We Are All Witnesses

Massillon School Superintendent Lisa Carmichael had long tired of Board Member Marshall Weinberg's tiresome and unending antics and grandstanding at school board meetings and used a pejorative term to describe him. As this is a family blog, we will not repeat the particular slang term, suffice to say it is "the opening at the end of one's digestive tract used to control the expulsion of feces."

When Marshall Weinberg foisted his candidacy for board of education on an unsuspecting community, he promised to be a different kind of school board member. He wanted to run our schools like a business. Under the Marshall Plan, it was going to be academics first. The football first guys? They weren't going to push Marshall Weinberg around. That lasted until he became one of them.

Marshall pushed to combine the post of head football coach with school district athletic director. This move was going to save our school system. This was such a critical personnel move, that its positive impact would reverberate through the community. According to Marshall, having the head football coach as athletic director may even have prevented an individual from growing and selling drugs in our city (The Independent, March 30, 2010). This was not some scheme to give the football program even more primacy in the athletic department food chain. This was not some scheme to satiate a wealthy donor and the rest of the "friends of the program." No, this was going to curb drug abuse in our community. Superintendent Carmichael balked at this scheme, saw it for what it really was, opposed it, and Marshall was none too happy.

Fast forward to Wednesday night. The new teachers contract was up for a vote. For over half an hour, Weinberg rambled on in opposition to the teachers contract. By all reports, it was bargained for in good faith by both the teachers and the administration. So, did Weinberg vote no? Nope. So that means Weinberg voted yes? Nope. Weinberg didn't vote. He was elected to make decisions, a critical decision being the ratification of a new contract for teachers. He abstained. He pouted, took his toys out of the sandbox, and stomped off home. If you didn't like the terms of the contract, it is your right and duty to vote no. You were elected to make decisions. Now, we realize that a contract for teachers pales in importance next to sucking up to the football boosters and assorted "friends of the program," but it is your job, your task, and your responsibility.

Why would Marshall abstain? Rumor on the street was that Marshall was unhappy that he didn't get to be a part of the negotiating team. He wanted to put his financial wizardry to good use. How could Superintendent Carmichael not see what an asset Marshall would have been to the negotiating process. Why, once Marshall was done, every key administrative post could have been filled by someone who coaches football. Marshall would have put our priorities straight. Is it possible that Marshall didn't vote because Marshall didn't get to run the show? If that is the case, then Superintendent Carmichael is indeed correct. Marshall Weinberg is truly "the opening at the end of one's digestive tract used to control the expulsion of feces."