Diddlin' in the Dark!
The other day there was an odd, enigmatic comment made here on our story of a letter to the BDN. The story and comments are here.
The peculiar comment was this: "The writer of the letter is wrong."
I didn't understand the comment until Wednesday night; then it all became clear.
The letter writer -- we'll use his initials, SB -- complained about Districts and Boards not listening to the voters, and re-submitting the same failed items to the voters:
The comment writer must have known that the Budget Committee, in their meeting Monday night, had decided to revise dollar amounts on the failed items. These revised amounts were revealed, and then approved, by the Board at the Wednesday night meeting.
The comment writer, in saying that SB was wrong, knew that the dollar amounts had been changed, that the identical articles were not being re-submitted to the voters.
However, SB was working with the information he had, a story in the BDN (reported on here). The BDN reporter was at the June 14 meeting, as was I. Both of us heard the same reaction to the vote on the failed items... absolute silence; no comments, no reaction -- not worthy, I guess. The BDN reporter reported the meeting fairly and accurately. (The reporter for the Piscataquis Observer seems also to have expected the failed items to be resubmitted as is to the voters.)
The only logical conclusion? SB was right!
The dead silence of the Superintendent and Board led all but the "insiders" to the conclusion that most likely the same items would be submitted. The information vacuum around school issues inevitably will catch the District up. Either be more forthcoming, or live with the observations and judgments of those with incomplete information.
To chastise people for their ignorance, when you've kept them in the dark, won't win...
Incidentally, so far, this site is the only source of information for this information:
The peculiar comment was this: "The writer of the letter is wrong."
I didn't understand the comment until Wednesday night; then it all became clear.
The letter writer -- we'll use his initials, SB -- complained about Districts and Boards not listening to the voters, and re-submitting the same failed items to the voters:
A peculiar feature of our referendum process raised its ugly head again recently. Voters voted down a measure. Do the sponsors of the proposal revise it? No, they schedule another vote ... and another ... and another ... until they wear down the opposition or by chance get a day when the ayes outweigh the nays. This is wrong. It's undemocratic. It says simply, "We don't care what the voters want."The letter appeared on Tuesday, as did the comment.
The comment writer must have known that the Budget Committee, in their meeting Monday night, had decided to revise dollar amounts on the failed items. These revised amounts were revealed, and then approved, by the Board at the Wednesday night meeting.
The comment writer, in saying that SB was wrong, knew that the dollar amounts had been changed, that the identical articles were not being re-submitted to the voters.
However, SB was working with the information he had, a story in the BDN (reported on here). The BDN reporter was at the June 14 meeting, as was I. Both of us heard the same reaction to the vote on the failed items... absolute silence; no comments, no reaction -- not worthy, I guess. The BDN reporter reported the meeting fairly and accurately. (The reporter for the Piscataquis Observer seems also to have expected the failed items to be resubmitted as is to the voters.)
The only logical conclusion? SB was right!
The dead silence of the Superintendent and Board led all but the "insiders" to the conclusion that most likely the same items would be submitted. The information vacuum around school issues inevitably will catch the District up. Either be more forthcoming, or live with the observations and judgments of those with incomplete information.
To chastise people for their ignorance, when you've kept them in the dark, won't win...
Incidentally, so far, this site is the only source of information for this information:
- the dollar amounts on the failed articles have been revised (here)
- the dates of the informational meetings and "straw vote" on the building project (here)
- $5000 has been transferred from the Instructional to Transportation accounts (here)
- updated student population projections (here)
- five (5) articles voted down in Garland in the recent referendum vote (here)
posted by PP | 6/23/2006 08:00:00 PM
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