Region 14 Residents, Readers Go Social on Referendum

Chris McGrath: For the record Erik, I never said they were doing this to hurt kids and their education so please don't try to turn it into something like that.

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Dave Lampart: I saw all the signs for the month prior. I don't recall seeing and dates on any sign. Besides that, if its required to be a legal notice in the paper, then do it!

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Sean Murphy: Chris, you are a teacher and are telling the kids that the rules do not matter. The law does matter and that is more important than any want by anyone. No one gets to make up their own rules in life.

If this is what you think is acceptable to teach kids, you have no business teaching children.

This win at any cost mentality serves young people in the worst way. Using the Memorial Day parade to [Editor's Note: The sentence cuts off here on the Facebook page.]

The law requires a legal notice in the newspaper. There is a reason for it. Everyone needs to have the equal opportunity to know about votes, not just the people on the email list for the region, which skews significantly in one direction. The region has used this email system consistently to notify their list, which is wrong. Either tell everyone or tell no one.

If all this is such a great idea, then make the case. The case was not made and there are too many holes in the case. I have gone over some of them over and over again.

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Sean Murphy: What needs to be taught to children is skills that they will need to succeed in the real world. These include:

1. How to convince people to your way of thinking. This is done by putting together a logical argument to your side and showing people the benefits of it. This was not done.

2. The importance of honesty and integrity. Playing by the rules is a must.

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Chris McGrath: Be fair Sean, I never said that laws and rules weren't important so please don't interpret it that way. To tell me I would have no business teaching kids is very rude of you. I said I was saddened that all the advertising of the refferendum wasn't considered legal. In the end the only loser in this is the kids who again will feel the divide.

These kids want much more than to know how to win an argument. They want the basic feelings of a unified and fully supportive community which they can take pride in and be proud of and who is prideful and proud of them. Do you help in providing them that? I know that I do am I'm darn proud of it.

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Dave Lampart: Advertising would have dates. There were no dates on any if the advertising I saw.

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Dave Lampart: The saddest thing about this is when I got home after the BOE meeting last night, my son who is in he High school, asked me if they were going to re vote the referendum. I then told him what happened. He began to laugh and said "I guess part of the curriculum now is that they teach us how to do things illegal, then manipulate the system". NICE!!

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Sean Murphy: Chris, the law was clear here. There has to be a legal notice in the paper. There is a process that must be followed and for good reason.

People have to know there is a vote like this and the legal notices cover it.

The right thing to do is stand up and request that the vote be thrown out. That requires real intellectual honesty to do for someone who supported it.

Not denouncing this is just as bad as doing the wrong thing.

Integrity is one of the most important principles out there. I have not heard one person who supported this have the integrity to come out and say this was wrong. It was. I read the statutes. The 2006 vote did the proper notices. It was a mistake, but a major one.

My comment about not teaching is spot on. Our kids must be taught that integrity matters because no one can make it to any relevant levels of success without it.

This vote, the people who supported it, Jody Goeller, and the Board have shown that what they want matters more than the integrity of the process. That is a failing attitude in my book.

Jody Goeller has shown he is not worthy of being trusted to educate children with his actions after it came out about the legal notice.

Instead of taking responsibility for the error, Goeller threw the blame around. That needs to be a fireable offense.

Instead of finding out how to void the vote, the Board and Goeller has decided to let a judge confirm their vote.

If someone cannot denounce this, they clearly support it.

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Sean Murphy: As for your comments on unity in the community,

1. The board, Goeller, and the supporters of this have shown that what they want matters more than what is right. I do not trust these people because they had the chance to do the right thing and made the wrong choice.

You want my support for the schools, prove to me I should trust these people. I am sick of the attacks by the likes of Elena Bowen, the "Sean Seanington" clown on Patch, and the rest of the gang.

Anyone who knows me knows that I will do my homework and support something when the case is made. I supported the last town budget.

I do not support this project because there are too many problems with it.

This project was a waste of a lot of money. By my estimates, Region 14 needed about 1/3 of this.

I do not and will not tolerate being attacked, insulted, or degraded for asking questions about how the region will spend my money. I have been repeatedly.

You want unity, then earn it. This nonsense needs to stop. No more emailing just parents from Region 14 email lists. No more ducking and dodging answering questions.

I have been in sales and understand what it takes to make a case for someone to buy into something. That is how life works. It is a needed skill to be able to persuade people.

This divide was caused by the actions of Goeller, the BOE, and a number of people in the community.

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Sean Murphy: Nancy again makes excuses for this.

The law was broken. Make all the excuses you want. As long as you get what you want, who cares about the integrity of it or what the rules are.

That attitude is wrong. Teaching kids this will put them behind in life.