Public schools are the one agency of government depending heavily on volunteer participation. People have the opportunity to learn the details of school operation but the knowledge usually comes with the price of participation. There are a good many false impressions abroad that can influence opinion harmful to the kids. Examples abound. One is that the position of “business manager” is recent. This position is pretty well mandated by State Superintendent and all school districts in the state have had them for many years. The position is a paid one but time demands are about double that compensated.

In addition to the time put in by the business manager, the last several years has seen hundreds of hours of volunteer effort assisting the board to restructure budgeting for both greater transparency and for greater use by the board and staff. Much of this has been by board members and a large portion has been by volunteers.

The district faced an apparent decline in enrollment a year ago that might have reduced both staff and program unfairly. The board and the local educator’s union elected to try some innovative contracting, start the year with the full education program and “sell the program to the public” to increase enrollment. The effort worked and enrollment went up during the year. With many school districts collapsing around the state, the Orcas Island school District teachers, parents, students and administrators have proved to state educators that competition principles of a free market can be employed within government agencies!

I’m not fond of increasing my taxes in general. I’m particularly offended by my so-called representatives tripling my share of indebtedness statewide and nationally while providing little service in return. However, the local taxes for education give me the most “bang for the buck” of any taxes I pay! The facility needs upgrading badly and we have the opportunity to do it with dollars having much more purchasing power now than will be the case a decade from now! Go to the trouble of getting accurate information then please vote for the upgraded facility.

Sam Windsor

Eastsound