Post by WeNeed3 on Mar 8, 2009 6:50:03 GMT -5
Editorial: Metzger needs to leave board
March 8, 2009
The Sun
In the 18 years that he has been on the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education, we feel that Mark Metzger has pretty much always tried to do the right thing.
Now, it pains us to write, the right thing would be for him to leave the board.
Yes, he has already resigned his board presidency over a denigrating e-mail and said he would recuse himself from school board discussions and deliberation over a new discipline policy, but he needs to do more.
Over the years, Metzger may well have been the most valuable board member District 204 has had.
The Sun was covering the district long before Metzger was first elected and is still doing so on a regular basis.
We've watched Metzger build a statewide reputation as a school board member and be a voice of calm and reason at times when it seemed many others in the district were a great deal less than that.
But, as important as he has been to the district, it is time for him to call it quits.
As school board president, he was losing ground with parents in the district over the board's action, or should we say inaction, in the wake of an alleged sexual assault by two middle school students against a third. Though this incident did not occur at the school, a subsequent alleged assault did and criminal charges have been filed in both cases
The legal ramifications notwithstanding, in both incidents the board and the administration owed it to parents and district residents to move expeditiously to address their natural fears for the safety of their children and to take action to assure parents the kind of awful deeds alleged would not happen again.
The board and administration did neither of those things, at least to the satisfaction of parents who have every right to be concerned.
Then, Metzger compounded all that had happened with an e-mail sent to the board and also, in error, to administrators and the victim's father in which a particularly nasty expletive was used to refer to the father.
Though unintentional, this obviously was a huge mistake.
But aside from sending the e-mail to those who weren't supposed to get it, we consider that mailing it at all with that type of derogatory term even to business associates -- i.e. the board -- is totally unprofessional and would in and of itself not constitute the image a school board member should present. Moreover, it is cause to seek his resignation.
As good a board member as Metzger has been in the past, for the sake of the district it is time for him to leave.
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/opinions/1466088,6_4_NA08_EDITORIAL_S1.article
March 8, 2009
The Sun
In the 18 years that he has been on the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education, we feel that Mark Metzger has pretty much always tried to do the right thing.
Now, it pains us to write, the right thing would be for him to leave the board.
Yes, he has already resigned his board presidency over a denigrating e-mail and said he would recuse himself from school board discussions and deliberation over a new discipline policy, but he needs to do more.
Over the years, Metzger may well have been the most valuable board member District 204 has had.
The Sun was covering the district long before Metzger was first elected and is still doing so on a regular basis.
We've watched Metzger build a statewide reputation as a school board member and be a voice of calm and reason at times when it seemed many others in the district were a great deal less than that.
But, as important as he has been to the district, it is time for him to call it quits.
As school board president, he was losing ground with parents in the district over the board's action, or should we say inaction, in the wake of an alleged sexual assault by two middle school students against a third. Though this incident did not occur at the school, a subsequent alleged assault did and criminal charges have been filed in both cases
The legal ramifications notwithstanding, in both incidents the board and the administration owed it to parents and district residents to move expeditiously to address their natural fears for the safety of their children and to take action to assure parents the kind of awful deeds alleged would not happen again.
The board and administration did neither of those things, at least to the satisfaction of parents who have every right to be concerned.
Then, Metzger compounded all that had happened with an e-mail sent to the board and also, in error, to administrators and the victim's father in which a particularly nasty expletive was used to refer to the father.
Though unintentional, this obviously was a huge mistake.
But aside from sending the e-mail to those who weren't supposed to get it, we consider that mailing it at all with that type of derogatory term even to business associates -- i.e. the board -- is totally unprofessional and would in and of itself not constitute the image a school board member should present. Moreover, it is cause to seek his resignation.
As good a board member as Metzger has been in the past, for the sake of the district it is time for him to leave.
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/opinions/1466088,6_4_NA08_EDITORIAL_S1.article