School Committeeman
attacks candidate, taxpayer's association
Dr.
Ormsby responds
In a
letter to the voters of North Andover,
School Committeeman Bill Kelley wrote the
following attack on one of the school
committee candidates as well as the North
Andover Taxpayer's Association:
"I
normally like to take the high road but I
feel compelled to give you my opinion
about the 3rd candidate in the race Mr.
Michael Quinlan. Mr Quinlan home schools
his five children, w hich is his right,
and has deliberately chosen to not be a
consumer of public education. What
disturbs me is the argumentative and
condescending demeanor he displayed at
the candidates forum this past Wednesday.
He has a close association to a
small-minded group of organized
anti-public education/anti-any tax
supporters, known as NATA. He has also
signed the petition in support of the
repeal(not reduction) of the state income
tax without offering a plan for our
schools if this vital funding were to be
eliminated. Nor has He spoke of what
would happen to state and local services
if it were to pass. Mr Quinlan appears to
have made up his mind on all issues
despite that fact he is not fully
informed on many of them. I f ear his
election would be to instantly polarize
the school committee and would mak e the
already difficult task ahead in finding a
permanent replacement for Supt Dr. Marini
near impossible."
Prompting
this response from North Andover School
Committeeman Dr. Charles Ormsby who is
one of the founding members of the North
Andover Taxpayers Association:
I
guess disagreeing with Bill is
"small minded". I assume he
meant narrow minded. Oddly, it is Mike
that will most likely split the education
of his children between home-schooling in
K-8 and HS in 9-12th grades ... seems
broad-minded to me. The apparently
big-minded (broad-minded?) Bill seems to
think that ONLY public
schooling should be considered ... seems
narrow-minded to me.
Bill's
claim that NATA is "anti-public
education" is also I lie. NATA, as
an organization, ONLY insists that
the schools live within the constraints
of Prop 2 1/2 funding ... Nothing else
has EVER been pitched by NATA except
pleas for improving academic outcomes
with the available funding.
Now, I suspect that I am
the bogeyman. Why? Because I actually
think the public school system should
have to compete for its funding and jobs
and benefits (my position ... Not
NATA's). Bill et al seems to think that
only blind devotion to a single mode of
education qualifies someone for public
service or the school committee. Heaven
forbid that anyone gets on the board that
actually is skeptical of the
institution's devotion to the children
(could they possibly be looking out for
themselves?) or seek to hold it
accountable for its performance.
How Mike's presence on
the NA SC will make finding a
Superintendent
"near-impossible" is a mystery
to me. Does Bill think
that having members pushing for high
standards and greater parental
involvement will scare off candidates?
Bill must be a two-gallon a day Kool Aid
drinker.
Note that Bill himself
has done more damage to education in
North Andover than any recent SC member
when he cast the deciding vote for the
4%/3%/3% teachers' contract (on top of
the 1.5% steps & columns ... making
the contract actually, 5.5%,4.5%,
4.5%). This contract set
salaries WELL above what the town
could afford and is the main reason that
thousands of North Andover children have
been denied education services.
BTW, Mike and his family
have home-schooled 5 children ... That
has saved the district approx $45,000 (1
teacher!) each year while he has
continued to pay several thousand each
year to the school district.
Final note: Bill made a
public commitment to the voters when he
ran for office, that he would not
accept the stipend if he was
elected by the voters as
a member of the School Committee. A
year or so later he decided to ignore his
promise and start taking the stipend
which grew from $2000 to $5000 per
year. What is it about keeping
promises that Mr. Kelly doesn't
understand? I guess we know what he
thinks his integrity is worth.
Chuck Ormsby,
North Andover School
Committee, Member of the Board of
Trustees of Haverhill's Hillview
Montessori Public Charter School,
Mathematics Professor at University of
Massachusetts/Lowell, ... and
narrow-minded member of NATA
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