The other day, I went to an E-SPLOST propaganda meeting at the Troup County School System central office. The meeting thankfully was canceled because no one attended except for myself, Matthew Strother and central office employees. As I was leaving, a school board member called me “Tommy Against Everything Callaway.” I assume that is my nickname among each and every current school board member.

Allow me to list a few things that I do stand for that our present school board is apparently against. I hope that the four new school board members will embrace these issues.

I am against a whole lot of things that our school system embraces; I am NOT against the following principles, and do wish that our board would implement them in our school system:

Always telling the truth. Supporting our teachers. Strict discipline in every school.

Art and music being properly funded. Spending your tax dollars as if they were their own.

Making our schools safe for our students and teachers. Allowing the public to speak at school board meetings. Accurate reporting of discipline incidents to the state. Neighborhood schools.

Elected superintendents. Eliminating unnecessary administrative positions. Emphasizing academics instead of football. Furnishing our teachers with supplies that they purchase with their own money.

Freshly cooked school lunches instead of the “heat-and-serve” lunches. Exit interviews for every employee who resigns. Lunchroom and custodian staff who are school system employees. Annual employee morale surveys. Small classroom sizes.

More advanced classes for gifted students only. Policies that are enforced. Dress codes that are enforced. Student uniforms. Teaching instead of testing. Teaching cursive writing. Allowing students to go to the school that they wish to go to. Verifying the need for “free” lunches.

Not deceiving the public with fictitious charts and lies. Reducing wasteful spending. Promoting from within instead of hiring from outside our system.

Eliminating Common Core. Requiring every school board member to substitute teach one day each month at different schools. Board membes who direct the superintendent instead of vice-versa.

This is only a partial list of items that I stand for concerning our local school system.

Tommy “Not Against Everything” Callaway

LaGrange