I have much more to say about last night's town hall debate on the new gym and renovation plans for Madison High School. But for those of you who missed it (and that's about 7500 of you), here are videos of nearly everything your neighbors (and the architect!) said at the meeting.
There are 27 videos total; I'll break them up into four separate posts. Below are the first six videos, in order; see all 27 videos on Madville Times YouTube.
1. Madison Central School Board member Tom Farrell recites the project history; superintendent Vince Schaefer gives us a useful primer on the capital outlay fund:
2. Ron Barthel proposes an alternative gym renovation plan... and makes the odd claim that the gym is the most important thing in the school, because it makes money:
3. Ashley Kenneth Allen makes the case for fixing the high school:
4. Ron Barthel responds, talks advertising:
5. John Hess explains how the school board lost his vote with tricky electoral tactics:
6. Steve Sanchez thinks the election tactics set a bad moral example for our kids; he wants fairness, openness, and sincere listening. He also says some parts of the plan didn't serve an academic purpose: