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8:07 AM Tuesday, November 24, 2009

To the Middletown school board: After leading a campaign to help you get rid of our last inept superintendent, I have kept quiet while you have “searched” for a new leader for our schools. My hope was that you might form a panel of interested community members to give input for the selection.

The Rev. Greg Tyus (board president) assured me this was going to be the case when we met privately shortly before (Steve) Price’s resignation. Instead, you hired an out-of-state firm who put on two dog-and-pony-show “public forums.”

Even while the board spent unnecessary funds on a search firm when one could have been hired on a performance contract, as the Cincinnati board did, I kept my peace. ... You have now dithered for almost six months and seem to be almost nowhere.

I have read the disturbing reports in the Middletown Journal which seem to indicate some sort of secret shenanigans in the early part of the selection process. This is unacceptable. The people who pay the bills have a right to know not only who is being considered for the position, but who applied (and) has been rejected and why. While candidates may request confidentiality, the law does not allow for such nor does any applicant for a public job have that expectation.

The weak excuse-making by (Debbie) Alberico that she cannot release what she does not have is beneath the members of this board and against the law. Please do not waste anymore of our money defending lawsuits and fighting against freedom of information. I am publicly urging this board to release all records and resumes that either they or the search firm has to The Journal and any member of the public who wish to see them. Only an open and transparent selection process — with a place for the community to question and examine the candidates — can lead to a successful hiring.

Jeffrey Jena

Middletown

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