On certain days, one wonders about the advantages of an
elected versus an appointed school board.
Sometimes, one ponders the benefits of humans as compared to animatronic
platypuses as board members. The
Multi-Village Sponsored Howard County Board of Education Event (Cluster-Forum
for short) invited all sorts of odd musings.
Was the forum, held at The Other Barn in Oakland Mills,
informative? Absolutely. Was the audience packed with local luminaries,
community activists, thought leaders, public officials, educators, parents,
students, looky-loos and hangers-on? Definitely. Was it a draining and slightly disheartening
experience? Unfortunately, yes.
Rather than craft a novella, I will explore some of the
highlights:
The candidates were unafraid to engage in comparative
politicking. In their introductory
statements, which included a verbal response to one of five questions for which
they also provided written answers, Bess Altwerger talked about the high
quality of teachers found in schools across the county (a rejoinder to Allen
Dyer’s perspective, articulated in earlier forums, that the best schools were…essentially…
hoarding the best teachers). Mike Smith
stated that there were some “misrepresentations” regarding Common Core, which
he supports. I don’t know if he
mentioned Altwerger by name, but his comments were clearly directed at her.
Author’s note: Mike Smith also said that, under certain
circumstances, having 35 students in a classroom is “OK.” Then again, he did
admit to being “mathematically challenged.” So perhaps he doesn’t grasp the
absurdity of his position.
Dr. Zaneb Beams probably had the best night. She received applause, twice, during her
introductory remarks. She offered up a
seemingly heart-felt request that we think of students as people (I believe the
sentence was: “We don’t have FARMS students, we have students who are receiving
help with food.”) Many in the audience
also reacted favorably to her belief that “Scores don’t make us great, dreams
(and doing?) make us great.” Call me a
cynical jerk who has been in and around politics too long, but I thought the
second line was a bit schmaltzy.
Tension in the room.
There were accusations expressed by some audience members that certain
candidates were expressing opinions that were not aligned with the facts on the
ground. There was a vividly worded query
about the best way to “stop the bloodbath at the central office” that evoked
some emotional responses from multiple candidates. There
were concerns articulated about the role that developers play in our political
process. There was an excellent question
about the idiots (author’s note: my characterization) at Glenelg High School who
were sporting a Confederate flag; some on the stage handled this topic better
than others.
Democracy can be messy and the School Board is not meant to
be a gathering of best friends. I get
those realities. Nonetheless, the
present dynamic appears rather corrosive.
Passions seem to be running high and the current mix of personalities,
with their differing perspectives, histories and talents seem to be intruding
upon the Board’s ability to set “local education policy consistent with state
and federal laws governing public education.” (this one-sentence summary of the
Board’s job description can be found at http://www.hcpss.org/board/).
Who, if anyone, is to blame?
I am certain there are a variety of answers to that question. That is not the point of this post. My intention is to move the dialogue forward
and ask, given where we are and given the pressing issues facing HCPSS, which
four candidates, if elected, will do the most to help improve our schools?
With that in mind, I am likely to state my preference(s),
for whatever that information is worth, next week.
Stay tuned, as more will follow.
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