Letter from the Mt. Hood Community College District Board of Education

To the editor of the Mt. Hood Community College student newspaper, The Advocate:

We, the Board of Education for the Mt. Hood Community College District, are writing to you to express our disappointment at articles published in the May 1, 2015 edition of the student newspaper, The Advocate.

In question are two stories: an article entitled “Proposed budget to be presented for approval” on page nine and an editorial entitled “Students Deserve Answers on the New Budget Proposal” on page two.

We take no umbrage with either premise behind these articles – students have an absolute right to know about the budget and how it will affect them. In both his article and editorial, though, the author makes claims that he could not get his questions answered. These claims are extremely disappointing to us, because in this case, the author did not actually reach out to anyone to ask his questions.

The author, in fact, repeatedly states that he reached out to the Board and to the administration for comment. The truth is that at no time were any Board members contacted for comment.  We can also discover no evidence of any effort on his part to reach out to any administrative office, nor any administrator who was contacted, nor any who were contacted and “declined” to answer.

On the contrary, we and the administration have been open and transparent during budget planning, and stand ready to answer any question posed to us about the budget. Along these lines, we recently invited students and community members to come to an already-scheduled May 6 meeting and public hearing. Those in attendance were able to hear about the budget, voice their concerns and have their questions answered in advance of the regular May 13 Board meeting.

There will also be on open discussion period on May 13 before the board takes action on the budget, and we welcome any who wish to attend. We invite all who are interested to attend the May 13 Board meeting and find out first-hand for themselves the details of the budget.

 

Sincerely,

MHCC District Board of Education