School board

As much as I hate to admit it at times, I am a life long Republican. However, that being said, I don’t necessarily vote the “party line”.  I vote based on the issues and for which candidate I believe will address them.  I’ve been hearing a lot of babble around town about the District 2 School Board race. I guess there are those in the community who feel that actually having a choice about who sits on the School Board is a bad idea. I’m grateful that anyone would even consider running for it when they are not retired but actually have a career and a young family.

I caught a little of tonight's meeting of the Clay County School Board, just in time to see Superintendent David Owens get a hefty pay raise by a near-unanimous vote.

Spoiling Owens' bid for a quiet salary hike, the Board's usual modus operandi in such situations, was School Board member Wayne Bolla. Bolla, who has apparently set up squatter's rights in the Superintendent's dog house, asked a logical question - Why do Clay County taxpayers pay the Superintendent more than what the state recommends, and what other Clay County constitutional officers accept? Bolla voted no after apparently not being satisfied with the bone of an answer tossed his way.

With bringing two new schools on-line, staff has made recommendations to the Superintendent on how to redraw school boundary lines to shuffle neighborhoods and schools. The schools impacted by adding two new schools will be:

> The new Oakleaf Elementary School;

> Argyle Elementary;

> The new Shadowlawn Elementary School;

> Lake Asbury Elementary;

> Middleburg Elementary;

> Charles E. Bennett Elementary;

> Rideout Elementary and;

> Thunderbolt Elementary.

The 42-page supporting document can be found at http://www.clay.k12.fl.us/

I still think the single finest scene of a movie comes from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."  It's the scene where Melanie is trapped in Mitch's house, with his mother an young sister.  Hitchcock builds the tension little by little, then by leaps and bounds until you know exactly what those four folks in the movie felt like with all those birds trying to kill them.

If you guys want to sit through frightening piece of computer cinema, I highly recommend one I found on School Board candidate Duane D'Andrea's website - electduanedandrea.com.  Once you're on the home page, click on "Shift Happens."  If you're like me, you'll find the tension building second-by-second.

The relationship between leadership and character is very close.  A leader without character is not a leader at all.  As I’ve sat back and watched the school board here in Clay County, I can’t help but wonder when a leader is going to emerge.  Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

As soon as the present board members ascended to office, they forgot why they were put there.  They are more consumed with the power they’ve been trusted with than with the needs of their constituency.  It is time for change on the Clay County School Board.  It is time for parents, teachers and students alike to start having their voices heard.  We owe it to ourselves and to the future of Clay County to hold our elected representatives accountable.

As the new school year starts Wayne Bolla, a School Board member had an article in the Clay Sun writing about what else MONEY or lack of. I talked to Wayne a while ago about the cost of schools. My question was why we have to make schools so expensive by spending money on looks instead of function. His answer was and I quote “we don’t want ugly schools”. I want taxpayer money to be spent to build functional schools not “beautiful” schools. A school should be built to meet code and all state safety standards. It should be cost and energy efficient. In case the school board has not figured it out this is not a rich county.

I think it is incredible that they want to hold off on reviewing the impact fees until AFTER we vote on a sales tax.  If the sales tax passes than they will likely lower the impact fees for development.  That is CRAZY!!  Guess why they want to lower the impact fees?  All the big developers contribute to political campaigns ( including MR Conkey he was backed by a lot of big developers).. The developers don't donate money to campaigns unless they expect something in return.  So watch what happens.  If the sales tax passes they will shift the burden to us (even though we already pay the impact fee when we buy our new homes they add it into the cost of the home), and we pay real estate taxes, and now they want to increase the SALES tax..