I had totally forgotten about the 2019 election that was uncontested.
A couple additions to your timeline: board member Mendoza quit mid term in April 2021, board member Tanyavutti quit mid term in 2022, Weatherspoon (lost the election in 2021, but selected weeks later to fill Mendoza's seat) quit mid-term.
For me, these things add up to a crisis in governance. It is no wonder that Hernandez and the board in 2020 felt comfortable conducting the superintendent search behind closed doors--they hadn't even faced contested elections, so why would they be concerned submit themselves to public scrutiny over the superintendent search?
We have seen in both the 65 and 202 boards over the last 5-7 years a number of people just quit midterm, or there being uncontested elections (like one of the 202 seats this time around).
I am wondering whether consolidating the districts into one district might improve governance as well as the student experience. The most recent joint meeting of the districts showed a large gulf between 202's expectations and 65's. It seems ridiculous to have an entire school district for just one school.
If we consolidated, maybe we would get better candidates. There may be more scrutiny placed on their backgrounds and policy positions. Right now you have so many people running for each board that it is hard for many voters to evaluate their fitness for office. Then there are all of the other curricular benefits and cost savings that could come with consolidation.
Are any of the current candidates even entertaining this possibility?
Many years ago someone explained to me that the reason we have unhelpful educationist-dominated school boards is the nature of the job. If you want to do a good job, you'll need to spend quite a bit of time at it. Regardless of what you do, a large part of the community will hate you. You won't be paid. The sort of person most likely to seek such a post is an insider who gets a living from something related to "education."
Occasionally an actual member of the public, a sensible person who likely has children enrolled in the schools but earns a living in some other business, will stand for election to the board. Having no interested organization behind them, such a person is unlikely to be elected. Example last election was Angela Blaising. This time, John Martin.
I suppose correlating school board election days with property tax billing dates might be of some help here, but the County has a lot of trouble getting bills out on time, and renters, tho many are affected by property taxes, pay them only indirectly.
I had totally forgotten about the 2019 election that was uncontested.
A couple additions to your timeline: board member Mendoza quit mid term in April 2021, board member Tanyavutti quit mid term in 2022, Weatherspoon (lost the election in 2021, but selected weeks later to fill Mendoza's seat) quit mid-term.
For me, these things add up to a crisis in governance. It is no wonder that Hernandez and the board in 2020 felt comfortable conducting the superintendent search behind closed doors--they hadn't even faced contested elections, so why would they be concerned submit themselves to public scrutiny over the superintendent search?
We have seen in both the 65 and 202 boards over the last 5-7 years a number of people just quit midterm, or there being uncontested elections (like one of the 202 seats this time around).
I am wondering whether consolidating the districts into one district might improve governance as well as the student experience. The most recent joint meeting of the districts showed a large gulf between 202's expectations and 65's. It seems ridiculous to have an entire school district for just one school.
If we consolidated, maybe we would get better candidates. There may be more scrutiny placed on their backgrounds and policy positions. Right now you have so many people running for each board that it is hard for many voters to evaluate their fitness for office. Then there are all of the other curricular benefits and cost savings that could come with consolidation.
Are any of the current candidates even entertaining this possibility?
Many years ago someone explained to me that the reason we have unhelpful educationist-dominated school boards is the nature of the job. If you want to do a good job, you'll need to spend quite a bit of time at it. Regardless of what you do, a large part of the community will hate you. You won't be paid. The sort of person most likely to seek such a post is an insider who gets a living from something related to "education."
Occasionally an actual member of the public, a sensible person who likely has children enrolled in the schools but earns a living in some other business, will stand for election to the board. Having no interested organization behind them, such a person is unlikely to be elected. Example last election was Angela Blaising. This time, John Martin.
I suppose correlating school board election days with property tax billing dates might be of some help here, but the County has a lot of trouble getting bills out on time, and renters, tho many are affected by property taxes, pay them only indirectly.