The drawn out electoral contest for the final two seats on the school board appears to be finally over. The voters have spoken. Brian Meskin and Cindy Vaillancourt are the apparent winners along with returning members Frank Acquino and Sandra French.
Cindy and Brian did not get my vote. I actually campaigned against them. I now hope I was wrong about them.
Time will tell of course. We’ll soon see whether Allen Dyer has found a true ally in Cindy and whether Brian is more concerned with his next political race than with the mundane business of being a good board member. Both have given me cause for concern.
According to this story by Sara Toth in The Columbia Flier, Cindy Vaillancourt wants to give the student member of the board more voting rights, “including those dealing with financial matters.”
The student member is a high school student. The school system budget is almost $800 million, 56.26% of the county budget. Giving the student member a vote in budget matters seems a bit reckless, seeing as they aren’t even elected by the voters.
Brian is little harder to pin down. He seems to frame all of his comments with an eye towards running for county council in 2014. One of his stated goals is to “make our schools the best in the world.”
Nothing like saying you want to build on success. Who could argue against that?
Okay, maybe Allen Dyer but he will argue against anything.
As a parent of kid in the school system I hope both Brian and Cindy will prove me wrong and turn out to be good school board members whose primary focus is delivering the best possible product for our students.
In the meantime, I’ll be watching.
