Letter to Trustees

November 6, 2006

Dear Board Trustees,

This letter is not about sour grapes; I am writing before the fate of Proposition 5 is known. Nor is it personal; I have never met Susan Baskett. I supported her campaign for trustee and I’m sure she is a fine person. This letter is especially not about one’s right to their own opinion. I value a free exchange of opposing views and am thankful for the ability of our society to accommodate them. Please don’t dismiss this letter out of hand for any of these three reasons.

This letter is about a trustee’s job description and the oath sworn to fulfill it. A trustee is one who agrees to promote the interests of a specific person our group before all others. Lawyers, members of the clergy, therapists, financial guardians, and teachers are all examples of trustees whose personal opinions or interests are not permitted to interfere with the interests of those whom they represent while acting in their official capacities. A trustee for the Ann Arbor schools swears an oath to promote the interests of our students before all others. Indeed, the cover of every AAPS board packet Ms. Baskett has ever opened lists “Putting the needs of students first in all decisions and actions” as a trustee’s first core value. This oath is an especially solemn one because a trustee’s only constituents are children who cannot effectively or legally advocate on behalf of their own education. The Ann Arbor Board of
Education has only one mission, education, and one specific set of beneficiaries whose trust they have sworn to honor, students.

One can take a holistic, global view on the nature of cause and effect and argue reasonably that everything affects everything. When an outdated coal-fired plant in China pollutes the air, everybody’s atmosphere is harmed. However, a board trustee must focus on students and education while occupying a board seat, and cannot be distracted by any other issues, regardless of how worthy. We would expect no less from our own lawyer, pastor, therapist, or teacher. Had Ms. Baskett voted no on Proposition 5 for educational reasons, she would have remained within the bounds of a trustee’s purview, although her judgment would have come into serious question in light of this district’s severe budget crisis and the effect future cuts will undoubtedly have on the very programs and instruction she has supported in the past (our efforts to close the achievement gap in particular). Yet she justified her vote by saying that she is afraid Proposition 5 might affect other social services, and in doing so she went beyond mere bad judgment, beyond a shocking disregard for this district’s current financial crisis, and beyond the role of a trustee. Her vote was a slap in the face and a betrayal of trust to every student, parent, and staff member of this district who is struggling to maintain educational excellence in the wake of five consecutive years of cuts, a slap whose impact will be felt even more harshly next year and beyond if Proposition 5 fails tomorrow.

I personally provided Ms. Baskett and every board member with a direct quote from the Citizens Research Council of Michigan’s authoritative, non-partisan, credible analysis of Proposition 5 prior to the board’s vote last meeting. That quote specifically refuted the very reason Ms. Baskett later used to justify her vote against Proposition 5. Am I to assume that she was privy to a more detailed or contrary analysis, to information (other than 10-second AM radio fear blurbs) that she did not make available to you or anybody else in the AAPS community? The information I provided was that Proposition 5’s inflationary clause would not necessitate any cuts to any state services. While I can only shudder while guessing where Ms. Baskett might have obtained the misinformation behind her decision, the question of other social services should have been moot in any event, and certainly in light of what another $11 million of cuts will mean to the district she swore to represent. Whose trustee are you, Ms. Baskett? Your vote cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be interpreted as in the interests of Ann Arbor’s students. Whom do you represent from your board seat?

Ms. Baskett, I would not dream of challenging your right to your opinions, regardless of whether I agree with all or none of them. I urge you and all citizens to promote all issues of social justice and the furtherance of a global civil society. Vote your conscience in the privacy of the voting booth. Write letters to legislators and editors on every issue. Run for state or national office. Become an activist for a variety of worthy causes. But do none of those things while wearing the authority of a school trustee sworn to put students first in all decisions and actions. Call me to volunteer, and I will join you when I am not on duty as a teacher sworn to no other interests but those of my students.

When you voted no on Proposition 5, against the monumentally obvious interests of our students from your trustee’s seat, you in effect said either “I quit or “I am incapable of honoring my oath as a trustee.” And that leaves Ann Arbor with six trustees when we need seven who are willing and able to protect the educational funding of our students as we navigate the tough budgetary waters ahead. Ms. Baskett, I sincerely urge you in no uncertain terms to formally complete the resignation you informally tendered at the last board meeting so that this community can promptly begin our search for that seventh trustee.

To our other trustees, I thank you for your support for Proposition 5 and your public recognition of what adequate and reliable funding means for our students and programs. I request that you review the board’s charter for what measures are appropriate and/or necessary when an action taken by a board member so egregiously harms the interests of our students. Ms. Baskett’s vote was not one that can be casually shrugged off as a matter of personal opinion, coming as it did from her trustee’s seat. It so flagrantly violated every mission of our district, was such a clear dereliction of her duty, that she must be encouraged to vacate her seat as quietly, quickly and graciously as possible. I hope that your efforts in this regard will suffice. I appreciate your attention to this letter and will welcome your comments.

Sincerely,

Brit Satchwell
669-9467
tenureme@comcast.net

cc: Supt. Todd Roberts