All the credit for his rehiring as principal of Harmony School goes to the many parents, teachers and fellow administrators who stood up, spoke out and showed their support for him over the past week and at tonight's meeting. Without the astounding show of support from all involved the Middletown Board of Education would not have been moved to change its mind.
There's an awful lot to talk about but at this time I'm a bit tired. I'm going to reflect on tonight's meeting a little and have video to post later.
But real quick though, here is what happened after the BOE came out of a special executive session to discuss whether or not to rehire (grant tenure) to Mr. Paulson.
The BOE came out of executive session @ ~ 11:45. Mr. Parton, the BOE's attorney, made a statement saying that there was some new information brought fourth during the session (but didn't say what it was). He made a statement that School Superintendent Dr. William George would like to amend his evaluation of Mr. Paulson to stated that he highly recommends his re-hire. After a motion was made to to amend the report and seconded, Mr. Parton didn't make it clear that they were voting to rehire Mr. Paulson, instead it seemed that they were voting on whether to have a vote or not. After all board members voted yes, Mr. Parton said Mr. Paulson was rehired.
Parton's statement had many confused at first but when those in the audience realized what had actually just happened - the BOE had voted unanimously to rehire Mr. Paulson - the crowd exploded with delight.
Tonight was totally out of character for the BOE, changing its position on something like this doesn't normally happen, but I'm glad it did! They got this one right.
Congratulations Mr. Paulson!
Middletown Patch has a brief article on tonight's meeting as well if you would like to check it out.
