Horray for Princeton

I have attended many a past Princeton Town Board meeting when the board acknowledged that something needed to be done about the town hall. Well, this week those complaints will end.
I am excited especially for the employees. They have put up with and adapted to working in an inadequate amount of space, leaky roofs, and a converted jail, just to name a few hindrances to being able to get their work done.
Town Clerk Marla Ashworth’s excitement was evident as she drove the moving van with town records and her husband drove a fork truck with the town safe down to the new building Saturday morning.
I know the police chief has complained about not having a secured, private room to talk with witnesses or to interview suspects.
The mayor has complained that the old town hall did not project a good image when talking with an economic development prospect.
I appreciate the pride Jean Haddock has shown in the new building as she has worked to assemble photos of all of the old mayors.
I haven’t been on a tour yet, but I look forward, along with I hope the rest of Princeton, to celebrating a building that represents the progressive leadership of the town.

On a somewhat related note, I am disturbed by the bickering between the school board and the county commissioners.
Princeton School is turning into a trailer town as more and more mobile classrooms are drug onto the campus.
While school officials will successfully argue that the students assigned to a mobile classroom don’t have a significantly affected classroom experience, hallways, cafeterias, and media centers, among other facilities, that are designed for smaller student populations are inadequate. And athletic facilities become trailer lots.
We could have some pride in the fact that there is a sign of growth in the area, and, we continue to have a Union School in the community.
I’m willing to give up those to providing an adequate facility to meet the education needs of the children of our community.
The bickering centers around a couple of points: the funding formula for building new school buildings and money for teacher supplements.
I will sound a lot like a parent here, but I tend to side with the schools on these two issues. I believe a lot of others do, too.
As it stands with the funding formula, Princeton will get a much-needed new elementary school four years from now. The school board is asking that lottery money be considered in the revenue mix, to move the new school up a year.
County Manager Rick Hester has vowed he will not sign off on a new budget that includes lottery money, as he does not know with the finagling by the state exactly how much money they are talking about.
As you want a conservative manager of our money, that’s a statement you would hope he would make, and I would normally say that’s a reasonable position.
I have pointed with pride to our schools as some of the good teachers from neighboring counties have chosen to move to Johnston County to teach. I have felt that better facilities and a good leadership team have made a difference, but I know with many a teacher it comes down to how much they will get in that paycheck.
Johnston County has been at a competitive advantage with teacher supplements in recent years, though they have lost teachers to higher paying Wake County, and continue to lose teachers to them. Now they are losing teachers back to adjacent counties as those counties continue to raise their supplements while Johnston does not.
As an astute friend points out, some of the bickering begins within the school board, as the non-partisan board is acting a lot like a partisan board. The board members who are suppose to drop political affiliations in order to unite to advocate for the students and staff of our schools are acting a lot like Democrats and Republicans.
Five years ago there was a good working relationship between the schools’ staff and county staff, and between the two boards. There is a natural tension, but they were able to work things out.
There needs to be some dialogue between the leadership of the two boards, and between the schools superintendent and the county manager. I believe we all have the same interests at heart, we just come at it a little differently. Maybe times have changed enough that we need to re-examine the funding formula, or come up with creative solutions.
There needs to be confidence that the county is doing all it can reasonably do to meet the schools needs. If the school board is convinced the county needs to do more, it’s up to the schools to convince the county board of that need.