Aspirin for Cancer

Scott Lehrman initially didn’t have much of an opposition in his bid for re-election. I myself think he’s a great guy, and was my favorite board member for many a month, despite not being from my neighborhood. Then… there was everything that happened this summer. Then there was the disastrous “rescheduled” board meeting where angry community members and teachers watched our board do the unthinkable thing and go along with some apparently vindictive, power hungry administrators. Then there was an injunction against the teachers filed 12 hours after the strike became official, long before any harm could possibly have been done to children.

And Scott listened. He reluctantly listened when everyone else left but he listened. … but that’s all he did.

I hoped, watching him stand there and take an emotional beating from the difficult circumstances he went along with, that he’d stop going with the PSD flow. That he’d come to negotiations to listen to what was really happening. That he’d take the allegations of neglect and lack of curriculum seriously, that he’d listen to the hundreds and hundreds of parents who have had bad experiences working with PSD’s top administration. But he didn’t.

Scott Lehrman is a very nice and a pretty smart guy. And that’s all I can say about him now. He listens, yes, but then he continues to do what’s already been done, and what hasn’t worked for years. It’s not enough to listen if you don’t act. It’s not enough to listen if you don’t believe or at least even consider what’s being told to you. It’s not enough to listen if you let all that experience, emotion and fervor go in one ear and out the other because it would be too hard to act against an entrenched administration. So right now, Scott is good, but good isn’t good enough.

Scott is good, but Kathleen is amazing. Scott would be a good board member on any other board but right now Pasco needs Kathleen. Pasco needs a voice of dissent, one that will not simply listen but will also act. One that has the time and experience to represent the parents and teachers on the front line of education.

Kathleen Barton has spent her whole professional life in education. Further, Kathleen is a career educator, not a career administrator. One of the biggest problems we have in Pasco School District is everyone in charge has either little or no classroom experience. We have career minded administrators who spend a handful of years with students, then moved on to management decades ago. And that can be alright, but we have a board that listens to them and takes their suggestions as absolutely correct.

Kathleen is tough and intelligent, she is not afraid to say no when she smells a situation that has a suspicious odor. She’s been on the front lines of education, not directing pieces from a board room, for her whole life. She doesn’t feel the need to paint a rosy picture over the mess, she wants to get in elbow deep and fix what’s busted. Kathleen knows what’s going wrong in Pasco but loves students and education enough that she won’t give up and take the path of least resistance.

I won’t accuse Scott of always taking that path. He listened and even, very occasionally, agreed to disagree in the face of obvious bitter anger from the likes of Saundra Hill. But right now, Scott is an Aspirin when you’ve got cancer. He is simply not strong enough, simply not tough enough, not experienced enough, he’s simply not enough.

We need Kathleen Barton. We need her experience and strength. We need a long-shot write in candidate to come in and help make the change we all so desperately need now. I've read what she has to say and I can tell that all my concerns about our district are hers as well. We don't have to convince her there was a lack of curriculum. We don't have to talk her into considering that hundreds of parents aren't happy with how they are shut out. We don't have to cajole her into even considering there are issues with the way things are run in Pasco. She knows and she's just as upset about it as we all are.

Kathleen is exactly what our city needs to heal after this strike. She has the experience of living through it before and she knows how to actually do it, rather than just talking about it. She has the voice of the parents, knows their concerns. She is an incredibly popular educator and the teachers have faith in her. She is the right medicine at the right time.

I support Kathleen Barton. My spouse and I wrote her name in and put our ballots in the mail. So I know she’s got at least 2 votes. Will you join me and make it 3? 10? 1000? 10,000? A name for every one of us that sees, as our current board seems unable to, that we need change now and we are willing to fight to get it. We're ready to be healed. We're ready for something stronger than Aspirin.

Write in Kathleen's name on your ballot. Because good isn't good enough right now. We need better.