Recently John Aiello, my fellow trustee of the board of education, haslaunched a letter-writing brigade accusing school district personnel and otherboard members of being thieves who are closing teachers and support staff outof any meaningful involvement in educational discussion.
What he fails to recognize is that our board has utilized our regularlyscheduled department meetings and encouraged collaboration among educators toensure that effective teaching practices are being shared and employedthroughout the district. The board thrives on input from all stakeholders andvigorously encourages new ideas that benefit all of our students.
Mr. Aiello also accuses the members of the board majority of onlylistening to those who agree with them. Nothing could be further from thetruth.This board of education has demonstrated openness to all members of thepublic, regardless of their position on any particular issue. It hasnever turned away a taxpayer who has approached it with a genuine concern orfair question.
Obviously, Mr. Aiello is using this poor, poor me tactic in his recentletters to draw sympathy from you, the public, as he seeks re-election to theschool board. This cheap and manipulative sob story should fall on deafears. His antiquated view of education is the single biggest obstacle facing ourcurrent board.
We cannot overlook the past three years of Mr. Aiellos tenure on theboard, which has consisted of meaningless diatribes, political posturing,grandstanding and a love for the sound of his own voice that has extinguishedany productive discourse intended to improve our schools.
We cannot ignore all he has done to undermine our childrens educations,such as fight to fire all of our curriculum supervisors, support theabolishment of our director of education position, and vote no to paying thedistricts bills and transferring funds to cover student-related expenses.
We cannot give him a free pass for trying to cut millions of dollarsfrom our budgets, driving top professionals out of our district, wastingcountless hours of our administrators time while being paid with our tax dollars, or trying to close Paradise Knoll and Macopin Schools.
West Milford is far from Mr. Aiellos idea of a graveyard of talent. We have bright young scholars who will continue to excel as long as we haveschool board members supporting them in their quest of a thorough and efficienteducation.
On April 17, take your stand against John Aiello. It is time to say enough is enough to the circus he has tried to create over these last three years.
Please join me in electing Kevin Babbitt and Inga Koeppe, and re-electing Greg Bailey (numbers 2, 3, and 4 on the ballot) to the board of education.
Matthew Conlon West Milford The opinions expressed herein are Conlons own and do not necessarilyreflect those of other board members or the school board as a whole.