Who Are These Guys?

Reputations aren’t made in a fortnight, nor are they reformed in a matter of mere months; but the Fairfield County School Board has done about as much as is humanly possible to mend their public perception in a relatively short amount of time. Under the leadership of a new Board Chairwoman, Fairfield’s Gang of Seven has gone from twice-monthly meetings so poorly conducted as to stand every possible chance of devolving into outright donnybrooks, to veritable monthly socials so efficient and well-mannered as to be downright boring. And while it is still early in the tenure of the District’s most recent superintendent, the Board appears, at least, to be deviating from its long-standing tradition of savaging competent, qualified administrators, hounding them to the edges of the Earth, and replacing them with inexperienced puppets who require constant baby-sitting just in order to get things only half wrong.

Last week, the Board took another great leap forward when, in a remarkable display of unity, they voted to approve the construction contract on a new Career and Technology Center, as well as the $20 million bond to pay for the facility. No one will argue that it hasn’t been a long time coming, as for more than a decade the current Career Center, consistently the best performing school in the system, has been an embarrassing eyesore on a school district flush with money. And the proposed location for the new facility, near the Middle School and Fairfield Central High School, will remove the need, and associated expense, for busing students up and down Highway 321 several times a day.

Taxpayer watchdogs may wince at the fact that the millage rate associated with the bond will increase to 34 mils on all taxable property. It should be noted, however, that after two years that rate will fall to 24 mils. Study after study has fingered the School District as the number one impediment to economic development in Fairfield County. Now, under their current leadership, the District appears to be responding to those assessments with positive change; and in exchange for two years of a little tax pain, Fairfield County will have a facility of which they can be proud.

The one remaining complaint this newspaper has had with the Board of Trustees in recent months is their policy of holding meetings all over the District, in a different location each month. Meetings are often held in uncomfortable settings and with the official proceedings virtually, if not completely, inaudible. As we have stated here previously, this policy has made meetings less – and not more – accessible to the public, and appears to have been conceived for that very reason, to conduct public business far from public view.

Last week, the Chairwoman laid that complaint to rest, announcing that in April the Board will return their regular meetings to the District Office in Winnsboro. Again, no one will argue that this, too, hasn’t been a long time coming; and while we won’t to pretend to take any credit for the change, we will say that if we’d ever thought that anyone might have ever actually taken any of our suggestions to heart, we would have made a lot more.