Under Diane Bourisaw, I think the district is in the best hands I’ve seen it since I was elected to the board in 1997, and I’ve seen lots of superintendents since then.
At the very least, the board needs to give Bourisaw and her staff a year or two to see how they will do. My confident prediction is that this year we’re going to have the best year we’ve had in quite some time, and within two years Bourisaw will undo the damage of the three years of Slay dogs and return the district to full accreditation.
When I was first elected to the board, I said that to improve achievement, we needed to ask and answer two questions: Who’s not in school today, and who’s supposed to be knocking on their door and finding out why not? And: How did our tests go this month, and who’s supposed to be helping those who fell behind this month catch up by next month?
If Veronica O’Brien and Bourisaw are having problems now, I hope it’s not because Veronica has forgotten that she was elected president, not queen, and that she will build board support for initiatives and actions that she believes in.
Bill Haas
School board member 1997-2005