Cityside: Wonders, worries, and the Board of Education

As I mentioned last week, we've arrived at that season where the only space on your front lawn not covered by autumn leaves probably has a sign urging others to vote for a specific candidate for City Council, Mayor, or member of the Board of Education.

And while we’re all waiting for some form of debates between and among the candidates for Mayor as well as among those running for City Council, let me advocate and agitate for letting those who are Board of Education candidates be heard. Frankly, when was the last time we heard a debate among those folks?

I endorse the notion that there's no such thing as a Republican or a Democratic Party method to educate third graders, but in recent years the City Council has made decisions on policemen versus firemen versus building inspectors versus infrastructure repairs versus long-delayed pension contributions, etc., because of reduced tax revenues and an ongoing rise in municipal expenses, in which the operating budget for the Board of Education is well north of 50% of the entire city’s.

We fixate on this twice every year: during budget deliberations and when we receive our tax bills. The rest of the time we seem to think paying for municipal goods and services is someone else’s problem when we are, in fact, the someone else with that problem.

I'd like to hear what those whom we choose as members of the Board of Education think our priorities should be, and learn a bit more about what, if any, ideas for economies and/or enhancements (and how to pay for them) they wish to share.

Be warned: I’m looking for a candidate who pledges to organize children for weekend redeemable-can-and-bottle drives to pay for field trips and administrator salary increases. Obviously, I was trying to be humorous, though you may have only gotten the trying part.

Meanwhile, with a little more than a month until Election Day, there's not a debate by anyone, anywhere on the horizon in Norwich when there should be at least one once a week, anywhere, because we have the blessings of (informed) choice and need to know as much as we can about those who have offered their time and talents in our service.

In recent days I’ve had people tell me to support various people because "they love Norwich, and they mean well." I had already assumed the former; as for the latter, I’m tired of people who mean well and would like some who are willing to do well, for all of us. Just as a change of pace. 

Here's my point (thanks for reading this far hoping I might have one): Lawn signs/letters to newspaper editors supporting candidates are well and good but we need to pay closer attention to all those "for sale" signs, which signal that more and more of us have decided there’s no more happy endings, or beginnings, left around here.

Each one of those signs is a surrender that does just a little more damage to the fabric of our neighborhoods, and I wonder and worry that we may never know from any of this year’s crop of candidates how they intend to stop the rush to the exits even as the moving vans circle the block.

Bill Kenny, of Norwich, writes a weekly column about Norwich issues. His blog, Tilting at Windmills, can be accessed at NorwichBulletin.com.