C1 MY TURN: Questions for CDA school board

5-0 is unacceptable for the school board to blindly pass the school district's color coding destruction of the school system. Apparently none of them had the integrity, backbone or knowledge to understand who they were elected to represent.

They are to represent the voter, not the school district and its foolish system. If any of them took the time to ask some of the following questions we would have hopefully had some form of dissent. Which I think they were scared of due to the fact that changed the meeting last minute from August 24th to August 17th in the middle of the day.

As representatives of the voters, some important questions that could have been asked:

What took you so long to come up with a plan?

What are you basing these codes on?

Do you feel this is too disruptive to kids, parents and teachers?

Do you feel this is damaging emotionally and psychologically to kids?

Can high academic standards be maintained?

This plan adds to school budgets. What is the plan for increased spending?

How do you offer a smaller product for the same price?

Kids just lost a week of school in addition to the 3 months lost last year. Now you are offering kids to be in school 40% of the time and recently Lakes Middle School eliminated 13% of that by canceling eighth period.

I have spoken on the potential emotional damage of these plans which they have doubled down on. Under code orange, kids will be separated from peers based on alphabetical order and classroom placement. There is a lot to be frustrated with when local representation fails you and an institution designed to teach and protect kids would rather do neither. However, there is a silver lining to every dark cloud.

I have seen parents on numerous message boards and Facebook groups ask the question, who is going to homeschool this year? Well, the answer is everyone; we have been pushed into this situation by the School Board and District. The real question is what curriculum you are going to choose for homeschooling — the public schools' lazy curriculum or a curriculum you have control over and feel comfortable delivering? We have a chance to make a change to the education system in this state and the best way to send a message is to reject their plan and create your own.

That being said here is another way to send a message. When the school boards hide from the public and blindly vote to support the district and not the voters, it’s time to vote them out.

Lisa May Nov. 2, 2021, send her home.

Jennifer Brumly Nov. 2, 2021, (unelected by the public by the way) send her home.

Rebecca Smith Nov. 2, 2021, (unelected by the public by the way) send her home

It is time to say no to group thinking weak representatives and choose some individuals who know who they are to represent.

Roger Garlock is a Coeur d'Alene resident.