Source: Del Mar Times, 3-3-08
Call it "As the Board Turns."
The continuing soap opera that has become the Del Mar Union School District has taken another bizarre turn with the sudden departure of its leading man, Superintendent Tom Bishop.
Add this to the episodes about the Del Mar Education Foundation, school boundaries, a hot lunch program, Spanish immersion and the sale of the Del Mar Shores property.
As befits this serial, the big scene, last week's special meeting to determine Bishop's fate, featured high drama, complete with tears, anger, retribution — and more than a little confusion.
The crowd that filled the Del Mar Hills Academy auditorium demanded answers but received none. While the board has every right under law not to publicly discuss personnel matters — the district is quick to send out press releases for hirings by the way, but always close mouthed on firings or disciplinary actions — we believe there have been too many parents and educators left in the dark on this one.
Many wondered why a change was needed for a district flush with success and all of it accomplished under the guidance of Bishop.
The superintendent has had his detractors, including obviously three of the five school board members who helped orchestrate his buyout. But only a handful chose to express that sentiment at last week's meeting. That left the an angry mob to vent, jeer and ask "why?"
The backlash continued the next evening at the board's regular monthly meeting during a regular presentation by the Del Mar Education Foundation's president Bob Gans. Gans said he had received numerous angry calls and e-mails from parents, who asked in effect, why they should contribute their hard-earned money to a district that can blow about $300,000 for a buyout of Bishop's contract. "It is essential to communicate that answer," Gans told the board.
The Bishop writing was clearly etched on the wall in the November 2006 election when the triumvirate of trustees Easton, White and McDowell took its place on the board with calls for increased transparency — something now lacking in the Bishop issue — and restoration of power to trustees. In the words of former trustee Jeannie Waite, one of 35 people to speak at the meeting, Bishop "never had a chance" after the school board election.
"Not all of us have access to the same information," said the board's president Annette Easton of the Bishop decision.
Knowledge does equate to power after all.
Some may have their suspicions and theories about his departure, but without any concrete explanation, we are left thinking the board was following the old Groucho Marx adage, "Don't look now but there's one too many people in this room, and I think it's you.
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