Dear Editor:
Apparently Mrs. Evelyn Benyo plans to have a battle of wits with me via your letters to the editor column. I invited her to attend the May 9th school board meeting to present what she calls her “credible evidence” to support her opinion that I did nothing to stop the school pay raises of administrators. She was a No Show at the meeting. So please permit me to respond to her recent letter to this column at this time.
First I must say that I learned very early in life that humans make mistakes. To quote a long time phrase; it is only human to err. Also, any action that I have taken has been the result of a careful and honest evaluation and understanding of the circumstances. Further, I have always accepted criticism for actions that I have taken that may subsequently be proven wrong.
However, I will not accept criticism made for the sole purpose of criticizing or criticism based upon fantasy and not facts. The last two letters to this column from Mrs. Evelyn Benyo fall into that category. She just doesn’t know and therefore her criticism is not constructive but made for the sole purpose of being destructive.
On the issue of possible non-resident students enrolled in our system the facts are as follows: At the October 18, 2001 meeting of the Board I suggested the possible implementation of the system in effect in the Clifton school system. That is, the offering of a reward for information leading to the disclosure of students enrolled in Secaucus who do not reside in Secaucus. This was reported in the October 28th issue of the Secaucus Reporter. As a result I received information of possible “non resident” students enrolled in our system from a specific Secaucus address, which information I passed on to the proper authorities. Within two weeks I was advised that the “non residents” had transferred out of the Secaucus system.
Mrs. Evelyn Benyo either did not read the newspaper or did read the newspaper and either did not understand what she read or chose to disregard the facts and just shoot from the lip. As for her question as to my knowledge as to the number of taxpayers who do not have children attending our system, what is the relevance of this question? Of course Mrs. Benyo has a right to criticize for the sake of criticizing. Let’s just recognize it for what it is.
Tom Troyer