Dear Editor:

I served on the Delta County School Board for seven years, and one thing I learned fast after being appointed to fill a vacancy was that there are at least two sides to every issue. It took time to sort out the full dimensions of what we on the board observed and what we were told and read about.

There is always a learning curve when you first come onto a board, and I'd estimate that school board members need a year or more to think clearly about controversial issues as well as about the people who work with the district's children.

That was painfully evident from the actions of the school board at its last meeting, held in Cedaredge. The school board's 4-1 vote against then-superintendent Mike McMillan revealed a rush to judgment with no supporting evidence. The three new board members, in particular, have not had enough time on the board to have a good grounding on how the school district functions, much less on whether it was being managed properly by the superintendent.

The school board seems to have started its work with preconceived agendas.

When they were running for office just a few months ago, did any of the three new board members mention that they intended to turn the school district upside down? Did they tell voters they wanted no superintendent but a CEO instead? Had they taken time to learn their jobs and evaluate the performances of school administrators, you might be able to say that their opinions were thoughtful.

Instead, all three seem to have conducted uninformative campaigns and have since operated mostly in secret. We don't know what they found wrong with the school district beyond vague statements about needing a "new direction."

We don't know whether they want to close schools, fire teachers, cut out bus routes — we know nothing because school board members aren't talking.

Personnel matters, as we all know, are not discussed in public, but the ideas of a school board, its rationale for change and the changes themselves — its "direction" — are all public matters of vital interest to taxpayers who deserve to know what is going on and why. Secrecy makes the public distrustful — with good reason.

All of us in Delta County certainly expected and hoped for much better out of the new board. But this board with a majority of new members quickly turned out a good man as superintendent and it did so without grace. He deserved better and so does the public. What will this board do now to redeem themselves after this awful start?

Betsy Marston

Paonia