I just read your piece on the the Indian Icon controversy. There is more to this controversy than first meets the eye. For the moment, forget about the Icon, focus instead on a board that originally was elected because they said that they would keep our cherished Main Elementary School open. This was the primary reason they were elected. Once on the board, they set up a committee to make recommendations and then disregarded them and closed the school. This has been an ongoing problem, setting up recommendation committees and then disregarding them. The committees are made up of community members, so it is sort of like saying, the board "gets-it", but you the community "don't". A recommendation was made to close Summerland School and bus the kids to Main (about a 5 minute bus trip). This would have saved Main School. Instead, they closed Main School and are pushing a $10,000,000 plan to build a new school for 65 kids in Summerland. It is to bad that this board has chosen a path of confrontation. The Superintendent of the school district told the board that eliminating the Indian Icon would be an emotional issue and to go slow. The two board members who voted against the motion to remove the Indian Icons also told the board the same thing. What was the result, full speed ahead, remove the Icons. The first step in conflict resolution is to listen to the other side and understand it enough to be able to restate the other sides objections. This reassures the other side that you understand their point of view and leads to compromise. Failure to follow this basic step leads to polarization and the building of stone walls. I know that Salm, Deardorf and Grant have the community interest at heart (from their point of view) and that they are honorable ladies, but when you fail to include the community in decision process, you build stone walls. It is to bad that Amrita could not have used some of her RamaKrishna philosphy to pull down the walls instead of being combative and building them up. It is unfortunate, because in this case, wall building leads to recall and none of these ladies will ever be elected again to any general office or board in carpinteria.
Previous Month
Posted on May 23 at 12:34 a.m.
Barney,
I just read your piece on the the Indian Icon controversy. There is more to this controversy than first meets the eye. For the moment, forget about the Icon, focus instead on a board that originally was elected because they said that they would keep our cherished Main Elementary School open. This was the primary reason they were elected. Once on the board, they set up a committee to make recommendations and then disregarded them and closed the school. This has been an ongoing problem, setting up recommendation committees and then disregarding them. The committees are made up of community members, so it is sort of like saying, the board "gets-it", but you the community "don't". A recommendation was made to close Summerland School and bus the kids to Main (about a 5 minute bus trip). This would have saved Main School. Instead, they closed Main School and are pushing a $10,000,000 plan to build a new school for 65 kids in Summerland. It is to bad that this board has chosen a path of confrontation. The Superintendent of the school district told the board that eliminating the Indian Icon would be an emotional issue and to go slow. The two board members who voted against the motion to remove the Indian Icons also told the board the same thing. What was the result, full speed ahead, remove the Icons. The first step in conflict resolution is to listen to the other side and understand it enough to be able to restate the other sides objections. This reassures the other side that you understand their point of view and leads to compromise. Failure to follow this basic step leads to polarization and the building of stone walls. I know that Salm, Deardorf and Grant have the community interest at heart (from their point of view) and that they are honorable ladies, but when you fail to include the community in decision process, you build stone walls. It is to bad that Amrita could not have used some of her RamaKrishna philosphy to pull down the walls instead of being combative and building them up. It is unfortunate, because in this case, wall building leads to recall and none of these ladies will ever be elected again to any general office or board in carpinteria.
On Up Against the Backlash