Recently the Allegany County School Board discussed the concept of whether or not to institute an Oversight Committee to ensure that the
 recommendations outlined in the Performance Audit are being acted upon.
 
 It was suggested in the School Performance Audit that this Oversight Committee consist of business people and experienced educators. Someone should point out to the School Board - and Cas Taylor, who suggested enacting emergency legislation in the General Assembly to create this committee - that an Oversight Committee is in place. They are called voters. And why, while we’re on the subject, would you need the General Assembly to create a committee? To create a mechanism through which you could bypass the county’s elected board members? How weird is that?
 
 This school board, thanks to the tireless fight of Tim Woodring and Judie Thelen, made a decision that no school board before them had the guts to make. How many times were similar suggestions made when Dale Lewis was on the School Board? Tim Woodring voiced a concern during the meeting stemming from the fact that the Allegany County School Board has dropped the ball on many occasions in the past in enacting new policies suggested in independent studies. Mr. Woodring had a valid point. But Dale Lewis is no longer on the School Board - he’s on the Board of County Commissioners. We have a School Board making good decisions, and a Board of County Commissioners that is not. Anyone see a connection there?
 
 We have a different School Board now, and the members we elected should have the opportunity to continue what they started, without answering to anyone but the voters and their own conscience.
 
 We understand that the School Board needs to prove to the state that they are interested in acting on the suggestions presented to them. Instead of a committee looking over their shoulders, they need to get the ball rolling themselves on many of the suggestions that can be put into place now. The School Board should regularly report to the state what changes are being made, and ultimately allow the voters to look over their shoulder and be sure that they are doing what is right.
 
 In any other county, an Oversight Committee might not be a big deal. But in Allegany County, it is fraught with peril. The history of such committees in Allegany County is not a good one. When you look over the long list of previous committees, they were usually formed for illegitimate reasons, and ultimately did the bidding of one powerful political entity. Currently, we have an Economic Development Task Force that is not answerable to the people and lies about the jobs that they have created. The task force is a puppet for the Speaker of the House, and if an oversight committee is formed for the School Board, we have the potential to be victim to the same scenario.
 
 Given that the oversight committee would require legislation to be created, and would answer to the General Assembly as opposed to the School Board, you can see the potential for disaster. After all, what was the Speaker’s position on consolidation? (He vehemently opposed it.) And he has been quoted in the Washington Post as saying when the Performance Audit recommendations are implemented, the public will see that he was right. Given that he was the one yapping about “geographically balanced educational complexes,” what is that supposed to mean?
 
 There is no such thing as an independent commission in this county. The School Board should not subject themselves - and the rest of us - to the continued manipulations of Mr. Taylor.