Wednesday, January 22, 2025
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LAKELAND BOARD: Inaction and indecision

| January 15, 2025 1:00 AM

Michelle Thompson, Ramona Grissom and David Quimby just committed Lakeland School District to another year of chaos, indecision and financial distress by re-electing Thompson as board chair. Thompson’s statement that she has “no personal goals as the board chair” tells you everything you need to know about her leadership. Her plan to let the board decide together sounds like more of the same inaction and indecision in the face of a financial crisis.  

Let me suggest to you that as the elected leader of the board, your personal goal should be to bring a thoughtful and decisive plan to the floor that maintains the integrity of education programs and facilities our constituents can support in a timely manner.  

It has been two months since the levy failed. Ensuring the funding of the school district is the board’s most important duty and basic responsibility. The fact that the board hasn’t committed to rerunning the levy in May is of great concern. There is no way you can cut $9.5 million per year from the budget and not experience significant damage.  

Intentional or incompetence? It doesn’t matter at this point. Damage has already happened. Parents and educators are already making decisions about the new school year. Is it bad enough yet? Without immediate and decisive action we are going to find out soon.

TERRI SKUBITZ

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