Parting Should Be Painless

The Germans have an expression I very much enjoy "Lieber ein schreckliches Ende als Schrecken ohne Ende." Better a horrible ending than horrors without end.

We here in Norwich, Connecticut, having endured a years-long kabuki theater involving the (now incarcerated) manager of our public utilities, annual trips to the Kentucky Derby, and a stunningly appalling lack of ethics, have almost concluded another installment in another long-running almost-soap opera.

We recently terminated our association with our Superintendent of Schools for a school district with about 3,400 students, and no high school to speak of. I assumed we hired T. S. Eliot to handle the separation process as it ended, 'Not with a bang, but a whimper.' But he was either unavailable or more likely, unaffordable. 

That is, there was a settlement to our now-former employee who had been on administrative leave (with pay and benefits, and I'm guessing the car that was in the original contract) since the middle of September 2023 so we could conclude 2024 without them. 

Even before the settlement was announced, our Mayor was using it to berate the current Board of Education whose majority membership is NOT from his party, even though only one member who approved hiring the now ex-superintendent in the spring of 2019 is a member of the current board. Some people believe they help best by drilling a second hole in the boat. Shiver me timbers, mateys.

As a homeowner whose mortgage payments increased by over three hundred dollars a month due in no small part to the increase in my property taxes, an increase driven in part by education expenditures, I have skin in the game when it comes to funding the education all of our children will need as the 21st Century continues.

Defining outcomes and the methodologies and resources to achieve them, including choosing the next Superintendent (someone with corporate leadership experience rather than education background; they won't be teaching but managing a multi-million dollar enterprise) might be worth exploring. We too find blame like there was a reward for it and forget the problem remains. 
-bill kenny