Hands down, the most challenging year of my journalism career was 1996. In times of personal tumult, I invoke the following mantra: "I survived 1996. I can survive anything."

Following the birth of our youngest child, my colleagues welcomed me back to the education beat with uncharacteristic zeal. Once the haze of my postpartum sleep deprivation had cleared, I realized my colleagues couldn't wait to hand over the teeming workload that had accumulated in my absence.

As you may recall, 1996 was the year of the student club controversy in the Salt Lake School District. The school district also was attempting to deal with the fallout of a new policy regarding religious music instruction in schools. There also were the "small" matters of privatizing the district school bus system and updating the district's strategic plan. Did I mention the Legislature was in session?

The Deseret News was an afternoon newspaper then, so we competed fiercely with the other Salt Lake media to advance these stories for our readers. It was a great time to be a journalist, but maintaining the pace of an honest-to-goodness newspaper war exacted a huge toll. As journalists, we had the luxury of being an arm's length from the chaos. I can only imagine what it was like for members of the Salt Lake City Board of Education.

It was about as intense as it could get. And in the midst of dealing with these challenges, the school board still had to oversee the more mundane things school boards do, the budget, payroll, personnel matters, you name it.

I can't help but think of that year in the context of the recent flap over the Jordan Board of Education voting to increase its base pay from $3,000 a year to $12,000 a year plus insurance benefits worth about $17,000, if board members accept that option. Utah school boards deserve better compensation. They oversee huge budgets and very large work forces. Most importantly, they oversee the education of our children.

So I have no problem with Jordan School Board raising its pay. Some of the largest school districts in the nation provide like compensation for school board members, if not more. But timing is everything. There's a strong campaign afoot to split the school district, which is the state's largest, serving nearly 80,000 students. Quadrupling one's pay in one fell swoop wasn't a wise political move under the circumstances.

In my estimation, the school board also erred in extending a benefit to itself that is not available to employees. Cashing out the benefit does not cost taxpayers anything extra, but it's a huge perception problem.

I'm amused by the notion that people will run for school board because the pay and benefits have been raised to the point that it's a decent part-time job. I'll concede that few part-time jobs offer such benefits. But serving on a school board is far different than working at a department store or assembling corporate reports at the local print shop.