At the June 10th, 2014 Iowa City Community School District board meeting, Jeff McGinness said, "I fail to see the logic of the board substituting its judgment for that of Steve's educational judgment." Later in the meeting, he said he wants to rely on the educational "experts," discounting his own ability to make a judgment on how the superintendent is spending district funds.
Considering that the superintendent is spending $30,000 on a monument sign for West High to announce that West High is West High and spending $24,000 on fertilizer while cutting curriculum for the students, I think Jeff's trust in the "experts" is misplaced.
I also can't help but remember my government professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University when I was an undergraduate. Count Einaudi (I can't remember his first name) specifically told us not to rely on experts, that that was a dangerous path to follow, and to think for ourselves instead.
Should we rely on the experts in the National Security Agency to decide whether they should abide by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution on the right to privacy?
Should we rely on Supt. Murley to decide whether the priority of building a $172,000 private administration parking lot and a $562,000 administration building roof is more important than student curriculum? There's an obvious conflict of interest between the superintendent's priorities for himself and his staff and the interests of students, parents, and teachers.
If Jeff McGinness says he doesn't know enough to direct Supt. Murley on policy issues, which is his job as a board director, he should resign immediately, which is what he should have done anyway when the Iowa Supreme Court suspended his law license for dishonesty and fraud.
This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.
The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?