13 May—TWO SIDES ON MERGER OF REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 20

Time is fast approaching on July 1st for Region 20. Superintendent Leone said, “Now, more than ever, I am asking our public to engage ,stay engaged and make a difference for our students.” Mr. Weaver wants each coach to create a positive sense of spirit and community within the individual programs and take the coaching decision making very seriously. It seems, there will be two sets of rules “Rules For Thee, But Not For Me.” “There Are Always Two Sides To Every Story.” Examples on how these sayings come into play with Region 20 moving forward into a new direction. Or, is it a new direction?

Superintendent Leone said and did the following at a BOE meeting. The social media storm that has erupted over the apparent decisions on Hawkins and Andrulis has been shameful. “Grow up, take it back and act like adults.” When a resident spoke, Mr. Leone got up from his chair and left the meeting. Was this shameful and disrespectful after asking our public to engage and stay engaged. A double standard? Kyle Weaver may have said it right. This is “a time you can hit the reset button and build something essentially brand new.”

Mr. Weaver has hit this reset button. Telling two of the most successful coaches, there is no future for them in coaching Lakeview H.S. With their many championships and accomplishments, Mr. Weaver feels, in order to move on. These coaches don’t meet his needs in this “brand new” environment. His view seems to be these coaches don’t create a positive sense of spirit and community within the individual programs. Yes, the same individual programs they have been coaching for the last 23 plus years. The reset button may have gotten stuck in making this coaching decision.

At the April 11th BOE meeting much feedback was given to the board on not hiring two coaches, Brent Hawkins and Rob Andrulis. Recommendations were given to the BOE at their May 6th meeting for approval. There was little review, discussion, respect or trust given to the two coaches. The BOE had the ability to move forward in the right direction and overturn this decision of not hiring these coaches. Two board members opposed the appointments. There was a lack of information in the process involved in interviewing coaching candidates. Why weren’t questions by a board member addressed? This should have been fully investigated and it seems the BOE didn’t do this. Why wasn’t the interviewing process presented to Kyle Weaver for an explanation? What coaching qualifications was he seeking in the process? Why was a coach told they would be called back for another interview and were not? Why were they fired from their jobs without reason or explanation? Why was a vote rushed into a special meeting? With their first very controversial issue this board failed to fully address several issues among themselves and completely ignored all community comments at their BOE meeting on April 11th. Is this a way to build respect and trust from the community? Can the BOE save face and revisit this issue? It wouldn’t be shameful to do so and it would show trust to the community that wrong decisions can be made right to move forward in the right direction for Region 20 students.

Richard Morin
Litchfield