cross post from HatCityBLOG
It’s been over a week since the News-Times’ Dirk Perrefort published this astonishing quote from Mayor Boughton in which he states that individuals were “discouraged” from applying for the position of principal at Danbury High School.
Boughton, who was a social studies teacher at the high school for nearly 14 years before entering politics, said he knows for a fact there were “internal candidates who were discouraged from applying” for the job. “That’s a problem,” he said. “I know these individuals and I know they are capable of leading that school.”
As I stated in my initial post, I felt it was irresponsible for any member of the media to allow an elected official to make such an accusation without:
- peppering that individual with a series of follow-up questions and/or,
- allowing the person accused to the quote, an opportunity to respond to the charges.
Since it seemed that Perrefort was not going to publish a follow-up to his initial article, I decided to take things into my own hands.
Last night, I attended the Danbury Board of Education meeting and interviewed chairwoman Susan Podhajski and School Superintendent Sal Pascarella. In the following audio clip, I gave Podhajski and Pascarella an opportunity to respond to the mayor’s accusation.
Board of Education chairwoman Susan Padhajski::
School Superintendent Sal Pascarella:
Seems like these two aren’t actually disputing the mayor’s claims. Maybe your next step is to interview the mayor and then those who believe they were “discouraged.” Danbury has always had a diverse population and the high school reflects that in its student body. Having someone at the helm familiar with what is unique to Danbury High School would have been a valuable asset to the school and the community.
Comment by rockync — June 13th, 2009 @ 10:19 am