Talk With Tracy: Ethics and the BOE

Helen Yoon sent in the request for an ethics hearing the day of the election. Did she think she would not win and use it as a safety net? Or did she do it because what the incumbents campaign did was truly wrong? I hope the latter, what they did was unethical and for me. It makes me wonder if the incumbents have the ability to what is right and not impulsive, to keep the good of the kids in the forefront of their mind.

Using the administration as propaganda is wrong, not all of the BOE members were invited (Peter Suh stated that to me), so it was not a celebration of education and their accomplishments. He knew it was a political campaign and did not invite the fellow BOE because, ........... (well you can answer that, but the invites were not lost in the mail). He also had a guests and this is what the true infraction is; the high powered presidents of several Korean American committees, including the President of the Korean Voters were there, stating to vote for them. You can make your our deductions and inferences, but it is all on video. Little can be explained away and we will never know if there is true collusion amongst them. I do not like the decisions of the incumbents---its really makes me wonder IF they should be making decisions for our children, BTW, I have expressed my concerns to Peter about this, it should not be a surprise.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk3JTFFjHd4&feature=share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ANsUJLxe9M&feature=share

The violations are in reference to the BOE members, not the administration (who has their own but did not violate it). I do think what they did was dopey, misdirected and come on, they are all smart people and should have known better; but I will tell you that the invitation was not for a fund raiser. Every conversation or tidbit of information that I came across about this was that Peter knew that they were crossing  the line and chose to do in anyway. And I have to say Charlie Luppino was the only one there who is a Ft Lee private citizen and had every right to support whomever he wanted. If you want more information about the BOE code of Ethics, go here http://www.nj.gov/education/ethics/coe.htm

Now, back to Helen,  I do know how the BOE will function. By doing this she has essentially has gagged the Administration and the two re-elected incumbents. They cannot speak to her on any matter that has to deal with the BOE duties, nor do I think they would want to. So is she going to rely on her counterparts to explain what things are? That worries me! 

Part of me likes and applauds that she felt the strong enough to challenge the incumbents ethics, and part of me thinks it is going to make a difficult situation worse (the fractions of the BOE) and nothing will get done.  Will she be steadfast enough to maintain her stand or will she relent because she is part of the BOE now.

I would like to hear what you think….write a post!