... but reading between the lines does not guarantee an accurate picture, because it is, by its very nature, based on assumptions.

I agree with you about most of our School Board members, and CERTAINLY with regard to Earl Nall and Tyler Overstreet.

I agree with you about the quality of knowledge, skills, and ideas most of the current BOE have.

I agree with you that they - and other excellent BOE members - have opposition because of their support of Toni McGriff.

I agree with you that McGriff has done some really good things with the schools and that, yes, some of those things do tend to piss off the groups of people that would rather see things left alone, even if they should change. I don't think a rational observer could claim that there have not been significant positive changes in the county school system.

And I will agree with you that some of the improvements to the system have led to some of the discontent with McGriff.

The operative words in that last sentence are both instances where I used the word "some."

But a significant share of the responsibility for the opposition to current BOE members is reflected off the mirror of many folks' feelings about McGriff. Not EVERYTHING she has done has been the wisest. Not EVERYTHING she has said has been liquid gold dripping out of her mouth. She carries a range of reactions to the public and school situations that ranges from cold refusal to discuss to outright rude and boorish behavior. She is her own - and the BOE that supports her - worst enemy. It's not just the "good ole boys" whose hold on the system she is rightfully trying to break that have been treated poorly by her. She has treated parents with disdain, county officials trying their best to work with her, the County Executive (although he does, I firmly believe, respect her and her intent for the school system), and members of the County Commission. She put in a Principal at a high school that made convoluted mess of some supposedly system-wide rules. Response to that Principal has been such that many people want that Principal gone yesterday.

Even with things that she is trying to do that are appropriate and positive, she projects such a negative attitude and disdain for anybody that offers comment that she causes bitterness and problems where none should have been. She has the public relations abilities of a pit viper, and does not hesitate to use them.

I can sense that I'm about to be smacked about for engaging in a personal rant, a battle of personalities. That's not it. I support by far the most of what she's done, and if she continues doing as well, I'd probably support a new contract for her (of course she's already got that). What I'm trying to say is that not everything folks feel negatively about McGriff is because they're part of the "good ole boy" network. I personally have interacted with her on several occasions, and she has never mistreated me personally, at least to my face. So I'm not saying what I'm saying to satisfy some need I have to do anything to "get even" with some thing she's done or said to me.

I have, on numerous occasions, tried to defend her. One instance is with the time earlier this year a teacher at Cherokee Middle School was at school very early in the morning in an impaired state and had to be taken home. People wanted to demand the name of the teacher (although many knew) and wanted her just thrown out the door. That would have been wrong on several levels, not the least of which is the requirement for due process. McGriff was right not to fire the teacher and not to release the name to the news. She did the right thing by preserving that employee's opportunity for due process. I said as much to a number of people.

However, there are too many people that can recount episodes where they have talked to - or attempted to talk to - McGriff, and have been treated in a way none of us wants to be treated by anybody.

So there's more sources of opposition to those who support McGriff than the "good ole boys." A lot more. I'm not like them in that I don't think she should be run out of town on a rail. But I DO think that the only entity that has any legal control over her - the BOE - needs to exercise some instructions on public behavior, the way she will and will not deal with the public. I think, to be most effective, she needs a PIO - a Public Information Officer. She needs someone who is the contact point for news media and much of the public to handle release of information from her office. If she cannot control her behavior, but still remains an effective administrator, then her interaction with the public should either be limited or what is acceptable behavior should be controlled by her employer - the BOE.

But absent that, the BOE that many people perceive as blindly supporting her to the extent that "her poo don't stink" is going to be the recipient of the wrath of the electorate, since they can't directly elect (or un-elect) the DOS. They CAN refuse to elect the BOE that allows her to run unbridled.

Me personally? If I could, I'd vote for Earl and Tyler and Danny in a heartbeat, in spite of the anger that many feel toward them. But if they came to my door, I'd be clear that I expected that the BOE should concoct some sort of reasonable behavioral standards and hold her to them. As a matter of fact, that's what I will do if any BOE candidate comes to my door. A refusal to even talk about her lack of perfection is a sad blindness.

I know you don't like the priorities the County COmmission placed on spending, WC. Good. Fine. But that's your opinion, you're welcome to it, and you're clearly nobody's fool. However, I think you're off base and way oversimplifying what your mind is capable of if you just shrug it off and say that all problems the school system has are the fault of County Commission and can be cured by more money from them. The County Commission has not generated the backlash against the attitude McGriff at least SEEMS to have - that has been widespread and comes from many corners, including many parents and their kids. And it is THAT backlash that has people wanting to defeat some of the current BOE members.

Sad part of it is that the BOE has the capability - as her employer and her ONLY boss/supervisor - to exercise some control over its own destiny in this regard. And they have not done so.

McGriff is not evil. She is smart, and a talented and gifted education administrator. But she is her own worst enemy, and produces enemies for those who support her uncritically.

RB