Clay: Newmarket School Board Cowards!

Chairman of the Newmarket School Board, Mike Kenison, and every other member of that board are stone-cold cowards!

This is true for many reasons, but in particular, for allowing all of the blame for the removal and subsequent re-assignment of Principal Mazzone to rest solely upon the shoulders of Supt. Givens.

First, there is no way in the world that Supt. Givens, after only three months in her position as Newmarket’s new Supt., would have removed Mazzone from his principalship without first consulting and getting the approval of school board chairman Mike Kenison, and probably the entire school board. Yet, neither Kenison nor any other member of the board has had the backbone to so inform the public.

The same is true with Mazzone’s re-assignment as facilities director. No Supt. has the legal authority to reassign a public educator to a non-education position such as this. In order for Mazzone to be hired as a facilities director, he would have had to have been fired or resigned from his principalship and then, and only then, would he be eligible to apply for the facilities director position and only the school board could have hired him. However, there is no record which I have been able to obtain showing any of this transpired. Yet, the school board cowards allowed Supt. Givens to take all of the heat for this re-assignment debacle alone when they knew full well Given’s could not have re-assigned him without their approval.

As for the community, the community support for Mazzone, unfortunately, appears to be misplaced. The only way Supt. Givens could have placed Mazzone on administrative leave is for cause. If Given’s did not have a cause, Mazzone certainly could have sued the school district for defamation, etc., and even placed back in his position. This he did not do.

Given the amount of time which has elapsed since his removal, and given Mazzone’s willingness to be re-assigned outside of public education for the remainder of the year, it’s fair for me to conclude the school district had the goods on him which would have ended in his dismissal from the school district and probably ended his career in public education had he not accepted the reassignment.

All of this is bad and sad news for the Newmarket community as a whole. Moving forward, there is, in my opinion, no way for Supt. Givens to remain in her position after such a total fiasco. Sadly, the taxpayers of Newmarket will have to eat the remainder of her salary and tremendous benefits package, should she depart.

Given the wide reach of the media coverage of this public debacle and the consequences of having been removed, I fear Mr. Mazzne’s career in public education is over. I could be wrong; but until the greater public knows what Mazzone did to cause his removal, I fear it would be imprudent for any school district to hire him.

As for the members of the school board, you all rightly deserve to be fired by the public for your cowardice.