Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

I saw an article in the Los Angeles Times recently that Meg Whitman has now set a record by contributing $119 million to her campaign for governor. You can read about it here.

My first thought, couldn’t she have found something better to do with all that money?

I bring it up because of a recent conversation that I had regarding the upcoming school board election. I was speaking with someone and they commented on how expensive it must be to run. They had heard that it would cost around $5,000 to run for a position on the board. Imagine their surprise when I told them that it actually costs nothing.

You can spend a lot of money, but you don’t have to. All candidates have the opportunity to provide a statement that is included in the voter guide that is sent to all voters. The final cost depends on the number of candidates that choose to participate but for the Lowell Joint School Board election the original estimate was over $1,000. I decided not to participate as I felt that the cost was too high and there were other options available to make my positions available to the voters.

It didn’t stop there. Within days of filing I began to receive calls, emails and letters from a variety of people offering their services. It was touching that so many people wanted to help…………for a price. I could easily spend a few thousand dollars on voter slate mailings, robocalls, campaign signs and even my own personal campaign manager. They all said the same thing you need to get name recognition if you want to win.

What I decided to do instead was start my own website. I went to GoDaddy.com and Blogspot.com and set up the site you are on today for less than $20. I also started a Facebook page for free. I have spent a little bit of money advertising on Facebook (more out of curiosity than anything). I ordered some postcards from VistaPrint.com (they have great deals and some products are free!).

One option I have been considering recently is signs. As you get closer to election day you see them everywhere. I have seen a few already pop up on my drive to work. I’ve done some research and they can be pretty expensive. Sure, some websites offer 100 signs for $100, but if you want something that is big enough to read, has multiple colors, will last for more than a week and want a stand to place it on you are looking at $250 and up.

Then, you need to decide where you are going to put your signs. That’s easy enough, ask your friends to put them in their yards, target areas near the schools and busy intersections. I was surprised to find that even though you see many signs on telephone and utility poles, most cities ban the practice. Many areas also limit the time you can display signs and require that they are removed immediately after the election (with penalties if you don’t).

All in all, it can be pretty intimidating to set up and honestly do you even remember the signs you see every day? I haven’t even mentioned the impact to the environment. Do we really need to see a bunch of signs on every available square foot of real estate for the next 60 days? Then they all go in the trash after the election, kind of a waste don’t you think?

That brings me back to Meg Whitman. Rather than spend money on campaign signs isn’t there something better I can do with that money?

So here is my pledge and my invitation to the other candidates. I am going to donate the $250 I was considering spending on campaign signs to the Lowell Joint Education Foundation. As an added bonus, Bank of America matches employee donations so that will double the amount to $500. I think that is a better use of the money.

That doesn’t mean I won’t be campaigning. You will still have the option to put up a sign to support my candidacy. You can click here to download a sign to display in your window at home or maybe in your car. Not quite up the standards of what you order online, but much more cost effective.

There will be information on all the candidates available in the local media. This week’s LaHabra Journal has a great article on all of the candidates and the OC Register is planning to publish an online voter guide. I have heard that the Whittier Daily News will provide the candidates the opportunity to share their positions prior to the election. You can also read about all the candidates on SmartVoter.org. Voters will have the opportunity to read about all the candidates and make an informed decision even if they never see a sign.

I’ll post my thoughts on this website regularly, maybe walk a few neighborhoods, make a few calls, advertise a little on Facebook and attend the school board meetings. Hopefully the word will get out. At the end of the day any of the eight candidates running for the board would do a good job. Feel free to vote for any two candidates that you like ----- just save one vote for me!

September's School Board Meeting

The plan this week was to continue on the topic of teacher evaluations but I was sidetracked first by a business trip out of town and then the school board meeting on Monday night. There were some interesting developments at the meeting so we’ll have to pick up where we left off on the subject of “Grading the Teachers” at a later time.

If I have learned anything over the past few months it is that the Lowell Joint School Board meetings are the equivalent of “Must See TV” and Monday’s meeting was no exception. The first clue that something was coming was when the meeting was moved from the district office to Meadow Green. I assume this was to accommodate the large number of people that have tried to attend meetings in the district’s small conference room recently.

(On a side note, I have to say that the Meadow Green campus is beautiful! The auditorium is roomy and well kept up and they have a stage! There was even green grass that was actually being watered! As a Jordan parent I can’t tell you the last time I drove by the school and saw it being watered. Our grass is a perpetual state of brown. But I digress……)

You know that you are in store for something interesting when the first thing you see upon arriving at the school is a picket line of teachers on the sidewalk, dressed in black. The meeting itself contained a lot of very useful information including a summary of the 2009/2010 district accomplishments, a budget review, the 2010 API results among other items on the agenda. You can view the details on the district’s website by clicking here.

There was a little more give and take between members of the audience and the board tonight. Usually there is no interaction and the members of the audience have to wait until the public comments time in the agenda to speak out. It was actually nice to see some discussion for a change (even though is was difficult to hear the board members as there was only one microphone).

As usual the fireworks really start when we get to the public comments. It was nice to hear a Macy parent provide some positive feedback to the board for addressing an issue around class size, but that was it for the positive notes.

The next few speakers lashed out at the board for a number of reasons with the final speaker of the night providing a update on the recent negotiations with the teachers that was punctuated by a mass walk-out of all the teachers that were present at the meeting.

I would like to say that there was an improvement in the tone of the meeting compared the recent meetings I attended in June, but there hasn't been much progress on that front. There is still an air of distrust between the board and the teachers that is as one of of the board members noted "the elephant in the room".

There were only about 15 people remaining after the teachers left (with five of those being candidates for the board in the upcoming election). With all that is going on in the district I would like to think that we would have a better turnout from the parents.....maybe they didn't know about the meeting?

There were a few more observations that I would like to make but this post is getting long so they will have to wait until next time.