Dear Editor:
Why the silence? Permit me to give your readers the reason I ask this question along with my opinion as to why the credit is not being given to the person deserving of the credit, Superintendent of Schools Cynthia Randina.
Secaucus High Schools grade fell from 102 in 2010 to 90 in 2012 as reported in NJ Monthly’s grading Top 100 NJ High School released this month by the State Department of Education’s New Jersey Report Card. Point of information: the lower the grade, the better the standing. Unlike the grading system Mayor Gonnelli employed in evaluating of my performance.
Mayor Gonnelli gave me a grade of (Zero) for the 15 years I served the community of Secaucus. Fifteen years as a Board of Education trustee and five years serves as a Secaucus Housing Authority Commissioner. He also likes giving out awards to Secaucus residents that have received awards for their endeavors elsewhere. All P.R. and cosmetic stuff!
As a teacher, and coach, I too found myself in a position of giving out awards. As a teacher of a subject, my evaluation and criteria for giving out grades was requirement I took seriously. However one award that I have given out over the years, my “Horses A–” award, although given serious thought, was most times given to a person or persons, to drive home a point The point being, that their action or lack of shame, is my way of saying you qualify for my award. Other recipients of my award went to people who asked me for one, and many people have.
When I was elected back onto the Board, (2009) it did not take me long to realize our superintendent was a real nonsense person. She was the person I had been looking for to head our school system. If anyone could keep politics out of our system, she would be the one. Being politically naïve was superintendent’s one big flaw. She refused to realize the ruthless the political in the Secaucus school system. She immediately qualified for my “award” and accepted it graciously.
Will Mayor Gonnelli give an award to our superintendent for her accomplishments? Will he be giving her any recognition for this accomplishment? Will the mayor do the right thing and truly give our school system the leadership the community and students deserve by having his majority on the Board re-hire her? In other school districts the superintendent receives a bonus. Instead she is scheduled to be given the boot. Politics, all politics!
Tom Troyer
Former Board Trustee