Toledo Public School Board Winners and Losers.

give it a rest. Look on the bright side; Now you'll have something to do with your free time.

My heart weeps. This is one time I hope I'm wrong, but there were so many things that happened that were transparent in their underlying meaning. I say, again, I hope for the sake of the children that have been cheated out of so much, that I am wrong.

You do have a way with words.

This campaign was very interesting to watch. Many, if not all candidates adopted the platform of Change that was first promoted by the 3 for Change campaign in 2005 and the Urban Coalition prior to that. In fact I made that comment to Ignazio Messina that did not get printed in the Blade article today. Yesterday, I was on WSPD thanking all the candidates for coming forward. There is no denying in substance, Caitlin's platform by far was the best ever shown in a Toledo School Board campaign but sometimes ignorance is bliss. We do have the mainstream now understanding the need to address our failing schools. Cheryl made that message known through her campaign. Others adopted her ideas and message and some had very little substance to their campaign and platforms.

The votes have been cast and I am more than willing to work with Mr. Ford and Ms. Sobecki. I had even offered prior to the election season to meet with Ms. Sobecki. A meeting date was arranged and she cancelled the day before and has never attempted to contact me after that. I will be sending both her and Mr. Ford a congratulatory letter and extend my hand in working with them upon their installation to the board in January.

I did this similar fashion in January 2006 when I was first elected and voted in as President of the board. I volunteered to meet monthly with each board member. Unfortunately it was the other members that chose not to meet with me. Furthermore we need a set of goals the Board and District will work on together.

I can not understand why that process has been delayed by politics. I wrote a draft of goals in February 2006, Steve Steel volunteered to work together on those goals for adoption.

To date, the district still does not have an agreed upon set of goals. Let's ask ourselves why.

I hope that Mr. Ford and Ms. Sobecki with their support base can bring the TFT to the table of reform. Time will tell.

Congratulations to all candidates in this election season. Campaigning is hard work and can be a full time job but it's also a great learning experience.

Darlene Fisher

all of the support that we can muster. Go Darlene----Go!

Since you're in the minority, the others simply won't need to work with you. Dress warmly, since I anticipate a lot more cold shoulders presented to you.

I anticipate a lot of 4-1 votes, with the occasional 3-2.

I hardly need to remind you and Mr Torres that no matter how much Jack Ford likes the idea, unless the TPS actually exercises fiscal discipline, placing a levy upon the ballot is foolish. We need you to continue standing firm against all this fiscal laxity, as you've dutifully done all along.

At least you won't have Sykes being a bully any more. (In trade, you now have to watch out for a knife in your back with the initials "JF" on the blade.)

Poor Darlelne. She'll have to watch out for two blades -- JF and LS on the blades -- plus just plain underhandedness. Don't overlook the fact that Lisa had nothing to offer the school system or the community; just do what she's told to do by TFT in exchange for shiny TV ads, and who knows what else. Too bad, some people can't see beyond the glitter. Hopefully, Darlene can hang in there; she knows she's not alone. The movement will keep on going, and maybe somewhere down the line it will break through.

I appreciate the support - in fact during these 2 years, I often received cards and letters from people in the community that I didn't know when I was on the side of a difficult vote.

I believe the community is starting to further understand the issues we have in public education in Toledo and beyond but all candidates expressed the need for change.

Leading from a minority point of view can be difficult and there will be a variety of vote configurations as we move forward. I hope the community continues to get involved and ask for a level of accountability that is necessary.

We need less politics as usual at the BOE and more focus on improving many things across the district. Indeed there are some fine programs and many successful students. I'm most interested in problem solving and establishing solutions. First we have to recognize the extent of issues and problems the BOE must work on and acknowledge them - that doesn't have to involve blaming. Even when we have schools in continuous improvement we always can explore ways to improve and become even better. Lisa Sobecki mentioned during her campaign we need TPS to be a world class school system. I'm totally in agreement of that. First we would have to understand what elements go into creating a world class system, evaluate if we have those elements or what it would take to obtain them and then what resources would be required to become a world class system and outline what such costs would be at our taxpayers' expense.

There's a number of things our Board can and must work on during 2008 so stay tuned.

Best regards,
Darlene Fisher

is going to need a complete brain washing, the kind that you take out the brain, scrub it out and then put it back in and see if it works any better.