To the editor:
In last weeks Letter to the editor, Jessie Nowak stated that she was “extremely disappointed” that our school board decided to change the school board elections to even verses odd calendar years without the consent of a popular vote. We did vote. We the people of the Hastings school district voted last year to elect the current folks who are helping make decisions based on their character and other qualities. Qualities that include fiscal discipline, prudence, and other conservative values. This decision to switch from odd years to even years will save the district ten to thirteen thousand dollars each odd year cycle and that’s not including the cost that would be paid to the administrative assistant to process the election related activities, which from what I understand had been upwards of more than 400 work hours each voting cycle. That’s a tremendous amount of cost savings to the district. Going from odd to even voting cycles is not a new thing. Districts across the land have been making this switch for many years. Personally, I think it was a very good use of our resources. Thank you, school board members.
Nowak insinuated that the current school board is playing politics, but from my standpoint that is exactly what many former board members were guilty of. That is why this current group of candidates were voted in. We the majority were fed up with radical agenda politics in our school board. The influx and influence on special interest groups had gotten out of hand and it was time to reign in that style of government and get back to focusing on the basics of teaching our children core curriculum that will have positive results for them as they mature into responsible grownups.
Lastly, I wholeheartedly agree with Nowak when she states that we must all be working to keep our school protected from political agendas. I believe that with the addition of the new board members, they will go a long way in helping to do just that.
Terry Crisp