Oak Ridge Schools smacked down by City Council
May 23rd, 2006 by Atomictumor
Oak Ridge Schools are taking one for the team, as council members, after sitting through a dozen or so citizens coming up and speaking eloquently (and sometimes, not so eloquently), unanimously voted to continue on their idiotic 5 year zero growth path to glory. The high point of the meeting, for me, was either when everybody on the council went into a song and dance, looking shifty eyed, regarding education vs. fiscal responsibility, OR when Superintendant Bailey (who, I admit, has been maligned here in the past) stormed out of the meeting after the vote.
Mayor Bradshaw’s was the best, managing to only occasionally look up from his table, he blathered on about how education is important, but that the city has a lot of services that they have to juggle, and you can’t put a focus on one over the others.
Indeed. And what focus will be put on the kids next year? That depends on what the school board has to cut from their budget. I’m keeping an eye on Netmom for this (and for a great review of the shindig last night, as she’s usually johnny on the spot with this school board business.
I’ll also end with one more thing. I’ve tried like hell not to get involved in politics, because I’m loud, and brash, and tend to say things that I later regret, but you hinky bastards have forced my hand. Sticking to your guns is commendable, but I ask the council to look and see who they’ve pissed off and who they’ve backed. True, the cranky, barren, “no-tax for me” crowd does tend to vote prolificly, but by choosing to knock the school board down a peg or two you’ve killed off the impression that Oak Ridge has a government that is committed to schools.
I’m not sure what you’re committed to anymore, council, and for that reason we need to end your political careers.
May 23rd, 2006 at 8:53 am
” . . . and for that reason we need to end your political careers.”
Who would you replace them with? You gonna run?
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:02 am
Nah, too much incriminating evidence. I figure I can dress up a monkey or something.
May 23rd, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Now is the right time to be thinking about recruiting. I’ve heard that DRB may not run again, but Abbatiello has decided he merits another term.
I think not.
You and I are not the only ones, by the way, that are thinking about a change in leadership. There are some pretty heavy hitters, along with some dedicated campaigners, who are thinking the same thing.
May 23rd, 2006 at 5:58 pm
I’d say theres a lot of people thinking about changes. I don’t think having ‘heavy hitters’ are going to help, because what turned me off politics around here to begin with was that whole “accountabilty” fiasco, where you have several people running on a single platform, and everybody else running on an opposite platform. I understand thats the way it works, but its a turn off to people who are already turned off enough by national politics to ignore the local stuff.
That said, I could put together a dream team of people I know personally.
May 24th, 2006 at 7:46 am
Netmom, AT, who should we be looking out for?