School Board Elections are no Big Deal, right?

Yesterday two candidates for the South Washington County School District 833 were informed by the district file clerk that a complaint had been made about the candidates' sign placement.  The email read as follows:

Good afternoon, I had a CG resident contact me to say that your signs near the corner of ---th Street and County Road -- are illegally placed.  He says they are on church property OR too close to the roadway...He says that if you do not move them by 8am tomorrow morning, he is contacting the city to have them removed.

This morning, the husband of one of the candidates went to check on the signs, at which time he reported being watched by a man in an older black truck near the church property.  The husband recorded the license plate number of the truck, then determined that the signs were not illegally placed on city property, but were on church property.  He talked with the church secretary about the issue, and was informed that on Thursday, allegedly a man had entered the church, threatened the secretary with the IRS - loss of tax-exempt status - if the church did not remove the signs.  He also allegedly left a note stating, "Remove the signs, or else."

The incident, along with the license plate number, have been reported to the Cottage Grove police and is being investigated.

This incident demonstrates that even though our school district has its elections on odd years, and only around 7% of voters - approximately 4,000 out of 50,000 eligible voters - will vote on school board candidates, that these "small, local elections" hold much value to the people involved with determining the future of our children and control over taxpayer money. They know that most people are not paying attention to the election, and when there are candidates who are willing question and hold accountable the administration and education unions, that they must shut those candidates down in any way possible - even if it means threatening a church's First Amendment Right of Freedom of Speech.  

School board members make decisions that affect all the students in the district - those kids are our future. Their decisions affect how much we will be paying each year in taxes and how much our district employees - teachers and staff - will be paid.  I would argue that there is no more important election than that of the school board and city councils because what they do affects the citizens the most.

Obviously, there are those in our district who feel that this election is important and are willing to stoop to the lowest of lows to shut down opposition voices.

Pay attention.  Research the candidates.  Ask questions about the levy renewal/increase and bond.  Do your homework. AND VOTE ON NOVEMBER 5.

UPDATE: The police went to the church and spoke with the pastor and the candidates.  The police have stated that the person in the truck was actively harassing the candidates and church.  The police have also said that if the person in the truck is seen at either at the church or the candidates' homes that would constitute "stalking."  
~Updated 12:33pm, October 18, 2013 

Let's "Talk About Issues," But Only If We Like What You Say

Recently, Kirk Burback (South Washington County School District 833 parent), attempted to make comments on the District 833 Vote Yes committee's campaign page on Facebook.  He posted two comments, the first one on the committee's assertion that the district isn't planning to spend taxpayer money on iPads (the district has already bought approximately 1100 iPads for five schools and all the district preschools, and plans for all 17,300+ students to have district-provided iPads is in the district's "T3" Plan, but that isn't the reason why the district NEEDS "Q2" to pass...), but on "boring stuff" like servers and switches and the like:

Nothing combative or attacking in these comments; just some good questions, right?  

Then Kirk left a comment on a second post by the Vote Yes committee:

Apparently, contrary to the assertion by the Vote Yes committee in the above post that they want to "talk about the issues," they only want to talk about issues with people who agree with them as demonstrated by the fact that Kirk's comments were deleted and he was blocked from the page:

So, do the Vote Yes committee leaders really want to "talk about issues"? Or do they want to talk about issues, but only if what is being said furthers their agenda of selling the community on why they need to give up more of their hard-earned money to the insatiable education machine?  What does this say about the Vote Yes people?  Many of the those on the Vote Yes committee serve on various district committees and are very friendly with the administration: if the Vote Yes people actively censor legitimate questions and comments from their Facebook page, does it show that they really want to "talk about issues"? And what does that say about the administration that is hoping that the Vote Yes committee succeeds in convincing the taxpayers to approve the levy and bond referendums on November 5?  Experience has shown that this administration is not fond of actually listening to the people, unless it is to discover what the community truly cares about and then doing the opposite (busing/walking distances, last year's budget cuts, iPads all come to mind...).  

 My mama always told me, "Show me your friends, and I'll show you who you are..."