How Do You Spell Myopia?

[distribution date - 5/8/09]

Last night there was a combined BOE Work Session and Budget Hearing for the Proposed 2009/10 School Budget which was approved by the Board of Education on April 23rd, at a Special Meeting called for that purpose because of some remaining open issues from the April 16th Regular Meeting of the Board.

But the audience at this Work Session/Budget Hearing was far from the normal assemblage of Elwood residents, and the dialogue, such as it was, seemed like it belonged as a new act in Waiting for Godot.

By that I mean that there were some comments, and some questions, which suggested that the people either did not know that the Board had already approved the Proposed Budget on April 23rd, or that they did not know that this was a Work Session, and that no Board of Education can take an official vote during a Work Session.

During Work Sessions the BOE can discuss issues, and they can speak about reaching consensus, and they can plan for future official Meetings, but all official votes must take place during either Regular Meetings or during Special Meetings of the Board.

The second aspect that seemed bizarre was related to some of the people who were speaking most adamantly, last night, about making sure that this Proposed Budget, with its provision for the initiation of a Full Day Kindergarten program in Elwood, will be approved by the voters.

The reason for my sensation that this could have been from an episode of The Twilight Zone is that a number of these uber-advocates for FDK had themselves urged people to vote “NO” on the Proposed Budget for 2008/09, on the basis that the May 2008 proposal did not include provisions for an FDK program. Yet, here they were, not worrying (or at least not publicly worrying) about the needs of students in Grades 1 through 12, but trying to make sure that nothing could stand in the way of their personal focus upon FDK.

I wonder if I would need to provide a definition of “myopia,” to get some of these folks to understand that this is a K through 12 district, and that we are all in this together?

I wonder if there should be a course on moral responsibility that everyone in Elwood should be required to take, so that we all understand the needs of all of the segments of Elwood society, and not just our own pockets of special interests?

I wonder if there should be a course on critical thinking, and honest intellectual engagement, and candor and clarity of communication, so that we all focus upon the real world rather than some intellectual fairyland?

Despite what I regard as an over-the-top approach to hyper advocacy for single-issue politics, I am on record as supporting the Proposed Budget for 2009/10.

I support the Proposed Budget for 2009/10 not because of the comments of some people who urged last year that the Proposed Budget for 2008/09 be defeated, but despite their comments last night.

I support it because it will help to restore some of the reserve funds that this District will need in these very uncertain financial times, and because it will preserve the integrity of programs for Grades K through 12 as well as valued after-school activities, and because it will protect class size for Elwood's students, and because it will continue our modernization of this District from its former technological wasteland condition to a leading edge District in these rapidly advancing technology times.

I will rise above special interest advocacy and focus upon addressing the needs of all Grades in Elwood's schools, and with a conscious and empathetic focus upon the economic well-being of all families in the community of Elwood.

I urge you to do the same.