Perhaps nowhere in life is there a more sensitive personal issue than children.
Our threshold of tolerance with violence, injustice, or cruelty toward adults
is much greater. When it comes to animals, we get a little edgy; however,
when we perceive an injustice being inflicted on children, we can get downright
ornery.
Psychologists tell us that the reason for this is simple. We see children
as virtually defenseless, at the mercy of adult power, judgment, whims,
and prejudices. Our instincts are protective. Issues involving children,
therefore, are fraught with emotion, especially when the children are our
own.
The "new school" issue now before the Franklin County Board of
Education is a prime example of this, and the task before them is formidable.
Statistics, logistics, financing, and long-range planning are major factors.
But a factor equally as large, or larger, is emotion, and we cannot ignore
it, nor should we.
Emotion is what guides advertisers in enticing us to buy their products.
Emotion is what motivates politicians to seek our votes. And emotion is
what leaps to the forefront when anything affecting the lives of our children
is at stake. We cannot escape it.
All of the empirical factors mentioned come into play in Franklin County’s
school dilemma. Statistics..…sheer numbers….. justify the need
for more room to educate our children. Logistics show that the numbers do
not fit into a nice, manageable pattern, either geographically, or by age.
Financing projections show that the funds may not be available to do all
we would like to do. They never are. And long-range planning is often inhibited
by financing.
However, the emotion al f actor cannot be overlooked, and no matter how
much we wish that it would go away, it won’t. The events of the past
two months have left many parents, and not just those in Royston, feeling
that they have been ignored, put off, patronized, and/or misled.
These are not OUR words. They are what we have heard in Board meetings,
council meetings, and privately.
Whether any of this is true or not, the Board should realize that PERCEPTION
IS REALITY, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This "new
school" issue has changed the perception of a large segment of the
population, causing them to lose confidence in this Board.
The Board could go a long way toward restoring that confidence by doing
several things. First, they should add at least one parent or business person
from each school council to their new committee. This is in keeping with
the concept of school councils, to provide lay input to our schools.
Second, they should revisit the Carnesville two-school plan and examine
it closely before dismissing it as "too much money." There is
never enough money. Show us…with hard, indisputable facts.
The third thing is difficult, sensitive, and emotional. This involves the
Board Chairman and his spouse, who is principal of the middle school. No
doubt neither of them would have chosen to be in this situation, and we
do not envy them. But it is there and should be addressed.
If the final decision is made to build a new middle school and bus all fourth
and fifth graders in Franklin County to the old school, any part that the
Chairman and his wife have in making that decision will be tainted. This
is not personality. It is reality.
This is one we hope the Chairman, and the other board members will have
the courage to address. PERCEPTION IS REALITY.
There is still time to study this matter before a final decision is made.
Nothing could be completed in time for the next school year, and with almost
two years to go, there is still some breathing room. Hopefully, the Board
will not rush to judgment, but will allow the public more time to be a part
of this decision.
It is the least we should expect.