Change in Bethel
Not a Bad Idea

The Bethel School Board has taken a lot of heat over the last few weeks and I wanted to express my support for their efforts. I am appreciative of the group’s forward-thinking and aggressive decision-making.

Specifically, I have heard and seen many people complaining about the school board’s desire to essentially shorten the name of the school and now their decision to go to quarterly meetings.

What bothers me most about the complaining is that it comes from individuals who don’t want to ask questions, don’t want to find out why and don’t take the time to attend the school board meetings.

The Bethel School Board understands that shortening the school name is not the "whole" of attracting students to our small school. They have a bigger vision than that. Go to the board meetings, ask their members. I do and they all, all five members, have expressed the same sentiment. The Bethel School Board’s thinking is that the school needs to function as a unit, as one school, not two schools under one roof, which has been an all to familiar reality.

They also see this name shortening as a tool in their marketing of the school to tuition students; ask them and you will hear their plan. They know and understand that changing the name will not bring quantities of students—this is a very small tip of an iceberg. But, it is a start, and we all begin somewhere.

The board has put forth an idea of meeting roughly four times a year. After reviewing what seemed to be endless policies of the Bethel schools, the board wants to leave the function of the schools to the principal and put its energy into the progression of the school’s curriculum. With this end, they will need to do more research, attend more out of town meetings (supervisory, RTCC, other school boards) in an effort to coordinate and develop curriculum for the Bethel Schools.

So, for those counting at home, the school board meets September to June on every third Monday. That is ten times a year. Meetings run from 6:30-8 roughly, or about 15 hours of meeting time. The new plan is to meet from 4-8 pm with open forum so that students, teachers, parents, community members, press can come in to ask questions at any point of the meeting. Add that up and that it totals 16 hours of meeting time.

What of all the time in between meetings? This allows board members to attend the other meetings and pursue ideas and curriculum and present more informed and detailed information than a trickling of ideas at the current meeting system. During the last three-school budget meetings I have had to listen to endless complaining about the supervisory union and the cost of education. Well, you want change and more attention at those levels from a local representatives, then lets give them as much opportunity to focus on those meetings.

We have an excellent principal in Andy West and the school board is smart enough to know not to micro-manage him and get onto the task of making Whitcomb everything that it should be and creating an atmosphere where students come from all around this area to benefit from an excellent education

Change can stir up controversy, but in the end people will wonder why no one thought of it sooner. Thanks, Bethel School Board, keep up the great work, for those who ask and want to see growth, we are appreciative of your efforts.

Willy Walker

Bethel