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.
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