Monday’s regular meeting of the Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees deteriorated into a three-hour spectacle of petty bickering, icy exchanges and dogged devotion to personal agendas.
This is nothing new, of course. Anyone who has endured the school district’s board meetings over the past four years will confirm this.
When Del Phillips left his position as the district’s school superintendent in the spring of 2011, the relationship between the board and the three superintendents who followed changed dramatically, and not always for the better.
Under Phillips, the board was content to let the superintendent steer the ship unquestioned. This proved to be unfortunate. In the months after his departure, the board quickly realized that the district was in far worse shape than it imagined. The board, determined not to make that mistake again, began to exert its authority over the superintendent.
Suddenly, board meetings were not perfunctory, 30-minute rubber-stamp sessions, but long, often contentious debates.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with the board assuming its proper role in the governing of the district. Nor is there anything necessarily wrong with vigorous debate. These are often signs of a healthy relationship between the board and district administrators.
But that is not what has happened in the post-Phillips years. Instead, the past four years have been marked by boards that have quickly developed factions, with board members aligned either with or against the superintendent. From Martha Liddell to Edna McGill and, now, Philip Hickman, board members have chosen sides relative to their support or opposition to the superintendent. Each new appointment to the board threatened to disturb the balance of power on a board that has been consistently divided into two camps — Angela Verdell and Currie Fisher on one side, Jason Spears and Glenn Lautzenhiser on the other. Aubra Turner, Greg Lewis and, now, Stephen Jones have represented the “swing vote” in this battle between two intransigent camps.
Monday, it was Spears, who by his tone and conduct, needlessly interjected an air of hostility to what would otherwise been a matter of routine business. Others have had their “moments,” previously.
This, of course, is no way to run a school district. When every board meeting seems to be an effort to determine a winner or loser between these factions, the outcome assures only failure. It is a blow to the morale of administrators, teachers, staff and parents.
Certainly, this is not the first time we have called for the board to put aside its grudges, personal agendas and unfounded suspicions to work together to meet the challenges the district faces.
To date, those calls have gone unheeded and the results speak for itself. The district faces the same serious issues it has faced four years ago. Problems have not been solved; in some cases, they have been exacerbated.
So, again, we call for each board member to take a moment to examine their consciences, confront their biases and acknowledge their errors.
Until this board vows to act in a spirit of unity, where debate is not a forum for bending others to their will, but an opportunity to build consensus, there can really be no winner.
Only losers.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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