Say Anything Blog

Citizens stunned as school board walks out of meeting
Students, supporters of reassigned teachers protest to empty chairs

A crowd of students and citizens of Guilderland, N.Y., gathered last week at a public school board meeting to protest the questionable reassignment of two teachers, only to look on in disbelief as the school board stood up and left the room.

Matt Nelligan, Reassigned Teacher

As WND reported, two former teachers at Guilderland High School, Matt Nelligan and Anne Marie McManus, were informed on the last day of the 2008 school year that they would be involuntarily reassigned to the Farnsworth Middle School for reasons neither teacher fully understood.

School officials have said that the move was designed to address problems with the cultural climate of the social studies department, but Nelligan believes he was transferred because of his outspoken, conservative viewpoints and criticism of the teachers’ union leadership.

“It’s a witch hunt and a punishment,” he told the Altamont Enterprise. “Everybody knows it’s punishment.”

Yes, the school board had a reason for leaving:

After the board finished organizational matters, board President Richard Weisz explained the board’s policy about open discussions of personnel decisions: “If you refer to someone by name,” he said, “we take that in executive session. I’m supposed to gavel you if you talk about a personnel item.”

It is understandable in normal circumstances that the School Board would not discuss personal, personnel matters in public. I would want them to be that sensitive. However, everyone on the School Board knew that the issue was about whether or not these teachers were transferred as a form of punishment because they held conservative views and whether or not that was because the School Board wants to promote a liberal political agenda.

In this case, IMO, the School Board demonstrated an arrogance of power, a desire not to be responsive to the genuine concerns of the taxpayers, parents and students about the political nature of their decisions. The School Board could have spoken to that issue and refused comment or discussion if the debate wandered from the central issue into other more personal matters; but the plain truth is, they were found with their hands in the Liberal Educational Cookie Jar and they feared the truth might jeopardize their positions of absolute power over the children in their school district.

This school board deserves en masse to be recalled for their dictatorial style and their refusal to be open about their political agenda.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68995