Here are some of my opinion columns originally published in The Argus, the daily newspaper serving Rock Island, Ill. and the Quad-Cities region of Iowa and Illinois.
-- Mike Kielkopf
Education
May 31, 1983
Give the unions an 'F'
I've tried to bite my tongue - or should that be computer? Either way, it didn't work.
"The nation's largest teachers' union today accused President Reagan of making a "disgraceful assault" on its profession with his call for "pay based on merit instead of seniority." And so I can withhold comment no longer.
A "disgraceful assault"? Not quite. What the president has consistently said for years is hardly a disgraceful assault on teaching. It is exactly the opposite. It is the power-hungry union leadership that is engaged in a disgraceful assault on the teaching profession, not the President of the United States.
What America needs is a teaching profession that is held accountable for the job it is supposed to be doing. What we want is for the best teachers to be paid the most and for the worst teachers to be fired. That's not a "disgraceful assault" on teaching, that's a noble, common-sense plan.
Last week WOC radio in Davenport aired a broadcast editorial that essentially said that since teachers' unions don't want merit pay and since it is impossible to determine which teachers are good and which teachers are bad, merit pay is a bad idea. Well, are all broadcast editorial writers paid the same? Is it possible to tell whether some are better than others? Shouldn't the good ones be paid more than the bad ones?
By using the same logic it has applied to the teaching profession, WOC would apparently conclude that the answer to those questions is no. But that is absurd, and so is the opinion that it is impossible to tell who the good teachers are and who the bad teachers are.
Taxpayers, we believe, should not support increased salaries for teachers in any public school system that operates on anything other than a merit pay system.
In most areas of our economic system, except where labor unions dominate, more capable people get paid better than those who are less capable. But teachers' unions fear such plans, not because they would be bad for teachers or for public education, but because they would be bad for teachers' unions.
The plain fact is that it doesn't matter if a teacher is more energetic, more creative, more patient, more effective than a colleague, because if both have five years' experience and a master's degree, they will be paid the same.
Of all the workplaces in America, the public schools ought to be among the last to encourage professional mediocrity. But that's exactly what such seniority-based pay scales do. We'd be pleased to hear from anyone who has any evidence to the contrary.
Just as teachers have established criteria to evaluate students by giving them grades, teachers themselves ought to be able to come up with a system whereby they would be fairly evaluated and rewarded accordingly. To suggest that teaching is such a mystical art that the good teachers cannot be separated from the bad is as dumb a thing to suggest as it would be to say that red and white are both colors and, therefore, it's really impossible to say which is which.
A recent poll conducted by Peter Hart for a Tennessee citizen's group found that citizens would be willing to pay higher taxes if a merit pay plan for public school teachers in the state were adopted. Hart found that only 13 percent of those polled would support a tax increase to pay for across-the-board improvement in teachers' salaries, but 57 percent would support one to finance salaries "based on merit and geared to rewarding teachers who meet higher standards of competence."
If we truly want better public schools, then we're going to have to do something to make sure we reward good teachers and get rid of the bad ones. And if we can't do that, if that's such a wrong-headed idea, then it seems the consistent thing to do would be to stop grading students and simply give everyone who shows up a "C." After all, that's exactly what the unions say is appropriate for teachers.
May 11, 1982
'Think men, think!'
For three nights last week, the results of months of painstaking effort were on public display on the stage of Rock Island High School's Little Theater. That was the site of the Rocky drama and music departments’ presentation of one of America's finest musicals, Meredith Willson's The Music Man.
Mary and I were among the sizable Saturday night audience that listened and laughed at the beguiling tale of Professor Harold Hill, his attraction to Marian -- River City, Iowa's, idealistic librarian -- and the intriguing plot that ultimately ensnares the grand plotter himself.
Even though everyone connected with the Rocky performance deserves the outstanding ovation the audience gave them Saturday night, I cannot mention everyone's name here. I would, however, offer special praise for Suzann Henneman, who portrayed Marian the librarian. Her acting was outstanding, but her singing was the highlight of the evening. As someone in the audience near us noted, "It's amazing the talent these kids have."
Chris Lear was solid as the wily Professor Hill, and Mary Nesseler as Winthrop, Chris Gulley as Marcellus Washburn, Andrew Spurgetis as the inarticulate Mayor Shinn and Judy E. Voss as the mayor's socialite wife, delivered energetic performances. And I could go on and cite the entire cast, chorus, production crew -- the sets were outstanding -- stage crew and orchestra for impressive work.
Certainly Barbara Gende (director), Andrea Van Hook (assistant director), Tracy Klein and Ed Butterfield (music directors) and Robert Maurus (vocal instructor) are to be commended for their leadership and dedication without which such an outstanding display of student talent would not occur.
And this was only one of a growing myriad of activities that is available to not only the students at Rocky but those who attend almost every public high school in the Quad-Cities area. Whether students seek to compete in football, baseball, basketball or several other sports, whether they wish to hone skills in speech and debate, to compete in chess, to explore career and vocational interests, to test themselves on the stage, to develop musical skills and interests or become involved in one of many other extracurricular activities, area public schools provide vast opportunities.
We all can take pride in the public schools and the job most teachers and administrators do in providing not only a basic education but one that is enhanced by such "extras" as The Music Man.
No matter if last week marks the last time those young people appear on a stage, the work they did in preparing for their performances, as well as the performances themselves, will be experiences they will recall with fondness the rest of their lives. No one can say for sure exactly what benefit the experiences will have for each individual, but you can be sure each individual will benefit.
Education is a lot of things and it comes to each of us in ways peculiar to us. That's why it's important to offer as wide a range of extracurricular experiences as possible. Rock Island's The Music Man made that point again Saturday night, sure as River City’s gonna have a boys band -- with uniforms.
August 24, 1982
Good afternoon, class
It's hard to believe, but a new school year is about to begin for thousands of young people throughout the Quad-Cities area. Where has the summer gone?
Whatever the answer to that question may be, you may be far more interested in the possible answers to this question: What do we get for the money we spend on public education? The most recent issue of the Illinois School Board Journal offers some answers worth passing along.
"Schools often take the blame for many of society's ailments -- from racial strife to poverty to crime," the Journal notes. "People expect a great deal from their schools because there is an unmistakable link between education and quality of life. Educated citizens of America provide the brainpower for advances in science, medicine, technology, art and literature. Uneducated or poorly educated citizens populate the nation's prisons and public aids programs.
"Traditionally, the public schools have always been available for those willing to make the effort to benefit from them. Schools today try harder, reaching out to more and more students for whom schooling presents a difficult challenge. No longer do schools turn their backs on the physically or mentally handicapped. Students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds who 20 years ago would have quietly dropped out are now remaining in school in even larger numbers."
The article further points out that America's public schools perform not only teaching functions, but they also provide such ancillary programs as food services, counseling, remedial learning programs for the disadvantaged, advanced programs for the more talented and extracurricular activities from football, basketball and baseball to chess clubs, school newspaper staffs, speech and debate teams, bands, orchestras and drama clubs. The schools that are opening their doors in the next few days are multi-faceted organizations far different from the schools of not so long ago.
A recent speech by William J. Banach, a Michigan educator, focused on this fact:
"Adults should be careful about saying today's young people don't know anything. In a California school district, 120 adults -- most of them with college degrees -- were given a 10th grade competency test that measured reading, writing and arithmetic skills. In each of the areas measured, the 10th grade public school students scored higher than the adults.
"When we hear about the number of high school graduates who cannot read today, we often forget how many functionally illiterate 60-year-olds are walking around… In 1900, 11.3 percent of the U.S. population was illiterate. In 1970, according to the Education Commission of the States, that percentage had dropped to 1.2 percent.
Banach then noted that:
“In 1910, the average 25-year-old American had completed 8.1 years of schooling; in 1950, 9.3 years, and today more than 12 years.
“Thirty years ago, only 10 percent of black students were graduated from high school. Today, that figure is 80 percent.
“There has been a 97 percent increase in the professional and skilled work force in a single generation.
“Enrollment in American colleges and universities was 6.4 million 15 years ago -- and double that today.
“Thanks to dropout-prevention programs -- including a highly successful one at Rock Island High School -- more than 90 percent of students enrolled in public schools are attending classes -- compared with only 69 percent just 10 years ago.”
Those facts helped lead the Michigan educator to conclude:
“In America we educate a student for about $2,500 a year -- that's barely $2 an hour. And for that $2 we transport kids, feed them, check their ears, eyes, teeth, help them deal with substance abuse, counsel them and teach them. You can't go bowling or see a movie or do a whole lot of other things for $2 an hour…"
He's right. But Banach knows, just as you do, the schools are not perfect. Just as teachers expect a steady effort to improve from their students -- not perfection -- so the public ought to expect steady improvement from our schools -- not perfection -- and be willing to do what we can to help bring that improvement about.
For just as teachers must work hard to achieve the desired results with their students, the public must likewise get involved with its school district if it really is sincere about seeing the district improve and if it really does want to get the most for its tax dollar. Something to think about as the new school year begins.
Oh, and there'll be no homework for tonight since you've been so attentive, though there may be a quiz tomorrow. Class dismissed.
April 28, 1983
Raising the standards
American public schools of a century ago were under attack for over-emphasizing traditional humanism and neglecting instruction in science, English and the modern languages. That criticism gave birth to "The Committee of Ten" which, essentially, recommended a return to the basics.
My, how things change…
The swinging pendulum has returned to a position similar to the one it reached in 1880. This time a committee of 18, The National Commission on Excellence in Education, has recommended a return to the basics. The commission, chaired by University of Utah President David Pierpont Gardner, held public hearings and commissioned 40 papers from educational experts over the last 20 months before issuing its final list of recommendations in a 7,000-word, 29-page report.
In that report to the American people, the commission makes several specific recommendations for improving the quality of the educational experience in our public schools. Among those proposals are ones that would extend the standard teacher's contract from nine months to 11 and increase teachers' pay, that would extend the school day from the typical six hours to seven and the school year from the usual 180 days to at least 200.
Other major recommendations are:
“All students seeking a high school diploma be required to pass four years of English, three years of math, three years of science, three years of social studies and at least a semester of computer science. For the college-bound, two years of foreign language are also recommended.
“Entrance standards be raised at all colleges and universities.
“More homework be assigned.
“A better system of teacher evaluation be devised, including peer review, to weed out or improve inferior teachers.
“Taxpayers provide the fiscal support to carry out the reforms.
“Parents demand more of their children.”
The last two items probably are the foundation on which the other reforms would stand or fall, for without taxpayer support -- as most Illinois residents are painfully aware -- the schools' options are severely limited. And without emphasis on and respect for education at home, teachers are limited in how effective they can be in the classroom. But when all the bluster has blown away, all the dust has collected on the committee reports and all the lamentations have faded, education boils down to little more than this: a motivated student guided by a motivated teacher. It was true in 1880 B.C., 1880 A.D, and it’s still true today.
November 2, 1983
Coaching, teaching and merit pay
In athletics, at any level, what is the most common basis for evaluating the performance of a coach?
Is it how many players get to play in each game?
Is it the moral and ethical example the coach presents?
Is it the extra hours the coach volunteers to help maintain fields and equipment, to study opponents, to analyze his own players' personal needs?
Is it the degree of improvement in athletic skill each member of the team makes during the season?
Is it the ability of the coach to foster good sportsmanship and team spirit?
Is it the coach's knowledge of the intricacies of the sport he coaches?
In most cases, the answer to each of these would be "no." Then what is the criterion most commonly used to judge a coach's success?
That's obvious enough. How many games did he win?
I mention all this to provide a context in which to consider the continuing debate over the equity of any system of merit pay that might be adopted for public school teachers.
An Iowa legislator recently introduced a plan that would link teachers' salaries to their students' test scores. The proposal was immediately attacked by almost everyone.
"Teachers will never stand for it," said a spokesman for the Iowa Education Association. Teachers would merely teach the tests, said a school board member. And most of the legislators said the plan would cost too much money.
The state representative who introduced the measure, Delwyn Stromer, called on an analogy from farming in hopes of winning his point. Said Stromer, if one farmer consistently gets lower yields than another farmer, then the other farmer's methods of farming must be better. If the lower-yield farmer doesn't improve, he'll soon be out of business.
Trouble is, the analogy is false.
Stromer assumes that the quality of land, access to water, years of experience, quality of machinery and tools, and many other factors are equal between the two farmers, for unless such unwarranted assumptions are made, it does not follow that the farmer with the higher yields is a better farmer. In fact, the fellow with the lower yields may be a better farmer, but he may have disadvantages such as hilly fields, lack of water, poor soil and other problems the higher-yield farmer does not have. Therein lies the danger in judging coaches by won-lost records and teachers on the test scores of their students.
And yet coaches have accepted the fact that even though they are judged most often on their record of wins and losses regardless of the quality of players they have to work with, the difficulty of the schedule, the quality of the physical facilities and equipment and other such factors that are generally beyond their direct control, they know the standards and try to find ways to meet them.
The incentive is not in added pay, but in the fact that coaches can be fired much more easily than teachers. Therefore, if a coach wishes to retain his post, he must devise ways to win. He may soften the schedule, lobby for improved facilities and equipment, develop a solid program for young athletes so they are well-grounded in fundamentals before they reach high school. He may develop new coaching techniques and study player personality surveys to give him a greater opportunity to get the maximum performance from each player.
It’s not fair to judge a coach primarily on winning percentage, just as it's not fair to judge a farmer primarily on yield, and just as it wouldn't be fair to judge a teacher only, or even primarily, on students' test scores.
But just as coaches have adapted to the reality of the system and have worked to cultivate success within it, such a concept might not be all bad if applied to the classroom as well as the playing field.
Another publication, commenting on the Stromer proposal, recently wrote that one of the proposal’s drawbacks would be the "difficulty in adjusting for differences in students' abilities and home environments and the demeaning prospect of a professional's salary being subject to the caprice of students on test days."
And yet coaches are subject to exactly those factors, including the demeaning prospect of being subject to the caprice of student-athletes' performances on game days.
May 19, 1979
Wife's no Ford, but she had 'the better idea'
All right, I admit it. I was the one who decided to watch television's first annual self-congratulatory party Monday night. Mary had nothing to do with it. She, in fact, was successfully ignoring the TV, choosing instead to browse through a recent copy of Instructor magazine. It took only 10 minutes for me to realize she was right. I mean, that the best thing to do with a nostalgic look at the 1978-79 television season was to ignore it. After all, if the shows weren't worth watching the first time around, why would bits and pieces of them demand the attention of discriminating Americans who maintain freedom of choice?
Quickly resolving that question after viewing a so-called "highlight" of a piece of muck called "The Stockard Channing Show," I was about to take drastic action and turn the set off when Mary looked up from her magazine.
"There's a movie about autistic children on now, do you want to watch that?"
"What’s that about?" I asked, "the boyhoods of Rembrandt and Michelangelo?"
"No, it's not about artistic children -- it's about autistic children. They're kids who, for some unknown reason, aren't able to process environmental stimuli. As a result, they live in a world of their own."
"Now that sounds like the autobiography of a columnist."
"Not exactly. Autistic children usually don't have low IQ's, they simply are born with an inability to understand the world outside their own mind."
"I think I get it now. You're talking about the Howard Cosell syndrome."
She gave up trying to explain autism to me and flipped the channel to the fact-based movie, "Son Rise: A Miracle of Love."
When it was over, about two hours later, I had a much better understanding of what autism is plus another example of the fallibility of "experts."
Doctors, psychologists, educators all told the parents of infant Raun that there was nothing which could be done to bring him out of his private world of spinning objects and into the world of reality.
His parents, however, refused to believe the expert advice.
It took them 9,700 hours of painstaking work with Raun, but the effort paid off in full.
The unprecedented devotion of the parents and their three normal children succeeded in bringing the baby boy back from a world of total isolation to the real world of people, sights and sounds.
Today, rather than being locked in a cell somewhere to spend years of silence literally banging his head against the wall, Raun is a normal child who attends a regular neighborhood school. TV couldn’t make up a greater story than that.
October 26, 1981
Education with a paint brush
Schools long ago gave up the hickory switch -- some would say with negative results -- but in a Lincoln, Ill., child care center a new educational tool has been found. It's called a paint brush.
"It's all part of learning about love, care, respect and responsibility," says Carolyn Tratensek, the teacher at the Playhouse Child Care Center for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds.
"I'm trying to make their lives as full of life's experiences as possible. I want them to have all the experiences they can so I can pump up their personalities, pump up their self-identities."
Education, you see, seldom comes at the end of a hickory stick but a paint brush, now that’s a whole different story. The painting idea came to Tratensek earlier this school year as she thought of the concept youngsters have of teachers.
"So many children don't think their teachers are people, too," Tratensek says. "They never really realize that teachers have homes and children. They think teachers just sort of vanish and come back the next day."
To try to convey the fact that teachers are people, too, Tratensek began to tell her young charges of an old house that she and her husband had purchased and that they were going to remodel. The kids responded by saying they'd like to see the place and the stage was set.
Arrangements were made and the youngsters arrived at the 100-year-old home, vacant for the last several years, with curious eyes. The teacher had asked them all to look carefully at the house and to advise her on what sort of work they believed needed to be done.
"Children know more and see more than people realize," Tratensek said. "People often treat children like objects, but they are full of so many good ideas.
"When they got inside they saw everything. The cracks in the walls, the leaky toilet, the cigar burns in the carpeting."
They were especially repulsed by the green walls in the dining room, the teacher said.
"They said they didn't like the green color. They said they didn't feel it was a happy color, and that it wasn't a color they wanted to look at when they were eating."
After seeing for themselves how much work needed to be done, the kids volunteered to help. The teacher took them up on it and the painting project was set-up.
"Right now they aren't too young to paint a wall," Tratensek says. "But probably no one has ever let them do it before. They can paint with a brush. Even if they make a mess it’s worth it just seeing paint flow on the wall. It's the fact that they are doing something that grown-ups do. It just gives them a sense that, 'I'm a people, too.'"
After some instructions, the youngsters grabbed their brushes -- one more experienced soul was presented with a roller -- and began slapping an undercoat of white paint on the walls.
After an hour's work -- minus a 10-minute lemonade and cookie break -- the kids had completed the job as high as their arms would reach. They all stood back and gazed with awe and pride at what they had done.
The unanimous decision: They loved to paint.
When the teacher and her husband finish the massive remodeling and get all moved in, they plan to host a party for the children.
"I want them to be proud that they took part in helping fix my house," Tratensek says.
A marvelous learning experience, and an unusual one. Many adults don't like to have youngsters involved in such projects because it often makes more of a mess for the adults to clean-up than would be the case if the adults simply did the job themselves. Many grown-ups don't really have enough patience with the kids. That's why some mothers, especially, prefer to do all the cooking and baking themselves rather than enlist the help of their children. But kids enjoy and learn from hands-on experiences.
Just ask that bunch of kid painters from the Playhouse Child Care Center.
April 4, 1984
Reasons to wonder
The Westmer School District encompasses the small western Illinois towns of Joy, Keithsburg, New Boston and Eliza. Many of the folks from those towns -- about 600 -- showed up at Monday night's school board meeting at Westmer High School in Joy. Most of them were there to vocally protest the board's decision to force the resignation of Westmer Superintendent Dean Flanders.
I have no special insight into the controversy over whether Flanders has been doing a satisfactory job or not. But the facts that are slowly coming to light might make an objective observer question the motivation behind the board's 5-2 vote to ask for Flanders' resignation.
For one thing, it was alleged at the meeting Monday night that a board member told Flanders he would lose his job if he failed to see that the board member's daughter was hired as a teacher in the district. The board member's daughter was not hired.
Board members have publicly stated that Flanders had to be replaced due to a "lack of leadership" and weak organizational skills. But when asked to elaborate on those reasons, the board failed to do so.
But Flanders has said the board discussed its concern over "lack of leadership" with him three times during his two years at Westmer. Flanders also has said the board complained to him that he was spending too much time in the school halls and classrooms and too little time on the paper work. Some members of the audience Monday night, however, suggested that the only real problem with Flanders' conduct was that he didn't always agree with the board.
Many school districts complain that their superintendent spends too much time in his office and never gets to know the teachers, the students or the parents for whom he is supposed to be working.
Many Americans believe that teachers should be hired on the basis of merit, not on the basis of whether they are children of bank presidents, powerful attorneys -- or of school board members.
And many disinterested observers might wonder, given the fact that Westmer has had five superintendents in the last 10 years, whether the problems in the district have been more the fault of those superintendents or the fault of the school board.
It's easy to understand why so many Westmer taxpayers and students are wondering, too.
August 6, 1979
Rocky's band director deserves his job back;
School board could decide to nix transfer
David Holcomb vs. the Rock Island Board of Education is not a legal battle.
To David Holcomb, it's a matter of principle. It's a question of what's best for the students.
Sure, he says, he could get a better job in another school district or he could accept the involuntary transfer the school board has handed him and teach this coming school year in the junior high and elementary schools -- he could, that is, if somebody could satisfactorily explain to him how that would be in the best interests of the students. So far, he says, there has been no such explanation.
Holcomb, for the past six years the director of the Rock Island High School band, is contesting the school board's transfer decision. Legally, however, he has no recourse.
But there is reason to hope the school board will reverse its decision to enforce the transfer of Holcomb, who is described by an area college band director who asked not to be named as "a fine musician who has always been a perfect gentleman in dealings with me. His organizations are always excellent. I really thought it was bizarre when I first heard about him being transferred.”
I have learned that no final assignment of Holcomb for the upcoming school year has yet been given to district personnel director Bob Lagerblade. It would seem that if the school board were certain of its transfer decision there would be no delay in the routine notification process. And you don't have to be a band director to realize that so long as fall assignments remain in limbo, no work can be done to prepare students -- the bottom line in this entire controversy -- for the football marching season and fall competitions. Other area high school band directors are already well under way with those preparations.
It is my suggestion, then, that the school board, at the earliest possible moment, announce that it is rescinding the decision to transfer Holcomb and is re-assigning him to the high school post he has held for six years.
There is ample evidence to indicate that such a decision would, indeed, be in the best interests of the band members at Rock Island High School.
On Nov. 9 of last year, The Argus carried a feature story on the RHS band which began: "The Rock Island High School marching band is stepping to a happy tune at the end of the competitive season. The band won four awards, including two first places, in the six band competitions they entered."
One of those first place trophies was won over 12 other bands at the Northern Illinois University’s homecoming parade in DeKalb. NIU's assistant marching band director, Marge Gusich, told me a few days ago that she coordinated the visiting bands in last year's parade and was most impressed with Holcomb's musicians.
"We felt they were an excellent unit, as was borne out when they won the first place trophy," she said. "We'd be glad to have them back this year, but I guess now they may not make it, huh?"
Maybe not. For the happy tune the Marching Rocks were playing last fall has turned sour.
There has been a major outpouring of public support for returning Holcomb to his post. Parents and students involved in band activities have presented petitions to the board with names of about 200 people who oppose Holcomb's transfer.
Rocky senior-to-be Roxianne Scott told the board the students believed a "serious injustice" had been done to Holcomb. "We feel that to transfer Mr. Holcomb is to disregard all of his accomplishments of these past six years and will deprive students of the opportunity to continue the outstanding musical education he offers."
In a July 20 letter to this newspaper, 1980 Rocky graduates Lori A. Lear, a band officer last year, and Maureen Hurlbutt, last year's drum major, strongly protested the re-assignment of Holcomb.
"Instrumental music students would benefit more if any seemingly petty differences between Mr. Holcomb and the present administration could be settled amicably, rather than with rash, unjustifiable action which deprives Rocky's music department of a fine director," the young women wrote.
"Since taking over the position of high school band, orchestra and jazz band director, Mr. Holcomb has developed the music program into one that emphasizes the students' sense of individual responsibility. Students are expected to practice music for auditions and concerts, prepare individual and ensemble selections for contests and are encouraged to represent Rock Island High School to the best of their ability."
The young women went on to point out that Holcomb and the Rocky band have "built a solid reputation… and a tradition that high school and college music departments throughout western Illinois recognize as one of which all the residents of Rock Island can be proud."
One such high school band director, who asked not to be named, told me last Wednesday, "David Holcomb directs an excellent jazz band. It's one of the best in the state and his marching band is good, too. He's an excellent musician and pianist himself. From talking with other directors they seem to feel he's doing a very good job."
Why the trouble then? Why is it that such an apparently successful band director suddenly finds himself targeted for re-assignment?
"I don't really know myself," Holcomb told me in a lengthy interview recently. "The superintendent's explanation was a little vague and did not pertain to the school board's stated reason for the transfer; that I have a philosophical difference with the administration and the board."
Holcomb said when he asked for more specifics he was told school officials didn't like his "negative approach in dealing with students."
He met in executive session with the board recently, expressly for the purpose of learning exactly what the reasons were for his transfer, but he says the school board listened politely to what he had to say, then said absolutely nothing.
"No one asked me a single question or made a single comment or offered any reason for their action," Holcomb says. "I felt as if I could have run around the room naked and I'd have still gotten no response.
"I give them (school officials) carte blanche. They keep saying, 'We can't say anything because this is a personnel matter.' Well, I have absolutely nothing to hide," Holcomb said.
But state law gives the school board an absolute right to administer the school district and that includes making personnel assignments as it sees fit without any obligation to explain themselves publicly.
But all that really doesn't matter. What the majority of parents and band students want is their director back. And to get him back, all the school board has to do is to withdraw its transfer order.
That's what it should do immediately. There's no reason to delay the announcement until the next scheduled meeting on August 12.
Holcomb says he has done nothing to spark any protests or efforts on his behalf but, he says, "It was kind of a warm feeling for me to see the kids as people growing up, taking a stand on an issue. In that sense, I'm a detached observer of this whole thing.
"Sometimes we lose sight of the students. If it's for the students, fine."
Another reason that some school officials give privately for the transfer of Holcomb is an alleged decline in the number of students who sign-up for band. But the figures just don't bear that out. Three years ago there were 75 ninth grade band members. Two years ago the number fell to 52 and, last year to only 37. But the problem, as Holcomb noted, was not with him or the band program, but with the severe restriction placed on ninth-graders' elective choices. Those elective choices have been increased and this fall's enrollees in ninth grade band number 65, plus another 16 or 17 in orchestra. At the high school, 74 students have been signed up for band compared to 76 last year. And all these students signed-up last February, long before there was any indication that David Holcomb might not be their director.
Professionalism should go beyond personality clashes. The school board ought to remember that and put David Holcomb back into the Rocky band picture where he has proved he belongs. It's time the Rock Island High School Band was marching to a happy tune again.
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