Don't ask, don't talk
The Gen. Brown Central School Board of Education came up with a Catch-22 that would make Yossarian proud when they decided to prohibit district residents from referring to people by name or position at their meetings.
The policy, which they say was instituted to promote "civil discussions" of school-related topics, says that no one can refer to any school personnel or students by name or position. Hence, if a resident wishes to discuss any aspects of, say, school administration, they must apparently refer to "the tall guy in the district office" if they wish to discuss the school superintendent. Or to "somebody who teaches my kid" if they want to talk about the way the fourth grade curriculum is treated. Or to "the heavy set guy who sits in the driver's seat of bus 17" if they want to discuss a transportation problem.
While the board says this policy is to reduce the ad hominem nature of discussions that has marked some recent school board meetings, what it really does is muzzle legitimate discussion of important district issues. To suggest that you can separate the school's administration from its administrators is, at best, laughable – and at worst, Kafkaesque.
Make no mistake – what the Board of Education is really trying to do is muzzle the public. They somehow believe that banning legitimate discussion of important issues is a solution to all their problems. Nothing could be further from reality.
When a person decides to run for public office, they take on the responsibility of representation. That responsibility includes being ready to hear things that they may not like. While no one should suffer outright abuse at the hands of the public, both board members and administrators must be ready to deal forthrightly with district residents' legitimate concerns. If those concerns cannot be aired, they are shirking their responsibilities.
There are almost 30 school districts across the north country, and the vast majority of them are run by local elected officials and hired administrators with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of collegiality. Gen. Brown board members should consider this when they consider what is happening in their district. Of the nearly 30 superintendents running schools around here, all but one or two manage to do their jobs without becoming lightning rods for public disaffection.
At Gen. Brown, Superintendent Stephan Vigliotti does not meet that standard. The school has become a revolving door for administrators and staff, to the degree that it isn't unreasonable to ask "What's going on here?" Clearly, something is amiss. It could be that Mr. Vigliotti's iron-handed treatment of district personnel is something that needs attention by the Board of Education. Unfortunately, the board appears to have forgotten that the superintendent works for them, and not the other way around.
The new "don't ask, don't talk" policy at Gen. Brown is an abuse of power and an extremely misguided attempt to shut off public discourse. If the board doesn't do the right thing and scrap this silliness, the voters should be prepared to start replacing them in May.
