The Briarcliff Board of Education Has Failed The Community.

I served six years on the Briarcliff Board of Education (2000-2006). I am proud of my Board service with a total of six other community members in particular because we were able to bring the entire community together, households with Briarcliff students, household with non-Briarcliff students and households with no school age children, to overwhelmingly approve financing and construction of over $50 million (early 2000 dollars) in new and renovated school facilities. While I take no credit for the vision that became the facilities enjoyed by the last decade and future decades of Briarcliff students (which in my opinion should primarily go to Fran Wills, Keith Austin, Joan Austin, Charlie Trainor and others who I don’t intend to offend), all five Board members, new and old in years of service, came together to conduct ourselves so that everyone, pro and con on the project, was given a genuine opportunity to participate and have real input in the deliberations that resulted in successful conclusion of the building program. Prior to election to the School Board, I was the person in the audience at Board meetings (often the only audience member) asking a lot of questions, making numerous FOIL requests, and being a general pest, to the point where two Board members at different times told me “privately” to stop asking questions and making FOIL requests. Notwithstanding, the day after I was elected I received a telephone call from one of the Board members asking me to sit with the Board at the next meeting so that I could engage in dialogue with Board members on issues I had raised from the audience pre-vote and share my thoughts from the dais (albeit with no vote until I was sworn in). The major challenge facing the School District at the time was the teachers’ contract, and while not all my ideas were incorporated into the Board’s position on the various issues, the members of the outgoing Board made me part of the process pre oath of office. The second Board member who had essentially told me to sit down and shut up was designated by the full Board and gave up two full afternoons to provide me with an orientation to Board membership and an individualized briefing on numerous school district issues. Neither person ever became a life-long friend, but both put aside several significant differences between us for the overall benefit of the community and the Board of Education. Compare these actions with what has taken place at Board meetings since the May 21st budget and Board votes, during which the Board deliberated on critical issues that will substantially impact the Briarcliff educational program next year and perhaps for years to come. The School Board limited the incoming Board member to three minutes of speaking time as an audience member at each meeting and then silenced his microphone at each meeting. The School Board created an artifice that the incoming Board member had to submit his points in writing before they could be considered, even though his points were articulated and recorded as they were spoken by him and others in the limited time afforded by the Board. At the meeting last Monday, the big topic of discussion was the time when the Board received a writing authored by the incoming Board member; I for one understood the points at least a week before upon viewing the video recording on the District’s web site. Rather than provide the opportunity for actual dialogue between and among the six current/future Board members and School District educational/financial personnel, the School Board President took the podium (I believe for the first time in this or any other budget process) to present an “analysis” of the points prepared by District’s business manager and spoke in a manner and tone sounding much like a personal attack on the incoming Board member. Even more strange, the focus of the comments of the incoming Board member was various means to maintain educational programs and services within the confines of a tax levy compliant budget while the School Board President and apparently district administrators (except for the terminated School Superintendent) are in essence pushing for cuts in programs and services. Wouldn’t the Briarcliff community have been better served if the incoming Board member was given a seat at the table to engage in an actual and real exchange of ideas on how best to deal with the challenges of the next budget proposal? The biggest failure, in my opinion, is the inaction of the other four Board members while the School Board President, defeated in the election, engages in a virulent personal attack from his bully pulpit on the individual who won the election, including for example: suggesting the incoming Board member is not fit to serve because of a conflict of interest; characterizing in mysterious, nefarious terms a letter the incoming Board member apparently wrote to the Board; making a public declaration that the letter would be posted on the district web site (another first by a School Board President to my knowledge) and then inexplicably withdrawing that threat and instead making a public declaration that the letter would be available via a FOIL request (yet another first); remaining silent at Monday’s meeting about the supposed conflict of interest claim even though he said at the prior meeting the School Attorney would review the issue; allowing the first speaker following the administration’s budget presentation and during the limited time reserved for public comments on the budget presentation to spend the full three minutes to engage in a personal attack on the incoming Board member; and apparently absenting himself from the Board dais when the incoming Board member spoke before the Board at Monday’s meeting. The other Board members mostly sat by silent during these behaviors by the School Board President or occasionally joined in on the “let’s go get him” attitude displayed by the School Board President. Can anyone reasonably expect based on their silence and non-actions at the last two meetings that the other four Board members will be able to work with and give due respect to the new Board member in dealing with the major challenges facing the Briarcliff School District next year and the years following? Would anyone be surprised if the other four Board members at the first meeting of the new year told the new Board member that his Board seat is located over second base on the baseball diamond on the other side of the soccer field? The most immediate consequence of the failure of the Board to end the nonsense directed to the incoming Board member is the lost opportunity to save the Walkabout Program and restore cuts made in other educational programs. If you stayed up or viewed the recording of Monday’s meeting to the very end, you saw Neal Miller in an emotional moment apparently offer to give up $100,000 of severance payment owed to him next year to carry out values instilled by his father and proposed the money be used to continue Walkabout for a year and restore other program cuts. Incredibly, the Board of Education did not seize on that opportunity, or even thank Mr. Miller, by making the necessary modifications to the budget adopted by the Board for public vote on June 18. The Board members appeared to be more desirous of going home given the late hour or concerned about catching a plane the next morning. So, Briarcliff voters are now asked to vote on June 18th on a budget that unnecessarily ends the Walkabout program and unnecessarily cuts several educational programs, because the Board spent too much time demeaning its new member and failed to act on Neal Miller’s heart felt, generous offer. Yes, I no longer live in Briarcliff and I’m certain several commentators will declare my comments are not worthy of consideration. I’ll refer those folks to the School Board President’s comments prior to the public comment period at Monday’s meeting regarding comments by non-resident members of the public. Looking in from the world outside Briarcliff, I am deeply troubled that the solid foundation established by the community over 20 years is severely threatened by weakness of the current School Board and encourage interested parties in Briarcliff to demand better of their School Board.