Take Back Perry Schools!

I went to the Perry Township school board meeting this past Monday night, and I have since been trying to decide whether or not I should say anything about it - though this is not beacuse it is not worth talking about, nor because I don’t have anything to say on the subject. It is worth talking about, and I have plenty to say about it, and not a few links to share for those who are interested.

However, one of the key issues in the current imbroglio down in Perry Township is that of civility - and the fact that four of the seven members of the school board have been less than civil to the growing number of citizens and educators in Perry Township who are vehemently opposed to what the school board - and it’s important to note that the people trying to do this are only four of the seven members - is trying to do.

Here it is, in a nutshell. The school board has placed Perry Schools superintendent Dr. Doug Williams on paid administrative leave - and their basic intent is to fire him. Their reasoning, according to this article in the Star, is that Williams has engaged in a pattern of uncooperative behavior with respect to the board, that he has abused his power, that he withheld requested financial information pertaining to the township (field trip travel receipts, I seem to recall), and that he circumvented the board when hiring contractors and approving contracts.

Whether these allegations are valid or not is a bit of a grey area. However, they are all minor issues that have little to do with education in Perry Township. The reasons behind why so much of this debate is taking place in the public square may only truly ever be known to a handful of people - I can think of four off the top of my head.

The citizens of Perry Township, to understate it quite a lot, are not in agreement with the board on any facet of this situation concerning Williams. The school board meetings have become contentious, and the board has squelched every opportunity for the people to address it. Indeed, citizens have been forcibly removed from some meetings for daring even to disagree out loud with the decisions of the board in this matter.

The by-laws of the Perry Township school board, as noted by board President Susan Adams herself, on Monday night, call for a 15-minute period after formal adjournment of the meeting for the public assembled at the meeting to engage in a question and answer session with the board. It was apparent on Monday night that the number of people who wanted to speak, and the scope of the things they wanted to say, would have resulted in a question and answer session lasting well beyond fifteen minutes.

As it happened, it wasn’t even close. Adams allowed one man to speak - a man who presented to the board the grievances that many of the citizens of Perry Township wish to have aired to and answered by the board. Granted, this gentleman did take the microphone in a brusque and somewhat argumentative way - though if you had attended the meeting and listened to the venomous condescension dripping from virtually ever word uttered by board president Susan Adams, you would have been hard pressed to have blamed the chap for being fiery when finally given the chance to talk - but the problem is, he wasn’t actually given much of a chance to talk. Adams cut him off in mid-tirade, and then she and the other three members of the board who control the majority got up and walked out of the meeting.

I mentioned civility earlier, because civility is what has been asked of people who support Williams, in a post on the blog site called Citizens In Support Of Dr. Williams. Reciprocating the lack of civility displayed by the four members of the board - who, by the way, are President Susan Adams, Vice President Nancy Walsh, Secretary Barbara Thompson, and Member Rubie Alexander - would only serve to bolster their rationalization for continuing to ignore the opposing viewpoints of the vast majority of citizens, and I would guess virtually all of the educators, in Perry Township. Bringing that lack of civility back upon the board by way of opposition would only drag the board’s opponents down to the level of its four lowest members.

And please believe me when I say that, after having witnessed the embarrassing display exhibited on the auditorium stage at Southport High School on Monday night, I would sooner step in front of a bus driven by Sandra Bullock than be brought down to any level that would place me on equal moral footing with Susan Adams.

The four previously mentioned members of the Perry Township school board are acting - primarily under the leadership and direction of Susan Adams - unilaterally to achieve an objective, the firing of Doug Williams, that they have not demonstrated will lead to a better system of education in Perry Township; they are undertaking this action without listening to the input of citizens and educators across a broad swath of Perry Township, and without considering the input of the three members of the board who sit in the minority on this issue; and they are doing it loudly and publicly in order to make a spectacle out of a situation that is not - based on its merits - remotely spectacular.

The needs of the students and educators of Perry Township are not being met by the actions of the four members of this school board - and by failing to meet the needs of students and educators in the township, the school board is failing, utterly, in the job its members have been elected to do. If Wiliams is to be removed for such minor issues as have been offered as evidence by this board - what then is the remedy for the actions of the board itself?

There is no remedy - except the remedy of election. But if you were at the meeting Monday night, you did not get the idea that Susan Adams is concerned with re-election. She and the other three members of her majority will not be re-elected - and they know it. They are not removing Doug Williams because it is the right thing to do. They are removing him because they want to - they are removing him because they can - and for reasons the rest of are likely never to know.

For more information, and to find out how you can help, go to: Take Back Perry Schools.