I think we all woke up with a little more hope today. Hope that SLPS can finally move past the dysfunction and improve district morale so that the employees who work hard for our students every day can stay and help rebuild. Hope that our district’s highest leaders will shift their focus from bullying tactics to academic improvement strategies. And, perhaps most of all, hope that our board will once again operate in accordance with the good governance principles of democracy, accountability, transparency, and equality.
I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to President Karen Collins-Adams, Vice President Emily Hubbard, and Secretary Brian Marston for answering the call to serve as board officers. Despite their important sounding titles, the tasks delegated to them are neither flashy nor glamorous and they shouldn’t be headline grabbing either. Instead, they’ll take on the seemingly little things that keep the board going — ensuring continuity between agendas from one meeting to the next; coordinating professional development opportunities so that the full board can grow as a governance team; and facilitating open, timely communication within the board and between the board and the administration. They will keep the board, and therefore the district, operating smoothly and efficiently by investing countless hours and untold energy into difficult, tedious, and often-emotional work behind the scenes. The board president has a few more things on her list, most notably to be the board’s spokesperson, a power so great it is dangerous and must be wielded with special care. But remember, despite these added responsibilities, board officers have no more authority than their fellow board members. There is no such thing as board leadership because all board members hold a leadership position. They are each one-seventh of the governing body of the school district. All official board actions must follow a vote by the board. All board members get one vote. All votes carry the same weight. All votes must happen in a legally called meeting of the board. All board members obligated to hold their fellow board members and the board as a whole accountable.
I’m not convinced we need a collective term for the board members who have a title beyond that of “board member,” but if we do, let’s call them what they are: board officers.
As usual, the swearing-in ceremony was a beautiful sight. Three ordinary citizens became elected officials in an instant, all bound to uphold the law and make decisions in the best interest of the school district. The oath of office may be awkward, wordy, and impossible to recite eloquently, but it powerfully unites the past with the future. Somehow, time stops for just a moment, a pause as the trajectory of the district is ever-so-slightly adjusted. New additions to the long list of names started back in the 1800s, all people who have held the district’s future in their hands, all people who handed over that authority to someone else when their years of service came to an end. But that transfer happens fast and the heavy weight of responsibility lands almost immediately.
I have watched four sets of new board members be sworn in since leaving the board in 2021. The first time was surreal, partly because I was watching from home as Covid-era precautions were still in place and partly because I was grappling with my very identity. The swearing in of new members marked the end of my own term, my authority evaporated in an instant, transferred to someone brand new. That’s when I first felt the jarring blend of past and future, realized it’s far beyond our individual control. I was drunk on optimism and propelled by a misguided belief that the power of democracy was enough to bring positive change, convinced that if we just put the right people into office they’d do the right thing and everything would be fine.
Hindsight is WILD, isn’t it?
The next two times I watched from the audience in Room 108 as my friends were sworn in. I witnessed pride wash across the faces of their family members, the support and love palpable. I was proud, too, and eager to watch as they shared their own unique skills, expertise, and viewpoints with the district. We were on the right track, we were winning. I just knew it.
Again. Hindsight.
I don’t need to tell you things fell apart. You already know. You lived it.
We lived it, analyzed it, worried about it, wondered if things would ever go back to normal.
Now, we’re projecting all of that onto our newest elected board members, willing them to have the confidence and fortitude to fix it, just please fix it.
There’s so much riding on this iteration of the board that last night’s swearing in felt like we were sending tributes off to the Hunger Games Arena. I could almost see our hands raised in salute, a single gesture to convey everything we were feeling.
“It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love.” (The Hunger Games, p. 24).
It is with great honor that we watch new members join the school board and we are right to feel a sense of pride in selecting them to represent us, but we also need to be honest with ourselves about the sacrifices we are asking them to make on our behalf.
Hours spent in meetings, streamed live on YouTube accumulating comments about their votes and motives and physical appearance. Triple those hours spent reviewing materials, preparing to ask just the right questions in just the right way to garner an honest response from administration.
Learning how to navigate awkward moments with friends who want to know all the details of the controversy-of-the-moment. Every encounter at the park, every conversation at the grocery store just two sentences away from shifting into talk about the board.
And, the one that is the most challenging to get right — striking a balance between letting well-meaning loved ones lighten the load and protecting them from the toll of the immense stress.
But they’re not the only ones who must make sacrifices to pull this school district back together. We have to, too. Our responsibility as citizens did not end with the election.
That’s what’s been missing before. We put the right people in office, but expected them to tackle the challenge alone and left unchecked power, and the pursuit of more, destroys, hollows out, ruins. We have all the evidence we need to know we can’t afford to do that again.
Show up. Speak out. Hold the people we elected to represent us accountable for the words they say and the actions they take. Real leaders welcome this scrutiny, relish it, look forward to opportunities to demonstrate their integrity.
That’s what will put us back on the right track and keep us there. I just know it.