The World According To Chris Brewer

The Daily News of Longview, Washington invited members of the Rainier School Board and people behind the effort to recall them, to an editorial board meeting at the paper’s office yesterday.

According to TDN, the Rainier school board members present were Dale Archibald, Bill Scholten, Penny Blahm and Rod Harding. TDN editor Cal FitzSimmons, Opinion editor Jim Bross and reporter Barbara LaBoe represented TDN at the meeting.

Kudos to TDN for providing this session’s audio to the community…and you can find it here.

My take on the audio:

Cal FitzSimmons and the TDN reporters asked the school board members some very pointed questions and it was obvious they were doing their best to inform the community of the board’s motives. They succeeded in my opinion.

Dale Archibald could have been a little bit kinder in his responses to FitzSimmons’ questions about Superintendent Michael Carter being placed over Jeff Gilbert to supervise his plan of assistance when the board placed Carter on one himself. Archibald seemed to settle down later on, but I got the feeling he was a bit uncomfortable during the entire interview.

Penny Blahm and Rod Harding are to be commended for their collected demeanor and hard hitting responses to the questions asked of them.

Bill Scholten spoke from the viewpoint of someone who has recently had children in the Rainier School District, and it was refreshing to hear him speak with candor…you could tell he was coming not from just the perspective of a board member, but from a concerned parent.

Many other thoughts and I will post more of them after I listen to the audio again. I may have to wait until the video is posted.

To summarize:

Even though I am still in support of a full recall, I give props to the members of the board who were present at the meeting. They stated their case very well and it was bush-league on the part of those supporting the recall not to send anyone although TDN invited them.

Granted, more than 500 signatures were collected for the recall ballots and yes, all six members will be recalled, but since no one from the recall effort showed up to the editorial board meeting, the ball is now in their court to provide the public a clear reason as to why they are recalling six of seven school board members.

It is getting very ugly in Rainier right now. I wish it could all be over soon, the board recalled and let’s get on with educating our children with a clean slate for the community.