The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Politics => Topic started by: Texacon on May 13, 2012, 11:15:43 AM
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Ok, I never said anything about it but I ran for school board. I won!
There we were last night, sitting in our campaign headquarters, watching the returns on Fox News when word got out that we may have won. It was surreal.
Finally the Fox anchor called the race. I didn't want to believe it at first because MSNBC was still saying my opponent had a chance due to absentee ballots. Fortunately all the absentee ballots were military and I got 100% of those votes. The MSNBC anchors were obviously unhappy but they had to call it, there was nothing they could do but call it before I had Karen Hugh's call and demand they make the announcement.
Ok, for reels. I won my bid for school board last night. Hopefully I can make a difference. Wish me luck!
KC
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Good luck. Local school boards can be an, uh, aggravation.
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Yeah, we had an unusual bunch a few years ago but the only reason I ran this time was because I was asked.
Thanks frank!
KC
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Congratulations, KC!
Try not to slip Karen the tongue, mmkay? I think she's married....
:-)
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For what it's worth there MAY have been 150 votes total. I haven't heard the numbers yet but I'll post them when I get them.
KC
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Congratulations, KC!
Try not to slip Karen the tongue, mmkay? I think she's married....
:-)
Thanks Euph! I'll try not to take advantage. Heh.
KC
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Oh cool! Congrats!
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Good luck, and if it's political theatre, break a leg.
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Congratulations! :)
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Congratulations! :)
Did you serve mini tacos?
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Congrats!
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Ha! No, no mini tacos. Spaghetti actually. I was at a band awards banquet last night where we served spaghetti ... Does that count? We were clearing tables when my wife announced I'd won. To be honest I forgot they were tallying votes.
KC
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Congratulations!
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Congrats. You will do great!
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I think the voters made the right choice. If you pursue this appointment with the same type of common sensibilities that you mentioned on the Water Treatment Plant thread, you'll not only do well for your community, you'll hopefully inject some of that common sense in the whole process.
I hear of far, far too many examples where the school board runs in fear of parents and grants them every accommodation.
Sometimes that can't and shouldn't be done.
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Euph, I actually fought the board about 4 or 5 years ago when they were trying to give us a tax increase and selling it as a tax cut. It was confusing to a lot of people because while the tax rate was going from $1.44 per $100 to $1.24 per $100 the whole assessment for the county had sky rocketed.
Me and the then school superintendent locked horns in a public forum big time. We defeated the increase in the end. No amount of math I explained to people was working but when I said "if this is actually a tax cut how does the District end up with an additional $7 million?" that kind of sealed the deal.
Thanks y'all. This could be fun!
KC
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Ok, I never said anything about it but I ran for school board. I won!
There we were last night, sitting in our campaign headquarters, watching the returns on Fox News when word got out that we may have won. It was surreal.
Finally the Fox anchor called the race. I didn't want to believe it at first because MSNBC was still saying my opponent had a chance due to absentee ballots. Fortunately all the absentee ballots were military and I got 100% of those votes. The MSNBC anchors were obviously unhappy but they had to call it, there was nothing they could do but call it before I had Karen Hugh's call and demand they make the announcement.
Ok, for reels. I won my bid for school board last night. Hopefully I can make a difference. Wish me luck!
KC
Good job! Now you get to see up close and personal like how and where the indoctrination of our youth starts.
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Ok, for reels. I won my bid for school board last night. Hopefully I can make a difference. Wish me luck!
Congrats! :cheersmate:
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Awesome! :cheersmate:
I know you will be great.
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That's fantastic -- good luck and congratulations!! :yahoo:
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Congrats!
My sister's a teacher, over the years I got to hear a lot about her board, both good and bad, not jsut bitching but she would run a lot of things past me for a sanity check because of my experience in public-sector labor law, and the same with a friend here who is a senior person with one foot in the administration and one foot in the teaching end of a local district. Sometimes their boards were good, sometimes not, and sometimes nepotism, borderline corruption, or just plain non-merit-based decision making reared their ugly heads. Some take-aways I have from their experiences:
Saving money is good, but the function of the school district is to optimize the quality of education vs. reasonable cost, not to provide the best education possible at any price or to provide the minimum legally-required education at the lowest possible price.
If you hire any senior administration people, track records do count, but a lot of them sound a whole lot better than reality will prove. You're asking for trouble if you don't thoroughly check up on what people tell you they've done, or don't understand what something actually means even though it sounds good, because the education field is full of BS awards and recognition that don't mean anything, really, or can even be more-or-less bought.
Unlike a small business, your relationship to the employees and professionals in the school isn't a two-player game, it's three (The administration has its own interests distinct from the board's) or even four if there is a strong union. If you go with the military approach of backing your suordinate (The superintendant and/or principals) no matter how bad s/he's stepping on it, you're looking at the losing end of a lawsuit sooner or later.
All the unemployed art history majors in the OWS encampments are a malfunction of our collegiate education system, not the K-12 one. K-12 education is supposed to provide a general education so kids can have a chance to figure out where their strengths are and pursue them, while picking up the skills they need to get started and some broad cultural context as more-or-less literate Americans to include things like art, music, foreign languages other than Spanish, and other stuff that gets nickel-and-dimed out when the sole focus goes to meeting minimum state standards as cheaply as possible. If it was just about teaching them a skill they could immediately employ upon graduation, we'd only teach them how to wait tables and drive trucks.
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Congratulations!!!! :yahoo:
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Congratulations!!!!
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Thanks y'all. DAT that's some excellent advice and information. The two paragraphs you have in your post that jumped out to me immediately;
Saving money is good, but the function of the school district is to optimize the quality of education vs. reasonable cost, not to provide the best education possible at any price or to provide the minimum legally-required education at the lowest possible price.
If you hire any senior administration people, track records do count, but a lot of them sound a whole lot better than reality will prove. You're asking for trouble if you don't thoroughly check up on what people tell you they've done, or don't understand what something actually means even though it sounds good, because the education field is full of BS awards and recognition that don't mean anything, really, or can even be more-or-less bought.
Boy howdy! After what I've been through with our other Board ... sheesh. I'm kind of a researcher in real life and I hope the rest of the Board has time to allow me to do that. I don't like making snap decisions. If someone tells me I have to make a decision right now ... well the answer at the point is going to be NO. I would rather make a mistake with a no than make a mistake with a yes.
KC
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I would like to add that if you simply don't do anything that the DISD has done since it's inception, you should be just fine. :-)
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Congratulations!
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I would like to add that if you simply don't do anything that the DISD has done since it's inception, you should be just fine. :-)
Can I just start my political career by voting present for a couple of years?
Heh.
KC
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Can I just start my political career by voting present for a couple of years?
Heh.
KC
Sure, as long as you don't spend 20K on a desk. That happened.
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Sure, as long as you don't spend 20K on a desk. That happened.
HUH? Seriously? How the hell does that happen?
KC
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HUH? Seriously? How the hell does that happen?
KC
Yvonne Gonzales, 1997. Superintendent of DISD embezzeled $$ to decorate her office. She went to jail.
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Yvonne Gonzales, 1997. Superintendent of DISD embezzeled $$ to decorate her office. She went to jail.
Glad she went to jail!! That kinda stuff pisses me off.
KC