ADE and Saranac Lake School Board

At their organizational meeting a couple of weeks ago, The School Board of the Saranac Lake Central School District voted to make the Plattsburgh Press Republican their official newspaper rather than the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. The reason they dropped the ADE as official newspaper is explained in this ADE article written by Mike Lynch.

Citing biased and factually inaccurate reporting, the Saranac Lake Central School District School Board has dropped the Enterprise as its official newspaper.

It appears from the article that a majority of the BOE members felt the ADE has been biased against them. Cliff Donaldson, the one board member that the ADE has been very critical of, for non-school related matters, voted against making the Press Republican the offical newspaper. He was joined by BOE member Tom Finch.

The ADE responded to the BOE recently in an editorial suggesting that switching newspapers hurts only the District taxpayers. They make a good argument.

It will not only cost the school district more money to run legal notices now, but the district will also reach fewer people with the information about the school that the public needs to know. The public notice rates are set by the state Legislature according to the circulation of the paid publication. Our rates are lower, and our circulation coverage is higher than the Press-Republican’s in the Saranac Lake Central School District.

The problem with this incident seems to be a lack of adequate communications between the BOE and the ADE. Historically, the BOE has had difficulties communicating with the community and the taxpayers. Good communications, and it's not easy, is a basis for community support. For example, go the District website for the BOE and get a Board Members email address or phone number so you can communicate with them. Can't do it. No email, no phone number, not even an address to which you can address a letter. There are two important things they have done right; 1) You can access the agenda and minutes of their meetings and 2) The policy manual is accessible online. Very commendable! Please get rid of the grey blocks in the background though.

Next, go to the District website for the Superintendent's office. Ok, there is a picture and his name. You can click on contact form, nope nothing there (to be fair if you look around the website you can email the superintendent, just don't expect a reply). How about some information about the Superintendents education and experience. Nothing. You know those days your children have off because of 'Superintendent's Conference Day'? What do they do on those days? At least there are some pictures proving that people showed up, but don't you want to know what they accomplished? Too bad the District Administration and BOE aren't taking advantage of some pretty inexpensive ways to communicate with their taxpayers.

This doesn't excuse any mistakes made by the ADE concerning the District Budget. The ADE suggests that the BOE get together with them far sooner in the Spring to discuss the budget. Also, suggesting that the BOE is hindering first amendment rights might be going a bit far.

Even local governing bodies like the Saranac Lake Central School Board have chosen not to endorse a free press and freedom of speech when they voted last week to drop the Enterprise as their paper of record. They claimed that our editorials were too critical of their actions.

Wouldn't it be best to let go of the past, start afresh and work together?