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Show SOUmZBN UTAH NEtTS Opinion Letters i..v Continued frontage 4 His only argument was wanting the wild horses to live in Zion Park. I dont think his dispute was with the government over WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 8, ltS5 Over what? Is it turmoil that Kaibab Industries is closing? Is it turmoil over restrictions that will affect our childrens education due to decreased funding?Turmoil over the reduction of forest fees, or increases sure to come in everyones property tax rate? Is it turmoil over the 200 jobs being lost? , No! The. community is in tur- that. It appears as if that dispute was with the foreign conglomerate that has taken over all parks from the government. In fact, theyre taking over the moil beq&ise the elementary whole country from the governcontract was not rement. The title of that foreign principal newed. jjk conglomerate is EnvironmeIt is in turmoil due to the viewntalists. Maybe not foreign to that elected school board this country, but certainly for- point members must respond to comeign to their fellow countrymen. munity pressure groups over Jessie Brown every other consideration held On the right to speak out Dear Editor: I am concerned as I see people in Fredonia discussing what might be done to restorepeace and tranquility in our town re- in decision-makin- g. School boards are elected. Elected to do what is best for the children and for the school district. Elected to uphold Arizona State statutes and policies schools in Arizona. Elected to abide by the district policy manual. to The board is honor-boun- d support those directives. Any individual, elected or appointed to this position, takes an oath of office to abide by them, to hold gov-erningpub- lic garding the issues surrounding the possible recall of school board members. People who are actively involved in this issue are being identified by power structures as irresponsible, agitators, them sacred. unforgiving, and vindictive The board may listen to the troublemakers. public and in most cases, reWe seem to have forgotten that spond to the communitys voice. is activism the of part political There are times, however, they fact that we work collectively to must, by their oath of office, turn resist domination. Freedom is what seems to be a deaf ear to not a passive thing. It never has the community. That is part of been. Throughout history we the that goees have fought for our freedom. with responsibility the position of school board Some ofthose battles have been, member. The public needs to and will be, fought by standing consider these facts. up and speaking out for ourFact: Renewals come up yearly selves and our rights. on or before January 15 of the I read the notice in the paper last year of an administrators about Fredonias upcoming contract. school board meeting. The comFact: In 1994, Mr. ment was made, we need public contract received twoBinghams votes for I for The what? ask, support. prior to the Janupublic has given outstanding ary 15th deadline. g support by showing up in Fact: In May, 1994, there was numbers to school an executive session between the board meetings in the last few board and Mr. Bingham lasting months. The result? We were Action taken two hours. nearly ignored! We were oppressed ! in the public meeting resulted in Crowds felt despair and hope- a 32 vote. No pay increase. lessness as a power greater than Fact: An executive session was us refused to validate our con- scheduled in December, 1994. A cerns. special meeting that would have Si Kahn, a community orga- allowed two full hours of time nizer states, Oppression is vio- solely for the purpose of discuslent, and the death of hope is the sion between the board and the most violent of all. We have felt principal. Mr. Bingham knew that death of hope as a commu- this was his opportunity to talk nity. The political activity by freely about his contract. concerned citizens is not a witch Fact: The district was notified hunt. It is a battle for freedom. that he did not wish to have an We, as a collective force are fight- executive session. This was idening out against this violence. tical to the previous year when Lanice Hollingsworth he requested an open meeting rather than having an discussion in executive session. A School Board Legal counsel, present in Janumember ary 1994, cautioned the public, the board, and the principal to Dear Editor: The community of Fredonia is restrain their remarks. Fact: The principal, by in turmoil. The community is open session, knowbeing tom apart. Accusations hurting individuals, friends, and ingly shut the door on discusInstead of sion with families are discussion, it appears that Mr. Bingham wanted conflict by having friends come and lobby the board on his behalf. Some people are going door to door, telling everyone the recall election will not cost the school district or the taxpayers money. Fact: A recall election must be paid for by the school district. It will cost in excess of a thousand dollars from the district budget. The board has no say in this expenditure. The taxpayers do. The individuals requesting the recall election are responsible for the cost the district must assume for this election. The board in December, and the board in January, voted. The decision was made, twice. The community can now help our children look forward to new experiences, or, the town can give our children a fear of what is to come. The example our children see will color the rest of their lives. Will it be a positive example, or a destructive one? Frodonia Schools Dear Editor: (This letter is in response to the letter in last weeks issue from Concerned Parent) What do you think the citizens in support of Mr. Bingham are going to do to you and your children? We are all caring human beings just like you, and we realize some people have different opinions than we do. We are not vindictive or cruel. I wish to respond to your letter paragraph by paragraph. First of all, no one was forced to bring home notes. One note was inadvertently sent home right after the board announced that they would not renew Mr. Binghams contract. That was in December. It was such a shock to many of us that we let our emotions take control and a note was sent home. The person responsible was very apologetic when she was made aware that it was not an acceptable procedure and vowed not to make a Sharon Weaver mistake like that again. I work at the school and I have Fredonia -- not been aware of any .teacher, that have forced students to listen to complaints about the school board, or who have even, discussed the situation with their students. By the way, yes, many of these teachers did talk to the kids about their, and their families well being. Our teachers and aides at Fredonia EL ementary and Middle School are very caring and sympathetic when it comes to the well being ofour students. Is it any wonder that those same feelings surface when our principal is (in our opinion) wrongly terminated? Ive worked with Mr. Bingham for five years and have never in that time heard Mr. Bingham say, or even hint, that our students or their parents are low caliber. If he thought that, why would he even want to live and work here? I dont believe Mr. Bingham is hiding anything. He showed us what he could of his files, that pertained to the information we needed. 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