Well, it's been a long time since I posted (over a year) and I'm at the end of my 3rd term on the Board of Education.  I have 3 meetings left to attend... I'll try and get another post out here sort of summing the last 9 years up.  But I can't do that tonight... I'm working on one of my other blogs so I don't have the time.  But I will come back at some point to do that. 

It's definitely been a fun ride, and I'll try and share some of what I learned while serving...

See you soon

Well, I'm still a conservative. I'm just not a Republican anymore. I changed my affiliation to "Unaffiliated" late last week. I got really tired of getting beat up by people inside my own party. It has been that way for some time, but lately the rancor had become quite a bit more nasty, including name calling in public. It was a very hard decision, and I'm not going to run again, so it doesn't much matter that I've changed to unaffiliated. Still, there were many people who I think still supported me. I wish they had spoken up more than they did.

Wow - its been over 2 years since I posted. I had trouble logging in during that time, but never the time to fix it. Well, things are slow right now, so I fixed it and here I am. I just read through my posts to see what's changed. A lot has.

First off, the building project I was talking about got back on track. In the end, we built a beautiful building that is now in use. In fact, my daughter attends the school now and I couldn't be happier! Well, I could be a little happier. We weren't able to save the pool - it is covered over in the hopes that someday we can get the proper waivers to refurbish it. It doesn't meet code, and there is no way to "grandfather" it, as it was built before there was a code! Anyway, it is a small part of the whole, and while it would have been nice to see, it will have to wait. As I said, there is no perfect project.

I should also note that I'm now in my 3rd and final term on the Board. I ran for re-election and won, but I won't be running again. I'll post on that another time.

The bathroom still doesn't work right. But I did find one amusing thing in the mean time. I was in there once when the fire alarm went off. As I started to leave to exit the building, I noticed that the strobe light was causing the faucets and the soap dispensers to randomly shoot out water and soap. Each time the strobe flashed, the dispenser made its squidgy little whine, and the the water turned on to slowly wash the soap uselessly down the drain. Priceless.

Short post but I'll be back...

It's been quite a while since I posted on this blog, and I wanted to follow up on one of our rebuilding plans that I had previously talked about. I had seen a plan I had proposed start to look like it wasn't going to work, and the plan seemed to get worse and worse by the day...

As it turned out, watching and waiting was the right strategy. Our town administrators, one in particular, worked really hard to find some way to fix the plan so that it would work. She was able to not only put the plan back on track from a budget perspective, but was also able to work our the "green space" issue. We'll be taking less homes, but all of the owners are willing sellers - no eminent domain issues to deal with. So there is a little less green space than we originally planned, but there will be more than enough for us to be able to run a quality program at that school site. I want to send her a big electronic hug, so I'll be emailing her a link to this site.

The key to this success was me doing what does NOT come naturally to me... Waiting and trusting. I needed to trust that she could work this out. I needed to trust that we'd get what we needed from an educational perspective. And I needed to trust that it WOULD work out.

I needed to wait so she could have the time to work out the details. I needed to wait so that I could let my own emotions calm regarding the issue. I needed to wait because "pulling the trigger" prematurely would have thrown the project into disarray. And the history of this particular site is littered with disarray over more than 10 years.

So in the end, I'm really glad that I decided to wait. I would not have done so had the majority of my colleagues not advised me to. I would not have done so had my administrator friend not asked me to wait. Listening to them was better than listening to my own instinctive alarm system.

So thanks Louise - you did a great job and I'm grateful!

I've had it with the bathroom at work !!!

It is one of those "high tech" bathrooms. It has toilets that flush themselves, soap dispensers that you don't have to touch, and faucets that turn themselves on and off.

And none of it works right.

I get that the automatic toilet flusher is there to ensure our sanitation, while keeping us from having to pull an arguably unsanitary flush lever. I get that the soap dispenser is supposed to make it so that I don't foul a pump handle. I get that the faucet is supposed to save water.

But this is more likely the sequence of events:

I sit down and take care of business. Sometimes this takes some time. 'Nuff said. But while I sit, the damn toilet flushes everytime I move the slightest bit. Four or five flushes later, it has taken care of business. And while the whoosh and spray are not altogther uncomfortable, I'm left to wonder if this is saving water, or needlessly flushing it down the drain.

Then, it is time to wash the hands. So you put your hand under the soap dispenser. Nothing comes out. You pull your hand out, and put it back. Nothing. Wait 3 seconds, then put your hand in just the right place - Success! a miniscule dollup of soap. I need another to properly wash my hands. Repeat this entire exercise.

Did I mention the water was running the whole time? It was. I didn't need it while I was getting the soap. More wasted water.

So now I've got my soap, time to wash with the water. I put my hands under the faucet and the water stops. Adjust the position just right, and the water comes out. I begin to properly wash my hands.

While I do so, the soap dispenser shoots blob after blob of soap into the bowl, now that my hands are under the faucet. Three or four blobs shoot out, and slowly crawl toward the bowl. I finish washing my hands.

So all in all, I've wasted 3 times as much of EVERTHING that was supposed to be automated for my protection.

Here's what they should do.

Replace the automated control on the toilet with a manual foot pedal. Time to flush? Step on the pedal. One flush. (Sure, I know that some idiot might not have flushed before me. And while it is not terribly fun to see that "leaver" as we called them in college, I'm just one step away from a clean bowl) And sure, that handicapped person can't step on the pedal, but I'm guessing it could be designed to roll over with a wheel chair. Heck, put the motion sensor on the door!

Put the soap pump handle back to manual operation. Sure, the handle is dirty. So are my hands. That's why I need the soap. Once I have the soap, I can properly wash my hands.

The faucet can be left on automatic. But wire it up to the now unneeded soap dispenser sensor.

The other night, we had a big debate about whether or not teachers should be allowed to deprive students of recess as a punishment. The administration originally wanted to make it forbidden. The revised policy said that they "should not" do it. I ended up making a motion to remove the language, and ultimately, we simply removed the word recess from the policy. It was a 6-3 split vote.

I was able to prevail in the discussion, but 3 of the board members dissented. It was not a party line vote. I am excited about this, not because I prevailed, but because the Board functioned properly.

We discussed the issue in an open forum. Opininons, facts, and conjecture were tossed about in a healthy debate. In the end, philosophical differences created a split decision. This is GREAT! It shows how government can and should function.

I sure wish it was the exception and not the rule.

So we are in the process of renovating our schools in Manchester. One of the projects in particular is my "baby". I came up with the plan, I advocated for it, and I got what I wanted. The plan went to referendum and it passed. So I'm really happy...

Except that a year later, the plan starts to smell bad. A green haze is now eminating from the site. It is looking less and less desireable. How could this be? How could I have thought up something that isn't working out?

Well, the answer is simple, really. Nothing ever goes to plan. The plan was to refurbish an indoor pool, buy some houses and knock them down to make green space, and add parking adjacent to the site. But the plan won't work. There isn't enough money to buy the houses. So they decided to try knocking down a building on the site that we were not going to use instead. But the Historical people don't want to let us. And the project is over budget. They want us to cut our scope. In short, the project is smelling worse and worse.

So what do you do? Do you keep on pushing a bad position? Do you see it through no matter what? Or do you cut and run and delay everything?

At the end of the day, I'm going to watch and wait. I want to wait and see how bad it smells and how thick the green haze gets. At some point, I will have to decide. But I will "take my name" off this thing if it stops being okay for the kids.