Adam M. Finkel of Hopewell Township
Your article last week about the resignation of Judith Ferguson does not “lay to rest any thoughts citizens might have about the timing of her announcement” (as if we need a reporter to tell us what thoughts to banish from our minds). If we accept at face value her claim that her decision — which she announced mere hours after the state Treasury Department ruled on the impropriety of the contract awarded to her former business administrator — was made long before this official rebuke, it then calls into question the entire process by which she was hired.
Dr. Ferguson explained last week that “she had confided with both the past and current board presidents that she might leave early.” Putting aside her own “everyday math” error in your article (she has resigned 2½ years into her four-year contract that was to end in July 2009, not her figure of 3½), this makes one wonder why there was no formal search in 2005, if indeed the “ideal candidate” had already confided her intent to make such a fleeting commitment to our district. The minutes of the June 1, 2005 special meeting where the appointment was announced reveal unanimous dismay by the public, and by a representative of at least 67 of the district’s several hundred teachers, that no public or employee input was allowed. Of course, this one-choice choice saved us a vast $30,000 on a search; I’m sure the board would never spend a sum twice or 10 times this amount carelessly or unethically.
But I’m more concerned looking forward that we not repeat the same mistake. My first encounter with Dr. Ferguson as a “CEO,” however, was most revealing. I expressed my frustration with hearing her and certain board members stating “facts” about the curriculum that were completely at odds with what teachers were telling us only privately. I was careful to emphasize to her that the teachers might well have no justification for telling us they were afraid of adverse treatment if they spoke publicly. As a former senior manager in the federal government, I found her response breathtaking in its mean-spiritedness and disdain for applicable laws: “Who are these teachers? Give me their names!” Not the “exceptional commitment to the staff and students of this district and flawless professionalism” that school board president Linda Mitchell wants Dr. Ferguson’s legacy to be, I would think.
My daughter and her excellent teachers deserve better, and I’m optimistic that the board as constituted after the next election will attract first-class candidates to our (soon to be again?) first-class district.
Adam M. Finkel
Hopewell Township
