Band director and instrumental music teacher Brad Stewart has been suspended without pay, Port Allegany School Board president Dave Mensch confirmed Saturday.
Mensch said he does not know the underlying reason for the
suspension.
The spate of executive (closed) school board sessions in the
past while have not been related to Stewart’s status, Mensch said. Most of the
closed meetings have been attributed to discussion of “personnel matters.”
Mensch said those generally have been for the purpose of
preparing for negotiations with Act 93 personnel (administrative and
supervisory employees, not included in actual labor organizations) and the
associations representing professional and support employees.
Martha, you were the first to tell us the news about Brad Stewart. Being as polite as I can, I truly do not believe that school board members do not " know the circumstances" when an employment issue dealing with the suspension of a school employee, that will probably end in either a firing or as in my case a extremely direct suggestion from both the superintendent and the school solicitor to resign. My opinion and reasoning for suggesting that board members are aware of all situations, come to me because of my forced resignation. At the time of my signing (resignation papers) I was told the board, press and public would be lead to believe, I simply moved on, to another position with another organization.
ReplyDeleteThen came a recent trip to a Port Allegany Dentist where I ran into a former board member/retired teacher. This person and I would talk at great lengths during his tenor as a teacher and I did everything in my power to make sure he understood everything he needed to know to "get the job done" in this age of technology. This teacher would tell you himself, he was technologically challenged and relayed on my help. At the dental appointment, this person and myself came to the reception desk at the same time after seeing our dentists. This individual could not wait to get out of that office, to the point that, as he was hurrying to the door, he told the receptionist he would be back later in the day to settle his bill. This is the same person which on his last day of work, wrote me a personal note thanking me for all I had done to help him with his technology challenges.
Mr. Stewart has a very powerful union to turn to and I am sure they are giving him valuable advice. The million dollar question is; was Mr. Stewart involved in something illegal with someone under age, or was he acting like another past Port Allegany teacher who was employed by the district and just waiting her fiancee to complete his senior year of high school.
I wish best of luck to all involved but I want to sign off by saying; during the Flint administration the school board and in turn the Port Allegany community became use to many closed door sessions and the power the board has when hiding the truth. I know in my case the board did hear, but only what the administration wanted them to hear. I was never given the "closed door" opportunity to look each and everyone of them straight in their eyes and tell them the truth about what happened to me.
The citizens of Port Allegany need to call for an end to executive sessions (closed door meeting) when it comes to the board just not wanting to deal with sensitive issues where the truth could lead them away from their desired outcome.
I can only hope the above isn't in reference to my brother and sister-in-law. If it is in fact I urge you Mr. Jordan to learn facts before assuming. You know what they say about assumption.....
ReplyDeleteI truly wish people learned the facts before spouting off. Juvenile comments about things you have no clue of only make you look a fool.
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