Letter
Schare pleads guilty to 'carefully watching money'
 

Thursday, October 18, 2007

 

I respond to Geoff Scott's letter to the editor dated Oct. 4. Mr. Scott opines that based on his observations of the Sept. 10 meeting of the Worthington Board of Education, the board was micromanaging the affairs of the district, that our board meetings last too long (past 10 p.m.), are unproductive and that we are distracted from fulfilling our proper role of setting high-level educational policy for the school district. Along the way, Mr. Scott also accuses board members of competing over who has the best grasp of daily administrative details and asking too many questions.

While at first glance, Mr. Scott's missive seemed designed to be critical of the current board, I did not take it as such. If the worst thing that someone can say about my performance on Worthington's Board of Education is that I am working too hard, have too detailed a grasp of the district's issues and carefully watch how the district spends your money, even on routine matters, I will cheerfully plead guilty as charged with thanks to the accuser.

Mr. Scott does levy a serious charge which must be addressed -- that our current board is too distracted by minutia to fulfill our role in setting the big picture educational policy. I don't know where Mr. Scott has been, but this charge is demonstrably not true.

With the support of Superintendent Conrath and what must be the most hard-working K-12 administrative team in the county, this board has gotten our community off the "every-other-year" levy cycle and will stretch the 2004 levy until 2009. This board has solved the capital improvement crisis and brought new buses to our streets and upgraded facilities and technology to our classrooms without further burdening Worthington's taxpayers.

This board has increased the choices available to our district's middle school kids with the introduction of the Phoenix School, an innovative program that demonstrates what happens when you empower teachers to think outside of the box and recently. This board has initiated a process which, with community support over the next few years, will bring an unparalleled era of new choice and opportunity to Worthington's elementary schools and high schools, truly enabling our district to serve every child that comes through our doors, no matter their interests and no matter their learning style.

I feel very privileged to be serving on Worthington's board during these consequential times. This record is the result of a lot of hard work on the part of every Worthington school district employee and sometimes the board itself. It is certainly more effort to evaluate, to question and to amass deep understanding than it would be to simply rubber stamp administrative proposals.

Speaking just for me, if the price of increasing student achievement through educational innovation and choice while making sure our district remains sustainable and affordable means that questions must be asked and our board meetings will run past 10 p.m., that is a price I am gladly willing to pay.

Marc Schare

Member, Worthington

Board of Education