Saying Thanks to School Boards

* As president of the Orange County Board of Education, I initiated and signed our board resolution proclaiming January as Orange County School Board Recognition Month.

To honor our 147 locally elected members of the county’s 28 K-12 boards of education in this manner is to recognize them for their dedication to quality education for almost half a million children attending our schools every day.

Their responsibility is awesome. From establishing attendance areas to zoological field trip provisions, from budget development to policy setting, transportation and the school lunch program, the challenges of myriad meetings until all hours throughout their four-year terms appear to be prelude to sainthood and deserving of our appreciation.

As a local district board member prior to my 17 years of service on the county Board of Education, I know the demands of trying to meet community expectations that often appear to run contrary to the law.

Board member responsibilities have changed dramatically in the past decades. Where once our major concern was funding the instructional program, and all that that entails, members are now faced with children coming to school without breakfast, more concerned about their stomachs than their studies.

With fully one-third of our 450,000 students having a limited-English vocabulary, special provisions must be made as they move to complete mastery of English.

Some of our districts have no available room to meet the 20-to-1 class size reduction effort.

Not only are there no rooms, there is no acreage to build new schools and no bond money for construction! Yet the children keep coming.

Our schools are ranked No. 1 in parent and student satisfaction, according to the recent state survey. The Orange County Board of Education school board recognition resolution is our way of saying thank you and congratulations to 147 board members, some with more than 30 years of service to their communities.

SHEILA MEYERS

President

Orange County Board of Education