Smith: Why should we expect anything different?

It was one year ago when the Burke County school board met to review its policy on supplemental reading materials. I wish all Burke County residents could have attended. About 100 students turned out to tell the school board about their education in Burke County. They were impressive. Some graduates drove hours to be present. Many people were turned away at the door due to lack of space. Many students were cut off in the middle of their speeches. Treating these students and graduates with disrespect and disregarding their comments was not what board Chair Tracy Norman was elected to do.
In the spring, over 2,000 people attended a Burke County school board meeting at Patton High School. The public spoke for four hours requesting that Norman and her board majority rethink their decision to terminate David Burleson's contract. Many asked that he be allowed to fulfill his legal contract through April 2010. Not one person spoke in favor of the school board majority's actions. Norman and her board majority refused to listen to or even acknowledge the community.
As election day approaches, remember what Norman has done for us:
1) Limited our freedom of speech and our right to be heard by the school board.
2) Refused to provide meeting spaces of adequate size for the community until forced to do so.
3) Held school board meetings with little notice and at inconvenient times for the working public.
4) Bought out a superintendent's contract in order that her board majority could choose a new superintendent, at great financial cost to our school system and great emotional cost to our teachers, students and community.
5) Interviewed and hired a superintendent behind closed doors without a national search or proper stakeholder input.
6) Earned "probation" for Burke County high schools from SACS CASI and ignored the recommendations to improve this status.
7) Hired a law firm, in addition to the schools attorney, which continues to run up huge legal fees, thus placing our school system in further debt after the buyout of the superintendent's contract.
8) Demonstrated an inability and unwillingness to work with community groups such as our county commissioners, the chamber of commerce, and the Board of Realtors.
Why should the community expect anything different from what we already received from Norman; namely a lack of transparency, insistence on personal agendas and refusal to work in the best interests of our students, teachers and school system as a whole?
She has not done what she was elected to do on the school board, which was to represent the people and children of Burke County. Our only hope to restore order after this travesty is to re-elect Buddy Armour and Sam Wilkinson and to elect Catherine Thomas and Susan Stroup to the Burke County Board of Education. They are the right people with the right motives at the right time for our community.
Kim Ervin Smith
MorgantonWhy should we expect anything different?
It was one year ago when the Burke County school board met to review its policy on supplemental reading materials. I wish all Burke County residents could have attended. About 100 students turned out to tell the school board about their education in Burke County. They were impressive. Some graduates drove hours to be present. Many people were turned away at the door due to lack of space. Many students were cut off in the middle of their speeches. Treating these students and graduates with disrespect and disregarding their comments was not what board Chair Tracy Norman was elected to do.
In the spring, over 2,000 people attended a Burke County school board meeting at Patton High School. The public spoke for four hours requesting that Norman and her board majority rethink their decision to terminate David Burleson's contract. Many asked that he be allowed to fulfill his legal contract through April 2010. Not one person spoke in favor of the school board majority's actions. Norman and her board majority refused to listen to or even acknowledge the community.
As election day approaches, remember what Norman has done for us:
1) Limited our freedom of speech and our right to be heard by the school board.
2) Refused to provide meeting spaces of adequate size for the community until forced to do so.
3) Held school board meetings with little notice and at inconvenient times for the working public.
4) Bought out a superintendent's contract in order that her board majority could choose a new superintendent, at great financial cost to our school system and great emotional cost to our teachers, students and community.
5) Interviewed and hired a superintendent behind closed doors without a national search or proper stakeholder input.
6) Earned "probation" for Burke County high schools from SACS CASI and ignored the recommendations to improve this status.
7) Hired a law firm, in addition to the schools attorney, which continues to run up huge legal fees, thus placing our school system in further debt after the buyout of the superintendent's contract.
8) Demonstrated an inability and unwillingness to work with community groups such as our county commissioners, the chamber of commerce, and the Board of Realtors.
Why should the community expect anything different from what we already received from Norman; namely a lack of transparency, insistence on personal agendas and refusal to work in the best interests of our students, teachers and school system as a whole?
She has not done what she was elected to do on the school board, which was to represent the people and children of Burke County. Our only hope to restore order after this travesty is to re-elect Buddy Armour and Sam Wilkinson and to elect Catherine Thomas and Susan Stroup to the Burke County Board of Education. They are the right people with the right motives at the right time for our community.