March 28, 2007
Wednesday

I would like the school board to focus on issues that are pertinent to policy making for the betterment of our schools.

I am speaking of a letter I recently read in SitNews of board comments about an "Adversarial relationship, and "lack of confidence" in the superintendent. I would put the entire school board in the same standing in my opinion that has been attributed to the superintendent. After the way you guys handled the athletic director's position and got bullied into submission (although with the threat of a lawsuit you did what you thought was best), how recent threats to our students was handled, the utter failure of addressing the dropout rate, and the failure to address the shortage of the work force that Alaska is on a collision course with, and the lack of success in addressing the need to refocus on vocational training to meet the absolute demand for blue collar trades type courses in Ketchikan - other communities have addressed this last issue very aggressively. You guys sit around and pass judgment and not POLICY.

I have little faith in the school board's judgment under pressure ,and even less faith in the board's lack of ability to focus on the issues that are not of a personal nature. My "lack of confidence" in the school board and ""my adversarial opinion" of your performance and my personal dislike for your "style of leadership" is not a reason to remove you all. In a perfect world that held all of my views and opinions as their own, this would be possible. But it's not a perfect world - sometime we all have to buck up and realize it's not always "all about me" and deal with people even though you do not like their style. Until the board has concrete legitimate reasons to remove the superintendent and report to the public, I would say start concentrating on your jobs and the real issues.

The school board is not a board of directors of some organization that hires and fires their number one employee at will like some of us do, and you "do not" have that absolute right as private organizations do.
You guys represent the public and it is the public's children you are responsible for. So concentrate on the issues, pass policies that dictate and demand performance from our superintendent. The lack of leadership does not start from the bottom up. SO EVALUATE yourselves before evaluating others.

Please excuse the spelling and grammar, I spent a lot of time in woodshop ,auto mechanics, welding, and maritime at Kayhi learning how to make a living here in southeast and not so much in computer graphics or liberal arts studies, and even less time in English - although English was a favorite subject of mine and I actually got an A in advanced senior English,and drama club. So I do share some interest in all subjects.

Chas Edwardson
Ketchikan, AK



Received March 27, 2007 - Published March 28, 2007

About: "Life long ketchikan resident with four kids in the system."

 

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