Power corrupts.

Most people have likely heard that phrase — as well as its attendant (absolute power corrupts absolutely).

Relatively few, however, have seen the consequences of it first-hand.

Power can take well-meaning, upstanding citizens and convince them that they can do great and terrible things.

It can guide people down a twisted path one hesitant step at a time, whispering the entire time that, well, surely nobody would care about this one trivial ill deed.

We think it is fair to say that while many local governments and school boards have their own brushes with corruption — and we won’t even mention state or federal governments more than in passing — that Keystone Central School District has had far more than its share of woes even just in the past decade or two.

Explicitly, that is not a knock on any of the people who currently serve the district — no matter how much there are those within the community who may wish it were.

Rather, view the comment as an acknowledgement of the awesome power and responsibility that comes with being in charge of a $90 million budget — to say nothing of the welfare of our children and the quality of their education, which is the most valuable resource a community can provide.

Think that’s just fancy language?

Parents routinely move around to get their kids into better school districts, and even when moving for other reasons, the quality of a school district is frequently a key tiebreaker.

People without kids even consider this, as school district quality factors into the long-term value of a home purchase — the better the district, the more value a home can expect to gain long-term as those aforementioned parents seek good homes in good places.

In short, there’s a lot at stake for school board members, and the consequences of their decisions can ripple through the entire community.

A story in yesterday’s edition of The Express covered the revelation of an $881,301.15 fraud at a Finance Committee meeting.

Fear not: the district has stated that 99.9% of the money was recovered.

However, board member Chris Scaff probed Superintendent Dr. Francis Redmon regarding the scam, noting that the board members were just learning of it despite the district knowing about it for months.

Redmon explained that he was following procedure as it involved legal proceedings which, at the time, were deemed confidential.

While we empathize with Redmon’s desire to follow protocol — as well as that protocol is generally untested until a particular scenario occurs — we agree with Scaff, as well as fellow board members Dr. Bill Baldino and Elisabeth Lynch, that the entire board should be involved in substantial matters.

And almost a million dollars going missing — albeit temporarily — is significant, make no mistake.

The crux of our opinion comes down to this:

There are nine school board members, and the more eyes that are involved with serious matters, the less likely it is for corruption to take place.

Yes, it also follows that it becomes more likely for leaks to occur. However, these are elected officials. We, the people, have placed our trust in them. They are the representatives of our will — and we believe that it is more important that our representatives are empowered to act in our names than that the utmost secrecy be prioritized.

Secrecy begets corruption, as cloaks of silence empower those in the know to feel as though they can act without ramification or responsibility.

This type of procedure is the legacy of a district that has seen strife and struggle. It is the descendent of dark times, and we believe that it — and any other procedures that needlessly seek to hide information from the nine school board members — should be revamped.

We cannot rely on our elected officials to make educated decisions on our behalf if they are not provided the full scope of information with which to make those decisions.

We would also like to state that we do not, at this time, have any reason to doubt Redmon’s intentions with this or any other action we are currently aware of.

Part of Keystone’s troubled history revolves around the relationship between its various superintendents and the public, and we would urge concerned citizens to seek to set that history aside.

The anger that many in our community have felt for superintendents in the past does us all a disservice. There is a time and place for that anger, but we do not feel as though Redmon is near either at this time.

He is a veteran, and he was not part of our community prior to his hiring — meaning he does not have the same biases and predilections some of his predecessors have had.

He has also only been in the position for a little over a year, and we are certain Keystone Central has many dark corners in need of sweeping. He was hired and brought to the area in good faith, and he deserves to take his shot at improving the district — and, by extension, improving the quality of life for our children and homeowners.

Finally, we would like to note in closing that while this editorial has focused on Keystone Central due to current events, we would be remiss if we did not note that the same thought process did not apply to all of our local governments, as well as the school board.

It is crucial that our elected representatives, across the board, be given the ability to act in their voters’ interests, and that they do so with transparency.

It is the only way for us to collectively save each other from the tantalizing allure of power — and the corruption which necessarily awaits.