School Board Member Affeldt is Invested in Emery Unified School District

John Affeldt: One Of a Kind,
Last Of His Kind

Opinion
We have loudly taken issue with Emery School Board member John Affeldt during his tumultuous first year in office.  We disagreed with him as he joined with his colleagues in shutting down 70 citizen dissenters of the Kindergarten-12th Grade model at the Center of 'Community' Life.  We were anguished when he again joined his colleagues and refused to work with the teachers to resolve their vote of NO Confidence in the Schools Superintendent Debbra Lindo over the last 14 months.  Yet as he and his colleagues build the Center of 'Community' Life and continue to obstinately push aside all comers,  John Affeldt distinguishes himself by showing us he is truly invested in the Emery Unified School District.  Mr Affeldt has enrolled his own child in school here.

Other Emery School Board members over the years have either quietly removed their children from the District or failed to even try Emery for their children, opting instead on a different school district or private school.  This has happened even recently.  But member Affeldt appears to be staying put;  he's the last School Board member with a child enrolled at Emery.

Mr Affeldt's investment here is substantial; it's a vote of confidence in the School District.  Even though we have taken issue with his corrosive public policy and his unfortunate style of leadership, we have to credit him for his allegiance to this school district.  It's no small thing; Mr Affeldt's commitment to Emery Unified is unassailable.  But having said all this, it's telling that we should have to praise a school board member so effusively for simply enrolling their child in the district they control.  We should have a school board where John Affeldt would be just one of many, not one of a kind.