School board chair candidates make their cases

gosh, where to even start???
It is shocking to hear a candidate (GW) say that she is proud of what the current administration has accomplished—we are currently ranking at the very bottom in the Nation for schools—we have students that don’t have text books and our superintendant previously thought it was a wise idea to give a principal a 13% raise (it was smart of him to drop that from the agenda, but what was he thinking to begin with?)...do you think we have our priorities out of order or what?? That is a very BOLD statement to make when you are being threatened by the STATE to totally take over the school board because State requirements are not being met, that’s NOT what I would call a “good job”.  This is the blind leading the blind. The STUDENTS have GOT to become the PRIORITY here people—we HAVE to have parents that are involved and we have to as a community put our heads together and get our schools on track via some agressive, out of the box, business smart planning or else we will continue to produce in large—a majority of kids that can’t pass graduation exams and the ones that can—the cream of the crop—will still require remedial classes to bring themselves up to speed when they get into college—our STUDENTS are being short-changed, our schools are being used as daycare centers, and our main focus should not be about how to get these kids to stay in school so we can have more funding but to actually inspire them to learn something—not treat ALL students like prison inmates simply because we have a population within our schools that seem to be headed in that direction-there are MANY GREAT students who want to learn but who get cheated out of it because our system is so misused. There are many teachers that want to teach and are unable to because they have to spend their teaching time disciplining and babysitting unruly kids who have no desire to be in school but are being dropped off to be babysat all day. We need qualified teachers with positive attitudes that are able to teach. The students that are continual behavioural problems and disrupt the class need to be sent to alternative school and for the safety and well-being of the others, removed from the main stream schools. We have 19 and 20 year olds that have failed multiple times, being sent to school to sit there all day because their parents would rather send them there and draw a check than to put them into a day program or help them get a job. I know this is politically incorrect, but enough is enough and it’s time we take our schools back and not allow them to be used as a “holding center”. Children with behavioural issues have far greater rights than others, what happened to “the right to education”, “the right to a safe learning enviroment”? I’m sure there are times when the teachers themselves are afraid of some of the students and that is out of order.
And what’s with uniforms?? If the original dress code could not be enforced, how are you going to enforce this and who is going to buy all of the uniforms when we have many students that can’t bring pencils or paper to school? It’s wrong to punish “children” who can’t afford uniforms and the schools can’t afford to buy the uniforms as they can’t even provide TEXT books for all of the students. Students have been forced to sit in a Highschool honor class and copy word for word out of a text book for the entire hour of their class time—that is suppose to be used for instructional teaching, because either the teacher didn’t feel like teaching or maybe because the student couldn’t bring the text book that was currently being shared with two other students out of the classroom. We have some issues folks. Not only are we producing a generation of fast food workers—our crime rate will go up and our property values will go down if we don’t get a serious hold on this situation—this is a COMMUNITY issue and that school board needs a MAJOR overhaul from the top on down—we need people that have been in the trenches, we need Montgomery to hear the challenges we are faced with, we need to get all levels of our local government involved and we need to make LEARNING and TEACHING the PRIORITY and quit short-changing the kids that are in school to learn. The smartest thing I’ve read throughout these DE interviews was when one candidate said that the schools were being ripped off—why pay such high salaries to the school board administration when teachers are being let go, classrooms consolidated, programs cut and there isn’t enough funding for basic teaching supplies and text books? That makes sense to me—I’d love to see how many candidates we’d have if this were a volunteer situation—have a strong feeling many would disappear. We need to get parents in the school, volunteering and organizing programs, many times the administrations act as though they don’t want input from parents but obviously it’s going to take some team work.
And while I’m on this, why would we hire a Deputy Superintendant—when our funding is at an all time low?? If the first one isn’t doing the job, get a new one—don’t hire back up assistance when you’re letting staff go left and right. I do believe that our current funding has not been used as wisely as it should and know that our school board has their hands tied in many areas by the Montgomery board, there needs to be an open forum with the Montgomery board so local concerns can be shared. Any school board member that sits on the board and sends their own children to private school should be released from their duties. If you believe our schools are not good enough for your children what makes you qualified to know what’s in our best interest? It’s time we start electing people that will make education a priority and not use titles for selfish gains. We need to write our gov’t officials and ask that the lottery be reconsidered as the current school funding is not working and not having a lottery is not making us a more Godly community, it’s simply causing a few to use more money for gas. I could care less who does and who does not play the lottery, it’s time to wake up and see that the sales tax for our schools isn’t the solution. It’s time to take pride in our schools and our community and get our schools up to par with good ole fashioned common sense. We have enough smart business leaders within our community that we should be able to figure this out. 
YES we Can—IF the COMMUNITY is on board and taking AGGRESIVE steps to get things done.