Professionalism was evident in action

Editor,

I would like to thank the administration and my fellow board members at school district #28 for their professionalism during the recent hearing for Mr. Biggs. Any time that you are dealing with matters that concern issues of personnel and confidential information there exists the chance that the rights of all parties involved may be breached. Despite intense public pressure to divulge the details of this legal proceeding, a breach did not occur.

I would like to thank Dr. Skinner for his continued outstanding commitment to meet the needs of the staff, the board, and the public, all of whom he must struggle mightily to serve equally under the law on a daily basis. Being a superintendent means absolutely not making all of the people happy all of the time. It is an unbelievably complex and highly stressful vocation.

In the aforementioned situation, Dr. Skinner did what he was mandated by law to do, and in doing so, he protected many rights of privacy, even as some misinformed individuals attempted to assassinate his character and detract from the real issue at hand. Those who claim that the impetus behind this hearing was retaliation are wrong. Not knowing all the facts leads many to start gossiping and that sort of negative behavior only hurts the District. Using students to further the spread of gossip and misinformation is reprehensible, and I can only hope that this sort of behavior ends immediately.

As cooler heads prevail in the days and weeks to come I hope that we can extract the good that came from the situation. Discard the bad. Keep in mind that things are not always as they seem and check in with ourselves when we feel like getting whipped into a frenzy.

Let's ask ourselves the hard questions like: Does this make sense? Do I have all the facts? If it doesn't, and I don't, do I have the integrity to not engage in spreading misinformation? Am I willing to speak up when I witness another person saying things that are not true and go on record against this sort of negative behavior? The thing is, the truth is the truth. You cannot simply wish something to be true or will it to be so.

Those of you who know me know that I have a reputation for being upfront and letting people know where I stand. Among other things, I stand for civility and integrity. These are pervasive aspects of my personal manifesto. These are principles that I believe we should all incorporate into our lives. Although I did not vote for the remedy suggested by the administration, I absolutely recognize that they did what they were mandated to do by law. And now we must continue on with the business of running one of the best darn little schools in the state of Montana.

Kristie Nerby

Parent and school

board member,

St. Ignatius