If you want to understand politics, you need to accept that perception matters more than reality. On school board (and probably any other elected body), you quickly learn that perceptions are more powerful than realities. The truth will nibble at you slowly and (usually) behind the scenes. What people think is true will take a chunk out of your middle with sharp, pointy teeth and do it as subtly as a the �raptors in �Jurassic Park.� Much of the time, there isn�t time for the truth to get you. Perceptions will have chewed you up and spit you out long before reality ever gets its turn.

Even when reality can be explained in the abstract, it can be so counter-intuitive that you need people to sit down and ponder it for an hour or more before they will be at all likely to grasp it. In those instances one reality competes with another one. Whatever it is that makes sense to do competes with the reality that virtually no one is going to ponder what you do for an hour. Rant about it, perhaps. Ponder it, no way.

Take, for example, our bus situation, particularly in this time of upcoming deficits. We are in a cooperative with other districts. Paying the union high school district to run some almost empty buses really is significantly cheaper than eliminating those almost-empty high school bus runs. Most of the big costs associated with buses occur on the first run: the base cost of the bus itself, benefit costs of the bus driver, and repair costs to the bus. Additional runs add only some fuel and an hourly wage. It�s something like �buy one tube of toothpaste, get the second one for a penny.� If there�s just you and you don�t buy that second tube of toothpaste, you don�t get much in the way of savings but you do save a penny. But if you and your friend are going in together on the toothpaste, the situation changes. Assume that you each plan to pay for half a tube of toothpaste. If your friend changes her mind about going in with you, you�re going to get stuck with the cost of the whole tube of toothpaste. You still come out ahead if you convince your friend to split the costs but to pay 75% of the cost of the two tubes. Nevertheless, in the popular perception, you�re a spendthrift because you pay for almost-empty busses.

The problem is worse when your decision involves information that you can�t explain openly. As Americans, we like to think that everything can be open and everything can be explained. But there is no way to explain that you are not making a particular decision for individual personnel reasons. What if the person who ultimately will be laid off or harmed is one of your best people and one of the people on whom you hope to rest some important future project? The law says you can�t say it because you can�t discuss personnel decisions in an open meeting. Common sense says you can�t say it because it will be divisive and will demoralize.

Now add posturing into the mix. Someone, somewhere, within your board is going to be living with the same realities you are and be as unable to explain them as you. Unfortunately, distancing is a favorite human way of coping with the problem and your fellow board members will not hesitate to use it. If this person has something to gain from the perceptions (as opposed to the reality), you may be in trouble. Merely inaccurate perceptions driving a system rarely do as much damage as intentionally fed and inaccurate perceptions. If people trust you enough, they�ll give you the benefit of the doubt on niggling misperceptions. But if someone has a stake in magnifying those doubts, watch out!

I�m reflecting because I have to decide in the next month whether to run for the board again. I�m not a natural politician. I got talked into running for school board when there was no other candidate and I ran unopposed. I doubt I�ll be that �lucky� this time. Ugly budget cuts need doing in the next few years and I�ve never been one to walk away from a difficult job. But I�m also not one to hold my tongue. I�m not sure I have the finesse or the drive to make a real campaign work. I�m not sure I want to volunteer to let the raptors come after me.

Chomped to death, nibbled to death, or cowardly safety. Man, I want to vote for none of the above.

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