Vantage point: Reflections
By:
Frank Pugh
Published: December 1, 2010
I’d like to use this, my last Vantage Point column, as an opportunity to reflect on the year that is coming to a close. It’s not exactly goodbye, because I’ll be around next year as immediate past president—but it’s close enough. And though I can’t quite see myself participating in one of those “Sound of Music” sing-alongs that have become so popular, the song “So Long, Farewell” did come to mind when I was putting these thoughts to paper:
So long, farewell
Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight …
Some of the past presidents who served before me warned me not to bring too many expectations into my presidential year. However, I can’t say that I was expecting this year. It truly was the best of times, and the worst of times. And in some instances, the best times came as a result of the worst times—it was that kind of year.
We are well on the road to creating a CSBA that is stronger than ever before. Am I happy about the reasons why we’ve worked on this so hard for the past five months? No. But there’s nothing I can do to change the past; all I can do is work as hard as I can to help fix the problems and make sure they don’t happen again in the future. To that end, the CSBA Board of Directors received an independent Governance and Fiscal Review in November. Implementing the recommendations of this report will be a key priority for CSBA’s leadership in 2011. Many of the recommendations are detailed, and will not be completed overnight. But the membership of CSBA can rest assured that this work will be done.
The school finance lawsuit was perhaps the key accomplishment for CSBA in 2010. Years of research and preparation went into the filing of this lawsuit, and anyone who has read the arguments knows that we’ve done everything we can to make the best case for our schools and our kids. If we can’t get the governor or the Legislature to do the right thing for public education, maybe a judge can help them find their way.
But there was much, much more—and at the end of my term as president, one thing I think we need to do better is to highlight how much good we’re doing for school boards and kids in California: our advocacy at the Capitol and the State Board of Education; the indispensable services we provide (policy services, district services, financial services); the publications we offer as a benefit of membership (California School News, California Schools magazine); critical information pieces like the Education Issues Brief—the list goes on and on.
We’ve faced challenges in 2010. There is a lot of work that remains to be done. But I firmly believe that we are on the right track, and that the best is yet to come.
And with that, I say so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight.