Public testimony key to school district

MAT-SU -- Your daughter's school has sent home a note stating that next year hot lunches will no longer be offered at the school due to budget cuts. You are outraged. What do you do? In any situation where you feel your opinion needs to be heard, as in this scenario, you want to talk directly to those in charge of handling such issues. In the case of Valley schools, that would be the Mat-Su Borough School District School Board, and making your voice heard counts.

School board vice president Linda Menard said public testimony at meetings is a crucial element to the process.

"It is extremely important," Menard said. "and the reason everybody is there."

Menard said as a long-time member of the board she often receives calls, faxes, or e-mails from people about concerns or complaints. Many times she advises those people to come before the board to relay those issues to everyone concerned.

"That way we're not relaying anything to the superintendent or the board," she said, "they are hearing the same thing we're hearing."

School board members cannot respond to public testimony while it is being given, Menard said, but during the board's comment period they can direct the administration regarding those issues.

Public testimony allows the board to hear not only the issues affecting parents, teachers, students and the community, but allows them to hear the emotion behind those issues, Menard said. It brings the human element into the issues at hand, often with better results.

"In my opinion it is the single most effective way to get all the board members' attention on any single issue," Menard said. "They have our undivided attention."

At the school board's May 7 meeting, 15-year-old Seth Box related his experience of seeing the process at work first-hand during his term as a student representative on the school board.

"I learned how the school board operates, how policy is made and how people speaking up can make a difference," Box said.