THE BOE IS AN IGNORANT BULLY – NO ONE IS SURPRISED
The Monongalia County Board of Education (BOE) has demonstrated time and again that it is doing everything possible to prevent one of its employees, high school counselor Tom Bloom, from readily serving as an elected public official, county commissioner.
The BOE has blocked Bloom from taking “unpaid half days” leave to miss a mere 90 minutes of work per week – 60 minutes per week if Bloom works through lunch, which he has said he is willing to do. This is the scummy and indefensible level at which the BOE operates in its rotten and destructive attempt to prevent Tom Bloom from attending the weekly County Commission meeting, where Bloom serves as one of three elected County Commissioners. Those 60 minutes per week away from the high school could easily be made up by flex time, but the BOE has disallowed Bloom’s use of flex time too.
The Monongalia County Board of Education is that asinine. And long has been.
That the Monongalia County BOE is a repugnant joke is to put things too lightly.
The BOE either doesn’t realize or doesn’t care that this obstinate opposition to Commissioner Bloom is a public relations disaster for them. They are acting like vengeful bullies, and these bullies are being unmasked very publicly by their own iron-gloved hands.
The absolute contempt by the BOE that is being shown to the public, and to one of the public’s important election decisions, is impressive, though customary.
Anyone with a brain, and with some semblance of sanity, can understand the unusual and great benefit to high school students of having a school counselor (or teacher or other mentor) who is also an elected official. An elected official daily on the schoolgrounds in continuous contact with students brings a lot of extra experience and knowledge and even eventual networking opportunities to thousands of young people who are growing into their various roles in the community and country.
In relentlessly acting against Tom Bloom, the BOE is acting against the County Commission, against the public, and against its own students. The BOE is cutting off the students’ noses to spite its popular employee who has the great merit of being elected to public office. Such BOE bullying shows absolute disregard, callousness, and ignorance toward the public and toward the high school students’ well-being, though the BOE constantly cries the opposite.
When did the BOE ever raise a public objection to candidate Tom Bloom as he ran for office, with the expressed intention of working as high school counselor and serving as public official if elected? Commissioner Bloom did not sneak up on the BOE. Instead, the two-faced BOE is constantly sneaking around on the public, not least in still refusing to podcast or televise its regular public meetings.
And what has happened to even the pretense of the BOE’s willingness both to work well with various public bodies and to bring the larger community into the schools for the benefit of its students? The BOE has repeatedly shown that it cannot be taken at its word. Its actions speak much louder. Pretty BOE words matched by odious BOE deeds. The BOE sneaks around as much as possible, and when sneaking around out of sight is not possible, the BOE swiftly jumps to bullying to push around Tom Bloom and many others.
Though hugely unfortunate, all of this BOE bullying against Tom Bloom is good to see so prominently displayed, because it shows the manner in which the BOE typically bullies its employees and other constituents and interests, otherwise often far more removed from the public eye. This is why the BOE regular meetings should be publicly podcast online or broadcast on TV. So many more of these BOE bullying maneuvers and actions would be made visible, the airing of which can help give rise to change to stop the ignorant, wrong, and destructive BOE behavior. Read the rest of this entry »
New Woodburn Community School 