The chairman of the bored

When it comes to my job, I love the vast majority of it. I love being out among people, high-fiving the student-athletes that make up each and every sport event and love taking pictures.

I love the writing, love being able to entertain my readers with a football story or basketball game. This week’s paper is especially filled with sports. For a sports junkie like me, this week’s paper was a dream come true.

We have no less than three teams in my coverage area that will be taking home some hardware once it’s all said and done this fall. Abby football and volleyball, along with the Colby/Abby girls cross-country team, all earned conference titles.

I was especially proud of the Abby Falcons volleyball team. They picked up their program’s 19th conference crown this season, and first in a long time. I am extremely proud of them, and excited to see where they will go in the playoffs.

Same goes for Colby and Abby football. Abby is a one seed, and hosts Crivitz. That game will be at 6 p.m., so be sure to mark that down on your calendar. Colby has a more intriguing match-up, taking on Cumberland on the road.

Cumberland features a very prolific passer, Maddux Allen, who has tossed 23 touchdowns and over two thousand yards through the air. You don’t see that a lot in high school football games, but Colby has a great secondary that’s done its fair share of picking off passes.

But if there is one thing that is tough with my job, it’s board meetings. Things like policies and taxes and TIF districts and budget hearings can make a guy go crazy.

I loathe attending board meetings, or as I like to call them “bored” meetings. Sometimes you get a juicy topic to write about that easily presents itself. Other times you’re sifting and searching to discover the main idea, wondering why you ever became a journalist.

But board meetings are necessary things. Take school board meetings, for example. It’s huge and important issues that are facing schools today, with changing demands due to technology and social media, but also because of changing demographics.

The school boards at Abby and Colby have their work cut out for them. Their board members work long hours, travel on the road quite a lot and are focused on making the schools better for their each and every child that wearily trudges through the school hallways of Abby or Colby every day during the school year.

M USINGS AND G RUMBLINGS

Oct. 6-12 was School Board Appreciation Week across the state of Wisconsin, but I’m here to say that the appreciation shouldn’t last just one week, but should be every week.

The job is difficult, not a lot of people want it and it requires fine attention to detail across a variety of topics. But they do it because it makes a school, a community and a student that much better, that much more cared for and provided for.

I suggest to everyone to come to at least one school board meeting in your life. You’ll be amazed at what you learn, and what you maybe didn’t know.