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Board cuts clause from goals

By Lisa Scheller - | Apr 11, 2001

Tonganoxie school board members decided Monday that they want the right to speak freely about public education.

At Monday night’s board meeting, the board decided to remove a phrase from a list of board goals that Superintendent Richard Erickson had prepared for the upcoming year.

The phrase that raised some eyebrows among board members said, “The Board will maintain a positive attitude about the state of public schools in all dealings with the public.”

Erickson told the board, “We’re all trying to sell the public schools to our patrons we’re all the bastions for the school.”

But board members hedged.

“Sometimes if you say you’re happy, happy, happy, nothing gets done,” Terry Needham said. “I think you should support public education, but not by being happy, happy, happy all the time. Sometimes a positive change comes from seeing what’s wrong and doing something about it.”

The phrase also bothered board member Ron Moore.

“I don’t think we need to be telling ourselves how to conduct ourselves in front of others or what our attitude should be,” Moore said.

Bob Gepner recommended removing the phrase.

“I think we ought to strike it out,” Gepner said. “I’ve been known to be critical of Kansas City, Missouri, public schools.”

Richard Dean said he thought the phrase may have been included because several years ago, a board member wrote a letter to the editor that was critical of the school district.

Erickson agreed to remove the phrase.

Other objectives in the board goals for 2001-2001 are to:

Improve the school curriculum so the needs of all students can be met.

Develop a financial plan and control system to best use available funding resources.

Evaluate existing facilities to determine if they will be adequate to meet educational needs.