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Letters to Our Board Members If you attend Board meetings regularly, you'll notice an item on the agenda labeled "correspondence". This item refers to letters sent to Board members which are usually read aloud, or at least summarized during the public meeting. At the November 9 Board meeting, it was simply stated that "correspondence was received and distributed to Board members", without mentioning the name of the writer, the subject of the letter, or any other detail. Ever wonder what such a letter might have contained? Below is the complete text of that correspondence which was never otherwise acknowledged or answered before the meeting. You can write your own letters to the Board and send them to the same address shown below. November 3, 2004
Members of Readington Township Board of Education c/o William T. Weber, Jr., President P.O. Box 807 48 Readington Road Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889
Members of the Board: In a previous correspondence by email I urged each of you to become more involved and more active in reviewing the recent actions of the Superintendent regarding the standardized testing policies in our schools. The members of the ad-hoc group "readingtonparents.org" have described a form of compromise on the website of the same name, and we hope for some response from the Board. In the meantime, a series of requests under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) has brought to light some disturbing information concerning the Board's oversight of the Superintendent's office. By way of review, an OPRA request for the Superintendent's individual Employment Contract was, after some initial delay, fulfilled by our cooperative and competent interim Business Administrator Fran Tolley. The contract states that the Superintendent will receive an increase in compensation of between 4.21% and 4.5% for each year following the first that "the Superintendent has received a satisfactory performance rating by the Board in its annual evaluation of the Superintendent." The evaluation is to be based on the Superintendent's job description and, further, the contract states that the "…format and criteria for the Superintendent's initial evaluation shall be developed and approved jointly by the Board and the Superintendent within ninety (90) days from the commencement of employment. Said format shall be reduced to writing and shall constitute the basis on which the Superintendent is evaluated…the parties will meet and establish the evaluation format and criteria for each succeeding school year" Another OPRA request for the Superintendent's job description and the written evaluation criteria revealed an ugly truth. First, the job description is a generic document approved thirteen years ago in November 1991. Tellingly, the generic document does not even mention any responsibility for the Superintendent to consult, inform or even communicate with parents, taxpayers or other stakeholders in the district. Second, the Board's written criteria for the Superintendent either do not exist or they were not released. A handwritten note on the request did mention the format of the evaluation, i.e., a "narrative performance assessment". However, the criteria by which this narrative is written remains a mystery. Good Board members, bearing in mind the mood of parents and district stakeholders concerning current school policy, public relations, and future directions, does it not appear unflattering that oversight of the Superintendent's office by the Board is so sloppy and lax? The remedy for this apparent lack of oversight is simple and swift. Whether the subject is standardized testing, or something else, it is time for each of you to step up to the plate and take a swing. Your humble servant, John Painter Editor, Readingtonparents.org |
