by Cris Italia
In the Oceanside School budget, teacher salaries, expenses, and just about every other dollar figure are shown for all voters to see. So when school board attorney Jerome Ehrlich said, "The board has a practice of not discussing [matters of tenure] in public," by way of commenting on why the board didn't have anything to say about the case of Brian Murphy, it left parents with a bitter taste in their mouths.
The Herald is a private company, a for-profit organization whose functions depend on the sale of ads and subscriptions. My boss wasn't elected to his position, and therefore he doesn't have to answer to readers if, say, I'm terminated tomorrow.
The school district, however, seems to misunderstand the meanings of public and private. Its officials are paid with taxpayers' dollars. So when community members are in an uproar about a teacher's job status, perhaps the best way to settle it is with answers. Instead, the school board has chosen to ignore parents' and students' questions about why Murphy, a social studies teacher at the middle school, will not be returning next year.
The word "practice" in Mr. Ehrlich's statement leads me to believe that this is a choice and not an obligation. After Murphy was told of its decision, the board was legally free to discuss anything pertaining to the matter.
I'm not denying that this was a difficult decision. I'm sure it was. I'm not stating that the board's decision was the wrong one. But why not address those who have supported you in the past. Address parents, students and fellow teachers who have been affected by this decision.
Murphy's case is obviously a special one. Neither the board nor the district can deny that they have never seen this much support and unity for a school teacher. In this case, the 12 reasons given by Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown were not enough to satisfy an understandably emotional crowd of parents and students at last week's school board meeting.
So whatever the board's "practice" has been in the past, clearly it should not apply to this. To reiterate from a previous column, these passionate parents are the men and women the board represents. They deserve, at the very least, honesty and all the information available to the board.
Parents and students feel there has been an injustice. They feel they have been robbed of a person who they feel is more than competent to run a classroom. The board's obligation now shoud be to prove them wrong.
