B² commentary: Why CD officials get bad rap

Agenda item to hire special education director

at $100,000 per year comes out of the blue

I want to make few things crystal clear before getting into the meat of this column:

• I’m a booster of Central Dauphin schools.
• I’m not looking to take shots at members of the school board or administration.
• I believe board president Ford Thompson and the rest of the board should be applauded for doing what they do on a volunteer basis.
• And I understand school officials have a tough job and get a ton of grief for making tough decisions. It’s not my intention to add to the pile of crap thrown at school officials. In fact, I want to make doing their jobs easier.

With that said, I do have one piece of constructive criticism for CD officials based on Monday’s board meeting agenda:

The district informing the public about the planned hiring of a high-paid administrator three days prior to a board vote is the kind of practice that gets the district in deep doo doo with the public because it smacks of behind-closed-door dealings.

Sure, no one expects the board or a subcommittee of the board to conduct interviews for prospective employees in public.

But, information on the need to hire a special education director and how the hiring fits into the district’s financial plan could and should have been discussed in front of the public long before a vote to fill this position. I’ll bet dollars to donuts – and you buy the donuts – that “general information” about staffing needs is not listed under the state’s Sunshine Law as a topic permitted to be discussed in executive session, which is a behind-closed-doors meeting.

Sadly, many local governments, with the blessing of their lawyers, extend the “personnel matters” exception of the Sunshine Law way beyond the intent of the law, in my opinion.

Holding “public” workshop meetings to allow administrators to discuss upcoming agenda items with board members without the pressure to vote would go a long way toward CD improving its relations with parents and all taxpayers.

A little tweak in the district’s standard operating procedure – conducting monthly public workshop meetings – likely would help board members get less doo doo thrown their way.


Bill Bostic has published Linglestown Gazette on a volunteer basis since May 2006 and recently spearheaded the formation of Citizens for CD Schools, a taxpayer group that aims to improve local public education.