Greenwich BOE member Michael Bodson’s hissy fit in the Greenwich Time on Tuesday would lead one to believe that Bodson had a front row seat during he recent BET meeting at which School Supt. Sid Freund told the finance board, “I don’t think you’ve done a good job improving and maintaining your facilities (based) on what I’ve seen in other districts a lot less affluent.”
In fact Bodson wasn’t even there, as verified by several who attended the meeting on Feb. 11.
Click here for Bodson’s letter to the editor
Yet, he was able to state with such clarity that “during the meeting there were no comments that came close to the blanket criticism that your headline implies.” The headline was, “Freund gives town low marks on schools upkeep.”
Now, it’s perfectly understandable that Bodson and other long-time members of the BOE would be put on the defensive given all that which has happened to the schools under their watch the last four or five years – the embarrassing delays of the Ham Ave School construction, the “lost years” under Betty Sternberg, the declining performance on standardized testing, etc …
Still, that’s no reason to misrepresent – or worse, prevaricate. Bodson clearly gave the impression in his letter that he was witness to the entire discussion between Freund and the BET. Fact was he was not.
Let me repeat what Freund said according to the beat reporter of the Greenwich Time who covered the meeting in person:
“I DON’T THINK YOU’VE DONE A GOOD JOB IMPROVING OR MAINTAINING YOUR FACILITIIES ….”
That, Michael Bodson, is what Sid Freund actually said, no matter how much spin you and other revisionist board members would like to imagine (or hope) was said.
Can’t argue with that. Mr. Millstein is right. Maintenance has been miserable, Hamilton Avenue was allowed to crumble to the point that it had to be completely rebuilt, and then the construction was botched so badly that it was a town disgrace. But even worse was the fact that no one on the BOE took responsibility for that incompetence.
And regarding facilities overall, all one has to do is travel to Wilton, the Fairfield County public serving a much smaller town and take a look at their superb auditorium serving multiple purposes, or even North Haven’s excellent new auditorium, again in a town with a fraction of the financial resources of Greenwich, to understand that Dr. Freund spoke the truth.
Somehow BOE members have got hold of the counter-intuitive idea that low taxes somehow miraculously translate into excellent schools and top of the line school facilities. In fact, reality says that what you get when you hold off capital investments, scrimp on teacher salaries, and build substandard facilities to begin with (like the original GHS auditorium), you get substandard education delivered in substandard buildings.
Mr. Bodson and the other BOE members who’ve true to form not uttered a peep to the public they serve need to admit that it was the truth. They may not like what they’ve heard, but Dr. Freund does come from Westchester County, he’s seen the competition (yes, we are competing for tax dollars and housing purchase dollars with neighboring communities) and understands that we’ve been fooling ourselves, or more precisely, the BOE members have been fooling us into believing that they’ve delivered first class education on the cheap.
Now we’re all beginning to discover the truth. Mr. Bodson can protest all he wants. The truth is staring us in the face.
Comment by Sean — February 25th, 2010 @ 7:48 pm
I wonder how Mr. Bodson and other members of the education committee of the BET (also know as the BOE) reacted to the latest public views opined by Mr. Freund?
http://www.greenwichtime.com/default/article/Schools-chief-uncertain-on-linking-pay-to-377967.php
Mr. Freund seems like he is his own man. Keeping him on the reservation will be difficult and the BOE ought to stop trying …
Comment by Lincoln Millstein — February 26th, 2010 @ 8:39 am