Recently Mr. David Anderson submitted a thought provoking letter to The Suburban Times titled, Letter: What Can You Do For $10,000? Mr. Anderson uses his letter for another attack on our Clover Park School Board by suggesting they should stop educating themselves via out-of-town conferences. The letter strongly suggests, that with the money saved by not attending conferences, the school board donate the savings to poor kids to buy baseball pants.
There is no doubt that Mr. Anderson has been a positive community force with his unyielding decades of support for youth baseball. I have always been happy to get behind Mr. Anderson’s efforts to help his kids by writing supportive articles and in one instance by hosting a segment of a television show called The Sheriff’s Report. Retired City of Lakewood police chief, Larry Saunders, Mr. Anderson and I were all on camera, along with his baseball kids, supporting kids baseball.
Mr. Anderson suggests the school board can learn everything they need to know by reading books and by participating in Skype learning sessions instead of attending educational conferences. While Mr. Anderson’s argument may merit consideration, even if he is partially correct, his opinion is at least partially flawed.
I know from personal experience that Mr. Anderson’s prescription for learning does not hold up under close scrutiny. Recently I attended a live seminar. I was uncertain if I should spend time and money attending the seminar because I had already completed a lesson book, some long distance telephone learning and some on-line learning.
With that background, if Mr. Anderson is correct about learning methods, I was about to discover that I had wasted my time and money. Ultimately, I assumed the risk and decided to attend the live seminar.
Before the first hour was over I immediately knew the live seminar was extremely worthwhile. The seminar built upon the foundation of my previous learning. I was able to interact with my fellow students and the nationally recognized seminar leader producing huge positive results. My experience undermines the validity of Mr. Anderson’s learning theory.
The second point I wish to make is that Mr Anderson puts all his focus on turning the Clover Park School Board into a socialist organization where they spend public money in an effort to fulfill a parent’s responsibility to their children.
While I have no interest in blocking anyone’s efforts to help the less fortunate, I do have an interest in helping the less fortunate understand that becoming independent is a preferable and more successful route out of poverty than simply depending on others.
Having spent a considerable amount of time interacting with the poor in Pierce County, I can tell you that many of our poor are poor because of poor life choices. I am not saying all poor fit this category, but from my experience most certainly do.
Mr. Anderson’s title asks what can we do with someone else’s $10,000? My title asks what can we do with a poor person’s $6.00?
Having no idea what baseball pants cost, I went shopping and discovered that juvenile baseball pants are available for as low as $5.99.
Mr. Anderson could significantly help his poor constituents by encouraging them to stop incinerating their money on cancer sticks. Cigarettes cost $6.00 to $9.30 a pack and up. Many poor people are wasting $180 to $279 a month or $2160 to $3,348 per year on this worthless addictive product. Giving up cigarettes for just one day will create enough cash flow to buy baseball pants.
Legal or not, the poor should stop buying marijuana. How about other money wasters such as junk food, booze and cable TV? It is all about priorities. If you can’t afford it, do not buy it.
Mr. Anderson, if you really wish to help your poor neighbors, please teach them and their children how to make proper and beneficial life choices. Learning life skills is the road out of poverty. With your energy and dedication, you could establish the David Anderson Poverty to Prosperity School. You would be a fabulous leader for this kind of effort. To be successful, it would require minimizing negativity and emphasizing positive support for those who desire to climb out of the dark hole of poverty.
In preparation for writing this article, I contacted Walt Kellcy, senior pastor of The First of Baptist Church of Lakewood. As a respected member of our community, Pastor Kellcy served a dozen years as a Clover Park School Board member.
Pastor Kellcy, who has much more knowledge of our school board than either Mr. Anderson or I, agrees that you can learn from a book, but also supports the idea that board members can benefit greatly in terms of professional development by attending conferences. When board members become better and more effective board members, our community is the ultimate beneficiary.
Pastor Kellcy informed me that board members serve without compensation. There is a system designed to reimburse board members up to $50 a day or $4,800 per year maximum. This money helps cover board activity expenses, but there is no salary.
Ms. Carol Jacobs, is an amazing example. She has served the school board for more than 20 years, both as a board member and multiple terms as president. Based on my estimate, Ms. Jacobs may well have donated up to $255,840 in the form of lost salary during her time of service. The opportunity to attend professional conferences seems like a fair trade. Free labor in exchange for professional development seminars which in turn makes for better free labor. Who does this educational process help? Our kids.
In sharing these ideas I realize I may create an element of hate, discontent and hand wringing among both those who are poor and those who support the poor. Conversely, if the poor begin to make better life choices and prioritize the use of the money they do have, they will have a much better chance to escape poverty compared to being crippled by another handout.
The Clover Park School Board’s Mission Statement reads: “The mission of the Clover Park School District is to teach each child what he or she needs to know to succeed and contribute to the community.”
“What he or she needs to know to succeed…” What might they need to know?
- Make good choices in order to obtain an education that will support successful lifelong employment.
- Stop having children out of wedlock.
- Stop having children you cannot afford, married or not. If having children you cannot afford is an important tenet of your religion, then demand your church support the children financially.
- Stop spending money wastefully on such items as cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol and cable TV.
- Stay away from pay-day loan companies.
- Never pay credit card interest. Ever!
- Save at least 10% of your income no matter how small or large your income may be.
- Involve yourself in your children’s schools.
- Support your children’s teachers including discipline issues.
- Avoid criminal activity.
- Teach your children to respect authority figures such as military, parents, teachers, school principal, policemen and firemen.
- Teach children how to be independent contributors to society, not dependent drains on society.
What can a $10,000 school board handout do? It can promote continued poverty. What can $6.00 worth of cigarette money do? It can help eliminate poverty.
Mr. Anderson is right. All the kids on the team should have baseball pants. The question is who should buy the baseball pants? By answering the question incorrectly, our poor will always be poor. By answering the question correctly, our poor and children of our poor may be granted an escape from poverty.
If I am wrong and Mr. Anderson is right, then perhaps Mr. Anderson should consider simply buying his baseball kids a book on how to play baseball.
That’s how I see it.
Joe Boyle: “The letter (referring to the letter that I wrote) strongly suggests, that with the money saved by not attending conferences, the school board donate the savings to poor kids to buy baseball pants.”
While Boyle continually stresses this fine point – the matter of the baseball pants – throughout his rebuttal, in actual fact the article he takes exception to emphasized repeatedly: “instead use the funds for any number of far more practical things – like sponsoring elementary school youth baseball among the poorer sections of our district to play in the Protect Our Nation’s Youth (PONY) league.”
Yes, baseball pants are included, but to have excerpted the single mention of that particular item of clothing from the article I wrote and make it the focal point of Boyle’s diatribe is to give new meaning to having ‘missed the forest for the trees.’
Tossing aside the microscope then in favor of a broad brush dipped in white wash, Boyle then writes: “The second point I wish to make is that Mr. Anderson puts all his focus on turning the Clover Park School Board into a socialist organization where they spend public money in an effort to fulfill a parent’s responsibility to their children.”
Indeed it is public money, tax payer money, money from “department funds” for cross-country junkets by Clover Park School Board members for which – as the article I wrote documented – there is negligible return.
Here’s Boyle again: “Having spent a considerable amount of time interacting with the poor in Pierce County, I can tell you that many of our poor are poor because of poor life choices. I am not saying all poor fit this category, but from my experience most certainly do.”
This “most certainly do” broad brush stroke again of Boyle’s assumes that the bloodshot eyes of his fast-food waitress are from late-night partying instead of serving Boyle being “just one of her several jobs in order to feed hungry mouths at home.”
Continuing his crass – not to mention callous – rather dim view of persons in poverty, Boyle ticks off on his fingers – while likely ticking off his readers – the top five reasons, in Boyle’s opinion, that the destitute find themselves in the predicament they’re in: “cigarettes; marijuana; junk food; booze; cable TV.”
A decidedly more compassionate approach to living in a community like Tillicum’s – for which other Lakewood neighborhoods boast (if that’s the word) similar statistics: 37 percent living in poverty; one out of four homes led by single moms – is that of Johnny Carr in his book “Orphan Justice” where he writes “In today’s world it is incredibly difficult for folks making minimum wage to support a family and provide the basics their children need in order to be healthy, especially when a single mom or dad is forced to work overtime just to put food on the table.
“For the vast majority of needy families, laziness is not the root issue.
“Sweeping generalizations about the poor act like a cancer that destroys our compassion and generosity” (pp.92, 93).
Far from clear refutation, Boyle’s is a fulmination, demonstrating failed reasoning – “most certainly” to use his words – lacking much in the way of supporting evidence.
Boyle writes, “Learning life skills is the road out of poverty.” To that I, and the principal at Tillicum Elementary who enthusiastically endorsed the baseball program, agree. Taj Jensen wrote, “Our students are missing out in life from the lessons that come from organized sports.”
Now Jensen serves another of the poorer sections of the school district where, in response to my recent question as to the possibility of baseball there he said, “Love to. But we lack resources.”
Likewise wrote City of Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland in a letter to the team our first year:
“I want to congratulate the Tillicum community and the Tillicum Crushers baseball team. As Mayor, I was very impressed how effortlessly the community came together in support of the team. The community coming together has enriched the lives of these young boys and is immeasurable. Again, congratulations to both the residents of Tillicum and Tillicum Crushers. Best wishes to your continued success. Keep up the good work!”
Meanwhile the members of the Clover Park School Board jet to far flung National School Board Association annual conferences to the tune of $50,000 over the past five years.
And meanwhile Boyle pontificates as to the poor choices of the poor.
David, do not be deterred by ignorant and judgmental generalizations/simplifications about poverty and its causes. Your life and your dedication to helping children, whether in Sunday School, on a sports field, or learning to fish – just to scratch the surface – have a far-reaching impact. You focus on the positive, giving encouragement to those parents who beam with pride as their little ones slip on the orange and white uniforms and take their place on the field.
I look upon all that you do with a sense of awe and pride. I’ve heard many stories of how you, your wife, your son and your daughters have rounded up children and taken them to summer camp, finding the funds so that they can attend when you, yourself have done without.
You are a leader that stands head and shoulders above the naysayers, those who find fault, those who criticize. Don’t be deterred. Carry on. Fight the good fight.
I know your Master, and there is no question in my mind but what He isn’t pleased at those little lives you’ve touched.
Your reward will never be found in the praise of men. Expect there to be letters of the sort written by Mr. Boyle. And carry on. Anyway. You are doing a marvelous work.
I attended Crusher games. I saw many Tillicum families and school teachers, store owners and passers-by, enjoying themselves immensely.
It is there, in those hearts of those people, that true victories are won. Through your enthusiasm, your irrepressible joy at the weekly improvement in each player, that sets a tone, sets an example, that cannot be missed.
As to you, Joe Boyle, I’d like to see you as a staunch supporter of the Crushers and see you cheering at the games. And if you see folks smoking, well, do as I told my own children back in the day: “It isn’t your job to straighten other people out. it IS your job to straighten your own self out.”
Keep your eye on the ball, David. Just keep your eye on the ball.
Sign me a Tillicumite, born and raised, and terribly proud to know the David Anderson family.
Mr. Anderson, I agree with Ms. Nelson. Do not ever give up on helping the people you help with all the wonderful things you do for and with them such as baseball, fishing and camping.
My written communication was intended to help you see what you did not and still do not see. I apologize to you for the fact that my words have failed to help you see what I see. If only I could have succeeded, your marvelus power for good could increase by geometric proportions.
Keep up your good work.
Joseph Boyle
So perhaps without all the hyperbole with which you initially wrote, you could explain what it is you believe I missed in a clearer, succinct fashion?
Did this individual just call us as parents/coaches/leaders a bunch of cigarette smoking Marijuana using un-educated welfare raised individuals? No sir your narrow assumption and borderline neanderthal approach to community outreach is about as outrageous as recent presidential candidates comments and truthfully sounds about the same lines as they say…what happened to good old fashioned community relations? So a child’s parent (s) if you live in our area is as you described wants to take part in our baseball program and accepts a grant from us that puts us in the bracket of people that frequent jail, struggle with addiction,and similar actions that very much resemble the bracket that you just out these parents in. SHAME on you no not shame on you I pray for your soul to wake up because until than YOU WILL NEVER WITNESS THE DIFFERENCE THIS BASEBALL PROGRAM MAKES FOR THE CHILDREN THAT TAKE PART…with with your shallow view that I can promise you. Here’s what I can say we will have a team in a “inner city” type setting that we started couple years ago and we didn’t ask for your opinion of said people living in our team area we asked for you to step up and help a couple kids if you don’t want to FINE don’t do it honestly we don’t want your negativity and we surely don’t want parents hearing your empty and down right untrue opinions…so heres what I say if you don’t want to take part in this amazing baseball team and community action fine don’t but don’t blast the parents,coaches,volunteers with your ridiculous opinion of “poor people”as you put it on the way out the door …don’t listen to this guy WE ARE CRUSHERS!!!
I think you both do good work and support the community in your own ways. You both have very different views of Lakewood and that is a good thing to analyze problems and solutions in different ways. One may have a more negative view on the problems in Lakewood than the other but they live each in very different neighborhoods of Lakewood which does contribute to the view and opinions of each.
Keep up the good work both of you.
I think Boyle misses the point that the $10,000 used largely to transport and quarter CP Board members during these junkets is our money and should be used for the greater good. So where does the greater good lie? With 7 CP Board members with most of their lives behind them or a bunch of kids with most of their lives ahead of them? With 7 CP Board member who were ostensibly elected for their existing skill set gained over a life time or a bunch of kids trying to develop skill sets that will last them a lifetime? How much of that $10,000 actually pays for the course material and how much does that course material really improve the skill set of a woman for instance who has already been on the CP Board for 20 years? Seems to me that she should be giving the course material presentations to the other six junior Board members…….in the Clover Park High School where they hold their Board meetings.
One can rag on the poor all you want but that doesn’t change things for the kids of the poor. Yes some of the poor got there through irresponsible behaviors, the very behaviors you are trying to replace with the kind of behaviors that lead to success. Attending a seminar for a few hours is about gaining some knowledge and is very different than practicing and playing day after day dependent upon a bunch of other kids to becomes winners: that’s gaining life’s experience and you can’t get that out of a book or a seminar. I suspect that the CP Board members have had the opportunity to have those experiences in their lives or they wouldn’t be on the school board. I think what you’re asking for is a chance for some kids in Tillicum to have the same opportunity.
Another thing comes to mind regarding the “……$255,840 in the form of lost salary..” that Jacobs allegedly had to forego in order to remain 20 years on the Board. Service is just that: we don’t go into it with the primary goal of compensation. Yet one has to wonder why Ms. Jacobs stayed around so long while being underpaid for her services as Boyle suggests. Could it be a strong sense of service? Perhaps. How about self satisfaction, power, standing in the community, influence, networking, outside opportunities, hobnobbing with the elite, opportunities to travel, etc. I’m not trying to impugn Jacobs’ or anyone elses service but rather show that there are types of compensation other than salary for those who serve. On Council my salary was $8400 annually and I earned every penny of it and then some. I could (and do) earn much more attending to my own private businesses. But I would have run even if there had been no salary because I understood the need to serve my community when we weren’t being served. I also knew when it was time to leave after four years in office because all the trappings of elective service were not the reason I ran in the first place. Bottom line: we don’t do something for nothing. We all get paid one way or another.
Last comment from me on this thread. The course materials gained by CP Board members are the property of Lakewood’s tax payers: we paid for them. Where are the course materials? Have they been maintained by the Board for future Board members? The lessons learned are the property of Lakewood’s tax payers: we paid for them. Have Board members written anything about the lessons learned during such trips and preserved them for future Board members and posterity? The Board members work for us: we paid them. Have the Board members applied the lessons learned to the functioning of the school district and what were the outcomes? Have Board members documented these outcomes for future Board members or are they all lost to those who come next? If the current/past Boards can’t answer these questions in the affirmative then I have to question the value of such seminars in service to the community. If it’s not worth preserving, then it’s not worth doing.
I have written now for The Suburban Times four articles on the Clover Park School Board members’ cross-country junkets.
Feedback forms, the completion of which is required by school district policy, is for all intents and purposes non-existent.
In the four years (2011-2014), a total of 14 school board members flew about the country learning this and that. Six (6) completed questionnaires were included in response to my Public Disclosure Request that sought “copies of written conference follow-up reports by attending board members.”
I have been a RN in Emergency Departments for over 40 years. I listen to podcasts, read journals, belong to multiple listserves and teach emergency nursing courses and I totally agree with Mr Boyle on the need for attending professional conferences IN PERSON. There are innumerable benefits not the least of which is the interpersonal action that occurs – otherwise known as networking with colleagues. Can one quantify this? Not really, however I can say that I have friends and colleagues the world over whom at any given moment I can contact for an exchange of ideas, an opinion on a difficult case, an update on a better way to do something. One does not get this from electronics. Just look at our society now which revolves around being connected on an electronic basis but totally disconnected on a human level. This was what Mr Boyle was also pointing out. I will also tell you what we see hourly in the ED. Parents who get furious that ‘we’ won’t give them tylenol to take home for their childs fever yet have a new pack of cigarettes, a fresh manicure and acrylic nails, the newest iPhone and having just spent $5.00 in the vending machine for cheetos and coke. (Tylenol can be purchased for $1.00 at the dollar store). Is this everyone who is poor. Of course not. I have purchased with my own money many a bottle of Tylenol, of antibiotics, and diapers for parents who truly are struggling. But when one sees the ‘entitled’ side so often one can get a bit tired of it. Instead of going off, once again, on your own diatribe Mr. Anderson, pontificating, also once again, on how abused you are and how the entire city of Lakewothatod is against you personally why not take a look at what you can do to continue helping the members of your team and for them to help themselves. Spend some of your negative energy being more positive and quit quoting everyone else in long and exhausting to read rants here and make a GoFundMe page for your team. Take a poll of your parents and see how many do smoke or vape, how many have cable TV and how many are sporting the newest in cell phones. Give us real data to show us that we are wrong in thinking there is still ways to fund your team. Have you approached the businesses in Lakewood to help sponsor your team, have YOU and the parents done all they can? I somehow doubt it.
I think you are a strong advocate of the Tillicum neighborhood and I believe you have done a great job with your team but your approach is a huge turn off to those of us who don’t know you personally, We only know what we see electronically. Maybe if we met face to face I’d see a positive side? Hmmmm but there is no benefit to taking a ‘junket’ to Tillicum is there.
“Why not take a look at what you can do to continue helping the members of your team and for them to help themselves.”
Answer: For the last two years of Tillicum Crusher baseball, the Tillicum Community has come together in what I would say is a rather unique partnership – especially in light of who we are and where we come from economically – in that total funding for the registration fees for kids to play is totally underwritten by those who are financially able.
At this current moment, with the registration deadline the end of February, we have almost the total in hand for the 2016 season. For one team. We’d like to field two teams. As the older kids have graduated to a new level of play, with increased costs, the younger ones who played last year but who are not yet old enough, will be left behind.
But, we can only do what we can do.
Meanwhile, the admitted diatribes I’ve written – four now – taking to task the members of the Clover Park School Board for spending our money (and therefore one would think we should have an opinion and deserve some accountability for how that money is spent) to travel to conferences which you assess as unquantifiable in value given the contacts you obtain for “friends and colleagues the world over whom at any given moment I can contact for an exchange of ideas, an opinion on a difficult case, an update on a better way to do something” raises of course the rather obvious question:
How do you contact them? Travel? I think not.
I see them at least once a year at our National conference. Those contacts, formed when face to face and strengthened over the years are maintained throughout the year by electronics of course. But they never would have formed had I not met them in person. I’m sorry you have never gotten anything from your conferences and therefore see no value – so don’t go. While you condemn others for lumping everyone into a group maybe you should look in a mirror? If the School Board felt there was no value then I know they wouldn’t be going. Personal time is very valuable and if I got nothing out of a conference I’m not wasting my valuable time and I’m sure they wouldn’t either. I’m quite sure however if they returned and even attempted to document every time they use something learned or ‘picked the brains’ of someone they met you would then pull another 5 quotes by someone else and it would never be enough. It just seems to be your go to condemnation of all things Lakewood.
Also, it would be irresponsible for the City of Lakewood to fund your team without funding all the other private teams of all types within the City. You are, as Mr Boyle pointing out, expecting the city and it’s citizens to fund a private entity.
In the meantime, congratulations on almost having funding. Do you have a GOFUNDME page that we could contribute to? I too have very limited funds but I’d be willing to donate something.
Referencing the School Board and it’s attendance at NSBA’s annual conferences you write “even (if they) attempted to document every time they use something learned or ‘picked the brains’ of someone they met . . . .”
Linell, it’s not even attempted. No reports are given. Few questionnaires are filled out. And yet such documentation is district policy. It’s not happening. Would the school board expect the same feeble response to teacher certification? Would the teachers expect something far more substantial from the dissertations of graduating seniors? Yet when it comes to what was learned, at significant expense, at said conferences by school board attendees there is hardly more than a “Great. Best ever,” response.
Should the taxpaying public not be justifiably critical of money – ostensibly to better children’s learning – being used by academic-types who are forever waving the “more money for education” banner to traverse the country?
Thomas Söderqvist, PhD, a professor in the history of medicine on staff at the University of Copenhagen wrote, “Attending academic conferences is a waste of time, money and environmental resources — and intellectual energy.”
While I suppose it could be deduced from what I wrote that I am suggesting “the city and its citizens fund a private entity” my letter is as much a critique of best bang for the buck in education. Conference attendance cannot, and will not, be constituted a wise investment since participating Clover Park School Board members have not supplied substantive evidence of value for time and dollars spent.
As to a “GOFUNDME page that we could contribute to” no, there is not one. Thank you for your offer however. We have been and are hopeful to continue to foster the relationships we have established within the community and with those who – like Camp Murray and Group Health and other organizations and individuals like the late-Larry Saunders – that understand the importance of kids playing ball.
Lindell:
Wow! You are on target with ALL your points. I could not have said it better than you. Nice work.
Sorry, I meant “Linell”. Don’t know what happened.
It’s called Autocorrect 😉 Happens all the time. If it starts with a L I pretty much think it’s addressed to me.
Opinions… that is what freedom of speech allows us to provide in an open forum. Good use of that and good comments.
For Mr. Boyle, his viewpoint is well taken. However, I took GREAT offense of the editorial cartoon provided, cloaking what looks to be a youth baseball players in pants representing a tobacco product. This was a poor choice and depicts about as far away from the subject matters as one can get.
I too volunteer my time as a Coach with the Lakewood Baseball Club, the organization that Mr. Anderson’s Tillicum Crushers belongs too. I too am fortunate that with some sponsorship, we have been able to keep supply costs low, but our players do self fund their own uniforms and registrations. I think it is great that the Tillicum Community does back this fine group of youngsters. However, if that passion and financial support could be placed into the organization as a whole, maybe more youngsters in Lakewood would be able to participate. That is truly a sad point of the City, lack of City wide programs.
Lakewood Baseball Club does provide a much needed avenue for our youth, to play the sport known as “America’s Past Time”. Lakewood Park’s & Recreation no longer offers a Baseball Program, due to funding cuts. Lakewood Baseball Club has filled that void for several years now. While we have a great relationship with the parks department (awesome fields), our volunteer run program does require funding.
Funding what Mr. Anderson believes could come form other sources. I totally agree. However, our educators, do also need to educate themselves. We, as voters and taxpayers, do have an obligation to question and legitimize the use of public funds. But as a parent of a child receiving a quality education from Clover Park Schools… I think so far proof has been provided.