Dear Editor:
At the Oct. 16 Board of Education meeting, trustee Kathy Huber O’Connell took exception to my leaving the meeting before it had concluded, calling the questions I raised and my departure as being “disrespectful” to the board. She entitled to her opinion. When I read her statement in a local newspaper, and viewed her making the statement on Channel 34, I responded, via the local newspaper.
At the Nov. 20 Board of Education meeting, eight of the nine trustees were in attendance. President Gary Riebesell was absent. I have served on the board with Gary Riebesell, Joe Lewis and Jack McStowe. I also had the opportunity, on several occasions, to battle with trustee Bob Anderson during public meetings and in private meetings when he represented the SEA. The reason I mention their names is that in my dealings with them I found them to be stand up people, never timid when illogical, unreasonable and self-centered residents and groups with a private agenda came before the board. Let’s face it. If any of the four thought I was being disrespectful to the board that night they would have made their feelings known, as McStowe and Bob Anderson did on Nov. 20 when they believed the board had been disrespected.
At the Oct. 28 Town Council meeting two residents representing a group spoke before the mayor and council on various topics they would like the board to address. In my opinion, Mayor Gonnelli double-talked the woman and in the process of doing so threw the board under the bus. Sighting his being upset with the board in the manor they handled a suggestion he had made to them, calling the board’s action “a slap in the face.”
At the Nov. 20 board meeting I questioned trustee Kathy O’Connell, how she viewed the mayor’s “slap in the face” statement. Did she view that statement as a sign of “disrespecting” the board? No response.
Many times I have disagreed with Mayor Gonnelli in regard to busing, what students to bus, what students not to bus. Once again I find myself in a bussing disagreement with the mayor. This time it’s about my trying to figure just who he intended to throw under the bus? The board or this group? Time will tell.
The outcome of the Nov. 20 meeting remains to be seen. I recommend residents/voters view Channel 34, in order to have a complete understanding of the fallout that is about to take place between the mayor and the board.
Tom Troyer