So there has been a great deal of discussion on the issue of the majority seats on the Board of Education. During the 2008 Charter Revision, the question, written into the Charter by the Republican chairman was misleading at best. It did not define the term bare majority and it did not include any thoughts that the Republican Town Attorney had about the confusion of this issue. The Republican Town Attorney came away at the last election with an interpretation of the text that only a lawyer could love. While the general public understands that at the end of an election, you have a complete Board of Education. His idea was that since there was a two year seat and then four year seats on the ballot, the idea of bare majority applied only to each ballot question. That allowed his party to have a nice block of 5 seats on the BoE and ensure that only Republican voices are heard on that board.
Needless to say, we disagree.
Now, the new Charter Revision Commission wants to put that error into place permanently. Under the guise of giving the voters what they want by allowing them to place 5 Republicans in charge of the Board of Education, they are basically committing a takeover of what should be an apolitical Board.
One of the unaffiliated members of this Charter Revision Commission is a retired Superintendent of Schools. He stated that Boards of Education should not have any one party have that much authority and power. He was promptly ignored by the 5 Republicans on the CRC.
When the Legislative Council set this CRC up, one has to wonder if this was the end goal. Sitting several members of the RTC on this Commission ensures that RTC ideas are being put forward and RTC ideas are being approved. Last we looked, the Charter was intended to govern the whole town, not turn over the keys to one party.