The following comment was posted yesterday by an anonymous person to the post titled "Middletown school board to vote on final spending plan". I thought that it was good enough to be considered comment of the week thus far and shared here on the main page.
The county superintendent has said that any further administrative cuts will jeopardize the district’s ability to provide an adequate education and may put the safety of the students at risk. Karen has said the same thing. Who has more knowledge about educating our children, the mayor or the educators?
When Vinnie Brand heard the email from the county superintendent read at the meeting the other night he said that he disagreed with the county superintendent and that he didn’t care what other towns are doing that we should do it better.
This guy is a pretty fast study. Wednesday was the second BOE meeting he has attended in his entire life and he already knows more than our superintendent and the county superintendent about acceptable student to administrator ratios. He said that we should cut 3 administrators as the TC suggested, even though the TC numbers had no basis in reality due to their total lack of understanding regarding the way the district operates.
Middletown has gotten what it wished for. We now have 3 new members on the board who apparently are so concerned about doing the bidding of the Township Committee that they are willing to compromise the safety of the students in order to save the taxpayers a few dollars.
Because the TC did not realize that the tenured administrators will have to be employed somewhere in the district, they grossly overstated the savings to the taxpayers. Instead of the $390,000 that they claimed would be saved by eliminating 3 administrators, the actual savings would be more like $50,000. In other words, for less than $1 per person a year for every person living in Middletown, Vinnie and his friends are willing to ignore the warnings of professional educators and compromise the safety of our students.
We now have inexperienced, uninformed and misguided people deciding the future of the districts educational process. They are ignoring the code of ethics for BOE members which states that they are to make their decisions based on what is best for the children. They appear to be making decisions based on political affiliations and aspirations.
6 comments:
Isn’t it interesting that the “Independent” newspaper had numerous quotes made by Vinnie Brand from the last BOE meeting, all of which sounded more like campaign speeches than efforts at discussion? But they made no mention of the county superintendent and our district superintendent both stating that further administrative cuts could jeopardize the safety of the students.
Maybe the mayor will see if he can get Vinnie Brand appointed superintendent of schools in Middletown next.They are both----
----- !
The "Independent" replaced the "Courier" as a source of notification of public notice announcements. Probably all about the revenue that will generate....and we can bet the newspaper will protect that revenue.regardless of the accuracy of full reporting.
It wasn't Brand or his three running mates who put forward the motion to promote a failing administrator for thirty days so she could retire at a higher pension as a parting gift. It also wasn't Brand who put forward a motion to fire a principal she gave a good evaluation to and now doesn't like, then keep a administrator who had an evaluation saying he wasn't ready to be a principal.
Finally, it was't Brand who said I'm going to take a pay freeze then gave himself a raise in another another form. It's about time someone held the BOE Leadership accountable. Regardless of your political affiliation what's right is right.
Personnel decisions are more complicated than can be covered in a sound bite on a forum. And the fact that someone disagrees with personnel decisions does not negate the fact that these new members of the board are willing to ignore advice from experienced educational professionals regarding the safety of the students.
The fact is that it was Vinnie Brand who said he didn’t care what the district superintendent and the county superintendent said about the safety of the students. He has no study to point to support his contention that they are wrong. He has absolutely no experience or expertise that would lead anyone to believe that he knows anything about adequate student to administrator ratios. His little campaign speech that he made at the last board meeting was just that, a campaign speech. He and his cronies are making decisions that impact not only our children’s education but more importantly their welfare, based solely on a campaign promise. It is patently wrong, clearly against the code of ethics for board members and quite frankly an outrage.
One of the other two new members explained that his rational for voting “no” at the meeting was based on the fact that he had campaigned to get rid of administrators. In effect his is saying that his job on the board is to represent his constituents. Politicians represent their constituents, board members are supposed to be advocates for the children. Clearly these guys are politicians first and board members second.
Get your facts straight 9:37 p.m.. Brand didn't have three running mates....he was 1 of 3 newcomers running for the BOE and none of them had qualifications beyond being promoted for office by Scharfey and Co. so the mayor could attempt to interject politics into the BOE in Middletown. None of them were ever interested in the education proccess and Brand never attended a BOE meeting in his life until installed and that could be true of the others also.
It has been said ,Joan Minnuies was party to assembling the slate these three ran on.That is something the voters should remember next year.
No one disputes there are problems with managing money everywhere in this community but Scharfenberger & Co. are POOR examples to follow regardless of party affiliation.The shocker will come when this mayor
can no longer EVADE the truth and a huge tax increase is proposed because of the incompetence of this republican majority.
The mayor in this community lacks many skills dealing with people and these three, unqualified by most standards,BOE members should spent some time "learning" their new responsibility before making statements that make them look like the FOOLISH POLITICIANS that they all are.
The parents and residents of Middletown will remember for many Novembers to come !!
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