A final post

I have decided to end this blog.

Initially it was my intent to offer a different perspective at this site, and to provide a forum for alternative points of view around educational issues in the Lebanon Community School District. I'd had hopes the LT crowd might be open to considering possibilities beyond the legalistic debate-team type analysis and conclusions drawn on that site, and on the RW site to a lesser extent. I felt it was time online readers knew that not everyone agrees with their spin on issues.

I have seriously considered letting go of this blog several times since starting it impulsively some months ago, due to time commitments in the multiple rewarding domains of my life, but it seemed important to have a different point of view regarding district issues represented in cyberworld. And some of you urged me to continue to voice my views here.

Most recently I considered ending the blog after reading the text of Kim Fandinos' farewell statement to the school board as she resigned from her role as president of the Lebanon teacher's union. Ms. Fandino noted the negative role blogs played in her work as union president. I gave that serious thought...wondering if my own energy here contributed to even more discussion and rhetoric for rhetoric's sake: Discourse with no positive result leaving waters even more choppy than before. Was that something I wanted to be part of?

Since few positives have come from hosting this blog site, and it seems to me to just feed the conflict, I will let it go. When I put energy into something and see few positive outcomes, it is time to re-direct that energy into something different. There are many positive possibilities in my life: I will leave the snake pit of local schools controversy and focus elsewhere.

To those of you who have urged me to blog more often and stated you appreciated my perspectives, thanks. But for me it's now time for other things.

Little hope for "reconciliation"

At this point, after a back and forth with LT and others over on that blog, I am wondering if there is any hope for "reconciliation" among factions in this district.

I certainly do not feel that MY views have been sincerely even heard, let alone considered, by that faction. It feels to me like they take a "my way or the highway" approach, but of course, that is looking at it from my perspective.

One MORE time -- if Robinson really has changed...great. But it will take significant time for many of us to believe it. We will have to see repeated examples of a compassionate and respectful administrator. I don't think we have that time.

One MORE time -- I don't agree with everything Rick does (however, I would trust Rick to manage my children's education more than I would LT because I think we need more than legal-type analysis to guide decisions).

One MORE time -- There are many problems in this district that DO pre-date Robinson, but he has rubbed so many people the wrong way so strongly, that he needs to move on before there is any hope of people in this district coming together.

Given that there is this vocal anti-Rick and pro-Robinson faction in the community, we are more divided than ever.

You know, if I showed up regularly at board meetings, LT and I would still disagree: We see things through a different mental filter. LT and supporters would just come up with another reason not to be open-minded.

After the buyout

If we are going to buy Robinson out, I hope it's more a severance package that is significantly less costly than three years of his salary plus benefits. I would prefer Robinson just resign, knowing it is time to give someone else a chance to lead educational efforts in this community. But a buy-out may be our only option.

When we have a new superintendent who brings in fresh air from outside the Lebanon system, we can slowly begin the process of healing and coming together. I am hopeful a new superintendent would facilitate multiple public forums in multiple locations around the district, to gather community ideas and opinions about how to better communicate with parents and unite us behind the goal of better educating our youth. This person would host similar gathering for district teachers. This would be a start.

There is much history of intense, bitter disagreement about what is best for Lebanon's schools, and of disrespect between the factions. I am hoping for someone with the skills and patience to allow us all to grieve our losses with respect and compassion, and fall into line behind a common goal of improving education for Lebanon.

This is no easy or quick task. It will take a talented superintendent at the helm with a track record of success elsewhere, and a lot of patience.

Just for fun -- from the Moody list of questions stolen from the RW site

Your coma: Unplug, or keep on pluggin’? : Unplug if three medical experts think I won't come out of it at least half mentally-home. Otherwise, wait and see..

Superstition you can’t shake: Knock on wood.

Last person you yelled at: My youngest kid.

Duty at work you hate: Anything involving paper.

Invention the world would be better off without: Bombs

Actor/actress you’d trade your partner for: None. We've been together a long time. I mean who really wants to LIVE with a movie star?

Selling price for your kids: Depends on the day, but generally, they aren't for sale.

One thing your mom would faint if she knew about: Too many to list.

Sound of the little voice in your head: Sometimes nagging, sometime cheerleading, sometimes critical, sometimes satisfied.

What you do when the Jehovah’s Witnesses knock: Aggressively ask if they can read the 'No Trespassing' signs, and shut the door!

Web sites you visit instead of working: Yahoo! news, email group lists, LT and RW, sometime the DH

Tylenol or Ibuprofen? : Ibuprofen

Oldest thing in your fridge: I can only name one?

First thing you’d do if made dictator for life: Dictator of the world? the country? ummm. Ban waring weapons would be first, but I gotta long list of things I'd do.

Burial or cremation?: Burial without embalming or concrete, so I can fertilize a tree.

Worst vacation ever: The one where the vehicle repeatedly died -- stranding us in barren, hot, distant places where people weren't friendly or helpful.

Speed you’d drive if you knew you wouldn’t be ticketed: It all depends on mood and situation, but not over 80. Sometimes 40.

Best hangover cure: Time passing.

Sex on the first date? : Absolutely not.

Thing you say that makes you sound like your folks when you swore you never would: To my kids: "Because I said so!"

A spinoff on the question of students addressing teachers by first names

If teachers and administrators introduced themselves to parents using their first and last name (vs. Mr. Jones or Mrs. Smith or Ms. Green) would parents feel they were seen more as equal adult partners in the business of educating their children?

This thought was sparked by a recent discussion on the other educational blogs, around teachers allowing students to call them by first names, or by their last name alone..like "Head," as last year's band teacher, Josh Head, was often called by his students.

There are pros and cons to the issue around students using first names to address teachers, but I generally figure it's up to the individual teacher. I will add that teachers I see my children respecting are teachers who are confident, competent, and caring: There does not seem to be a correlation between what the teacher is called and the level or type of respect my students report for the teacher.

But when I think about my own interactions with teachers and administrators, there is a correlation between those I have found easiest and most satisfying to work with as a parent, and those who suggest I call them by their first name.

Now we know that correlation does not equal causation, so it may be there are other factors that account for my feeling heard and respected by these folks. But it's one small change for some teachers/administrators that might lead to positive interactions with some of us parents. At least it might be worth a try.

Don't micromanage, but do manage

On the RW blog there is a simple, elegant anonymous comment by a reader that just hits the mark:

"If Mr. Robinson is completely opposed to working with the board, that is impractical and he may need to go. Yes, the board should not micromanage, but they are expected to manage. I have a good boss, who lets me work, but when he disagrees with me, he wins."

That is so well-stated that I wanted to feature it here.

A good firework but ends with fizzle

Hasso had another editorial in last night's DH about the latest LCSD board-member recall effort. It notes a real problem with the recall, but fizzles in conclusion. Here's the editorial:

Recall maneuvers

The maneuvering about the on- and off- and on-again recalls against various members of the Lebanon School Board sound a little too calculating and manipulative.

First the recall petitioners gave public notice of wanting to recall board member Debi Shimmin because her term had longer to run than two other members that the recall backers also want off the board. Then Sherrie Sprenger, the board chair, announced she would step down July 1 in order to pursue her election campaign for the legislature. That would give the recall targets a chance to appoint an ally of theirs in her place, giving them three or even four votes on the five-member board. So then the recallers filed against their main targets, Rick Alexander and Josh Wineteer as well as Shimmin. A few days later, they announced they had met with Shimmin and would no longer proceed with the petition against her. The five complaints against her in the recall petition were suddenly no longer all that grievous.

All that makes you wonder whether the long-suffering Lebanon school system would not be better off without the added acrimony of a recall campaign. (hh)

Here's another version:
Some district residents get mad because they worked for Shimmin's election thinking she was a Sprenger clone (a.k.a. Will Do Robinson's Bidding). But it turns out she thinks for herself.

So they tantrum, label her a rule-breaker and decide with righteous indignation to recall her because she's been a very bad girl (doesn't behave as they want). Then they discover some people really blame Rick and Josh (the two bad boys) for recent board actions, and want them recalled more than Debi -- so they decide to go for all three. And then they find many people feel Debi's doing a good job (or "good enough" job) and won't sign her recall petition, but would sign to recall Rick and Josh: Maybe some of them think the bad boys corrupted this good girl.

So then someone in the group decided they would see if they can talk some sense into Debi -- to get her to mend her ways. (Never mind that one would think they might have talked with her before filing a recall petition.) So the head of this self-appointed elders' council meets with Shimmin, who either convinces them she really is a good girl, or that she's seen the error of her ways and won't displease them again, or that she really has good reasons for voting as she does.

We don't know what she told them that prompted them to drop her from their recall: The elders either decide they made a huge mistake by calling for Debi's head, or they feel she is now intimidated and won't disappoint them again, or have some other reason they decide to drop the recall. No one is talking about the content of the conversation between the elders and Debi, so we are left to speculate.

I give Debi the benefit of the doubt here, but something smells of rotten fish. Hasso is right when he says this recall seems "a little too calculating and manipulative." And yes, Lebanon really does not need the extra lemon in the soup this ever-changing recall process adds. But beyond that, we need to take a look at CARES. It seems to be a special-interest group of self-appointed local power people who want to maintain the current administration and it's focus.

If CARES doesn't change it's mind again and call off the recall effort completely, I guess we will see if they are able to gather enough signatures to force a vote on recalling Josh and Rick. And if there is an election, we will see if the majority of those who vote favor ousting these two board members who have had the courage to challenge Robinson's Regime and be mavericks for positive change.

But CARES could do us all a favor by recalling itself as the self-annointed judge of what's good for education in Lebanon.