FYI: Why the Sun Wants Heather to Lose
District Five Vision Correction
A critical reaction to the Gainesville Sun’s endorsements for the
Alachua County School Board Race in the form of a running commentary: The
Sun’s words appear in quotes. Rational thought appears otherwise.
"District 5: Ginger Childs" the Gainesville Sun
"Heather "Daine" Danenhower had been running for
the School Board on the strength of the Channel 20 brand name - having
once been a reporter there."
Is this a dig at TV20? By the Gainesville Sun? It is to laugh. Mais
non, it is meant to dig at Heather Danenhower’s credibility. And merely
denigrates TV20 as a means to a greater end – smearing Danenhower because
she’s the most dangerous candidate in the race for the Sun and its moneyed
interests.
"She likes to emphasize her youth and her outsider
status (although as the candidate most closely tied with the teacher's
union, Danenhower's "outsider" credentials are debatable)."
If you’ve been following the endorsements with any seriousness, you
must have noted that the Sun has had nothing nasty to say about any of
the candidates it did not endorse until now – wouldn’t want to offend Mr.
Banks and his constituency, nor Bill Boe and the other hobbits who favor
vouchers. But teachers? The Sun has a special message for teachers, and
it’s labeled FYI. The Sun scoffs at Danenhower’s qualification, and doesn’t
seem to care that twelve thousand citizens cast their votes in the primary
for her. FYI. Make no mistake about it, Danenhower is the candidate
of the ACEA. That’s right, she’s our candidate. And it’s not just the teachers’
union – it’s the union of all the workers for the Alachua County School
District. That’s what the Sun finds so dangerous. Unions of Workers. Those
poor
inept reporters at the Sun aren’t unionized.
"She (Danenhower) has been running a negative and
unworthy campaign against opponent Ginger Childs, a well-known and well-respected
professional educator of more than three decades in this community."
No one would know more about negative and unworthy campaigns than the
Sun in its unending quest to present that portion of the news which best
suits its (moneyed) interests. Here it is the costume department, making
Ginger Childs up to look like an educator. The Sun could have stopped after
"well-known". Ginger Childs is not respected for the disservices
she has consistently inflicted on teachers, career service personnel, and
students over the years.
This "professional communicator's" nasty innuendo
and insinuations (we still can't figure out how Childs is guilty of "nepotism")
only serve to show how little Danenhower herself has to offer to voters."
Of course the Gainesville Sun can’t figure out how Ginger Childs is
guilty of nepotism; it would have to be a newspaper to do that. Oh well,
there goes the Pulitzer. And what Danenhower offers the school board is
the voice of the people who work in the schools. That’s all. The voice
of the people who teach your kids, clean up after your kids, drive your
kids, take care of your kids, feed them, that’s all.
"As far as we can see, the only thing Childs is
guilty of is having a long career - as a teacher"—
Let’s stop right there, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s my understanding
that Ms. Childs spent less than five years as a classroom teacher. She
was fast-tracked on the administrative track, escaping the classroom for
administrative duties, and has ruled ever since, as has been the custom,
I’m told, in her Faulknerian family, for generations, a bit of local history.
"(a long career as . . .) principal and district-level
administrator - in a school district that, like every district, has seen
its share of controversies and palace intrigues."
That’s a good one, the school district has seen its share of controversies
and palace intrigues, but the Sun turns a blind eye. The editorial board
operates behind the masks of the three monkeys: See No Evil, Hear No Evil,
Speak Only Evil.
"Yes, Childs was a member of the leadership team
under the much discredited former Superintendent Larry Marazza, but she
has also loyally served several previous
superintendents as a fine teacher and a capable
principal and administrator."
Larry Marazza, Gainesville Sun Educator of the Year. (Runner-up, Hugh
Hefner. – It’s all about Strategic Planning.) As for the rest, Child’s
"teaching" (you’re talking about something that happened about thirty years
ago here) and her capability as a principal and administrator, it is the
capability to retire at a degree of comfort and security that real teachers
in this school district will never approach. So, retire, already, and let
the teachers have some say.
"Smearing Childs for Marazza's sins is simply unfair."
No, it’s simply unnecessary. Marazza is just one story line in our School
Board soap opera. What the Sun wants you to believe is that Childs has
been a capable administrator in the district for a long time, but she’s
not actually responsible for or even cognizant of anything that ever happened.
"Danenhower's problem is that thousands of people
in Alachua County remember Childs as a fine teacher, a visible community
leader and a seasoned administrator."
The Sun’s problem is that thousands of people voted for Heather Danenhower
and she isn’t going away and neither is the ACEA. No matter what happens,
we’ll be back when the next school board seats open, and there may be two
of us.
"For her part, Childs has run a positive race,
refusing to be drawn into the mud-slinging, and concentrating on her own
qualifications for the job. They are more than sufficient."
Ginger Childs has run a positive campaign in the sense that she’s been
positive that her money and connections and power would give her a victory.
The Sun has changed its tune since it endorsed John Schropfer in the primary.
Aside from Wes Eubank, all the Sun’s endorsed candidates finished a distant
dead last in the primaries. The Sun implied in its choice of Schropfer
that Childs might be in part motivated by revenge. The long-time administrator
and Kirby-Smith insider was terminated by present Superintendent Mary Chambers.
Voters may well choose to see that episode of our school board soap opera
next. But sooner or later, we will make our entrance. |
