People ask me, "Are you going to run for Austin school board?".

Thursday, August 26, 1999

People ask me, "Are you going to run for Austin school board?"

One amateur comedian said, "You ought to run for the school board. You’ve been running from them all year long."

Just because I said that’s what I was going to do last winter, when all heck broke loose, people took me seriously.

Folks, by now you should know better than to believe everything you read.

I did that just to get attention to a problem; not for me.

You remember those wild and crazy days, don’t you?

Austin school administrators and their support staff had received double-digit pay hikes, the school superintendent at that time had negotiated his retirement and was ready to do so, and then the caca-dodo hit the fan; i.e. certain embarrassing truths left the administration building.

The Austin school district had suffered a major financial shortfall. Somebody said they forgot to count the district’s fifth graders, but nobody knew for sure or could understand the explanation given and the amount kept changing.

The finger of blame was pointed at an accountant and then at the person who recommended hiring the accountant, but nobody wanted to be accountable.

The accountant left, as did the person who hired him. It took six months to sort out accounts after he left.

Nobody could explain the circumstances surrounding his departure. They said it was a secret.

Go figure. We’re talking public employees here, folks, and tax monies. There are no secrets when the public’s need to know is at stake.

When they hired a former athletic director to replace the school district’s accountant, nice guy that he is, that raised some eyebrows.

When they hired an accountant to help the new accountant, that raised eyebrows further.

At about the 100th telephone call, note, letter, fax or email, I started writing about the public’s and my own concerns.

Then, the telephone calls, notes, letters, faxes and emails increased.

Then, the letters to the editor started and ended. There were two of them.

At least two school board members and the former superintendent canceled their subscriptions to the newspaper that pays me to write these columns and report news.

One administrator told me on the telephone to "Just go away." That stung for a little while.

I got a couple of telephone calls from her attorney, who is also the personal attorney of the school board president and who is also the school district’s attorney negotiating a new contract with local teachers.

You will notice by now, that I’m not naming names. It’s to protect the guilty.

If I get another telephone call from a $150 per hour attorney, who is upset because not everybody lives in Pleasantville and wears rose-colored glasses and especially not this reporter, I will bust a gasket, so I’ll give them a break and not name names.

Besides, everybody knows who they are.

So, naturally, people think I would make a good school board member, because I ask the same questions they ask.

By now you must have gathered that I respect teachers and others in education, who are "here for the children" every day instead of when a press conference is held – what was I going to say?

I would make all the administrators and their support staff wear signs like semi trucks display. You know the ones that read "Am I Driving Good? Call _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and let us know."

I would make the administrators and their support staff wear signs that read: "Hi! My name is (Fill in the blank) and I’m being paid (Fill in salary) to do my job. Do you think I’m doing it? Call _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and let us know. Have a nice day."

If that sounds like I’m "picking on," to use a term expressed by an honest-to-goodness college-educated attorney, public employees, so be it.

So, the answer is "No." I am not running for a seat on the Austin School Board. I think I can do more good as a columnist making sure whoever wins the November election and takes the hot seat on the school board really feels the heat of the public’s frustrations.