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School board handles<br>controversial issues well

When it comes to Grand Canyon School Board meetings, the usual audience usually includes only those school employees who need to be there along with people who may need to talk about something on the agenda.

But on Monday of last week, board members found a library packed with teachers and parents interested in the softball field problem and the proposal to begin a couple of new middle-school sports programs.

Only three of the five school board members were available for the meeting. I felt they handled things well, especially on a few occasions when things got tense between folks on opposing sides.

A few weeks ago in this column, I questioned the school board on its open-mindedness when it comes to flag football. The activity is something I endorsed and felt would be a fun and different activity to offer local kids.

For the first time, I wasn't really sure how a vote was going to come out. It could've gone either way.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, board members approve matters on a unanimous vote. This time, flag football passed on a 2-1 vote.

I refer to the vote as the flag football decision because the middle-school coed softball portion of the debate received little attention.

The board handled both issues very well. A vote wasn't required on the softball field issue, only a preference for the desired action. On the middle-school sports vote, the board members explained their position. Of course, now I'm wondering how the vote would've gone if all five board members could have been there.

Many were surprised that the meeting ended up going on for a couple of hours. The flag football debate, in particular, continued over the next few days while people ran into each other at the post office, during telephone conversations and with e-mails going back and forth.

In this week's newspaper, you'll find an unusual situation in terms of my top stories for page one. Two stories and a feature photo are sports-related. I wanted to explain.

The softball field story deserved page-one placement because of the interest it drew from parents, players and community members. To move home games to a field 30 miles away was controversial.

As for flag football, the interesting debate that went on at the board meeting just made for a good story.

Finally, I chose to run the photo of Michael Vincent on the front page for two reasons. First, it was the first weekend of spring sports and second, I thought the photo turned out well with Vincent's determined look and the colors of the Phantom uniform.

(Brad Fuqua is editor of the Grand Canyon News).


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