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Lemons or Lemonade?
By Bob Rhoades
Last week I attended the Greenville City School board meeting with an
idea on how a committee could present the idea of a new school to the
general public and how to fund it. It was received very well and
I was later advised that we would probably move in that direction.
I didn’t realize that later on the fiasco over the non-renewal of the
contracts of two coaches was going to put the community in an upheaval
larger than anything I’ve ever seen. Letters to the editors, chat
boxes, shout boxes and just people talking on the street has continued
now for over a week. Did someone hit a nerve? It would seem
so.
The one thing that has really gotten to me is people saying things
like, “after that, I’m never voting for anything again for the
Greenville City Schools”. Indeed! The wise or unwise
decision of the board of education has very little to do with the real
problem. WE NEED A NEW SCHOOL BUILDING! It is untimely, at
the very least, that this all happened when it did. I felt very
good about the chances of getting a funding mechanism in place and
construction finally starting on the project. The work load of
the facilities committee just doubled. Not only now do we have to
explain why we need a new school, we also have to explain why people
should vote for it in spite of the board of education we have, not
because of the great job they are doing.
If people in high places use their office as a bully pulpit, then shame
on them. If they voted without all of the information, that’s too
bad, did you learn a lesson? If the personnel weren’t rehired
because of misfeasance, nonfeasance, or malfeasance, so be it. If
for any of the five, it was a personal vendetta, then man up, say it
was and let’s move on. As in any case with a public officer,
elected by the people there are a number of recourses that can be
taken. First, make sure at the polls that they never get elected
to any office again. You have to wait a while, but it’s the
cheapest for the general public. Second, go to the board of
elections, get a recall petition, get the number of signatures you need
to get it certified and on the ballot, and yank them right out of their
chair on that board, the day after election.
The largest thing that anyone can do is become informed on the
issues. Don’t say that we aren’t going to vote for school issues
because of an ill-advised decision someone made, that won’t fix a
thing. Had they done that in 1911, there would be no South School.
The uninformed statements, (I wanted to say stupid statements but it’s
not politically correct), that people have made are incredible.
“Greenville is just jealous because everyone else got a new school and
they didn’t” was the one that got me. Have you been in the
buildings that you send your kids to every day? If not voting for
something is how you feel, please get all the facts first. Take a
piece of paper and put two columns on it and head one with “for a new
school reasons” and the other “against a new school reasons”.
Fill both columns as best you can and see what you come up with.
If there are questions you can’t answer, go find out before you make
the decision.
It was said that the coaches in question can re-apply for their jobs
and they would want to for what reason?
We’ll start over and hope nothing else happens. We have an
overabundance of lemons at this point, let’s hope we can make some
incredible lemonade!
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