School board at odds over proposed policy language
October 10, 2012 at 7:37 am in Hudson Star-Observer
The conduct of school board members and the policies that govern them were at the center of a contentious five-hour school board meeting Tuesday night. Board member Gehrke says changes would limit free speech and input from the public. Continue Reading
This school board and superintendent just put the people of their district through the wringer by wasting a year on a pipe dream to take city property and turn it into a high school. They misjudged, mismanaged, misunderstood, miscommunicated and, as a result, were kicked out of City Hall. This mess caps off an entire decade of their wholesale failure to deal with the secondary space issues. So, at their first meeting following this latest debacle what do they talk about for FIVE HOURS?? Answer: School board politics! Unbelievable. They should be talking for five hours about how they are going to extricate themselves from the gigantic hole they have created for themselves regarding secondary space. But no. It’s more important to clamp down on a school board member. You can’t make it up. Superintendent Mary Bowen-Eggebraatan must go. Now. Resign or be fired.
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My wife and I watched the tape of the meeting to see the comments made by citizens on this agenda item. Although we may not totally agree with everything said by the two citizens, we were shocked and outraged at the way they were treated by the district’s attorney and President Holland. We believe that both speeches were on point with the topic and the speakers should have been allowed to speak without constant interruption. The lawyer interjecting “Point of order!” three times during the first speech was insulting and humiliating to the citizen. Who does this lawyer think he is? How can this board allow citizens to be treated this way? This isn’t a courtroom. Pres. Holland’s constant interruption of the second speech was also out-of-line. The citizen was not straying from the topic at all, but Mr. Holland said, so condescendingly: “I’ll determine when you’re out of order.” I saw no straying, but Mr. Holland imagined some. Where is the leeway that is provided to taxpaying citizens who are doing their best to participate in the public process? I’m sure that, if a “Friend of the District” came forward he would be given plenty of leeway to talk. Clearly, Pres. Holland just enjoyed cutting off this particular speaker. What has happened to this school board? Why do they continuously build walls between themselves and the public? I can only surmise that it’s because they are following the leadership style of the superintendent — who revels in dictatorial stealth. It’s time to call for the resignation of the superintendent.
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