A plea for new BOE members

With the terms of two Board of Education members set to expire in January, I’m making this plea: We need more people in our society stepping up to the plate to give people a real choice and a chance to improve the board. We need more BOE candidates in the next election. Public boards are very important and powerful mechanisms that define and determine the fate of the public’s health, education and services. These boards should never go unchecked by the public, given the magnitude of their impact on our daily lives.

Having more choices is the only check we have on our board. We must take advantage of this rare opportunity to place a check on the two seats that will be open in the coming election. We need several candidates for the BOE to pick from. The two seats that are now open were filled without any opposition, i.e., no opposition existed and board members just took a seat on the board, regardless of the vote count.

This request is nothing personal against the two members who are presently on the board because we all know they care about education and they aren’t running again. This request is about doing something to try and improve education through changes in leadership. Everything must change and the board is no different. If you are totally happy with our education system, then you should ignore this letter but if you are not happy with our education system now is the time to do something.

It would indeed be refreshing to see more board members with qualifications as an educator, doctor, attorney, former legislator/director or at least a professional, especially since 40 percent of the present board membership consists of only high school diploma holders. Yes, we have two people with only a high school diploma at the highest level of education, dictating and creating policies to govern people with PhDs, master’s, and bachelor degrees. A phenomenon like this should have never happened in the 21st century, given the size of our population and the educational expectations we have for our school system.

I hope this letter will help inspire some professionals to step up to the plate for the BOE in the coming election. Traditionally, the board election has been only a “popularity” contest but that will all change if we will place a real check on the board members for elections. Give yourself and our education system a chance to do better run the BOE in November.

Ambrose Bennett
BOE Teacher Representative
Kagman High School