School board arrogant, misinformed, reader says

After sitting through the last two months of Board of Education meetings I have come to one conclusion; the Board of Education does not care to take into consideration any information, comment or concern from the people who take the time to attend the meetings.

There were over 300 people in attendance at the May 14, 2009 meeting where the board saw in its infinite wisdom to disregard Warren Wolf and anyone mentored by him to be appointed as the new head football coach.

Regardless of the plight and concern of alumni, parents and taxpayers who got up and passionately spoke, the board just starred back at the people and arrogantly voted "yes" for a less than qualified applicant that clearly was not wanted by the public. The board members all looked at Mr. Woska for permission to answer when asked how they felt about the decision they were about to make. Very few board members spoke.

I then watched at the May 28, 2009 meeting parent after parent get up and almost beg not to institute 4x4 block scheduling. Parents had been attending meetings for almost six months and had provided extensive research with extremely significant points against block scheduling. Again, the board members did not listen to anyone.

This time was a little different though; instead of all of the board members looking to Mr. Woska for approval to speak as was the case with the football coach appointment, they actually did speak individually.

Mrs. Reinhold, the chair of the curriculum committee when asked, told the public she thought we needed to do "something" to improve scores, so she went to BARNES and NOBLE, took out a few books and made up her mind it was a good thing. Mrs. Vicky Leone uttered the same sentiment as Mrs. Reinhold. Mr. Hrycenko, when asked how the students would succeed with our lack of technology, that is certainly required for this type of schedule to succeed, he said "the students will just have to make do with what they have". The only honest answer, in my opinion, was from Mr. Cuppari who felt he needed more time to research the decision.

I find the apparent lack of information provided to our board members appalling. We now have board members making decisions on our student's educational futures by taking out books from Barnes and Noble. What will we use next, a crystal ball?
Sharon Kight
Brick