Notes from the 8-10-09 School Board meeting

To their credit and in front of a standing room only crowd in the High School LGI Room, much of the actual business of the district got done the evening of Monday, August 10th: hiring for open positions, department head appointments, etc. But despite a public call for unity from Acting Superintendent Barry Flicker just a few days ago, the current School Board braintrust of Ed Kerner, Debbie Bissland, Gene Endress, Karen Zelley, and John Dutton evidently wanted to show him first hand what their concept of "unity" is.

Case in point: A motion was made by Board Member Barbara McMeekin that the Board NOT act on a permanent Superintendent until the new Board is elected and seated in December. Shocker: the motion did NOT pass on the usual 5-4 vote with Kerner, Bissland, Endress, Zelley, and Dutton voting AGAINST andLaCoff, McMeekin, Scheib, and Bilinsky voting FOR.

So much for "unity", eh Barry? Betcha' you didn't quite expect this when Ed spoke to you about this position opening up prior to Myra's actual termination. Welcome back to the now-dysfunctional "family."

And Ms. Bissland, before you lecture the public again on the complexities of hiring a Superintendent, perhaps you can first educate yourself about how to stop getting personally named in federal civil rights lawsuits. Two lawsuits in two years, what a record to be proud of! Between litigation and possible settlement costs due to the legal complaints piling up against YOU coupled with your short sighted decision with the current board majority to needlessly compensate two Superintendents for one position, how much of the taxpayer's money are YOU personally responsible for wasting since you have been on this School Board? In this resident's opinion your ability to make reasonably intelligent decisions is questionable at best, but yet the residents of this district are to actually trust YOU as the Personnel Committee Chair? Please. Why don't you first try to actually listen to the vast majority of people you are supposed to represent and demonstrate the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing with your vote instead of offering up mere lip service to "take into consideration what we said."

A third request was made for Mr. Endress' accounting of the additional $2.6 million in administrative salary positions that he claims were directly attributed to Myra Forrest's spending, despite the fact that the School Board and the School Board alone has the sole responsibility for district expenses. Mr. Endress was asked to clear up this inconsistency back on July 6, 2009, but unfortunately the only response received so far was this evening: "Don't hold your breath." Nice Gene, real nice. Your character, charm, and integrity is overwhelming.

Lastly, Mr. John Dooley, the OJR School District's Solicitor, was asked -again- by Board Member Barbara McMeekin for a more detailed accounting of his firm's June 2009 invoice, totaling over a $14,000 expense to the district. And -once again- her request was apparently either disregarded or completely ignored.

In this resident's opinion it certainly begs the question if it is pure incompetence or intentional obstruction on the part of the district Solicitor's office, the Law Firm of Dischell, Bartle, Yanoff & Dooley out of Lansdale PA, that a seemingly simple request by a School Board member has not been honored despite being publicly requested at least three times over the last 30-45 days. So, Mr. Dooley and Mr. Bartle, what's the holdup? We know that it took only a few billable hours for you to help School Board President Ed Kerner prepare in advance his motion to terminate Myra Forrest in the days prior to her actual termination on June 22. One would think that you shouldn't need to be reminded that your fiduciary duty is to provide council to ALL MEMBERS of the Owen J Roberts School Board, not just five of them. Anything short of this is illegal and you know it. Please take the opportunity to do the right thing here.