Are You Done Yet?

The hardworking Massillon Review Staff likes to get together every month, blow off a little steam, drink a few lemonades, and enjoy our favorite guilty pleasure.

Watching the monthly Massillon School Board meeting on TV.

We call it "Everybody Loves Marshall."

We tune in every month to see a "decision made out of strength" unfold.

We tune in every month to see "one of the issues tearing at the board" be put to rest.

We tune in every month to see our President, Marshall Weinberg, lead our schools.

And run the meetings.

And talk.

And talk.

And talk.

Televising the monthly meetings was Marshall's idea.

It was revealed on the January episode of Everybody Loves Marshall that the cost of televising the meetings would be $10,000 dollars annually, plus about another $2,500 for the appropriate microphones to outfit the various city schools where the Massillon School Board alternates its monthly meetings.

We originally thought President Weinberg wanted to televise the meetings because he wanted everyone else in the city to fall in love with the sound of his own voice, just as he had.

Apparently, we were wrong.

Weinberg gave two reasons for televising the school board meetings.

The first reason was that the Independent, according to Weinberg, did not properly cover the election of new school board officers. How would the people know about the glory and the splendor that was the selection of Marshall Weinberg as school board president if our local newspaper did not properly acknowledge this seminal event?

The second reason was to refute "anonymous blogs."

"if there is one part of it (serving on the school board) that has been less than enjoyable it is the amazing amount of misinformation that is put out to our public. And where do they turn for the information? They go to these anonymous blogs" (Marshall Weinberg, Massillon School Board Meeting, January 26, 2011).

"misinformation"

Like "Recent issues including an assistant coach and booster club member growing and selling marijuana, could have been avoided, Weinberg said, if the football coach could report directly to the superintendent" (Marshall Weinberg, The Independent, March 30, 2010).

This was Weinberg's rationale for his support of the 'football first' plan, which would have made the head football coach the High School's Athletic Director, and an assistant coach the Assistant Athletic Director, and would have put football unquestionably at the top of the Washington High School food chain.

Misinformation. Claiming a drug crime could have been avoided if the football coach were the athletic director.

Misinformation.

Let us examine the costs to the taxpayer.

Televising the school board meetings - $12,500 dollars in 2011.

Anonymous Blogs - $0 dollars in 2011.

The never ending bloviating as Marshall Weinberg runs the school board meetings.

Priceless.

The high point of the February school board meeting was during a discussion of school district bills.

Weinberg had just delivered a lengthy soliloquy worth of a Shakespearean drama.

He then turns to the school district's treasurer, Teresa Emmerling, and says;

"Are you done yet."

We waited for the laugh track.