From the Foster campaign:
Responding to the crisis involving polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) at Columbus School, Democratic candidate for mayor of Bridgeport Mary-Jane Foster denounced Mayor Finch and Superintendent Ramos’s failed leadership and management abilities.
“By all accounts, the education of 600 school children is in total chaos, and Mayor Finch and Superintendent Ramos are responsible,” charged Foster. “If they had been taking care of business instead of orchestrating a behind the scenes takeover of the Bridgeport Board of Education, these children would be having a positive, productive back to school experience.
Instead, children have been scattered throughout the district, crammed into already overcrowded classrooms, siblings are being shuttled to different schools, administrators are working from desks in hallways, and teachers are being asked to “get creative” with school supplies because everything they had planned to use–from text books to pencils and paper–is quarantined as part of the Columbus School PCB debacle. Parents are outraged and are requesting to transfer their kids out of Columbus to other schools,” explained Foster.
“The tragic thing is that this situation was entirely preventable. The students from Columbus School have been working out of “swing space” for nearly four years while their school has been under renovation. That situation alone was absurd, but moving students out of school before the renovated space is ready is the definition of insanity. If anyone had even basic management skills or an ounce of common sense, they would have seen that Columbus was not ready to open and postponed the transfer of the Wilbur Cross students into the swing space. Now, the Columbus School students have nowhere to go and are suffering because every single person in the chain of command was asleep at the switch.
Mayor Finch wanted control of the Board of Education. He conspired with Supt. Ramos behind closed doors to make it happen. He overturned an elected Board of Education and disenfranchised the voters of Bridgeport to make it happen. Well now he’s got it and that makes him responsible. It’s not enough for him to say, “This is unacceptable.” How is he going to solve the problem? What is the new Board or the Superintendent doing? With all the empty school and office buildings in Bridgeport, is there nowhere to move the children and faculty so that they are together and can function effectively? Once again, Mayor Finch has no solutions. Bridgeport deserves so much better.”
Hay Timpanelli how’s the B.O.A. audit coming?
(You should be on the corner of Main & Fairfield with an organ and a monkey, you don’t need a tin cup what with the money you get paid for doing nothing, but you’re a nice little guy.)
It occurred to me Finch and Co. might want to control the B.O.E. with the intent of hiding something that already has been done.
You wonder how much they can hide, but I guess they are operating on the theory of the Three Ring Circus. Sort of like the Finch-Testa version of the sidewalk shell game.
Much of the media pressure on Mario Testa (AKA Señor Wences) and Bill Finch (AKA Señor Wences’ fist) has been negative. Most of it has been guilt by association: Santa “Claws” Ayala’s rejection of Mary-Jane Foster’s qualifying primary petition and Judge Bellis’ subsequent ruling overturning the rejection; City Clerk Alma Maya running out of ballots (HA!) and disenfranchising voters; EZ Santiago, an elected official, attempting to intercept absentee ballots cast for Mary-Jane Foster (shame on you, Mr. Santiago); Testa himself, in an interview with a reporter, practically bragging department heads have to place a “courtesy call” seeking his permission before terminating an incompetent hired at Testa’s direction.
The underhanded tactics of the DTC to keep their man in office is nothing short of appalling. I don’t like my right to vote for the candidate of my choice infringed. The machine has been exposed to the open air. Any attempt by Mario Testa to throw the election (manipulating the tally of ABs, for example) will be duly noted by the Foster campaign, and appropriate complaints will be filed with the relevant agencies.
Thank you MJF. Don’t let up on them, not now, not ever. I am proud to support you.
If any of my fellow bloggers have seen or read the wonderful story “The Help” would any of you like to help me with the main ingredients for a pie for Bill Finch?
Too funny! As a fly I am drawn to the main ingredient. I wouldn’t mind though if Finch got to eat an entire pie himself.
The debacle over the non-opening of Columbus school lies at the feet of the Mayor, Superintendent and the lemming City Council. Who has been watching the contractor? O&G, the city hired management co. Have they made campaign contributions??? And who is watching O&G? A BOE double-dipper with no credentials to manage construction. When will we learn?
Up until a month or two ago, the BOE Director of Operations was a janitor who was given the job as a political favor and who “resigned” for a “better opportunity” as though anyone would have offered a janitor an opportunity better than that!
Betcha Bill’s children will be going to the Discovery School! Goodbye Columbus!!!
The Finch camp is so desperate I am now waiting for them to claim Mary-Jane is a known heterosexual and a thespian!
East End PAC and Kim Ford better watch out or Follow the Money will see to it there isn’t a Ford in our future!
Everything O&G touches in Bpt turns to crap. They keep getting richer and the schools are built lousier. Finch should take credit for the last few new schools as he was there way more than O&G was, and he was there maybe once? O&G must be too busy defending itself from the energy plant that blew up they were in charge of.
Going into this election I am not gonna say Foster will win. What I will say is we have a good chance to win but it will be rough to knock off an incumbent. That is why every vote counts and all Foster people need to bring their friends and family to the polls to vote for Foster.
Kudos to the teachers who, despite all odds, are putting the children first. (Unlike others who just say that’s what it’s all about but whose actions show something different.)