Davis respond to David Thompson

Reference to: Letter printed in the Free Lance Star on 6-11-2008 by David Thompson.

Apparently David Thompson is a bit overzealous with a limited amount of information. He has obviously never met the kid he spoke ill about. The kid he spoke about has generously donated more time and talent to different KG County youth organizations than Mr. Thompson could count to (Reckon he learned that from the video games?). Exactly how disconnected is Mr. Thompson?  He must have served on the KG County School Board back when Horace rode to school on a horse.

As far as the message this sent to the Graduating seniors, I believe the seniors should all be informed and understand they have legal rights as citizens of this great country. They should be told there is no such thing as a governing body that is above the law. The standing School Board and especially the slippery School Administration would have you believe different, at least by their actions.

The KG School Board has definitely taken a beating on this issue and many more in the local press. He was right when he said "I guess it sells papers". What he failed to mention is the press will print anything newsworthy. This includes school board and Administration actions, good or bad. Unfortunately the current School Board and Administration haven't given the press anything to write about that would shed a good light on them. I suppose if they would just quit scurrying long enough to do right by the students and parents of King George County, they would finally receive some decent press.

Another interesting note, School Board member Payne Kilbourn stated at a Board meeting he was going to come up with a plan to overcome the press. I wonder if David Thompson, Ex-School Board Member and husband to one of the Superintendent’s employees is part of that plan. I would think the School Board could better spend their time reviewing failed and illegal policies than “Overcoming” the press (Just my opinion).

Skip Davis

Comments

[Machodoc]

Mr. Thompson once told a crowd of people that the only reason he ran for school board was to personally hand his daughter her diploma. Wotta guy!

It's not exactly becoming for a grown man and former elected official to be calling minor children names like "potheads" and "numbskulls" in a public letter to the editor.

Furthermore, apparently Mr. Thompson didn't learn either from his civics class or public service that in this country at least, we are all presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Yet Mr. Thompson, husband of a prominent school administrator, assumes the role of judge and jury in his letter by taking for granted their alleged guilt.

Shame on you David! Even if these kids are guilty, they are due their day in court, such as it is, and apparently you can't seem to comprehend the fact that their due process is what is at stake, not to mention the ability of Dr.Brown and her gang of five to understand the law and the principals of fairness correctly.

Next time before you happily act as Paine Killjoy's puppet in his laughable quest to "overcome" the local press, maybe you ought to exercise some rational judgment of your own.

[Edna Butsky]

Has Paulsen read his own School Board policies? And how about the State Code re School Board duties?

[Bernard Shermanski]

I don't know who "Machodoc" is, but they have my vote for whatever office they want to run for.

[Dilbert Mock]

As a citizen of King George I am extremely concerned with the way the KGCS District is being run. As a resident and taxpayer, I am confused by the way the money is being allocated to our schools and the priorities that are being set.

I recently had the opportunity to "observe" one class from the inside. During my time in the class, the teacher had to purchase her own paper in order to provide her students worksheets and information. She was told that there was no money for paper and that if she needed it, she would have to provide it at her own expense. In addition, she wanted to take some time off and was forced to take "leave without pay" so that the substitute could be obtained since there was no money left in the budget for that either. This was about the time period that there were discussions about a shortfall in the cafeteria budget and at least two schools were forced to "fire" school office personnel to help cover the shortfall. I watched two separate schools deal with the loss of valued staff and the uncertainty that everyone else felt as a result.

Fast forward to today and we are now dealing with pay raises that were promised and delivered to the administrators and teachers; however, while the administrators got the full benefit, the teachers were shortchanged. It was supposedly averaged out across the teachers and those with Master's Degrees would get the full benefit. If you include the bonus for the master's degree in the 4 percent raise for the teachers, then how is it that Ms. Brown's car allowance and bonus didn't figure into her 4 percent? No, she got the full amount, while the teachers were, once again, short changed.

If KGCS District was a business, I think the shortfalls of last school year would have been more closely scrutinized and Ms. Brown may not have been found deserving of a raise of any kind, let alone an amount in excess of what most teachers in the county will receive. The "buck" should stop with her, but she has figured a way to pass the problems down the line to the teachers and school staff. Everyone involved with averaging the pay so that the teachers did not receive the full amount should be ashamed of themselves. Once again, KGCS is passing the message that the teachers are not important. Why don't we have Ms. Brown teach our students for a period of time and then decide who deserves the raise?

And what about the school board renegotiating Ms. Brown's contract during an "illegal" time period? Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. If Phyllis Cook knew the rules, why didn't the current school board members?

The result of treating our teachers poorly will be to have the them leave our county for other areas. The end result will be a deterioration of our schools and further damage to our property values. At that point, Candace Brown will leave to find a better place to work and we will be left with a mess to deal with. The mismanagement demonstrated by the current school board is also worth taking a look at. They seem to be very enamored by Ms. Brown to the point that they are not thinking clearly. Every citizen of King George County should be watching closely.

[Bernard Shermanski]

Good for you Dilbert. You hit the nail on the head. Most of the teachers in KG make less money than the people who fetch Candace's coffee. THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE. She is building an empire of high paid flunkies who are beholding to her, probably so she can continue to break the law and disregard policy.