At today's Board of Education meeting a unanimous Board of Education voted on a resolution to support litigation against the County Council. The resolution was read by Board President Patricia O'Neill.
2.4 Authorization for Legal Action Related to the Board of Education’s
FY 2011 Operating Budget Request
Today's vote comes after Board President O'Neill and Superintendent Weast had already threatened litigation against the County Council in a meeting with Council President Floreen according to The Gazette.
Was there any doubt that the Board would then come out with a unanimous vote today? This Board of Education is always ready to sue parents, litigation is their middle name. What did the Board of Education just vote to do? They voted to spend 1,2 or even 3 teachers worth of salary by an outside (not County) law firm on litigation against the County Council.
How is it that the Board of Education has the funding for this litigation but not for the one teacher at the Einstein Visual Arts Center? Where is the pot of endless litigation funding?
Note that in the discussion of this potential litigation there was no discussion of the cost of litigation.
This discussion showcased the first and foremost problem with the MCPS Board of Education. They have no concept of how much money they are spending and they never discuss or analyze the cost versus the benefit of an action.
Outside counsel could easily end up costing MCPS the salary of a classroom teacher (or more) if this litigation goes forward. Yet, there was no mention of where the funding would come from if this litigation is initiated, and no discussion of a limit on how much could be spent on this proceeding. Superintendent Weast was given a blank check to sue the County Council.
Just one more example of a spendthrift mentality of this Board that diverts funding away from classrooms by failing to exert any oversight over the actual spending that is done by MCPS administrators.
Very disappointing.
ReplyDeleteFrom my seat it looks that MCPS is not being a good citizen of our community.
Certainly not being a good role model for our children demonstrating the ability
to work with others and compromise.
Even the technical aspects of the suit are really about MCPS not being part of
our County Government structure. Rather, they are on their own, and obviously
want to be.
Win or lose the legal action, what County Executive is every again going to
propose a dime more then the legal minimum for our schools? And what County
Council is going to approve the kind of generous school budgets they have for
decades?
It looks to me like the BOE is taking a very narrow and short term view of what
the outcome of todays action will be.
Bob Astrove
"It's not what we want to do," said Board of Education President Patricia O'Neill (Bethesda-Chevy Chase). "It's much more fun to sit around a campfire and sing kumbaya than be in an adversarial position."
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