Alison Croggon, who is an author, from Australia, said, “
We are all mistaken sometimes; sometimes we do wrong things, things
that have bad consequences. But it does not mean we are evil, or that we
cannot be trusted ever afterward.”
I find this quotation to be fitting to explain past actions of the Neosho Schools. I ran for the School Board believing there was a need for change. I hoped to be a small part of improving things, I perceived to be wrong, and to build upon things I thought were good. I have learned a lot in my two years on the Neosho School Board. I ALWAYS knew the importance of trust, but I have come to respect trust from an entirely new perspective and I would like to take a few moments of your time to tell my story.......
Neosho is a strong community, which each of us loves or we would not be raising our Families here. As with all things in life, we see things differently, as our current beliefs are based on past experiences. Tonight, I had a good honest discussion with a friend, about the Neosho School Board. My friend told me how difficult it was to get good solid information about our proposed new Junior High. He went on to tell me how much he supported the cause of building a new Junior High, as his children would attend. But, he kindly explained how hard it was to "trust" the School Board, due to past decisions and perceptions. I really appreciated him saying this, as I "get it". I understand. I had issues of trust, with the Neosho Schools and that is one reason I wanted to take action and be a part of a solution.
As we work toward building trust with the community, I feel it is vital to go back to the quote, from Alison Croggon........ having trust does NOT mean a person will not make mistakes. I want to say that again, you trust people, who DO make mistakes. No person is perfect and to expect perfection is to set yourself up for disappointment. Instead, you should expect accountability, honesty, and ethical decisions.
Over the last two years, which is all I can honestly address, because I have been a part of the inner workings and decision making within the schools; I can assure you no one has made decisions not intended to help kids. The School Board has drastically cut down on the use of Closed Meetings, using them only when they are necessary to conduct personnel business and other narrow topics allowed by law. We have done this with the hope of improving transparency and increasing attendance, from the public, at our meetings. We have had limited success, in increasing attendance. I hope to see that change and I encourage you to attend our meetings and ask questions of us. The ONLY way to have good democratic representation is to be involved, stay informed, and ask questions.
Over the last seven months, in particular, with a great new Superintendent - Dan Decker - on board, we have tackled many issues. We have focused on problems. Some of these problems we were aware of, when Dan was hired, some of them cropped up along the way, but we have worked to correct them. We have worked to build three very important tornado safe rooms at the High School, Carver Elementary, and South Elementary. We have worked to bring lap top computers to every child, at the High School, in order to better their access to information and to improve the quality of instruction. We have worked to thoroughly investigate, discuss, and plan for a 24 million dollar bond issue, which would fund a new Junior High. We have worked toward implementation of an improved training program, for ALL of our employees, which will go into effect next year. We have examined ways to save tax payer dollars, through improvements to our Health Care Plan, which is expected to save us nearly a half million dollars a year, and through the purchase of school buses powered by propane, which we expect will save us around $4,000 per year - per bus. Point is, we have been very busy!
Being so close to this work, has allowed me to make a huge mistake and not keep YOU the people as informed as I should have. This is YOUR school, YOUR community, YOUR money. I sometimes assume, since I know what the school is doing - well you do, too! That is obviously false and naive, of me! I apologize and I vow to work harder to get information to you. HOW? Well, I don't have that figured out yet and I am wide open for suggestions! My friend suggested we send letters, with updates on important issues, home with the children. That is a good suggestion.... do you have others????? If we can start a healthy dialogue, we can build trust and solve problems, together!
I try to be an open and approachable individual. A huge part of my personality is just laying things out there and saying it how I see it, SO to that end; I want each of you to know..... I LOVE Neosho, I really do. I want this community to be the very best around. I want each of you to love life and prosper, with the opportunities we build TOGETHER. It is frustrating, to me, to be so passionate and work so hard to BUILD a better community and then to see hiccups, obstacles, whatever one may call them, raise their ugly head and be misunderstood, by others. In all relationships, there will be mistakes, there will be those moments we wish we could "have back", but that is not reality..... we all know this....... in those moments we wish we could "have back".... there are lessons for each of us.... lessons if we calmly examine, will allow us to solve the real problem and move Neosho ahead.
As for the school bond issue, we will work hard to get all the facts out to you. We desire transparency and good factual information. There are NO hidden agendas, by anyone on the school board. All seven of us have the same passion and desire---to make the best public school system possible!
Please consider attending one of our meetings. The dates and times are generally posted on our school website at
www.neoshopublicschools.net We are nothing, without YOU.
Have we made mistakes? Yes. Are we working to correct them? Certainly. Will we openly discuss them with you? Yes. Do we want to build trust with you and prevent future mistakes? YES!!!!
If we can't agree, can't we at least be civil..............................
