Glencoe Silver Lake School District open forum op-ed.

From the McLeod County Chronicle.

The Glencoe-Silver Lake School and its public were on the verge of
conversing last week at the first of several school public forums, but the plug
was pulled on the meeting before that necessary dialog could take hold.

For those that do not know, the GSL school district has been unable to pass an operating levy for the past several years. It has failed twice previously, including this past November. The politics behind the levy not passing are starting to divide the community. People want to talk about this issues at the school and through LTE's around the area, have began to express their opinion. They wanted more time at the forum, but simply did not get it.

The forum was just getting to the meat-and-potatoes issues facing this district when it was adjourned abruptly. That created ill-will among those waiting to ask questions. If the board did not sense the public's frustration last week, then it was not paying attention.

The next forum needs to change formats, too. Instead of cards with written questions, go to the open microphone approach where the questions can be asked
directly rather than be filtered.

So, with April 23rd as the set date for the next forum, I would suggest that we all make plans to attend this important event. We have quite a bit of time to wait for it...time to plan.