Times Editorial : Decision, decision
Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Editorial/61651/
Question: What’s a meeting concerning the public’s business really worth if it takes place behind closed doors ? In the coming weeks and months, the Fayetteville High School Select Committee 2 will try replying to that query. Whether the response satisfies eager ears is anyone’s guess.
The group’s mission — making a recommendation about the future location of Fayetteville High School — is anything but simple. A host of topics up for discussion (for example, whether the high school should remain at the Stone Street site, or relocate to the city’s western edge along Deane Solomon Road, or somewhere else entirely ) are not only detailed and complicated, they’re also emotional. What’s being discussed is nothing less than a redefining of the high school experience in Fayetteville. But as a middle ground has yet to develop, it’s becoming increasingly clear that a final decision is going to be difficult for some residents to swallow.
Given everything that’s on the line, it’s not just a little frustrating that a committee with so much riding on its shoulders has been specifically designed to have meetings beyond the public’s view. That’s hard to get comfortable with when the issue they’re exploring is so important. The group did invite members of the press to a committee tour of the high school on Saturday, and we understand the group anticipates several opportunities for the public to speak its mind. We certainly hope so.
Closed-door meetings do not implicate committee members in some sort of duplicitous effort to get their way without being immediately answerable to public inquiries. The select committee may very well accomplish this most difficult mission, and bring back a plan that makes the most sense to the most people possible. But we hope members understand that every time the doors close, they’re raising the measuring glass against themselves. Closed-door meetings make consensus-building more difficult, not less, and building a coalition behind one idea is exactly what this process needs.
Regardless of the way Chairman Tim Hudson runs his meetings, we certainly hope the committee is allowed to study every option available to the school district. As you might remember, last February the Fayetteville School Board voted 4-3 to maintain a one high school system; a month later, board members elected to add the city’s ninth-graders to the high school’s 10 th-12 th grade model.
We strongly believe the committee, if it is to be at all effective, must be left to evaluate the impact of all factors because of the complexities involved. One can’t pretend that the addition of ninth-graders has no bearing on the location decision. If a majority would like to see the high school remain at its current location, but repeal adding ninth graders to the situation, they should be allowed to feel that way. If the committee believes Fayetteville must begin making plans to create a second high school — regardless of where today’s high school is created — that should be an option, too.
In other words, nothing should be off the table, regardless of whether school board members feel like certain things have already been decided. If certain major points are off the table (adding the ninth grade, for instance ), that puts blinders on the committee in terms of today’s realities.
The first select committee recommended that Fayetteville remain a one high school town and add the ninth grade to its campus. The decision-making then took a hiatus because the public was clearly not entirely comfortable with that direction and unanswered questions. Would the University of Arkansas, which adjoins today’s high school, really buy the site if it were to move ? And for how much ? Didn’t the city’s emotional connection to Fayetteville High School mean anything ? Might investing along Deane Solomon cost more than the school board realized ? So many unanswered questions froze a rush to change. And so here we are in 2008.
We wish this citizen committee the best and hope its process helps to build momentum not just for its members, but also for the public that will have to support the final decision with their votes and their tax dollars.