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May 2009
Tough call in Wayne-Westland School Board race
Posted by Scott Spielman
at 11:11 AM | Comments (4)
The Wayne-Westland Community School Board race will be decided on Tuesday and it’s anybody’s call on who will win it.
There are several influences that factor into it: there are people who vote for change just to vote for change. There is the lingering bad taste of a failed recall attempt—those that wanted to yank Martha Pitsenbarger and Skip Monit from office couldn’t get anywhere near enough signatures. A large candidate pool will dilute the number of people voting for any one candidate. And there is the still overt pressure from the Michigan Education Association (MEA).
That last one is easy to spot: it’s the sign with three names on it. Obviously, unions always have an impact on election (or like to think they do). Usually it’s in the form of an endorsement. I can’t recall a situation where the union paid for and put up signs for a particular slate of candidates. The address on the bottom of the sign (you can only see it if you look, bent over and up close) is in Plymouth, too, and that bothers me.
I think the union did a real disservice to the community as a whole during the contentious contract negotiations last year that lead to a ‘work stoppage.’ The negative impact of the contract agreed to will be felt for years locally and soon forgotten by those outside influences. My gut instinct would be to forget candidates endorsed by the union and vote for anybody else, but Shawna Walker is on that sign and I think she’s a positive presence on the board.
So should you vote for incumbents or challengers? I honestly haven’t made up my mind on who I will cast my personal ballot for. I think voters would be wrong to vote for the people on the board merely because they have been there already. Likewise, voting for a change just for the sake of change is also a mistake.
I think my vote will depend not on their answers to some questionnaire (or even my own questions), but on what (or who) truly motivates them, how much they’re willing to do for the district and the abuse they’re willing to take to make difficult, unpopular, but necessary decisions. Perhaps the best question to ask: is it courage, or opportunity?
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