The ethics of BOE

I’m sure everyone is aware of me being sanctioned but not everyone is aware of the motives. Surely, BOE had a reason to be upset with me, but I do not have the rights of “freedom of expression and the freedom of speech.” The ethics code of BOE clearly states that “board members should work cooperatively” and “all BOE members should be forthright in stating their opinions.” Even though the BOE may have disliked what I wrote at anytime, the act of sanctioning me for being “forthright” as stated in the ethics code and for exercising my rights of free speech and expression emphatically identifies a greater miscarriage of justice by BOE. I did not like writing about the board and its members. I am a member of the board and I certainly didn’t get any pleasure from it because my writing was driven out of frustration from getting no responses to my inquiries since January of this year.

The argument that I need to earn respect for people to “do the right thing” is hogwash. I am a “doer” who wants to get things accomplished. Everything that I wrote to and about BOE had already been raised in a letter or conversation with BOE but I never got a single response so went to the media. So the ethical question is raised: Who is really wrong, me for speaking my opinion in a forthright tone or BOE for ignoring the dozens of “formal” request and letters that I have sent? I would never have written anything if BOE had tried just a little to respond to my written requests in a “forthright” manner. The Governor wouldn’t do BOE’s dirty work for them so they stooped to plan B (sanction).

I was accused of being a coward and not speaking in the BOE meetings. But why should I even bother to speak in a BOE meeting when I’m left out of the loop and the voting members have already made up their minds in committee? Plus the fact that I have already addressed the issues of concern to teachers in a letter or verbally to the BOE chair? For example, the PRAXIS issue: I asked at the beginning of the year to be informed of all committee meetings with an agenda that directly or indirectly affected teachers so that I could attend. The committee met on PRAXIS and kept it a secret from me. The BOE chair even claimed that he would recall the policy but didn’t, so what could I do but come in the news so teachers could not say I was not doing my job? The ad hoc committee is another example because the committee was created to address the concerns of teachers over six months ago. But they have never met. Worse, I am not a member of that committee. Yes, you’ve read it right; the BOE Teacher Rep is not allowed to be a member nor attend the committee meetings to address teachers’ concerns. But that’s not all—the ad hoc committee is now scheduled to meet for the first time but the only order of business is to create some policies to “tie the BOE Teacher Rep’s hands.” So who is really violating the ethics code of BOE?

I totally understand BOE’s frustration but BOE doesn’t seem to even care about my frustration and concerns. The sanctioning didn’t hurt me and it’s a joke because I didn’t have any real power to sanction. I just pushed the envelope, which is the bottom line behind the discontent of BOE. I was only sad to learn in the meeting that a teacher was sending all of the school representatives’ e-mails to BOE members. BOE knew everything and that the school reps are getting stronger, so “cut off the head with sanctions and hope the body will die” is their goal now.

But the good part is the game is still afoot and it’s a long way from being over and teachers have the law on their side, so guess who will win in the end. The Governor has already said I have three more years to try and improve things for teachers and the entire system. All teachers, one direction.

Ambrose M. Bennett
BOE Teacher Rep.