Airing Annoyances
Jan. 23rd, 2009 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annundrielEarlier today I finished the feature on the funeral home in Othello. Just now I mostly finished the RGA article. Now I just have city council to cover and that's it for the week. Except I'm really very tired of looking at Word documents.
The editor sent me an e-mail this morning asking if the RGA meeting was juicy. I had to rain on her parade and say no. It was only thirty minutes long and everyone was very pleasant and understanding. No voices were raised.
I appreciate this. I don't want to write the dirt.
What's nice about this week's council meeting is that it was only, according to the recording, 36 minutes long. HA. Much better than an hour plus.
Next week, I just have the school board meeting to attend. This could be very interesting, because they're trying to get the community to vote for their bond proposal so they can get money to add on to the district buildings, including a new admin building and bus garage. It's kind of a hot topic.
Here's my issue: voting "yes" for this proposition will increase our taxes, this is true. But where are they going to get the money to make these changes if the proposition doesn't pass?
Mostly people are annoyed by the new admin building. They think that's just, y'know, icing. Unnecessary. One of the boardmembers pointed out, though, that when the building they're using now (and it is quite small) was built, the school district only had so many hundred students and so many faculty members. It's bigger now, and bigger means more paperwork which means more office space. And maybe that's their excuse for a new building of their own. But the additions to the school are needed. (And then there's the whole "music suite" thing and how the board wasted money on putting in astroturf on the fucking football field even though we've been getting to State [and winning once we're there] for the last forever on regular old grass and lord knows that money would have been better spent elsewhere.)
My mom's boss is angry about this because the superintendent will not come out and say what the enrollment at the schools is. She feels that they don't need to be asking us to do this because it's not really necessary. As much as people keeping saying the number of students is rising, the number of seniors in the high school is staying about the same. So the school district must be hiding something, right?
::shrug:: I don't know. Maybe. But when they opened the new elementary school, I was in the second grade and there were no classrooms in the second level. Now they had to add and "intermediate" building to handle the fifth graders because there is just no room in the school. I don't know what's happening between elementary and high school - besides moving, dropping out, the usual - but I think it's pretty clear enrollment is up in the lower grades. Something does need to be done about the space issue. Because if it's not a problem now, it will be in a few years.
The more I go to these meetings, the more I don't understand why people cannot just figure out how to work together. It's like the port and the city butting heads. Ideally, they're both working to better the area. But that gets lost somewhere along the way.
I had similar issues with the fire inspection issue that only recently was sorted out. Oh, man. If it's going to provide a measure of safety, figure out a way to make it work. Stop trying to avoid it all together. Especially if it's in the codes and mandated by the state.
And, yes, I'm well aware that this is very naive of me. But seriously. Make it work, people.
I had no idea this was going to turn ranty when I started. Whoops.
The editor sent me an e-mail this morning asking if the RGA meeting was juicy. I had to rain on her parade and say no. It was only thirty minutes long and everyone was very pleasant and understanding. No voices were raised.
I appreciate this. I don't want to write the dirt.
What's nice about this week's council meeting is that it was only, according to the recording, 36 minutes long. HA. Much better than an hour plus.
Next week, I just have the school board meeting to attend. This could be very interesting, because they're trying to get the community to vote for their bond proposal so they can get money to add on to the district buildings, including a new admin building and bus garage. It's kind of a hot topic.
Here's my issue: voting "yes" for this proposition will increase our taxes, this is true. But where are they going to get the money to make these changes if the proposition doesn't pass?
Mostly people are annoyed by the new admin building. They think that's just, y'know, icing. Unnecessary. One of the boardmembers pointed out, though, that when the building they're using now (and it is quite small) was built, the school district only had so many hundred students and so many faculty members. It's bigger now, and bigger means more paperwork which means more office space. And maybe that's their excuse for a new building of their own. But the additions to the school are needed. (And then there's the whole "music suite" thing and how the board wasted money on putting in astroturf on the fucking football field even though we've been getting to State [and winning once we're there] for the last forever on regular old grass and lord knows that money would have been better spent elsewhere.)
My mom's boss is angry about this because the superintendent will not come out and say what the enrollment at the schools is. She feels that they don't need to be asking us to do this because it's not really necessary. As much as people keeping saying the number of students is rising, the number of seniors in the high school is staying about the same. So the school district must be hiding something, right?
::shrug:: I don't know. Maybe. But when they opened the new elementary school, I was in the second grade and there were no classrooms in the second level. Now they had to add and "intermediate" building to handle the fifth graders because there is just no room in the school. I don't know what's happening between elementary and high school - besides moving, dropping out, the usual - but I think it's pretty clear enrollment is up in the lower grades. Something does need to be done about the space issue. Because if it's not a problem now, it will be in a few years.
The more I go to these meetings, the more I don't understand why people cannot just figure out how to work together. It's like the port and the city butting heads. Ideally, they're both working to better the area. But that gets lost somewhere along the way.
I had similar issues with the fire inspection issue that only recently was sorted out. Oh, man. If it's going to provide a measure of safety, figure out a way to make it work. Stop trying to avoid it all together. Especially if it's in the codes and mandated by the state.
And, yes, I'm well aware that this is very naive of me. But seriously. Make it work, people.
I had no idea this was going to turn ranty when I started. Whoops.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-24 07:49 am (UTC)Possibly I'm tired. Possibly I've spent a lot of time lecturing today, and am projecting the need to lecture onto you.
I'm going to give you a real response to your email at some point before the weekend is over, I promise.
Also, thank you for always being around and being fantastic! You're gorgeous and I love you.
Even when you make analogies about trees and sex.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-24 08:11 am (UTC)Don't you mean especially when I make analogies about trees and sex? ;)
After talking to you (and Jaime) and Natasha last night, I remembered how much I love contributing to other people's happiness. ♥
It's funny. If I wasn't writing for the paper, I wouldn't be going to these meetings so I wouldn't have the same amount to say. Some of it would still be there - like the school expansion issue since that's something that I actually get a vote on - but a great deal of it would continue to pass me by. As it is, a lot still passes me by because I am still working to understand it all.
Cathy and I talked briefly about some of this when I went to her for port clarification. Y'know, that I actually am going to all of the meetings and seeing the different sides of the issues. I don't necessarily have full opinions on some of the matters (like I said, still learning), but I'm getting all the facts. And the facts make me want to throw my hands up and ask, "Why can't we all just get along?" Which, as I think you can guess, is how I feel about a lot of things a lot of the time.
And, actually, if Lisa can put her personal rants in the paper as editorials, I don't see why I can't still do letters to the editor. Anonymously. Oh dear. I just had visions of me sending in letters under a mysterious name.
I will admit, though, that the write-ups are slightly more comfortable for me, since it means I don't have to have an articulated opinion.
Mini-Mar. I could have a whole army...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-24 07:51 am (UTC)♥
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-24 08:12 am (UTC)Though if you ever discover if there's a way to turn it off, feel free to share.