A good neighbor policy

Monday night's discussion concerning a request to waive the District's facilities' use policy – in order to allow a community activity to continue beyond the policy’s 11 p m. deadline - was a great illustration of the type of issue that school boards often face.

There appeared to be recognition by board members that a proposal for an all-night event from a group of local youth church organizations would be consistent with the district's desire to be part of the community, and the importance of supporting worthwhile activities for our community's younger members.

So the issue for the board was not, "is what they're proposing a good idea?" - it was balancing this "good idea" against longer-term implications. For example, would granting this waiver set a precedent that would be hard to live with down the road? We don't want to place ourselves in the position where the board regularly has to rule on requests to waive policy.

The discussion, appropriately, included an examination of the history of the current policy; in particular, the reason it was adopted in the first place. A large part of that reason had to do with disruptions that all-night events tended to bring to the local neighborhood - noise and traffic, especially. Not being disruptive is clearly a part of being a good neighbor.

Most of the issues that drove the adoption of the present policy appeared to be addressed in the proposal, although there was some concern about the potential impact of a midnight concert. (Personally, I think that somewhat goes with living in a college town, but I know a lot of people would disagree with me on that point.)

Finally, one board member noted that if granting this waiver opens the door to a lot of similar requests, this suggests a need to modify the policy, so that this type of request would be covered. It's too soon to know how difficult that would be to do, but in the long term, that seems like the right direction to go.