The Alternative Press

Dear Editor:

Once again, Mr. Donnie Evans and his Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time administration have gone out of their way to be arrogant and disrespect the elected members of the Paterson Board of Education. And what do these impotent school board members do about these insults. Absolutely nothing!

The first sham is the disrespectfulness of Mr. Evans to spend $100,000, including overtime payments, to build a luxurious legal suit that would serve, among others, a Deputy Legal Counsel which Evans plans to hire to expand the legal and political empire of a Legal Counsel who has only been here a few short months. 

The second  sham by  Mr. Evans was to build a fence around John F. Kennedy High School that makes this   institute of academic learning look like a prison. What message are we sending our students and Paterson community? If the administrators overseeing Kennedy High School cannot control day-to-day operations and discipline you need to get more effective administrators. The fence is a very negative message about our schools and a total waste of money that could have been put to better use. 

The third sham by Evans was to appoint a Deputy Superintendent with no earned doctorate, no experience as a building principal or even vice-principal, and whose main experience with High School  education is that she attended one in Essex County for four years.

The fourth sham was the Professional Development Day. According to virtually every staff member attending, it was a totally disorganized and wasted day. Evans and his acolytes would mess up a one-car funeral. Of course it was a real sham. Look at the name of the person who was supposed to run this "SHAM". 

I could go on, but the fifth sham for now is the infamous "Rubber Room". Does Evans plan to terminate, re-train or reassign them?  According to one of the administrators, they have nothing to do. Apparently, Evans has no plan and is just wasting a million dollars of hard earned taxpayers money that should be spent on our children.

The Board of Education is being disrespected. They should pass a resolution of No Confidence immediately. The community and voters are watching and know the sham that is going on.

William A. Connolly

[Editor’s note: Connolly is  a candidate for the Board of Education.]