I came out against the school referendum very soon after it was announced. As a 25+ year resident, parent and business owner, expressing my opinion came at great personal and professional cost and still does to this day. I believe we’ll eventually improve the schools, but as one former school board member expressed to me – the ethical way to improve the schools is to help our students. The motivation behind the school design presented to us seems to be to replace our students.
More recently, I’ve decided to speak out against our current Superintendent. The now Dr. Christine Johnson has been calling herself a Doctor for several years where she still had not earned the degree. What sort of role model is this for our students? While I believe in second chances and I even believe Dr. Johnson has mostly done good things for the school, considering her position as Superintendent: I believe she must resign. I find it disappointing that not a single member of our board of education, not a single member of our city council and not even our Mayor has given an opinion on what could only be described as a scandal.
Another former school board member today mentioned to me that in speaking out against this fraud, I’m likely to lose votes. And that is the core of the problem: our elected officials are making decisions to keep themselves in office rather than in the best interests of the constituents. Deep down, it’s my hope that enough residents realize I’ll work in their best interests even if that means saying things and doing things that might be unpopular.