Thursday, May 14, 2009

Bergel on Wheatland: Intro

Author:
Catoctin District School Board Representative Jennifer Bergel was a grass-roots activist on western school issues for years before being elected to the school board. She was an ally of many of the current Wheatland Alliance activists against LCPS acquisition of the Grubb property nearby the Wheatland site now under consideration. In her 16 months on the School Board she has taken a leading role in a number of issues and her voice on issues often conflicts with the positions of her incumbent colleagues and the Administration. On the difficult issue of the Wheatland property, where most School Board members have been silent since raising their hands in favor of the contract (after concurrence from the majority of the Board of Supervisors), Bergel has taken on the difficult and central role of holding ongoing discussions with activists, elected leaders and her constituents.

She is beginning a series of informational emails to her constituents on the issues surrounding the purchase. There are so many issues involved that she writes "due to the length of my comments, I am dividing them into several emails." Even then, the first letter is over three pages long, so I'm going to break it up into separate posts. You can download the full letter in PDF format.

Reasonable people can disagree on most of the issues up for debate on this property purchase. The tone of some (not all) members of the opposition has been disturbing, and makes it difficult to engage in the discussion at all. It is the obligation of leaders to set aside the rancor, calmly face controversy, and address the issues on the merits for the benefit of those who are trying to discuss them on those terms. Jennifer Bergel is doing just that and deserves credit for it no matter what side of this issue you are on.

Here, the introduction to the letter:
Good Morning,

I will be sending comments over the next couple days to address what I said at the board meeting on Tuesday (and adding other notes). This meeting was the first time since recent events that I had to address Wheatland in public, but due to the length of my comments, I am dividing them into several emails.

I will also address Mr. Burton's email that he has sent to those of you who support of the site. I am sorry that you were given a form letter response to such an important issue.
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7 comments:

  1. "The tone of some (not all) members of the opposition has been disturbing, and makes it difficult to engage in the discussion at all."

    That's a kind of a cheap shot there John. It clearly goes both ways.

    Just look at Priscilla Godfrey's Letter to the Editor where she bungles so many of her "facts" and where she grossly misrepresents the position of the opposition.


    She then makes the completely baseless claim that the majority of those protesting don't have children in the school system. She now has in hand over 1200 signatures of people that are in opposition to this site. How on earth does she know whether they have children in LCPS. Even if she did, is having one a requirement to participate in the debate or to care about the students?

    Follow on and read the comments, then talk to me about the tone of the site's #1 supporter.
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  2. Dan, if you mean me, I have attended no meetings on this and have not spoken either for or against the site.

    Since Lenah, I have remained appalled that there is no adopted process currently being followed in the county other than apparent rule by protest.

    Barbara Munsey
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  3. I believe Dan is referring to Ms. Bergel as the number one supporter of the Wheatland site.
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  4. haigek, I was looking at his suggestion that Mr. Stevens read the Letter to the Editor by Ms. Godfrey, and then read the comments on it.

    The bulk of the comments there are an ongoing discussion between one other person and me, so that is why I asked.

    You may be right, although I see nothing in the tone of Ms. Bergel's published comments here that is objectionable.

    I understand that some people vehemently object to the content.

    Barbara Munsey
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  5. Hm, I see your point. Also, I've been reading so many different things lately that I didn't realize this was Ms. Godfrey's letter rather than Ms. Bergel's. In any case, these two members of the school board together constitute a cheering section for the proposed Wheatland schools complex, which I can only explain to myself is the result of fear. Burned by past failure to secure good school sites in time for facilities to open when needed, they have apparently decided it is more important that LCPS have something in hand -- anything, no matter how awful -- than to do the job right. I believe LCPS has moved the goalposts and these two board members as well as many others have failed to catch on to it: that by proposing three jumbo-sized schools in Wheatland now, everyone will forget that earlier we were only talking about one school here, one school there. Years of talk about a right-sized high school in (or on the outskirts of) Lovettsville (where I am sure it belongs, as a middle school also probably does) has been overtaken and forgotten. Asking the town to support a mega-school complex is not at all the same as asking it to support a single high school, or even a high school and middle school not necessarily co-located. I agree with you that if something is broken you need to fix it, not ignore it. What I see here though is LCPS ignoring the Revised General Plan, the guiding planning document hammered out in countless hours of public debate. That, to me, is point. Why have the Plan if we'll just turn around and ignore it when it's expedient to do so?
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  6. Anyone reading Barbara's 30+ messages in that thread alone -- viscerally attacking just about everyone that speaks up against the site -- might just get the idea that you are the #1 proponent of the site.
    If I was wrong, I apologize.
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  7. Dan, you're entitled to your opinion, as is everyone else.

    I don't see the visceral attack--some people interpret disagreement that way, though. I don't intend it that way, but after the leveraged protests against schools over here, I do respond strongly to exaggerated claims (as I think some of the information has been reframed) and conspiracy drama.

    Haigek, I think some of the burning has been by other than simply a failure to secure good sites.

    At Fields Farm, the school Board and Purcellville were given a "present" by a Board that acted autonomously. You saw what that's produced over the years.

    The middle school shot down by protest at Lenah complied with the comp plan, had voter approval to both purchase land and construct for a couple years, and was already two years late because no previous site had been acceptable (to some of the same people who performed at the Lenah public hearings, and for the press, and so on).

    It's now three years late, and those who spoke and wrote in favor of it far outnumbered those who protested the "megaplex" and "university" there.

    Even though it had money, and a positive staff report, including all comp plan issues.

    That to me signalled the end of following any process at all other than responding to protest, by the BoS, who seems to keep moving the goal posts.

    I don't think that serves anyone well on public service issues.


    Barbara Munsey
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