Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Thank you!

To the 3,000+ folks who voted for me yesterday: THANK YOU!

It is a humbling experience to put one's name on the ballot and have this many people indicate that they not only agree with what you have to say, but would like you to represent them in carrying it out.

While I came in last place, the spread was not that great:

Doug Maggied*: 4,533 (28%)
Dave Lundregan: 4,452 (28%)
Dick Hammond*: 3,654 (23%)
Paul Lambert: 3,276 (21%)

The defeat is in having only 8,000 out of 43,000 registered voters show up. Apathy was indeed the winner.

I suspect that the votes for me contributed to unseating Dick Hammond and helped Dave Lundregan. The outcome might have been different had I not run, and you folks not voted for me. That's a victory.

Congratulations to Dave Lundregan for winning a seat on the Board - he was who got my second vote. I know Dave from our time serving together on the Board of Trustees of the Hilliard Education Foundation, and am confident that he will bring a good deal of energy, commitment, and financial expertise to the Board. I've offered him my help in any effort to educate the community about school funding - a criticial step toward getting our next levy passed.

Meanwhile, the current Board will continue to serve to the end of 2007. In the next couple of weeks, they will need to decide how large that levy will be when it appears on the May ballot. I fear they will choose to slide by on a relatively small levy, and avoid talking about the magnitude of the funding problem 5-6 years out.

People - you cannot sit on the sidelines now if you want to have a voice in this matter. Call the school board members and tell them want you want. Send them letters and emails. Better yet, show up at the next few school board meetings and let your voice be heard!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for running, Pablo.

    If there's a next time for you, I'd like to be more active in helping. I regret not making the offer this time.

    Be well. ce

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  2. Thanks Charley. It's too early to say if there will be a next time, but for now we need to be very alert to what the school board has before them - namely the amount of the next levy.

    I'm going to start an email list for updates, rather than counting on folks to active seek out the website and blog. If you (or anyone else out there) want to be on it, shoot your email to savehilliardschools@msn.com

    See you around our town!

    Pablo

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