OCR Text |
Show A Letters ifffi Editor EDITOR: I would like to thank everyone who participated in the 4th of July parade this year. There were 342 bikes and trikes in the parade. With the Tee Ball teams, the baton twirlers, the Color Guard from Troup 333, the Marching Fife and Drum Band, Gaye Thurston's Dancing School and those on floats, there was close to 750 young people in the parade. This took a lot of effort from families and business people as well as genuine effort on the part of James Dunaway leading the Marching Band and Laura Lamoureax leading the Baton Twirlers from the Recreation Dept. Thanks should also be given to the Police Department and Highway Department. I think the Lady Lions Parade Committee and the Lions Club did a great job to make the July 4th celebration a success. Thanks Grace Humphrey Editor: I have just read al'ront page article in the July 10. 1979 Spectrum referring to a permanent citizens committee to help the school board of Iron County. The idea looks good on the surface but ; who decides who is on the committee, how are committee members removed, who do the committee members have to answer to for their action? What will be the next step, a referendum vote on every issue before the school board? The next stop after that would be to hire people to go to each house in the school district to get their opinions on issues before the school board. The school board members were elected to their positions because they convinced the voters they were the best available to make these decisions for us. We have been complaining about our federal bureaucracy get- -ting so big that it functions too slowly and passes the buck, now we should increase the same problem in" our school district? I am not sure I agree with the board's handling of the Jerald Hawley situation. I do know that I don't know all of the particulars. I have heard I wonder how many of the Iron County School Board's critics at this time have ever taken the time to let them know when they agreed with the board's decisions. Jim Patterson Parowan, Utah Editor: The public furor raised over the transfer of Dr. Jerald Hawley leaves some fundamental questions still unanswered. Aside from the rather unprofessional manner in which the affair was handled, I think that the Iron County School Board, as elected representatives of the tax-paying tax-paying public, still owes the people of Iron County a better explanation of their action than was given at the meeting of June 29. Was the board's decision to transfer Dr. Hawley to North Elementary a unanimous decision or were some members of the board pressured to give the public the impression of unanimity? Was Dr. Hawley officially notified of his transfer to North Elementary before the public announcement an-nouncement of the change? Dr. Hawley, after being given a clean bill of health last January, has been charged with insubordination. Insubordinaiton is a difficult word. Are we talking about insubordination or disagreements which naturally occur between principals and superintendents over matters of school policy? There are also some questions of public concern over school district policy that go beyond the immediate issue of the transfer of Dr. Hawley; for instance, is it normal procedure for the principal of a school in Iron County to write his own job description? Shouldn't the job description come from the office of the superintendent? Do other administrators ad-ministrators in the Iron County School District have job descriptions--who wrote them? Is there any procedure whereby the school board evaluates the Superintendent of Schools, or is he, as a public official, above evaluation? Some of the hiring practices of the office of the superintendent have been unorthodox to say the least; have . 1 i r r : l . developed, to an extent at least, . because of politics. If so, this is wrong, but citizens committees would only increase the political reasons for decisions and our children would be the losers. Our children in school seem to be the only ones who are not to be heard from or represented. In the process of government we have in this country of ours, we vote people into office to make decisions for us, to represent us. This permanent per-manent committee or a group of committees would change our form of government. Without such committees com-mittees we can still go to board meetings to voice our opinions, write letters to the board or newspaper. We can let our thinking and feeling be known without handcuffing our elected officials. uieie ueeii any uniciai inquiries into the hiring practices of the Iron County School District? Finally, if, as the School Board has indicated, its action with respect to Dr. Hawley has been an attempt to improve public education in Iron County, why stop there? Are there not other areas within the system where the same kind of action is needed? Are there not other administrators and teachers within the district who should be subjected to the same evaluation of job performance as Dr. Hawley? Now that the School Board has started, it should exert strong and decisive leadership to insure that Iron County Schools have the best teachers and administrators that the taxpayers tax-payers of this community can provideour children deserve no less. Met Johnson |