Back in April 2006, I started this blog page to give me an outlet to share what was going on with Education in not only the Milford School District, but also around the state. Since that time I’ve used my web soapbox to not only forward important information about how state education affects the Milford district, but also issues that have come up in Milford that I thought parents and taxpayers needed to know about. If you are someone who has followed my page for any length of time you know that I also have taken the time to speak to other board members about their responsibilities and how we are elected to our positions by the community we represent and the children we are entrusted to educate. Recently, we’ve had some issues occuring in the district that has taken our focus away from improving the education for all children and closing the achievement gap. I have spoken about these issues on my blog and made it very clear that I speak only as only one member of the board and the parent of a current high school student. Just as a bit of information, the Milford board is made up of 8 members who can only vote when they are together in the board room in front of the public, and it takes 5 votes to pass any type of vote. As I wrote earlier about the boards job it is to set policies and rules for the district based on the communities needs, and the only employee the board directly hires/evaluates is the superintendent who was hired like all voting issues with more then 5 yes votes! Now as I enter what could be my 10th and possibly final year on the board I’m being told my recent blog articles and comments are responsible for causing dissension and morale issues in the Milford School District. I have been asked to shut down my blog and stop my commenting because it is also considered a conflict of interest with my board responsibilities by other members of the board. So I put this out there and hope that those who know my commitment to the children of the Milford School District will give me feedback and a future direction for this method of communication.
Recent Comments
Education and Community News from Home Town Delaware 
Rubbish. Gary you provide a service to your constituents to keep them in the loop. You make yourself accessible and accountable. If your board is threatened by your blog, I can assure you they have much deeper issues to confront. You are the least of their problems.
It is your right, through freedom of speech, to blog. It is wholly inappropriate to be asked to silence your advocacy for your district, even from those within the district. As we are all aware, many boards are split on the direction their districts should be headed, and the two-faced Dover educrats are taking advantage of those divisions. There is pattern of influence that is being insinuated into boards across this state.
Let’s turn this on its head: Purely hypothetical: Remember what Joe Wise did to Christina? What if there had been a blogging board member back then? What if the CSD had told that blogging board member that their blog was a conflict of interest? What if the board member had stopped blogging. Then, a year later, the financial picture came out the closet with Joe’s skeleton’s? How would the silenced board member appear to his/her consituents, then?
The point is that no one can say definitively that the path there are on, the views they hold, and visions they purport are the RIGHT ones. Everyone thought Joe was on the RIGHT track. It bit them in their arsses. You may be the one in right, now! Those who would wish to see you silenced may be the ones in the wrong.
My best advice is to stick with the Sunlight. You can go wrong with honesty. You may not make everyone happy, but you certainly can’t go wrong.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth, Thank you for all your support and you are correct the educrats in Dover are hoping we implode so consolidating is that much easier.
Gary, please keep blogging. I truly enjoy reading these posts. You have the right to say whatever you want, and you have prefaced EVERY blog with the disclaimer that the opinions are solely yours. I agree with Elizabeth that alot of the discontent can be blamed on the educrats in Dover.
Gary,
Double rubbish. Those from within that are threatened by your willingness to shed light on how Milford works and opining on how it ought to work, are making the following argument: one person, one parent is on the verge of bringing down the district? Complete BS. Those that seek to silence you are weak and addled. I am not saying that doing this is always fun, but if you are true to your views and have been faithful to your expressed views from your election campaign, the frankly: screw them, they are cowards.
Fight on!
Gary before you surrender your freedom of speech step-down from the board and pull all stops out to address the issues. You and your blog have been very objective and as professional as can be. You are an elected official who has an obligation to the people and sometimes the truth needs to be told.
I also started blogging in 2006 and in May 2008 I pulled the plug and deleted nearly two years of blogging. I was discouraged and thought I didn’t matter. However, those who followed Kilroy’s asked me to come back and I did with in two days. The community needs a platform to express themselves in an open and BOLD way..
It appears you touch a nerve with someone and the truth must hurt! Sooner or later you will no longer be a board member and that will be the community’s loss. However, you still have that obligation as a caring citizen who believes in social justice!
The question I have is, how do the other board members communicate with the residents who elected them. How do they know the opinions of the people who elected them? This is really scary and I believe the opposite of what is required of a board member. Perhaps the other board members should turn on C-Span and see how our senators and house members speak out.
Joe, Thank you for your support, and maybe someday I can show the folks in Dover how to open the doors and let the Sunshine in.
Gary, I can’t remember a time when Dover has been darker. It seems like the governor has backtracked on his campaign promises of transparency. My board has been the victim of flat out lies from our great leader. The pressure is immense. I think we all consider quitting from time to time – you are not the first to be intimidated into pulling your blog. But, someone has to fight for the students. Someone has to balance the needs of the schools with the responsibilities we have to our tax payers. That’s our job. And we can’t do that in the dark. Neither can Dover.
Hey bud As long as you don’t claim to speak for me ,keep doing what your doing.
Gary, Gary, Gary and other ed bloggers –you blog because I can’t–so I sure appreciate you getting on the issues in this fashion, when all I can do is run around, discover, research, and try to enlighten as I go the parties who need to be making things happen–or stop what is going on. My messaging is face to face, or occasional comment. Your message is blast email :)!! Word goes wider–and you know how it is–some folks don’t know all the idiosyncracies of ed policy or funding and then put the target on you. It’s distracting and disheartening but it’s a darn good way to get the word out to those who decide. Have a great 10th year!!!