To the Editor:

A movement of “People for the 5 Day School Week” (PF5DSW) is being promoted in a public meeting at the Commercial Trust Bank meeting room down stairs in Fayette on Monday, January 13, 2020 at 7:00 P.M.  There will be presentations and sharing and planning and strategizing and building on the work and action of a group gathered in the fall of 2019 to oppose the plans of Superintendent Jill Wiseman and five of the seven Fayette R3 School Board members to take the community to a 4 day school week.

Though they act in an entrenched manner, it is never too late to cancel those plans and for the Board to instead focus on improving the quality of education with the resources we have and to get involved in the politics of raising the base formula for State funding of education.  This can be done with the energy saved from the input into disrupting the lives of the district community residents and tax payers and without the resulting lowering the quality of education through increased stress on students and their families.

The PF5DSW is necessary to confront a “rogue” Superintendent and majority School Board in their actions to impose a transformative education system on a community that doesn’t want it—because the hazards are too great.  This is a rogue administration in that neither Glasgow, nor New Franklin, nor Boonville, nor Columbia, nor any progressive communities in the state and country would adopt such a disruptive plan.

In 2019, the district approved an increase of the school tax levy because of the retirement of a the former superintendent, who initiated some destructive actions such as outsourcing county resident school jobs and who resisted busing in the town of Fayette, AND who promoted the 4 day school week.  Jill Wiseman was appointed superintendent to carry out the people’s mandate.  She administrated busing in Fayette, but broke faith with the community by pushing for and getting passed the 4 day school week.

People for the 5 Day School Week will confront Wiseman and the majority School Board about their violation of the public trust and for their ignorance to presume that they know what is best for the Fayette R3 district and for Howard County in the face of solid, rational evidence that they are wrong for a healthy educational environment.

We must stop this rogue group from carrying out the damage caused in their defiant act.  Please come, if you can, on January 13 to make this a mass movement that cannot be ignored, for a better city and county and for a better education for our children.  Or contact me at 660-248-1134 or at lehmannpault49@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Paul Lehmann, Rural Fayette “educator”