First, a huge thank you to all who put kids first by running for a school board position. I was on Ocean Beach School board for 10 years.

My mentors were Jack Downer and Admiral Jack Williams. They taught that the budget and setting policy were the duties of the board. The board are stewards of the money. The fact that this current board does not and has not had a budget to work with is very disturbing. How can they help the students properly without the direction from the budget they built? Students, teachers and staff deserve better than this.

Another concern of mine is the lack of transparency and real communication with all stakeholders. Handpicking your committee members has not been beneficial to the students. When the last bond that passed was run, community and board worked hard to get the word out, letting everyone know what the plan was and we knew where the voters were. We did not try to hide what we were doing. Dale Staudenraus and I spent lots of time at each of the grocery stores with info.

Before the most recent bond plan was rejected by voters, I tried to get info about the decision to no longer offer community schools, it was nowhere to be found. Is that the transparency you want? We sent out a survey to the whole community, trying to assess their wants and needs. It has always been clear that the voters want their community schools.

Reading some of the minutes from a recent workshop has me concerned, too. Statements were made that clearly point to cuts in the music department. My goodness, who is out working harder than music director Rachel Lake? These kids have worked hard, traveled and learned a lot. I was appalled at this.

I also think that a board member should be very informed of what levy dollars support. Also, each time they run a levy, it’s costly, yet they intend to turn around and run it again. It’s time they quit wasting taxpayer dollars and be transparent and submit communications to the whole community. I’m voting for a change.

KRISTI UNRUH

Long Beach