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Show Free Press Wednesday, May 19, 1993 - Page Positive people can outweigh negative things Editorial Name controversy teaches lessons device that Have you seen the plug-iionizes negative particles in order to rid dust? Too your surroundings of bad we don't have a body accessory that accomplishes the same thing in our lives. Take a child's report card, for example. Like me, maybe you've skimmed over the A's and the Outstanding marks and wondered why your child didn't get a better grade in math or English. Perhaps you sometimes look at spelling tests only for the ones they missed. It takes a little more work and planning, but we need to see the words they did get right. From the time that my wife and I, with small children in tow, would visit a particular aunt of hers, I used to worry about our little ones touchingsmudgingbreaking any of the "precious things" around her house. But, being a former Dean of Family Life at Southern Utah University, Ada always said how important it was for a child to learn a certain principle associated with their actions, even if she had to say it while removing the tempting object. "No" is a lot easier to take spoken as, "How about this?" or "Even if you don't touch that, it's okay." For a parent, the concept is shocking, but eventually becomes pleasant. Of course, some don't get their "positive strokes" simply because life gets hectic and things can easily get overlooked. Dick Devey at Lehi Junior High, for example, was honored last week. If you didn't see the standing ovation at his last n air-born- e Apparently the debate over what to actually consider the town's name as the name Mountain Ridge Junior High name of the new junior high school. The School has ended, and it is time for the healing process to get underway. But there are some lessons to be learned from the incident. The process has tarnished the reputation of the school board members as far as being and having a true interest in listening to public opinion. And it has certainly convinced many fair-mind- Alpine School District patrons that cries for public involvement by board members are lip service only. What else can be expected? The board delayed a decision based on a desire for public involvement, went to the trouble to conduct a public survey, and then voted to do what they were going to do in the first place, without explanation or comment. The problems began with a vague district policy concerning the naming process. This was compounded by verbal instructions to the naming committees to avoid naming the school after the community in which it was located. The board was able to avoid the controversy in Lindon. But the same process got out of hand in Highland, where ostensibly for the sake of public input, the name selection was delayed. When publicopinion showed that Highland was a popular favorite, the board did not stand by its earlier verbal instructions leading Highland residents to believe that the board might name was even listed as an option on a public opinion survey. We now know th at the use of specific community names was not a choice they would m ake. Board members had ample opportunity to spell this out. Instead, they remained silent - allowing Highland residents to go through a futile show of support for a name that would never be approved. In the end, a process designed to encourage public involvement made a mockery of the concept. Expressing the board's collective opinion at the outset might have made people angry, but it would have been an honest representation of what the board had in mind. As it is, people aren't only angry, but feel betrayed as well. Here are some of the lessons we m igh t learn from the incident: Don't ask what the people want unless you plan to listen to them. Wh at works in Orem may not be best in the more rural areas of the county, where community pride and identity is stronger. Regional differences are important, even in small geographic areas like the Alpine School District. Finally, a little leadership when it matters can go a long way towards resolving these kinds of public spectacles. And in this case, there was no leadership to be found on the Alpine Board of Education. -- high-strun- g Don't of life cross-sectio- n There wasn't room down in the village so they built the houses up on the hill. The street ran from the edge of Collins Farm to the border of the cemetery. The homes were pretty much alike. Two bedrooms, a kitchen, a small living room with a fireplace and a scullery at the back for doing the washing. There were no wealthy people on this street, just ordinary folk doing their daily jobs and burying their dead in the cemetery. Our house went by a good Welsh name and number, 63 Pentrygwar Terrace, Llanvock Road. There was only one shop. It was at the end of the street and dealt only in groceries. It was run by David Mogford, a snotty Englishman who refused to grant credit. Of course, like any street, there are always a few characters. At house number 71 lived the Benjamins. Mrs. Benjamin was a widow. Her husband was killed in a mine accident. Shehad two grown sons, both coal Browsing A' pool. m And when the opening of that facility is By TOM GRIFFITHS changed, folks should know about it, shouldn't they? But apparently some people thought that if no one knew the date had been changed, the construction people might work a little harder and faster. So, this is the editor's dilemma: Do we tell people the completion of the pool will be delayed, thereby slowing the workers down? Or do we keep quiet, and hope the men in hard hats will keep up the pressure to get done? J went down through the Polka Woods, one group over to the cemetery, and another group went up the hillside above Collins Farm. It got dark and the searchers got toOne day the lady of the house received a gether to discuss their results. So far no letter from the City Council that said a Miss luck. Then someone had an idea. Do you Cloe Rogers had complained that the Bethink it could be possible that the Giles kid miners. njamin boys undressed for bed with their blinds up, exhibiting their nude bodies to the public. Would you please see that this condition is corrected. Now Miss Cloe Rogers was an old maid school teacher and peeked through her own blinds to watch the boys undressing. Mrs. Benjamin read the letter to the boys and suggested they lower their blinds while undressing. The next night they noticed that neighbor Cloe had her lights on and was peeking through a slit in her blinds in the direction of the boys' bedroom. So the boys put on a show for her. They danced around the room ala September Morn until they saw Cleo's lights go out. Then they lowered their own blinds and went to bed. They received no more complaints. Living on the street quite close together were two families with many children. The Giles had 13 and the Williams 12. One evening in late summer, one of the young Giles kids was m issing at bedtime. A search party of the neighbors was organized. Some retired with their flock? The searchers descended on the Williams residence and there they found the missing child in bed with the Williams kids. Of course there is always a bit of scandal on a street this big. There was the case of Molly Jennings. She had a baby out of wedlock. She claimed that the man she worked for as a servant was the father. He was one of the few rich people in our town. He denied he was the guilty one, so it went to Judge Matthews' court. I was too young to attend the hearing in court, but it was said that enough of the seamy side of life was brought up that there was enough for the women on the street to have something to discuss for months' Editor: . writing to express my disappointment in the Alpine School Board for refusing to publicly discuss the motion made by one of the Board members to reconsider the name they had selected for the new junior high school in Highland. At their business meeting on April 13, the Board voted by a slim margin to select the name Mountain Ridge instead of the nameffighland, which had received the most votes in the public survey. Many concerned citizens attended the next meeting of the board on April 27, which was ostensibly conducted for the purpose of receiving "public input." At least six persons, including three members of the naming committee, ad- I am 3-- All I know was that Molly won the case and a monthly settlement for care of the child. Pentrygwar Terrace across the valley from Mynythislewyn Mountain was a street to remember. 2 An apple for an extraordinary teacher calls the devil "the head dude Beelzebub." His assistant becomes the "vice presi- dent of hell." When Reader's Digest honored 15 of I was speaking in St. Louis and noted that one of the teachers - Mary Ann Mayes is an educator in East St. Louis. Now East St. Louis is known mostly for being broke, dingy and dangerous. Nobody stops for traffic lights in East St. Louis; nobody dares. Yet here in the midst of gangs and drugs and squalor - is a teacher who has reduced the senior dropout rate from 10 percent to two percent in three years. And where absenteeism nationally is 17 percent, in her class it is less than three percent. With an assist from St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter Margaret Gillerman I heard more. The East St. Louis school system is Often there is no writing paper available and tattered textbooks are 15 1991 Los -- - -- dirt-poo- r. years old. Yet inside Room 120 in East St. Louis blue-whit- e High School there are cheery walls which Mayei'husband helped paint Thus her students will jump into a discussion with the same freedom with which they wheel and deal on the streets. And thus Milton's verses about good and evil are indelibly imparted. The Mayeses have no children of their own. A white teacher in a totally black class, she says, "These are my children. "From the beginning each class knows what kind of behavior is acceptable and what kind isn't. They know, and I have a shirt on which the words are spelled out - 'If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!" One student, Kevin Randolph, says, "She likes her students to learn everything. She's preparing us for college. The kids know she's strict and sometimes they get kinda upset - but they appreciate it, too. You learn to act straight or you flunk." Mayes says she does not teach English only. "I really try to stress a sense of responsibility. I don't make exceptions, and I don't take excuses. You are responsible for what you do, andyou will reward yourself or punish yourself accordingly free-wheeli- our nation's outstanding school teachers, Angeles Time Syndicate and hanging flowers from home and no graffiti. "This is my house," says Mayes. "I would not come into your kitchen and write on your table; don't you come in and write on mine." This uncommon teacher with her immense love for literature demands the best of her students. She teaches honors English, senior English and two classes especially for students at risk of dropping out. Mayes has a way of interpreting litera- ture that made her a school hero long before the national magazine took note. In a corner of Room 120 stands a used when teaching knight's armor Chaucer. When teaching the John Milton's 17th Century epic poem "Paradise Lost" she - By RCSS DALY band concert, you may not know how people feel about the successes he has helped his students achieve. Or how about Lehi Elementarys Miss Grant, who puts on a medieval fair that brings social studies alive for her class as well as all of the students at the school. This year, the class hosted its annual event in Wines Park. Members of her class served as tour guides, entertainers, demonstrators and peddlers of wares. Visiting classroom groups were guided through each of the displays, which included jesters, jugglers, musicians and even live jousting. e atNot everyone wants the tention that others receive. Modesty may be a virtue to be prized, but we all need to know that others care for our Amid last week's matrimonial celebrations that were announced in the paper, a quiet wedding took place at the Salt Lake LDS Temple, uniting one of our police officers and a former church leader. Although the couple waived the formal high-profil- well-bein- g. task. Like great comedians, their timing was perfect, and the little notes are destined to help me get over discouragements I am sure I will face. (That's why I say, "Go for it!" to the anonymous great lady of our community who might become a cruise ship tour hostess.) It's am azinghow this positive stuff works. I had intended to write about a friend of mine who said, "A man must have invented this!" when she couldn't get her weed trimmer to work. Statements like that usually disgust me, but I guess I have felt that sort of frustration plenty of times myself. Since I've walked the proverbial mile in. her shoes, maybe I need to put this away and write her a note. The Editor's Column -- ' Vv.-' By MARC HADDOCK The answer is quite simple. This is the public's pool. Our money has built the thing. We ought to know, up front, what is happening with it. We want to tell. Another example in recent weeks is the controversy over the naming of the Highland-area Junior High School which has received a lot of exposure. Isn't it time, someone asked me, to lay off the issue a little, let the controversy die down? Fine, I say, just as soon as the people making the noise stop. You see, some folks think there is a lot of hullabalooover this because the newspaper keeps writing about it. And if we would just shut up, things would calm down. But from our point of view, we are writing stories because there is all this hullabaloo. We don't make the news, we just report it. And for most of you, it isn't news at all, you've already heard it. You just wait until each Wednesday to see if we have the guts to print it as it really happened. it Well, we do, and we try. Finally, we've been getting some complaints because some of our track athletes in American Fork who are setting records aren't getting all the space in our smaller papers that they get in the daily press. And I have to comment that weekly newspapers have to cover sports differently. We focus on teams and the achievements of all the members - with an emphasis on everybody. Oh, we try to hit the high points, but we have to hit everybody's high points, and -- sometimes the outstanding achievements don't get the kind of notice you see in the Salt Lake dailies. But we've been covering these kids all yearlong, foryears andyears.The nature of the paper determines the nature of our coverage. Because of space limitations and other matters, the coverage varies, but we cover an athlete's career - not just his or her major events. And we try to cover the career of many of our area athletes, from little league through high school. It's a community-baseapproach and it works best for newspapers like ours. After all, the community is what all of this newspaper andthis column is all about. We don't create the news and we don't make the controversy. We just report it all. ' And we try to report it in a way that brings us all together and chronicles our collective lives. It's tough being the messenger, sometimes, but we wouldn't want to be anything else. d -- Board rebuffs citizens with silence ahead. the best. Daly Plsanet Letters o t Bie edlifiop couldhave gone into the Williams home and As no other publication, Reader's Digest has interpreted the United States to the world. At the same time, the publication discourages the worst in us by encouraging The ity of a reception, all of their friends and acquaintances seem to have been very supportive and will probably want to wish them well. There is nothing like a wedding to feel loved. Congratulations from the brother of the bride. The young people ofour community have been in the spotlight lately, for both individual and group efforts. It is always a pleasure to include these achievements in the paper, and always hard to have to leave something out or to choose between several good things. Someday, I want to be like the two friends of mine th at sent cards of encouragement to me when I accepted my current position, a critical time when I needed to be reassured that I would be able to measure up to the the messenger, read kill Sometimes it's really tough to be the messenger especially when the message is one some folks don't want you to hear. For example, the new recreation center in American Fork is slightly behind schedule, prompting city officials to move the official grand opening date back about two weeks. It's a reasonable change. Forcing the construction to get completed on time may mean cutting some corners, and in the case of this recreation center, no one wants any corners cut. After all, corners were cut when American Fork built its last indoor swimming pool and the entire community paid and paid and paid. Now there is intense community interest in the opening of the recreation center. After all, summer weather has arrived and people want to take a dip to beat the heat. They are especially interested in this new pool, since they are payingoff a $2.5 million bond passed to build the center. It's their Pentrygwar Terrace was a 2 -- -- -- - that's life." dressed the board requesting that they reconsider their decision. These citizens were concerned about the decision the board had made, but what bothered them most was the process followed in reaching that decision. The clear, unambiguous results of the public hearing conducted at American Fork Junior High School on March 16 had been ignored in favor of conducting a survey that would be more representative of the communities involved. Then when theresults of the survey favored the name Highland, these results were also discredited and ignored. During the next meeting on May 11, seven citizens each respectfully requested that the board reconsider their previous decision. Dr. Blake Evans made a motion supporing the citizens' request, but the other board members killed the motion by default. They prevented any discussion or consideration of the issue by refusing to second Dr. Evans' motion. They rebuffed the citizens with silence. The Board refused to give the citizens the courtesy of even discussing the merits of the case in spite of the fact that it was listed as an action item on their agenda. By their deadening silence, they taught the citizens an effective lesson about the futility of attempting to influence the Board's decisions. One Alpine District official recent made a comment to me indicating that Highland residents are always dissatisfied about something and are too willing to get involved in controversial issues. I think the comments was made in jest, but itconcerns me to hear a school official speak that way. If Highland citizens are any different, it is simply that they are more idealistic and less complacent. They still believe that ordinary citizens can make a difference. But that may change. Last Tuesday, the board taught them more about citizenship and the "democratic process" than they ever learned in school. A board of education is supposed to be a deliberative body that makes reasoned decisions in open public meetings after careful deliberation of all sides of each issue and an attempt to reach some consensus through discussion among the members of the board. Certainly there are times when individual board members may feel that they have to vote against public opinion in order to be true to their conscience and principles. But this should never happen until after the board has publicly examined and deliberated the case in an open meeting. Even then, the dissenting board members should be able to clearly articulate the principles underlying their reasons for "voting contrary to the views of their constituents. Responsible citizens are more willing to accept not getting their way if they know that their concerns were fairly and thoughtfully considered. Except for Dr. Evans' motion, in the present situation there is no evidence that the board even heard thecase presented to them. The Alpine Board seems willing to go through the motions of receiving public input, but not willing to really consider the concerns expressed. It is no wonder that so many citizens feel that their point of view doesn't make any difference. If the board did not want to consider public input, they should not have requested public hearings or a survey. By summarily dismissing the patrons' pleas without even discussing the merits oH the case presented to them, the Board sent a clear and unmistakable message: "Don't bother us with your petty concerns or with the facts of the case! Our mind is already made up!" This disregard demonstrates their indifference and unresponsiveness to patrons' points of view. The board may claim that they are responsible to citizens' concerns, but their silence speaks louder than their words. The board has tarnished their credibility and contributed to their complacency citizens sense when their honest, sincere at tempts to influence public decision makers are disregarded without even being dis cussed. Credibility is a fragile commodity that is easily lost, but difficult to regain Public apathy is a high price to pay. -- Richard Sudweeks |