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Letter: Newspaper perpetuated coach hiring circus

January 23, 2008

Dear Editor,

Thank you to Herb Brock for expressing a different perspective on the Boyle County High School pursuit of a high profile football coach. As the parent of two student-athletes in Boyle County schools (soccer, swimming and track), I can also appreciate the excitement that the stir must have caused for those who are directly impacted by the football program.

As an educator, however, my first thoughts were for the teachers who do the much less glamorous job of educating our children to proficiency. I was glad that Brock made it a point to highlight their work. While the local paper will occasionally highlight interesting classes or achievements in our local schools, there is no question that those kinds of features don't exactly widen the readership of newspapers.

As one who travels the state's educational circles in my current job, I can vouch that the perceived "state-wide" story that we became had very mixed results and may not have been the perception that our schools and community truly wanted.

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Brock's eloquent presentation of both perspectives left out one important thought, however, and that is the newspaper's role in perpetuating the circus. Would the newspaper print a "Question and Answer" feature the next time there is a superintendent search the way it did for the coach search? Will the newspaper update its Web site every few hours with the latest reflection or development the next time there is a critical educational position open, even when there is nothing new to report except that someone had a conversation in a fast food restaurant about it?

Whichever perspective one has on the search for a coach, there is one resounding observation I think we can all agree on, and that is the power of high expectations. Let's keep them high for all schools in our community, for the sake of all students, please.

Mary Rudd

Danville

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