School board elections have more impact on property owner taxes than most any other election that gets held, and most of us don’t know the names of our school board members and what they stand for.
Yes indeed. We tried to elect 3 new board members by write in a couple of years ago and almost suceeded. It was a last minute effort after we had defeated a huge bond issue that the school board put up for election at an odd time of year, thus infuriating the taxpayers. We defeated the bond issue, but were unsuccesful at changing the board. We came very close, however. It is just about impossible to make the majority pay attention to the importance of these elections.
Furthermore, here the populace votes on the budget every year at a special meeting. It is usually done by voice vote (sometimes a show of hands) by those attending the meeting. Generally there is little publicity.
The votes that I have attended I’ve noticed board members and their minions stall the meeting until they are sure they have a majority. You see teachers and staff members scurrying around behinds the scenes and counting heads — then going outside and hitting the phones.
At the meetings I have attended (and it’s like pulling teeth to get anyone to come) they don’t even ask for ID to vote. I have no idea whether the people voting even live in the district. Nobody checks.