Mr. Felker is done being a useful member of the Chariho School Board regardless of whether he wrests his seat back or not. Obviously, if the courts decide that the School Board can remove him, he will be removed. But even if he gets to keep his seat, he will do Hopkinton no good. And the reason for this is pretty straightforward: In the past two years all he has done is fight with his colleagues on the Board (whether right or wrong) and caused a lot of animosity. The problem with this tactic is that it’s pretty hard to get much done when everyone votes against you just because they hate you. By my count, if Felkner is reinstated permanently, the School Board is generally going to vote in blocks of 5 vs. 6, with Felkner and Hopkinton being in the minority. And I’m not even sure that everyone in the group of 5 shares much philosophically, making it a tenuous alliance. I can guarantee that the majority will probably vote against anything Felkner comes up with as a matter of course, however. That is human nature at its finest.
In case Mr. Felkner has not been paying attention, political processes require concessions, compromises and a little bit of quid pro quo. I am no fan of the School Board or the superintendent but these are the people we have to deal with. Why don’t we start dealing with them instead of fighting with them?
If Mr. Felkner does manage to hold onto his seat, it will be that much worse. The egos of the rest of the Board will be bruised beyond repair. And his sniping at their personal conflicts of interest does him no good. It just makes him look angry and petty. After siding with Felkner, I doubt very much that Carney will have much chance at being School Board President. But she’s definitely smarter than Felkner, she waited until she was off the Town Council to run for School Council.
In a time when we should be thinking about bringing back our 5 and 6 graders and getting rid of the horrible math curriculum, Mr. Felkner is engaging in full blown war with the School Board. In the end, it will be Hopkinton and our kids that will suffer because of his bloated ego. But fortunately, Hopkinton “politicians” tend to go away eventually. In another 3-4 years, Felkner will have moved on and probably done little to redeem himself.
December 11, 2008 at 7:32 am
Sorry to break it to you, but the time to start thinking about fixing Chariho’s problem for the sake of your children is long past. Chariho’s problems existed long before Bill Felkner showed up on the scene, but hey, why not blame him this week.
December 11, 2008 at 1:09 pm
You are absolutely correct, Chariho’s problems did exist before Felkner came along and at the current rate, they will still exist when he is gone. Internal bickering and name calling among members of the School Board, however, will not solve the problem. It just makes it worse. I have read the interactions between Felkner and Petit and Felkner acts like a self-righteous ass. He intentionally alienates his colleagues. I am not surprised he is “self-employed”, no employer would waste their time on him. He does not place nice with others.
Felkner appears to be working very hard at dissolving the district. He can’t do it alone but he can cause enough problems to make Richmond and Charlestown throw up their hands and either ignore us or try and walk away from us. Neither attitude does anyone any good. From a purely fiscal standpoint, Felkner becomes a more expensive liability for Hopkinton everyday.
December 11, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Interesting viewpoint on open government and transparency…..
When was the last instance of the administration of Chariho being forthcoming withinformation they did not want the public to know????
The BF’s of the world will never be popular and will always be ridiculed by the “establishment”. This was witnessed on Tuesday the way Deb Carney was treated.
So it is appearant to me we have boiled this down to the same old issue. Those who back the status quo (at a great cost to your children) and those who try to effect change.
I choose change, ruffled feathers and all.
December 11, 2008 at 10:28 pm
In the past 2 years, show me the change. Please? Pretty please? There has been no change and there will be no change. All that has happened is to fracture the School Board into factions. And now nothing will happen, nothing but more fighting, grandstanding and childish behavior. Sure, we know how much Chariho spends on pencils. IS is any less today than it was 2 years ago, even though we know the amount? It is not. It was Thompson, not Felkner who has changed the attitude towards the surplus, and she did that without fighting the School Board.
Look what happened to the Charlestown Town Council. Mageau paralyzed them for 2 years. The same thing is happening on the School Board, just with different characters. Felkner is doomed to fail but at least he will go down in a ball of flames, and maybe he will bring us all down with him.
All the information that Felkner wanted public could have been gotten without starting a war. A little finesse goes a long way, and I am not talking shampoo. There is no “change” here, just a battle of inflated egos. You are deceived, and easily so.