Persons who watch TUSD board meetings know that they often break down into board members throwing tomatoes (metaphorically) at other board members. This has escalated during the current campaign. Some of the outsiders running for seats have responded in kind, throwing tomatoes at the board for throwing tomatoes at each other. It is easy and fun. It has become quite a tomato fest.
The way you get out of the tomato festival, as I have said for years, is to stop talking about board members and instead talk about policies and schools. Instead of ceaselessly talking about the board, talk about the issues it faces and the decisions that it makes. If everyone followed that rule, then most of the toxicity would go away by itself. Talking about issues is, of course, harder than throwing tomatoes.
Board members come and go, and in the end they do not matter. Most parents and many teachers do not know or care who is on the board. What matters is what the board does, and how this makes the schools stronger or weaker.
Some discussion of personalities is inevitable during campaigns, because personalities and not policies are what appear on the ballot. But that discussion should be focused on what policies the candidates will adopt, how they will choose and evaluate superintendents, what priorities they will follow in setting TUSD’s budget, etc.
One reason that I like Betts Putnam-Hidalgo as a candidate, though we do not agree on all the issues, is that she focuses on issues. If everyone followed this model, then TUSD leadership discussions would be more substantive and lose much of their pointless pettiness.
When board members or candidates go beyond differences of opinion and actively deceive the public, or behave truly egregiously, then those specific incidents can be legitimate issues. Some such incidents may have occurred lately, but that is a separate discussion.
The point here is that throwing tomatoes is not a good way to end the culture of throwing tomatoes. It just adds more people throwing tomatoes.
Months ago I circulated a 100-day plan, which was an attempt to direct the campaign toward issues. It is a short but serious document (at stegeman4tusd.com). I am happy to receive comments on it and hope that voters will compare it to other candidates’ proposals.
