Hit 'em where it hurts!

This last year I've experienced a sudden rush of people from high school and college finding and friending me on facebook. It's been fun catching up with people... we've all been posting photos from 15+ years ago. A bunch of my college friends got married and settled down in the same area where we went to school. Apparently some of them now have kids in the school distict that I used to work for. I know this because one of them is leading a very public charge against the district administration and the city council.

As far as I can tell, it all evolves around a controversy regarding the naming of a new high school. Residents want to name it after the town that the school will be built in. The school board and city council decided to name it after a retired board member, despite the fact that the community voted almost 4-1 against. That doesn't surprise me in the least. Back Woods Unified School District always was something of a good ol' boys club... The man in question was on the board since well before I worked for them. Heck, the principal who hired me is now the superintendent.

Anyway, the community is pissed that the admin isn't listening to them... so some of them are trying to encourage people to withhold their kids (of all grade levels) from the state standardized tests. They're distributing a form by any means necessary to as many people as possible.

.... wow....

Now, I can't imagine myself getting hot and bothered over the name of a school. It's also a little frightening to think that people everywhere may catch on that this one simple strategy could be the end-all means of forcing the will of the people onto school administrations... for better or worse.

Then again, I'm not living in the community that I grew up in, and have little or no emotional connection with my zip code. Furthermore, it does seem irresponsible for the school and city administration to blatantly ingore the requests of the people who put them in office, especially over an issue that probably should be left to the consensus. Finally, even if this does become a commonly used weapon of people vs. school administration... it seems it's only a natural consequence of a system that places so much value on test scores to begin with.

Being that it's not a matter involving curriculum, discipline or school policy... Im-a gonna have to go with the people. Besides, I've seen BWUSD try to throw its weight around before. This time they felt just a little too omnipotent.