You know, there comes a time when you have to say, ‘Oops. Sorry. I messed up.?
Speaking from a personal experience (excuse me, experiences), I know this is the case. The case in point I shall endeavor to delve, deals with the unholy trinity surrounding Goodrich schools. In the little hamlet of Goodrich, parents have lost patience with the three-headed monster of the school board, superintendent and the teachers union. Parents want results. They want people representing them and teaching their children to act responsibly and professionally. For those of you don’t live in Goodrich and therefore gloss over Goodrich, Michigan news, I will do my best to get you up to snuff on why parents are disgusted with the whole lot of ’em.
A couple of Mondays ago, the school board went into closed session to discuss the job performance of the district’s superintendent, Kim Hart.
What mucks this whole thing up is the school board posted, ‘Closed session for the purpose of a periodic personnel review,? on the Sunday before the meeting. On Sunday, everybody goes to school . . . er, when nary a soul was paying attention. The notice, while, in accordance to law, is an example of why parents in Goodrich are steaming.
It was affirmed later the closed-to-public meeting was about Superintendent Hart. Understand this, if the board did/does nothing about Hart’s contract by March 30, it’s automatically renewed for two years.
So, taxpayers — excuse me, parents — are up in arms. Yet, the are not up in arms about a closed meeting to review the super’s employment. Employees can request their reviews be in private. Who wants to have their work critiqued before 500 people? Folks in Goodrich are fit to be tied because of a year and a half of crap, the manner in which the meeting went down, and the board’s subsequent and apparently total shock at the community’s ire, is the proverbial straw.
More back up information. Parents know Goodrich schools are on the Michigan Education Association’s ‘critical list.? Parents know teachers have worked without a contract for over a year. And, parents want due diligence in negotiating a sound, fair contract.
I state that knowing there are HUGE amounts of distrust between the teachers, superintendent and board. Parents have read of ruckuses concerning an ‘extra? million dollars found in the school’s vault — this after the district threatened teacher pink slips, shortened the school year and belt-tightened in the form of extracirricular activities cuts. And, parents have heard from teachers, via their kids, ‘we won’t go on any field trips because of the school board.?
Goodrich is a close-knit, smallish community and folks have talked about this for the past year. It’s a topic of discussion over coffee, over dinner, in the Goodrich Market Place (the town’s grocer), on the street corner, over the fence with neighbors and in every newspaper that cares to print news about Goodrich. It is not new news, I think, except for the board members, teachers and administrators.
For the purpose of moving forward I state this to members of the unholy trinity who do not yet understand:
There is a mistrust in you, period.
Rightly, wrongly — whateverly, now, you know parents think they and their kids are caught in a Bermuda Triangle where all good is sucked up, never to been heard from again. And, we are fed up.
Parents think you’re being sneaky when they know something’s afoot, but they get no confirmation. Get this, sources informed our newspaper on the Wednesday before, that such a meeting might transpire. We called on Wednesday, then on Thursday and again on Friday . . . is there a special meeting looming, we asked? Nope, was the answer — excuse me, we got no answer.
Folks found out about the 4:30 p.m., Monday meeting, on Sunday. The notice was taped on a school window. The next day, hours before the meeting was to convene, it was added to the school’s electronic billboard outside the high school.
Board president Mike Tripp fell on his sword and took the blame. Personal tragedy caused him not to post the meeting earlier. Other school board members were sick or out of town to handle posting duties. Unfortunate circumstances all around. But guess what, parents don’t care for excuses anymore, there was plenty of time to post this meeting.
The superintendent’s contract was set to expire two years after it was okayed. The board knew (knows) that. A job review and meeting should have been slated, set in stone and communicated at least a month before it sunsetted. For those who don’t know, the next regularly scheduled school board meeting was seven days later, March 26 — four days prior to the board having to deal or not with the superintendent. So, the review could have been completed, at the least, then.
So, when board VP Ken Rappuhn states, ‘The last thing I ever want to do is give the public the impression we aren’t trying to communicate with them.? Parents don’t believe it. It is simple: The board did not communicate.
When there is mistrust even the slightest, inadvertent act of impropriety, seems like sleaz — and, were they on the other side of the control switch, they would see that.