The most recent July Carroll County School District meeting has left me with many thoughts and questions. In this meeting, the Board was presented with a request to purchase equipment for the basketball teams. Of the five members on the Board of Education, only two Board Members chose to support this endeavor, with the other three voting against the request. In the meeting, ample testimony from the District Athletic Director was offered to the Board to justify the purchase of said equipment. In addition, the request was supported not only by the Superintendent for the district, but also appeared to garner support from the district Chief Financial Officer and the Attorney for the Board of Education as well. Within this meeting it was made clear by the CFO that there is money in the district’s budget to purchase this item, should it have been approved by the Board. However, despite the hard fought and heartfelt efforts of the Athletics Director to sway the Board's approval of this purchase, it was ultimately voted down.
Over the course of discussion, one member of the Board made their stance on the subject clear with their comments on the matter. It appeared to me, based on what was stated, that this member did not support the purchase due to the belief that it would somehow hinder the team’s ability to complete drills effectively. However, this was the only Board Member in opposition who chose to become involved in the discussion. That being said, I applaud the meritt of this member for choosing to explain their position on the subject.
I believe that discourse and discussion are an important part of these matters of business, especially from an entity which is composed of elected officials. In my opinion, it is important for constituents and voters to understand the position elected officials take on matters of business. Subsequently, I believe it is a disservice to those represented when elected officials choose to forgo expressing their reasoning or explaining their position on a matter. As with this equipment issue, I believe it is only fair to the people the Board is representing, as well as to those who requested the Board’s assistance, for the members of the Board to give reasoning behind their actions. Otherwise, from an outside perspective, there is no context to why members are taking their positions in the voting process. In addition, as a reporter, having no reasoning or comments to relay can create unintentionally biased reporting as only one side of the discourse is represented.
Aside from these general thoughts on the matter of discussing reasons for voting stances, as an observer of the discourse, I also interpreted this decision by the Board as a possible act of favoritism (or neglect, depending on how you look at it). Over the course of my year and a half reporting, I have been witness to the purchasing of a multitude of extracurricular or vocational equipment by the Board. From football helmets and cheer uniforms to 3D printers and welding machines. However, over the course of this time, I have not heard mention of requests for equipment for the basketball team until this meeting. And despite the multitude of equipment purchases that have been made for various other extracurricular activities, this request gets shot down with little to no reason given. From an outside point of view, it does not seem like a sound move from the Board. In fact, it appears to suggest possible neglect of less popular extracurricular activities in favor of those who have both a larger student body as well as more support from community sources outside of the district.
It is saddening to see, to say the least, when it appears that this less popular extracurricular activity gets swept under the rug in favor of those activities which garner more attention, such as baseball and football. This also makes me wonder if decisions like this may undermine students' success within their extracurricular fields. How will these students feel about their choice of extracurricular activities if these activities do not seem to garner the same level of support as others? Could their performance suffer as a result? I believe these possible consequences are important to consider.
