ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.
I got it wrong Monday night 
when I reported that part of the first proposal of the bond issue will be for constructing a new K-5 elementary on property near the transportation building. I’ve been told the new school actually will house just fourth- and fifth-graders.
How would I know? The Wayland Board of Education gave less than a sketchy explanation of the bond issue it approved at its meeting Monday night. The only information passed along was that the bond would be split in two, a proposal for academic facilities and a proposal for athletic facilities.
Board members said they would go with Option B, as if everybody in the audience knew what that was. School officials have had a huge number of public meetings on the bond in more than a year, so it sometimes is difficult to get everything sorted out and straight.
It wasn’t long ago that the board seemed to favor a K-5 school building in back of the high school and junior high, and it was part of a package that was estimated at $5 million less than the package that contained the 4-5 school.
It was my understanding that the board chose to seek the smaller $48 million total package and split it into two proposals, the latter which probably will doom hopes for a new pool, artificial turf for the football stadium and tennis court replacement. It’s like the old days, when schools would ask for a millage renewal in one proposal, which would pass, and an increase in another, which almost always would fail.
It was a bizarre meeting Monday night, one in which more than 100 people showed up, but by the time the board voted on the bond proposals, it was only about a third of that number. And those who witnessed it left Dorr Elementary scratching their heads, wondering what they had just seen and heard. And no one seemed to know how much each of the proposals would cost. The school board had some “Splainin’ to do,” but didn’t.
School board members for some time now have complained that there’s too much misinformation circulating among residents of the district. They’re right, but Monday night they made a horrible public relations mistake by making such a terse announcement, without particulars to explain what they were approving.
Making matters worse, the board went into a closed session before the end of the meeting, reconvened and then added an agenda item on extending the teachers’ contract for another year. It’s not illegal, but it is unusual and leads to many in the public to believe there is too much decision making being done behind closed doors in secret and then the public only gets to see and hear the formalities.
A big part of this bond issue next May is public trust in the Wayland Board of Education, which did a terrible job of communicating just what it will ask for in the most important school election in at least six years.
I have to plead guilty to spreading misinformation about the bond this week, but I hereby declare the board and administration just as guilty, if not more.
