Broken Promises

Once again the issue of impending school uniforms for Flagler Schools was in the News-Journal yesterday. And once again, the story told by the newspaper is of the school board breaking promises to parents about getting input from them regarding what the uniform code will be.

First, the school board scheduled a town hall meeting to get public input on whether there should be uniforms in Flagler Schools - and then went ahead and voted on the matter anyway before the meeting, denying parents their right to have input on the issue. Then they promised at that July 11th town hall meeting that before the uniform code itself was written, they would "take the show on the road" to each of the district's schools to solicit input from parents, students and teachers on the content of the actual uniform.

To my knowledge no single member of the school board has shown up at my daughter's elementary school to ask for input on the issue, and neither has the board held a public meeting at the school for parents to attend to discuss the issue. And yet somehow on Monday night the board felt it was time to write the uniform code in preparation for the first of two procedural votes on it to take place at the November board meeting. Apparently the board has once again developed group amnesia about the promises they made to get parent, teacher and student input at each of the schools.

I guess I am not really surprised. Our elected school board seems to have forgotten who they work for, and who they should answer to. They are behaving like dictators, making the rules up as they go along and changing them whenever they want.

The only recourse that we have is at the ballot box in Nov. 2008. I suggest everyone who is upset with them over the way they have treated parents regarding this issue let the school board members know that they plan to express their displeasure the next time the board members come up for election. Perhaps the threat of losing the power they seem to enjoy wielding so much would remind them who they work for.