Fetterly Decisions McCourt

One of our friendly neighborhood community residents provided this summary of the McCourt-Fetterly tiff at Monday night's schoolboard meeting:

Things got a little heated at the school board meeting when concerned citizen and junkyard spending dog Roger Fetterly accused the administration of running a “shadow government”, and trying to limit the community budget meetings to the inner circle of true levy-and-spend believers. Mr. Fetterly’s characterization of the…hmmm…shall we say…”targeted marketing effort” of the administration’s budget meeting enterprise elicited an admonition from President Whalen to sit down and be quiet and the honest-to-goodness “crap” word from the ordinarily mild-mannered and jovial Mr. McCourt. A couple of observations:

First, I think that it is all that the board and administration can do to run the government they have, let alone figure out how to run a “shadow” government. That said, the structure of the meetings and notices appears to be geared toward increased participation by people likely to support large levies and program expansion.

The administration understands that the taxpayer meeting did not go their way last October. They understand that the financial situation for the district and the average resident of the district is not better this year than last, and in fact is worse. They understand that they need a game-changer if they are to have any hope of outnumbering the shortsighted child-hating rubes that showed up last year to ruin their party.

That game-changer needs to come in the form of rallying the troops. They can count on most teachers and district employees and their spouses to help carry the day, and that has been borne out by the participation of teachers at the first budget meeting. But the numbers of those on the outside are significant, and the dark child-hating forces of Mordor may be building their army too.

Second, shortly after delivering the double-heapin’-helpin’ of sanctimony on Fetterly, the one who would dare question the body’s openness, they proceeded to go into a closed session. A closed session that had to be rescheduled because they did not adequately inform the public the first time. A closed session to discuss secret reasons for reversing a spending decision that was made publicly. A closed session that likely discussed a number of matters that were entirely inappropriate for closed session. The notice said that the reason for closed session was to go into closed session to consider the employment and compensation of a specific applicant for the position of Aquatics Facility Manager. The qualifications of the applicant are appropriate for closed session. The employment and compensation of the position is not. Salaries are public record, and if this position justifies a higher salaries, such discussion should be had in the sunlight.

Short version: “Sit down and shut up Roger, we are the most open and accountable school board ever. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to talk amongst ourselves and you are not invited.”

Solid Comic Gold—You can’t make this stuff up, people.

The takeaway from the Fetterly spat is that the board is of the opinion that there are two kinds of people in the community,

• those who will give them any levy they ask for, and


• those who want the school kids on work farms during study hall to pay the bills so that they can have that property tax bill that approached zero.

There is no use in attempting simple communication with the savages in the second group because they cannot converse on our level anyway.

The board and administration are wrong. There is a third type. There are those in the community who do not mind paying for a good education system so long as the district is open with regard to how and why the money is being spent and that the money is being spent in a responsible manner. By the time October rolls around we will have been barraged with midterm election ads and the community will be in tune politically. These people just might show up, and in numbers that could make a difference.

When that happens, the district will need to convince them that they are wise stewards of the public purse. This will be difficult to do with some of the expenditures and practices of the last year.