Reading School Board Member Karen McCree Says She’ll Resign

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States Public School Districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Following a tumultuous reorganization meeting earlier in the week, longtime Reading School Board member Karen H. McCree has resigned from her position.
McCree said she submitted her resignation to board president Rebecca Acosta Wednesday. The school board released a statement about McCree’s resignation Friday.

Acosta and McCree have butted heads at recent public meetings. The tussle escalated to a heated shouting match at Monday’s reorganization meeting, when Acosta was named president.

McCree just began her 15th year as a member of the school board. Her last board meeting will be Dec. 18 and her resignation will take effect Jan. 3.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while and there have been some other reasons that I’ve decided that now is the time,” McCree said of her decision Friday.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article/20131207/NEWS/312079964/1052#.UqNbcPSgnuI

Gov. Mifflin School Board Censures Member

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States Public School Districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gov. Mifflin School Board member Elaine K. Fiant has been using her position to harass one of the district’s vendors and has repeatedly flooded school administrators with requests for information, her colleagues said Monday night.

On Monday, the board voted 8-1 to censure Fiant, with Fiant voting against the measure.

Board member Jill Koestel read the resolution aloud and said the move came after Fiant recently used her authority on the board “to intimidate and harass” one of the district’s vendors.

“It’s just unfathomable to me,” Koestel said. “It’s so wrong. It’s so inappropriate and so outside your scope as a school board member.”

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=519591

“Teflon Bonnie” Dodges Bullet – Escapes Pottstown Council’s Ire Over Gallerygate

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Where to begin! 

Bonnie’s Mayor’s Report started off as the usual cheerleading session and turned into making excuses for her bad behavior, which she is not sorry for.  Bonnie said she did what she did because she is “passionate” and she felt the Gallery School Project was a bad idea.  She blithered on about differences and stepping on toes etc… but any apology in all that was missing, from what I could tell.

During the Announcements part of the meeting, which comes right before Adjournment, Councilor Weand raised a motion that we limit the mayor’s speaking at council meetings to the Mayor’s Report, if she was asked a direct question or if she needed to break a tie vote.  The other part of the motion was to forbid Bonnie from speaking negatively in public against Borough Council, like on WPAZ or to the County Commissioners, for example.

Councilor Gibson seconded the motion but only for the sake of debate.  Only Councilor Rhoads sided with Councilor Weand.  Maureen Allen was absent.  Chomnuk, Gibson, Kirkland and Toroney all sided with the mayor.  Councilors Gibson and Toroney expressed their displeasure at Bonnie’s recent behavior but felt it was not proper to limit her “face time” at meetings.  Councilors Kirkland and Chomnuk did not think her speaking time should be limited.

So once again, bad behavior in Pottstown is rewarded.  It’s okay to go outside the chain of command, bad mouth at will and undermine binding votes of council, all in the name of being “passionate”.

Expect more bad behavior, more diatribes and insubordination from our mayor in the future, now that she has been further empowered to do so.

Two Roy’s Rants thumbs up to Councilor Weand for doing the right thing and to Councilor Rhoads for backing him up and voting yes.

At this time, I will refrain from comment about the rest of Council until such time as I can think of a polite way to say what is on my mind.