By Bill Connell.

I was on vacation when the Board of Education goals came out. I opened my laptop, rolled my eyes and closed the laptop. I usually toss off an opinion over a cup of coffee for Speak Out, but this is too important to just riff so I have been thinking about it since then.

I don’t think this school board understands it role at this moment in time. 

The first thing that caught my attention was the use of white supremacy in the middle of an inclusivity and tolerance statement. I get the spirit of the remark, but this is not the mountains of Virginia.  This is Franklin.  Nobody does it better. Just by being who we are is a model. No it’s not perfect and never will be.  Working toward my real point, the “goal” has an “Irish need not apply” vibe.

I look at pictures from the charter schools and wonder … Is it more about race or values?

In the schools’ defense, dealing with undeveloped brains along with the race and culture issues can be quite tricky.  I just wonder if the way that sentence is written sends the wrong message to white administrators trying to manage behavior. 

Goal 5 sort of felt like it was written with AI. It’ s all about making the staff they have better through training.  Doing more with less. They threw in growth opportunities to keep the enthusiasm high.  

Many years ago, I was an arrogant, headfirst maniac working for a fast-growing company.  I reached a point where I was breaking and couldn’t keep up.  I told my boss I need help. He bought me a laptop so I could work during my train commute. I was OK with this, though I shouldn’t have been. Goal 5 had that vibe. 

The point the Board is missing is teacher morale is horrible. (not unique to FT-statewide). Hiring and retaining teachers is a challenge and the Board makes no mention of it.  In their goals they should be encouraging the Superintendent and giving him the tools to do that.   Principals having a job fair in July is like an NFL draft the first week of September.  

Assuming that across-the-board raises are not an option, you need to stop the Covid-era coddling. You need to stop making excuses for children who are just taking advantage of adults’ aversion to conflict in the name of kindness. The Covid logic is undermining teachers. Not to mention it’s now become normal for parents to join in. Teachers, don’t get to excited by my words; you’re equally responsible for the culture of the school, regardless of your opinions. (teachers have a lot of opinions).

The moral- and Covid-coddling are not unique to Franklin.  I was just bothered that School Board goals (instructions for the Superintendent), made no mention of the most important goal: To help the district move forward.

This is a brutal way to close out, but do you realize Christa McAuliffe was put in the position she was in by paper pushers focusing on the wrong thing?