on good governance

I remember reading that part of what was so exhausting about the Trump administration--besides the ongoing "what fresh horror is this?" of the whole administration--was that so many of us had to be so ongoingly conscious of the presidency. This wasn't the attention of an active denizen in a democracy; this was the hyperawareness of someone who is watching for the next chance of being hit. 

"The Awakening" at National Harbor, Maryland

We don't have direct democracy in this country at any level save town meeting, and even there, a selectboard is put into place to conduct much of the business of the town over the course of the year. We hire, in essence, school committees and city councils and selectboards, as well as board of health and library boards and many other groups to conduct the week to week business of running our democracy and the parts it oversees. 

There is a lot of that work that isn't very dramatic (when done right): ensuring that roads are repaired and plowed, that school buses run on time, that the water you drink is clean and is there when you turn on the tap, that trash gets picked up and disposed of some way we won't later regret, that the next generation is getting what it needs to keep the work running for decades to come. 

And even the work that oversees that--the setting vision and direction, the setting the budget--doesn't, often look very dramatic. It's working to agree to what comes next for all of us as a community and how one gets there. It's knowing what the job of the governance board actually is and doing it.

One thing that I have seen written a bit about on school committees of late is how the very boringness of school boards has changed since the pandemic. Starting with school building status and moving quickly through masking and critical race theory and LGBTQ rights and book banning, the country has had a wave of fearmongering be very loud at our school committee meetings. The budgetary oversight, the policy work, the direction and oversight that is the charge of the school board in the U.S. has often gotten pushed out by this very loud fear of a small group of people.

That move away from the responsibility of the work, though, doesn't always come from either that space or those sentiments. There are other spaces and directions that flatten the attention of governance boards, such that their work of actual governance remains undone. To be consumed entirely by any single matter--to show no inclination or opening towards steps forward if they don't accomplish all wished for--to not come to the table prepared to do anything other than speak--that is to neglect the duty owed. 

I bought myself a pin four years ago when I rejoined the Worcester School Committee, adopting as my own unofficial motto Emmeline Pankhurst's "Deeds not Words" as a reminder to myself as much as anyone that, while making a speech on a Thursday night may be satisfying, it doesn't, alone, change anything.

And change, of course, we have, over the past four years. We have a new superintendent, after a thorough, professional national search. That superintendent is, alongside an administration reconstituted to provide the support denied schools, doing the hard work of shaping our schools to work for all of our students. We brought, over the objections of the prior superintendent, district transportation in house, demonstrating not only that it could be done, but that it could improve performance and our relationship with our drivers and monitors, while saving the district money. We fought for and won increased funding for facilities, gaining reimbursement for Doherty's inflation, seeing reinstatement of the accelerated repair program, and securing increased funding per square foot for new buildings, putting us in good stead for a new Burncoat. We set forward, and will adopt by year's end, an updated strategic plan. We updated our own rules, ensuring we are focused on the work which is our own. We redrafted the dress code; we adopted a new elementary literacy program; we saw the new health curriculum implemented; we added guidance counselors, climate and culture specialists, mental health professionals, nurses, more funding for student supplies, and many teachers. 

And that's just what this weary brain can conjure the night before the election. 

But note that much of the above wasn't glamorous. It wasn't the result of speeches. It was deliberation in open session. Some of it was the result of compromises. 

None of it was the work of any one person. 

Many of us will cast ballots in the next few hours. If I have a hope this evening, not only as a candidate for public office but one who simply lives here, it is that we elect people who are in it to do the actual, non-glamorous, non-rhetorical work of governance.

Deeds. Not words.