Letter: Please consider school board, city council service
– Healthy communities depend on citizens who are willing to show up, pay attention, and take responsibility for local leadership. Right now, we are facing a shortage of willing candidates for school board and city council positions in our North County communities.
These roles matter. Decisions made at the local level directly impact our schools, our neighborhoods, and the future of our children. Yet too often, the people best suited to serve—those motivated by a sense of duty rather than ambition, politics, or personal gain—are the very ones who hesitate to step forward.
We need you.
Attend a school board or city council meeting. See firsthand how decisions are made. Ask yourself whether your voice, your experience, and your common sense could make a difference—because they can.
If you know someone who would be a strong, thoughtful leader, encourage them. Better yet, nominate them. And if you’ve ever considered serving, now is the time to take that step.
You can stop by Republican Headquarters in Atascadero to share a nomination or to learn more about what running for office involves.
Our communities will only be as strong as the people willing to lead them. Let’s not wait for someone else to do it.
-Dorian Baker, Retired PRJUSD Teacher; Former Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Trustee
Editor’s note: Opinion pieces and letters to the editor are the personal opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Paso Robles Daily News or its staff. We welcome letters from local residents regarding relevant local topics. To submit one, click here.
Dorian Baker’s call for greater community involvement in local leadership is timely and important. After 33 years teaching at Paso Robles High School, I wholeheartedly share her belief that strong schools and communities depend on thoughtful citizens willing to serve.
School board and city council roles matter deeply and should be filled by individuals guided by integrity, sound judgment, and a commitment to the public good. It is not about politics or personal gain.
That’s why it was disappointing to see her message end by directing potential candidates to Republican Headquarters. These positions are intended to be nonpartisan and to serve the entire community, regardless of political affiliation.
If we truly want the best leaders, we should encourage participation through inclusive, community-based channels, not partisan ones.
Dorian Baker’s letter asks the public to step into nonpartisan service for school board and city council. Fine. Civic service matters. But when a sermon on nonpartisan public duty ends with directions to Republican Headquarters, the mask slips a bit. It is hard to deliver a lecture on community-minded leadership while stapling a party flyer to the back of it.
This is the part where we are apparently supposed to nod solemnly and pretend we did not notice. We did.
The larger problem is not that Ms. Baker wants more people involved. Most of us agree with that. The problem is the familiar performance of presenting oneself as above politics while practicing a version of politics with the subtlety of a campaign sandwich board.
Ms. Baker knows better. She ran for school board arguing the district needed better governance, transparency, and accountability. Later, as trustee and former trustee, she became a frequent critic of district leadership, district compensation, bond discussions, and culture-war agenda items. That is her right. But let’s not confuse a long-running political brand with some fresh discovery of civic virtue.
Public service is not a hobby for the theatrically disappointed. It is not a place to audition grievances, relitigate every old board fight, or turn nonpartisan seats into a feeder system for party infrastructure. If the pitch is truly “we need thoughtful, common-sense local leaders,” then send people to city hall, school board meetings, district workshops, budget hearings, and community forums. Do not send them to partisan headquarters and then act shocked when people notice the contradiction.
And while we are here, experience on a board is not the same thing as wisdom from above. Voting no, objecting loudly, and writing stern letters to the editor may create the appearance of backbone, but they are not a governing philosophy. Sometimes they are just a habit.
Paso Robles deserves leaders who can tell the difference between service and staging, between accountability and performance, between public duty and partisan recruiting with a polite smile.
If we are serious about calling good people into office, let’s do it honestly. Invite them to serve the whole community, not report first to headquarters for instructions.
Dorian Baker’s call for greater community involvement in local leadership is timely and important. After 33 years teaching at Paso Robles High School, I wholeheartedly share her belief that strong schools and communities depend on thoughtful citizens willing to serve.
School board and city council roles matter deeply and should be filled by individuals guided by integrity, sound judgment, and a commitment to the public good. It is not about politics or personal gain.
That’s why it was disappointing to see her message end by directing potential candidates to Republican Headquarters. These positions are intended to be nonpartisan and to serve the entire community, regardless of political affiliation.
If we truly want the best leaders, we should encourage participation through inclusive, community-based channels, not partisan ones.
Dorian Baker’s letter asks the public to step into nonpartisan service for school board and city council. Fine. Civic service matters. But when a sermon on nonpartisan public duty ends with directions to Republican Headquarters, the mask slips a bit. It is hard to deliver a lecture on community-minded leadership while stapling a party flyer to the back of it.
This is the part where we are apparently supposed to nod solemnly and pretend we did not notice. We did.
The larger problem is not that Ms. Baker wants more people involved. Most of us agree with that. The problem is the familiar performance of presenting oneself as above politics while practicing a version of politics with the subtlety of a campaign sandwich board.
Ms. Baker knows better. She ran for school board arguing the district needed better governance, transparency, and accountability. Later, as trustee and former trustee, she became a frequent critic of district leadership, district compensation, bond discussions, and culture-war agenda items. That is her right. But let’s not confuse a long-running political brand with some fresh discovery of civic virtue.
Public service is not a hobby for the theatrically disappointed. It is not a place to audition grievances, relitigate every old board fight, or turn nonpartisan seats into a feeder system for party infrastructure. If the pitch is truly “we need thoughtful, common-sense local leaders,” then send people to city hall, school board meetings, district workshops, budget hearings, and community forums. Do not send them to partisan headquarters and then act shocked when people notice the contradiction.
And while we are here, experience on a board is not the same thing as wisdom from above. Voting no, objecting loudly, and writing stern letters to the editor may create the appearance of backbone, but they are not a governing philosophy. Sometimes they are just a habit.
Paso Robles deserves leaders who can tell the difference between service and staging, between accountability and performance, between public duty and partisan recruiting with a polite smile.
If we are serious about calling good people into office, let’s do it honestly. Invite them to serve the whole community, not report first to headquarters for instructions.