OFC Update

(Note:  Jeff Waters sits on the Board of Education for Millburn Township Public Schools.  The following comments were delivered during the Board Member Comments portion of the Board of Education meeting on June 2, 2008.  The views expressed herein represent the personal views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Millburn Township Board of Education itself.)

 

The other day I read an article about a politician who described himself as “pro family.”   I had an immediate visceral reaction.  As we know, “pro-family” is “code” for a certain set of beliefs about social issues.  And the clear implication is if you don’t subscribe to those beliefs then you are not “pro family.”

 

My reaction is because of my recognition that code is being used and my belief that code words are extremely harmful.  Anybody who belongs to a group that has been the object of code words understands what I am talking about.  Over time, code words have been used to denigrate groups of people, whether ethnic, racial or religious in the nastiest ways.  And the people that use these techniques can be incredibly effective at doing it.  Using code words often works.

 

Code words are insidious.

 

There has been a lot of emotion surrounding recent issues the Board has had to deal with.  As a very new member of the Board I feel my lack of direct involvement gives me a worthwhile and reasonably objective perspective. 

 

The first code word that I am not fond of is “pro-education.”  Sort of reminds me of pro-family.  It seems to have gained traction during the BOE election just after the referendum when some candidates were characterized as “pro-education” with the clear implication that those they were running against were “anti-education.”  I remember not liking it then, even though I wasn’t involved directly, and I like it less now.

 

There is an irony that is a lesson on the destructiveness of code words and a cautionary tale for those who would use them.  Some of the same people who were referred to as “pro-education” two years ago have recently been under attack for not being “pro-education” during the recent events.  Did they go from being pro-education to anti-education just because they were sitting on the Board?  I don’t think so.

 

In fact, I would say this:   Now that I have sat in Board and Committee Meetings for about twenty hours I am starting to get a sense of what’s what and have reached the following conclusion.  I have agreed with much of what my fellow Board members have had to say.  Disagreed, at times strongly, with some.  But never once have I thought any member of this Board was not acting in a manner which they believed to be in the educational best interests of this District and its children.  They are all, as far as I can see, “pro-education.”

 

The other newly emerging code word is “micromanagement.”  This is code of course for recent events in which the Board is accused of overstepping its mandate of oversight for the District and involving itself in decision making at a more day-to-day level than it should be.  Now there could be legitimate disagreement about the scope of the Board’s authority.  But the Board does have final authority for the policy of the District and seeing that it is properly carried out.  And we must exercise that authority.  And you want us to exercise that authority.  Even when it creates moments of discomfort.  Especially when it creates moments of discomfort.

 

So where do we go from here?  We are at a place where our District is performing by almost any objective measure at an extraordinarily high level.  So should we just continue doing what we are doing – rest on our laurels so to speak?  Dr. Bill Miron, I know, positively bristles at the notion that we are standing still, or ever should.  And you can bet that he, and hundreds of his colleagues, aren’t.  Perhaps a good way to think about this comes from Dan Gable, the greatest coach of the sport at which Dr. Miron excelled.  Dan’s motto was “get 1% better every day.”

 

There is no silver bullet.  Every day, in hundreds of individual actions, some seen, the vast majority unseen, our outstanding administrators, teachers, and staff perform actions that make us 1% better.  But every once in a while, some of those 1% actions need to come from the Board.  And many of those actions must necessarily be unseen based on facts and circumstances only we have.

 

Sometimes I’ll hear people say we need unity.  Unity is great if it is genuine.  But I would rather have raucous disagreement on our way to getting 1% better, than artificial unity.  So by all means come up here and speak your mind, but please don’t use code words.  And remember those who use them as a weapon today may be on the receiving end tomorrow. 

 

Code words are insidious and they will lead to less effective results in our schools.  I understand that in the rough and tumble of national politics these tactics have become commonplace.  But that doesn’t mean they have to happen here.  I believe that in our own community we can do better.