This will be my first editorial posting on CentralSpeaks.com.  My name is Dave Freneaux and I am one of the editors of this site.  I am writing this at 3:00 PM on October 4^th, election day for the Central School Board.  I mention the date and time because I want to go on record as having these opinions regardless of who prevails in today’s election.  I have no allegiance to anyone in this election.  I do have opinions as to who I would like to see on the school board, and I have what I consider to be reasonable justification for my opinions, but I am not writing about who should win.  I am writing about the process, and I am writing about what should happen after the votes are counted tonight.

In my professional life I have a point in many memos that I call “If the shoe fits.”  This is that point.  If you ran for the School Board or were a supporter of a candidate, and everything you have done or said in this process has been honorable and solely for the purpose of better education for the children of Central, stop reading.  If you read on and find comments that you do not like, “If the shoe fits, wear it.”  If not, know that the comment was not directed at you.

I have had the distinct privelege of watching this electoral process as an interested third party and each candidate has respected my involvement with CentralSpeaks.com and has made it easy to present unbiased coverage on the site.  At the same time, I have heard many stories of dishonorable campaign tactics, mean-spirited rumors, and tolerance of reported bad behavior by supporters.  I have seen enough to believe that some candidates have polarized into “camps” and I even suspicion that this polarization has crept into the actual decision making process of the Board.

Central is not big enough.  Central is not big enough to have its seven school board members polarized into factions.  Central is not big enough to have hundreds of neighbors getting caught up in politics to the extent that we forget about the purpose of the school system: educating our children.  Central is not big enough to allow election antics to distract our most involved community leaders and elected officials from the primary task of improving life in the greatest place on earth to live and raise a family.  If Central becomes a community of 100,000 citizens, it will never be big enough to have room for divisiveness, distractions and dishonorable actions.  The question I now ask is: Is Central big enough to get past this election and get back to the business of Central?

I try never to raise a concern without also offering a solution.  I have two wonderful daughters, both educated in Central and at LSU.  They would come to me as children, complaining that the other had wronged them and asking that I punish the other for her bad behavior.  My usual response was an offer to hear both sides of the story, decide who had any fault, and I mean even the slightest participation in inappropriate actions, and I offered to punish all guilty parties equally.  Predictably, when challenged to examine their culpability in the argument, they always seemed to be able to find a way to get along.  More importantly, they began to learn to disagree without being so disagreeable.

My concern in the wake of this contentious election is that the acrimony will spill over into the future operation of the School Board as I believe it has already done prior to the election.  My solution is simple, and it is my solution for a surprisingly wide variety of problems I see in the world: Get Over It.  You or your favorite candidate won, but others were unfair and mean-spirited… Get over it.  Get over it and get to work improving our schools.  The people ignored your detractors and voted you in anyway.  The opportunity to serve should be enough.  You or your favorite candidate lost and you believe the bad behavior of others caused it…  Get over it.  Get over it and get to work improving our schools.  If you were running for the school board simply for the status, it is good that you lost.  If you were running because you want to work to help educate our children, guess what, there is more work out there to be done than a School Board of 50 could do, and the paycheck is the same for a volunteer as it is for a board member.  The opportunity to volunteer should be enough.

As a candidate or a supporter, examine your own actions throughout this election.  If you would not be proud to have everyone in Central know all you did during this campaign, hope we never find out and promise yourself that you will work diligently and honorably from this point forward and never make the same mistakes again.  If your actions were always honorable, don’t point fingers and tear down others who had less honor, just work diligently and honorably on into the future.

Let us also understand, as I tried to teach my daughters, that there are no degrees of wrong.  While it is wrong to spread a rumor, it is equally wrong to spread your own rumor of how evil the one is who supposedly started the rumor.  I said earlier that Central is not big enough.  In fact, I hope that Central is small enough.  Small enough that we can all go back to the timeless tradition of taking our grievances directly to those we feel have wronged us.  If we all did that, and if we were all honorable even when our judgment lapsed and we said something we regret, most of what was undesirable about this election would never have happened.

Finally, I challenge each candidate and each supporter of a candidate in this election to commit to a new beginning on October 5^th.  As the business of educating our children resumes after this election, if you carry resentment and personal agendas, the people of Central will know.  If you have found your own way to “Get over it” and get to work improving our schools, the people of Central will see that as well.  I further challenge that we all commit our every personal discipline to ensuring that Central become known as a city where elections are about the job we all have to do and that these elections never again become personal.  We are a young city and we can choose what we will and will not accept from our electoral process.  Choose wisely.

If you wish to comment on this editorial please go to the Forum tab and go to the “Central Elections” thread under “General Discussion”.

Central High Varsity Football returned home from a road trip to West Feliciana High School with a 41-12 victory and a week to prepare for Woodlawn next Friday at Wildcat Stadium.  The win moves the Wildcats to 4-0 on the season.  On the highlight side, Central rolled up 327 yards of total offense while holding West Feliciana to 81 yards (-5 on the ground).  Shedrick Davis had 5 receptions for 108 yards while Josh Johns and Rovell Lee combined for 17 tackles and two sacks.

Statistics for the game and the season can be viewed at these links:

CHS vs West Feliciana Stats

CHS Cumulative Stats

Today’s election is VERY IMPORTANT.  Polls open at 6 AM and close at 8 PM.  Central’s first elected school board will be chosen tomorrow, and that is reason enough to vote.  Also on the ballot are Mayor-President, City Council, Supreme Court, Juvenile Court and District Attorney. Vote tomorrow. Encourage your friends, family and neighbors to vote.  Reserve your right to have a political opinion for the next few years.  Vote.

These student were chose as part of the PBS behavior system.  Congratulations to Anna Walker, Chandler Hollingsworth, Madalyne Bilskey, Cassie Guilbeau, Heather Clement, and Michael Miller.

Immanuel Baptist Church, located at the corner of Joor and Lovett, is having a YARD SALE to raise money for kitchen renovations. Saturday, October 4th from 7 AM until 2PM in church gym.

On 9/30/08, crews picked up debris in Crystal Place that was missed on the first pass through that neighborhood. Crews continued picking up debris on Frenchtown Rd, Denham Rd, Hubbs Rd, and Morgan Rd.
Today, crews will finish Morgan Rd and portions of the Frenchtown Rd. area. Areas remaining on the first pass include Magnolia Bend, Bellingrath Lakes, Willowcreek, Magnolia Blossom, Hampton Village, and Cimmaron subdivisions.
All debris for the second and final pass must be placed by the street by today. After the second pass is concluded on a street, any trash placed out by the roadside will become the responsibility of the property owner to remove.

Please do not stack debris within 3 feet of the edge of the roadway. Stacking debris directly against the roadside is a traffic hazard. Also, large stumps and trees must be cut into manageable pieces in order to be picked up. No stumps or logs larger than 24 inches in diameter or 10 feet in length will be picked up.

Please exercise caution and drive slowly past the debris removal crews. Temporary road or lane closures can occur in the work zones. Please be patient while the crews finish cleaning up our city.

The Central Middle School Football team improved their record to 3-1 last night with a win over Baker 8-6. After a 0-0 first quarter, the Wildcats scored late in the second with a 5 yard run by Devon Gales. Nathan Wilkens scored the 2 point conversion. Ben Nelson, Thomas Garcia, Tyler Abade and Dalton Holdman all played well on offense.

For the 4th week in a row the defense held their opponent to under 8 points with outstanding effort by Logan Kelleher, Shannon Scott, Cooper Harris and Matt Edwards.

The Wildcats finished their home games this season and play the last four games on the road starting next Tuesday at Glen Oaks Middle School.

The entire team would like to thank their parents, the PTO, and the teachers and staff of Central Middle for their support.

GO WILDCATS!!!

kenramsey.com publishes calculated Power Ratings and Strength Factors. These are not official, but should be close. In Power Ratings Central is listed as tied for #11 with Denham Springs.  In our district the only team ahead of Central is Scotlandville at #1.  In Strength Factor Central is currently at #45.  Week 3 had Central at #17 in Power Ratings and #41 in Strength Factor.

For anyone who is in the dark on Power Points, here is an explanation found on the St. James school website:

POWER POINTS FORMULA

Ever wonder how that crazy number that determines a team’s seed in the playoffs is calculated? What is the strength of schedule factor? How does that tie into the power points? I’ve come up with a little explanation of how this stuff works and how to get those numbers. The Power Points rating is very important to the playoffs. Winning your district automatically puts you into the playoffs. The remaining playoffs spot are taken by the top teams in the power points rating. From there, every team is seeded by their power points rating. Ties are broken first by head to head match up if the two or more teams played during the season. If the two or more teams didn’t play, the strength factor is then used.

You must first use the following point system to come up with a power point rating.
Each WIN!! 10 points
Playing up in class – 2 points per class played up.
Season’s opponents win – 1 point per opponent win

To get POWER POINT RATING…
POINTS from the points system /(divided by) Number of games played = POWER POINTS

The “Strength of Schedule” factor comes into play in the event of a tie between teams that haven’t played each other during the regular season. To get the “Strenght of Schedule” factor, you simply add up each team’s class that you play during the year. Example, 2A + 3A + 4A= 9 This year, for St. James, that number would be 32. Taking the number of the class number totals, you then add 1 point for each win each team on the schedule gets. So let’s say St. James wins in week one and every single other team on the schedule also wins their game. St. James’ stregth of schedule factor would go up to 41, adding the 9 wins from the opponents.