The following piece appeared on Granite Grok. Click the title to head to their website.
Choose to stay home May 7th, if you want to keep the school budget at $800,000.
Cathy Peschke
A School Hijacking, Amanda Leslie of Croydon? Hardly, and Stop Making Kids Your Political Pawns
A headline in the UL yesterday read, “Amanda Leslie: Undo the hijacking of Croydon’s schools.” My retort is that the “hijacking” was done, not by those who showed up, but by those that didn’t bother to show up.
Her first paragraph is the summary of the continuing saga of lazy no-show voters in Croydon although that’s the opposite of what she wrote. No, that’s not what it says explicitly, but frames it as some kind of evil cabal that hates kids (emphasis mine):
THE EDUCATION BUDGET in Croydon was dramatically slashed at this year’s annual school district meeting, which I attended on March 12. I was one of the 14 voters who objected to the irresponsible cut, which ultimately passed, leaving our community unable to meet our obligation to offer a fully funded, adequate education to our children. The unethical decision made by only 20 Croydon residents has threatened some of our most precious and vulnerable citizens. I reached out to some of those students recently to gather their thoughts about education and what they stand to lose.
Not sorry – the only unethical thing about that “20 Croydon residents” is that you are calling them unethical. THEY showed up. They voted. While you did as well, folks like you effectively sat on their hands and did nothing. While you choose to exercise your right to vote, those as like-minded as you decided to stay home and not take care of the business that interested, involved, and informed citizens do – participate in self-government.
Ya screwed up by not getting those folks to show up (regardless of anything else including bad weather). It happens in my town as well – all kinds of reasons why “my side” takes a vacation on a day from that responsibility on the single day when they shouldn’t. But you, and others, keep missing the point so let me reiterate what so blinkers you:
Those 20 people aren’t the evil ones – your friends are for not doing THEIR civic duty. Your like-minded friends screwed up royally but you can’t find it within yourself to blame THEM! They are the ones responsible for any such hijacking.
What ticks me off, if you haven’t figured it out by now, is the utterly misguided fact that ANY of Croydon’s voters could have chosen to attend. They didn’t. ANY of Croydon’s voters could have plotted / conspired / gathered together and agreed to pass the school budget. They didn’t. ANY of Croydon’s voters could have recognized that Town Meeting IS a big deal and shown up. They didn’t.
And the biggest thing, in my mind, is that when you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain that others did.
Well, we all know that isn’t true – of COURSE you get to complain. But the chagrin in this case is that I didn’t hear much as much “we didn’t do what we were supposed to do” except in passing. Instead, it’s all about those that DID show up, DID think about the motion about spending other peoples’ money, DID decided that perhaps that needs to be taken into account, and DID vote to take less money from others.
Certainly a far different spin, eh? And Amanda et al think THEY are the bad ones, the evil ones, the unethical ones?
Again, the angry ones like Amanda are trying to put aside where the real blame lays – on them in that they failed to do their civic duty. And those 20 other voters are responsible for that?
Informed and involved citizens would instantly realize that THEIR decisions have consequences, especially decisions to do nothing. And would also realize, immediately, that blame first should be on themselves. That they aren’t is the worst of all consequences and just furtherance of a too oft version of “The Blame Game”.
Amanda Leslie: Undo the hijacking of Croydon’s schools
THE EDUCATION BUDGET in Croydon was dramatically slashed at this year’s annual school district meeting, which I attended on March 12. I was one of the 14 voters who objected to the irresponsible cut, which ultimately passed, leaving our community unable to meet our obligation to offer a fully funded, adequate education to our children. The unethical decision made by only 20 Croydon residents has threatened some of our most precious and vulnerable citizens. I reached out to some of those students recently to gather their thoughts about education and what they stand to lose.
Taylor Fellows is a freshman at Newport Middle High School, but she attended Croydon Village School kindergarten through fourth grade. There, she appreciated “Miss Wendy…an assistant teacher and bus driver,” noting she “was always there for me with whatever I needed…Croydon Village School was a huge part in teaching me how to be social and…interact with the kids around you.”
Taylor worries that if the budget cut isn’t reversed at the special meeting scheduled for May 7, “I would be separated from my friends, teachers, and coaches that I now have strong bonds with.”
Taylor objects to the school board’s suggested “micro-schools” alternative. “No kid wants to spend their time doing online schooling for the rest of their high school career and miss out on all the opportunities that a high school student would normally receive.”
Taylor’s twin brother, Aaron, is also a freshman at NMHS. He fondly recalls learning social studies at Croydon Village School, noting “Mr. Henderson taught us a lot.” Like his sister, Aaron worries about what the budget cut could mean for him. “We wouldn’t have opportunities to do tech classes…I hope we can get those votes,” he said.
My daughter, Chloe Leslie, is an eighth-grader at Sunapee Middle High School where, she says, “all of the students are really close and willing to help each other readily at basically any time.”“Teachers at Sunapee really care about their students and go beyond expectations to make sure that students are really learning and comprehending the topics…If I were not able to go to Sunapee next year I would miss all my friends…and also the way that Sunapee teaches, fun, but also engaging,” she said.
Addy Pifer attends SMHS as well. She is in tenth grade but reflected on Croydon Village School. “At CVS I always enjoyed knowing that I was cared for and that my opinion mattered.” She added that CVS “helped shape me to be the person I am today. CVS was not only a school, it was like a second home where you were taught simple life lessons.”Of her school, Addy shared, “my biology teacher has helped me in so many ways. She always wants what is best for me, answers any questions I have related to the class work… and she makes sure that every student knows that she is going to do whatever is needed to get to where we want to be in life.”
Colin Spiker, a fifth-grader in Newport, also weighed in. Reflecting on CVS, he shared, “my teachers were cool…and made learning fun. Richards School [in Newport] is bigger…having a gym for health class and phys ed is better… It’s cool that we got to change to the bigger school to learn new things after starting out small.”
Croydon residents have the opportunity to revisit and reverse this drastic cut, restoring the originally proposed budget and fully funding education for Croydon students. There will be a special budget meeting held at Camp Coniston on Saturday, May 7, at 9 a.m. Residents must attend in person to cast their ballots. Those outside of Croydon who are concerned by this move and the larger attack on education it represents must also stay vigilant and involved: attend meetings, run for open seats, research current issues and proposals, and reach out to those in power, both locally and at the state level.
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