{"id":8948,"date":"2013-11-16T08:26:45","date_gmt":"2013-11-16T13:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=8948"},"modified":"2013-11-17T09:11:35","modified_gmt":"2013-11-17T14:11:35","slug":"casd-board-continues-to-disrespect-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=8948","title":{"rendered":"CASD board continues to disrespect citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tirade by Joe Dunn sadly typifies group’s overall tenor\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"ChescoTKBSCol-250x300\"<\/a>Few jobs on the planet are as thankless as serving on a school board, a duty that routinely subjects members to all manner of vitriol. In fact, when school district operations go smoothly, those folks rarely hear a peep from constituents; so even the good times go unrewarded.<\/p>\n

Of course, mourning the lack of gratitude for boom times is not an issue for board members in the Coatesville Area School District: There haven\u2019t been many. History shows one problematic administration after another, going back decades. And it seems that somewhere in that toxic mix, school board members lost sight of their accountability to citizens.<\/p>\n

Numerous board decisions in recent weeks have flouted taxpayers\u2019 input \u2013 from failing to fire former Superintendent Richard W. Como and former Athletic Director James Donato for a series of racially-charged text messages to purchasing a $2.8 million administration building intended to double as a health-care center. That\u2019s not to say that the board should rubber-stamp public opinion, but it shouldn\u2019t flagrantly ignore it, either.<\/p>\n

When hundreds of taxpayers make the same passionate appeal, the board owes them an explanation for disregarding the prevailing sentiment. Not in Coatesville. For the past couple of months, most of the board members have been totally unresponsive \u2013 remaining mute at meetings and leaving phone and email messages unanswered.<\/p>\n

And the few times when board members have responded, the result has left frustrated taxpayers shaking their heads in disbelief. One such example occurred Tuesday night when a citizen\u2019s remark unhinged outgoing Board Member Joe Dunn.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Dunn may have been justified in his anger over an insinuation that he had something to gain by approving the purchase of the Citadel building – even though the board has invited such suspicions by overseeing a regime shrouded in favoritism and secrecy. Still, screaming that the citizen was a coward and a punk for not backing up \u00a0the accusation when confronted represented a new low in meeting decorum, even for Coatesville.<\/p>\n

Outbursts do sometimes occur at public meetings everywhere, but such behavior is generally halted by someone \u2013 if not the person running the meeting, then someone near the podium. If the person who blew up doesn\u2019t see fit to apologize, colleagues often do. Not in Coatesville. Instead, exasperated taxpayers were left wondering whether other board members viewed this as acceptable behavior.<\/p>\n

And even worse, Dunn wasn\u2019t done with his diatribe. After the meeting, he was interviewed by Kyle Carrozza, a staff writer for The Times<\/em>, which prompted a rant that extended far beyond Coatesville\u2019s boundaries: Dunn succeeded in disrespecting all members of Carrozza\u2019s arrogant, misguided generation.<\/p>\n

Demonstrating a scary, loose-cannon demeanor, Dunn insisted that he was totally justified in his verbal barrage, explaining that the citizen accused him of taking money and then backed off when challenged about his accusation. \u201cYou go to rob a bank. You take the money out and you get caught and you try and give it back? That doesn\u2019t work,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to slander me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fiercely unapologetic Dunn scoffed derisively at Carrozza\u2019s question about whether a lower-key approach might have been more appropriate, labeling Carrozza silly and out of his mind for such a suggestions. Did Dunn regret the fact that children were in the audience during his tantrum? \u201cToo bad,\u201d he said. \u201cEducation to those kids ought to be: Hey, don\u2019t get up and make unfounded accusations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, Dunn accused the parents who brought them of using the children \u201cas human shields.\u201d He said the adults should have known the meeting would be contentious and must have brought the kids as a form of what he termed \u201cextortion\u201d \u2013 an unsuccessful attempt to muzzle him. Besides, he added – mimicking a recalcitrant kindergartner – he didn’t start it. If someone hadn’t accused him of malfeasance, he wouldn’t have lashed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care about hurting people\u2019s feelings,\u201d Dunn insisted. \u201cPut it in the paper. Let me tell you something \u2026 It will say a lot more about you than it says about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I strongly disagree. I think Dunn\u2019s remarks speak volumes about him, and regrettably, by extension, of the entire school board since it enabled his tirade. As Thanksgiving approaches, citizens can be grateful that a board member who served as a turkey is now a lame duck.<\/p>\n

Dunn’s conversation at the meeting can be heard here: \u00a0http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/Audio\/DunnResident111213.mp3.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tirade by Joe Dunn sadly typifies group’s overall tenor\u00a0 By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times Few jobs on the planet are as thankless as serving on a school board, a duty that routinely subjects members to all manner of vitriol. In fact, when school district operations go smoothly, those folks rarely hear a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,112,3],"tags":[2858,3140,29,3139],"class_list":["post-8948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-columns","category-featured","tag-athletic-director-james-donato","tag-board-member-joe-dunn","tag-coatesville-area-school-district","tag-superintendent-richard-w-como"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8948"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8965,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8948\/revisions\/8965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}