The Marshall Plan

The Massillon DREAM Project is over. According to various newspaper stories, and the comments of various school board members, Paul & Carol David Foundation Chairman Jeff David pulled the plug on the David foundation's involvement because head football coach Jason Hall was not also made Massillon Athletic Director. According to board member Marshall Weinberg, doing so would have had such a positive effect on the Massillon community that the DREAM project would have been saved, the athletic department would have been improved, and apparently drug activity in the city would have been curtailed.

At last night's school board meeting, Marshall Weinberg and fellow board member Phillip Elum voted against renewing the contract of Tim Ridgley, the current Athletic Director. Board members Gary Miller, Tom Seesan, and Vicki Becherucci voted to keep Ridgley, therefore scuttling the plan to make the head football coach the athletic director as well.

Marshall Weinberg, when he ran for school board in 2007, promised to use his business management and finance background to create a more fiscally responsible school system. He ran on raising educational standards. He was a "numbers" guy, who was going to run our schools "like a business." He claimed to be an "outsider," running against the entrenched "insiders." It was going to be academics first, and football second. The football booster club guys, who many believe have too much influence on how the school system is operated, were not going to push Marshall around.

Well, that was true until he became one of them. It only took Weinberg two years to become the ultimate insider. His beliefs and promises from his 2007 campaign have disappeared. He is now the football booster club go to guy. He is now the football insider. He is pushing the agenda to give football priority in the athletic department. It may be a great idea. It may not be. It may save the DREAM program. It may not. What is most interesting to the Massillon Review is that Marshall Weinberg is now the school board member that Marshall Weinberg the candidate ran against. The Massillon Review expects to see Marshall playing the calliope at Touchdown Club meetings this fall. We are confident he will get a standing ovation!