For the past several weeks, it has been hard to find a seat at the various Southern Cayuga Central School Board of Education meetings and budget hearings. My question for all concerned is “Where have you been?” It shouldn't take a defeated budget, the promise of public spectacle, or our highly developed rituals of personal recrimination to focus one's attention.

Be that as it may, and whatever your motivations, now that the budget has passed, please keep showing up.

€ Show up to hear the presentation by Prism Decision Systems on the proposed format for the much anticipated long range planning process on June 30.

€ Show up to discuss the implications of the Commission on Property Tax Relief's recommendations for that planning process.

€ Show up to the reorganizational meeting on July 14.

€ Show up through next year's budget process and ask what a 4 percent tax levy cap portends for the educational program, staffing needs, and campus configuration of this district for next year and the years to follow.

€ Show up to challenge assertions based on opinions and insist both on arguments backed by research and decisions based on metrics.

€ Show up, at the very least, to demonstrate that we as a community do not require the presence of a Deputy Sheriff to police our conduct at public meetings no matter how many are in attendance, no matter how deeply held our convictions, no matter how sharp the disagreements.

Passing the budget is just the beginning.

Phil Donovan

Lansing