petition
Staff reporter
BRANDYWINE SCHOOLS - Two Brandywine School District residents presented
Monday night a more than 4,600-signature petition to the Board of Education
asking its members to resign and run again.
Only about 3,600 people voted in the district's board election last spring.
"All of us in this Brandywine community agree with you that we desperately
need a new Brandywine," said one of the drive's organizers, Allen Kemp. "We
need a new board. We need a new superintendent. We need a new leadership
team."
Two board members, Paul T. Hart and G. Lawrence Pelkey Jr., have said they
would not seek re-election in May. Raymond E. Tomasetti Jr. has filed to run
again.
The other three board members present - President Ralph G. Ackerman Robert
Blew and G. Harold Thompson - accepted the petition, but did not give any
indication of resigning.
"I know your motivation is sincere," Ackerman said. "We may not always
agree, but I think we both have the interests of the children at heart."
More than 300 people attended the meeting, held at district headquarters in
Claymont. They lined the walls, sat on the floors and filled the hallways of
the building.
Public comments went on for over two hours, as residents took the
microphone. Many criticized the district, but some expressed their support.
Resident Ted Janeka said calls for Superintendent Joseph P. DeJohn's removal
- a wooden sign near the driveway to district headquarters Monday night said
"Joe Must Go" - were premature.
He suggested DeJohn and other administrators should be put on probation.
"I want to hear the complete story," Janeka said. "There right now seems to
be a mentality of sharks smelling blood."
Controversy began for the district last spring when a state auditor
investigation found nearly $20,000 in questionable purchases by a former
board member and other district officials.
State auditors are preparing to release another report.
Also, an administrator Friday filed a lawsuit against the district saying
his contract was not renewed in December because he had contacted the state
auditor's office about the questionable spending.
At Monday's meeting, the board put off its decision on whether to hold a
referendum May 16 for the second phase of the district's modernization plan.
Officials want to renovate six schools, build a new intermediate school in
the city and possibly replace Concord High School. The plan could cost as
much as $90 million.
The only board member to speak out against the district's current
administration has been Nancy A. Doorey, who was not at Monday's meeting
because she was on a previously scheduled vacation with her daughter.
Her husband, Andrew, read a statement from her.
The community can make an impact on the board by choosing who fills the
three seats up for election May 9, the statement said.
But "if the community will not give its support to the current board, I will
gladly add my signature to my fellow board members' on a joint resignation
and give the community another chance to select their representatives," she
said.
Another candidate announced his intention at the meeting to fill one of the
three seats up for election this spring.
Mount Pleasant High School principal Thomas F. Lapinski said he would run
against former Parent Teacher Association Council President James L. Aker
for the seat being given up by Hart.
The board also did not renew Lapinski's contract in December, and he has
said he is considering a whistleblower lawsuit. District officials have said
they were not aware he ever acted as a whistleblower.
"Let there be no doubt that my only interest is in serving the community,"
Lapinski said. "I will show no quarter to any administrator whose interests
are elsewhere."
Mount Pleasant senior C.J. Stunkard, president of the school's student
council, presented a petition signed by more than 400 students in support of
Lapinski. The students have "lost their faith in education," he said.
Doorey was the only board member last week who refused to sign a letter the
district sent to 47,000 residents explaining a reorganization plan meant to
restore public confidence in the board.
The plan included the creation of two new assistant superintendent positions
and a new board committee designed to act as the watchdog of district
finances.
The board unanimously approved Monday the creation of the committee and set
up its members: Tomasetti, Thompson and Doorey, if she accepts the position
when she returns.
The board also passed Monday night revisions to its ethics policy to ban
board members from spending district money and voting on issues in which
they have an interest. The policy also bars board members and district
employees from accepting gifts, hiring district employees during working
hours and using district property for personal purposes.
But Kemp and the petition's other organizer, former PTA President Janice
Tunell, said those changes were not enough.
"We believe the only way to restore public trust in this board and in our
district is for the entire Brandywine school board to place themselves on
the school board election ballot this May," she said.
Tunell said many who were either district employees or parents of children
who attend school in the district were afraid to sign the petition.
"They thought they would lose their job or that their children would be
punished in some way," Tunell said. "What a shame that we live in a district
that people are afraid to voice their opinion."
Parent Wayne Miller said the crimes district officials have been accused
were not that serious, and the district is still "one of the best districts
in the country."
