Dear Editor:
At the Oct. 28 Town Council meeting Mayor Dennis Elwell accused George Heflich and me of quote, “paying more attention to town business when we should be looking out for the safety of the children in the school system.” Point of information, Mr. Heflich and I are trustees on the Secaucus Board of Education. The only two I might add that were elected without the financial backing or support of Team Elwell.
Elwell implied that Mr. Heflich and I, as members of the Board of Education were guilty of allowing a Halloween activity to be held at an unsafe location. How ludicrous. Elwell went on to say that if it had not been for the Mayor and Council stopping this activity, in this unsafe location, the activity would have taken place in a building Mr. Heflich and I should have known as unsafe. Elwell’s statements were not only absurd, they were inaccurate and inappropriate.
If Mayor Elwell believed Mr. Heflich and I were guilty of wrongdoing, the appropriate approach would have been for him to bring this matter up at a Board of Education meeting, not to “show boat” at a Town Council meeting with reporters from the two local papers covering the meeting present.
Board members’ responsibility is not to administer the school, but together with the other Board members, see that the system is well run. As a former Board of Education member, Mayor Elwell knows that, or should have known that. The three former Board of Education trustees who not sit on the Town Council should have known that and corrected him on the spot, as I did when Elwell’s ludicrous statement was made.
The very next day, Oct. 29, I contacted our Superintendent of Schools requesting a full disclosure of this Halloween activity from beginning to end along with the roll “all” board members had in the planning and carrying out of the activity in question. At the Oct. 30th Board of Education meeting our Superintendent of Schools gave his report. Elwell was wrong again.
Tom Troyer