The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

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July 28, 2008

Handling of issue causes rift on board

By Patrick W. Connelly

WEST MIDDLESEX AREA — A group of West Middlesex school board members said Monday they were kept in the dark while others explored the credibility of an online college the district’s teachers are taking courses from.

“Is that the essence of good board leadership?” school director Jonathan Fister asked his colleagues.

Ten of the district’s teachers were reimbursed this spring for classes taken at Canyon College of Caldwell, Idaho.

An article in Friday’s Herald was the first Fister said he heard of the issue. He accused board members Thomas Hubert, Richard Turner, Patrica Chupak, Deborah Wojtalik and Tracy Hemminger of working without the full group.

School director Dale Shrawder agreed and tendered his resignation as the board’s vice president at the meeting.

Shrawder said he, Fister and the board’s Glen Allen Jr. and Glori Jones weren’t a part of an investigation into Canyon.

“We took no part in, nor had any advance knowledge of, the recent media coverage concerning faculty members of this district,” Shrawder read in a prepared statement.

“We are appalled at the manner in which this matter has been handled by certain individual board members,” Shrawder said.

He said Hubert alerting The Herald to the issue “continues a disturbing trend” and “may be a personal vendetta.”

Fister said he, Shrawder, Allen and Ms. Jones aren’t defending Canyon College and are only criticizing the process used to investigate the institution that’s been dubbed a diploma mill.

Eleven more reimbursements from the district for classes taken at the college were requested this month, business manager Kim Buchanan said.

Fister, Shrawder, Allen and Ms. Jones opposed a call at the meeting to table the reimbursements until the board seeks the opinion of its solicitor on the issue.

Shrawder said the spirit of the district’s successes in recent years “has been shattered” and there’ll “be a long and tedious struggle against mistrust by those who have been hurt.”

Hubert, the board’s president, said he had the right because of his title to act as a spokesman for the board.

Hubert said Thursday board members had alerted Southwest Mercer County Regional police and District Attorney Robert Kochems of the situation. Fister said doing so requires some sort of board action.

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