A mockery
To the Editor:
In my opinion the Board of Education meetings are a mockery of what they should be. The August 20th meeting was about an hour of the superintendent making recommendations and the board members approving every one of them. Let’s hope the Endowment Fund is the abyss the corporation takes it to be.
Last month the board members approved the superintendent’s recommendation to give the students a “play day” exempt from final exams if they received a “C.” This is supposed to improve attendance. I think it rewards mediocrity. It doesn’t improve student attendance. Students’ attendance is the parents’ job. Educating is the teachers’ job. Learning is the students’ job.
Whatever became of last month’s approval of destroying Indiana School Records that were stored “upstairs?” Will records be destroyed before all the embezzlement is resolved? Should we wait? Something of pertinence might be destroyed by accident.
This month the board members approved the superintendent’s recommendation for “professional leaves/field trips” for two principals to attend a dropout prevention conference. Again who is supposed to get students to attend schools? The importance of attending school begins at home. Our spending money this way is futile.
Speaking of spending money, why would the board members approve the superintendent’s recommendation to hire a principal who requires another building principal leave her job one day a week to help the newly hired principal? Who is doing her job while she is away from it? When I was hired to teach, I taught without taking someone away from one’s job. The newly hired principal might be a nice guy, but is he not qualified? If so, why would that person even be given an interview for the job? Is that spending money wisely?
I don’t understand why this group of elected members won’t respond to the public. They have never said “no” to a recommendation by the superintendent that I have seen. After attending another monthly meeting, I can see why people don’t attend them. It is like watching a Ping-Pong match:
recommend . . . approve . . . recommend . . . approve . . . recommend . . . approve . . . winner . . . superintendent . . . loser . . . the taxpayers.
I can see why people don’t vote. The elected officials don’t represent them. I can see why we have become an apathetic society. Why care? Their voice is not heard. Is this the example we want to set for our children?
I was glad to see four other people representing the public at this month’s meeting. I was glad to hear their concerns about what is not being done about the superintendent and his lack of leadership. I was glad to hear them express their concerns about the board members not doing their job.
Nancy Peters
Near Vevay
The duck
Dear Editor:
The Swiss Wine Festival has come and gone. It was a great year and great food. It was nice to see people you haven’t seen in a long time, but one thing was missing. “The Duck.”
Where was the Duck and where was the Duck Race? Bring back the Duck.
Pam Rook
Florence
A gentleman
To the Editor:
In the 50-plus years that I have known Bill Cord, I have never known him to be anything other than a gentleman.
Therefore, it was with jaw dropping amazement that I read of Tracy Caddell calling the police to have Bill and his wife removed from school corporation property.
It would be downright laughable, were it not for the serious nature of the problems/conditions that the Cords, as taxpaying citizens, wanted to see addressed.
This superintendent’s arrogance is exceeded only by his lack of administrative ability as witnessed by the siphoning off of a couple of million dollars of corporation money on his watch.
If he is not complicit then he is incompetent.
Both of the above are firing offenses and it is my understanding that Bill Roberts made a motion at a board meeting a few weeks ago to do just that.
No other member would second the motion.
Most of these board members know Bill Cord’s pedigree and know as well that he would not have his name bandied about in this paper if he were not unequivocally certain that what he was doing was the right thing to do.
The board members would do well to ask the same questions as the Cords.
As a retired educator/administrator, I’m sure Bill would be more than happy to share his knowledge and expertise with the citizens of the county as well as the school board.
Just ask him.
Steve Bladen
Tapps Ridge
Answering questions
Fellow Veterans, I am Milton Howard, the 2007-2008 Indiana 9th District Commander of The American Legion. I am writing in response to questions I have been asked about The American Legion; the largest Veteran’s organization fighting for Veteran’s rights and benefits, and why you should join or continue your membership.
Programs sponsored by The American Legion include Legion Baseball, Boys State 10th grade for Government, Flag Education 4th grades, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Oratorical Contests, Police, Fire, and E.M.S. person of the year. We also sponsor Teacher of the Year in both grade school and high school and Military Person of the Year. We are involved with the Veterans Home, Knightstown Children’s Home and much more.
We have the second largest Sons of The American Legion program in the United States and the greatest Ladies Auxiliary. We also now have The American Legion Riders. We are recruiting membership to help support these programs and we need all the help we can get to have a strong voice in the Veteran’s Administration.
If we want to keep our Veteran’s Administration system the way it is or better than it is now, we have to lobby Congress. It is very expensive to go to Washington to talk, explain, and beg money to keep our V.A. system. This year they were very generous but that was probably because the word got out about the conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
If we want to keep our programs and V.A. facilities, our membership has to start going up. We’ve been on a downfall the past few years and it is getting harder to get the money our facilities need.
The only way for you to ensure yourself a voice is by belonging to The American Legion. As our country has needed, and still needs your help to keep our freedom and to keep terrorists out of the country, The American Legion needs you to keep fighting.
The bottom line is this: with your help, we can keep our programs and Veteran’s benefits and without your help, some of these will begin to disappear. Please join your local Legion and lend some help. Our 9th District last membership year dropped to under 9,000 members. With your help, we can easily climb back to12,000 or 15,000. That is where we need to be, and with the number of young Veterans being discharged from the military today, we should be able to accomplish this task. The great state of Indiana has dropped to 7th in the nation. Let’s get the Legion back to where we want our Sports Team. Join today and settle for nothing less than Number One.
For God and Country,
Milton Howard, Commander
9th District, The American Legion