Editor's Commentary

Clarendon has been celebrating freedom for a long time. Since that first summer in 1878 when those Christian colonists first observed Independence Day, our community came to be known for its Fourth of July festivities.

A lot has changed in the last 137 years. Singing and the reading of the Declaration of Independence have given way to parades, turtle races, and rodeos. But the spirit remains the same as our community rallies together to trumpet the greatness of America and the promise of Liberty and Opportunity that our Founding Fathers risked their lives to secure.

America, too, has seen a lot of changes. We’ve seen freedom expanded in many ways as the definitions of personal liberties have been broadened, and we’ve seen freedom limited in other ways as federal taxation and regulation constrict the free marketplace and the economy.

As a country we have much to be proud of about tolerance and the rights of the individual. And yet we also have much to learn as we all still figure out how to live together in what has been called a great melting pot of different people with many different beliefs.

Last week, the United States Supreme Court again upheld the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. Republicans acted with surprise and outrage and continued to issue calls to repeal that law. Many people, your editor included, think the ACA is an abomination and a gross intrusion into our private lives. But after it survived its main Supreme Court challenge, that law has no more chance of being repealed than does Social Security or Medicare. It is here to stay.

Then on Friday, the High Court expanded the rights of same-sex couples to marry in all 50 states, saying those individuals deserve equal protection under the law. This caused the expected backlash from many people, but most puzzling came from Republicans in Texas and elsewhere who basically feel like religious freedom is under assault or at least threatened by this ruling.

It is an age old problem that America must still wrestle with. Freedom must be for everyone… or there is freedom for no one.

People are entitled to their beliefs and their opinions on same-sex marriage, for example. But the highest court in the land has determined that these marriages are legal. Your church doesn’t have to condone it; and you don’t have to attend a gay wedding; but if you’re a public official, you do have to provide them the same service you would be legally obligated to provide anyone else. Politicians and demagogues who encourage public servants not to provide government services based on their religious beliefs, are dangerous at best. For if you can refuse to give a same-sex couple a marriage license, what is to keep other people of strong faith or beliefs from refusing to prepare alcohol permits, serve mixed-race couples, or serve people of other faiths?

Freedom also means that sometimes you have to stomach things you don’t like. The Confederate battle flag in recent days has become a lightning rod again in conversations about race. Some people, like your editor, see the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage and the standard of a lost cause and a people who fought for their homeland. Others see the flag through the single view of racism, noting the Confederacy’s support for slavery and the use of the flag by hate groups.

Freedom means you can put crosses on your property up and down the highway, but freedom also means the travelers who are creeped out by what appears to be an overly zealous town can take their business elsewhere.

Freedom means you can put a Ten Commandments monument on the Courthouse Square and call it a historical marker, but it also means someone else could erect a monument to Jews and Muslims who have also called the same county home.

Freedom is hard. Freedom means you can do what you want, believe what you want, and say what you want. But so can I, and so can the other guy, and so can the Democrat and the Republican and the Communist and the Baptist and the Atheist. And most of all, for it to work, you have to be able to stand up for the rights of those you disagree with.

The biggest problem America – and indeed Texas – faces right now is that our two-party system wants freedom in different ways. The left largely wants personal freedoms with a strongly regulated economy, and the right largely wants a more deregulated economy with low taxation and gives lip service to personal freedom… as long as you’re an evangelical Christian who isn’t gay or wants an abortion.

We need to get back on track. We need to recognize that freedom comes in many forms and it benefits many people… not just ourselves or those who believe, worship, or think the way we do.

Jefferson said it best: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” America works best when we let those words be our guide.

 

Tex Selvidge led a life of community service, and this week his community is in mourning for the man who was one if its best known and best respected citizens.

Rev. Chris Downer said he did not personally know anyone who knew more people or was more influential than Tex Selvidge. If you went to any town in a four or five state area from Clarendon, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t know someone who had gone to Clarendon College and known or been influenced by Tex.

I remember getting my own acceptance letter to CC and reading Tex’s signature on the bottom of it. I already knew Tex by that time in my life. In addition to seeing him at numerous college alumni reunions that I attended with my father and grandfather, I had known him from the time he ran the clothing store which was next to the West Texas Utilities office where my Dad was the manager. Even as young boy, I knew Tex, and I knew he was a good and well-respected man.

During my two-year stint at old CC, Tex offered me advice and friendship the same as any other student, and I always knew I could go to him if I ever needed anything.

My favorite memories of Tex are from his time as mayor of our little city. When he stepped down from that position in 1996, he told me, “I’ve always felt like if you’re going to live somewhere, you ought to give something to it.”

Tex gave and gave to this community. He told me he thought serving the community was something everyone should do. “It would thrill me if every election we had 10 or 12 people running for every spot on every board in the county,” he said.

For his part, Tex always tried to put the community’s interests first; and he said on the rare occasions he was called on to break a tie, he tried to vote for his convictions. He was proud to have been a part of several accomplishments during his time with the city, including the 2006 street project, numerous grants received to improve the city, updating and codification of the city ordinances, and the development of the city-county library downtown.

“I’m not saying I did a better job than anyone else would have, but I hope I contributed something to the community,” he said. “I’m sure some would disagree, but everyone is entitled to their opinions.”

Agreeing to disagree was another of his hallmarks as mayor. It never seemed to be personal with Tex. Occasionally, he and the newspaper editor would have different views on matters, but we always maintained a friendship and could joke about things.

I was standing next to him at reception one time while he was mayor when he was asked how he was doing. “I’m fine,” he said “if I could just get the editor off my ass.” Then he busted out laughing and threw his arm around my shoulder.

I’ll miss that arm. I’ll miss the smile and the laugh and the words of wisdom.

Tex Selvidge led a life that we should all strive to emulate – a life devoted to community, dedicated to helping young people, and committed to friends and family.

How lucky the Selvidge and Jack families have been to have enjoyed the presence of so great a man! How deep their sense of loss must be now without him here on Earth. Our prayers and sympathies are with them as we give thanks to God for having blessed us with the privilege of knowing Tex Selvidge. Our community is stronger, our college is better, and our lives are richer because of him.

Editor’s note: the family requests that all gifts be directed to the Leonard “Tex” Selvidge Memorial Scholarship, c/o Clarendon College, Attn: Ashlee Estlack, PO Box 968, Clarendon, Texas 79226.

 

The Donley County AgriLife Extension Office held a community planning workshop last Tuesday evening, but it turns out the community wasn’t much interested in making plans.

Your editor showed up 30 minutes late (more on that in a moment), and that brought the total number of people at the event to… four.
Extension Agent Leonard Haynes was there along with Clarendon Interim Director of Tourism & Economic Development Jack King, city clerk and Chamber of Commerce board member Sharon Braddock, and myself (newspaper guy, CEDC secretary and Chamber president).
Mr. Haynes sent out about 80 personal invitations to the event, and it made the front page of the Enterprise twice. And then there were four of us.
Granted, it was a busy night. Clarendon ISD’s Gifted & Talented Showcase was the same night and started at the same time. (There we go with the editor being 30 minutes late.) But surely not everyone on the invitation list was at the GT program.
Maybe it was just a bad day or time, but when is a better day or time? That’s always an issue planning any community event. It always comes down to just picking a day, pulling the trigger, and hoping for the best. Mr. Haynes did due diligence to avoid any possible conflicts, and considering the GT program was going on, he thought he had a good date. And yet, there were four of us.
It’s been suggested that perhaps food would draw more people. Shoot a mile, free beer would probably help, too. But surely there are more than four people interested in the future of our community.
Perhaps things have changed from a decade ago when Mr. Haynes held his first such workshop and more than 40 people attended. Perhaps we’re busier now. Or perhaps – and this is the scary part – we’re a society that is now largely disengaged.
But again we come back to the four of us who were there. We didn’t plan the future for the rest of you. We waited around for another 30 minutes or so and then folded up the tent and went home. But we left knowing that the idea of getting input from the community is a worthy goal.
It may be that we need to go with an online survey of our citizens. What do you want and more importantly what do you think we truly need?  What are assets in your opinion and what our weaknesses? What do you think will make Clarendon and Donley County grow? And more importantly, how can we pay for the improvements you would like to see?
All these questions your civic leaders are interested in having answered, but you have to get involved and be part of the process. Join the debate, write a letter to the editor, come to a city council meeting, or call Jack King and tell him your thoughts.

The City of Shamrock welcomed an American hero last week as former astronaut Alan Bean gave the keynote address at the Friday banquet that preceded the big St. Patrick’s Day Celebration in that city.

A product of the Texas Panhandle, Bean was born in Wheeler, and surely no one on the second floor of that drug store in 1932 ever imagined at the time that this boy would one day walk on the surface of the Moon. But as fate would have it, Bean would eventually join the Navy, become a fighter pilot, and then… get turned down to be an astronaut. The rejection stiffened his resolve, however, and he worked harder to gain a spot in NASA’s fledgling space program. His hard work paid off, and he eventually found himself on a 250,000-mile journey to Earth’s nearest neighbor on the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969.

Bean was the fourth man to walk on the moon during a program that many consider as the greatest technical achievement of the American civilization. This boy born not so far from here was part of something that typified American greatness or, as some like to call it, American exceptionalism.

In all of human history, only 12 men have ever walked on the Moon – all of them Americans and no one since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Your editor was two years old then. Those younger than 42 have never seen someone do what Bean did.

Capt. Bean isn’t concerned by this. He notes that the Pilgrims didn’t land at Plymouth Rock until 128 years after Columbus sailed to the New World. But there was a lot of exploration done in those ensuing years… new lands and peoples discovered… new records set… and boundaries pushed further and further.

Politics is largely to blame for the languishing of the American space program. We haven’t gotten a man out of earth orbit for four decades, and right now we can’t even put an astronaut in space without hitching a ride from the Russians. In 2004, President George W. Bush outlined a new program designed to return humans to the Moon by 2020 and launch missions further into space. In 2010, President Barack Obama pulled the plug on the program.

Americans still have it in them to accomplish great things like Alan Bean did. But we have to stop worrying about how many calories are in a school lunch, how to make life easy for the non-productive, or how to have a government program to take care of people from the cradle to the grave. We need leaders who lead, a government that sets goals which actually push us to achieve greatness, politicians who respect and understand the importance of science, and a president who will inspire to again be the greatest nation on God’s earth.

But until that happens, I will be thankful that my kids got the opportunity to meet an American hero and hope that they understand the greatness of the man and the enormous importance of what his generation did for all mankind. My son says he wants to go to Mars. (Shoot a mile, his old man would like to go to Mars!) And who knows? Maybe someday, when things are right, maybe he – or his sister – can follow in the footsteps other kids from the Panhandle, like Alan Bean and Rick Husband, and blaze a trail in the sky.

Meanwhile…

No one is safe while the Texas Legislature is currently in session. The most uncompromising elements of the Republican Party are running the state, and this week they’re making headlines with the passage of an open carry bill out of the Texas Senate. The measure now goes to the House, and the governor has already indicated he’ll sign the bill into law.

Other than returning Texas to the wild, wild West, it’s not clear what the advantage of this law would be. Concealed carry is one thing, but having a good number of the population walking around with a gun on their hip just seems to increase the likelihood that some nut job will get his hands on a firearm.

Open Carry is getting all the press, but here’s some other things the boys and girls in Austin are up to. The budget proposed in the House zeroed out funding for the Courthouse Restoration Program that Donley County and others have benefitted from. It also zeroed out funding for the Texas Trails program that has helped boost heritage tourism to rural communities.

And more good news… no fewer than six bills have been filed to curtail your right to know what’s happening in your local governments by eliminating or truncating public notices in newspapers. Instead of making government more open and more transparent, there are forces in power who would like to see things kept out of the public’s view.

All of this and we still have the real issues to deal with… education financing, out of control standardized testing in public schools, and a little deal of not having enough water for our growing state. But, hey! They’re on top of the gun thing.

 

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick helped set the tone for the Legislative session last week by partially squashing the voice of the minority party.

You can read the details of the new rules in the Texas Senate in a piece by the Texas Tribune that is reprinted in this week’s Enterprise, but suffice it to say that the action falls right in line with comments this column made two weeks ago regarding Patrick’s agenda.

In a nutshell, the Republican majority has made it difficult for minority interests to stop or slow legislation it considers harmful or ill conceived. The State Senate has 31 members, and for nearly 70 years it took 21 members to bring any bill to the floor for a vote. Now it will only take 19 members. And with the Republican dominance in the Legislature, it pretty much neuters any opposition to the conservative agenda.

Nearly two decades ago, when your editor was new to the job, a Clarendon College employee approached me about helping get a College Republicans chapter started at CC. The sponsor for the group knew that I had been a CR member at Texas Tech and was looking for some tips on how to have a successful organization here.

I agreed to come to a meeting and then proceeded to tell them what I thought they needed to do.

“The first thing you need to do is organize a Young Democrats chapter,” I told them as they sat in stunned silence.

“Why would we do that?” one of the officers asked.

“Because,” I replied, “otherwise you’re not going to have any fun or get anything done.”

In College Republicans I learned two very valuable things: 1) fanatical conservatives are no better than leftwing wackos (they just want to limit your freedom in a different way), and 2) parties need other parties to thrive.

Our best functions were debates with the Young Democrats and College Libertarians. Our intramural games were with the Democrats. Our food or coat drive contest challenges, etc., were successful because of the competition between the other parties. We thrived off each other, and, I think, made each other better.

In a generation, we have seen the Democrats go from being the majority party in Texas to being the vocal minority and now to having even that limited voice muzzled. That can’t be good, and Republicans should be wary that the wheel of fortune – and changing demographics – may one day reverse their current status.

Politicians always like to talk about the “democratic process” and what a great “democracy” we live in. But pure democracy can be the worst kind of evil, which is why our state and federal founders developed a system of republican (small “R”) government with checks and balances and protections for minority views. The heavy-handedness of the current majority, however, teeters on bringing Texas in touch with absolute democracy where the will of the majority (fifty percent plus one) can override any other concern.

You like open government and private control of groundwater in West Texas? Well, with absolute democracy and no voice for the minority, crony politicians can corrupt government functions and a majority of urban Texans can do what they want to with rural groundwater.

And what happens in a generation or two when the left is back in power? Perhaps a conservative nightmare comes to life with free abortions in clinics across the state, mandatory Pre-K classes, and strangling regulations on oil, gas, hunting, and fishing. Won’t that be fun?

According to the Tribune article, the new Senate rules also eliminated committees focused on open government, jurisprudence, economic development, and government organization. What’s the reasoning behind that and what does it mean for Texans?

For now, the right has all the “might” in Texas, and it’s marching forward at an alarming rate. But conservatives would do well to consider the long term ramifications of what their steamroller approach can bring down the line. The pendulum will one day swing the other way, and we may not like it when it does.

 

Texas’ new Ag Commissioner Sid Miller made headlines last week when, as his first official act in office, he granted amnesty… to cupcakes.

Miller’s bold move was, he said, to let Texans know that rules passed in 2004 that prevented cupcakes, cookies, and other snacks from being brought to public schools had been repealed.

“We want families, teachers and schools in Texas to know the Texas Department of Agriculture has abolished all rules and guidelines that would stop a parent from bringing cupcakes, cookies or snacks to school,” said Commissioner Miller. “This act is about providing local control to our communities. I am evaluating agency policies and procedures to ensure we are in touch with Texas consumers, while also decreasing state regulation and expanding local control.”

It all sounds good, but the fact is that the cupcake rule was already repealed… almost as soon as it was passed.

The Texas Tribune reported two days after Miller’s amnesty award: “In August 2004, then-Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs issued a clarification to a new statewide policy restricting junk food in schools. The “cupcake clarification” said that cakes and cupcakes could be brought to school for birthdays. In 2005, state lawmakers passed Lauren’s Law, which guaranteed that right.”

Combs herself was labeled many times by this column as a Health Nazi for her rabid war on junk food to fight the supposed increasing mass of school children across the state.

Miller said the repeal – which, again, happened ten years ago – was “to allow for greater control and decision-making at the local level,” but his agency’s press release went on to note that “Federal guidelines still regulate food sold during the day at schools that participate in the National School Lunch program.”

According to Miller’s office, there is a lot of confusion about what is and isn’t allowed in schools; and I think they are probably right about that. When my son started school, we were given a list of what was and wasn’t allowed for snack time. I’m not sure what they would have done if we had sent him with Cokes and Oreos for everyone, but we usually just opted for applesauce or Cheez-Its.

Miller’s political theatrics aside, he does bring attention to the larger issue of government involvement in our school lunch program. Rules passed down by the imperial dietitians and busybodies in Washington, DC, have succeeded in making school lunches so “healthy” that no one wants to eat them.

While I admit that our Cub Reporter is a picky eater, when he started school three years ago, he liked some of the school menu. But with new restrictions in place, he takes his lunch every day. Granted the majority of kids are still getting a tray every day; but if you sit and watch during lunchtime, you’ll see a lot of kids just picking around the food. And the amount of food that goes straight in the trash has you make you wonder if the “guidelines” are counterproductive.

Why do school districts put up with the meddling of the government in their cafeterias? It comes down to money. Our schools have for a long time now been addicted to the federal teat and will do whatever it takes to get that government money. It would be interesting to see if the cost of compliance is worth the gain or better yet worth the cost of kids still being hungry at the end of the day.

If making sure kids don’t go hungry is the goal, then let’s spend a little more time making sure kids will eat what we’re serving. Surely it is better that a kids eats a homemade cinnamon roll than that he doesn’t eat at all.

Personally, I think the government has bigger issues than the nutritional value of school nachos. If they want to pare down some fat, I’d suggest they start with federal agencies, bureaucratic salaries, and programs. Parents, administrators, school board members, and cafeteria managers can handle their own affairs. The politicians need to just mind their own business.

 

Incoming Lt. Gov Dan Patrick released his vision for Texas last week, and it appears that not much of positive significance is going to happen while he’s in charge.

Patrick’s plan consists of 19 points in about eight areas that are keeping Republican leader of the State Senate and his followers up at night.

Going through all 19 of these points would be tiresome, so let’s look at some of the highlights.

Patrick wants to “pass a conservative budget that includes significant funding for both property tax cuts, and business tax cuts.” After more than a decade of Gov. Good Hair, I don’t see how the state budget can get much more “conservative,” but I’m sure there’s a way to do it. I’m all for keeping spending in check and taxes low, but I also liked our roadside rest areas and having the rights of way mowed more than once a year.

Patrick’s vision also calls for more funding for border security, which ought to be a federal issue, but we know how well that’s working. Anyway, our new leader, in his infinite wisdom, wants more money to increase DPS personnel on the border. That sounds wonderful, but let’s hope that these personnel are not just more of the current trend of sending Troopers from other areas of the state to patrol the border. Donley County is losing fine money because our troopers aren’t here to patrol our highways. And local accidents often can’t be worked in a timely fashion now because the nearest trooper is sometimes an hour away. But throw some more money at the border and stick out your chest, Mr. Patrick. I’m sure we’ll be able to take care of ourselves somehow.

Another budget goal is to provide property tax relief. Of course, the state doesn’t levy a property tax; local governments do. Patrick and his allies however want to interfere with local governments’ abilities to raise and collect the money they need to operate by increasing the homestead exemption and sticking their foot into the appraisal process. The fact of the matter is state politicians have already messed with local tax collections enough by creating exemptions and tax freezes for almost anyone with a sob story.

And speaking of interference from the boys and girls in Austin, Patrick has some ideas on public education. School choice and expanded “accountability” – the great platform of conservatives for decades. Realistically our school choices in Donley County will always be Clarendon or Hedley, so Patrick isn’t doing anything for us there. And I think we’ve had quite enough “accountability” programs to last us for a while. How about we just let teachers teach, let school board set policies, and let administrators discipline and administrate?

Patrick also wants a new reading program for our children. If you like the Accelerated Reader “how many books can your kid read before he explodes” program, I’m sure you’ll love what a pinhead like Patrick comes up with.

On higher education, one of Patrick’s “visions” has to do with tuition. He’s apparently upset that college tuition has “skyrocketed” in the last decade, but he fails to talk about how state education funding is kind of a go-to source for budget cutters. If you don’t provide funding for colleges and universities, they have no choice but to make it up on tuition and fees.

I read Patrick’s goals twice for transportation, and it still sounds like nonsense to me. I think he wants more money for roads basically, but I’m sure most of it will go to the I-35 corridor, so it probably doesn’t matter to us out here on the frontier.

I suppose it would be too much to hope that we might tackle real issues somewhere in all that. Like how will the state deal with a growing population and a dwindling supply of water?

Or how can we reform Child Protective Services to actually protect children in light of last week’s report from the Austin American-Statesman which found that CPS “did not publicly report 655 child abuse-related fatalities, even though the department confirmed that those children had been mistreated prior to their deaths?” Maybe Patrick and his friends could stop worrying about abortion for just one legislative session and take a look at what happens to kids after they are born.

Texas has real issues, but I don’t think we have a real leader in Dan Patrick. I think we have a guy with an agenda.

 

This week marks the changing of the guard for two local institutions as Donley County Judge Jack Hall caps off 17 years of service and Clarendon School Superintendent Monty Hysinger leaves for new opportunities after 16 years.

Hall spent a full career of about three decades as a coach and teacher at Clarendon Junior High before ever becoming county judge. In fact, he started at CJH the same day the editor’s mother did in the old school building that stood where Kevin and Cheryl Johnson’s home now overlooks the baseball fields. Through the years, they would share many laughs before Hall’s first retirement.

Donley County Commissioners appointed Hall as county judge after W.R. “Billie” Christal resigned in 1997, and it was that same year that representatives of the Texas Courthouse Alliance came to survey the 1890 Donley County Courthouse. It wasn’t clear what, if anything, would come from that visit of folks from Austin, but Hall, your editor, and others were told that a movement was afoot to restore some of Texas’ old courthouses. That was the beginning of a long road to save the Panhandle’s oldest operational courthouse from the verge of condemnation and return it to its 19th century grandeur.

Today, most everyone in Donley County is proud of the courthouse and realizes the value of its restoration… a $4.2 million project that was funded mostly by state money. But that wasn’t the case 14 years ago as many people strongly opposed the project. Judge Jack Hall was steadfast in his dedication to preserve our courthouse and restore it so that generations to come would be able to enjoy it. Asked if it was a good idea or if it would work, Hall always replied, “I just don’t see it any other way.”

Since the project’s completion in 2003, Judge Hall has protected “The Jewel of the Plains” (as Texas Historical Commission member Shirley Caldwell first called it) and given countless tours of the old building, recalling all the unique features, interesting stories, and architectural details of its construction and restoration.

In addition to his role in saving the courthouse, Hall has carried out his duties as judge in the best manner possible. He has conducted commissioners’ court meetings with dignity and decorum and acted in every sense as a gentleman in the performance of his job. Donley County owes a debt of gratitude to Judge Hall. We wish him well in his much deserved second retirement, and we have high expectations for continued leadership and service from his successor, Judge John Howard.

At Clarendon Public Schools, Monty Hysinger has served in his position almost as long as Hall has been judge, and we have always found him to be a good man who has tried to do the best for the students of our district and who stood out for his service to our community.

Through his involvement with the Lions Club, Hysinger has taken an active role in the club’s Sweetheart program and volunteered many, many times to set out or pick up American flags for the club. For many years, Hysinger has almost single-handedly organized the annual Pancake Supper to the point where the rest of the club mostly just had to sell tickets and show up to flip pancakes.

At the school, Hysinger has pushed to keep the most current technology at our children’s and teacher’s fingertips. Soon after her retirement, he drafted the editor’s mother in writing a grant she called “Teaching an Old Town New Tricks” that helped fund a lot of new technology for the school. Since then he has consistently found other opportunities to bring new technology to Clarendon ISD.

Hysinger also has been an excellent steward of the school’s physical plant, undertaking initiatives that have greatly extended the life of a campus that was constructed in 1963 with some buildings dating back even earlier. At a time when some area schools were turning their backs on old buildings, Hysinger was repurposing them and adding decades to their usefulness at a long-term savings to the taxpayer.

Hysinger also is to be commended for his leadership in reworking the school’s old tornado shelter. The 1960s “bomb shelter” under the cafeteria and library had been used for decades for tornado drills but had fallen out of use by the turn of the century due to concerns mainly over dust. Hysinger had the floor concreted, had emergency lights installed, and instituted a tornado plan under which all CISD students can get to cover in about five minutes.

Dumas ISD is getting a good man and a good leader in Monty Hysinger, and we hope that whoever succeeds him can build on the foundations that he has laid for our school.

Meanwhile…

Our hearts and prayers go out this week to the family of Patrick Robertson, a man who touched so many and served us all whether it was as a fireman, a paramedic, a funeral director, a radio personality, or a friend. No father should have to bury his son, and there is never a good time for a son to lose his father. Our greatest sympathies to Delbert, Chuck, Vicky, Debbie, and the rest of the family. Our community will miss Pat greatly, and we hope that his loved ones can find comfort in the love and friendship of others in the days to come.

It’s been a disappointing couple of weeks for open government and the right of the people in Donley County to know what their governments are up to.

Following the state norm, Clarendon ISD has formally declared that it will only name a lone finalist in its search to replace longtime superintendent Monty Hysinger.

The process is just getting started, and CISD missed the first step in informing the public by not posting the job opening in the local paper, even though the top city and college positions have always been advertised locally as well as to a wider audience. The next superintendent is probably not from Clarendon, but the paper does have a lot of readers and people who are connected to other people. The last director of the Clarendon EDC saw the job in the Enterprise, and one of the finalists in the search for the next EDC director also saw the listing the local paper.

The school is at least going through the motions of getting public feedback ahead of the search. CISD will hold a public forum on what residents want to see in the next school superintendent next Monday, December 8, at 6:30 p.m. CISD is even conducting an online survey on that question at www.clarendonisd.net.

But the desire for public input apparently ends right there. Once, school officials start looking at candidates, the public won’t know who any of them are until one has been picked.

The school board has been advised that a candidate for this job will lose face at home if it is known that he or she has applied for the top job in Clarendon. “Their star will lose some of its luster,” Region 16 Executive Director John Bass told the board last month.

CISD Trustees are just following the counsel of their advisors in this process. But you have to wonder, why does the same not hold true for presidential candidates at Clarendon College? Did Dr. Robert Riza lose face at Hill College when he was named one of three finalists at Clarendon? Did Dr. Myles Shelton lose face here when he was named as a finalist in Galveston? What difference does it make? The people of Clarendon had a right to know that Riza was a candidate here, and before that they had a high interest in knowing that Shelton was looking to leave.

Sources have now told the Enterprise that Hysinger was a candidate for the top job at another school months ago. People here would have been interested in that.

School superintendents, like college presidents, are important public employees and the interest in staying or leaving or coming is of high concern to their employers, i.e. the taxpayers. We have a right to know who is being considered as our superintendent before that decision is made.

The beef here is not with our school trustees as individuals. But it is rather with the advice that they have been given. Just because most other districts in the state run a confidential search and keep the public in the dark doesn’t mean Clarendon ISD had to. They could have chosen to name two or three finalists. Naming one “finalist” isn’t naming any “finalist”… it’s just naming who you’ve hired.

And on the lines of the public’s interest, while Clarendon College goes above and beyond when it’s time to hire a president, it unfortunately doesn’t follow the same philosophy when it comes to filling a vacancy on the Board of Regents.

Two weeks ago, Dr. John Howard resigned his position on the CC Board of Regents ahead of his being sworn-in as county judge next month. In the same meeting, the board appointed former CC employee Darlene Spier to take Howard’s seat, and less than two minutes later the board named her its vice chairman.

Setting aside Mrs. Spier’s qualifications and unquestionable knowledge of the college, the public was given no consideration as to the appointment. It would have been nice to at least see a month’s separation between Howard’s resignation and his replacement’s appointment. The college has a nine-member board, so it’s not like there was a danger of not having a quorum.

No other names were ever mentioned before Spier was appointed to represent the people of the college district. We can only assume that her candidacy was discussed in closed session sometime, but we don’t recall that topic ever being on a college agenda in the last few months. The attorney general says it’s okay to discuss board members in closed session under personnel – even though they are representatives of the people instead of employees – but the attorney general also holds that “…the more important the position being discussed, the more specific the posting will need to be in describing that position.”

Who represents the people on the board until the next election, in this paper’s view, should have been very important.

Our school and our college are both run with good people on their boards, and we hope that moving forward they will do their level best to keep the public in the loop as much as possible when important decisions are to be made.