It’s times like these that cause a school board member to wonder, “What was I thinking when I volunteered to do this?” Board members can serve for years with nary a tough decision to make. That’s not currently the case in Morenci and Fayette, and it has to be a very frustrating situation.

Fayette board members have spent hours sorting through options for the district’s new school, only to have their choices thwarted by factors beyond their control. The board determined what will produce a good building to adequately serve the district’s needs, but their plans continue to hit roadblocks.

Each obstacle takes the design a little further away from what was originally desired, and that’s not a good a feeling for a board member who is there to serve the public.

Now it’s the Morenci board’s turn to suffer. With a projected deficit approaching $300,000, board members are in the extremely uncomfortable position of choosing who will be without a job when the new school year begins in September.

No good choices exist. The board is already being criticized for eliminating administrative posts, as proposed, but they would also be criticized for cutting teaching jobs. And what else is there to cut, to really make a significant dent in the deficit?

Teaching jobs have been trimmed in recent deficit years. This time around most board members agreed to take a different approach—leave teachers in place to handle the basic purpose of education—and cut administrators instead.

That was the majority choice until it came time to vote. At the meeting Friday, several trustees just couldn’t go through with it. They changed their position and decided to talk it over again.

That’s not a good way to operate, not after the two employees had already been informed of the decision and a meeting convened for the purpose of finalizing the decision.

Will board members completely reverse their earlier decision and cut teaching positions instead?

Superintendent Kyle Griffith’s intent is to make changes that will have the most impact on the budget with the least

impact on the classroom. It’s going to be a tough, unpopular decision for board members no matter which way they turn.

Unfortunately, it’s a decision that the seven volunteers are going to have to make. There’s no way out of it beyond watching the cash reserves dwindle, and that doesn’t seem like a responsible long-term approach.