Writing prompt Grade 11 Social Studies & Civics
Should the Pallister Water District Elect Its Board? A Writing Prompt
Students weigh accountability against long-range planning and argue whether a fictional three-town water district should elect its board or keep appointing it.
Objectives
- Students will state a precise claim about how a special district board should be selected.
- Students will support the claim with at least three pieces of evidence drawn from the background.
- Students will answer the strongest opposing argument rather than a weaker version of it.
Vocabulary
- Special district
- A local government created to do one job, such as delivering water. It has its own board and its own budget, separate from the city or county.
Also: governing board, appointed, elected, accountability, rate setting, capital plan, turnout
Teacher overview
Special districts run a large share of the water systems in the United States, yet many residents cannot name a member of the board that sets their rates. This prompt puts students inside that question with a fictional district whose board is appointed by three town councils and whose ratepayers have petitioned to elect it instead. The argument is genuinely balanced, because accountability and long-range planning pull in different directions, and the background gives students what they need to argue either side.
Prompt
Background. The Pallister Water District is fictional, and every detail below was written for this prompt.
The district was formed in 1957, when the towns of Ockham, Sturbridge, and Yarrowbrook could not each afford a treatment plant of their own. It now serves about 41,000 people. It owns the plant, the reservoir, and the mains, and it sets its own rates and issues its own debt. Its annual budget is larger than the public works budget of any one of the three towns.
The district is run by a board of five members. Each of the three town councils appoints members to three-year terms. Board members are not chosen by voters and do not appear on any ballot.
A citizens' committee has petitioned to change that. The committee wants board members elected directly at the November general election. The petition has enough signatures to place the question before the three councils, and each council will vote on it next month. The district has opened a public comment record.
Points made in favor of electing the board:
- Ratepayers pay every bill the board approves, yet they have no vote on who approves it.
- Appointed members answer to the council that appointed them, and a council can replace a member who votes against its wishes.
- The board raised rates by 9 percent last year, and no member had to explain that vote to a voter.
- A ballot line makes the district visible. Most residents cannot name a board member now.
Points made against electing the board:
- The board approves a twenty-year capital plan and borrows against it. Appointed terms are staggered, so the board's membership outlasts any single election.
- The district's last stand-alone election, held in 1998 on a bond question, drew fewer than one in ten registered voters. A low-turnout election can be decided by a small organized group.
- Appointment lets the councils recruit members with engineering, accounting, or utility experience. A candidate who wins an election need not have any.
- State law already requires the board to meet in public, publish its budget, and hold a hearing before any rate increase.
Your task. Write an argument essay of four to six paragraphs for the Pallister Water District's public comment record. Take a position on whether the board should be elected by voters or appointed by the three town councils. State your claim clearly. Support it with at least three pieces of evidence from the background above. Then name the strongest argument on the other side, answer it directly, and explain why your position still holds. Write for an adult audience of board members and residents.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every row before drafting. Each row matches a criterion on the rubric.
| Part of the essay | What to write here | My notes |
|---|---|---|
| Claim | One sentence naming which method you support and the main reason. | |
| Reason 1 and evidence | Your first reason, plus the exact background point that supports it. | |
| Reason 2 and evidence | Your second reason, plus the exact background point that supports it. | |
| Reason 3 and evidence | Your third reason, plus the exact background point that supports it. | |
| Counterclaim | The strongest single point on the other side, stated as its supporters would state it. | |
| Rebuttal | Why that point does not overturn your claim. Concede anything it gets right. | |
| Conclusion | One sentence naming what the councils should do next month and why. |
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Exemplar & Rubric
Exemplar response
The Pallister Water District should elect its board. A body that sets rates for 41,000 people and borrows against a twenty-year plan owes its answers to the people who pay, and appointment sends those answers to three town councils instead.
The clearest reason is that the district already acts like a government. It owns the plant, the reservoir, and the mains. It sets rates and issues debt, and its budget is larger than the public works budget of any of the three towns it serves. Every one of those decisions reaches a household bill. When the board raised rates by 9 percent last year, no member had to face a voter and defend the vote. Setting rates and borrowing on that scale without a ballot line is the arrangement the committee is objecting to, and the objection is sound.
A second reason is that appointment does not remove politics from the board but moves it to the three town councils. A member appointed by a council serves at that council's pleasure, and a council can replace a member who votes against its wishes. That makes a board member accountable to the town that appointed that member rather than to the district as a whole, which is a poor arrangement for a system whose pipes cross all three towns.
A third reason is visibility. Most residents cannot name a board member. A ballot line would put the district's name in front of every voter in a November general election, and a candidate would have to say publicly what the plant needs and what it will cost.
The strongest argument on the other side deserves a direct answer. Opponents point to the district's last stand-alone election in 1998, which drew fewer than one in ten registered voters, and warn that a small organized group could capture a low-turnout race. That risk is real, and it explains why the committee is right to ask for the November general election rather than a separate spring ballot. Turnout in a general election is many times higher than in a stand-alone contest, and the same voters who choose a governor would choose the board on the same trip. The objection argues against a poorly timed election, not against elections.
The three councils should place the question on the November ballot. Staggered four-year terms would preserve the continuity a twenty-year capital plan needs, and the councils could still recommend candidates with utility experience. What they should not keep is an arrangement in which the people who pay every bill have no say in who sets the rates.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim | The position is implied or changes between paragraphs. | A position is stated, but without a reason attached. | A precise claim names the method supported and the main reason, and it governs the essay. | The claim is precise and qualified, naming a condition under which the writer would decide differently. |
| Evidence and reasoning | Fewer than three background points are used, or a point is described inaccurately. | Three points appear, but at least one is quoted without explanation of how it supports the claim. | Three or more background points are used accurately, each connected in writing to the reason it supports. | Evidence is selected with judgment, including one point that cuts against the claim, and the writer explains why it does not control the outcome. |
| Counterclaim and rebuttal | No counterclaim appears, or the counterclaim is a weaker version of the opposing case. | A counterclaim appears and is dismissed rather than answered. | The strongest opposing point is stated fairly and answered with reasoning drawn from the background. | The rebuttal concedes what the objection gets right and shows precisely what it fails to establish. |
| Organization and conventions | Paragraphs do not separate reasons, and errors interrupt meaning. | Structure is present but the order does not build, or repeated errors distract. | Four to six paragraphs each carry one purpose, transitions are clear, and conventions are controlled. | Structure serves the argument, with the strongest reason placed for effect, and the prose is clean enough to submit to a public record. |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the organizer with the claim row already filled in for each of the two possible positions, so their work begins at the reasons. Reduce the requirement to three paragraphs and two pieces of evidence, and provide the counterclaim sentence already stated so the writing task is the rebuttal.
Extension
Ask these students to write a second, shorter piece for the same comment record from the position they did not choose, then to add a paragraph explaining which of the two was harder to write honestly and why.
ELL supports
Pre-teach board, appointed, elected, ratepayer, and turnout with a simple two-column chart showing who chooses the board under each method and to whom the board answers. Provide argument frames: "The board should be ___ because ___," "Supporters of the other view argue that ___," and "That argument is right about ___, but it does not show ___." Allow the organizer to be completed in phrases before drafting in sentences.
Extensions
Have students find out how the governing board of the utility that serves their own school is chosen, using the utility's public website or their city's charter, and write a paragraph naming which of the background arguments applies to that arrangement and which does not.