Speaking Personally: Where I was wrong and a resolution to be kind

On Saturday at a beloved uncle’s funeral, I listened to a room full of my cousins say Uncle Ralph made us each feel like his favorite. After I was done coping with the reality that I, alone, am not the favorite --  I remained fascinated and astonished at the very idea someone could be so full of love that almost twenty nieces and nephews lived under this pleasing delusion for our entire lives. 

He loved us each as if there was only one of us. 

 

St. Augustine famously said the same thing about God’s love for all mankind, and therein lies the secret. 

 

I’m still not sure exactly *how* to love my neighbor like that, but I can see that is what Uncle Ralph did. His was an imperfectly lived life made extraordinary by love.

 

Why bring it up? On occasion, treasured readers, it bears mentioning that there is a living, breathing human being who fills these pages every week. Sometimes, as a participating member of the human race, my lived experience spills over into my work. 

 

Now then.

 

The Willow Springs school board has deserved an attaboy from me for a long time. Timing and other practical concerns have delayed me giving this opinion, but if there’s one thing I’m taking away from a weekend that left me speechless in misery, longing for a chapter of my life that closed before I was ready: it’s that we should say nice things while we have the chance. 

 

As I once resolved in this column to be brave about giving my opinion at all, I am now resolving to be kind as often as I can. 

 

On a recent memorable September day, I called for the resignation of five sitting school board members at Willow Springs Schools. I reasoned that when the task is “trust, but verify,” and you’re the party legally responsible for the verification – you’re ultimately at fault for any failure. And I took it a step further: I said I had no confidence in the school board to recognize good or bad financial advice from any source. 

 

That, dear readers, is where I turned out to be wrong. 

 

Since Kelly Lowe joined the team at Willow Spring R-IV schools as an independent financial consultant in October 2025, things have started to go right with budgeting, spending, and organizing. He has repeatedly identified previously unbudgeted or miscoded spending. He has at least once uncovered spending that no school board ever approved. 

 

Lowe is thorough, capable, and knowledgeable. He is on campus re-training staff and guiding the painful process of budget cuts. Millions of dollars have already been cut from district spending, and more is on the way. 

 

The painful, embarrassing process of cutting a budget that is 80% salaries has been as reverent and respectful as possible. 

 

District staff and administration are making day-to-day decisions that are righting the ship, but Lowe is finding, and the board is LISTENING to, all the changes that must occur to create a sound and responsible plan for spending. 

 

Yes, Lowe is using his expertise, but the board sought him out and hired him. It was the right decision to begin to heal and move forward.

 

Mac Gum, Brent Colley, Matt Hobson, Adam Webb, Scott Foster, Roger Shanks, and Meagan Jones made that decision as a board, and it was the right one. 

 

Heading into the summer, we have a fresh start: a new superintendent, two new board members last year, and three new ones as of this week, new (and fewer) administrators. 

 

The eyes of the community, and this publication will remain on the school board this year, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s not hateful. It’s not suspicious. We are paying attention because we want the school, and the students, to succeed and thrive.  

 

I’m looking forward to all the good news stories I’ll get to write in the coming year.