Time to Put Student Needs Ahead of Lawyers and Petty Politics

Political Vendettas and Unethical Behaviors are Harming our Students

Here’s a little test. Ten months ago, five of our eight BOE members (to be joined by a sixth member a month later) chose to start a chain of actions in bringing about ethics charges against a fellow board member. Those actions resulted in several opposing ethics complaints by town residents. To date, all of these complaints are still in process.

The initial BOE actions that started all of this have resulted in an 88% increase in legal fees this past year, and according to our preliminary budget for the coming year, those costs have increased yet again. We’re talking about roughly $90,000 over the last two years.

Now… let’s take a look at what it costs to have an existing teacher take on an additional teaching period. According to the February 9th BOE agenda, it takes an additional $10,500 to “amend extra teaching period assignments beyond their normal teaching schedule”. Some simple math shows that for $84,000 we can cover eight classes.

Which is more important to our BOE members: continuing an absurd vendetta against someone who isn’t even a Board member anymore, and insisting on fighting their own series of ethics complaints that arose because of it, or using precious funds to save opportunities for our kids, maintain a proper teaching staff and keep class sizes down?

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