If there’s any one very serious problem to take from Henry Hudson Regional Board of Education member Don Krueger’s nearly 1,000 word comment on a VeniVidiScripto.com story this week, it is that in spite of his education, his experience, and his years on the Board of Education, he has not yet learned that the public not only has the right to know, but elected officials’ have an OBLIGATION to keep the public informed.
To discuss issues and actions in private, then act and say differently from how the board member might really want to see happen, without letting the public know any of his ideas, simply so the board can keep a “united” appearance isn’t what any elected official is put in position to do.
Mr. Krueger is running for a one- year term on the board to “finish the business” of regionalization as he has said in the past. But he takes issue in his response to the story on the group, Hudson Kids First, who are supporting the three Highlands candidates, Sue Thomas, Gena Melnyk and Kevin Ege and the two Atlantic Highlands candidates Justin Thomas and Richard Colangelo .
Mr. Krueger doesn’t like that the letter he was addressing from Hudson Kids First, a group of individual citizens, not board members or candidates, said the current board members vote as a clique.
My questions is: How else can they, or anybody else describe a group of people when that group, at every turn, all vote the exact same way?
Nobody ever has a new idea or a new way of doing things?
Nobody ever has a thought of his own?
Don’t cliques always agree and do things their way. Isn’t the definition of a clique a group that does not welcome others?
These are taxpayers funds that are being spent for education. And these are parents’ children who are educated with this money.
So why are not discussions on how the money is spent made public?
Why cannot the electorate hear the discussions which take place….in private, which is contrary to the spirit of the law… so they, too, can understand why and how money is spent?
Doesn’t anyone ever wonder why, since they have been named the transitional board before the first board is elected November 5, everyone of the nine members ALWAYS votes the same way?
There is NEVER a no vote cast. It was the same on the three former boards on which clique members sat as well.
Mr. Krueger explains that is because they discuss everything first, that the board members engage with the superintendent, consultants, attorneys “and others.”
But never with the people who elected them.
Mr. Krueger explains that board members “ discuss these issues…among ourselves.”
Isn’t that a violation of the people’s right to know?
Mr. Krueger actually put it in writing that the board members debate “behind the scenes!”
Isn’t that against the spirit and Legislative Intent of the Open Public Meetings Act?
Mr. Krueger states that in public, they all vote the same way so they can appear “unified.”
That sounds scary.
Why is that so necessary and where in the law does it say it’s the right thing to do?
Does Mr. Krueger have so little confidence in the people who put him in office that he does not find them worthy of knowing what the debate is about?
Or;
Why a board member might feel one way, but rather than stand up and have his own opinion, feels he has to put up a “united” front?
According to the New Jersey Board of Education, school board members are there to govern the school, to represent their community, to develop policies in compliance with the law, to see that the schools are well run, and through written policies provide guidance and direction to the chief school administrator for making decisions and taking action.
There is nothing in the law that allows for school board members to discuss how they’re going to accomplish all this privately, excluding the public, not letting then public see how they think , then vote all the same way just so it looks like they are united.
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