We teach our children to ask questions, explore new ideas and actively engage with each other and their teachers to learn, deepen their understanding and develop the broad perspective and base of knowledge for responsible citizenship. I’ve sought to apply the same principles in serving on the Bangor School Committee: asking questions, soliciting ideas and input from the community, researching promising initiatives and promoting vigorous debate and productive discussion to advance our mission.
Unfortunately, such is not the norm for the Bangor School Committee.
Legend has it that James Doughty accepted the offer to serve as Bangor superintendent in 1987 on the condition that the school committee permit him to lead without any interference. If that’s true, it may explain the culture of sycophantic passivity that has solidified within the committee over the past 25 years. Allowing a strong and trusted leader to lead, however, should not be confused with absolute deference. What has transpired over the years is the abdication of true leadership on the part of the committee.
Yet few seem willing to acknowledge the extent to which the Bangor School Committee has devolved and the negative impact of what one city councilor anonymously but memorably called the “bobblehead crew.”
Mistaking unanimity for strength, the committee’s so-called leaders have worked to ensure complete support for anything presented by the superintendent and hasty rejection of anything without the administration’s seal of approval. Such effort to stifle free expression and limit open discussion of pertinent issues is counter to effective governance, but worse are the repercussions of dissonance, which are counter to simple decency. For many years now, any member who has dared to go outside those established boundaries has been ignored at best, and bullied (in ways subtle and overt) at worst. In nearly two years on the committee, my public inquiries, suggestions and proposals have been greeted with such a lack of professionalism that I’ve lost faith in the system’s integrity.
I’ve resigned from the Bangor School Committee as a wake-up call to Bangor voters and a call to action to the City Council. It’s time to start asking the questions that the remaining school committee members are so reluctant or unwilling to ask. Does the 25-year-old governance structure of the Bangor School Department merit review, or is it sufficient to advance our mission of academic excellence for all? To the extent that the school department has fallen short of its goal to meet the needs of all students, are dramatically different approaches needed? If so, what is the role of the community and the school committee in exploring and advancing solutions?
Are we doing the best that we can for our students in every way possible? How do we encourage and support innovative programs with a basis of support in the community? What programs can we put in place that will support and encourage our teachers, thereby ensuring that we continue to have the best teachers for our students?
I hope that by advocating for our schools outside the current system, I may contribute more effectively to earnest dialogue around these and other questions. I remain hopeful that academic excellence for all is an attainable goal. Achieving our crucial mission simply requires true collaboration and real leadership.
Catherine M. Dickerson is a former member of the Bangor School Committee.
Excellent Op Ed. Those who dissent are marginalized. Meanwhile Bangor taxes are giving Robert Lucy a nice paid vacation for who knows how long.
and I approve this message.
I am inspired by the stand for integrity that this opinion piece shows. If I could find the letter I wrote to James Doughty when I quit my job rather than put up with one more day of working for the Bangor School Department with that man and his sycophants (that is the exact word for them), I would post it here. When I said in an earlier comment that he thought he was God Himself and then they named a school after him, I was not kidding. There are many just like me who can attest to the veracity of your thoughtful message to the City of Bangor because we no longer must hide out in fear of our employment.
Recall that when convenience store owner Dan Tremble was elected to the School Committee as a potential voice of dissent, he was forced to resign because his wife was either a teacher or an ed tech in the school system. Somehow the then Supt. Robert ? could, without a shred of a double standard, have his own wife as a teacher in the school system and see no conflict of interest there!
Sandy Ervin?
Yes, Sandy Ervin. Don’t know the chap at all, but his double standard didn’t take a trained philosopher of logic to grasp.
Sandy Ervin. And you are so right.
State law requires that no one can serve on a school committee if their spouse is employed in the school system or no one can be hired if their spouse is on the school committee. There is no such laws against Superintendent and spouse. I also believe that Sandy’s wife was hired before he became Superintendent.
Thanks for the clarification. Somehow, though, I don’t recall that the issue was as stated as clearly as you have here. And even if Ervin’s wife was hired before he became Supt., there remains the double standard that, while legal, also reflected Ervin’s opposition, and that of the School Com.,to anyone who wouldn’t just go along and never raise any questions. Thanks nonetheless.
I so agree with you. (See my post.)
Let’s hope the City Council takes up the call to action and makes these people accountable. Any Councillors reading this? You all should shame the School Committee.
Heck the city council approves every school budget without question. more bobble heads
Maybe they won’t next time unless the School Committee makes some changes. Maybe the Bangor citizens should let them know that they should do that.
Maybe they would if more than 1% of the voters bothered to show up to vote on the school budget.
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2011/01/21/politics/is-the-bangor-school-committee-all-in-favor-after-300-unanimous-votes/
Is the Bangor School Committee ‘all in favor’ after 300 unanimous votes?
Just a reminder that this is not a new allegation being expressed.
I know I’m voting for Sarah Smiley – she’ll be an independent voice, and not easily intimidated or controlled.
Didn’t James Doughty get the school named after him WHILE he was on the Committee? I might be mistaken, but if its true, you can spot the ethical lapse and conflict of interest pretty clearly.
Its time voters held the Committee, and Betsy Webb, accountable for their lapses in ethical judgment. Has she clearly answered any questions about the Bob Lucy hiring fiasco? Has the Committee asked how high-level administrators are vetted before they are hired? Wait: I think I know the answer. And I bet you do too.
Please also vote for Jim Moore, a father of three fine young men who either still are in the Bangor schools or have been; a longtime and superb coach of both girls and boys in Bangor community sports of several kinds; a longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney; and a progressive Democrat who won’t sit passively by on the School Committee. Please vote for both Smiley and Moore. Thanks.
You’re a real fact checker– NOT. You don’t even know the difference between a school committee member and the superintendent…THAT certainly qualifies you to comment on the issue. Go back to sleep.
This has been a constant refrain for years now, throughout the state. The school committee members, who are elected by taxpayers, act each and every one as though they are employees of the superintendent, rather than of the taxpayers. Superintendents are nothing but grossly overpaid bureaucrats.
And I think it’s disgusting that they named Fifth Street Middle School (where I went) after James Doughty, an unelected bureaucrat, at the same time they renamed Garland Street Middle School after Bill Cohen, a distinguished elected official (which is appropriate).
Who does Dickerson know at the BDN? Is it just a coincidence that a member of the BDN staff showed up to a School Committee meeting(which rarely happens) on the night that Dickerson leaves? Is it then a coincidence that they write a story and put her Op-ed in on the same night? Something fishy is going on here. Just because it’s city politics and you don’t have the major parties breathing down your neck doesn’t mean the same standards of journalism shouldn’t apply.
How is it “fishy?” The whole thing is pretty clear to see. These meetings are recorded and are public; the a resignation from a school committee member is news.
Dickerson obviously wanted her resignation to create a discussion and shed light upon the issues that she confronted. So it makes perfect sense that she tipped someone off in order to ensure that the story was covered. If the incident is accurately reported in a news article and other members of the committee were given their chance to comment, which they were, then there is nothing fishy. Dickerson’s letter is published appropriately under the”Op-Ed” section, as it is her opinion.
She was just better at playing the game that Webb and cronies played to slam her ideas. Get it out there, but don’t let them know. Honestly, if they knew it was coming, they would have rearranged the agenda to prevent it from happening somehow.
That’s how they operate, and why she’s doing this.
Ms Dickerson apparently flunked Homework 101. If she had done her homework she would have know what type of school board she was joining. So far it would seem that since the school board did not rally around some of HER ideas their is no room for dissent. Late to the topic of private fund raising to aid with sports venues and other things. Early to the idea of a science festival. So far have not seen anything to say that educational dollars are not being spent wisely. Monies being spent unwisely or for unneeded mandates. Lets rally around the idea of no dissent is causing a serious educational problem.
The relationship between the School Committee and the Superintendent sounds like a classic “tail wagging the dog”.