In the opening of his 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte--a work about the 1851 French coup d'etat by Napoleon's nephew--Karl Marx, remarking on Hegel's observation that history tends to repeat itself, quipped that "He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce."
What about the third time?
Now the new superintendent of J-E is embroiled in a scandal regarding a contract and an apparent relationship with the director of operations. This was the superintendent who took what I thought to be a too aggressive and overly closed-off approach toward public comment in the wake of the strong reactions against the board's dismissal of several administrators.
In a separate set of recent Post-Standard stories, it was also reported that there are state-level investigations into actions that occurred while these administrators were in place--the subject of my recent and now missing blog post (see below). The most significant inquiry seems to be the state AG examining the treatment of student records. It looks like the outcome of these investigations may suggest that the original decisions of the board were justified, but we'll have to see. I had wondered about something like this months ago, and wrote as much--things just didn't make any sense otherwise.
But back to this latest development. Everything has been under microscopes for months. What was the thinking in drawing up and approving that contract, especially given the other matters suggested by the paper?
The other day I had written--in the now-missing post--that it will likely take a very long time, and some expert outside help from people J-E residents trust, in order for the community to recover from the past year. Double that now.
Note: This blog draws in part on my experiences and observations interviewing political figures, writers, and analysts for "The Campbell Conversations" on WRVO. To hear past interviews I refer to in these posts, please go to the show's website. The views expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent Syracuse University, the Campbell Institute, or the WRVO Stations.
In addition to comments, I'd love to have guest posts. Please send ideas or full-blown posts to me at gdreeher@maxwell.syr.edu.
3 comments:
Grant...I'm not a JE resident...only know what I have read in the Post Standard and on-line...I agree - it will no doubt take a very long time to mend the damage caused by the JE fiasco. However, I'd bet 'dollars to doughnuts' that the originally fired/suspended employees, not the JE BOE, will be the ones vindicated once the 'dust settles' and the investigations have been finalized. Time will tell...TW
This post of yours is quite familiar with me because my professor in high school discussed it, too.
Time flies so fast now that even the simplest story in history will take you down on memory lane.
Thank you for sharing your content, I love it.
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