Elevating the "Trust" in the word "Trustee"

"We can get up here and play to the crowd," Mr. Rick Van Horne said in a recent article about last month's school board meeting. "But we have to make tough decisions."

He was referring to Mr. Andrae Gonzales specifically, a newly elected trustee, speaking to a healthy crowd of community members and supporters who regularly attend the monthly board meetings. In two recent Bakersfield Californian newspaper articles (HERE and HERE), Van Horne has made it sound like Mr. Gonzales was voting merely to play to public sentiment. Furthermore, he has insinuated that Mr. Gonzales, a newbie, is asking procedural questions of no relevance, and thus wasting the veteran's time. According to one of these two weekend articles, Van Horne also hinted that Mr. Gonzales might actually be disrupting the work of district administrators. "Our job, he said, "is to oversee. But there's a fine line between overseeing and interfering. I just don't want to see ourselves interfering with what the (administrators) are doing for a living."

Interfering? Curious that he phrased it this way. I have attended all of the school board meetings since Mr. Gonzales and Ms. Pam Baugher have been elected, and during those meetings, I have heard Mr. Gonzales a) list countless Bakersfield City School District events he has attended, b) ask tough questions of Mr. Mike Lingo, the superintendent, and c) ask necessary questions re: information that should have been placed in the agenda on a monthly basis long, long ago but wasn't. Are those newbie questions? Why didn't Mr. Van Horne ask these things of Mr. Lingo? God knows, the "old pro" has been around long enough. In fact, why hasn't he asked anything?

During the last five meetings, I have heard Mr. Rick Van Horne ask NO questions at all. He's been nothing more than window dressing. 

Mr. Van Horne, are we to assume that asking questions about a pastry budget in the thousands of dollars is "interfering" when endless cuts have been made to the classroom? Is it wrong to ask Mr. Lingo if he indeed gave a "directive" to reduce student suspensions by 40% so that the district could save money? (Hey, about those gilded donuts the district admin is snacking on). Am I to shoot off an angry email to Mr. Gonzales for having the chutzpah to ask where the monthly financial reports are--reports that were supposed to be in the agenda anyway? Why didn't YOU ask that?

Does Mr. Van Horne have an ax to grind with a fellow board member who is simply doing his job? If you ask me, I think this coach turned trustee, accustomed to the cheering crowds during a football game, is suffering from a bad case of "Andrae Gonzales Envy", a condition made most notable by recent comments he made at the last school board meeting. It was, for me, the funniest part of the evening, because this "experienced" trustee has rarely been seen at BCSD events over the last several years. He stated that the exhaustive attendance at events by "certain board members" (read into that Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McDougle) has made some other unnamed trustees "elevate their game". Frankly, he was referring to himself, and it's a pity he didn't have the guts to say that....or the respect to compliment his "newbie" colleague for showing him how the job should have been done long ago.

One of the Bakersfield Californian articles linked to above started this way: "When Andrae Gonzales stepped into the standing room-only board room at one of his first meetings as a Bakersfield City School District trustee, he got something few such officials anywhere ever get -- a standing ovation." Mr. Van Horne, we are still waiting for you to do or say something that can similarly rouse us. Take the Andrae Challenge and we'll be standing and applauding your next entrance, too. I'll be in the front row with my video camera, so don't forget to wave.