“trusty getto” is the name of a fine local blog by Cameron Getto, an attorney active in the Ypsi community. His latest entry, “Jim Vick to be considered for Ypsi High School administration position this Monday evening” does a very good and logical job spelling out the issues at hand here. After a bit of background, Getto writes this:
[I]n my view, what we have here is quite the conundrum. Either Mr. Vick is innocent of the accusations made against him, and EMU and Buztel Long engaged in a cover-up of their own, or EMU is correct, and Mr. Vick hasn’t been forthright about the role he played.
It would seem to follow, then, that prior to hiring Mr. Vick, the Board of Education has a duty to satisfy itself that Mr. Vick is on the up and up. The BOE must be satisfied that the Butzel Long report is clearly wrong as it relates to Mr. Vick, and that all of the incriminating facts and conclusions set forth in the report are either mistakes, or out and out lies. The BOE must satisfy itself that the report issued by the U.S. Dep’t of Education is not referring in any way to Mr. Vick’s words or conduct, and that the fine issued cannot be attributed to anything Mr. Vick did or did not do.
This strikes me as an extraordinarily difficult task, perhaps an impossible one, and I do not envy those on our BOE who will have the responsibility to conduct such an inquiry prior to making what would otherwise be a routine hiring decision, what with all the time, money and division such an inquiry stands to require.
As Getto says, Monday’s Ypsilanti BOE meeting could be an interesting one to say the least.
At the Ypsilanti Board of Education meeting tonight, three recommendations for hirings of school administrators were approved without controversy. There was also a fourth position, that of Asst. Principal/Athletic Director for the high school, for which the District’s administration had recommended Jim Vick.
A motion was made to hire Vick for the job; after a moment, it got a second. On a voice vote, it appeared to me that there was no more than one, but perhaps two, votes in favor of the motion. The board president declared that the motion failed. So the recommendation to hire Mr. Vick was rejected by the Board of Education.
Prior to the Board’s action, five people spoke against Vick being hired, 8 in favor. It was unclear to me if more than one or two of the pro Vick speakers are residents of the District or parents. But of course the public comment section is a free forum for any one who wishes to address the Board. Former school board member and active district parent Amy Doyle was quite eloquent in her statement opposing the hiring of Vick. I spoke as well. One person worried aloud to the board about the “black eye” that hiring Vick would give the District.
Thankfully, that black eye was avoided tonight by the wise act of the school board members. They are a fine and dedicated group of public servants – doing hard work for no pay and little recognition. I commend each of the seven Board members.
Mr Vick was in the room, surrounded by friends and supporters, including many people who used to report to him. Vick’s lawyer, Thomas Manchester, spoke to the Board during the public comment session at the start of the meeting, and he said he was there as Vick’s friend and that there was no threat of a lawsuit, by Vick against anyone. I am glad to take Mr. Manchester’s comment on that point as a retraction of the thinly veiled threat of his emailed letter to me from last Thursday. Perhaps he has thought twice about the wisdom of trying to using the threat of legal action as a way of suppressing public debate over matters of public concern. Bullying may work with employees in one division of a university, but it wins no friends in a school district accustomed to open debate, and especially not given how very well aware everyone in the district is about the risks of improperly scrutinizing candidates for administrative jobs in the district.
1973, hmmm, that was the last year I closed out my career as a teacher and became a community planner, which of course does not qualify me to be a high school administrator or athletic director. Oh – I forgot. It there a remote possibility that my stint as an athletic ticket manager might qualify me for the Athletic Dir. job? I would expect that Vick thought that the good ole boyz would take care of him, but on second thought the death of Laura Dickenson is fresh in everybody’s mind. Vick should apply for these types of positions out of state.