Friday both City Democrat Party Chairman Green and 2nd Ward primary Candidate Tony Rucker favored us with significant posts. Both merit commentary but I shall turn to least disturbing one today.
Rucker in his blog ( http://www.theqcpblog.com/ )calls attention to the BOE elections scheduled for Wednesday April 27. That is less than two weeks away. Without this reminder the election would have caught me by surprise since I did not find any reference to it on the City site calender or on the BOE site.
Perhaps it is symptomatic of what is wrong with Plainfield that there is so little publicity and interest for this election. There are three (3) open seats to be filled and 4 candidates. One incumbent running for a third term and a slate of three.
Board member Renata as a private citizen in her blog has supplied a bio for each of the slate candidates. Without a true race it may be questionable if the LOWV will hold a Candidate's Forum. It may be that we will not have enough information about all four to vote intelligently.Without sufficient publicity and an election day of Wednesday it may be doubtful if even 12% of the electorate turn out if it were not for the fact that the Budget should be on the ballot.
Rucker who is the party selection to challenge incumbent Cory Storch as the Democrat nominee for the 2nd Ward Council seat also notes the overcrowding at Cook School which is in the 2nd year of a progression from K-5 to K-8. He notes that Maxson School is one of the two underutilized Middle Schools and wonders why the conversion of Cook School should continue with its increasing space problems.
The plans to by pass the under performing Middle Schools by reverting to a K-8 format was one of Dr Gallon's better programs. That it was continued may have been poor judgement by a BOE and School District that for at least a decade has been dysfunctional with frequent changes in Administrative leadership.
I am sure that Tony knows that there were plans I believe even into architectural drawings for expansion of Cook School which the State shelved when the corrupt State Agency under the Democratic Administration failed due to misuse of funds.
Being outside the inner circle I have no knowledge what the long term plans if any the PSSD has. We seem to be wallowing in a lack of direction and yet have one of the highest costs per student in the area. If it is in part the impact of the multiple district Charter Schools which by their very presence is an indication of the failure of our District.
Mr. Rucker is right, the lack of advanced classes in the system is a disgrace. It is an indication that the District is willing to settle for mediocrity at best. Ultimate blame falls on the electorate who chose the BOE.
The members of the BOE are well meaning and individually capable, but as a group do not seem to understand the nuances of their fiduciary responsibility as opposed to the tunnel visions of their own agendas. Until we can elect Candidates who have a combination of business administrative skills as well as educational competency the future for education in Plainfield will remain bleak.
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The set of skills that you suggest are clearly lacking within the acceptable candidates that Plainfield has to offer. Without children in the system a potential candidate probably will not be elected. The fact is most people with the needed skills send their children to private schools.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about the spending per pupil being one of the highest in the area I believe understates the cost. Who spends more? How would our per capita spending stack up when compared to the rest of the country, probably off of the charts.
Considering the amount of money we spend per student, if we want the select group of students to have advanced courses available to them pay for them to attend Wardlaw Hartridge. Cost is about the same.
Doctor Yood: the League of Women Voters is indeed holding a Board of Education candidates forum on Thursday at Washington Community School. There are fliers with candidates' biographies and answers to League-posed questions at City Hall and at the Library. Those fliers will also be distributed at the forum, which will be moderated by an out-of-town LWV trained person. I don't have the time, but at a more reasonable hour, I'll contact you again with that information. Hope to see you there.
ReplyDeleteHi, Doc,
ReplyDeleteThe League of Women Voters of Plainfield's website has the information about forum date/time/location (Thurs, 4/21 at 7:00 pm at Washington School), as well as the bios and responses to League questions of the 4 candidates running.
Just navigate on the left sidebar of the homepage to the "2011 BOE Candidate Bios and League Questions"
The web address is:
http://www.lwvplainfield.org
Dan Damon has the LWV website on his blog's sidebar as well.
Sincerely,
Rebecca
I wonder if our per capita spending on students has to do with our very top heavy administration. There seems to be no push to trim it down or get our costs down for running our buildings. Why, at midnight are all the lights are on in our schools is a mystery to me. I wonder about that at 11 p.m. when I go past City Hall. No one seems to be making a concerted effort to save the taxpayers money and I can think of at least a half dozen. Someone needs to start thinking instead of wasting.
ReplyDeleteI am glad there is now some light on the subject. We spend way too much time fighting over little stuff, when we really need to spend time on the big stuff - our schools, taxes and the 3.4MM budget gap that is on the horizon are the big issues our council and administration should be spending maximum effort.
ReplyDeleteWe need focus on the issues that are important, not distractions. Things that should be easy - should we or should we not take in the armory, should we or should we not have two baseball leagues... All of these things are distractions, we have bigger fish to fry. Let's go get 'em!
Renata, I chose not to post your harangue. If you post it yourself so be it. I believe that I was doing a service when I posted the link to your blog so that those who had not read your bios would have some idea about your slate. However I must have done something wrong from your reaction.
ReplyDeleteI fail to see where I disrespected any of he present Board Members. I believe that the BOE as a group in the past has failed this community in its fiduciary responsibility especially in the choices of Administrative leadership.