Monday, July 19, 2010

GV School Must Heal Divisions

On Saturday, July 17, a meeting called by GV School Superintendent, Mike Tomlin, was the arena of unleashed aggression against the man who is responsible for preparing the operating budget, paying the bills and implementing school policies and regulations. Thus far, he has been doing just that and very well, with no squeals from district or federal auditors.

The story goes back many years, way before Tomlin, and the aggression and bullying continues to spring up, with the main players intact.

No matter. What transpired at the school on July 17 was a travesty. Teacher pitted against teacher, community members hollered, hooted, and scoffed, and one woman screamed in rage.

Some in the group possessed of more sober minds attempted reconciliation, prescribing tactics to end hostilities.

The Friends of the Garden Valley School District have berated Tomlin for his lack of transparency, while hiding behind their own obfuscations. They have accused the superintendent of intimidating teachers and staff, while spreading the fear by brainwashing the staff and faculty. In the beginning, only a few people were talking about the fear and they were not teachers, but one. Figure it out.

Some community members are unhappy that the principal of the school accepted money from the taxpayers for his own education, meanwhile receiving a principal's salary for the two years he was here, without qualifications. When he left, diploma in hand, he never expressed a thank you to the taxpayers; nor did he keep his end of the bargain, which was to remain as principal for two years after he received his certification.

The teachers and students would have him a saint who was intimidated, by Tomlin, into leaving. There are those who would prefer to suggest a lack of maturity and guts--a man who served as a principal over K-12 students, but couldn't summon up the courage to tell his supervisor he didn't agree with his remonstrations and then offered up a private personnel letter from his supervisor and an affidavit, with the intention of allowing his supporters to crucify the superintendent in public.

One of the main players stood up in front of the most recent school board meeting and expressed her vitriolic displeasure at the number of staff that are leaving the school, while having been an instigator and loudly vocal participant of the ruckus that caused the exodus.

Can we cry foul yet?

Hopefully we've seen the ugliest of the ugly and can begin to rebuild the mess into some semblance of a school intent upon the job of teaching children...oh yes, the children. The ones used by their caring parents to parade vindictive slogans in public.

None of this had anything to do with the kids. Just agendas to get rid of this person and that, for personal gain. Get over it.

Let Mike Tomlin do what he was hired to do. Teachers get back to the classrooms and stop whining--have you ever thought that if someone makes you feel whiney, it's probably not them--you're just whiney?

Staff, get back on the job and keep the payroll coming in, pay your mortgages and get a couple of bottles of beer. And community members, stay out of it and let the school heal itself.

All trolls, please go back to the bridge and and get your satisfaction by scaring the unwary traveler. And this time, don't come back.

14 comments:

  1. Angel, thank you, finally a reporter telling the truth!!! As an insider you have the FACTS unbelievably correct! And it's about time!

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  2. Angel, I just read your story about the GV library now needing more money to complete their project. How is it that they are building a $900,000 project (now needing $250,000 more) which totals a little over a million dollars and Superintendent Mike Tomlin oversaw and built the largest project in this valley at $12.75 million ALL COMPLETELY UNDER BUDGET and no one says not even a "thank you"? He is now working on another $2.75 million dollar project ALL UNDER BUDGET. Why aren't the taxpayers thanking him? Has ANYONE noticed this or cared to notice?

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  3. Angel...real name?

    You sure have the background right. These teachers have gone two years without a principal. Their superviser was a kid right off the teaching shop floor. Talk about cronyism!

    Now the supt and board have the chops to hire an experienced principal with a real license, the teachers should be scared. Their days of running the hen house are over.

    They are fighting a war of distraction and you hit on the real story, one that cub reporter from channel 7 couldn't find in his lunch sack.

    Great job!

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  4. Now that Pandora's box is open, how can we possibly stuff it back in and shut it for good? We really need to, for the kids' sake...it's indeed sad, when people allow uneducated as well as personal opinion to become fact as so many of the FOGVS group did...and then someone decided to bring the tar, to which others agreed to bring the feathers...yet nobody knew the "real reason," did they? Most of this should have been "voiced in private, over a beer" but now that it's out there, what's next? Are there now any qualified teachers who even WANT to work in GV? Sad day, all the way around. Thanks Angel, for bringing the truth out at last!!!!!

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  5. Thank you, Angel, for being a voice of reason in this chaos!

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  6. I am frustrated by this one sided opinion which portrays Tomlin as a saint. I have had issues in dealing with him on issues other than the current allegations.

    No wonder what he says his job description is, he is the leadership of the school, and he needs to accept that responsibility. Nothing can be rebuilt without Tomlin being accountable for his part in this. There is little basis left for effective leadership and teamwork which I feel cannot be accomplished with the present leadership. Too much has been broken and there is little trust between team members and leadership.

    I have been in the community for 18 years, raising my kids here, and I think many will agree with me that, historically, the school is the heart of the community. Many feel that Tomlin sees only the business business aspects, discounting the sense of community and the opinions and feelings of the people, both staff and community members.

    Let me tell you, this will not fly in GV!

    The people are the heart of the community and many parents are ready to abandon the school (even though they love and support the teachers and most of the staff)under the current leadership.

    I speak as a lover of the community and its people. We are frustrated. This is our school.

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  7. Angel (Not sure God's Angels would act the way you have been acting):

    If you're such a fair, objective, fact giving reporter why aren't you still writing for the World? The stories you were writing these past months regarding the school issues were anything but journalism and, frankly, were an insult to journalism. More like one sided, biased opinions. A blog is the perfect place for you to spew your skewed BS fantasies to all your friends and kronies.

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  8. Elizabeth Dunn- Thank you for the above post. If you truly believe that Angel is "a voice of reason" it reaffirms my decision to sign a petition and vote for your recall.

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  9. To Idaho Mom,

    Probably no "sainting" for any of us either.

    And I think the supt. made mistakes. He should have never entertained for one second a baby in the workplace, and he should have reprimanded the principal for bringing such a stupid idea, especially as it related to the principal's baby and wife...nepotism anyone?

    This cleaning house is good for the organization. Break up the cronyism, break up the nepotism, hire a licensed and legitimate principal, and get the teachers in tow.

    It is long overdue. Another supt mistake - should have done it last year during the honeymoon period.

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  10. Hey, GVmommy! Still hiding behind groups and fake names, I see!

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  11. To Moguler:

    Oh why the heck not answer one of my devoted and appreciative followers. My god has all kinds of angels, naughty and nice, and I can be both, FYI. And you, naughty moguler, are also using my blog to spew your skewed BS fantasies...I hear a problem tho--what I wrote are not fantasies--I wish to your God they were--then we wouldn't be having this dialogue. But hark, I hear the Angels sing!! And I will try something else--because, naughty and hopefully sometimes nice Moguler, I really do want this thing to heal--no BS...yeah yeah, I know.

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  12. The truth is this thing goes way farther back then the last few months. For starters I will refer you to the Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Idaho world front page. Where Dr. Koenig presented, what I would call, threats to the Garden Valley School Board. All this is stemmed from a small group of people pressing forward and trying to carry out “clear alternatives”
    • Bring back Stan Kress by agreeing to support him in his administrative decisions.
    • Agree to an independent investigation by an Idaho Department of Education investigator.
    • Be prepared to face a recall election.
    For at least two years, before Dr. Tomlin, these friends have been after full control of the school, doing anything and everything within their power to get what they want. First recalling the chairman of the board, next going after the treasure, when that failed they turned their ugliness toward the superintendent. The question is: What do they truly want?
    Any one in management knows it is difficult to objectively evaluate employees who were friends and coworkers before you became their boss. I like Cody Fisher too. I’m disappointed he didn’t have the balls to fulfill his contract and do an honest job of helping straiten all this out. In accordance with his contract he owes the taxpayers of Garden Valley School district money the district spent on his education. I believe the truth is both Cody Fisher and Bob Grimm left for more money and less work, after they were educated on GVSD’s dollar. What I don’t know and would like to know… are their names on that original petition presented to the school board back in October, 2008? Before Dr. Tomlin became superintendent? How many of the Friends names are on that petition?
    Much of this story is protected by Idaho personnel protection laws and there for only the school board is privy to the whole story. Why did two school board members quit? I believe it’s because, the truth did not fit their agenda.
    Let’s talk about some of the good things Dr. Tomlin has accomplished, like build a school under budget, balanced next year’s budget without running a supplemental levy, without canceling any programs and without laying off any certified personal. The current boiler project is under budget. These are no small feats in today’s economy.

    “Never wrestle with a pig you both get dirty and the pig likes it.”

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  13. Angel:

    Doth thou flirt with me? Should I be reading connotations into our dialogue? Impish references always cloud my judgement. Must be the naughty boy in me, living on Knotty Lane. Many a great man has met his undoing by such one track trains of thought. I think Sigmund makes a great case.

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  14. I have read all the comments and I can tell you that this blog is not unbiased. The fact remains that everyone has opinions and that is great. This is what our country was founded on, the ability to speak up. The absolute truth of the matter is that there are two sides of supporters fighting and there are those like myself that want the true unbiased truth of the matter. Blogs like this do nothing but add fuel to the fire. I can say that anyone who is willing to say that the community needs to shut up and let things go unquestioned has no real sense of right and wrong. If there was nothing to be found then no one would care how many questions were being asked. Seriously, this blog is a joke.

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