My teaching career is behind me, and it's been years since I've witnessed anything like Matt Groening's "Classroom From Hell," but I'm still sensitive to the anguish of young teachers who are just learning to deal with all the personality niches Groening captures in his drawing.The "Classroom" has other manifestations in adult civic life, and as a school board member, I sometimes get to deal with the craziness and collateral damage visited upon the school district by people with different political agendas.
The ones I truly don't understand are the people in public life outside the district who undermine the us for their own purposes, and don't realize that the kids are the collateral damage if they succeed in their quest to contaminate public opinion.
Here's a cross-post with a new blog I started to provide an additional voice to help citizens sort out the facts and reasoned opinion from propaganda, with regard to our school district.
It's a local blog, and for the most part won't be of interest to most of you, but you might get a jolt out of my first post just below. Most of my future pieces over there will be upbeat and full of excitement for better serving our students, instead of dismantling the propaganda rant of a so-called editor of our local paper, as follows:
Hillsboro Argus Editorial Board Member Serves Up Propaganda and Calls It Opinion
Susan Gordanier is a member of the Hillsboro Argus’ editorial board. I expect her opinions be the result of sound judgment grounded in fact because I hold her to a higher standard than the average letter writer who relies on journalists like Ms. Gordanier for the truth.
The general definition of “opinion” in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is: “a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter.”
Ms. Gordanier was careless with her facts in the “In My Opinion” section of the Friday’s Hillsboro Argus, and that’s putting it nicely. Her only opinion in the entire piece, entitled “Don’t Blame the Kids for Asking,” is that the Hillsboro School District “has had a string of public relations flubs in recent months.” That dubious assertion was in the first paragraph and her logic goes downhill from there.
Her piece sadly lacks sound judgment based on facts. In fact the remainder of Ms. Gordanier’s rant consists mostly of rumor, innuendo, fallacies, and, dare I say it, outright lies that she uses to justify her thesis that the school district is somehow having difficulties for which she provides no constructive insight or solutions.
For the sake of clarity, here are two related definitions of “propaganda” from the same source I used above: “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person…” and “ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause…”
Propaganda is used to elicit an emotional, not a rational, response. It is designed to side-step critical-thinking by presenting bias as if it was objective evidence. But it’s easy to spot.
Let’s take a closer look at the school district’s alleged flubs and the facts as I observed them from front-row center.
The next two paragraphs of Ms. Gordanier’s piece deal with the City of Hillsboro’s (as represented by Mayor Tom Hughes and consultant John Southgate) fantasy about accomplishing a building/land grab, that is, turning Thomas Middle School, or part of it, into an arts center at the expense of the school district’s taxpayers (I’ll explain more about that in a moment).
I was at the meeting where Ms. Gordanier alleges “At least one member [of the school board] suggested arty types so close to the new Lincoln Street elementary school might pose a danger to young students…” (Was Ms. Gordanier at the meeting?)
The facts: two school district board members at this meeting expressed concerns that the district would have no control over the comings and goings of the public at all hours of the day and evening, including the time school is in session. Those are reservations that need to be voiced and answered; otherwise we are not doing our sworn duty to protect our school children.
Does Ms. Gordanier suggest that we, the school board, not be concerned with the safety of school children?
In any case, the twisting of these legitimate concerns into a slam on “arty types” is disingenuous at best, and a blatant lie at worst.
The board did not encourage Mr. Southgate to move forward with the proposition to turn Thomas Middle School into an arts center because the city, i.e., the mayor and the people who share his point of view on this matter, wish to appropriate the building itself without cost. The benefit to the school district would supposedly be the savings of demolition costs. The school district would retain ownership of the land, so we really wouldn’t lose anything, right? That was the sales pitch, anyway.
By the time the meeting drew to a close, most of the board members realized that this was not a win-win proposition from a well-meaning partner. It was a slick attempt to acquire a large building for free as well as the land it occupies, which the district would never have the use of in the future. The city gets a big building and the land it sits on, and the school district gains nothing. In fact, the district would lose out considerably in this deal. (Remember, the district already has the money for the demolition.)
The school district would be giving up a prime piece of downtown land planned for use as athletic fields that the students of Lincoln Street Elementary School and patrons of Hillsboro Parks and Recreation desperately need. Nor would the district have the means or opportunity to acquire anything like it nearby for a reasonable price.
Furthermore, the school district would likely be stuck with liability insurance premiums to make sure that it could weather a lawsuit if someone, for example, slipped and fell in the city’s building that would be sitting on school district land.
Add to that the city’s miserable record for timely development of properties they currently own, and it’s easy to picture school board members imagining an empty Thomas Middle School building sitting idle and growing weeds in the lawn — right next to a beautiful new elementary school — while the city struggles to find the millions in grants they would need for renovation because they sure can’t put that on the city taxpayers by using city funds. That’s an ugly image, but a probable scenario, and completely unacceptable to the local neighborhood and the school district.
All in all, the city offered the school board nothing to persuade us that giving away Thomas Middle School and the land it sits on was a good idea, and now the board/district is taking heat from Ms. Gordanier for rejecting the offer. What a joke. The school board has a legal and moral obligation to exercise fiduciary responsibility with taxpayer investments in the school district, and giving away school district property, the board decided, was not a way to accomplish that duty.
The ultimate irony here is that the city wants to make an art center out of what is arguably the most unattractive building in town.
Next Gordanier slimes the school board with the innuendo that somehow [Superintendent] Jeremy Lyon isn’t worth his salary because “Some people have noticed their own incomes aren’t keeping a similar pace.” Who are those people? They are morons if they think their income should keep pace with anyone out of some sense of entitlement or handout from “Big Brother.” What is Ms. Gordanier thinking when she quotes those folks?
We all know that in the United States of America we are in charge of our own paycheck. Don’t like it? Do the work and change it, but don’t expect it to keep pace automatically with someone else’s paycheck.
Jeremy Lyon’s salary (and benefits) is a drop in the bucket when compared to the district’s return on investment in an exemplary leader who’s earning a statewide reputation for sound education management. It’s the single best investment school district taxpayers can make. His financial package is very much in line with what other district superintendents earn who run similar or larger districts. (This is a matter of public record easily researched by a member of the Argus editorial board, so why rely on innuendo, except to make an issue out of a non-issue?)
The third mudball Ms. Gordanier has thrown against the schoolhouse wall leads with another innuendo that is also a lie. Ms. Gordanier said, “More recently, word slipped out of a lawsuit against the district.” She then repeated allegations from the plaintiff as reported by a cheap shot one-sided Oregonian article that slimed our very capable special education group, the superintendent, and the entire board. The truth is that this “word” did not recently “slip out.” The lawsuit has been in the public eye for months. That Ms. Gordanier didn’t know about it until recently means that she didn’t do her homework.
Sadly, I cannot comment further on this matter until it is resolved. But I’m very much looking forward to commenting on it when it is resolved.
Mudball number four is Ms. Gordanier’s crucifixion of the district for conducting prudent business as it normally does (as do many other local governments and special districts in Oregon), and implying that the board, or the superintendent did something crooked when tax notices that included the new bond went out.
The bond was sold as costing $1.25/$1000 assessed valuation and that, or less, will be the cost of the bond. The school district erred in not questioning the time-honored collection policy of the first payment. And we learned that just because things have always been done a certain way doesn’t mean that we should always do them that way.
Dr. Lyon took full responsibility for the decision, even though any board member, or citizen for that matter, could have said beforehand, “Hey, what about that extra amount you guys always collect on the first go-round?” Who had a clue? But that’s no excuse.
We all took a hit to the monthly budget, but Superintendent Jeremy Lyon stepped up to the plate with a public apology printed in the November 2nd Argus, and he didn’t point the finger of blame at anyone but himself. That’s an honorable man doing an honorable thing.
And please don’t be confused. It’s a lesson learned for the school district, Jeremy took the responsibility, but he doesn’t grovel and neither do I. It’s over and that’s that.
I really don’t have much to say about Ms. Gordanier including in her ghastly propaganda piece an appeal for the Hillsboro Schools Foundation’s Answer the Call fund raiser, except to imagine that HSF Executive Director Aron Carlson is tearing her hair out that HSF would be mentioned in a calculated propaganda smear of the Hillsboro School District. How can that help the kids who are working hard to help HSF?
I’m sorely disappointed in Susan Gordanier, an editor of the Argus, who, as a member of our community, ought to subscribe to Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce President Deanna Palm’s now famous words that are included in the district’s strategic plan: “We will re-ignite the community’s passion and commitment for our schools in order to build a world-class school system.”
Why did Ms. Gordanier go out of her way, abusing her access to newspaper column inches, to undermine the school district, and its administration and board, with her irresponsible propaganda?
Does “the city” want the Thomas Middle School building so badly that they and their mouthpieces are willing to chip away at a significant chunk of the glue that holds this community together - an exemplary school district that can attract businesses and business leaders who want the best possible public education for their kids?
If someone wants to be critical of the school district, by all means voice an opinion. But please don’t dress a political agenda (the acquisition of the Thomas Middle School building) in a faux critique, as did Ms. Gordanier.
If I can see through it, I’m sure many others can too.
