Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Toward a better board

The Pinellas Education Foundation rightly points out School Board faults, but Clayton Wilcox goes too far in handicapping the election.

At the last minute, key business leaders who devote their time to Pinellas schools and superintendent Clayton Wilcox have separately weighed in on what's at stake in Tuesday's School Board elections. The leaders of the Pinellas Education Foundation did it the right way, focusing on the current board's faults without endorsing specific candidates. But Wilcox made a mistake by supporting specific candidates as he emphasized the need for African-American representation on the board.

Wilcox correctly observed at a forum sponsored by the African American Voters Research Education Committee that it is important for black families to feel they are involved in the process. But he went too far with his public support of particular black School Board candidates, including incumbent Mary Brown, and by worrying aloud that black candidates in Brown's race could split the vote and allow a white candidate to win. The superintendent works for the School Board, and he has no business handicapping the races involving his bosses.

The Pinellas Education Foundation's $70-million investment in schools over the past two decades offers its board members a credible platform for commenting on the School Board's performance. Its leaders worry that board members argue so much over minutia they can't devote time to the big issues confronting schools, such as the achievement gap, choice student assignment and high school dropout rates. The School Board should focus on setting policy and leave it to the administration to carry out its decisions.

"I think we have to have a return to a focus on what's important if we want to send children out into the world prepared for life," said Gerald Hogan, foundation member and chairman of Canna Capital. "It's very rare that the board actually focuses on that mission."

As it relates to Tuesday's elections, the target is painfully obvious. Mary Russell, a former family literacy teacher, has turned board meetings into self-righteous soliloquies. This newspaper recommended her four years ago, but she has created more problems than she has solved by talking so much and saying so little. She is so caught up in conspiracies she sees being outvoted 6-1 as a form of affirmation.

Russell is running against one of her board colleagues, Nancy Bostock, in a race that is among the easiest calls Pinellas voters will make. Bostock's meticulous preparation and professional competence may offend Russell, but voters are more interested in seeing the job get done.

The dysfunction that Hogan and others described is by no means a reflection on the entire board. Some of the members, including National School Boards Association president Jane Gallucci, have worked hard to remove the personal acrimony and keep the board focused on student achievement. But the reaction Thursday of Janet Clark, who is not on the ballot this year, only underscores Hogan's point.

Clark conspicuously walked out on a breakfast event held to support the Education Foundation. She said she wanted to show her displeasure with the criticisms, but the effect was to undermine private financial support for the schools. This is the kind of pettiness Pinellas schoolchildren, and voters, can do without.

[Last modified September 1, 2006, 01:47:44]