The Lee County School System sends out an average of about 27 or so text or push alerts per week with reminders about things like broken down school buses, Title 1 parent surveys, Safety Seminars, Fundraising, etc… However, not one reminder about upcoming school board meetings. Think about that. They want you to know about every little detail, especially when it’s tied to them getting money – almost everything except school board meetings. This may never change but, unless you want children raised with twisted government values, all of us need to get involved.
Parents relentlessly get reminders of upcoming Principal’s Week, Teacher’s week, PSAT, More Fundraising, suckers for 70’s (AKA Pops for Passers), Flu Shots, Title Parent’$ Night, etc… Even will all this one-way communication, nothing goes out about school board meetings, even when the public are supposedly “invited” for input on things like raising property tax millage rates. Why? Because they don’t really want you there. If they wanted you there, they would remind you, just like they remind you for every other little thing.
The school system has its own, dedicated PR professional hired to carefully craft the image of the school system, keep the public meticulously informed, and groom taxpayers. However, the only posts about school board meetings happen after the meeting is over. After, all your decisions have already been made for you. After, you can no longer affect any influence on a vote.
Make your voice heard. Make your vote for school board count. Call your school board representative. Email them. Their information is here. Go to board meetings. The schedule is here (even though special meetings are added). Sign up to speak at meetings. The form for that is here. Don’t accept having your concerns passively demoted to the superintendent or the school principals. By no fault of their own, the board members have been trained to not “micro-manage” but to defer to the principals or the superintendent.
The worst kind of censoring is self censoring.
We did not elect the superintendent or the principals. All the superintendent candidates were chosen by a national group. We did, however, elect our board members. Hold them accountable. The worst kind of censoring is self censoring. Do not censor yourself out of fear for your child’s personal educational and extracurricular experience. In doing so, you are sacrificing everyone’s educational and extracurricular experiences. Speak up. Public schools are funded by and exist because of we the people.