With membership in a community comes "dues".

All members of a community acquire by their membership alone, the obligation to share fairly, all of the burdens which must be borne in order that the community will survive and flourish.

Fortunate is the community, that counts among its members
those who consistently contribute more than their fair share;
who shoulder a greater portion of the burden than
their "fair” share.

There is a need for members of the APS community to pay some dues.

There is a need for people to show up at school board meetings.

They have made attendance as inconvenient as it can be made; school board meetings are held at a time and in a place inaccessible to most stakeholders.

The school board used to meet in high school lecture halls.

They met in the evening so that stakeholders might be able
even to walk to a school board meeting.

The lecture halls are still there.

The need to involve the community is still there.

But they would rather meet in the comfort and "safety"
of a completely unjustifiable new board room.

A board room bought and paid for by the students of
Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School, who worked
each day in dilapidated portable classrooms with leaking roofs.

A board room bought and paid for with money saved by
eliminating fire safety inspections in schools.

A board room built by vendors who paid for hotel rooms
in the Inn of the Mountain Gods, for the administrators
who were encumbering more than $50,000 at a time
"... without involving purchasing."

If you accept your membership in the community
of stakeholders in the APS;

you have some "dues" to pay.

You are required to defend the leadership of the APS by
proving false, any of the many allegations of public
corruption and incompetence.

It is your duty because, the confidence that this community
has in the leadership of the APS is being shaken by those
allegations.

There is a very real possibility that the next mill levy or
bond issue will be roundly defeated;

no matter how important the funding is to students and
teachers; no matter how legitimate.


If you believe any of the allegations, and you consider yourself a stakeholder in the APS community, you have dues.

In short, you have an obligation to provide honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for public servants, within their public service.

Real rules, really enforced, for eight measly hours a day.

You can pay your dues by attending a school board meeting.

If nothing else, show them that you are paying attention.

You can pay more than your fair share by standing up
for what you believe in, for two minutes.

The standard of conduct to which 89,000 of our sons and
daughters are honestly accountable, requires them to

Stand up for what you believe in
... even if you are standing alone.

Tell them that you want board policy to be changed back
to the way it used to be; before they decided to remove
from their own code of conduct, the words;

in no case shall the standard of conduct for an adult
(even administrators, and even board members)
be lower than the standard for students.

This is a opportunity to fulfill an obligation.

It is an opportunity to pay your dues.

It is an opportunity to change forever,
the course of the APS in a very positive way.

Sacrifice is the currency of commitment.

There is no equivalent gesture.