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Philosophy, Government and public educationPosted Tuesday, May 20, 2008, at 2:38 PM
A man commented to me that, concerning education and my adversity to the Clay Community Schools Corporation's planned Elementary Renovation Project, that I had "done my homework," but that he disagreed with my "philosophy."
That bothered me a bit, as I have never publicly stated my philosophy on education. From some of the comments posted to my blog, I venture to say that some people that that I am against education, which would be wrong. Education is of paramount importance to earning a living within our society. It affects the citizen's earning potential and those who have less education generally end up being supported by those who have more education. My philosophy on that public education is the same as my philosophy on government in general, which is that government should provide the maximum service required by law at minimum cost and receive maximum value for every tax dollar with the realization that government cannot provide for every need of every citizen. This concept is lost on people when they feel that you are taking something away from them that they perceive that is their right to have. That is why, when I was asked to run for school board, I put my name on the ballot, went to two or three civic functions and spoke to a few people. My "campaign" was a non-campaign and the result was as I expected. I went into the political arena with full knowledge that I was telling the voters of my district that weed to "butcher our sacred cows before we starve the entire political division" and had no inclination toward changing my stance on the subject to win an election. The facts and figures, available to the public at http://ideanet.doe.state.in.us/htmls/edu..., support my position. While you are at it, you might read back through the minutes of the school board, too. However, I was pleased on Election Day because 16 percent of the voters in my district proved to me that they think beyond themselves and this point in time. My campaign cost me not one red cent, but how do you lose a battle that you never joined? Apparently, from some of the comments, some feel that I am taking something away from them. They are worried about their students with little thought that these same children will grow up and, should they stay in the community, be faced with replacing our seven elementary schools all at once in 40 to 50 years. It would be better to replace them when the cost of renovating would offset a large amount of the cost of construction. We can either re-think how and what we do to these buildings and take this opportunity to make significant changes to education within our school corporation or we can continue to spend money while failing to educate one in four of our students. As we have around 4,000 students, that adds about 1,000 dropouts to the population every 12 years. We pay for that through additional educational programs, welfare benefits and prison or jail expenses. So, if I must balk at giving my blessing on a project that is not going to have a significant, well, payoff that is who I am. I would also hold you down and get morphine into you so the doctors could save your life, even though you begged me to leave you alone and let you die. I have done that also and been thanked for it later. As a result of this current endeavor will not be apparent until long after my burial ta sea, I will forego the thanks that may be coming if I succeed in getting the problem solved instead of burying my head in the sand about education within my community. My philosophy is why I stand in opposition to the school corporation's current plan to renovate. I do not see how the plan improves education with the corporation or how it improves our budget situation. I see how it spends money and how it could seem to be a reasonable plan to fix our school buildings. If that is the only goal, the plan is fine. However, if the goals are to maximize the impact on education within the corporation, maximize the use of our real estate, and minimize costs while planning for the future, educating current students, complying with current law, anticipating legal liabilities that may come from foreseeable changes in law and repair our buildings, then the current plan falls far short. Due to the timing of the project and its mandatory meetings and its other legal proceedings, should the remonstrance fail and the project proceed, we may well have to pay about $800,000 in capitalized interest, which is almost the same as the highest figure bandied about as the increased cost of construction with a year's delay. I had nothing to do with the timing of the project, it sort of fell into my lap that way. However, if it is going to cost us the same money, why not look at this thoroughly and make the most of the time? We can do better and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out when you start looking. When we proceed with any government building project, we have the opportunity to affect our community. Once it has been built or we are committed to it, the opportunity has past. From what I have read, Dr. Shad, the former Superintendent of Clay Community Schools Corporation, asked "what do we need to do to our buildings," in 2005, when the pay-off date for some of our bonds was about three years in the future. Input was gathered, architects contacted, and a plan was put together. However, very little was considered beyond the buildings themselves and maintaining the current educational system and educational processes in the current format that yields a 76 percent graduation rate, failing to graduate one in every four of our students. That is the flaw of the plan. It improves too little for what it is going to cost and there are readily apparent ways to improve it without even doing the modicum of research that I have done. This is why I stand in opposition to the planned elementary schools renovation project to the point of forcing a remonstration and petition to decide the issue. Right now, I'm acting like a brake to see if I can get the goals change. If I can get that done, I'll be behind the plan, pushing like a locomotive. We do need to do something about education (nationally, statewide and locally) and our buildings. But if we proceed as planned, we lose the opportunity to make major changes and pass the same problems that we face today on to the next generation. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
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I find it very amusing that you preach and preach about costing tax payers money and that this project is wasting our tax payers moeny...when, in reality, you have cost the tax payers money by starting this remonstrance!
Isn't that talking out of both sides of your mouth?
Please put your energy into something that will help the children and not cost them money!
How is this big new school going to help education? How is that better serving families? You have just said that this plan has nothing to do with improving education. How does your plan improve education?
I am just not seeing your point in this retoric.
I see the words: "smaller elementary schools" in the comment as a plus for remodeling. Also, I'm assuming that "ncs" and "nhs" stand for North Clay and Northview???? You mention there is no other choice if a school is not meeting your child's needs. Isn't there a Best Buy school located in the southern end of the county? If the discussion is truly about choices and sending children to a school that meets the needs, then what's wrong with sending them to Clay City? It is a fairly small school, isn't it? So, if the fear is of a "superschool" or a "big new school", then why do you leave your children at the much larger northern schools? Is your concern truly about a quality education? If so, then why are you opposed to the possibility of a larger building with a greater number of classes? I believe some of the "small neighborhood schools" have classes with nearly 30-35 students at the elementary level. How is that good for education? Is it possible you just want to update an old building rather than risk redistricting and change?
I am amazed each time I log onto this site. People in Brazil, Indiana are still arguing about their little school system fourteen years after I left there. During my years living in Brazil the fight was over whether to build a new high school. Although I'm uncertain as to actual figures, I remember large chunks of money being wasted fighting over Northview.
I've taught in an elementary school of 1,400+ students with 37 students in my class and a middle school of 2,300+ students. I completed my graduate degree internship in a high school of more than 4,000 students. We tried numerous ways to achieve the 'little schoolhouse' effect. Parents here would die for your school system.
Your graduation rate is higher than the national average, yet your teachers are paid less than the national average and, if I understand correctly, worked without a contract for numerous months (something the union here would NEVER have allowed). Your state ranks consistently in the top third of all states.
The question any school board must ask itself is which solution provides the greatest potential for student achievement. All other factors are nil.
bigpappy
So if you are unopposed to redistricting and you do not see transportation as a problem, why not send your child to school up here at these new "super schools?" We could redistrict and close Clay City and then they could all be one big happy family up here!!!
madmom61-One improvement to the education of our students would be to end the mobility issue caused by at-risk families moving from the Eastside to the Meridian district and vice versa, disrupting those students' education by changing not only homes but schools and teachers. Another would be that the building would be designed from the ground up, using the "best practices" of today. The current plan is to modify the "open" concept that Eastside was designed as when built and the multi-level of Meridian which may prove to be a legal liability in the future. People will wake up to the fact that the handicapped must be carried out of a multi-storied building during a fire or electrical emergency because you cannot use an elevator in those situations. Or, perhaps, we could make passing the fireman's physical fitness test where you carry a person out of the building a condition mandatory for all employees in our schools, but imagine the ruckus that would cause. The last wrongful death suit within the schools cost millions of education dollars because someone didn't ensure that a student athlete had been released by a doctor before playing a sport. What would be the cost if someone should die if we provided a way in but no way out?
You posted an article concerning the difference between large and small high schools, stating your opinion that it also applies to elementary schools. Some of it does, but elementary classes are centered around one main classroom with limited student movement. Most of the teaching and learning occurs in one place with little movement to other areas.
Are you aware that we have cut our teaching staff, corporation-wide, by thirty teachers over the last six years? That would be enough to staff one of our elementary schools if they all came from the elementary level. Dr. Boyd's projection for our student body is that, over the next six years, we can expect our elementary population to grow by 160 students across all of the schools while the high schools will lose about 75 students.By merging, we may be able to cut non-teaching staff instead of teachers.
These are but a few things that seem to have been overlooked by the people who came up with the plan. If it costs more money to do the thing right, isn't it worth the cost if we can lower the tax burden when your children are paying the bills and improve education as much as we can so that more people are paying? I think that it is.
unoit - You seem to have overlooked the most obvious option to consider if you don't think your child is getting educated properly. You could home-school, enroll them in another corporation, or send them to a private school. Of course, that might mean that YOU have to sacrifice something for your child.
Before you even form the protest that you "can't" I will answer it in exactly the way that I told a Marine when he said he couldn't do something that everyone else had done. "Cant" means "to lean" and if you are leaning, you ain't moving. "Cannot" and its contraction, "can't" means only "I don't want to bad enough to get the job done!" Nuff said.
My son was delivered to and picked up from Meridian for five years, even though I lived in the Meridian, Eastside, Forest Park, and Jackson Township Districts while he was in elementary school. That was my choice because Meridian was where he started and I didn't want him to change schools like I did growing up. To this day, one of my great-neices is driven daily from her home in the Van Buren District through the Eastside, Meridian, and Forest Park districts to Jackson Township. Choice still isn't justification to have six elementary schools in the north end of the county.
I will not be even a stone in a graveyard fifty years from now, and I care not.
I did not "stop the man" and certainly not "singlehandedly". I may have started the paperwork, but over a hundred of your fellow citizens signed it. Even that act only put the decision where even the Indiana General Assembly agrees that it rests, with the citizen. Even Dr. Schroeder acknowledged, in the Brazil Times, that I had been "up front" with the school corporation. Privately, I sent a shotgun e-mail to every principal, the corporation, and the school board, before the petition to begin the petition and remonstrance process was filed, asking them to prepare a plan that was "substantially different", as required by law, to have ready in case the remonstrance should SUCCEED. We do need to do something, I just want to do as much as possible for the money and maximize our education by focusing our money on education instead of impressive or outmoded buildings.
Ex-Brazilian - Yes, our schools are still a "hot" topic. I do believe that education ranks right up there with politics and religion as a subject that should not be discussed at the barbershop, which could cause someone to lose an ear,or at table, because agitation is bad for digestion.
You stated that "people would kill" for our schools where you are. I think not or they would make changes.
We are about average in the state, in a state that is about average in the nation, in a nation ranked what in the world in education? I read that as lots of room for improvement.
Our schools affect our community and its future. Less dropouts translates into less crime and drugs and more people shouldering their own welfare by working. More workers mean more jobs and more tax dollars, and maybe less tax rate.
But these things are not possible when you keep doing things as they have always been done. You cannot expect different results without changes.
Even with changes, the effects wouldn't be apparent for years. Some people think that education is like a garden that you plant, then reap the benefits of a few months later. Education is more like an orchard, your first harvest comes years after you plant the trees.
Leo A/K/A FlyinLion
1. I agree that there is a lot of transition between Eastside and Meridian schools. Those schools seem to just trade kids back and forth. But if we were to merge the schools into a "super school" we would loose that contact that these children so badly need. A larger school simply can not provide the things a small school does. Ask either of the schools staff and they will tell you countless stories of "off the clock" things that are done for these kids. I am not willing to have them fall through the cracks to save a few dollars. If these kids are not nurtured through at this stage of their young lives, will they not end up relying on others to pay their way as they enter adulthood? Would that not raise your taxes so that you would have to pay them to stay at home??
2. How are you seeing that children will need to be carried out of Meridian? I do not see where they are non-compliant with the ADA. I have looked at the plans many times and feel sure that the people hired to draw up the plans are well educated on the requirements stated in the law! And as for passing this fireman's physical you talk about so often... would that violate a disabled employee from working in a school? Double edged sword!
3. The wrongful death suit that was filed about the death of the Clay City child was a disgrace to all. What has the school done about this? Put defibrilators in the schools. Taxpayers or PTO had to pay for those. Wouldnt want taxpayers to bear the burden there! And at what point do we hold parents accountable for their children? You arent worried about school saftey but worried about money!
4. I am guessing that you have never been employed by a school system. Cutting a non teaching position at the elementary level is absurd! Those are some fo the hardest working non glorified positions I have ever seen. And if you want this "big school" these are the people that would help the chldren the most! They are the glue that holds our schools together!
5. Why are you saying it is ok to spend more money in the long run yet belly aching about cost now?
6. Please explain to me how your plan
is going to make my daughters education better than what they are recieving now?
7. Do not insult others on here about not wanting to transport kids. I for one drive my daughter to school over 15 miles a day so that she can go to the "model" school for the county! Some of us do our part for education. Others are a pain in the side to it!
unoit & madmom - Lol.....you are making me work. Now I have to cut and paste your comments so that I can read and answer them. It may take some time, but I will get back to you.
madmom61.......I would send my child to the "superschool" in a heartbeat, but my child has been there/done that! My child was a member of one of the largest graduating classes of Northview High School. My child did not suffer from large classes or lack of security. My child managed to get an education in spite of bomb threats, too. My child attended Meridian Elementary, as well. I am completely aware of the staff there. They do an outstanding job with the student population they have! I live in the city, and I am blessed with the highest tax rate in the county. So, you see, "superschools" don't scare me, nor do I think they hurt the educational system. My child went on to college and had absolutely no problem handling the academic courses.
Spending money on schools is not an issue with me, but not spending wisely is!
I don't think you understand that a class size of 20 is going to be better than a class size of 35 pretty much any day of the year. And, you and I both know, Meridian has a fifth grade class that is absurdly large! Wouldn't it make better sense to redistrict and divide those students more equally so that class size remained around 20 or so? That could be done in a larger school with 4-5 fifth grade classes. The students would still remain with their classroom teacher as they do now. The support system would still be in place, and the teachers would still spend "after hours" as they already do helping needy students. Surely, teachers don't quit caring just because their class is housed in a larger building! Their class is their class....period! Class size doesn't grow just because a building is large. Some of our largest elementaries have the smallest class size. Remember, it's not what's on the outside that counts. It's what's on the inside! Sound familiar?
Also, I'm sorry, but I disagree with you (again) about the noncertified staff being the glue that holds the school together. I don't see them having jobs without teachers having classes. The way I see it.....you can have a classroom without an IA, but it's pretty hard to have a class without a teacher. I do agree that nonteaching personnel are extremely important and often overworked. They are definitely underpaid. But, I also remember comments you posted back when the teachers were fighting for a contract. You pretty much came across as "anti-teacher"! My thoughts are that teachers, support staff, parents, and the community form the glue that holds a building together.
unoit.....why did you make the comment about Leo being upset because there aren't more schools at his end of the county? I'm pretty sure he ran for school board in one of the city districts....that would be the city of Brazil!
I have to disagree with the southern end getting whatever "they" want/need. If that was the case, then why when they asked for a rug in front of their doors did they get a used Northview Knights one? And, why would they get Northview's hand-me-down speaker system (Northview got a new one)to use in their gymnasium when their system broke? I'm from the northern part of the county, and I think having three city schools is a bit excessive. I just don't see Leo's views being based on North versus South.....but I COULD be wrong.
LOL...........if I favored the North or the South, one or the other part of my family would lynch me. If they didn't, then my friends would. Over the past decade, I've had relatives attend every school in the county. Some of them probably don't even know that we are related, because I have a step-sister that lives near Clay City that I rarely see, but I also have a sister-in-law there who has grandchildren and, I think, great-grandchildren.
Most of my close family and I live in the north part of the county.
Madmom61 - 1. I agree that there is a lot of transition between Eastside and Meridian schools. Those schools seem to just trade kids back and forth. But if we were to merge the schools into a "super school" we would loose that contact that these children so badly need. A larger school simply can not provide the things a small school does. Ask either of the schools staff and they will tell you countless stories of "off the clock" things that are done for these kids. I am not willing to have them fall through the cracks to save a few dollars. If these kids are not nurtured through at this stage of their young lives, will they not end up relying on others to pay their way as they enter adulthood? Would that not raise your taxes so that you would have to pay them to stay at home??
Leo - I have yet to see any study that tracks our drop-outs back to their elementary schools. As I have said, Meridian and Eastside are good schools in bad buildings and until I see data proving otherwise, I will give them the benefit of the doubt on it. There are a lot of good people that care about the students in both buildings, but I would bet that a large percentage of our drop-outs come out of those two schools despite the effort put forth, just from the demographic make-up of the population. To put those two schools into one building would, at least, stop the "bouncing" of the students from one of the schools to the other. That would keep these students in contact with the same teachers. Also, remember that the projection is for an additional 160 elementary students over the next six years. We don't know where they are going to be.
Madmom61 - 2. How are you seeing that children will need to be carried out of Meridian? I do not see where they are non-compliant with the ADA. I have looked at the plans many times and feel sure that the people hired to draw up the plans are well educated on the requirements stated in the law! And as for passing this fireman's physical you talk about so often... would that violate a disabled employee from working in a school? Double edged sword!
Leo - During the tour that was given a few weeks back, Mrs. Phillips described that exact situation occurring already. They had a handicapped student in either the fourth or fifth grade and had to carry them out during fire drills. They also have a teacher who normally works in their library. She broke her foot and is in a wheelchair. She cannot even get to the library because there are stairs below it from the outside and above it from the main floor. The East end of the building is at street level, so that could be done with sloped curbs, but there are two flights of steps, one in the south center of the building and one at the west end. The people who draw plans to current law or the plan will not get approved by inspectors. What I would like to see is the change in the law be anticipated and planned. That change will come when someone dies because they were handicapped and couldn't evacuate because they could not use the elevator. We have the same problem at North Clay and Northview.
The fireman's fitness test would be absurd, I agree. It was meant to be. If you have ever met Mary Ray, the principal at Eastside, you could imagine her, maybe 4 foot 8 inches and maybe 90 to 100 pounds trying to carry a man of 200 pounds fifty yards. But she is the type of lady who would attempt it even if it killed her.
Madmom61 - 3. The wrongful death suit that was filed about the death of the Clay City child was a disgrace to all. What has the school done about this? Put defibrilators in the schools. Taxpayers or PTO had to pay for those. Wouldnt want taxpayers to bear the burden there! And at what point do we hold parents accountable for their children? You arent worried about school saftey but worried about money!
Thank you for assuming that I don't care about health and safety, however, I have not looked into that particular matter. All I know is what I've said, that a student athlete was allowed to play a sport without being released by his doctor, died, and the corporation was sued.
Madmom61 - 4. I am guessing that you have never been employed by a school system. Cutting a non teaching position at the elementary level is absurd! Those are some of the hardest working non glorified positions I have ever seen. And if you want this "big school" these are the people that would help the children the most! They are the glue that holds our schools together!
Leo - By non-teaching, I mean cooks, janitors, maintenance, and other support functions of that nature. I have not met any employee at any school that didn't seem to be hard working and I do understand that most of these positions have hard work, high demands, and no glory attached. I've swept a few floors in my day. But something has got to give or we must have more money than we can expect to get. By combining buildings, we may be able to reduce those positions and still provide the same services. It would be a little savings, but I doubt that we would gain the average teacher's salary of 47,000. I'm open to suggestions as to where to make cuts. We have cut over thirty teaching positions over the last six years from the entire corporation. That's enough teachers that, if they all came from the elementary, to staff one of our schools. Where do we cut General Fund Expenses? 95% of our General Fund is going into salary and benefits. The projection is that, in less than two years, we will be trying to hire new teachers at what they will have to pay for insurance if they insure their family. We are using the Capital Projects Fund to pay utilities and insurance on the buildings, a stop-gap measure that is allowed by current legislation until 2010. At that point, it all comes out of the General Fund again. Also, with the current legislation on property taxes, we stand to lose around $200,000 from our budget, across all funds excepting Debt Service -- debts must be paid. If we end up in the red ink, budget-wise, the state steps in and takes control. One way I have heard the story of Northview from a person who's name is on the plaque there, is that is how that school came to be. The state told us we WERE going to consolidate; then, the community started deciding what we were going to put into the physical structure.
Madmom61 - 5. Why are you saying it is ok to spend more money in the long run yet belly aching about cost now?
Leo - I do not see how you are under the impression that I am advocating spending more money in the long run. If you hold that impression, let me explain that I advocate spending only the money required to educate the maximum number of students possible to the level required by the state to receive the highest diploma we offer that the student can attain, to build, maintain, and operate only the facilities required to accomplish that education, and to employ only the personnel that are required to accomplish those tasks at any and all times.
Madmom61 asked - 6. Please explain to me how your plan is going to make my daughters education better than what they are receiving now?
Leo - I do not see how any changes we make are going to improve your daughter's education with any plan. I take, from your statement later, that they are in what you consider is the "model" school. Any construction project at that school during the school year will, most likely, disrupt at least some of the student's learning. Once the project starts, the longer it continues the more disruption it will cause. Whatever we do, it will not be conducive to the students' education for the current enrollment of the building. It is simply that we must do it to have buildings for future students.
I have no plan except for the community to come up with a plan, as explained in further detail in another article. What I see as a problem is that school corporation's plan expends money but does little to improve the meeting the educational needs that our graduation rate says isn't being met. That plan only repeats what we are doing for a couple of decades longer. We need to try something different. But there is going to be no drastic improvement noticeable in two to three years. It will take a decade and then you would have to compare the data from now against the data acquired at that time to see a marked improvement, but even then, that would not be definitive. Even comparing the "before" and "after" data from Jackson Township's recent renovation, one can only speculate that the project had any educational value because, at the very least, the factor of the students involved is a variable that has changed. Any construction or renovation plan we go with will probably do your grandchildren more good than your children.
Unoit posted - Flyinlion- you seemed to have overlooked the most obvious..I didn't say I wasn't homeschooling. Do you honestly think it is feasable today, to drive a student from Brazil to Clay City daily as you drove your child to a different district daily. I guess you havent heard that gas is at almost $4.00 a gallon. That is wasteful and polluting and I try to do my part in conservering our resources. Wow you launched into some sort of speel about yourself, when I never said "I can't". Are you sure this remonstrance isn't all about you? So you are saying "that choice isn't a justification for having six elementary schools in the north end of the county", maybe you are more upset that there are not more schools at your end of the county.
"I just want to do as much as possible for the money and maximize our education by focusing our money on education instead of impressive or outmoded buildings". In response to this...Please tell how YOUR plan (still wondering what that is) maximizes education.
Oh and by the way...I shouldn't have to homeschool. I PAY TAXES for the school system.
Leo - Ouch and I beg your pardon! Thank you for the heaping helping of crow that I deserve. I get irritated when people say "I can't" but never try, but you didn't make the excuse. I'm sorry for attempting to put words into your mouth. I agree that you should not have to home school and that you support the public school system. I'll answer the rest of your question with another article.
So you are telling me that you are against this remodeling because it will disrupt learning by the noise? That is a weak arguement. I seriously doubt that any of these projects can be done over a summer. Kids can make do, ( as they have here for years) with a controled noise going on.
I want to know how filing this remonstrance is helping the learning process going on in the classrooms?
As for studies about smaller ratios and economic disablity, check out the studies done by head start since the 60's. They have proven that helping kids along at an ealry age is the best for all of society!
Our high school up here, not the one down south, is huge. Kids fall through the cracks. A school that is large, while offering small class sizes still can not do what our schools are doing now. And if you have to cut support staff, then the proverbial handbasket can not be far off!
Somewhere on here someone also stated that I had posted on other articles and came off as anti-teacher. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have a BS in special education, and over 20 years of employment in the field. I would never stand behind "the man". I am an eduction backer
That's the penalty we have to pay for our acts of foolishness -- someone else always suffers for them.
Author: Alfred Sutro
It's honesty time for me! I've spent countless hours reading these posts since the Times has gone online. I've always wondered about the true identity of the writers. Pen names have always been a fascination of mine. So, these postings have been a form of entertainment of mine called Guess the Identity of the Writer. Unfortunately, recent postings in response to Leo's very well-written blogs have caused me to come to a realization. The realization is that I'm afraid I've discovered the mystery identity of one of the people with whom I've bantered a bit. Brazil is a small town, and one only has to read carefully over a dedicated period of time before faced with an "A-Ha" moment. If my guessing skills are still what they used to be, then I realize I have bantered with someone with whom I've gone/go to church and had friendly conversations on numerous occasions. I've watched her daughters' grow from babies to teens and tweens. The depressing thing is.......I don't like the feeling I have with the mystery unveiled!!
PLEASE madmom61.....In my mind, I see your name on the ballot in the same district as Leo's, and I see you as a former employee at Meridian Elementary. Of course, I hope I'm way off target so I can continue playing my game!
Bigpappy...
You do have many facts about me. You just missed a few pieces. I have not had my name on a ballot. I prefer to hide behind the scenes to get my point across. This is a small town... that is correct. Keep guessing and you might get me right. All I know about you is that your daughter was a cheerleder, went to Meridian, then to college and you are a man of faith.
I too enjoy playing with the identity game. Give me some clues and let me guess who you are!
Oh and one more thing ...
If we all believed the same thing, this would be a very boring world. One church, one job, one politcal party, one type of car, one form of medicine... and on and on.
I personally thrive on banter between two parties. That is how I learn. I was raised to stand behind my beiefs and accept others opinions. I do not have to agree with others, just accept their beliefs.
I am sorry that when you thought you know who I was you were disppointed. Am I thinking too far out of your box? If you did know who I was you would know that I am a nonconformist. I am a late blooming hippie.
I look foward to furthur banter with you.
May the games contiue!
I have enjoyed your comments on this piece. But we need to move on, while keeping up the conversation.
UNOIT, I'm glad for your son. While it didn't come about, if I had felt that the staff of Meridian was not educating my son, I would have switched schools. If I had had to I would have driven him to Clay City. I did, in fact, switch one of his elementary classrooms because of comments from other parents concerning the teacher he was slated to have.
Madmom Yes, we have children falling through the cracks. I see the North Clay - Northview complex as a major factor in that when you compare the graduation rates north to south. I detest both of those buildings. They remind me of high production stockyards where the stock are penned instead of being allowed free range. High production, but your death loss rate is higher. You make that up with higher throughput, but I don't think the dead animals care about your production or profit margin.
I do believe that I stated in a "letter to the Editor" that, if it were possible, we should knock down every school building in the north and start from scratch. But we have to stay "in the real world." I, personally, am not up for being the "guest" of honor at a lynching party for recommending that we tear down North Clay and Northview to build two Jr./Sr. High Schools in the year that we finally get the bonds that built Northview paid off.........LOL.
I heard, a few years back in Civics 101, that politics was a method of deciding how to meet infinite needs, real or perceived, with limited resources. Now, some of you seem to think that I WANT to merge Eastside and Meridian. I see a need to change something because of the graduation rate. I hear teachers saying that they need more one-on-one time with students. I don't see any more money, however, I do see less money, a tax-cap "curcuit breaker" limitation, and increased costs. I see a need to justify our educational expenses, by law, by what we are required to teach to earn a diploma, and by identification as to what it takes to educate people. Every time I bring that up to the school corporation they act like I'm a "man from Mars", even when I explain that is the only way that they can ever pass a referendum tax that by-passes the curcuit-breaker to get the money that is needed. I, for one, am not about to vote to pay more taxes until I see evidence that we have cut expenses to the minimum, are providing only what is necessary, and do not have the funds to do that. When that day comes and the evidence is produced, I'll be trying to convince people to vote for that referendum. Until that day,I will be seeking that information, questioning every expense that I do not think advances education, and fighting every expenditure that I feel doesn't advance education within the Clay Community Schools Corporation.
I meant this to be a blog atricle, but it didn't get posts by the Brazil Times. Can't really gripe about that, everyone deserves time off.
Views from the Lion's Lair
By: Leo L. Southworth
Memorial Day
As a former Marine, Memorial Day has a great deal of meaning to me. It is a time for me to reflect upon fallen comrades and comrades-at-arms who will be forever young in my mind. It is a time when I reflect on my father, a deceased veteran of the Army Medical Corps who served during World War II and Korea. It is a time when those in our military are on my mind and in my prayers.
Many of us have plans for family outings, picnics, and other activities. I see it as right and fitting to do those things on Memorial Day. The people who this day commemorates made their sacrifice for those things to go on and gave up enjoying those things for themselves.
I ask that in your busy day that you hug your family for those that can no longer hug theirs. Remember those that have passed the Great Veil and hold precious the freedoms that they preserved for you. Exercise those freedoms as often as you can for those who paid the ultimate price for them and who are now stiff and cold. Take a moment in the rain or sun, in the brightness of the day or in the dark of the night, and say a prayer for those who stand watch over those freedoms today.
SEMPER FI