At their best, town hall meetings should be an opportunity for the community and its leadership to come together and address common concerns and seek solutions. The meetings should be brainstorming sessions followed with action.

However, this has not always been the case with the Bogalusa town hall meetings.

While the meetings that focused on issues concerning City Hall — blight, for instance — have resulted in some small actions, the last meeting to focus on education resulted in no noticeable action whatsoever.

This, despite the fact that the community brought clear concerns regarding empty school buildings to the city school district.

We realize it may be a hard, lengthy and expensive process to address the issue of empty school buildings, but to make no noticeable progress whatsoever is a clear indication that the city school district has no interest in the matter. This should concern everyone who lives in the city.

Not only could the buildings potentially be used for something, but the distinct lack of interest in public sentiment is worrying.

Make no mistake: We support our city school system. Our teachers and our administrators are an invaluable part of the community. However, we expect the school leadership to, in return, respect the community and bear in mind the concerns of the residents who live here.

We hope the town hall meeting next week generates a good turnout. We hope it generates great ideas. Most important, we hope those ideas are not ignored.