It is hard to believe, but it has been a year. A year since I wrote this:
One year ago tonight a new Board of Education was sworn in. New leadership was elected. Former Board Chair Christine O’Connor resigned, Dr. Foose sued the School Board. These have been truly eventful times for the school system. Swearing in a better BOE was just the beginning of the struggle.
Now We Begin
There's a countdown ticker running over at the Better Board of Ed website. Right now it reads eleven hours, forty six minutes. When the countdown runs its course a new Board of Education will be sworn in and a new era in the Howard County Schools will begin.
It has been a long, long slog to get to this day. Those engaged in the work of bringing change to the school system might be forgiven for thinking that today is the long-awaited end to the process. Finally, finally, the majority has changed. The 5-2 voting machine has been broken, and the status has shifted.
Finally. It will be time to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
But when the counter runs down and the long wait is over we will be not at the end, but at the beginning. At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious: we haven't yet begun the journey we have set our sights upon. We didn't elect a better Board of Education so we could go back to ignoring what goes on and let someone else take care of it.
No matter how good they are, they will need our help. They need our voices, and our participation. Things like transparency, accountability, and responsiveness are a two-way street. They thrive when there are constituents who are consistently engaged in the process. It's true that we don't have to worry that they'll be so outrageously awful that we need to watch them every minute. But that does not give us a free pass to check out.
Part of electing a better Board of Education was doing the work of making things better. Nice job, Howard County. Now keep doing it.
11:14...tick tock...
It has been a long, long slog to get to this day. Those engaged in the work of bringing change to the school system might be forgiven for thinking that today is the long-awaited end to the process. Finally, finally, the majority has changed. The 5-2 voting machine has been broken, and the status has shifted.
Finally. It will be time to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
But when the counter runs down and the long wait is over we will be not at the end, but at the beginning. At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious: we haven't yet begun the journey we have set our sights upon. We didn't elect a better Board of Education so we could go back to ignoring what goes on and let someone else take care of it.
No matter how good they are, they will need our help. They need our voices, and our participation. Things like transparency, accountability, and responsiveness are a two-way street. They thrive when there are constituents who are consistently engaged in the process. It's true that we don't have to worry that they'll be so outrageously awful that we need to watch them every minute. But that does not give us a free pass to check out.
Part of electing a better Board of Education was doing the work of making things better. Nice job, Howard County. Now keep doing it.
11:14...tick tock...
Where are we now? Dr, Foose was persuaded (by a huge monetary settlement) to drop her lawsuit and go away. The school system has an interim superintendent, Dr. Michael Martirano, whose goal appears to be building bridges instead of cultivating an inner circle. We have lived through a tumultuous season of redistricting.
You may not like everything that this Board has done. They can’t please all of the folks all of the time, of course. But I would argue that they are functioning at a much higher level in terms of responsivensss, transparency, and accountability. And they work together in a more respectful way than we have seen in Howard County in quite some time.
Happy Anniversary, BOE. And a tip of the hat to Board Chair Cindy Vaillancourt for taking the helm and steering the ship during a time of great change. It hasn’t been easy, and she has been unfailingly willing to engage with the public and to examine many differing opinions and a host of warring priorities. She has worked through a year of challenging health issues of her own and has never stopped making our schools, teachers, students, and parents her first priority.
In a year of great change, one thing remains constant:
No matter how good they are, they will need our help. They need our voices, and our participation. Things like transparency, accountability, and responsiveness are a two-way street. They thrive when there are constituents who are consistently engaged in the process. It's true that we don't have to worry that they'll be so outrageously awful that we need to watch them every minute. But that does not give us a free pass to check out.
In a year of great change, one thing remains constant:
No matter how good they are, they will need our help. They need our voices, and our participation. Things like transparency, accountability, and responsiveness are a two-way street. They thrive when there are constituents who are consistently engaged in the process. It's true that we don't have to worry that they'll be so outrageously awful that we need to watch them every minute. But that does not give us a free pass to check out.
Oh, and thanks to you, Howard County, for electing a better Board of Education. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
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