September 26th Board of Education meeting further divides community

The proposed bond referendum and student privacy again dominated the discussion at the September 26 Board of Education meeting. Members of the public on all sides of these issues expressed their views in a civil manner, and asked the Board and the Administration to provide information, solutions and generally a basis on which consensus in the community could be forged.

Nevertheless, with two notable exceptions, the Board and the Administration once again failed to provide the responses requested by the public. As a result, the divisions in the community on these important issues appeared to increase rather than decrease.
Before addressing the many disappointments of the evening, and because WeLoveMillburn seeks to move the public dialogue forward in an enlightened manner, an emphasis on the evening's positive developments will be provided first.

Kudos to Kamber

By far, the most hopeful development of the evening was Board Member Scott Kamber's call for deferral of the bond referendum until March 2006, so as to give the Board the opportunity to forge a consensus in the community around a different approach to school capacity issues. Mr. Kamber observed that it was the Board's responsibility to build consensus around the proposed $40 million referendum and that the Board had failed to achieve that objective. He called upon the Long Range Planning Committees ("LRPC's") to assist the Board to prioritize its recommendations, and to reduce the size of the bond referendum to something close to what the LRPC's and the Board originally believed would be the cost to Millburn taxpayers — approximately $20 million.

Scharf Corrects Falsities

Another highlight of the evening was Board Member Josh Scharf's comments which sought to correct for the public a number of misstatements by a member of the public in a letter to the editor published in the Item, and in comments made by the Superintendent.

First, Mr. Scharf disagreed with a letter from a co-chair of one of the LRPC's which objected to the right of others to disagree with the LRPC's recommendations. Mr. Scharf stated that the dissenting views were adding value to the decision making process and it was wiser to have more analysis now on paper rather than after large sums of money were spent.

Second, Mr. Scharf stated that he was disturbed by the videotaping of students in the public schools which another letter to the editor in the Item suggested was approved in advance by the Superintendent. He stated that the Superintendent was misleading when he stated that he had advised the Board of the videotaping on July 22, weeks prior to the videotaping. Mr. Scharf asked the group that made the videotape to voluntarily surrender the tape to the Board for destruction.

Prioritization Possible

Another positive development at the September 26 meeting was a response by Michael Cahill, Principal of the Middle School, to a question from David Dwyer of WeLoveMillburn as to whether he could prioritize the construction proposed for the middle school. Cahill responded that in order of importance his priorities were: First, building additional class rooms, second, expanding gym and locker room facilities, and third, expanding the cafeteria. Entirely omitted from Cahill's list was the expense of alleviating hallway congestion, an item in the construction we believe to be one of the more expensive to accomplish. We call upon the Administration and the Board to explain whether the proposed construction at the Middle School can be reduced significantly while still achieving the top priorities identified by Principal Cahill.

Now for the low points of the meeting.

Superintendent Unwilling to Answer Questions

Nicholas Pappas of WeLoveMillburn asked the Superintendent whether he intended to respond to a list of questions WeLoveMillburn had forwarded to him on September 20, 2005 at the request of Board Member Ronni Schuman-Brown. Member Schuman-Brown requested these questions at a meeting which took place on September 13, 2005 between three members of WeLoveMillburn, the Superintendent, Board President Deborah Frank, Board Member Ronni Schuman-Brown and the Co-Chairs of the LRPC's.

To the surprise of WeLoveMillburn, Dr. Brodow responded to the question by refusing to present answers to even one question. He stated that the questions called for information he did not have and that he would need a great deal of time consuming research which he would not do.

WeLoveMillburn is very disappointed by the Superintendent's response. If the Superintendent, at this late date, does not have ready answers to basic questions underlying the proposed $40 million bond referendum, that speaks volumes as to whether or not the bond-referendum is ill-conceived as WeLoveMillburn has maintained.

Videotaping Controversy

Parents of children at the Middle School and High School who were videotaped by Dan Strickler, a private citizen, during the first weeks of school again called for the entire Board to take action to retrieve the videotapes. Another parent indicated that if the Board failed to act, he would be forced to take legal action to remedy the matter. This discussion came in the wake of an editorial in the Item on September 22, in which the Item stated that "permission for the taping, in this particular instance, should never have been granted."

The Superintendent responded to these comments by reiterating that he was solely responsible for granting permission for the videotaping. He said he stood by his decision, and refused to take any further action to address parental concerns. Board Member Al Trafford during his opening remarks that he fully supported the videotaping, and claimed that the videotaping was no different than a parent videotaping a football game or a graduation.

Parents in the audience responded to Board Member Trafford's and the Superintendent's statements by stating that the Administrations' policy has been to disallow taping of children during class time, even when requested for educational purposes. In effect, the District's policy has not been to allow unrestricted access to School property for videotaping children and without the Superintendent's inquiring as to the purpose for which the videotape would be used. Another parent further disagreed with Board Member Trafford's argument for a constitutional free speech right to videotape children in school which, she said was not an accurate assessment of the situation. In effect, videotaping children inside their school and during school hours was very different from videotaping school sporting events or graduation exercises which are public performances and take place after school hours.

Ill-Conceived Referendum

WeLoveMillburn intends to continue to publish reports, ask important questions, and to advocate for a well thought out construction bond that the entire community can embrace. The Board simply has not justified its ill-conceived referendum. It has not explained with careful analysis and facts why it rejected the alternatives it has identified. It is not acceptable for the Board to be satisfied with poorly attended public hearings as its sole means of communicating to the public. Clearly all members of the public cannot possibly receive at these hearings the information they require to make informed voting decisions. The Board's resort to anecdotal evidence and appealing to parents' emotional fears is simply not an appropriate approach to garnering community support for a construction program that will affect both our children and taxpayers. We call upon the Board to direct the Administration to publish careful analyses so that the public can make an informed decision as to important issues confronting our schools. It is wrong for the Superintendent to say he has no time for this important work which clearly is, or should be, one of his core job functions.

WeLoveMillburn is publishing the basic questions it asked the Administration and Board on its web site, so that the public can decide for itself if these questions should be answered before the public is asked to vote on the bond referendum. We encourage members of the public to let the Superintendent and the Board know by email at brodow@millburn.org that these questions should be answered as soon as possible so that concerned citizens can make an informed choice.

WeLoveMillburn.com
October 2, 2005

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