Schools Need
New Leadership

What do the upper White River Valley towns and large Vermont municipalities have in common? They can't afford their school systems.

Size doesn't matter! Whether you are Hancock or the towns making up Champlain Valley Union, making larger schools by combining, tuitioning, and or unionizing will not save money or efficiencies that will matter financially as they may have in the 1970s. The larger school communities in this state are in just as much trouble as the smaller communities.

Vermont's Department of Education has an agenda to consolidate as many schools and supervisory unions as possible. On top of that the federal government has its own expense-ridden agenda.

There are many factors that drive the cost of supporting a school, student population being only a small one and one the Department of Ed. is using to full advantage. Our local school boards must be results-focused, purpose-driven and action oriented.

I learned many years ago to solve a problem or to obtain a goal you first must know your outcome, what result do you want to achieve, followed by your purpose or the "why." The "why" will give you the drive and meaning for you to follow through, followed by massive action. Our outcome is to give our children the best education we can by the most economical means.

There are many different solutions to the many different problems that are affecting our schools today. One problem being a struggle to meet federal and state testing standards. Our schools should have their own set of standards already, far exceeding the floor set by governments with full student achievement.

These problems are not going away, either by enlarging our school populations or relying on longstanding school board members and complacent supervisory unions to get us out of trouble.

Our boards need new leadership. We need a new breed of board member that will listen to the people, do what is right for our children and has the capacity to achieve the desired outcome. It is time for some new people to step up to the plate and some to get off it.

Herb Campbell

Rochester