Speak up at the right time

You will rarely see a board of education meeting as packed as the most recent Polson meeting two weeks ago.

Usually, a few people are scattered throughout the chairs. This time, the room was brimming over, for an item not even on the agenda.

After Linderman principal Steve York announced he was leaving for another job, someone had to be found to replace him. Superintendent David Whitesell had a plan that included moving seasoned administrator Tom DiGiallonardo to Linderman.

Not many residents seemed to be happy with this. It was first brought up during a special meeting two weeks ago. Many rumors ensued. Whitesell could have made the move with no board approval. But from the comments at Monday’s meeting, most didn’t want DiGiallonardo and PMS principal Brian Adams split up. They came out to a public meeting and said their peace, at times getting emotional.

The outcry/uproar, as I called it in my Jan. 14 story, “Proposed admin moves causes uproar”, stemmed mostly from the responses made by some people outside the meeting. Sometime early on Saturday morning two weeks ago, signs reading, “Go home,” and “Go back” were posted on Whitesell’s yard. Come on - do we even have to say how nasty and unnecessary this act was? I’d call it childish, but I know most educators would tell you the kids they teach wouldn’t think of reacting this way.

But let’s focus on saying kudos to the parents who stood up, during the proper forum, and told the superintendent and trustees what they thought. Even more impressive was the score of teachers (they live with the decisions made at the meetings) who made their voices heard. That’s why there is at every  meeting a “public comment on nonagenda items” on the agenda.

Many of the trustees said the change may have been the best move. Why not pull from the pool of experience leaders already established with the district (as Whitesell himself said) and accept a change? Would this not benefit the whole more than just PMS?

Superintendent David Whitesell heard all these comments and more, I’m sure. In the end, he made his decision — which he announced at the beginning of the meeting - to not move administrators after discussion with the administrators themselves. He also said he was keeping his word to one administrator, after he told them he would not move them against their will.

The main objective is to do what’s best for the kids, people on “both sides” of the administrator move uproar kept saying this. The thing is, no one agreed on Monday night what that exactly was. No one ever will.

Some ugly reactions came from the event. What came of the meeting was actually no change — but sometimes that’s a good enough reason for discussion because many good points arose at the meeting about how to do what’s best for the Polson kids. Good that Whitesell would keep his word, good that parents and educators are passionate enough about how who leads the individual schools to speak up. Good the trustees had their say.

Communicating is the only way to get new and innovative ideas on how to do better.