My unedited notes on the 2/29/24 School Board meeting

Notes on School Board Meeting reviewing exit polls , Feb 29, 2024

 

Results of the exit poll

 

1380 voters, 27% yes.

 

494 participants exit: 186 yes, 280 no, plus a lot of people who did not indicate how they voted.

 

No’s: location concerns & money

 

Dina: not welcoming, clearly uncomfortable with the public attendance and the possibility of public input.

 

Evan: Losing the anchor for the town “can’t be our concern as a school board” --> [KC] Question: have they started from the wrong problem definition? The lack of interest in aligning the process and goals of the communities whose votes they need.

 

Heather: blames social media, feels that people with concerns are obligated to call the district and the school board, not go on social media.

 

(various people blame social media): apparent consensus that communication is the problem, not the proposed solutions.

 

Discussion of recruiting new people for the facilities community: from the sound of it, this recruiting will have no impact on addressing the reasons it did not pass.

 

Best ideas so far is working with the state level.

 

The idea is raised of involving students partly to help in conveying the Board’s Message. Discussed having (non-voting) student member

 

Heather floats the idea that we are “all from Boquet Valley.” Question: Is Boquet Valley a regional identity? I don’t think so. Who says “I am from the Boquet Valley”? I don’t know anyone who does that.

 

Problem: They need support of the voters not only to pass votes, but also to lobby at the State level.

 

They want the community to invent a regional identity that does not exist and are denying the validity of the regional identities that do exist.

 

They are pitting the interests of the students against existing regional identities rather than leveraging regional identity to support students.