Get off the board!
Remember where you came from.
Enough is enough.
The same day Thomas Edison Charter School Principal Salome Thomas-EL was reinstated as the school leader, parents rallied outside the school demanding a new board. Parents were very angry about what happened since Thursday morning. They said they were a part of the charter’s family and they want more say and more transparency. Parents angrily yelled for board President Ronald Pinkett to quit.
This issue became more than the suspension of Thomas-EL. When Pinkett responded to reporters on Friday he told them to “Look at this neighborhood.” This angered already upset parents even more and saw it as an egregious insult on their homes and community.
On the school’s website, both Principal EL and the Board issued statements today:
If this was never a police matter, why were the police there? From what I’ve heard, the police haven’t come to the school at all in years. So why would they be there on the same exact day EL was suspended? Why don’t you just come out and say Exceptional Delaware. It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback when you lost the game. At the end of the day, this was some bizarre power play that blew up in Pinkett’s face. I hope he does resign and does it yesterday.
Who wrote this statement? Because it say’s “Let me reiterate”. If it is from Pinkett, he is once again acting unilaterally the same way he did by creating this mess in the first place. Even Delawareonline wrote about this one-man pony show tonight:
Board member Mikkel Christie said the decision was a “subset” of the board, not done during the board’s monthly meeting and declined further elaboration. After the rally, Pinkett declined comment on questions about authority and public notice.
A subset of the board? The same 3-4 members who attended a lot of these back-door and secret meetings? They don’t deserve to be board members, at any school. They operate with impunity and do whatever they damn well please. They created chaos and now they are trying to backpedal. They are the embodiment of what no school board, be it district or charter school, should ever have.
But they did get me sniffing into their Thomas Edison Board of Directors Foundation Account. And I will have MUCH more to say about that. This part is not over by a long shot. I’m glad Principal EL got his job back. For once, the voice of the people mattered more than a few egos. This board did more damage in a matter of days than anything anybody else could have done. If I were a betting man, I would say this will come up again in a big way during their charter renewal process in the coming months. The Delaware Dept. of Education does not like this kind of stuff. If they don’t bring it up I would be shocked. Not under Bunting’s watch!
asdf
The Season Of Myths 
Their CBOC needs a community member totally unaffiliated with the school and it’s very bad optics to have the board president on the CBOC. The rest of the board needs to take this very seriously and muster up the 2/3 vote needed to boot him – do not underestimate the damage it will do on a charter renewal to not take that action, folks.
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I was curious what it would take to remove him if he didn’t resign. Thanks for that info J.
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It’s sure to come up, but do you think there’s any chance the charter renewal wouldn’t go through after the community rallied like this to support the school and the principal?
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It would after be something very serious for any charter school to shut down. The Delaware MET closed after a few months after they opened because they were not prepared to educate children after years of preparation. That is the extreme. Thomas Edison is one of Delaware’s oldest charters. The DOE may want some organizational changes but I don’t believe they would shut them down. It always has to be about the kids and shutting down any school has to be with kids first.
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I agree that this in itself would not shut the school down but if the committee thinks this is representative of deeper organizational issues that the board is not capable of resolving quickly, they’ll put them through the ringer and there will be conditions.
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Extremely happy school is open and the teachers received SOMETHING for all of their hard work. I have 2 children who attend TECS and they love and respect their teachers and Principal El. This was an unacceptable move by the board to put the school and community in this predicament. Shame on them and Pinkett or Prichett whatever his name is needs to be the first to go. I vote them off the island!!
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