November 5th will provide an opportunity for the Bowling Green City School district to have a fresh start. Three school board seats are up for election. Eight candidates are vying for these three open seats. We need to move past the last four, tough years. To review a few of the struggles:
*Two failed schools levies, November 2017 and May 2018.
*BGCS has struggled with teacher retention. The heart of quality schools starts and stops with its teachers. BGCS has many quality teachers but can’t continue to lose them at the current rate.
*BGCS became one of only two school districts in the county to have a school placed on EdChoice (Kenwood). This allows parents to pull students from the district and go to private schools. This has cost the district thousands of dollars. This district could have a second school (Crim) placed on EdChoice because of the recent state scores. This will be known in December.
*We have One Divided Community; this district desperately needs a fresh start. The divide widened following the first levy defeat. The current board chose to conduct two special board meetings to pass a motion that sent the exact same failed levy before the voters again in May of 2018. The community was left feeling unheard and created a deeper divide.
I urge the community to research each of the six new candidates and make your own choice. The trajectory of the district needs to change. The divide and conquer approach will never bring this community back together. Returning current board members will only prolong the healing. Those vying for the positions that aren’t currently on the board are: Richard Strow, Ryan Myers, Peggy Thompson, Brian Smith, Tracy Hovest and Grant Chamberlain.
Thank you retiring member board Paul Walker for your years of service. Serving on a school board can be a thankless job.
A change will do this district good. On November 5th vote for a change.
Darcy Lutes-Lumpkin
Bowling Green
