Slats Murphy, Senior SCW columnist

In life, timing is often everything.  In politics, that is even more so.  For Seminole County School Board member Sandy Robinson, it looks as if the timing could not be better.

Robinson is strongly rumored to be one of those lusting after the county commission seat that will be vacated by Commissioner Randy Morris when his term ends in 2006.

For Robinson, it would be the perfect solution to her rising problem:  what to do now that the chickens are coming home to roost at School Board headquarters.

Robinson has served on the School Board since 1990, establishing with her four fellow School Board members a fiefdom that serves their personal interests and desires under the guise of serving the public.  The only problem with that pretension is that Robinson and the others clearly see the public's interest as being subservient to their own.

That is an interesting twist on the theory of public service.  The traditional aspect of democracy, long taught in our public schools, is that democracy works because its "leaders" are actually subservient to its citizens. 

Elected leaders are supposed to serve in the pursuit of and deference to the collective interest of the public.  By putting the citizens ahead of the government, the greater good is not only sought but also achieved.

The reality of democracy, as taught by the School Board, directly contradicts the romantic notion put forth in the schools and our childrens' textbooks.  There is no better example than Robinson.

In 1996, during an elementary rezoning battle, Robinson refused to work with affected parents who sought changes to rezoning plans the School Board planned to implement.  When the parents asserted their views, as our democracy so rightly allows them to do, Robinson dug in her heels and refused to budge, declaring herself the "queen of rezoning."

Fortunately, for the parents then, the other Board members took a more conciliatory approach and worked with the parents to achieve results more satisfactory to all.  To her chagrin, Robinson had no choice but to go along for the ride.

Unfortunately for parents today, Robinson has since put together a School Board that is more conciliatory towards her desires, as she has gained clout and prestige among other politicos in the county.  When the recent high school rezoning issue arose, the Board dug in their heels and joined arms with one another, refusing to yield an inch to the parents, no matter how sound and logical an argument the parents put forth in support of their position.

Robinson has coalesced her power by being very active in using her current elected position to facilitate constant travel between Seminole and Tallahassee to network with legislators and other state officials.  She has also traveled around the state to do the same. 

Locally, she has been very active within the Republican Executive Committee, which has benefitted her greatly as an "insider" but which should raise alarming flags for you as an average voter.

Robinson often decries at School Board meetings the effects of the No Child Left Behind and FCAT legislation.  She does this as a defense of the School Board's inability to balance the demands of those laws with the needs of children in Seminole County.

Absent any effective ideas on how to deal with the responsibilities before her, Robinson and her fellow School Board members decry the legislation that places demands upon them as well as our schoolchildren.

Yet in each election, Robinson is out and about in her role as a Republican precinct committeewoman, telling voters to support Republican candidates such as George W. and Jeb Bush.

Now, let's ask the obvious question:  why, Mrs. Robinson, would you ask us to support these candidates for president and governor when you decry, in your position as a School Board member, the effects their policies are having on the schools and schoolchildren of Seminole County?

Far be it from us to say there is a scent of hypocrisy wafting in the air from School Board headquarters on Lake Mary Boulevard.

For 16 years, Sandy Robinson and other School Board members have ridden the wave of prosperity and desirable demographics that has crested from the population of Seminole County.  Those demographics are now changing, as the population becomes more mixed, more ethnic and new challenges arise. 

Among those challenges are those generally associated with teaching students whose main language is not English and whose parents' main concerns are centered at the bottom of our hierarchy of basic needs.

Sandy Robinson

As Mrs. Robinson has shown with her heavyhanded approach over the years, she and her fellow School Board members are largely incapable of effectively dealing with such problems.

So Mrs. Robinson is looking to do what most politicians do in such instances:  leave her current position and seek election elsewhere to a higher office, in this case on the County Commission.  There is no greater reward in American politics than for failure.

Mrs. Robinson likely feels the time is right in 2006 for such a move.  For the rest of us, however, the timing just may be right for the taming of the shrew.

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