[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]Between the School District and the School Board, are they trying to turn David Mielke into Anthony Weiner West, persona non-very grata?

The pretty obvious goal seems to be to steadily chip away at his legitimacy, at his image, at his integrity, at his dignity, one meeting at a time, until nothing is left.

These people are not content to criticize. They attack.

This from a crowd that won’t be winning candor awards this season — don’t look too closely at last night’s “denial”/answer to the question of an elementary music education program for next year. It is fragile. The glass house is suffering from a plague of broken windows.

Their animus against the Teachers Union President has twirled, twisted and ballooned wildly out of all vaguely sensible proportion this spring.

Is This a Close Call?

If Ghadaffy had entered the Board Room last night, he might have been received more warmly.

The starving School District may need to hire a housekeeper or a referee to keep the two sides apart, except all aggression is on one side.

Some hims should tuck in their shirt-tails more neatly. Some hers should not wear their pigtails so tight because the pain pinches their faces.

Before the public commented at last night’s meeting, Board President Scott Zeidman warned the speakers to be civil — but the entirety of the fusillade of incivility that I have observed in recent months has come from the east side of the dais.

If it isn’t Steve Gourley, arms raised, chasing Mr. Mielke down a country road, it is Kathy Paspalis.

Stunningly, Ms. Paspalis interrupted Mr. Mielke twice, within seconds, when, it now appears, he was 100 percent correct and she was completely wrong.

The very sight of Mr. Mielke, must irritate some who occupy the chairs of the semi-circular dais.

Here is how the latest assault started last night with this innocent remark by Mr. Mielke:

“I was also surprised because I think in the past the Board has tried to involve the union in the hiring committee. We were not invited to participate in the hiring for the Assistant Superintendent. I found out about it when…”

Ms. Paspalis broke in to say “That’s not true.”

“No one told me,” Mr. Mielke continued.

Mr. Zeidman stopped Ms. Paspalis. But the pause did not last as long as a sneeze.

“Let me…let me…because that’s exactly true,” Mr. Mielke started again. “I found out this position was filled when I picked up the agenda yesterday afternoon.

“Y’know, I am getting tired of being accused of not telling the truth in front of this Board,” Mr. Mielke said.

That set off Ms. Paspalis again, and she barged in a second time.

In flagging her again, Mr. Zeidman said firmly and softly, “Please don’t interrupt.”

Mr. Mielke tried to speak over her. He could not.

“I mean really and truly,” he finally said. “No one contacted me about having a union person sit on that committee. I found out about the hiring when I picked up the agenda yesterday afternoon. You can call me a liar if you want to.”

Surely that was a tempting rhetorical morsel to dangle in front of his dug-in adversaries.

Another Viewpoint

Mr. Mielke acknowledged later that Mr. Zeidman was correct to say the District has no contractual obligation to come to the union when candidates are being interviewed. “But that seems to suggest that unless the contract requires something, they are not going to do it,” he said. “In the past, it has been the informal practice for the District to come to the unions when putting together interview committees. In many districts, where employee groups are seen as partners in the educational process, this happens all the time.

“We've approached the District twice, when Dr. Cote was the Sup and now with Mrs. Jaffe, about bringing out a ‘partnership’ specialist from our national union, the AFT, to help put together a more collaborative labor/management structure here.

“We need something like that. But I am not sure this Board wants to move in that direction.”

It emerged later that the people who do the hiring ignored Mr. Mielke. Since his presidency goes back to the 1980s in a smallish district, it is difficult to miss him, to forget about him. You see, he was right. His adversary on the School Board was wrong.

Mr. Mielke’s adversaries, feeling red-faced, later pledged the next time to consult Mr. Mielke and the President of the Classified Union, Debbie Hamme.

But no one has admitted erring or mis-speakng.

Let us not have a breath-holding contest.