PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK: A little respect never hurt anyone

Tuesday night at the Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting I witnessed the best and worst that our system of government has to offer.

This was during the public comment portion before the vote by the assembly regarding an ordinance for a 3 percent sales tax for the purpose of supporting the Mat-Su School District budget. The assembly was to decide whether the ordinance should be placed on the October ballot or perhaps a special election in January, or not at all. During the public comment period citizens could sign up to state their opinion with a three-minute time limit.

Unassuming but well spoken

It started out cordially and if there was an award for ‘best use of three minutes’ I would give it to Robert Hall, Houston resident and owner of Gorilla Fireworks. Hall offered advice to those seeking the sales tax. He stated that if the measure appeared on the ballot he would vote for it. Education is an investment in our community and he fully supports funding it. Then he went on to say, that he does not support this ordinance to be placed on the ballot because it is flawed and will be soundly defeated, and that the school district will only get one opportunity to put this to a vote. Simply put, take your time, get it right and it has a better chance of being supported. Then when his time was up he simply and humbly went back to his seat and listened.

My Mark Twain moment

Hall spoke first and was a hard act to follow and few did it well. Superintendent Dr. Monica Goyette, her staff, the assembly and their staff had to sit there in silence while quite a few citizens decided to dump on them — not about the validity of a sales tax so much as their performance or at least these individuals perception of their performance. I’ll give Goyette the ‘thickest skin’ award. One person went to the stat sheet to make his argument about growing class sizes.

I’ll give this guy the “Bill James Award” — baseball fans know who Bill James is. According to this gentleman, Utah ranks in the top three in average class size in the nation while Alaska ranks in the bottom five. Test score wise he stated Utah ranks at the top of list while Alaska ranks at the bottom. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress Utah ranks 13th whilst Alaska ranks 37th. Alaska is a big state with a low population and there are quite a few of other mitigating factors why Alaska ranks 37th despite the remoteness of some locations. This led to another person saying he moved up here from Alabama. He said he’s glad he educated his kids in Alabama before arriving here because of how terrible Alaska is doing at educating our kids. Alabama ranked 49th in test scores.

Which leads me to Mark Twain’s quote, “Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.”

Why, back in my day!

After one gentleman who I would award the ‘that’s three minutes of my life I’ll never get back’ trophy to, drove home the point of how many various taxes we pay by listing every tax known to man and it used most of his three minutes to do so. A couple of gentlemen went for the ‘back in my day’ angle. So they’ll split the ‘Back in my Day Award’ or the ‘I Walked Five Miles to School in a Driving Snowstorm Uphill, Both Ways Award.’ One, who was probably in his 60s, stated he can recall having 40 kids in his class and he turned out alright. While another gentleman who probably hasn’t reached his 10-year class reunion stated that he graduated from Palmer High School and received a good education and it’s a shame that kids these days in the school district receive, and I quote, a ‘crap education.’ Was he trying to say in a few short years the school district went from good to crap?

At the end of the public comment portion came the “Bravado Award.”

A gentleman in his mid-to-late 50s identified himself as a former special forces soldier. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings but…” went on to tell the school district to quit whining about class size. He used to teach, in the special forces, class sizes of a hundred students and had to teach them in their language.

“Your students if they fail, they’ll be alright,” he said. “My students, if they failed, they died.” I think teaching a class size of a hundred adults versus 40 children is apples and oranges and I would hope that little Johnny would survive if he fails a math test.

We need solutions not accusations

Quite a few of the commentators would only go so far as to look at the assembly and the school district personnel with such disdain and lecture them, then return to their seats, chest out and a big smile on their faces. All the district and assembly were doing was asking the public if whether they would support putting the ordinance on the ballot.

Attacking the school district with accusations of not providing a quality education was over the top and, I believe, not factual. I have engaged in many conversations with students in the Valley and I find them to be intelligent, engaging and very respectful. Education is a sum of parts — part student effort, part parent involvement, part community support and part school system. Do students fall through the cracks? Sure they do. They do everywhere. I for one believe the Mat-Su school district is doing a very good job.

Dr. Goyette will mark her 20th year in the school district in 2018. That’s dedication and passion to the students her district serves. I didn’t support the sales tax and publicly stated so in last week’s column, but I support Goyette, her team, and the district’s board. All I would ask is that when it comes to spending that they take some of the emotion out of the equation.

For example, contracting the janitorial service was an emotional issue but it would have saved a tangible amount of the budget deficit. Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey has been tasked by the assembly to put together a task force of community leaders, business leaders and parents to look into whether there is support for a sales tax to help fund the school district and the economic impact. As Robert Hall stated at the top, let’s go back and get this right before we put it to the voters.

I’ll add to that sentiment: Let’s do it with a certain decorum and respect for people who are working the rears off for the betterment of our community.