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The Madison Central School Board meets Monday night to, among other things, appoint someone to fill an upcoming vacancy. Three seats came open this year, and only two citizens, incumbents Dennis Hegg and Mark Hawkes, filed petitions. The Board thus gets to pick the lucky soul who will serve in the remaining seat for the next three years.
To the Board, I humbly submit myself for consideration. I have spent my career in education, specializing in math and English, the core curriculum areas of the No Child Left Behind tests and the SATs. I have years of experience in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. I'm tech-savvy, which will be a good asset as Madison joins the high-school-wide laptops program this fall. And as Madison's most prolific blogger, I demonstrate the sort of straight talk and openness that the public is clamoring for from its elected (and, in this case, appointed) officials. I'll bet Madison would love to have a board member who would be able to provide the straight dope on what's going on in our school district. Wow -- I could even blog live from board meetings! How cool would that be?!
I know, I know, if I wanted to serve, I should have filed a petition. But back in February when petitions were made available, I had planned to return to Montrose for another year of teaching and coaching. Since then, I've changed course and chosen a new and exciting opportunity, doctoral studies in information systems (ooo -- even more tech savvy), that has opened up right here at DSU in Madison. So heck, I'll even be around town! Put me in, coach -- I'm ready to play!
Drinking Liberally Update (11/15/2024)
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In Politics: Nationally: The Election is over and the wrong side won. I
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3 days ago
Sorry, I don't think you are the yes-man they are looking for.
ReplyDeleteHow are they deciding on a pool of people to pick from? Has anybody come forward and wanted the job this time around? Maybe this would be the time to drop the school board membership by one; they all think alike anyway!
ReplyDeleteYes-man to whom? Is there one board member running the show and pushing everyone else to follow?
ReplyDeleteActually I think you would be a breath of fresh air on the board, Cory!
ReplyDeleteWe went to many board meetings for a year or so when the opt out issue was hot. Do they get together and discuss issues by email or phone before the meeting? Because there isn't enough discussion at meetings on really hot issues before voting it seems. And they do want yes men/women on the board, not free thinkers. Just ask the one board member who finally had enough and quit several years ago.
Maybe the school district should be divided into different sections, each of which would have a representative on the school board, instead of those who mostly represent the college, the school itself, and the business community. The board used to be that way when the rural districts were consolidated into Madison. As you can guess, I'm from the rural area. And the school board and district is really good at spending my money.
Say, here's a novel idea. Appoint a person from the rural part of the district! I won't hold my breath though!
Hmm, maybe we should put free-thinker Nonnie up for the job. :-)
ReplyDeleteTo the board's credit (wait, am I feeling o.k.?), they did appoint a rural guy, David Zolnowsky, the last time they had a vacancy to fill. It wouldn't hurt if they went rural again. Maybe we could get a discussion of dividing the district into precincts.
On discussing issues by e-mail or phone before meetings: by statute, they can't, certainly not as a group. The attorney general's office offers this explanation of South Dakota's open meetings laws. Members of any board can call or e-mail each other to arrange scheduling, but they face legal penalties if they discuss official business anywhere but in a properly announced public meeting.
If you go to meetings and listen, they have to have discussed things ahead of time. There just isn't enough discussion at the board without having prior discussions on the issues.
ReplyDeleteDavid Zolnowsky lives on a farm, but he doesn't truly reflect the rural people IMO. It takes more than simply living in the country to understand rural thinking on taxes etc.
Will be interesting to see who the board appoints though. And free thinkers need not apply.
Two thoughts...
ReplyDelete1) When they appoint someone, wouldn't they just have them serve a year until they can do another election next year? I know they did that with the Madison mayor, and they did that with the Dell Rapids School Board.
2) Anon, I never realized in order to be the "rural voice" you had to be in lock-step with certain ideas. Last time I checked, it WAS a free country!
On filling vacancies: whomever the board picks will serve a full three-year term. Otherwise, the rotation would get messed up. That's why Dave Zolnowsky wasn't up for re-election this year. He's serving out the term to which the individual he replaced was elected.
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar situation on the Lake Herman Sanitary District, for which it seems harder to find willing candidates than the school board. I was appointed last year to fill the position vacated by Keith Roskens when he moved to Iowa. His term was due to end July 2007, so I'm up for re-election this year. There was another vacancy or a term that began in 2005 and was due to end 2008. Had Keith stayed and had I been appointed to that other vacant seat, I would have served until 2008 before facing re-election.
Now there's always the possibility of holding a special election, but given the difficulty of finding candidates interested in running in the regular local elections, our various boards probably don't want or need to go to the extra expense or trouble.