I thought it was interesting when folks were noting that Oly’s Rich Nafziger got a new job in the political hierarchy, that no one noted his blog. That’s too bad, because while Rich often takes months of weeks between posts, when he does get something up, its usually worth the read.

No exception this week (or now at this link or this link I guess):

Olympia is one of the strongest school districts in the State of Washington. Ask the parents, teachers, and community members in Olympia….

But if you ask Board directors Russ Lehman, and Bob Shirley, they will tell you that the district is mediocre at best. They argue that voters should elect the candidates they are working to elect (Jeff Nejedly and Lucy Meltzer), give them a majority and then heads will roll and the district will move forward to excellence.

I worry that if they gain a majority on the board, the Olympia School Board will become the Seattle School Board. A board that is infamous for its negativism, political correctness and disdain for the teachers and other employees of their district.

The post is called “burning down the house” and it doesn’t seem to pull any punches on what Rich thinks of Lehman and Shirley. It seems to be in reaction to this situation in which Lehman and Shirley are asking to start a much needed budget discussion sooner rather than later. But, maybe not, Nafziger never really talks about the budget.

There are two contested school board races this year in Olympia: incumbent Carolyn Barclift is facing off against newcomer Lucy Gentry-Meltzer and Jeff Nejedly and Frank Wilson are facing off for an open seat.

From what I know, Barclift and Wilson are supported by Nafziger and Gentry Meltzer and Nejedly are supported by Lehman and Shirley.

Just for the record, the teacher’s union is supporting Frank Wilson.

On a side note, the local school board is probably one of the more mysterious local government agencies to me. I keep a close eye on the city and the port always seems to be in the news, but its interesting to see so much school board stuff popping up in blogs.