If you don't want to read about my whining about the Marysville School District, you can skip this post.
I went to the school board meeting last night with a piece of paper in my pocket. I had written some harsh words for the public speaking portion, but was undecided whether or not I would speak. I was leaning toward not speaking, but I just wasn't sure. When I got to the meeting, I ran into a fellow activist who is a bit more determined than me, and she told me that over the years she's gotten into trouble many times for what she's said, but at least she has never regretted having a chance to speak up and not speaking up. Before I put my name down on the speaking list, she did it for me. I was the third speaker, and I'm told that I was one of the few that people cheered throughout. Here is my speech:
My name is Laura Gjovaag. I am the wife of a math teacher who was hired by this district over the summer. At the time my husband was hired, we were both unaware that there were any problems. Indeed, my husband was pleased to come teach in Marysville, as his grandmother was once a teacher here, and his father a student.
Imagine our surprise and dismay as we learned of the labor problems. Imagine my disgust as I researched the root of the problem and discovered that the fault lay in a school board completely out of touch with the people in the district, and an unqualified superintendent who was hired without due process or community input.
To Helen Mount and Ron Young. You are morally in the wrong. Your vote of spite at the last board meeting proved this, even to your supporters. Resign. If you care at all about the children in this district, save this district the money it will cost to recall you. Resign.
To Linda Whitehead. Your divisive style of leadership, your inability to work with the people who are supposed to look up to you, your dismissive attitude toward anyone who disagrees with you makes you a lousy superintendent, despite any awards people across the country may choose to give you. Resign.
If you have any compassion at all for the students in this district, leave now before we must waste money -- better spent on education -- to get rid of you. You will not stay regardless, the only question about your leaving is whether or not you will steal money from the children of this district before you go. If you are an honest person, you will resign.
To the new school board members. Linda Whitehead is a knife in the side of our teachers. Until that knife is removed, there will be a festering wound in this district. Progress cannot be made until she is gone. Please keep that in mind in all you do over the next few months.
Thank you, and may honesty prevail.
As soon as I spoke the first "Resign", the audience cheered, which confused me, as I'm not a good public speaker. Every time I said the word I got massive cheers from the majority of the crowd. I was shaking, which I'm told wasn't visible. I also had the bright idea to take the microphone into my hand and speak clearly into it, so apparently everyone heard every word, which wasn't the case with a lot of the speakers.
The meeting was part boredom, part lively public meeting. The two incumbent board members and the superintendent attempted to carry on like nothing bad was happening, but all of them felt the "love" during the public speaking portion of the meeting, as it was clear that most everybody simply wants them gone.
One thing about the old board that I noticed immediately at the first meeting I attended was that during the public speaking section of the meeting, the board claims that they cannot answer any questions. Basically, the public is talking to a wall that is supposed to be listening. But when the first speaker finished her statements, Ron Young broke the rule and started to answer her to make her look bad. There was immediate backlash from the audience, as the board has ruled that the public has only 30 minutes to speak, and Ron was taking away from that time. Some people actually shouted, "Shut up, Ron, it's our turn to talk!" He kept talking until he'd finished, despite not being allowed to speak, then when Kundu, one of the new board members, attempted to say something both Mount and Young told him he couldn't talk. The next speaker started her comments by pointing out that Ron had just spent 1 minute 10 seconds of public time.
After 28 minutes of public speaking time (yes, people were counting), including the minute that Ron had wasted, the school board president Helen Mount declared the public speaking portion of the meeting closed. One of the new board members, Carol Jason, said that she wanted to hear the other speakers. She was told by Mount that she had to make a motion to suspend the agenda. She made the motion, it was seconded, and the three new board members voted to hear the rest of the speakers. Ron Young abstained, to many jeers, and Mount didn't even bother to vote.
The remaining speakers only took about fifteen minutes. Lots of good things were said, including continuing debate on the proposed calendar (which contains two Saturdays for students and five for teachers, which is a hot topic). But everyone got heard, which was a completely new thing for the Marysville parents.
After some other standard business, the new Board officials were elected. As expected, the three new school board members got the three positions. There was a lot of cheering.
The award for "sheer gall" however, goes to Ron Young. In the board's final statements for the evening, right before the public portion of the meeting ended, Young stated that he believed the new board members should recuse themselves from any vote regarding a new contract for the teachers. This statement was met with disbelief and jeers from the audience, who called out, "why do you think we elected them, Ron?" and "Resign, Ron!" After the audience settled down, and Mount wisely said very little in her statement, new Board President Vicki Gates made a sharp comment regarding the board's vote at the last meeting. Point was taken, and that was the only time during the meeting that the huge gap between new board members and old was clearly apparent.
After the meeting, I returned home to an anxious husband who knew that I was speaking because I'd called him from the meeting, but had no idea what I'd said. As I'd given my copy of my speech to a reporter from the Herald Rag, I pulled up the file on my computer and let him read it. His face grew pale and he said, "Are you trying to get me fired?" My heart sank through the floor.
I have not been invisible in this fight. I have written letters, gone to rallies, and generally made a loud noise, under my own name. I have done nothing I am ashamed of in this fight. But at that moment I realized that the vindictiveness of the current school administration could very well haunt my husband. He could easily be punished for my opinion. No honest person would attack him for my opinion, but the current administration is not honest.
After an eternity of beating myself up over my thoughtlessness, which lasted in real time only a few seconds, he continued, "But it had to be said." He's not happy with me. I have endangered his status. But he understands.
Do you understand? This is a district where teachers are afraid to speak up, because if they do they will be punished. This is a district where the morale is GONE. Where the schedules for over 900 students were completely rewritten in the sixth week of the school year. Six weeks, wasted. And no one knows why it had to be done that way. This is a district where a teacher was taken to task by his principal for daring to complain about having 44 students in a classroom with 30 seats. This district has given us nothing but pain. Sometimes I'm not even sure why I care, but when I do try to help, to make things better, I risk my husband's job.
This just can't continue.
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