Reader Poll
| It’s time to quit picking on school board |
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| Opinion - Community Voices | |||
| Written by Deb Loomis | |||
| Monday, 15 June 2009 07:32 | |||
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It’s time for Liberty Public Schools to move on. Our kids have completed the school year and are looking forward to moving on to the next grade, and it’s time for those in our community who continue to denounce our school board members and school district leadership to move on, too. Liberty patrons should know that our school board members donate more than 250 hours of their own time each year to oversee district operations. Many of them are parents of students in our district, and they take time away from their own children to provide public oversight of the district, whose $110 million budget employs 1,500 staff members and educates 10,000 Liberty students. When allegations of financial mismanagement by former administrators surfaced, it was these board members who hired an independent certified public accounting firm to review these allegations. Then, it was these board members who sought applications for and appointed an Audit and Finance Committee to oversee the work of the independent CPA to develop policies and procedures to prevent this type of financial mismanagement from reoccurring, and to provide an ongoing review of all individual budgetary transactions. Finally, it was these board members who turned over the CPA’s report along with supporting documentation to local law enforcement officials to pursue prosecution of those former administrators. These board members sought to make right what was wrong and have put in many hours to do so. Yet, there are a few members of our community — including newly elected school board member Mattie Ransom — who continue to call for these school board members to resign. I am disappointed in Mattie’s recent press release to Channel 41, which responded to the Public School Retirement System court case decision against the school district. Her communication was not only wrought with inaccuracies, it failed to tell the whole story. She was not acting as a leader of our school district but as someone with a personal agenda, still wanting to cast blame for past mistakes. Our district needs school board members who are willing to work together and to move forward in holding the district accountable to its students, parents, patrons and taxpayers without continually bringing up the “sins of the past.” Like many other school districts, we are facing challenging times and we cannot rise to those challenges when school board members denounce other school board members. I regularly attend our school board meetings, and I call upon the parents of Liberty district students, and especially our PTA members, to attend our school board meetings to see the actions of these school board members for yourselves. I encourage you to log on to the district Web site to review the auditor’s reports, the budget reduction plans and other financial information. Finally, and most importantly, I urge you to remember that our district continues to be a high-performing district and our students have continued to receive a high-quality education, under the tutelage of these board members. Let’s move on — we’ve got a community of kids to educate.
Deb Loomis is president of the Liberty Council of PTAs.
Comments (8)
  written by Fed Up, June 21, 2009
I'm getting real tired of McClelland's clowns. All Mr. Walker, Mr. Moores, and Mr. Seaton have done is divid this community and to help a cash strapped district spend even more money it does not have!
Let's look at the history of this scandal as it was reported. First of all Mr. Fleming and Mr. Hammen were put on paid leave and Mr. Wright was forced out. Now that the evidence is out, the district had to buy out the remaining contract of Mr. Fleming because no wrondoing was found and his position had been filled. Mr. Hammen has a new position within the district because again, NO wrongdoing was found and his position was filled. It appears Mr. Wright will get a handsome payout from his federal lawsuit against the district because judges have begun to reveal how Mr. Wright had been reporting questionable issues with Mr. Taveau. What more will be found? We'll just have to wait and see. We're there some issues? I believe there were. Were they what was suggeted at first? I don't think so. Maybe someone needs to looks at Mr. Walker's work computer and see how much "on the job" time was used in this witch hunt? I'm sure the government would be curious to know if their employees used taxpayer's money and equipment in this endeavor! Thanks for splitting this community and helping it to spend more money it does not have!
 written by MoveLibertyForward, June 21, 2009
MoveLibertyForward applauds Deb Loomis and hopes she will be able to encourage more attendance at board meetings by LPS parents and teachers. We believe most parents, teachers and patrons agree with Mrs. Loomis and think the district needs to get over the past and move forward with our children’s education. Citizens have grown tired of Kelly McClelland’s antics and monkey show.
Unfortunately MLF predicts the McClelland monkey show will continue. For the upcoming board meeting we predict monkey Perry will attempt to make up for his embarrassing performance last month. We also expect him to offer a re-hash of this latest moronic manifesto written no doubt by Kelly McClelland. This latest letter of Perry’s (Kelly’s) is offered as many of the letters in the past. This letter is full of half truths and outright lies. How many times has Perry (Kelly) asked these board members to resign? Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Hint Hint. Picture this if you will. All five resign, then monkey Mattie gets to help appoint new members. Picture what that will look like, Monkey Mattie with monkeys Carlin, Perry, and James on the board. Just what your children need. MLF wants to know for example what the district is to do about the properties mentioned over and over in everything Kelly writes for his monkeys. Does Kelly want the district to sell the Blue Jay Tower and the Early Childhood Center? If so what is to happen to the hundreds of children who use those buildings everyday? Does Kelly want them crammed into other overcrowded buildings? Maybe this is really about Kelly’s long standing hatred of the real estate developer involved in those purchases. Also, remember a trial lawyer doesn’t do anything unless there is something in it for him. To the post by Taxpayer, approval of Perry’s (Kelly’s) comments by naive fools is just what they want. Notice Kelly’s monkeys never offer solutions to the old issues they raise. Just like we mentioned what is the district to do about things that happened years ago? If it is such a great idea we suggest you petition the School Board to sell Blue Jay Tower and the Ford Building. See what happens when the parents who’s children attend those buildings finds out your plan. Perry’s civic duty motivation rings hollow with long time Liberty residents. Especially those who remember his embarrassing runs for school board. His many rebukes by the district and the community make this look more like payback. Hopefully his 15 minutes will be up soon. We also predict a performance this month by monkey James and a long overdue performance by the head monkey Carlin. The head monkey needs to speak soon since his image will be damaged when the 15 month and counting $100k waste of taxpayer money state audit is released. That’s right taxpayers. You are paying $100k so a group of state employees can re-write others already published work. MLF is sure Kelly and his monkeys especially monkey Mattie will try to pass this off as something new. We predict even the Tribune will find it hard to stomach the waste of taxpayer dollars. MLF predicts the state audit will look nothing like what Perry (Kelly) describes in his letter and will arrive with a thud rather than a bang. Please don’t stop Perry. You making a fool of yourself every month is very entertaining. Stay tuned
 written by Kay Lee, June 22, 2009
Mattie, Perry, William, Kelly
You are stupid, stupid, stupid! The school board you so hate is the same school board that did clean up everything. I will never eat at the Dish's restaurant again!  You are ragging on old news. You are not current. Deb Loomis is correct, honest and goes to the PTA folks. She is not one of Kelly's dried up, misled, minions of hate. Here you go Klowns...here is a bone for you...Kelly, spend your time going after Mr Phil Wright. There is a criminal for you to chase....That is unless he is one of your country club friends like Steve Flemming and company. Go fetch! 
 written by tax payer, June 22, 2009
History is full of tales when someone does not like the message they blame (kill) the messenger. Mr. Walker did not do the cheating, he reported it along with Natalie Shelton the former Tribune reporter
You folks act as if just because someone has stalled the State Audit it is old news and should be forgotten. It was not these folks who chose to spend the $300,000 to defend the board's and administration's mistakes. If Mr. Wright collects for wrongful termination then just maybe the board was trying to cover another mistake.
written by LibertyBlue, June 23, 2009
Mr Walker and Mr Seaton are commended for requesting public accountability. The school board has responded to every request. In fact this school board went above and beyond to correct all illegal and immoral activity. The school board members are unpaid public servents. It is time to move on and leave these respectable citizens to do the job of running the district. Let it go Walker and Seaton...it is time to move on. If these men are pawns of Kelly McClelland then it is time for Mr. McClelland to stand up for himself and stop hiding behind others. The school board does not need to have this kind of representation.
written by LibertyBlues, June 24, 2009
Who hopes to be hired as the school board attorney? Ah-hem....I can only think of one person. Not ethical.
 written by LibertyLaw, June 25, 2009
Taxpayer your words are a little threatening. Did you get approval from Kelly to use the word kill? Are you one of the people who have to use Kelly’s office computer or does he let you do things on your own? You sound like one of the monkeys or clowns.
Who cares about Walker? He is just a pawn for Kelly McClelland. The funny thing is he THINKS he is in charge. What a fool.
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It is just like the ones who have a vested interest to want to “move on” and leave the board and Mr. Brewer alone. While the board does spend a lot of their valuable time on school district business it does not give them the right to overlook problems with themselves and the administrators.
If someone on the board or the administration (Mr. Brewer) had questioned their own and others actions the district would not be hundreds of thousands of dollars poorer.
I applaud Mattie Ransom for speaking out. Keep questioning things Mattie, and Mrs. Armitage you should also!