To the Editor:

To my mind, the job of the school board for Farmington and the other nine towns in the district ought to be an open and easily accessed function, very accessible to the voters who placed their towns representatives on the board. 

Think about it. RSU 9 spends millions of dollars to educate our children. What little control we have of the administration is through them our town representatives. 

I was on the SAD 9 board that preceded RSU 9, of which I was the member from new Sharon. the board is, to a large extent muzzled. Discussion by members is very restricted at meetings and not allowed outside. 

The school administration an the allowed procedures muzzles discussion outside the board meetings. I don’t believe they have changed much over the years 

News, that ought to be widely available isn’t. I just recently learned cascade Brook school ran out of fuel for the building. One school has had numerous temps or substitute teachers of late many teachers are afraid to speak up for fear of retribution by the RSU 9 administration.

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These things and many other problems occur because of the RSU 9 administration and the difficulty the school board has of learning about them. The rules that greatly throttle board members from discussing these issues outside of the meetings is a serious problem period it was my sensing during the many years I spent on the school board, that the chairman of the board was fed only what the administration wanted discussed and nothing else. This sort of behavior must stop! 

I suggest that every board meeting should provide the board chairman with a list of the following for discussion by the board members. 

•  Physical plant issues and personnel 

•  Transportation issues including personnel 

•  Disciplinary issues for one students and two faculty 

•  Public issues 

•  Administration issues 

Doctor William L Reid, PhD 

New Sharon

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