May 29, 2008
Uncommon Sense
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Back to school — now?
With Memorial Day Weekend marking the more-or-less official start of summer, the schools are into pre-vacation mode. Seniors are marking off the days until they get out, and everybody else is reviewing what they learned — or at least, what they’re being tested on. Since I’ve been neglecting the schools of late, we should review what we’ve learned as well.
The recent school board election, for instance, passed by without even a mention here — on either side of the page. I had my own reasons for not wanting to get involved; mainly because I felt a certain lack of objectivity, since I’m friendly with the husbands of two of the candidates. (I won’t say which ones.) But the fact that the election passed by with a distinct lack of vitriol, excitement or even interest probably had more to do with it not being exceptionally well contested. Perhaps this had more to do with the noticeable lack of input from the Sunshine Group, which, as far as I could tell, never endorsed anybody.
It’s easy to say in hindsight that a campaign failed to catch fire, but here’s a case in point. Wanting to be sure to spell Ken Aufsesser’s name correctly, I figured I’d refer to the May 8 edition of The Ledger, which happened to be sitting nearby. I found two-plus pages of letters supporting Eve Hundt and Janet Harckham, but could not find any supporting Mr. Aufsesser. I continued to search through the paper, figuring that there had to be a mention of him somewhere, less than two weeks before the election. I could find nothing.
Then there was the curious case of Mr. Aufsesser’s campaign signs. While they were certainly larger and more noticeable than the tiny yellow VOTE placards, they were more notable for the odd slogan that ran boldly across the top: 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION 20TH CENTURY PRICES. Did it catch my attention? Certainly. Did it make sense? Not exactly. How, I wondered, did he plan to achieve this unique goal — and could he please share the secret, so we could expand the concept to other areas? For example, gasoline currently would bear the slogan, 20TH CENTURY ENERGY 21ST CENTURY PRICES. If Mr. Aufsesser could help to reverse that, it would probably go a long way toward reducing the price of everything else.
In the end, Mr. Aufsesser captured just 27% of the vote, garnering 375 votes fewer than his nearest competitor, and 446 fewer than the top vote getter. The budget, meanwhile, passed by a margin of 54.5% to 45.5% — a veritable landslide compared to the nail-biters of recent years. This is made more remarkable by the acknowledged abysmal state of the economy. So, while there’s been much credit given to a “more open and realistic” budget process, let’s recognize the elephant in the room. The only significant difference between this year and last has been the change in superintendents.
I am unsure whether this is evidence of actual appreciation for the job Dr. Robert Roelle has done, or more relief over the fact that his predecessor is gone. Perhaps Dr. Roelle’s greatest achievement has been his ability to get through the year without making headlines for ticking anybody off. (I was going to use a stronger term than “ticking off,” but this is a family newspaper.) But it’s also possible that a lot of district residents like the fact that he has been aggressively pursuing a policy that fulfills the frequent rallying cry to cut costs by eliminating layers of administration. He has achieved that so far by essentially eliminating every directorship from the district hierarchy, with the exception of director of guidance. I suspect that, within a couple of years, that position will be gone as well.
The position of director of special education is essentially vacant, with its current occupant moved to principal at the high school — and has anybody heard even a peep about filling it? This district used to attract parents from all over because of its special education offerings, yet in less than two years, the special education department has gone from having a director and two assistant directors, to having nobody in charge. Does anyone sense a trend?
My suspicion is that Dr. Roelle was brought in with a specific agenda, designed to cut costs while keeping the majority of parents happy. He will depart in a few years, having fulfilled that agenda. My worry, given the nature of things (especially in this district), is that at that point, we’ll be hearing complaints that the pendulum has swung too far. And then we’ll start moving back in the other direction. How far back? Hard to say. Perhaps we’ll have 18th-Century education at 15th-Century prices.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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