Letters to the Editor
Group with an Agenda
I attended the Newbury School Board April 3 meeting. I attend a few every year, but not all of them by any stretch.
Last week’s meeting was a little different. There were opening presentations from different departments within the school and applause from the attendees for most of those presentations. Applause isn’t at every meeting, but generally the meetings that include good news surrounding our students gets a reaction.
We heard about our showing in the “We Solve Problems” scholarship, the senior trip to Toronto, the academic team going back to Chicago, our kids placing 7th and 8th at state in wrestling and a few scholarships going out to the seniors.
After that, there was a public input portion of the meeting where it seemed a coordinated six speakers were trying to use a bully pulpit to tell the board members they thought West Geauga would be a better school district than Newbury for our children.
I’m not sure any of them have children in our school district, but they spent 20 minutes of a half hour forum addressing the attendees. Some were the same people that we’ve heard from in the past.
I’m thankful they are taking an interest in the community, but I do take exception to somebody claiming they are representing “Newbury residents.”
Our school board members represent Newbury residents through an election process. Our school board members, who donate their time and money back to a school they believe in, had to sit through the same few people presenting the same information they flame online.
Some of them are in a secret, private online group that claims to be promoting transparency.
Every one of our board members is a better person than I am and they welcomed the community commentary. We heard how unreasonable one speaker thought it was the school doesn’t have the same athletic opportunity as a larger school, and from the next speaker that we should be paying our teachers a greater percentage of the overall budget.
Of the six people who spoke about wanting to continue consolidation talks, we heard they believe we need to continue spending the board’s time pursuing a consolidation. We heard they were told by a previous superintendent that we passed a levy to support consolidation and it seemed obvious they wouldn’t be happy unless we consolidated with another school.
After the six that were there to promote consolidation, there were a few speakers who spoke about the opportunity Newbury affords their children.
If we are going to have a vocal minority trying to force an agenda on the Newbury School Board, I hope the rest of the community takes this as an opportunity to be heard.
At the next board meeting with a public commentary, I plan on talking about the opportunities that have been afforded my daughters, precisely because they are at Newbury.
It’s very frustrating the successes of our students continue to be overshadowed by a group with an agenda.
Christopher Weber
Newbury Township
Stop the Madness
We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our family and friends who have supported us during this most difficult time in the grieving of our dear daughter, Jamie.
Your words and true love for our family have given us such comfort.
We could never express what it means to us in having such amazing people at our side.
We miss the ups and the “what could have beens,” but know Jamie is free and at peace now.
The years of pain having a child going the wrong direction in life are inconceivable. Please parents and young adults pay attention to this horrible problem in hopes of stopping this madness!
We would also like to give a special thank you to all supporters involved in the creation of the new sober house called The Red Tulip House. This might have made a big difference for our daughter, we will never know.
Please community, do whatever you can to support this amazing project.
Frank and Mary Pertz
Hambden Township
Separation of Powers Needed
This letter is written in response to the lawsuit filed about the boy who was baptized against his parent’s wishes and how it relates to Geauga County government.
First off, I am a Christian but I believe in separation of church and state. I do not want any other Christians, some of whom I love and are my friends, or anyone else, dictating to me what to believe in.
Secondly, the Geauga County government does not provide for checks and balances or separation of powers. County service agencies, like CASA/GAL and Jobs and Family Services, are not responsive to complaints about their actions, because the tendency toward corruption and political gamesmanship is built in.
In previous letters, I have compared our legal system to that of the one created in Merry Old England during the Middle Ages. I now assert that our county governments are also a throwback to the ideals of old England, where power was given to those who were deemed worthy by God, via the power of the throne. These core philosophical problems still haunt us because we do not and have not addressed them.
One of the problems with not addressing these issues is that county governments control millions and millions of dollars and act on issues involving our most precious of personal liberties and our pursuit of happiness, both of which were protected by our U.S. Constitution. Centralized power us un-American.
I encourage everyone to contact your Ohio representative and senator and ask for changes in Ohio state law that would mandate separation of powers in the county governments, and for changes that would make county agencies more accountable to the people they serve.
CASA/GAL and Jobs and Family Services should not be used as political tools for the powers that be, whoever they happen to be.
I also question whether our county prosecutor can represent every agency in the county while supposedly representing the interests of the people of the county at the same time. It is another aspect of Geauga County government, which does not provide for separations of powers or checks and balances.
Robin Neff
Chardon
