Last week Channel 14 WFIE†treated†its viewers to a “Taking a Stand†segment featuring EVSC Superintendent of Schools, Dr. David Smith in that segment.  Superintendent Smith performed quite an unusual “trick†of twisting and spinning while standing stone-still. He delivered news that half of all EVSC schools now receive grades of A or B, although his alleged good news is not yet approved by the State Board of Education to be released publicly. That leads us to wonder why he didn’t wait until the grades are made official by the State. It appears to the City-County Observer that the premature announcement is just one more piece of Dr. Smiths “feel good fluff†he gives to the mainstream media to pass out to the public,  just in time to try to influence the election of four members of the EVSC Board of Trustees.
It is important to note that all of the recent media praise for the “improvements†in our schools carefully tiptoes around the fact that we have schools that are failing consistently, and the School Board is where the responsibility for that lies. Recently, we read of a curiously timed visit by a group dedicated to studying ways to successfully turn failing schools around. The group offered the public a lot of superficial reassurances after only a one day visit. A committee member from Gary, Indiana was quoted as saying “There is nothing about this school that supports it being an ‘F’ school,†in reference to Glenwood. We beg to differ with that assessment, but we believe the school’s history of consistent “F†grades is more indicative of the achievements there than his impression formed on this one day visit.
The City-County Observer stands firmly by its belief that one failing school is one more than should be accepted by the taxpayers of Vanderburgh County. We cannot and must not fail the young people of Evansville-Vanderburgh County if we expect this community to prosper in the future.
We believe that the feel-good propaganda crafted by Dr. Smiths well paid Communication Director is aimed at calming public discontent with the current direction of our public schools. We view this media blitz on behalf of the status quo in our public schools as a blatant attempt to continue the stagnant attitudes of our present school board. Dr. Smith has everything to gain by helping to retain the “rubber stamp†board that seems so willing to hand over their responsibilities that they hold to the taxpayers and students to their highest paid employee and his cadre of extremely well-paid administrators. It is clear that politics have invaded the part of the public sector that was to be kept out of back room political patronage, nepotism and political power games, and we are sorely disappointed that the current school board has allowed this to happen.
We are again emphasizing the importance of every CCO reader’s vote in the upcoming November 4, 2014 General election and urge you to vote for a basic change in the current make-up of the EVSC School Board. We do not believe the public interest is served by the continued lack of innovative leadership provided by the current school board who seem to be content with approving whatever the Superintendent asks for and avoiding transparency in their transactions. We ask that you give careful consideration to adding new board members who bring a more community-centered point of view to the direction of our schools.
In closing, Â its time that the EVSC Superintendent of Schools focus on improving our failing schools and stop playing back room political public relations games. Â We also hope that that our newly elected school board plots a new direction for our school system by setting achievable policies and goals for the Superintendent to follow. Â Our students and teachers should expect nothing less!
