While I have concerns about the Coeur d'Alene School Board's recent decisions on the IB/PYP programs, what concerns me even more as a longtime citizen of this community is the lack of diversity of opinion on this school board, the lack of serious study of the pros and cons associated with this PYP program, and the fact that such a controversial educational program was terminated by an apparently biased and mostly unelected school board.

It was obvious by the previously prepared written statements read by school board members at the conclusion of the public hearing at the board meeting on Oct. 1 that the school board members had already made up their minds about how they were going to vote on the PYP program regardless of the public comments for or against the PYP program. A public hearing is for a school board or any public board to consider additional evidence and opinions of the public and then use that information to make a decision on a particular matter. It can hardly be called a valid public hearing if a board has its mind made up about a particular issue before the matter is even publicly discussed.

Whether the school board members supported the PYP program or not, any decision by this school board or any elected body needs to be an objective decision by people who are open-minded and who are not considering the issue with preconceived ideas or biases. Everybody of course has their own values and political and religious beliefs that are going to affect their decision making in whatever environment they are in, including being on a school board.

However, one of the concerns that many people have in the community who attended the recent school board meeting is that this school board is anything but objective on this and possibly some other issues and because it is mostly unelected; its members also may not be representative of the views of much of the community. Three of the five people on this board are appointed, not elected, and two of the three were appointed by people who were elected to the school board with the stated goal of getting rid of the IB/PYP program. Consequently the perception by many is that the board is not unbiased at least in relation to the IB/PYP issue and likely has a political agenda.

Diversity of opinions on any school board or any government agency is a strength, not a weakness. When one looks at the history of this country and our great democratic institutions such as the Congress or if one reads the writings of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and other founding fathers, it is obvious that the political institutions in this country from the highest governing bodies such as Congress down to state legislatures, local city councils, county commissioners, and school boards were meant to be structured to accommodate different beliefs, political views, ideologies, religious views, cultural backgrounds, etc. Healthy debate and respectful disagreement that involves different groups of people working together for common goals is a foundation of our democratic institutions.

I have been on various local and statewide boards and it has been my experience that the boards that work best are the ones where there is a diversity of opinion and a healthy debate among the board members after an objective study of the issues. No one interest group should have any more weight on the decision making process of a publicly elected board than any other group of individuals. However, that does not appear to be the case on the Coeur d'Alene School Board at least in relation to its decisions about the IB/PYP. If one reads the Code of Ethics of the school board (Policy No. 218) one also has to question whether or not some members of this school board followed their own Code of Ethics by making a decision about the PYP issue prior to the public meeting which is intended to gather information from the public, and without all the available facts, and with no hidden agendas.

The goal and task of the school board is to promote programs and policies that enhance the quality of education of children. Any decision about the PYP program or other programs of the school district clearly needs to be made on the basis of objective facts and the considered opinions of many diverse members of the community.

With regards to the PYP program, the school board could have taken its time and authorized an objective scientific study be done about the program involving surveys of parents, the educational professionals including both teachers and administrators, and of course most importantly a study of how the students are doing academically in the program. Are they learning the educational basics required by the state of Idaho in addition to learning critical thinking skills which will help them academically and in life? Because of the controversy about the IB/PYP program, such a study could have been done by an objective outside group such as a professional research organization designed to do such studies or researchers at a university. However, the board didn't apparently want a serious study of the pros and cons of the program. The fact that some of them came to the public hearing with prepared statements showed that they intended to kill the PYP program before the public hearing and they had the political power to do so and they did.

There was no rush to make a decision about the PYP program. It also seems to me that any decision about the continuation or elimination of the PYP program should have been done by a school board that was elected, not mostly appointed, and the decision should have been delayed until after the school board elections in the spring. By then the scientific study of the program would have been completed and the school board members making decisions about keeping or eliminating the program would have all been elected by the citizens of Coeur d'Alene and not appointed.

The decision about the PYP program would have more credibility to many people in the community if made by an elected board, with diverse opinions, after objective study of its merits, instead of by an apparently biased board that seems to have made its decision before a public hearing on the controversial program. Maybe in the spring time after the school board elections there will be more diversity of opinion on the Coeur d'Alene School Board and such politically biased and questionably ethical behavior will end.

Tom Hearn is a Coeur d'Alene resident.