.
The vitriol that is spewed on these pages about Republicans, George Bush, big business, and anything anti-union makes outrage about my use of the words stupid stick laughable. I think it provided a nice visual although not as nice as the T and A on the front cover.
Summary from A Sock Puppet
Bill,
A summary of the historical background around the school board story (and Mr Hutchinson's involvement) can be found at the website below.
Cindy
http://erictopp.net/
Great Idea- whatever a "wiki" is...
Bill, I like the idea of a group account of what happened - I'm not sure how that would work exactly. I know I personally don't have time to write out the entire 7 books of the "Chronicles of SCASDia" (yet) - so maybe you should narrow it down a bit to one situation - like the anonymous donation for a athletic support facility or something like that. One situation/topic at a time may be easier to work with.
So who do you think should take Hutch's place?
Well, anti-republicans like me aren't as skilled at the old acid-in-the-face rhetoric as you highly trained blackops repubs, but we're learning.
Anyway, civil war aside, the question is, who's the alternative to old Hutch here?
I don't really have a dog in this hunt. The one (no, wait, two) thing(s) I'm personally certain of, is that republicans never actually cut costs, and that the big money in this region is going to win no matter who's in local government. I'm a massive cynic, with no faith in any of the parties involved.
So that's the question on the table - who's going to be running against Hutch? And who the heck is Roper? And who's running against him?
What parties back which candidates?
Is there ANYONE who can explain what's actually happening?
A "wiki" is the opensource software that runs wikipedia
It lets a crowd of people write down what they know about something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
The problem with a pure wiki is that it is vulnerable to lying, defamation, and other bad information problems if there are not enough people watching over it, which is probably the case here.
That is, if there aren't enough people watching over it to make sure that bad information is refuted, it can become a 'poisoned well'. Well poisoning is one of the political black arts.
So, maybe a true wiki is more trouble than it's worth. (altho, darn, wouldn't a real wiki about central pa in general be handy? Who are the best doctors, dentists, lawyers? How to navigate local government? That kind of thing.)
But what about cliffnotes? And by that I mean summaries of the issues and the players and MOST IMPORTANT the proposed solutions. That might be possible.
When I see pure attacks, with no sense of humor and no solutions offered, I personally tend to think worse of the attacker than the attacked.
However, I realize this probably isn't typical for most modern americans. We've become an nation of rageaholics, and lost a lot of our sense of humor and openness.
Pardon my ignorance
I don't know what a "blackops republican" is but I will assume it isn't a good thing.
Dr. Roper and Mr. Hutchinson are the last remaining members of the old school board. The other tax and spenders have either been ousted or are not running again (probably because they don't want to answer the accountability questions about the wasted $5 million, how arrogantly they treated the public or what they have been doing with $100 million per year if our buildings are in such disrepair). Roper and Hutchinson, who are both admittedly "Queeney Lite" when it comes to disregard for the voters, will be the only two of the old guard remaining - but who still have the stain of the high school renovation plan on their hands.
The question of who should take Hutch or Roper's place is an easy one. ANYONE else. School board races should not be political - I don't give a squat if the new people are Dems or Repubs - it just shouldn't be those who we know for a fact have disregard for the public and for fiscal responsibility.
No humor?
Hard to tell in a flat dimensional screen if people are offering humor or not. I frankly thought the "stupid stick" reference was funny but apparently some did not. I can't speak for others but I only feel angry enough to respond to blogs when the blogger like "schoolboardblogger" misrepresents, misinforms and or treats others like they are stupid. It's an insult.
The State College community asked to be heard by the school board and Hutch and his buddies refused but now he wants us to listen to his musings in a blog. Duh. The economy is in the crapper and this guy spends our money going to conferences. They ignore policy on the Queeney crapper but demand full accountability in other areas. Do you want more examples?
Rage? We have a right. Solutions? We should sue their butts to get our money back.
Was George Santayana Correct?
Dear Cindy,
Thank you for the post and hope it provides some value so we can learn from history vs. being doomed to repeat it. Of all the insults, I received during the last three years, the Sockpuppet one always amuses me since I never executed or participated in any action related to that term:
Per Wikipedia: A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception within an online community. In its earliest usage, a sockpuppet was a false identity through which a member of an Internet community speaks with or about himself or herself, pretending to be a different person like a ventriloquist manipulating a hand puppet. The key difference between a sockpuppet and a regular pseudonym (sometimes termed an "alt" which is short for alternate, as in alternate identity) is the pretense that the puppet is a third party who is not affiliated with the puppeteer
The term was given to me by Veblen (in between his/her rages against PSU leadership) yet he/she refuses to go public about anything (a bit ironic). I have always posted under the name of Status Quo No on both this site and the CDT’s site. I don’t have any other accounts or post without this login. I was attacked on the CDT's blog for all of these anonymous negative posts that I was supposed to have written and I responded. I was happy to be open (I even posted with my name and my pseudonym). I have yet to see a name used in an account on the CDT Web or the Voices Web as most people use a login name. Just as it is easy to tell my posts from my writing style (and name), I know several of the people on this board by their styles (not a mystery). They prefer to remain anonymous and that is their call. During this process, it was interesting to see what things people will say when they are assured of being anonymous.
I think the bigger topic of discussion is why did so few people turn in petitions to run for the four plus two (four seats for four years and one seat for two years) election? I am not a fan of Hutch for many reasons but at least he is running. It seems like we have many people in the community who would be fine candidates yet they do not run. The position of school board director is not the most exciting (no pay, no benefits and lots of issues) but it is one of the most important jobs around.
If it makes you feel any better, State College is not unique. Tampa, FL has the fifth largest district in the United States yet all of the same issues that we had and in some cases still have. The biggest issue right now is cell towers and how the district is putting them up on school property right next to the buildings. Nothing to compare with the SC District Wide Master Plan! I hope that you folks have a normal election with people who want to give selfless service vs. selfish service, don’t have any PACs with overpaid consultants/lobbyists, don’t have opposing binary groups and don’t let political parties take over a non-partisan race. All of that said, I think it is important to remember the past and that a small group of committed people can make a difference.
Good Luck!
What an opus. Absolutely fascinating.
Kudo's to Eric for writing and publishing such an interesting story.
As I like to say, borrowing from Kipling, "You're a better man than I am Gunga Din!".
Long tho - quite a read. More summary would be useful, And seeing it laid out that way does raise additional questions in my mind.
So both the voices editor's and your opponent's storyline was that you folks were shilling for big money? Which big money was that?
I recall driving by that spraypainted sign.
Crazy stuff
So, it's no pay, big benefit is you get to go to conferences?
Wow.
And nobody really wants to run for the position - and if you do you are dragged thru the muck of local politics power and money?
And everybodies mad because back in the day Hutch and some other folks thought it was a good idea to build a kick ass modern new school?
And because local politics has traditionally been a closeknit aristocratic backroom affair?
It's true, as you mention in your website, Hutch's posts are pretty much a soliloquy. But, at the same time, he's not being a big crybaby about all these attacks, he keeps posting his observations. He gets reputation points for that.
Too bad you left town SQN - even if you are part of the party that says government doesnt work, then gets elected and proves it.
So it's like "Off with the heads of the old regime!"
Actually, I have great admiration for the political blackarts, so it's not a bad thing. Consider it ritual exchange of tribal challenges - you call me effete liberal I call you corporate lapdog, that kind of thing. Friendly really.
So, you're saying you don't care who it is. But SOMEBODY cares, right? Somewhere within 20 miles from here people are drawing up the short lists. Actual people are being considered for the meatgrinder. The backrooms and the restaurants are hosting various meetings, plans are being made?
By who? Who's names are being circulated?
I shudder to think of the horror they are about to undergo.
Bill, I don't think it is so
Bill, I don't think it is so evenly divided by traditional party lines. And you are right that both parties are prone to wasting money. As a democrat, I have been disturbed to see just how crooked and dishonest local dems are!
What is needed in both parties - and locally - is principled leadership. The Queeney hot dog stand speaks volumes and showed that the entire board (old and new/republican and dem) allowed an incredible breach of district policy and shenanigans just so they wouldn't look bad or lose $150,000 donation for something that they didn't even know they wanted. Disappointing to say the least. It screams that the district is vulnerable to bending over for any amount of money or just to avoid criticism from the press. So, first, we need better structure for the board to operate with better systems in place to avoid having the district be so easily manipulated.
While I have some ideas about the motives of the people involved in pushing for that, I have no proof - so I won't state it - but even if it were an "honest mistake" (which I find to be about as likely as snow in August), they should not have let that pass - on principle.
In terms of the last high school project fiasco, most of the board selected that mega school option with about as much thought as picking out a dress for a party. They were not aware of their total blind trust in senior board members and their administrator and hired architects. It is as if they said "okay - whatever - sounds great - hey where's the pizza - can we go home now?" Most of the board members seemed so silly up there to the public because they were approving a 100 Million dollar project and it was clear that they didn't even know which building was the north or the south -much less anything substantial about what they were rubber stamping. They simply looked clueless and it was, again, disappointing to some and infuriating to others who struggle just to stay in their homes due to high local property taxes.
So, what I am personally looking for are board members with the courage to do the right thing even if kids have to wait a year for a weenie stand to work it out the right way or even if the petulant donor takes her money back (money that no one even really knew existed).
I'm looking for courage of conviction and some moral compass and common sense. So far, I only like two of the candidates - but I have more to learn about the others.
It's All About Accountability and Fiscal Responsibility
The issue was the old board’s lack of accountability to the parents, teachers and tax payers of the SCASD. They insisted on pushing forward with a seriously flawed plan. It wasn’t a “Kick-ass modern new school”, it was a bad investment decision, poorly designed, and executed without proper technical oversight or review. Professionals from the community regularly attended school board meetings to address their concerns to the board. Their comments fell on deaf ears.
The old school board suffered from a phenomenon known in the business world as “Delusions of Success” (Dan Lavallo and Daniel Kahneman, Harvard Business Review, July 2003). When evaluating the outcomes of a complex issue like the high school renovation, the board fell into the grip of what psychologists call the “planning fallacy gap”, where decisions are made based on delusional optimism rather than on a rational weighting of gains, loses and probabilities. They overestimated the benefits of their planned renovation while underestimating the costs. They spun scenarios of success while overlooking the potential for mistake and miscalculation. As a result, the board took the community down a path that was doomed to failure and $5,000,000 was spent on a bridge to nowhere. How many of our elementary schools could we have renovated with those lost funds?
Hutchison and Roper have apparently never learned from their mistakes. The concern that many of us have in the community is that they will therefore repeat them. In the current economic climate, using tax payer money to fly to San Diego to listen to Julie Andrews does not demonstrate fiscal responsibility or sound judgment.
Well said
The current Candidates
I think there are several candidates who are just running - no one is "backing" them that I am aware of. Gowen Roper is currently a board member and is from the "old board." And while he was one of the least offensive of the lot, he was no less responsible for the waste of time and money (not to mention loss of public trust) in past years. I could be tempted to vote for him if I ever saw any ownership of the problems and/or evidence of lessons learned. As Antidonna said, if he has not learned from the past, he is likely to repeat it.
Jim Leous was a write-in candidate for the last election and seemed aligned with the democratic party and with the old board since he was running with an old board member Bob Hendrickson who lost the primary re-election last time (Hendrickson was actually a long-time republican but switched at the final hour to run with Leous and get backing of the local dems!). Not sure how Leous got roped into the deal with Hendrickson b/c he was not actively involved in anything/never attended meetings, etc. Now, though, he is serving on the steering committee for facilities as a representative of a now defunct group that was called "citizens for constructive progress." These were an odd grouping of people who initially admitted that they too hated the mega school "modern educational massive facility" but they wanted to support the board in that decision anyway.??? Many paradoxes here/things don't add up well - not sure what it means - I'm likely to stay away from it.
Jim P. is a current school board member who was appointed and had no involvement with the past nonsense as far as I can tell and I think he is doing a great job currently.
I think the others are: Ron Servello, Penni Fishbaine, Tim Eden, - did I miss anyone?
Don't know much about the above others yet or why they are running/what they hope to accomplish. Interested to find out more.
Current Candidates and the Past
YYY,
Here is the playbook for this time:
Two Year Term:Jim Pawelczyk (R,D)*
David Hutchinson (R,D)*
Four Year Term:David Hutchinson (R,D)*
Gowen Roper (R,D)*
Ron Servello (R,D)
Tim Eden (R,D)
Penni Fishbaine (R,D)
Pete Schempf (R,D)
Brian Kaleita (R,D)
Andrew Sicree (R)
*Note: Current Board Members
The election has one position for a two year term and four positions for a four year term. You can probably cross Sicree (way too far off the reservation) and Servello (filed last time but pulled out) off the list. Both Jim and Tim were interviewed for the position vacated by Barney Grimes and I have included a link to the highlights.
Tim Eden:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOAeBGPd2mo
Jim Pawelczyk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EAL9zm0dH4
I don’t really understand Dave’s strategy of running for both terms but that is his call. Leous ran with Bob Hendrickson last time under the Save Our Schools (SOS) Write-In Campaign. I think he was duped into running as the SOS campaign tried all kinds of dirty tricks during the last election but Jim always seemed like a decent guy. I did find it ironic that he joined a platform about saving neighborhood schools but was not around when the neighborhood (Holmes-Foster) tried to save Community Field and the division of children to Easterly/Corl Street (reunited later after several parents fought this decision by the administration). Here as some good links from the SOS Campaign:
SOS FCC Threat Letter to WRSC (The best 10 min in radio):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an4sUJdluqU
SOS Campaign Ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMsmNX-x1wI
SOS Budget Campaign Ad #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXszqF5pzjY
SOS Budget Campaign Ad #2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qEWbBX-9sM
SOS Budget Campaign Ad #3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ebBEiBTXu0
But at least Jim likes Voices and used the first board article on the Campaign Trail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG3-3vNIT78
In the end, I think that Pawelczyk will be re-elected for a two year term and the other four will be Hutchinson, Roper, Eden and Fishbaine. All of that said, many things can happen between now and November.
You Don't Understand?
I don’t really understand Dave’s strategy of running for both terms
Hmm.... kind of obvious to me. Why is Hutchinson running in both terms? Well, in the first place, he doesn't want to potentially knock-out his buddy Roper. But more importantly, he's indicating that he thinks Pawelczyk is the "weakest link", the slowest antelope in the herd, and potential easy meat. In crude school yard terms, he's saying Jim is a pussy.
I Guess I Don't
Without getting into too many detail (as I have that tendency), I doubt that Hutch would take on Jim P. in the manner you suggest unless he does not have an objective perspective. That said; it happened many times with the old board members so why would things change now? A year ago, Hutch was still waving around old PAC campaign flyers at school board meetings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1L9yQ4uHIg
I was thinking that maybe Hutch just checked the wrong block on the form (unless you had to turn in two petitions). I may not agree with Hutch but I don’t mean him any offense when I state the following: The AV guy at PSU Library is not in the same league as a NASA Astronaut. I think we can all agree that the criteria/education/responsibility for those two jobs are a bit different. It reminds me of the joke when I lived in Huntsville, AL that went: Why are you so smart? Is your father a rocket scientist? The answer was “Yes” 9/10 times in Huntsville as this was where the US moved Wernher von Braun and his team from Germany. If Hutch is thinking that Jim will be an easy target, I think Hutch will be surprised in the end. The only way Jim P. will lose his position is because he wants to lose or pulls a Chappaquiddick.
Disrespectful
Despite the fact that I believe that Mr. Hutchinson was complicit in the waste of our tax dollars and his inability or lack of interest in listening to the voting public was criminal, Mr. Topp steps over the line with this posting. This is academic snobbery at it's worst. School boards in other areas are made up of parents, professionals and business people. It's only in the World Class School District do we need Phds to tell the rest of us how stupid we are. Ironically, the astronaut doesn't seem to get on the academic high horse - just asks good questions at the board meeting. I'm waiting for him to bury Queeney when she rolls her eyes or puts forth the "I'm a researcher" BS.
It's my understanding that Mr. Topp has moved out of the area. Why does he give a crap what happens with the upcoming SCASD election when he doesn't even live here?
Skills, Qualifications and Motivations
Dear SC Taxpayer,
It was not my intent to say that one educational field (Library Science vs. Engineering) is better than another for school board participation or that any decision by a Phd is "the best". Parents are the best source to bring reality to a school board. I can tell that you have an issue with the elitism of the “Hill” as I have heard it referred to over the course of this endeavor. My point was that Mr. Pawelczyk was not a weak link or anything like the negative word that was used to describe him in the previous post. I would also argue that the program Mr. Pawelczyk was a part of "prepares" him for detailed analysis (a key skill most of the current board still lacks) and making tough/actionable decisions. Very few people have completed such a program and they do have additional skills/experiences over the rest of us.
As to your latter point, I enjoy a good discussion around a topic. I called State College my home for seven years and it will always be a special place for our family. I still have many good friends in the area and we discuss current topics. I have always enjoyed Voices (but don't always agree with the positions) and I back up my enjoyment with financial support to Voices. I did not know that physical presence was a requirement to have a discussion on the Voices web or that it would bother you so much that I posted from outside State College. To quote your point, why do you care that I care and how is that relevant to the discussion? I am sorry that I offended you and will apologize in advance if I offended any of the other readers.
Over the course of Mr. Hutchinson’s postings on this site, I have always tried to be respectful (not 100%) and ask factual questions instead of just calling for his head.
“Perhaps Dave's memory has been impaired from too much video tape cleaner”
“Step down Dave. Your behavior at recent board meetings and YOUR LACK OF QUALIFICATIONS as well as poor job performance are not serving this community”
“Hutchinson - you should resign and take the rest of the con artists with you”
"the difference between the judges making the decision behind closed doors and without publicly stated criteria and the school board's long history of doing the same? The judges are highly qualified, professionals who bring conflict resolution, sound decision making and a motivation for service to the community."
"As Mr. Hutchinson refers to a steep and 4 year long learning curve, it's hard not to chuckle at the thought of Dr. Pawelczyk being cleared and trained to participate in the Space program in less than 1/2 of what is supposedly needed for the SCASD board."
“How much did we spend to send you to DisneyWorld to sit in a 75 minute session on theories the astronaut probably learned as a college student?”
These are all from your posts on this site. By your posts, you too seem to think that certain positions do require certain skills but we tend to word things a bit differently. I believe that a degree is not a guarantee of a correct decision and that the lack of a degree is not a guarantee of an incorrect decision. Plenty of smart people were part of the Challenger O Ring disaster but they were missing moral courage and engaged in groupthink. Certain skills/experiences are more desirable for the position of a school board director and other offices. These skills along with the motivation/drive are the key elements to an effective board member.
Perhaps a hobby?
From the time and effort that you spent writing, researching and editing your post here, it appears that I have hit a nerve. My gripes against Hutchinson, Roper and all of the other ding dongs who lead us down the path of wasting $5 million had to do with job performance and lack of qualifications to make the decisions that they were making (for example; allowing a firm to design a building before conducting full topographical analysis of the property). They ignored testimony from experts and told the public they came to the debate too late. They then compounded that whole disgrace by suggesting that others could not be brought up to speed on school board policy and practice through the past school board election and appointment of replacement for Mr. Grimes. I never said that a person who works in a technical capacity COULDN'T do the job; i believe my point was and is that he DIDN'T do his job.
Hobby or Obsession?
SC Taxpayer,
The gentleman you're trading posts with has an unhealthy obsession with all things related to the SCASD Board of Directors. He was one of the first (if not the first) to throw his name into contention during the last election, but withdrew when the lack of support became evident.
Shortly afterwards, he left town.
I think it's very nice that he support's Voice's financially from afar. That is quite a sacrifice and I hope he can continue to do so when his unemployment benefits run out.
Uhoh, it's a republican knife fight...
Where's my popcorn? nom nom nom.
From the sound of it, SQN is a corporate hired gun. And as we all know, when the corporations say go, you gotta go. That don't mean he has to give up the things he's come to care about.
I've been contemplating this whole story, and the more I muse, the more certain it seems that the REAL backstory here is in fact a republican/democrat competition for local power.
SOS sounds like it was clearly the local dems, quickly organized to stop the republicans. (backed by whom? why where the republicans accused of being in the pocket of big money? why did voices write a article suggesting the same? gonna hafta dig up that article...)
Sounds like the republicans won. It's the classic story - people tend to be republican on the local level - darn those school taxes - and democrat on the federal level.
Sorry To Disappoint
Bill,
This wasn't/is a Dem/Rep issue. The folks who battled the old school board came from a wide range of background and political belief. Many of us are good Democrats, but all of us hated to see power abused and money wasted. Those behaviors are offensive to all political groups.
Peggy