At the graduation ceremonies signaling the beginning of a new era for 22 Orcas High School graduates, it was difficult to leave, not only because of the celebration and happiness, but also because the time when we could look out for them, guide them and watch over them is ending.

Now they will go out to the world on their own, and grow into the people to whom, in the words of Board President Janet Brownell, “we entrust our future.”

The bittersweet ritual of High School Commencement brings the community together to celebrate the first public milestone of our children, when, again in the words of Brownell, “we collectively push our chicks from the nest.”

These kids made the community feel special as with pride, affection, good humor and high jinks, they celebrated each other and all of us.

It was a celebration of heart and soul as Salutatorian Anthony Ghazel made sure that Tate Wester and Roy Miller, who are joining AmeriCorps, were acknowledged. Student Body President Cara Peacock gave the gift of music back to her parents and grandparents and the community that has supported her personal and philanthropic efforts to develop that talent.

Valedictorian Melissa Moran-Hodge wished her class well in the words of her favorite poem by Horace, “Happy the man, and he alone, he who can call today his own.”

Superintendent Glenn Harris sent the kids off with a story about the interdependence of the wolf and the caribou: The caribou feeds the wolf and the wolf keeps the caribou strong. “There are those people who protect you and those people who teach you to protect yourselves.”

Harris saluted the class’ vulnerability and independence, and said, “In living is healing.”

Wordsworth wrote, “The child is father to the man,” and from our kids we can now learn to live, to work, and to fly.

The public still speaks

It takes a certain kind of temperament to serve on a public board. Aside from mental competence, the job requires a rock-solid understanding that you are there to represent the public in serving a tax-supported institution demands patience and diplomacy and above all, respect for the people who elected you and entrusted you to serve their interests.

At the Fire Commissioners’ meeting last week, Jim Coffin displayed his impatience with the process of listening to and regarding public comment.

After asking for public input this year through two press releases in January and March, and receiving petitions signed by some 500 people expressing concern over financial management of the district’s budget, after, issuing a letter with the other Commissioners stating the public’s concerns had been heard, and after publishing a Report to the Community, maybe Commissioner Coffin felt he’d heard enough, explained enough.

But the Commission has promised to move forward and answer some of the concerns expressed by the public. They’ve asked for public scrutiny and public involvement, but it appears that Coffin expected the response to be almost entirely laudatory. His impatience with repeated doubts about fire department expenditures is counter-productive, to say the least.

The clarification that the public requested about the budget at the last meeting was entirely legitimate; the Public Education Officer’s salary as published in the District’s 2008 budget was questioned by the Sounder a few months ago and was explained with a simple sentence by Chief Harris.

It is the Commissioners’ responsibility to consider questions at a public meeting, and to attempt to respond as quickly as possible. If they don’t allow a reasonable amount of time for the public to be heard, their work will be interrupted with further questions, dismay and outrage.

Being a small community, many of us have served on boards of varying competence. We have seen bad tempers and intimidation and ineffectiveness before; we have also seen respect, patience, compromise and resolution. We have seen cooler heads prevail when the difficult work of communication seems to break down. That too was lacking among the Commissioners last week.

It takes a real desire to serve this concerned, impassioned, and yes, often argumentative community to work effectively as a public board member. It takes practice and after-hours study to run a meeting effectively, to formulate and adhere to policy and to deal with issues as they come up. Now the burden is upon the commissioners to set and abide by policy to engage public comment.

Carnegie-Mellon professor and best-selling author (“The Last Lecture”) Randy Pausch said one of the most important lessons he learned in fulfilling his life’s dreams was that “Your critics are the ones telling you they still care. When you’re screwing up and nobody’s telling you anymore, that means they gave up and you’re in a really bad place.”