What is Partisan and Nonpartisan?
Think of it this way:
Partisan: I will do what my party wants.
Nonpartisan: I will do what is the right thing, regardless of party.
Bipartisan: I will get together with the other party to agree what to do.
Politics and Party Loyalty is not supposed to get involved in the selection of School Board Members. School Board Elections are supposed to be Nonpartisan.
The last time there was any indication, in Englewood, at election time, that School Board Elections are non- partisan was April 16, 2013. Those elected are pictured in the photo to the right. From left to right, Devry Pazant, Carol Feinstein, Jeff Carter.
I was told by my 4th Ward Councilman that the results of that Election were a blip and totally accidental. I was totally disgusted with that comment, because a lot of people did a lot of work to bring about those results. Some of us had been in the streets going house to house and having Campaign events for several months. Calling the results a blip negated all of our hard work.
We held a People's Town Hall. It was a Survival Summit focusing on Solutions, not complaints. We held a very engaging and wonderfully rewarding event that should be replicated sometime in the future. It was called, "The Woman's Day of Action". We called upon all women in the City to come together and walk with us in the 4th Ward. The objective was to go house to house in Englewood's 4th Ward encouraging Residents to vote and letting them know that we cared about them and their children.
There was a general impression going around that 4th Ward Residents do not ever vote. Little attention was given to the fact that we had/have the lowest number of registered voters in the City. We decided to test the theory of naysayers who claimed that 4th Ward Residents did not care about their kids and therefore felt no need to vote, attend PTO meetings, Back To School Nights, Parent Conferences or any other event that involved their children. It was a get to know your neighbor day. We wanted to make sure that every family in the 4th Ward was aware of how much they were needed and that they could do something to change their children's educational world.
We paired off Teachers from all over the County with Parents and other Residents. We gave them addresses of registered voters and sent them off with their assigned streets. I was paired off with the vibrant young lady in the middle of that photo. We covered a lot of ground, rang a lot of doorbells and had conversations with the most unlikely people. I learned a lot about Carol Feinstein and the City of Englewood on that fateful day. Not one door was closed to us. Happy faces greeted us at the doorway wondering why their former teacher, or the former teacher of their mom, dad, or child was standing at their door. There were families cooking out in their yards with no thought to voting who slapped their foreheads and said, "yes, of course", they were going to vote. The general consensus was that the People were left feeling really good that they had gotten a visit that day. It showed on Election Day. Across the 4th Ward Parents, Teachers and other Residents had similar stories."
It did surprise everyone in town that we got all three Candidates elected. It was not a good time for Education in Englewood. Over 100 support staff, many who lived in the 4th Ward, had been laid off in 2012 when the positions of Secretary and Paraprofessional (Teacher's Aide) had been abolished. We learned a lot about how that "job action" of Outsourcing these positions had impacted the 4th Ward and low income families. The impact has not gone away and the District has still not shown that any money was saved.
In April 2013, the "Pro Outsourcing" Board Members still outnumbered our grass roots Candidates. It took only 5 School Board Members to move the School Board Elections to November where they have been lost in Partisanship ever since. The Pro Outsourcing Board even took a vote in the very first meeting to block 2 of our newly elected Board Members from voting on Personnel issues. This happened in April of 2013, before the end of the month in which the so called blip occurred. Very much the same way Mitch McConnell handcuffed Barak Obama, the Pro Outsourcing Members handcuffed 2 of the newly elected Board Members on the issue of Personnel. There have been no more blips since then. Did the General Election's Partisan atmosphere do what many projected it would?
Did 528 School Districts save money and increase the number of voters participating in School Board Elections or did they immerse Public Education into a Political and Partisan mire in which there is no chance to recover?
This Grandmother was very glad to see 2 Ballots when I opened that envelope and learned that the Partisan Election had been separated on paper, at least.
