New Woodburn Community School

MAY 2012 – TWO SEATS UP FOR ELECTION

Including one seat in the Western district and one seat in the Eastern district.

No seats are up for election in the Central district, unfortunately, which includes Woodburn and South Park.

Suncrest should field a good candidate to vie for the seat in the Eastern district.

And in the Western district?

The school board should be controlled by the neighborhoods and communities in general. Currently the board is controlled by the “Town Fathers” or their think-alikes. Sad to say. The Town Fathers and think-alikes treat the public schools like schools for the poor, undeserving of serious money, and unwelcoming of serious public involvement. The board and administration often treat the workers, and that includes teachers, like serfs or like children to be herded. The board and the administration have a concentration camp mentality toward the schools. They completely lack a neighborhood and community mentality. It shows: in the buildings, the buses, the facilities, the activities, the campuses, the funding, the public perception, the community and social relations, the professional relations. It shows badly.

The current school board and administration have proved incapable of producing quality websites for the school district and schools, one of the very main public faces and interfaces in this day and age.

And they have proved incapable of even a simple yet profound measure of public outreach and information: providing online podcasts of the board meetings. They are incompetent. Or worse.

Of course, well known to visitors of this site is the notorious situation of the heinous Eastwood Elementary siting and expense, a calamity in the making. And there is the recent UHS monstrosity, and the fairly recent siting of Skyview Elementary above an industrial park, and consequently now Marcellus Shale gas wells, which produce high amounts of air pollution. There exists state policy that prohibits these abominations, and plenty of research that shows the all-around hideousness to health, safety, and education. But the board and administration have shown time and again that THEY DON’T CARE. If they did care, these abominations would not exist.

It’s long since time for people to come together for change, popular change, making use of best knowledge, of public knowledge and will, and using it well. Loose-knit public groups will have to work together to move better forward.

Markedly better school administration and school board decisions and initiatives would be a good sign of such efforts. Markedly better school board members too.