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Lemons or Lemonade?
By Bob Rhoades

Last week I attended the Greenville City School board meeting with an idea on how a committee could present the idea of a new school to the general public and how to fund it.  It was received very well and I was later advised that we would probably move in that direction.

I didn’t realize that later on the fiasco over the non-renewal of the contracts of two coaches was going to put the community in an upheaval larger than anything I’ve ever seen.  Letters to the editors, chat boxes, shout boxes and just people talking on the street has continued now for over a week.  Did someone hit a nerve?  It would seem so.

The one thing that has really gotten to me is people saying things like, “after that, I’m never voting for anything again for the Greenville City Schools”.  Indeed!  The wise or unwise decision of the board of education has very little to do with the real problem.  WE NEED A NEW SCHOOL BUILDING!  It is untimely, at the very least, that this all happened when it did.  I felt very good about the chances of getting a funding mechanism in place and construction finally starting on the project.  The work load of the facilities committee just doubled.  Not only now do we have to explain why we need a new school, we also have to explain why people should vote for it in spite of the board of education we have, not because of the great job they are doing.

If people in high places use their office as a bully pulpit, then shame on them.  If they voted without all of the information, that’s too bad, did you learn a lesson?  If the personnel weren’t rehired because of misfeasance, nonfeasance, or malfeasance, so be it.  If for any of the five, it was a personal vendetta, then man up, say it was and let’s move on.  As in any case with a public officer, elected by the people there are a number of recourses that can be taken.  First, make sure at the polls that they never get elected to any office again.  You have to wait a while, but it’s the cheapest for the general public.  Second, go to the board of elections, get a recall petition, get the number of signatures you need to get it certified and on the ballot, and yank them right out of their chair on that board, the day after election.

The largest thing that anyone can do is become informed on the issues.  Don’t say that we aren’t going to vote for school issues because of an ill-advised decision someone made, that won’t fix a thing.  Had they done that in 1911, there would be no South School.

The uninformed statements, (I wanted to say stupid statements but it’s not politically correct), that people have made are incredible. 

“Greenville is just jealous because everyone else got a new school and they didn’t” was the one that got me.  Have you been in the buildings that you send your kids to every day?  If not voting for something is how you feel, please get all the facts first.  Take a piece of paper and put two columns on it and head one with “for a new school reasons” and the other “against a new school reasons”.  Fill both columns as best you can and see what you come up with.  If there are questions you can’t answer, go find out before you make the decision.

It was said that the coaches in question can re-apply for their jobs and they would want to for what reason?

We’ll start over and hope nothing else happens.  We have an overabundance of lemons at this point, let’s hope we can make some incredible lemonade!


 
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