David Taylor had a letter to the editor published in this
Saturday’s Fosters. Ostensibly an attack on Jenna Roberts, who is
running in a contested primary for a second term in the NH House, it reads instead
like a paranoid revision of School Board politics over the last several
years. That doesn't do it justice; really, you have to see it to
believe it: (http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120908/GJOPINION_0102/709089990/-1/FOSOPINION).
Jenna, who I should note for the purposes of full disclosure
also happens to be my wife, wrote a nice rebuttal to the factual inaccuracies
contained in David’s letter, which you can read here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Re-Elect-Jenna-Roberts-for-NH-Rep-91112-primary/159013590793214.
This blog has never concerned itself with state or national
politics and isn’t going to start to do so now, but the letter struck me as odd
on a couple of counts, reflecting as it does David’s obsession with rewriting
history to suit his own views.
First of all, the last time I checked Henry Brackett isn’t
running for anything. So why does David
spend two whole paragraphs (comprising almost 50% of the space allotted to his
letter) talking about Henry? I can only
surmise that after filing two lawsuits in an attempt to, among other things,
embarrass Henry, David still isn’t satisfied, and feels the need to drag
Henry’s name through the mud again, no matter how little he and his actions
might have to do with the issue at hand.
Second, and more pertinent, is David’s myopia when it comes
to the “culture of mistrust that has plagued our school district for years” and
to his own role in creating and sustaining that culture.
An (admittedly selective) review of the fruits of David’s
tenure on the Board reveals:
- Poorly-managed facilities: David and his contemporaneous Board members led the charge to build a badly-constructed (not to code and already requiring more than $280,000 in repairs) high school that turned out to be too large for the District’s needs, meanwhile ignoring the CIP budget that could have funded desperately-needed maintenance at our crumbling middle school (currently requiring more than $1.8 million in repairs) (reference: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120405/GJNEWS_01/704059630&template=GreatBayRegion)
- Failure to properly supervise administrators: David and his fellow Board members essentially gave administrators carte blanche to spend whatever and however they saw fit, including implicit permission to violate policies on bidding and purchasing. Not surprisingly, abuse and wasteful spending abounded, as documented in the September 2008 Citizens Audit (available elsewhere on this blog).
- A lack of responsiveness to the public: to take just a couple of examples, David and his fellow Board members fought what turned out to be a nearly decade-long struggle to change OR’s grading scale to one that would not unnecessarily penalize our high school seniors applying to college. Or, who can forget the debacle that ensued after the TIP was voted down in 2009, when administrators decided to tap a slush fund to pay for the purchases voters had rejected, and our Board simply signed off on the spending? (Also documented elsewhere on this blog.)
The truth is, this blog did not create the “culture of
distrust and disrespect” as David claims.
Rather, this blog was a response
to the distrust engendered by our elected officials and administrators’
actions, and a reflection of the
disrespect with which they treated the citizens of this District. The plain truth of the matter remains: if
David (and others) had simply done their job as School Board members, none of
this would ever have happened.
Furthermore, I’m proud of the work we’ve accomplished
through this blog. We brought to light
the fiscal wrongdoing that pervaded our previous administration and exposed the
misdeeds of the elected officials who covered it up. We energized a previously-silent sector of the
electorate and brought new leadership to the District. And we created a culture of accountability
that has guided the actions of subsequent Boards and administrators, so that
never again will such egregious violations of the public’s trust be tolerated.
I said at the outset that this blog was not going to get
into the business of state or national politics, but I will go this far: I hope
that if you had not considered voting in the primaries this Tuesday that you
will. I urge you to go out and vote for
whomever you want, but do it on the basis of facts, not on the kind of
distortions and half-truths that David Taylor and his compatriots deal in when
it comes to their political enemies.
--Tom Bebbington
