Speakout

Thursday, October 22, 2015

No sale for them

My brother is retiring and moving home. He asked me to find a small nice home for him. I found a home and went to a local real estate office to find out more about the house. I walked in the office and the cigarette smoke was so thick, I left. They missed a sale and a commission that day.

Board meeting sure not boring

I'm speaking out about the lack of coverage on our school board meetings. I attended the school board meeting on Oct. 13 and saw school board member Heather Drury being treated very disrespectfully by other board members. And the chairman of the board, it seems that he is so eager to counsel her anytime she brings up any suggestions/questions about policy, curriculum or whatever. She made a distinct point about Amendment 3 and how she had urged the members in last week's work session to vote to not change local board policy in regards to applying test scores to the evaluation of the performance of teachers. There was a heated exchange and there's not one mention in the report made in the paper on any of that. You have no problem covering the personality issues in the Miner board of aldermen. Why not the Sikeston school board? The superintendent stacks the audience with paid tax dollar employees to sell his agenda. And all the other board members are eager to go along. Heather is the only one who is asking the questions that should be asked and standing up for our teachers, our kids and our taxpayers. Heather Drury is representing the people. She is doing the job she was elected to do. The other board members are attacking her like a pack of jackals and that needs to be reported.

Every single board member in your district is there because they care about your children and their education. And they all have opinions. They all speak their opinions, and I simply do not have the room -- or time -- to report everything said in a meeting, which, this month, lasted two hours. My job is to inform readers of the actions made by their school board representatives. If space and time allow, I will report the drama that ensues, and I will directly quote those individuals, too. I'm not trying to hide anything. There is no conspiracy theory. As for Heather Drury speaking her opinion during meetings -- yes, she does. And so do Amy Blanton, Rebecca Steward, Jim Gleason, Scott Crumpecker, Matt Tanner and Deke Lape. My advice for anyone who wants to know every detail and/or every word said in a board meeting would be to attend the regular monthly meetings at 4:30 p.m. the second Tuesdays of the month. -- Leonna Heuring, Standard Democrat education reporter