In the past few days I’ve gotten in the School Board groove. Last week I set up a meeting with the Superintendent after he invited me, and the other candidates, to chat. Yesterday I sat through a COW (Committee of the Whole) in a hot room on Old Central’s third floor with our area legislators. The fan drowned out the mostly soft-spoken voices which were not amplified by microphones. Today I met Bill Gronseth in a cordial 45 minute get-together. He explained that the Building’s obligation to its preservation status forbids any air conditioners sticking out its windows. He did say that if the $48 million in needed fix-ups were approved one of them would be to add AC though the building. Today I attended the July School Board meeting. It was pretty short although Bill told me after it was over that it had actually been pretty long by recent standards. I teased him that when I got elected they would get longer again.
I bumped into the soon to retire Nora Sandstad as I left and I asked her what general observations she could offer me of her four years. She borrowed a metaphor that Board member Josh Gorham used tonight. That the District was a big ship that took a long time to move. How true. Over the last thirty years that Republican innovations have been fixing schools our public schools are more segregated, more unfair and distressed than ever. Still, there is ever hope. I saw our new CFO (Chief Financial Officer) tonight and I’ve been told she is a gem by my favorite board member Alanna Oswald. Bill told me he was afaid her knowledge and skills left her open to being poached by a lot of other people eager for competent financial management. Gee, I hope that doesn’t happen. We’ve needed good financial direction for the last fifteen years.
Among other things I finally put a Facebook Page up. I had removed all traces of the page two years ago that so vexed me. I came up with a lighthearted campaign name for it. its Harry Welty Givem Helty. I put an historic photo of Harry Truman waving a famously wrong headline. I have an extra l in Hellty superimposed on the photo. There is only one l in the Facebook name Helty. It was a tiny mistake too fussy to change.
I’ve ignored request to friend me on my personal Facebook Page because my close friends and family members’s posts are always under threat of being lost. I’ll friend anyone back who friends me on the campaign page. I’ll just not follow them so as not to be inundated with posts. I’ll follow the suggestion of a friend and use my blog posts on the Facebook Page. The first one I put on today was the post with my sister and me on the Canadian glacier back in 1968.
