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CUBS To Meet On School Concerns
Citizens United for Better Schools (CUBS) will meet on Tues., Apr. 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Onondaga Cave State Park welcome center conference room. CUBS is a group of citizens of the Bourbon School District committed to excellence in all aspects of our schools and their operations.
Tuesday’s meeting will cover several important issues that our school district is currently facing. Our goal is to help ensure patrons of Bourbon schools have a voice in addressing these concerns as we attempt to work together with our school system to help it be the best it can be.
The first issue we’ll address is the hiring of the new district superintendent. The Bourbon school board recently hired the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA) as a consultant group to help identify, screen, and hire a new district superintendent.
MSBA strongly encourages public participation throughout the hiring process, yet a majority on the Bourbon school board has elected not to open up the process for district patron input. In fact, the very first meeting of the school board on determining the hiring process purposefully excluded the public.
This public exclusion was done under the leadership of its president, Jerry Nowack. Mr. Nowack at first tried to conduct the meeting as a closed session. After the MSBA consultant informed him that the meeting should be open to the public, Mr. Nowack merely changed the nature of the meeting from the announced closed session to an unannounced open public session without giving the public adequate 24-hour notice as required by law.
This apparent improper meeting and its attempt to exclude the public from the superintendent hiring process was supported by both school board members currently running for another term on the board, Jerry Nowack and Judy Studdard. A subsequent attempt at the Mar. 20 school board meeting to have the public briefed on the process was also blocked by the same two candidates.
The second issue is improving public participation in all aspects of district operations where public input is encouraged by the Federal government, the Missouri legislature, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and the MSBA. These organizations all strongly recommend school districts take active steps in providing a forum for meaningful public input, adequate communication with patrons, and public representation in school operations.
Schools that adopt these recommendations have achieved tremendous success in their overall school performance, public satisfaction levels, and student achievement. However, our school board under the present majority voting block has actively prevented meaningful Bourbon school patron participation.
Again, this effort to prevent or marginalize public participation has been an ongoing policy with a majority of board members, and was demonstrated at the Mar. 20th school board meeting when Jerry Nowack, Judy Studdard, Carol Hofstetter and Shannon Radford voted not to allow discussions or voting on public and student collaboration.
CUBS would like to invite anyone in the Bourbon School District wishing to help with these and other issues to attend Tuesday’s meeting. Schools and communities that work together are the ones that succeed in becoming great-great schools and great communities.
Bourbon can make that transition, but it depends on you. Please plan to be there on Apr. 1st. Together we can make a difference for our kids and our communities. If youhave any questions or need information, please call Nicky Phillips at 245-9407.
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