The Keystone Central School Board voted last week, 5-4, to approve its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, including a tax increase -- its third in as many years. A final adoption is planned for June.
We have touched on adjacent topics previously in Our Views, both regarding Keystone specifically and the subject of fiscal responsibility broadly.
The district's finances and the problems therein is one thing.
However, we were struck by something else after this most recent meeting: where is everyone?
The budget passed with no public comment.
None.
This is remarkable to us. Several years ago, public comment was common at the district's meetings, often on a variety of topics. The meetings were well-attended, with frequently upwards of 40 or 50 people in the seats.
Then the pandemic hit, and meetings went virtual.
Fair enough.
But, in the months and years following the pandemic restrictions, attendance has not recovered. We could see people watching the livestream -- sometimes we do, as well, when our own life schedules are inconvenient -- but there are rarely more than a couple people on the Zoom call.
It paints a picture of a district where people complain on social media about the effects and decisions of their school district but, when provided the tools to influence those effects and decisions, simply do not show up.
Cynical readers may say, well, there's no point: they will simply choose to raise their taxes or implement whichever policy regardless of whether the public shows up or not.
However, we would urge that while the cynical view is understandable for national politics -- and, debatably the state level, as well -- local elected officials are usually far more receptive.
Local elected positions rarely convey meaningful benefits or power to those who occupy them, and, as a general statement, people who run for local office usually do so because they genuinely want to make a difference in their community.
Their values may not be your values. They may have reasons for their decisions and votes that, as members of the public, you are not privy to.
But, if you bring them your concerns, they will usually at least listen. Sometimes they will offer you an explanation for why a decision is being made a certain way which can at least help you understand the situation, even if you don't agree with it or like it.
And, once in a while, they will change their minds when presented with new viewpoints, solutions, or a volume of pressure that they cannot ignore.
It's certainly more likely for direct action to work at a local level than it is higher up.
So the nigh-complete lack of invested community members getting involved and speaking before the board is remarkable -- unless everyone is just okay with what is happening.
Some of our current staff still remember some years ago when the district was faced with a budget crisis. The district, at the time, formed a community task force split across each facet of the district. Each committee examined that subject, with the guidance of one or two board members per, and came up with a list of suggestions for cuts or revenue generation to help with the budgetary situation.
It was a level of community involvement that seems unthinkable in today's world -- be it due to the effects of the pandemic, of our political divisions, citizens succuming to social media's siren song, or some other cause.
We would remind the community that they have made a difference before, and they can do so again, if they choose to.
But you have to show up, get involved…and get educated.
It's easy to repeat talking points and spout political slogans -- but largely ineffectual.
The actual work is much harder, and requires putting the needs of others -- and of others' children -- ahead of yourself and your own ego.
Most of the experienced incumbent board members at Keystone Central appear to be not running for re-election.
Maybe you view that as a good thing. Maybe you don't.
Either way, it will signify a substantial change coming to the school district, and you might want to ask yourselves why so many board members would choose to step away -- especially those who have served for many years -- and what that suggests about the state of the district, especially when combined with the relative lack of community involvement.
A famous idiom suggests that society is great when old men plant trees whose shade they will never sit in.
It is a shame nobody wants to plant trees anymore.