Obviously, working for it.
But from the way Jones (the board's president) is handling the replacement of a recently deceased board member "in secret" (according to a report in yesterday's Rep), the effect may be that he working against it.
Anytime a public official does something "in secret," it raises eyebrows.
And the upcoming levy approval request by the Northwest schools may be decided by the narrowest of margins. In November, 2008 and February, 2009 levies failed by less than 400 votes.
All Northwest needs is a few "fence-sitting" voters to go negative because of Jones' uncalled for secrecy.
The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) recommends that Mr. Jones return to his alma mater Malone College and take a course in Politics 101.
Actually he needed to take the course before now. In 2003 he failed to qualify for the regular ballot in running for the Northwest Board of Education because he turned in a petition with the bare minimum of 25.
So?
Well, one of the 25 was invalidated because the Stark Board of Elections determined that one spouse had signed the other spouse's name. He ended up running as a "write-in" candidate.
Politics 101 truism: "write-in" candidate do not generally win. And guess what? Jones did not come close to being one of the winners, even though he had been on the board for 8 years by the 2003 election rolled around.
Anyone who has a ordinary political IQ knows better to show up with the bare minimum of required signatures.
Jones has been on the Northwest Board of Education for going on a total of 13 years. He should have more political sense than to do what he doing in the handling of the board member replacement.
It's one thing if he suffers individually for his political mistakes. It's quite a different matter when the victim could be an entire school system.
It's amazing how many people think they have the "pulse" of the Northwest community! Given who the actual appointee was -- I will give Mr. Jones the benefit of the doubt on keeping the name "secret." Nothing illegal happened, and Mrs. Metzger had been through enough with the recent loss of her husband. Avoiding the "ditch-dragging" in this case was smarter than not.
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