Letter: Councilman Discusses Ferndale School Board Endorsements

Ferndale Patch welcomes letters to the editor.

The following was submitted by Ferndale City Council member T. Scott Galloway in response to a previous letter to the editor on school board endorsements.

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The reason I support the BOLD candidates for the Ferndale School Board is simple. When I first ran for Ferndale City Council eleven years ago the top  concern of residents was our schools.  After almost three terms on Council the top concern of Ferndale residents remains our schools.

During this time most of the individuals elected to Ferndale’s School Board were endorsed by CBE, the same political action committee that supports BOLD’s  opponents in this election.

A decade is more than enough time to effect transformative change within an organization yet I hear the same complaints about Ferndale Schools in 2012  that I heard in 2001: unsatisfactory test scores, the perception of poor academics, and a School Board that demonstrates both a bunker mentality toward residents of the District and a “go along to get along” relationship with the Administration that rarely results in a critical analys is of the Superintendent’s policy initiatives.

If the School Board has been unable to transform the school district during the last decade, then I have no confidence that we will experience dramatic change in our district by electing yet another slate of CBE endorsed candidates.

Ferndale needs a school district that the whole community is proud of, a school district that draws people to our city rather than driving them away and a school board that unites rather than divides our residents.  Ferndale wants more than mere financial stability from our school district.  Ferndale expects more from our schools and we deserve more.

The BOLD candidates may not immediately have all the answers to the District’s challenges, but I am absolutely certain that if elected they will ask the tough questions that have been avoided for far too long.  I am not alone in my support of BOLD.  Elected officials and more than 250 individuals from all four communities within the District have publically endorsed Amy Butters, Jim O’Donnell, Raylon Leaks-May and Kevin Deegan-Krause.  Rather than a conspiracy or an attempted coup d’ etat from City Hall, perhaps the endorsement of so many elected officials is simply a recognition that it is time for a change on the Ferndale School Board.

T. Scott Galloway
Councilman
City of Ferndale