Hoping the Pendulum Starts Swinging
May 7th, 2008It’s been a busy week—though there’s some hope in all that as well.
For one thing, Mike Hoefer and his efforts at Kids First Monadnock are being recognized for their positive leadership, and more importantly, it’s having an effect.
At last night’s school board meeting at Emerson, Mr. Hoefer revealed that an anonymous benefactor is willing to donate $20,000 to the school if the students, teachers, and community can raise money first—in other words, a 2-1 fund matching deal. The school needs to raise $5,000 which will be matched with a $10,000 donation. Anything more will be matched with a 2-1 donation, up to $20,000.
Wow!
The money is for “visible improvements”, those things which the students and community see most and so clearly provide a window into how little support the school has. It’s a good way of providing an incentive for what really ought to be present all along—more support and more involvement from students and the community.
The sad part is the necessity for such action. I’m not begrudging this at all—it’s a wonderful gift. But it’s a sad thing when a community’s school is so barely supported that there are people donating to keep it going. A community ought to provide enough for its children to be educated, and not rely on the generosity of individuals. It’s a team effort—it’s great to have a star player, but let’s get everyone out on the field, and not just a few good players.
Equally good news will be the roof repairs and the gym project which is going through this summer. It’s long overdue, and the money was only (barely) approved in this last vote. Still, it’s nice there are some good events about to happen for the schools in the district—it’s a start. There’s a lot more which needs to happen.
The best, most important news is that the school board approved asking a judge for permission to go to an emergency special election for the teacher’s contracts. Now it needs to go to the N.H. Department of Revenue Administration and a superior court judge—which hopefully will happen quickly.
So there might be a second chance. If we’re lucky, the judge will see what those in the school are seeing—the mass exodus, the possibility of a staff which will be stretched (and perhaps broken) trying to meet the kids arriving in the fall.
The astounding part, the part which really blows my mind, the part that tells me that no matter how many good signs there are we still have a long way to go, are the comments from Mr. Tommila as reported in the Sentinel:
Still, budget committee Vice Chairman John Tommila of Fitzwilliam said he didn’t feel the contract issue rises to the level of urgency required by law.
“I could not see how this constituted an emergency situation,” he said, explaining why he voted against the new contract, despite the fact that the committee as a whole recently voted to support it.
Huh? What’s going on there? Is there a single logical reason in the world to not want new contracts to go to the public? Teachers are hurting, kids are hurting, there’s obviously problems in the schools—what kind of official charged with providing a good education for the district’s youth wouldn’t want there to be at least a chance? What kind of official charged with providing a good education for the district’s youth wouldn’t work as hard as possible to provide every reasonable good thing? What’s unreasonable in wanting a judge to make the decision about whether or not there’s an emergency? Why not ask, and try and do a good thing?
Actually, never mind. I already know the answer.
