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.

In Jordan District's case, it's managing thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenues and literally billions of dollars in assets. Add to that constituent contact, meetings apart from school board meetings as well as visits to schools and attending activities. Board members estimate they may spend up to 25 hours a week on school board business.

But that's what they signed up for, you might say. It's all about service. But the flip side of service is sacrifice — time away from families, work, church responsibilities and leisure activities. I know one school board member who lost business because conflicts of interest prohibited him from bidding for school district contracts. Those policies exist for sound reasons, but his sacrifice was arguably far greater than others.

In his case, a total compensation package worth even $29,000 a year would not have come close to compensating him for lost business. But it would have acknowledged the scope of the responsibility that local school board members assume when they are sworn into office. Even at that price, it's a relative bargain.

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Marjorie Cortez, who lobbied her editors for hazard pay in 1996 but was denied, is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com