It's all Nicole's fault.

I went to my first school board meeting about 2 years ago. Nicole Benson was trying to schedule people to attend meetings and then report back to her larger email group in the hopes of getting more people informed. I didn’t really know Nicole, but I was on the PTA and wanted to get more involved—school projects were looming and there was a need to get info out to people. So I went.

It was painful.

I didn’t know the board members or the couple people in the audience. I didn’t feel like I should be there. As the meeting went on, it turned out that the other people were there to present something to the board and as soon as they did, they left. Halfway through that meeting it was just me and the reporter in the audience.

Um….

The issues in town have been bubbling up over the past year. The school plans were in the works for a while, but very few were paying attention until the tax rate exploded.

And then the ceiling literally fell down. (OK, ALMOST fell down).

I became immersed in school board issues pretty quickly and started learning more about our crazy little town. One thing led to another, and I’ve started going to town council meetings too.

And I discovered that I like it.  I don’t expect you to like it as much as I do and doubt that people will start spending their Wednesday nights at Town Hall (but doesn't that sound like fun?)  A lot of it is incredibly boring and WAY too complicated to understand without some background info and that’s where I want to start.

My hope is to start getting that background info and to share it here. Who are the people? What are the issues? How does it impact me and my family?

Attending meetings is still pretty painful a lot of the time. Only a few people show up. I zone out when they start talking about the wear and tear from salt on town trucks and I won’t pretend to know much about the Black Bear TIF (I’m not even 100% sure where it is but it is a huge deal in our town right now) but as I learn more, I’ll pass it on.

Two years later and school projects are still looming. The grassroots effort in this town was amazing during the last town meeting cycle but all these other issues will affect the future of a school and of our town. Hopefully, through information and involvement we can find some solutions. 

We’re all in this together.