About eight years ago I joined the Norwich School Board, mostly due to my wife’s prodding. We had moved from New Jersey and I was working at home. I think she was worried that I wouldn’t get out and make new friends.
I began with an appointed position, filling a vacancy. There was plenty I didn’t know. I didn’t know that joining the Norwich School Board meant that I was also joining both the Dresden and SAU 70 school boards. I wasn’t familiar with Vermont Open Meeting Law. I didn’t know how school budgets were determined and set. I didn’t know how a board set policy. I didn’t have experience negotiating a labor agreement. I didn’t know how the education property tax rate was calculated (it took me eight years to really understand it). But above all, I didn’t know that I would work with and befriend so many wonderful, dedicated and caring school board members.
As elected officials, school board members are volunteers. Yes, many of us get paid, but rarely enough to cover the cost of child care while attending meetings. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve known that a board member was missing a child’s soccer game or concert performance or a spouse’s birthday dinner because of a meeting. I’ve attended meetings knowing that many there had taken a vacation day from work in order to attend. I’ve participated in weekend training sessions knowing that my colleagues were giving up time with friends and family in order to become better school board members. Through all of these interactions I have had the opportunity to meet and make friends with school board members from across Vermont, New Hampshire and the country. They are an amazing group of people.
Last week, the Vermont Legislature established January as School Board Recognition Month to acknowledge the tireless contributions of boards and board members. I’d also like to extend my thanks for all that they do for our public schools, our children and our communities. Your service is important and greatly appreciated.
Neil Odell
Norwich
I would hope someone is consolidating and reporting on the cost taxpayers are experiencing related to the actions of President Donald Trump for (in no order of importance):
Shutting down our federal government.
Lawyers (25 or more to date) to defend himself against the Mueller investigation.
The deficit increase and social impact caused by providing the top 1 percent with exorbitant tax breaks.
The future cost to taxpayers of trying to re-establish democracy in our country as Trump has rolled back climate change concerns, ignored infrastructure, damaged our national parks, interfered with individual health care coverage, dismantled government institutions, reduced our protection from environmental disasters, etc.
Destroying our relationship with several allies and destroying our world image.
The special investigation, which many are convinced will show the true corrupt nature of this administration as a whole.
The ongoing legal challenges to our rule of law.
Indecision on world matters that could likely draw us into conflicts on various fronts.
The expense of replacing one administrator after another as we replace one corrupt employee after another.
The expense and injury to our people of handing over our government agencies to officials with no relevant education or experience.
The expense of subsidizing the president’s personal business enterprises by allowing him to abuse the established emoluments policy.
The list goes on and on.
What is the real cost as we watch Russian President Vladimir Putin “high five” Saudi Arabia and cozy up to China while our president and other nefarious and relatively new world leaders serve as “dispensable pawns” in the larger attempt to change the world order? In my opinion, the worldwide refugee chaos, which started with the mass exodus of Syrians driven from their homeland to various parts of the world, disrupting government after government, is no coincidence and only the beginning of the larger planned effort to destabilize governments, pushing them to the far right and autocratic rule.
Sylvia J. Heath
Hartland Four Corners
Traitors betray the trust of those who have faith in them or believe their promises. President Donald Trump has failed miserably to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution” (perhaps by giving secret information about Israel to Russia and giving American secrets to the Russians). He has failed miserably because the Republicans are the very worst danger that our country has ever had to face. This makes me so angry because if a Democrat had done one of the hundreds of things that the Republicans in Washington do daily, the Republicans would go ballistic.
The sole purpose of the Republican Party is to keep the rich, rich. It is like comparing Fox to CNN. If you only watch Fox, then you are completely ignorant of what is happening in our country. What organization would want 80 percent of its members to be totally ignorant? The rich Republicans who tried to take over our country, that’s who. The Democrats are working diligently for all of our citizens, even the ones who do not deserve it.
Recently I woke up and French was on my mind. What? Then it came to me: Mr. French was my seventh-grade social studies teacher. He drilled into us often that to be a good citizen you have to know what is happening in your country. At least every month he asked us to talk about that at the dinner table.
It is not just Trump and his Congress who are traitors. Where are the Republicans in our communities? Those who support them are just as responsible as they are. Have you contacted your congressional representatives? Have you told them to stop being traitors? There are many Republicans in high places who will never belong to the Republican Party again — good Republicans. It is hard to believe that such a large part of our country has been so poisoned.
Jim Daigle
Plainfield