Marshall Explains It All

As many folks have realized, the most dangerous place to be in Massillon is between Marshall Weinberg and a newspaper reporter. Nobody loves to see their name in print more than Massillon School Board member, and School Board President in waiting, Marshall Weinberg.

This past week, Marshall took it upon himself to explain to us simple folk why he voted to hire new legal counsel for the school district.

The former legal counsel for the school district was Richard Horning, personal legal caddy for our Superintendent, Lisa Carmichael. Problem with Mr. Horning was that he wasn't local. He wasn't local to the City of Massillon, the State of Ohio, the Eastern Time Zone, or the East Side of the Mississippi River. He was located in Wyoming.

Lisa and Marshall have been a feudin' for some time now. Marshall was unhappy when Carmichael refused to go along with his Athletic Department "Reorganization," better known as the football first plan, a scheme by some of the "friends of the program" football boosters to officially place football at the top of the Washington High School athletic pyramid. Carmichael balked. Board member Tom Seesan objected as well. Seesan, who is also a football booster, voted his conscience, and voted against the "reorganization." Seesan believed he was doing the right thing.

The "friends of the program" so overreacted to Seesan's vote, through name calling, intimidation, and a "Seesan must resign" sign campaign, that Seesan was pushed forever into the Superintendent's corner. If Lisa Carmichael wanted to eliminate math and science from the curriculum, Seesan would probably support her, because of the distaste he has for Weinberg and the "friends of the program" who constantly oppose Carmichael.

Hey, don't blame Seesan. The "friends of the program" did this to themselves. They were so over the top with their treatment of Seesan, their spewing venom and hate towards him personally, that they deserve this. You reap what you sew.

The acrimony between Carmichael and Weinberg escalated. Carmichael lost her cool at a board meeting and used a pejorative term to describe Marshall. It was slang for that part of the body responsible for controlling the expulsion of feces.

There was no love between Marshall and Carmichael. Scratch that. There was no love between Carmichael and Marshall.

The fact that Lisa Carmichael insisted on having her personal legal caddy, an attorney from the State of Wyoming, represent the school system made this arrangement an easy target for her detractors.

Marshall wanted to replace Horning with local lawyers. It was the right thing to do for the wrong reasons. Had Carmichael "played ball" with the "friends of the program," we speculate she could have had any attorney she wanted. This would not have been an issue Marshall would have pursued.

However, it was in his right as a school board member to pursue it. So what did Carmichael do? Did she offer a rational explanation and defense of her choice of legal counsel?

Nope.

She resorted to making up false ethics allegations about Weinberg and others. It was garbage, and she knew it. She had lost the moral high ground, and forced the Massillon Review into the unusual position of defending Marshall Weinberg.

She was wrong. Marshall was right, but he didn't do the right thing because it was the right thing to do. He did it to get even with Carmichael, his treatise in the Independent notwithstanding.