Holy Moly

February 26, 2009 in Media

by jhwygirl

This, via Courtney Lowry at NewWest:

Rocky Mountain News to publish final edition tomorrow

.

TFU.

School Board elections are coming up. This is what, or rather WHO, we don’t want to see filling a seat on the board…

February 26, 2009 in 2009 Local Election, Education, Missoula School Board, Montana

by Ana J. Beard

Looking at the recent actions of the MCPS school board, it is clear to me that this upcoming election is going to be VERY important. Sure, I may be graduating in a few months, but I have a ten year-old sister, I have friends who are underclassmen, I know little siblings of friends and depending on this upcoming election, it could make their education a well-rounded, interesting one…

Or it could make it a cookie-cutter, text-book, snoresville, sheltered education.

Now, nothing has yet proved my theory, but there’s a name that keeps popping up in the community that I’d rather not see on the ballots, or being the puppet master to other candidates.

Tei Nash.

He is a Hellgate graduate (class of ’69 I believe), played basketball and football and from what I hear, was even in some sort of rock band. Pretty neat, huh?

It is. Until you hear about what that jock/musician grew up to be.

He shows up at the University of Montana when there are meetings dealing with same-sex housing and insurance issues (even going as far as taking it to Supreme Court for “improper” notification of upcoming meetings), he comes to school board meetings to put his-very loud, right-wing-two cents in. In 2003, he even addressed the Montana legislature on HB 294 and was quoted saying, “Gay men think they are doing children a favor by sodomizing them.”  HB 294 was a bill that would have removed same-sex contact from the same line as bestiality in the Montana Code.

He has also commented on a number of other proposed bills (such as HB 449 which deals with school districts’ harassment/intimidation/bullying policies, saying he was concerned with the mention of sexual orientation being included in the policy).

Nash was on the board of Head Start, a part of the governing body of Head Start Inc. that forms policies and helps families. He was even the head of the board at one point. Head Start is a low-income pre-school – a PRE-SCHOOL.

He also strongly opposed bringing Diversity Week into schools saying that it didn’t show both sides [of homosexuality]. Flagship coordinators took his complaints, in my opinion, very respectfully. Big Sky’s Diversity Week this year even had a speaker who identified herself as a lesbian until God saved her from homosexuality.

While this is something many people would say is complete bull, it’s still another perspective and it’s showing (as Nash puts it,) “the other side”.  To say the least, I’m sure her presentation was a very interesting one and it probably sparked some great discussions and I’m sad Hellgate didn’t have the chance to see her presentation.

Anyways, to get back on track, what if Nash sees this upcoming school board election and decides to run or to influence one of his cronies to run? If he puts his mind to it, what’s stopping him?

So this is my cry for help. Please, someone step up and run. If you care about your children’s and the community’s youths’ education, you won’t let someone like Nash take a seat on the school board.

For Those of You Who Haven’t Picked Up Your Copy of The Indy Yet

February 26, 2009 in Environment, John Bohlinger, Montana, Montana Republicans

by jhwygirl

At least go check out the online edition. Jesse Froehling has the feature this week with a profile of Lt. Governor John Bohlinger. It. Is. Fabulous. I may be not-so-secretly in love with the guy (Bohlinger), but really – it’s a great profile. Good insight into the Republican side of things, too. Must read.

Another must-read is George Ochenski’s mid-session review. He, too, isn’t very happy with the “offensive bills” running up the score against the environment. Ochenski, of course, discusses the issue much better than I ever could.

Do not miss either.

Ten Applicants to Interim School Board Position

February 26, 2009 in Education, Missoula, Missoula School Board

by jhwygirl

A friend thought to check with the school district today on the interim position that closed Wednesday afternoon at 4:30. This is what they sent:

I spoke with Leslie, the public information officer at the school district offices. She said that they had 10 applicants and that most of them came in late in the afternoon. I asked her if I could get a copy of the questions that the applicants had to answer, and she said that she could do that because it was public information, but that they needed time to go through them and make copies for each of the school board members. She said that they planned on interviewing the candidates next week, on Tuesday and Thursday. I asked her if these would be public interviews and she said “absolutely,” that “all of the interviews would be public meetings.”

I asked her when I could come and get copies of the questionnaires and she said that they were working very hard to organize everything, and she hoped they’d have a list of everyone and a news release on the website by the end of the day. So I asked her if maybe they could just put the questionnaires on the website. She paused at first, and then said that they would definitely be able to do that since making them into .pdf’s involved using the copier, and they needed to make a whole bunch of copies for the school board anyways.

Apparently, the goal is to have the new member chosen after the interviews next week and to have that person sworn in by the next March 10th meeting.

You should know that Leslie was very nice and seemed to be trying to give me as much information as possible. I did call pretty early. It was about 9:30 in the morning when I called. I’m sure she was pretty busy with that many applicants and having most of them come in late in the day.

I can only thank my supermissoulafriend here – they want no credit.

So there it is folks. I checked the website, and I can’t find anything – so it looks like the school district wasn’t able to get the list of candidates, the new releases, or the questionnaires up on the website yet. Let’s hope it’s up by Friday – after all, the public meetings are Tuesday. People do need more than a 24 hour notice to public interviews for a school board position. They should also have the information, too.