The Ohio County School Board got their man… Now what?

The Ohio County School Board finally got its wish. Regardless of anyone’s opinion of superintendent Soretta Ralph, come July 1, she will no longer be the superintendent and the board got their man in Scott Lewis.

Now what?

It would be easy to sit down and crush the Ohio County School Board, but it has become exhausting. The fighting, the shenanigans, the borderline illegalities and lying. Anything that has to do with this school board has just been tiring.

School board meetings shouldn’t feel uncomfortable or awkward. Board members should be trying to do what’s right for the entire school system, not just one school. A superintendent and school board should work hand in hand and not fight each other every step of the way. It is time for school board members to listen to the recommendations of the educators of the children and the constituents of each member’s district.

Now that Ralph will no longer be making recommendations to the board, it could be smooth sailing from here on out. Supposedly, the person who was to blame for all the ills of the Ohio County School system is gone. That’s what the years of contention and pettiness has been about, right? We should all be looking forward to school board meetings full of 5-0 votes and lasting a half hour to 45 minutes at best.

Unfortunately, that’s not possible. The reason is that the same problems the school system had with Ralph are the same problems that are being inherited by Lewis. Some schools will still be overcrowded, the budget is a fiasco and will still need to have more cuts and there will always be issues with Horse Branch Elementary, just to name a few problems. These things can’t be magically fixed, or at least they couldn’t while Ralph was superintendent, and now the school board has lost its scapegoat.

It’s time for the School Board to actually focus on doing some good work after years of mind numbing dirty politics and mud-slinging. Hopefully, the board members who have pushed for Ralph’s removal as superintendent don’t think that their job is complete now that they’ve gotten their man. If that is the case, then they should resign immediately. They still have many more important things to take care of before they are finished.

But after all of this, let’s wipe the slate clean and start anew. There is little doubt that Lewis has the best interests of the kids at heart, and as superintendent, he can and will do a good job and the school board can do a good job and work with him. If for no other reason than they want to work with Lewis. Even if Lewis makes similar or identical recommendations that Ralph made in the past that were rejected, this board has a short memory and each new recommendation may just be a breath of fresh air simply by coming from a different mouth.

We can only wait and see.