To the editor: 

I see that the new School Department Strategic Plan committee now has 31 members. A smattering of parents, teachers, students, and school administrators and of course our dutiful school committee members were invited to the party. 

The usual suspects. Not that there’s anything wrong with a diverse composition of members (as diversity goes in Barrington). Yet, I have my doubts that the school committee has done anything other than stack this committee with yea-sayers. This was as predictable as Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. Another bungled attempt by the school committee to be “inclusive”. 

I have some unsolicited advice for the school committee chair, who venerates the phrase “we know that research says…”. If you in fact had done your research Mrs. Brody, you would find that highly effective planning teams have only 9 to 15 members. You might also have remembered that you excluded two important constituent groups from the team. Did it occur to you, that after the recent FTM fiasco with an 8-plus percent tax increase largely attributed to your committee and under your leadership, you failed to appoint a member to represent the senior citizens community? You also neglected to invite a representative of the Barrington business community. 

Perhaps you’ll reflect on this, recognize the need and add a couple of fresh voices to “team lick spittle.” More likely, I suspect you’ll resort to the wagon-circling, groupthink, bunker mentality that has become the modus operandi of the school committee. I’ve had a front seat at this circus before and the act has not changed. There is a silver lining however, with the addition of Mr. (Jeff) Brenner. He has the potential to bring some common sense leadership to the team. He would make an excellent chair.

I would like to have been more charitable in my assessment, but I believe that the slight to these vital constituents, though unimaginable, was certainly preventable. I’m afraid that you and the school committee will continue to suffer the rightful disdain by many in town that believe you run the school committee as an exclusive club, view our public school system as though it were private, brook no constructive criticism, lack the ability to learn from past mistakes and care little about the financial well-being of taxpayers, particularly that of senior citizens. Mr. Klepper’s recent editorial depiction of the school committee as  “greedy” speaks volumes and represents the sentiments of many.

I do hope your final three years on the school committee are more inclusive, thoughtful and fiscally responsible than your previous five. The town can ill afford a repeat performance.

Scott Fuller

Barrington