Letter To The Editor – Last Minute Power Play

To The Editor:
In an Eleventh Hour power play, BCSD School Board President and the now resigned Charlotte Gregory, interim School Superintendent, presided over a workshop session of the BCSD School Board. The members of the public in attendance were not allowed to speak or express their opinions on the proposed agenda for the evening’s events.
As printed in the Eastwick Press of June 25, 2010, there were several personnel items to be voted on by the School Board. The session, which took place on June 29, was essentially an “emergency” workshop session to tidy up some loose ends by Zwack, Gregory and their incumbent supporters on the School Board in advance of the new School Board members, Nash and Webster, taking their positions on the Board.
The Berlin Central School District has now tied the hands of any prospective permanent Superintendent by hiring, with full tenure, both High School and Middle School principals. Neither of the people hired has experience in the positions to which they’ve been appointed. No search was conducted outside the District. There is almost NO recourse for the new School Board to make any changes to these administration appointments. Once a person is given tenure, and usually tenure is an earned privilege as opposed to a granted perk, they can only be removed from their position for “cause” ie. malfeasance or criminal behavior, most generally.
Zwack and Gregory had the votes needed to ram these measures through. Board Members Morelli and Stewart did voice their opposition, to no effect. The measures passed in this manner did not have to be passed. The new Board takes its seats on July 12, and could easily have taken up all the issues passed last night, but Zwack wouldn’t have the votes needed at that Board meeting to ram his agenda through. This cynical and petty manipulation of the process is a travesty for our children and for us as taxpayers.
While this behavior is not unique to the Berlin Central School District Board President and the now leaving Gregory, it is, I think, emblematic of our broken society. The BCSD Board is a microcosm of what is going on in NY State politics and a further microcosm of national affairs. The few who are in positions of power and fiscal responsibility have total disregard for the many who have elected them to be their representatives in government or, in this case, school administration.
There may not be anything illegal in what has been committed to the children and taxpayers of the BCSD, but there is a vast difference between following the letter of the law and the intent of the law. To my mind, Zwack and Gregory are guilty of precipitating a number of upcoming emergencies here in the District.
First among these emergencies is the intended overcrowding of a building which is known to have mold issues, lead issues and asbestos issues, none of which are going to be addressed before the overcrowding. By creating this chaotic and unhealthy environment, Zwack and Gregory along with their cronies have set the stage for a knee jerk reaction from the parents of those children subjected to the long bus rides, overcrowded classroom conditions and the unhealthy environment in which they will ostensibly be learning.
By mid-winter I predict the hue and cry of disaffected taxpayers, unsatisfied parents and ill children will be for “something to be done.” In other words there will be a demand for some band-aid or other to “fix” or cover up the situation. Then, Zwack and those that have been PERMANENTLY appointed to their positions in the schools’ administration will have no recourse but to solve the problems they’ve purposely created by instituting emergency construction/abatement measures at Berlin Elementary School.
Because of the 11th Hour Power Play last night, Zwack et al have tied the hands of the duly elected Board members who will take their seats in July. They have tied the hands of any incoming Superintendent of Schools (thereby assuring any that actually takes the job is not likely to be of the highest caliber). And worst of all, Zwack and Gregory have suppressed and bypassed the will of the voters of the BCSD to suit their own agendas.
It is in this light that I am publicly requesting Frank Zwack not only step down from the Board Presidency but also resign from the School Board. I have no misapprehension that Zwack will do as I’ve requested. He is too well entrenched, something like a tick, in his position and his own narcissistic and unrealistic view of his own performance on the School Board. Still, hope springs eternal.
Finally, I will say that I am appalled at the level to which ineptitude is rewarded within our District. Perhaps our collective tax dollars are being squandered through a simple inability to understand fiscal responsibility and the incumbent need to improve the performance of our administration and teachers. Maybe it is a lack of understanding that simply throwing more money at a problem will not fix that problem. It could even be as simple as not obeying the principles of the Seven P’s of Success; Proper Prior Planning Prevents P*** Poor Performance. Certainly there has not been any cohesive and well thought out planning process conducted by the Zwack Gregory continuum.
Whatever the case may be, we the parents of children in the Berlin Central School District who attended last night’s “workshop” witnessed a train wreck. We watched, mostly silently as we were not supposed to interject or give input, as our children’s futures were sewn up for them, as our tax dollars were given away to an inept, mercenary and otherwise unlikable interim Superintendent and her friends in the BOCES/Questar Corporation. We watched because there was nothing we could do about it. Which was exactly the intent of the organizers of last night’s BCSD workshop meeting.
While we as a community voted for fiscal responsibility and a change of leadership in our District, we were thwarted in our efforts through the actions of a tiny minority in our midst. These are actions that Machiavelli would certainly approve of but which disgust this reader and should cause equal revulsion in any who have children in this district or pay taxes here.
Morgan E. Hartman
Hartland Designs, Inc.
Black Queen Angus Farm, LLC, Berlin