More on the School Board

Glad we’ve got some lively debate about the school board happening. Readers can probably tell from my postings how I feel about this issue.
I’ve lived in Philly, Kansas City and all over West Virginia, and in my time as a reporter covered many school boards. One of my first assignments as an intern was sitting in on a work session for the Washington County, Maryland, school board (Hagerstown area) where, surprise! they discovered they were millions of dollars short at the end of their fiscal year. I watched as they went line by line hacking expenditures. Just them, no one else was there. This was a long time ago (I’m not giving up how long!) but that was my first brush with Maryland public schools.
While I was a reporter in Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital, I covered the school board for several years. The elected school board was a diverse group. There was a teacher, a lawyer, a homemaker, a doctor – a good representation of who lived in the area. One of my favorites was a military man, (I believe a Marine), who was frustrated by the glut of administrators and one day decided to run for the school board – even though he didn’t have any children in school. He was just concerned about how the schools were being run. This is something that could never happen with an appointed board. He brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the job that was invaluable at that time. He didn’t know any one on the school board, or county commission. In fact, he was rather new to the area at that time. But he went in with fresh eyes, questioned everything and made everyone look at how things were being run in a new way.
In the time I covered the school board, the board trimmed unnecessary administrators, fired a rather ineffective school board superintendent and replaced her with an excellent one, and built two new high schools.
During the process for the new schools, people packed school auditoriums to address the school board. And surprisingly, the school board listened to their concerns. They didn’t just say they were listening, they actually decided on a different site for one of the high schools than originally planned because of parental concern.
When I e-mailed the school system a few months ago about what changes they were making to improve the Edgewood schools, where my children are slated to attend once they leave Abingdon Elementary, I was told “they were working on it.” Oh, and then I was invited to a pep rally to rah rah the Edgewood feeder schools and celebrate them. Are you kidding me? They wasted money on that? I’m just looking for a comprehensive plan that will fix these schools. I’m still waiting to hear back from someone who was supposed to contact me in October. Still waiting.
I think accountability is really the issue. There is no oversight – the committee no longer exists. There is no accountability for anything the school board does. So even if the current school board’s intentions are good, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
And the school board is already politicized. They are plainly stating why they should keep their jobs in the legislative platform. If they weren’t political, why wouldn’t they say an elected school board is something that shoulld carefully be considered, looking at all points of view? No. They say the oppose it.
I was thinking of another example of the school board’s accountability problem when I thought of an incident that happened last year. I’m snagging this from the Baltimore Sun, it’s from an article about a hearing for the former C. Milton Wright assistant principal Chris Battaglia. You know, he’s the guy who complained about the block scheduling and was then demoted and forced to teach while carrying his books around in a cart because they didn’t even give him a room. This is a great example of how they discipline those who don't fall in line, and try to intimidate those who disagree with them.
“Battaglia's hearing was closed to the public, although he had requested an open one. The school administration pointed to a school policy that prohibited the public from attending.
When Wright students and parents gathered outside the building in the morning, school officials told them that they could not stand on the sidewalk directly in front of the building and that they would have to go across the street.
But after students and parents consulted with the Harford County Sheriff's Office, they stayed in front of the building, chanting 'B-tag, B-tag,' a nickname for Battaglia.
'They're just trying to intimidate us,' said Kathy King, a Wright parent.
In May, Battaglia, who was then the acting principal at Wright, was to be transferred to Edgewood High School for the 2007-2008 school year. Nearly 100 Wright students and parents crammed into a Board of Education meeting asking that Battaglia remain at their school.
After listening to them, Haas finalized the transfer and told The Sun in May that, 'Their voices were heard, and in some cases, you can't honor their request.'
I think that sums up her and the entire school board’s feelings about anything that parents or educators are concerned with. We heard people talking, but really, we don’t have to do anything about it.