Valerie Parnell, Seminole County Watch columnist

Leave it to Beaver, and older brother Wally, to bring things into perspective.

While flipping channels recently, coincidence, or perhaps intended fate, led me to land upon an episode of Leave It to Beaver at exactly the moment when older-brother Wally was offering the following to Beaver:

"We learned about it in civics class.  In a democracy, everyone has to do things for the common good."

Perhaps they still teach that in civics class, or its modern equivalent, in Seminole County schools.  Whether they do or not, it is a lesson the Seminole County School Board needs to take to heart.

School Board members say they do believe it, and that they use the "common good" as the barometer and compass of their actions.  Their actions speak louder than words, however, proving the lie in what they say.

You do not build an elementary school on contaminated toxic land when you are seeking the common good.  You do not ignore clearly stated rules for naming a community's school when you are seeking the common good.  And you do not displace thousands more students than necessary from their community schools when you are seeking the common good.

Even more so, you do not invoke distortion and deceit to put the best public face on hideous actions that are contrary to the common good.  Yet the School Board has not hesitated to do all of this.  Unanimously.  a five to nothing vote, each time.  No dissenters.

It is disingenuous to claim pursuit of the common good while intending to build an elementary school on toxic land, saying there is no other choice, and then to profess relief at being saved from your own cruel and heartless decision when another choice presents itself.

It is disingenuous to claim pursuit of the common good in naming a high school to flatter one retiring school superintendent when the community in which the high school exists desires another name, their desire reflective of the community's true deference to the common good.

It is disingenuous to implement a high school rezoning plan that tears apart a community that has developed over decades of mutual caring among its residents, when an alternative plan would have kept the community intact while meeting high school enrollment demands.

It is "disingenuous" that is the word that comes to mind each time someone mentions the Seminole County School Board, its members and its superintendent.

Wally and the Beav learned it in their school's civics class and carried the lesson home. 

"In a democracy, everyone has to do things for the common good."

How ironic that a television sitcom exudes respect and concern for the underpinnings of our democracy, while the Seminole County School Board reduces it to a bad joke.

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