Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:41 AM and sunset 8:21 PM for 14h 40m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 4.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 4:30 PM.
On this day in 1948, President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States.
It’s a truism to say that ‘people make history, but not in conditions of their own choosing.’ Whitewater has before her a number of decisions (a school district referendum, city administration of the fire department, a new police chief, a new city manager). These decisions all come in a context. (I’ve the luxury of time, and will consider each of these topics methodically over the coming days.) For today, as a prelude: general measures of the socio-economic condition of the community.
Last night, preceding a decision to authorize a referendum to exceed revenue limits, the Whitewater School Board heard a presentation on Addressing Needs in the District. A few slides from that presentation appear below. (Credit where credit is due: Old Whitewater would never have presented a document that highlighted the community’s socio-economic challenges. The core tenet of Old Whitewater’s boosterism was to accentuate the positive, in the false theory that positive necessarily begets positive. Mostly, however, accentuating the positive and ignoring difficulties allowed officials and hangers-on to place themselves in the best possible light. Better to be honest and candid. A community cannot address, let alone fix, problems it refuses to acknowledge.)
While the district presented these slides for a particular purpose (to support exceeding revenue limits over four years), they serve a more significant general purpose. Socio-economic data are not everything, but they are something, and much more than official press releases and headshots.
Economic disadvantage among K-12 students here is greater than in nearby communities and greater than the state average. That condition affects what Whitewater does and what Whitewater can do. These conditions do not mean that government’s solutions are right for the community, but these conditions do require a response. It is, as it has been for Old Whitewater, a profound wrong to pretend otherwise.
Much to consider.
‘Lifeguard’ drone saved a drowning 14-year-old on a beach in Spain by dropping a life vest:
The devices, made by Valencia-based General Drones, have now been deployed on 22 beaches across Spain to assist human lifeguards.
[…] A Monday evening presentation to the Whitewater School Board (Addressing Needs in the District) described the socio-economic condition of the community, and its particular, greater-than-average challenges. See from 7.26.22 Slides on Whitewater’s (Socio-Economic) Condition. […]