Dear Editor,
When some school board members state that the Rutland City School Board should have been doing other things, maybe they didn’t notice we were because they were so stuck in retaining the Raider mascot.
Over this last year the School Board has operated schools in person during a pandemic, hired a new superintendent, CFO, director of buildings, grounds and transportation, and school principals. The board has completed its first year of a very active finance committee and passed a responsible budget. The board has been negotiating with all three bargaining units. The board has been engaged with the Coalition for Vermont Student Equity to support Rutland getting more resources from the state to support our struggling students.
These activities did not take place one night a month, like the board meetings most members attended. We had very robust and active committee meetings weekly. The negotiations team had full calendars. The finance committee was in constant communication and adjusting to endless changes with state financial predictions. Those involved in the coalition regarding student weighting are active daily within the group and Legislature and have been meeting weekly for months.
So to say nothing else was done is a misstatement and all about how they chose to participate. Making returning to the Raider mascot and arrowhead imagery the first order of business after board reorganization, with the chair claiming he can invalidate all the work that was done around that mascot, shows that it isn’t about the time or process.
Alison Notte, Rutland
