Regarding the Oct. 18 school board meeting and the concerns about the conduct and results of that meeting: First, we thank the school board for doing the right thing and voting "no" to a seriously flawed proposal for school consolidations/closure. We believe the School Board would have rejected the superintendent's proposal because it was advanced without taking the time to clearly understand the very complex and difficult transitions required, without enough consideration of the implications of the recommendations, and without enough time or dialogue with the affected communities. It was an ambitious timeline that could not work effectively without serious impact on student achievement and academic excellence.

We want to be clear that parents of Phase 2-affected schools did not take part in the more extreme displays of public protest that evening. Furthermore, we believe the board did not "back down" and vote capriciously because of the extreme actions of a few, but on the contrary, showed great leadership by not wasting the time and energy of all parties involved with two more weeks of public testimony when it knew that there were not enough votes to pass this round of recommendations. If you listen carefully to board members' comments that evening, many of those that voted to table the proposal made specific reference to the quality and appropriateness of the proposal itself as the rationale for their vote.

We agree that it is not acceptable to stoop to personal attacks, public humiliation, name calling, and racial epitaphs - ever. We collectively must set up a system to deal with these complex issues where the boundaries and expectations are clear and people can be respectfully heard (all sides). It is important that people express the deep concern and sense of disrespect or injustice that they may be experiencing; we believe people should speak out passionately, and even angrily at times, for what they believe. This doesn't mean that we have to agree, disagreement is not a bad thing, but we have to have the decency to listen to one another for understanding. This sounds like something called dialogue - something that the current public hearing format cannot provide.

In addition, we lament that instead of spending press time on thoughtful analysis of the Phase 2 recommendations or board actions, the press has continually used the more extreme displays of a few individuals, in no way related to the communities involved in Phase 2, to characterize the overall process. By doing so you disregard and minimize the countless hours of research, deliberation, constructive and creative thinking and articulate public testimony the communities have engaged in throughout this process. It is insulting and portrays an inaccurate picture to the greater public. Please do some in-depth research and reporting so that your readership gets an accurate view of how this process has unfolded since the spring of this year.

We will all need some time and distance from this before we can repair/heal the damage and move forward productively. We believe all of the different stakeholders are already working on ways to improve analysis and decision-making and to enhance communication to tackle these very complex, tough, and necessary actions. Our children are watching.

Pathfinder K-8 Facility Advocacy Committee