The Prologue:

The Way to the Forum

This is the story of the awakening of a civil servant. As with many such stories, it began with minor aggravations and snowballed to the proverbial “last straw.” I frequently qvetched with my friends about this decision and that decision the district had made. It must have been very frequently, because one friend told me that I should run for School Board. But my husband Bill had just been elected in a tight race (it came down to a coin flip, of all things!) to a third term for city alderman and our youngest child was only 4 years old. So, I just kept complaining, trying to spread the cheer among several friends so nobody would tell me to shut up and run for School Board again. The Reader’s Digest version of events that propelled me down the path to candidacy went something like this:

2000:
Referendum passed on the 2nd or 3rd try to build a new high school, retool the old high school as an intermediate school and upgrade the middle school.
5th grade instrumental program is canceled.

2002:
The new high school opens, as well as the new Intermediate School.
Kindergarten round-up and summer school is canceled.
They begin to offer full day kindergarten to increase revenue.
Money is tight, but there is still plenty of money to open up an entire new office at the intermediate school (principal, administrative assistant and receptionist) for the addition of one more grade level (from one administrative office for K-4 to one for K-2 and one for 3-5). The public was blind-sided on that maneuver.
No enriched language arts programs were available at the intermediate school until 2005.

2004: Food service, in a blatant effort to increase their sales, sent out a propaganda campaign aimed at parents who feed their children poor breakfasts like “cereal and fruit.” The same bogus misinformation is used to obtain a $5000 grant to feed each K-5 student 3 free meals. All this frivolous grant seeking was done while the district faced the above financial hardships.

2006: The District Administrator and Elementary Principal try to do an end run around the public and the school board to eliminate the last remaining half-day kindergarten section to increase revenue. This was my last straw. All three of our kids attended this coveted class taught by the greatest teacher, “Mr. Steve.” The “Families for Half-Day 5K” group began as a small grass roots movement and became a force with which to be reckoned. The administration tried to trivialize the issue and admonish the parents in the group as elitists and overindulgent parents. They tried the condescending educator/poor ignorant taxpayer approach. The School Board didn’t buy it and gave the class a year reprieve on a technicality. Through it all, the stirrings of a call to arms awakened in my breast and I vowed to keep a close eye on the school board happenings from that point forward.

A budget crisis followed rapidly on the heels of the kindergarten debate. Throughout the summer, several programs near and dear to many were threatened. First, the Gifted and Talented program was endangered when the long time coordinator retired and administration proposed attrition for her position. AP chemistry was watered down to honors chemistry. Finally, the reason for all the hoopla, the long awaited 4K proposal was presented with much fanfare and information of dubious applicability. The cost to establish the 4K program in Evansville was, depending on which set of numbers you used on which day, coincidentally equivalent to the revenue increase to be realized by converting the last half-day kindergarten section to a full day section. I petitioned the board to be cautious on all counts.

September came and once again the administration was determined to can the last half-day kindergarten section. War had been declared and rhetoric was at a zenith. By now it was obvious that the revenue to be derived from a rapid demise of the last half-day kindergarten section was necessary for the administration to implement 4K, and the board saw it too. Finally, 8 months after the original petition to retain the half-day kindergarten section, the board reached an acceptable compromise with the “Families for Half-Day 5K” group by establishing sensible enrollment figures and dates as guidelines to continue offering this superb educational opportunity in our district. 4K imploded because the administration lost support from the day cares needed to implement the program and they completely circumvented the collaborative plan recommended by the 4K Task Force.

In December of 2006, 2 school board seats were up for grabs. Simultaneously, my husband decided to step down from his city council seat to enable him to spend more time with our son in Scouts. He said: “You went to nearly all the meetings last year anyway. You might as well be on the board. Go for it.” Even with this encouragement, I was torn. Having been a political spouse for 6 years, I harbored no dewy-eyed illusions of the rigors of a public servant’s life. Everyone tells you when they think you are an idiot, the rare individual recognizes and congratulates a job done well and every decision you make will aggravate somebody. Despite this succinct view of public service, I filed my papers and I was the only candidate for the 2 seats until the day the papers were due. Administrators, naturally nervous about the prospect of dealing with this rabble-rouser as a board member, apparently recruited their friends. Five people, two of whom were teacher’s spouses, came out of the woodwork on the due date. My shoo-in election now became a hotly contested primary election. The district sponsored a candidate forum (hence the title of this preface) and I won the primary election. Right before the forum, the administration released a report they had commissioned by PRA, which I liken to the “Chicken Little” report. Due to a huge, unexpected increase in enrollment in 2006-2007, the whole district was convinced we would exceed building capacity the following year. My cautious fiscal approach to our building needs based on DPI financial data and city building permit data figured heavily in the victory. The glut of yard signs didn’t hurt. I took second place in the election and have officially sat on the board for 9 months now.

If I have learned anything in the last 2 years, it was that incomplete data was leading the Board down the garden path and questioning didn’t come naturally to the relatively inexperienced Board. My naturally cranky response to this incomplete information was to do my own research, which resulted in several essays addressed to the School Board and Administrator. My MS in chemistry has served me well in this capacity and I remain, if not cynical, then skeptical and difficult to convince. This has encouraged the administration to provide more complete information, which helps each of us do his or her job more effectively. The original goal in writing each essay was to inform the board on the topic at hand. But along the way, another equally important goal became evident. My (admittedly oppositional) questioning encouraged the inexperienced Board to seek supplemental information to that provided by the administration, with independent resources when possible. Even if each and every essay did not produce a “home run,” in toto, they have helped our young board take the reins to make better-informed, more fiscally sound decisions.

In December of 2007, Dick Woulfe (a.k.a. the Observer) called me to plant the seed of an idea to bring together the essays in a self-published book “The best of Melissa Hammann.” Dick remained steadfast to the idea while I have wrestled with the concept trying to present my essays without their companion visual aids (graphs and spreadsheets-give me data!). We have compiled essays that I wrote in the course of the last 22 months on topics ranging from 4K to gender equity in my efforts to educate board members. The ultimate scientific method, if you will. This small book is the result of that effort.