I’m so confused that many of the same people who were posting their outrage about the lack of transparency, lack of opportunity for community input or involvement and/or lack of information they felt they received during the recent bond vote, are many of the same people who are now encouraging others to vote for Australian Ballot voting for Hyde Park Elementary School’s budget. Australian Ballot voting will only serve to create ACTUAL closed, disengaged and uninformed conditions, year after year.
At the School Board meeting that took place after the Bond Vote I heard many of the people who are pushing for AB voting say that the best place to connect with the community and has the biggest presence is Town Meeting Day. That will cease to be true if AB voting goes through. If what we are hoping for, as a community, is to create and/or strengthen connections and communication, AB voting is NOT the place to start. I recommend we follow Waitsfield’s example and preserve what is unique and special about Vermont. They voted down AB voting in March.
Town Meeting and it’s voting processes are traditions that should be revered and continued because they are the last hints of true democracy in existence today. It’s both a right and privilege of open and honest civic engagement that should be preserved for, if nothing else, Hyde Park’s younger generations to experience and participate in. We should be preserving that day and its significance. We should be fighting for it to be a paid holiday, not voting to destroy it. Those who are the driving force behind AB voting are essentially voting to rob future generations of their right and opportunity to be connected to, and to interact with, supporters and critics, alike, in open debate and discourse; as generations before us have had the right to do for hundreds of years.
Ever since I moved here a little over 10 years ago I’ve heard about the rift that was created within Hyde Park and the elementary school. People have recently spoken very publicly and passionately about how it’s never truly healed and how we can never have something like that happen again. And yet, many of those same people are now attempting (and in some cases, succeeding) to persuade Hyde Park to go down a road that has no chance of leading us to anywhere BUT another rift, or a continuation of the previous one.
Town Meeting Day is one, preset, day a year. One. One, that can be planned for and accommodated if you see fit. My hardworking family takes that day, every year, to go and participate in our civic duty. It is on our calendar. We know that the first Tuesday in March we will be at Town Meeting to be a part of our community and cast our votes for or against whatever is being voted on. We’ll listen to the reports, Q & A and comments, and vote. It’s one, preset, day a year. And it’s a day of tradition that should be treasured.
Dec 25, 2024, 5:45 to 6:15 PM
Johnson Community Blood DriveDec 27, 2024, 12 to 4:30 PM
Adult PickleballDec 29, 2024, 9 to 11 AM