School Board Members Should Also Bleed Green

There's been an uproar in the past couple weeks regarding the fact that Paul Nenninger, the President of the Cape Girardeau Public School Board of Education, appeared in an ad for Notre Dame High School of which he is an alumnus.

There have been some very vocal SpeakOut comments in the Southeast Missourian criticizing him for appearing in the ad campaign and one letter to the editor saying he should resign. According to a story in the newspaper, the incident even motivated several dozen people to attend Monday night's School Board meeting in protest.

Mr. Nenninger has said he is not going to resign. I'm glad. I voted for him in the most recent election and would vote for him again.

However, I do agree with his detractors that his appearance in a promotional ad for Notre Dame was inappropriate.

While I personally am neither politically correct nor savvy, even I can see it was naive thing to do. A lot of people view Notre Dame as competition to the local public school system and now those same people are on a warpath because Mr. Nenninger isn't showing absolute allegiance to CGPS. Since he appears not to be bleeding just orange and black, he is essential being branded a Judas.

OK, so his decision to appear in an advertisement for Notre Dame was a politically poor idea. It would be like Ronald McDonald touting The Whopper.

However, school board members are not just advocates of the school system they serve. I don't believe the Board of Education should just be a glorified pom-pom squad for the district, rubber-stamping everything the hired administration puts in front of them.

School board members also represent all taxpayers in a given district, not just those who happen to send their children to public school. Everyone who pays taxes owns a piece of the local school district. That includes those who live in the city, but choose to send their kids to private schools such as Notre Dame or Trinity or Saxony Lutheran. Or people such as my wife and I who have no kids, but still paid over $2000 in property taxes last year with the tiger's share of that money going directly to CGPS.

In April, the CGPS district was awarded a huge gift when the voters passed a $40 million bond issue. Mr. Nenninger did voice concerns regarding the bond issue. He was not lockstep with the rest of the board and as someone who voted against it, I respect that.

Perhaps, he questioned the need for some of the projects on this laundry list as I did. Maybe it was the half-million dollar concession stand -- oh, and restrooms -- for the $2.5 million dollar "all purpose events stadium." Or possibly, it was the quarter of a million dollars for replacement classroom doors for three of the elementary schools. Perchance, it was the fact that the new two-story Franklin school will cost $3 million more than a conventional one level building.

I don't know his specific concerns, but I do know this:

This money needs to be spent as prudently as possible with the school board overseeing the administration so that the taxpayers get the most for their money. Long-term basic maintenance needs to take precedence over educational ephemeral.

From what I have read about Mr. Nenninger, he sounds like someone who will scrutinize these fiduciary details.

Personally, I don't care if the members of the CGPS School Board bleed orange or black or blue or gold.

I want them to bleed green and make sure that the taxpayer's money is spent judiciously.