Another tale of two perspectives -- The school board, Bruce Hibbard and Twitter.

I was struck by the difference in emphasis between the Courier-Journal's and the News and Tribune's coverage of last week's school board meeting. The reporter Clapp strikes a very neutral tone.

New Albany-Floyd schools votes on expulsion policy; Board will no longer hear appeals, by Jerod Clapp (River Ridge Revue)

(Lee Ann) Wiseheart and Superintendent Bruce Hibbard argued over the district’s posting of a vice principal position at New Albany High School and whether it gave enough opportunity for minority candidates to apply ...

... Hibbard said the issue of getting more minority employees in education is a nationwide issue, not one that’s isolated to New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated Schools. Wiseheart said she understood, but hopes the district can be a part of changing that trend.

Meanwhile, the C-J's Clark goes straight for the jugular.

Board member questions NAFC diversity efforts, by Kirsten Clark (C-J)

New Albany-Floyd County Schools Superintendent Bruce Hibbard came under scrutiny during a discussion Thursday night about a lack of diversity among principals, assistant principals and central office leadership in the district – which employs only one minority administrator ...

... In addition to initiating discussions in meetings, Wiseheart has taken to Twitter to express disappointment in the schools district’s minority recruiting efforts.

... At the end of the 15-minute conversation, an exchange between Hibbard and Board President Becky Gardenour became particularly heated after Gardenour called out the superintendent after she felt he had criticized another board member for missing a school event.

“I really would appreciate it if there’s not a dig if a board member doesn’t attend something, I really would appreciate (that) that would be kept out of our discussions,” she said.

“And I would also appreciate if our board doesn’t make tweets about the disappointment of the board and the superintendent,” Hibbard said. “I think that’s inappropriate. It's unethical. If you read Indiana School Boards Association ethics ... (we vote) and we move on from there. We don’t hold grudges. And yet, that’s kind of what the last year and a half has been.”

“No, that’s what it’s been for six years,” Gardenour quipped. “Alright, anything else? Alright. Meeting adjourned.”

Turns out that Hibbard's as thin-skinned as Jeff Gahan. No wonder they occupy the same bed.

Meet Lee Ann Wiseheart and Danita Burks. They'd like you to vote them to the public school board. Their kids attend Christian Academy.

Roger: We have a new beer called Nan Brown. It's really good. Want to try it?

Customer: Sure (takes a drink) ... but this is Elector with a different name!

Roger: Precisely. Our next new release is called Amy Adams.

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Meanwhile, for those keeping score (as you should be, alibi-ridden partisan apologists), this makes two weeks, two columns, and two majestic upper deck home runs by Amanda Beam.

Last week, she popped the deceptive lid on local identity dysfunction, and NAC felt the chill of so many ghostly "conversations" past.

Those "phantoms of Facebook" have quite the pedigree -- right, Amy?

... All was fine and dandy with dear, sweet Nan (Brown) until she decided to reply to a post I had written a few days back about an upcoming school board race. The lovely lady disagreed with my opinion, which wasn’t a big deal. But when I asked her about being a teacher and if she had children, her answers didn’t match up with her profile identity. A quick search online revealed that, for all intents and purposes, Ms. Brown didn’t exist ...

... A couple of these accounts posted in other mediums too. Amy Adams enjoyed commenting on the News and Tribune’s website frequently these past few years on all sorts of political topics. Another young gal even said no good columnists wrote for the paper anymore. (Insert evil laugh here).

This week, Beam's bat meets ball -- again: "To me, if you choose not to send your child to a public school, then you shouldn’t be making fiscal and policy decisions for those of us who do."

BEAM: The power of choice

 Most of us can agree parents have a right to send their children to the schools of their choosing. Some select private institutions, whether for a parochial education or specialized ways of teaching, and pay out of pocket for the tuition. Others home-school.

Both are fine alternatives to public schools. Notice I didn’t say they were in any way better than the public offerings, just different.

That’s the parent’s choice.

But what if those parents decide to run for a position on a public school board?

Here’s where the situation becomes a bit hairy.

Let's face facts.

The current school board isn't exactly a shining symbol on the Grant Line Road knoll, but Lee Ann Wiseheart and Danita Burks plainly represent a theocratic view of the world, one that has no place in public school decision-making.

While we're at it, the superannuated Don Sakel also is undeserving of a seat, although for entirely different reasons.

Me?

Yes, I actually did vote, though not for very many, and firmly against a couple. The object was to view the process, because the 2015 insurgency will be here quite soon. In the balloting for school board, I voted for Jan Anderson, and that's it. She makes sense and is always responsive.

Thanks to Amanda Beam for her last two News and Tribune columns, and to Daniel Suddeath (and Jerod Clapp) for their reporting. They've restored a dollop of faith in the ability of the local newspaper to make a difference. More, please.

It must be an election, because there's that ridiculous backward S again.

In case you were wondering: "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Sheesh, that's a relief. I thought we had a secular school system. Well, at any rate, it ain't her first rodeo.

Politics: Wiseheart is Republican, will ditch school board, challenge Sipes, emulate Sarah Palin (2009)

Meanwhile, it's time again for the garlic cloves, because Don Sakel's back on the ballot. Actually, the C-J spelled it Sackel.

Top Ten Things I’d Rather Do than Vote for Don Sakel for School Board.

Groan.

Dalby's seemingly unbreakable credulity record shattered by former school board member.

That politically ambitious woman (c’mon, already, a Sarah Palin costume for Halloween?) who wanted to close neighborhood schools to suit the mandates of Resources for Results and St. Daniels, but at the last minute voted against it after the outcome was a foregone conclusion, so that now she can pretend otherwise, wants you to know that although she was in favor of closings, and heroically voted against closings, none of this limp Machiavellian posturing has anything to do with the state legislator who was entirely invisible at the time.

Wow, thanks. I feel, err, all better now. I’m sure the nausea will abate in time.

(Scroll to the bottom, past the love letter to St. Daniels, and beyond the raging about the Indiana state seal raging from the mad as hell guy who, I believe, has an illegal tea party sign on the verge, to the bottom for the exact letter in question. Shouldn't we be warned when it's nutzoid letter day in the Tribune?)

These are difficult times, but it is important to remember what has been learned.

That's because you'll be tested in election cycles for years to come.

Here's a key section from Harold J. Adams's C-J coverage of last evening's cynical school corporation exercise in fiscal and ideological blame shifting:

Board members Rebecca Gardenour and LeeAnn Wiseheart tried unsuccessfully to get separate votes on the decisions to eliminate those positions and the decision to close the schools.

In the end, the board voted to approve Hibbard's plan as a package with only Gardenour and Wiseheart in opposition.

Not all the cynicism is flowing from the top down. Some of it bubbles up from below in the form of the tactical manipulation of foregone conclusions. It is important that we remember this later, when the Palinesque blather from Team Wiseheart will paint a rosy picture of courageous "no" votes as she seeks employment further up the political food chain at a place where much of the current problem originated.

Politics: Wiseheart is Republican, will ditch school board, challenge Sipes, emulate Sarah Palin.

The Tribune's web site makes no mention of a staffer for an article that's primarily a press release, anyway.

Wiseheart throws name in for Indiana Senate seat

“I really feel like this is a path that God has opened doors in areas [for me], and we can see where this is a calling for me in this time in our life,” Wiseheart said with her husband, Jim, and her friend and fellow board member, Rebecca Gardenour, sitting by her side.

At least we know who the next female mayoral candidate will be.

Meanwhile, I was following a golf cart down Main Street when a seemingly empty Chick-Fil-A bag tumbled off the back. Stopping to snag it and dispose of properly, I found these ketchup-smeared, Wiseheart for Senate platform notes protruding from it:

Jobs: Taking a cue from those nice, clean, private religious schools where God is still openly worshipped, all employed Hoosiers should wear uniforms. That way, it’s easier for us to spot the ones too lazy to work.

Education: In the interest of nickels and dimes, we must close Silver Street Elementary immediately so my previous board doesn’t have to refund that pricy consultant’s money.

Sports: No more high school stadiums to be named after terminally ill coaches, especially if they're alive to acknowledge the tribute.

Environment: Return Linden Meadows to the overgrown and abandoned condition it was in before those uppity people wanted to house poor people there inside all those stupid old houses.

Taxes: As a fiscally responsible licensed insurance appraiser, I will work nights and weekends to personally establish the correct property tax rate on your house so that we can better continue starving local government of revenue and drown city hall in its own bathtub.

That was satire. S-A-T-I-R-E.

For the candidate's real web site, go here.

Okay, here: Team Wiseheart. Really.

The coach, two school board members, their voting preferences and my annoyance.

Yesterday I posted a brief remembrance of Ron Weigleb, who died on Saturday.

R.I.P. - Ron Weigleb, former Floyd Central football coach.

In the posting, I mentioned that the NAFC school board voted last week to name Floyd Central’s football stadium Weigleb Stadium in honor of the coach, a decision that came just in the nick of time, and also that two board members voted against the naming. This prompted reader TS to express curiosity as to their reasoning.

Normally I would have provided a link to Tribune coverage of the story. I didn't do this yesterday for the simple reason that the newspaper’s on-line version of Tara Hettinger article omitted the last paragraphs.

I was too lazy yesterday to key in the excised section (I'm an agitator, not a steno), and what's more, I was chagrined at being unable to come up with a clever way to link opposition to Weigleb Stadium to the Linden Meadows project and Resources for Results.

Ah, but today’s a new day, and I’m full of energy this morning, so in answer to reader TS’s query, here’s the link to the original story as well as the final section, with the previously omitted paragraphs in italics.

Note that nothing in this should be construed as "personal" on my part. I know neither of them personally. However, the two school board members were elected to their positions, and decisions like this one certainly apply to their future electoral aspirations. It's a part of the record, and worth remembering.

Note also that the notion of the school system instituting random drug testing is deeply troubling, but grist for another day.

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New Albany-Floyd County board to consider random student drug testing, by Tara Hettinger (News and Tribune).

WEIGLEB STADIUM

Floyd Central High School’s football stadium is officially named Weigleb Stadium after the board voted 5-2 to approve the naming.

Ron Weigleb coached in the corporation for more than 20 years, board members said. He worked with track and football, according to board members.

Weigleb suffers from terminal cancer that is inoperable, according to Phillip Lockhart, who addressed the board Tuesday night.

That night, Lockhart presented the board with a petition showing support to name the facility after Weigleb. He said the board would only have to approve the naming and that donations would pay for the additional signage to the facility.

The board debated whether they should approve the move, especially since the football field is named Scott Field, after the last county superintendent.

“I want to honor him, but I want to be careful not to dishonor the Scott family, said Lee Ann Wiseheart, board member.

“I would like to see Mr. Weigleb honored in some other way, but to keep the Scott family honored, said Rebecca Gardenour, board vice president.

The two board members voiced concerns that the field and stadium are one of the same.

Neil Smith, board president, said he felt that a field and stadium are two different things.

Jim Zoeller, board member, said the issue is null and void since the field is completely new.

“It’s not even there anymore. It’s a parking lot,” Zoeller said of Scott Field.

Wiseheart said she did not feel comfortable voting on an issue in a board work session, so Brooks called an attorney to get the OK. Once that was done, the board voted to amend the agenda then voted on the naming. Wiseheart and Gardenour were the two no votes.