Amid modest backpedaling and “20-20 hindsight” by School Committee members Sklar and Shaw and ground-holding by Chairman Wickham, the Harvard School Committee tried to appear reasonable at the public dialogue on October 1. But reasonableness is neither the question nor the answer. As the audience repeatedly pointed out, the School Committee is insensitive to the reality of their predicament: a large segment of the town has lost faith in the superintendent, and holds the School Committee responsible for completely mismanaging a still-growing storm of moral and legal problems. The School Committee stood by its rosy public opinion of the superintendent, but could not justify it or even explain it satisfactorily, other than to confirm that the superintendent’s performance evaluation and contract extension were done without regard for well-publicized reports of various investigations of wrongdoing. For this reason, and as stated by many speakers, the townspeople should use a successful vote for censure to bring the School Committee back to reality and to their job of managing the superintendent.
Frederick Hinchliffe II
Still River Road
