Kauffman & Berthiaume Dissent in Favor of Students

Student member of the Board of Education Timothy Hwang votes along with Board members Brandman, O'Neill, Docca and Durso in deciding against students' contractual right to participate in scheduling decision at Eastern Middle School.

In a rare dissent, Board of Education members Phil Kauffman and Laura Berthiaume break from the Board majority and detail why they believe a decision of the Superintendent should be reversed. The decision stems from an appeal of a group of Eastern Middle School stakeholders requesting that the Superintendent reverse the decision to eliminate the 8 period day at Eastern.

There are two glaring problems with the majority opinion in this decision. First and foremost, the Board majority does not know whose decision they are reviewing. The Board is given the authority to review decisions of the Superintendent, but in this majority decision the Board states they are reviewing a decision of the Chief Operating Officer, Larry Bowers. Did the Board majority forget the school system is run by a Superintendent who is the final decisionmaker?

Second, the majority opinion spends an inordinate amount of text attempting to refute the dissent of Board member Laura Berthiaume. Was this text inserted after the Board had already written the majority decision from which Berthiaume dissents? A well reasonsed majority opinion should be able to stand on its own analysis. The majority opinion and both dissents are being reproduced for the public to review.

Here are two key paragraphs from Board member Berthiaume's dissent (page 24 of document below). 

The full text of the majority opinion, and Kauffman and Berthiaume dissents are below in Scribd format.

Eastern Middle School Appeal Decision