Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Parents should protest BOE's 'dictatorship'

Thank you for printing the informative articles I wrote to the Fayette County Board of Education (BOE) and for every citizen in the county.

As I got no response from the board to my many e-mails except a "thanks" and was not permitted to speak at BOE meetings, I quickly realized the facts I presented to each one of them with good reliable sources were not making any sort of an impact on the board's move "towards the balanced calendar." It was all like water over the dam, and time was running out before the vote.

Public forums were not scheduled or held to gather community input before implementation, as suggested.

Board meetings only permit the public a two-minute spot per person for addressing the board, if (and only if) the person has made an appointment at least 10 days in advance, and gotten approval to speak.

Even if permission was granted to speak, one cannot address the many negative impacts a balanced calendar has on taxpayers, students, teachers, administrators, and school buildings (for want of adequate maintenance time), all in less than two minutes. Since the board apparently doesn't understand the effectiveness of the traditional calendar (or care in terms of cost and academic achievement), then a great deal of time needs to be spent educating the BOE on these facts. Of course, this too would require a great deal more than two minutes.

Before the vote and just after one of my articles was printed in the paper, I was telephoned four times in one day by one board member. Still, it was not to discuss facts or any of my research she had received from me via e-mail.

After a great deal of condemnation, I was finally told that it was expected that I call first and essentially get permission from her before publishing anything relating to her or the board. Clearly, this board member also needs a college course in political science 101. In America, I do not need to get permission from her before writing to the newspaper or to clarify her intentions as stated publicly. In the end, she voted for the balanced calendar as a matter of public record; and my article was proven by her after the fact to be absolutely precise. It was never my intention to arouse hatred in anyone; and for that I apologized.

However, the bottom line: The BOE was not designed to function as a dictatorship; and because we are fortunate to have a real newspaper in this community, censorship of the facts from the public eye is also not permitted. Despite what a lot of journalists and others today call freedom of the press, this clause in the U.S. Constitution was absolutely meant to prevent such a dictatorship from thriving. The public has the right to know the facts, and the right and privilege to decide what's right for its own community in regards especially to school functions. Getting permission before one goes to print is a form of censorship.

First, a fully informed community, then an empowered community, makes decisions. If the board we trust cannot untie its hands to make all pertinent information available to the public and let the people make informed decisions, then thank God for our free press.

Knowing real facts and real costs associated with balanced calendar implementation, we should not be content to bend over and receive this burden the BOE has put on us. There are several remedies we can do as a community to affect necessary change, just as communities all around the country have been doing to put this "balanced" calendar in the grave and just as our forefathers set forth in our basic doctrines and by example.

We can sign petitions, and we can elect new board members to replace those that are so gung-ho on year-round school or those compromising into a modified balanced calendar, which is just an in road to the smallest possible window allowed by the community for a summer break.

There is one more thing.

I was told that some airline pilot families find they need to have off-season vacations in order to use their free boarding passes. So, to date, they've been keeping their children out of school for one-week blocks for this purpose. Nobody seems to realize yet that once the entire school system goes "balanced," the much-coveted off-season breaks for vacation will become the season for everybody.

And, it only goes to follow that instead of a 12-week block where families' vacation schedules are scattered, they will all become compressed into very small windows of opportunity and all accommodations will be much more difficult to secure. Hence, they will still need to keep their children out of school for a week not scheduled for an official school break in order to affect off-season freedom for using their boarding passes.

School administrators have expressed interest in wanting full attendance during the school year and a willingness to accommodate those who want off-season vacations. Absenteeism affects federal ADA funding. The issue never has been about memory loss (as it has been proved through more than a hundred years of research that memory loss occurs within four to seven days, not just in three-month breaks. And, if material is forgotten, it was never really learned in the first place). The main issue is funding.

As my grandfather (Charles Coogler) pointed out so astutely, his generation quite simply would not stand for the kind of treatment as demonstrated to date by the board. They would not bother with time-consuming petitions which could take years to circulate throughout the county, nor would they waste their breath on people who were shortsighted, or so entrenched in their personal goals that they would not do the right thing.

His generation would have simply kept their children out of school until the season ended. The BOE could post any start date they want, but the majority of students wouldn't show up until school officially starts after Labor Day.

Emphasis on "official" here, as a majority vote is the community standard. And, it's the BOE that must make the adjustment to align itself with the community standard, not the other way around. Lost ADA funding for a majority block-out would clearly be more than substantial and greatly outnumber the loss of jet-set socialites needing off-season vacations.

So, in this democracy we call home, we are allowed several remedies to dictatorship control: Freedom of the press; petition; vote; civil disobedience (also used as a quick vote on a particular issue rather than a candidate).

One does not have to bend over in a democracy. "Right is might," as my grandfather and my political science professor both so aptly put it, and is what keeps America strong as a living, breathing democracy!

If every traditionalist purposefully schedules their family vacations for 11 Aug. through 2 Sept. out of town or takes this time as a personal leave, just as the pilots' families have scheduled their vacations off sync with the public school system, gross absenteeism would make a huge impact on the boards' decisions. The BOE would either listen to its constituents and make good on their wishes or get caught between lost ADA funding and approved taxes to date. Not reflecting the values of its community could cost the board the ability to reconcile their budget, any positive advances on their individual resumes, and eventually their jobs.

Dictatorship must be discouraged by whatever means available to us as provided by the U.S. Constitution and our system of government.

Most importantly, however, is to determine our values as a community. Do we value intermittent breaks scattered throughout the year above all else? I personally have deeper values and more long-range goals for my family and my children. Highest academic achievement to date was accomplished in the 1950s by schools using the traditional calendar.

Kathie Prado

Peachtree City

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