Boundary Changes

Many people have a vision of hell. Mine does not include fire and pitchforks. For me, one form might include sitting through eternal games between the Kansas City Royals and the Washington Nationals.

A worse fear would be doomed to watching through infinity reruns of Hillsborough School Board meetings. Aside from the Awards and appointments, the endless jabbering, speculating, posturing, and pontificating could lead a person to early cocktails.

One has to be a hardy soul to pay attention to every word spoken, from the very beginning to the absolute end. In particular, I marvel at Superintendent Elia for being able to pay so close attention and always being ready to respond to questions at a seconds notice. Most impressive she’s not brain dead within 30 or 40 minutes. Off camera, Tom Gonzalez must be elbowing her every few minutes.

Tuesday night, the subject of multiple school boundary changes was presented, explored, analyzed, discussed, questioned, and did I mention analyzed, questioned, and discussed? Poor Steve Ayers, the district’s director of parent and community relations. With all the fast balls, I hope he wore a huge athletic cup.

In the course of that yada, yada, yada, Jennifer Faliero made a couple good points defending her constituents. The Maverick of Machinations, April Griffin, piped up and added, “Common sense has to rule.” And the long-serving Candy Olson said for the hundredth time addressing her hundredth boundary change, “We need to do better next time.”

With a vote of 6-1 (Faliero objecting), the proposals passed.

Last night, the school district held another community forum to discuss school boundary changes in northwest Hillsborough County. The students and parents effected showed up plenty angry, district officials patiently listened, Steve Ayers donned his industrial-strength athletic supporter, and next month, the board will vote to approve 6-1 (Valdes will object).

Candy Olson has always been right. A better, more gentile way must be found to deal with changing the lives of students and parents. Otherwise, our school district will always be viewed as a bully, regardless of school overcrowding and class-size laws.

posted by admin @ 5:15 PM