By Melissa Perner
Don’t complain, unless you voted
The public has spoken. All 494 of them.
In the May 10 school bond election, 332 people voted to approve $10 million to build a new elementary school and repair windows in the Heritage Building, while 162 voted against.
Naturally, the next morning I started hearing complaints, from those who did not vote.
Crockett County has 2,396 registered voters only 494 have the right to complain about the bond election.
It’s not like the public wasn’t well informed. The Stockman has run articles about the bond election for the past month.
Our superintendent held public meetings, and a tour of the primary school, of which only a handful of people came.
Also, our superintendent could be heard on the radio and posters featuring the architect’s design of the new school have been posted all over town.
The information was out there, so why didn’t more people take the time to vote? Who knows?
Our school board has been debating this issue since January 2007.
Members of a facilities committee met for six months to talk about nothing but how to improve our school district.
Every school board meeting has had some mention of this issue.
Our school board is run by representatives that are elected by the people. These seven people meet once a month, and sometimes more often, in meetings that are open to the public.
The meetings agendas are posted 72 hours prior to each meeting.
The bond public meetings were run in the paper for a month.
Superintendent Abe Gott has said in many a public meeting that he was willing to talk to anyone about the bond in office if they wanted.
At any time, the public is free to write a letter to the editor of this newspaper to voice concerns, opinions or give praise about how elected representatives are doing their job.
The Stockman received one letter to the editor about the bond encouraging people to vote in favor.
Not once did a person write a letter voicing their opinion against it.
Not once did a person speak out against the bond in any of the public meetings.
I can sympathize with some people who may have forgotten to cast their ballot, but it’s not like you were not informed.
The public has the right to know what is going on in their community, but it is also the public’s responsibility to be involved in their community.
Don’t just criticize our school district, or county, read this newspaper, learn the facts about what is going on, ask questions of your county government or local school district, and then make your feelings known. If you are really worried about it, run for office.
School board elections take place in November and their are four seats up for election. Filing begins July 27 and ends Aug. 26.
Our government is the best on the planet. We have the right to choose our leaders, our policies and building of new schools.
However, Democracy only works if people get involved.
When people are not involved, then we have a $10 million bond passing with only 5 percent of the public voting.
If people don’t stay informed about what is going on in their community, if they don’t speak out or step up when they are concerned and if they don’t vote, then they should not complain.
The citizens of Crockett County had every opportunity to make a difference in the school bond election.