An Open Letter to the School Board

"A society grows great when old men plant trees

 whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

Same with schools - you don't build a school to help yourself, you build it to help future generations.

I did not write this and do not know the person who spoke it but agree with almost everything this person said in front of the school board.

Sadly most of the people who are interested in Columbus schools did not see this as that part of the live broadcast was not . . . broadcast

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I am speaking with you tonight because I believe we need change in our district. We are losing teachers at an alarming rate year after year. Now recently we have lost a school board member and a principal. I have lived in this district long enough that I remember the days when we were truly a community. Brian Davis was a figure at every event the schools had. He had a genuine smile on his face, and his leadership was inspirational. He took the time to create community by getting to know the people in this district. He carried a sense of pride with him wherever he went. Much like recently resigned high school principal Jake Ekern, who was also a great asset to our district.

Not only are we losing fantastic staff, but we’re losing great families. The people in my circle and I have compiled a list of at least 23 separate families who have either pulled their kids out of public schools in the past year or moved to different communities. And those are just the ones we know of — who knows how many others there are? And they’re not because of job opportunities elsewhere — it’s because of the state of our district affairs. People are fed up. What I’m saying to you tonight isn’t just my words. They’re the thoughts of SO many people who feel the opportunities their children have are greatly limited by the way our district is being run.

Our school district is broken. I don't see any change for the positive coming anytime soon. We keep creating surveys and committees and study groups, and supposedly they’re community led. But in reality, everything that has been done is on the administration’s timeline and within its agenda. If it truly were community led, you would have taken the referendum push started nearly a year ago by concerned district families, used that momentum, and ran with it. Here we are a year later, and I haven’t heard a single person in the administration or on the school board use the word “referendum” once. But whether it’s community led or driven by administration, the feedback we’re getting is the same — we need new facilities. I don't know how else to put it. I'm embarrassed for our athletes, our musicians, our drama students, our debate and forensics teams who travel to other schools and see the facilities we should have for a district this size. When events are held in Columbus, all we hear the parents talking about are how run down our buildings are.

I believe this change needs to start at the top. We need to refocus as a community and decide if our superintendent and current school board president are the best choices. Also we need to repeal Policy Governance. What is the point of having a board if they don’t make any decisions? Are you, as a school board, even told about all these wonderful families who have left our district? Are you told when intermediate school students are attacked and strangled in school restrooms by other children who aren't supposed to be left alone? When the result is contusion, concussion, and plenty of emotional scars? Do you realize that our administration does everything it can to protect children with IEPs, and in doing so the “average” student is being put on the back burner, bullied, and assaulted? These things are happening in our district, and they’re happening because of poor policies and policies that aren’t being properly enforced by our superintendent.

We have one person making policy, and she’s been looking for new jobs every year. We are a small community, we do not need to be used as a stepping stone to further someone’s career or a placeholder until something more convenient and desirable comes along. We need to hire a person who wants to be here, who has the Columbus community’s best interests in mind. We need someone who will enforce policies protecting ALL students, someone who will listen to the pleas from the community, and someone who will bring the spirit back to this lifeless school district.

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LOL - The last time I had something like this  I was called into the principles office and had a one on one meeting with the Head of the School Board and the Superintendent behind closed doors.

I personally know two families that have moved from Columbus BECAUSE of our schools.  It seems to me our school system is SO afraid of failure they do nothing, which guarantees failure.

Our kids need bigger better schools - look at our growth.  1377 kids go to school in Columbus

MEANWHILE - Betsy Devos the Trump appointed Secretary of Education says the government needs to cut funding for the Special Olympics and move that money to help fund Charter Schools.

Her argument is that there are plenty of private citizens that will donate money.  I have been involved with this kind of thinking in Columbus government.  Remember the FUN group? Columbus used to help them with a small donation from the city to help them out.

Remember the art fairs and little concerts and all sorts of downtown activities they would help coordinate? The city decided that they did not need city our money because they would get enough donations.     FAIL!

Because the city did not see how useful they were and the money did NOT come in - they disbanded and now we have lost all of that energy they created.  I felt that episode in city government was a slap in the face to anyone who wanted to help our downtown.

OH - I truly believe our city government, in the last 5 or 6 years has done a FANTASTIC job of fixing all the things that were broken from past administrations.  The city budget is in a good place and Columbus is moving forward.  Just a few things I totally disagreed with.

It's should NOT be all about saving a dime.