Last night, I went to the school committee meeting in town. As I have been talking to people about a possible run for town council, some have suggested school committee might be a better fit for my background, and it would not mean having to get the party nomination since the positions are non-partisan.

Well, it turned out to be quite a hostile evening, thus the graphic. To let you know some of what is going on, our local teachers have been working without a contract all year because negotiations have not been going well. A have a number of friends who are teachers so I tend to feel a bit for them, though, I have to say that may have changed after what I saw last night. Anyway, negotiations have pretty much halted and neither side is doing much talking even with an appointed mediator.

Well, last night, the teachers and their allies were their in full support. I was there with another woman who was considering a run and wants to run on a shared ticket. Well, she ended up leaving because things got so hostile.

There are lot of reasons for the unhappiness on both sides, and their were few examples of civility. As I mentioned to her, there seemed to be very little love in the room. The level of decorum was quite low.

It really made me question whether I thought running for school, committee was soemthing that I really wanted to do. I am not sure that it would be worth it since I don't see things getting much better any time soon.

On a bright note, things got a lot better once the teachers left. There was a very interesting report about the high rate of dropouts in our town and what can and should be done to try to address that problem.

I did find that I had no trouble understanding most of what was being discusses. I guess it has to do with my ties to education because of my work as a librarian and getting to teach at the two colleges.

I did not end up getting home until about midnight. So, for now, I am still undecided about if I want to run and to whether to run for town council or school committee.