West Bend School Board and Citizens Do Good

The West Bend School Board took up a proposed harassment policy this evening.  Here’s my post on it and why I opposed it. 

I didn’t think that I would make the meeting.  I had a prior engagement.  Lucky for me, my prior engagement ended early and I headed over to the school board meeting.  The meeting started at 1900 and I got there at about 1916.  By that time they had already taken down a list of speakers and the first speaker had already spoken on the issue.  Person after person got up and spoke against the proposed policy.  Not a single person spoke in favor of it.  I asked to be put on the list and had my say too.  In all, about 15 people spoke against the policy. 

I must commend the West Bend School Board for their behavior.  Other school boards should ask for the tape to see how to behave.  They were respectful.  They listened.  They asked good questions.  They were not condescending.  The school board behaved exactly as a school board should behave - like servants of the people. 

At the end of the discussion, the board unanimously sent the proposed policy back to committee to be rewritten.  The board members cited many of the reasons that were brought up by the citizens.  They also advised that the policy be simplified to merely point to state and federal laws and administrative rules instead of writing it into the policy themselves.  In this way, if there is opposition to this next time, the fight should really be taken somewhere else besides the school board. 

Beyond commending the West Bend School Board, I’d also like to commend the dozens of people who took the time to show up and voice their opinion on this policy.  They proved that when citizens actively engage their elected officials, they can make a difference in their community. 

It was nice to see government work how it’s supposed to tonight.