Fast times at the Board of Education

I have been following, along with the rest of the county, through the various news stories in the Appalachian News-Express, the woes that have recently beset the Pike County Board of Education. Its financial woes, for instance, have made my heart bleed for their employees. There was talk, for instance, of the truncated raises that most have had to settle for. Of course, the whole thing has to do with some algebraic formulae that can only be understood by CPA’s, etc, and that are used to determine how much money the state kicks in to the local board’s coffers. It turns out that Pike County will not receive as much as was once thought, and now the boys from the Pentagon must tighten their belts.

And, as usual, when the BOE tightens belts, it is the non-tenured teachers and classified employees that must bear the brunt of the process. And by extension, the students must also suffer as-and this should be obvious-when there are fewer teachers, there are also more students in each class to compete for the instructors’ already limited time. Of course, to further reduce the payroll, those teachers who have reached retirement age are encouraged to take their pensions, and, in so doing, make room for those who are of a lesser rank, thus trading the more talented, experienced teachers for their less qualified brethren (and sistern) in order to save some money, and as a result, further short-changing the students.

Now if all employees were like the substitute teachers (I am one of these poor unfortunates), the board would have a far easier time of it. For instance, that sticky issue of pay raises? Not a concern with us. It’s as simple as this. We don’t get any. I’ve been a substitute now for eight years (Why? I’m a masochist, I suppose!) and in all that time, not even a mention of a pay raise. Well, it is a sacrifice I, for one, am proud to make. And, by not getting annual pay raises, I make lots of friends. Such as those nice bill collectors who want to know when they can expect payment.

But if the BOE is really intent on saving money, I have an idea. Let us take better care of our school text books. It has been my experience that the students are not apt to be intent on taking the best care of them. As a result, it is not unusual to see them in every state of disrepair. They can be found with their backs missing entirely, or with their backs broken, or with pages ripped out. And they can be found abandoned throughout the school. In fact, some are left outdoors, and once they sit through a good rainfall, their careers as text books are pretty much shot. And the upshot is, for the most part, these books cost up to, and in many cases, over, fifty dollars a copy. And although I may be wrong, the student does not seem to be responsible for the cost of a book that is damaged, or, apt as not, destroyed.

I am as adamant that books not be destroyed as I am that animals not be abused. And I would hope, and in fact I firmly believe, that regular teachers take the same point of view. Yet the evidence is all around that these books are not being taken care of. And, apparently there is no consequence to the student to whom the book is issued if it is not usable when it is returned. So, I would propose that this be changed. It should be the policy of the BOE that if a text book is even written in, that the student to whom it is issued would fail that course, and be required to take a summer school in order to pass it. And, if that book is lost or destroyed, that the student again be held responsible for the price of the replacement. And if the parents of the child cannot come up with the money, then that student should be required to come into the school on Saturdays and work until the debt is repaid. This is not as unfair a policy as it may seem, because, in order to keep from having to face these consequences, the students need only keep up with their books, and refrain from doing damage to them.

Finally, there is the problem of having to hire a new superintendent. This is another sticky problem that the current BOE seems to have met, and rather quickly at that. I know that Mr. Welch may have thrown them a curve ball by trying to, uh, un-retire, and I suppose that that may have cramped the style of the search committee, but it does seem to me that, well, everything fell into place so fast. First, it was announced that there were twelve applicants for the job, and who these people were, and where they were from, or what their qualifications were, nobody but the BOE knew. Then just as quickly, we were told that of those twelve, three would be interviewed by the committee whose job it was to hire the new head honcho. No mention as to how this list was whittled down so quickly, or even who’d be on it. And, miracle of miracles, in what seemed like less than a heartbeat… . Voila, we had a winner.

It had been my intention to suggest that maybe the BOE should seek a wider array of candidates for this job by casting a wider net, and maybe getting some more qualified candidates to consider, but I was re-assured when I read of Roger Wagner’s hiring, for, when Board Member Bobby Varney tells me “I don’t have no problem with him being superintendent”…, well, somehow that says it all.

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