What a shame, but kudos to Jean for trying to make a difference on the BoE. Jean was alone in her efforts to change the district's culture of individualism elitism; that focuses a majority of it's attention on the high achievers. And while she may have succumb to some of the same behavior that has drawn the ire of school-age parents in town, she fought the good fight.

Agreed. Jean took the moral road to be the voice of reason in the areas that were so sorely overlooked and needed change. Her years in management and budgeting gave her expertise that the board members clearly didn't want. Her years of parenting gave her the heart and creative perspective to identify that "one size does not fit all". Kudos to Jean for making a great effort to represent more of our population and for recognizing when it was time to leave and be with her family.

Jean, now I await the book. Would love to get the inside scoop.

Please don't fool yourselves, Jean Pasternak is no hero. She constantly put her own agenda ahead of the best interests of the students, parents, teachers and administrators in the district. When she didn't get put on the special education committee, she decided that her goal would be on the opposite side of almost every issue the Board had to tackle over her two years. It is easy to vote against the majority when your vote means nothing. One person continually votes against the majority ......... maybe she's the problem and not the other eight members. She made going to a BOE meeting painful. Every time she opened her mouth, you could hear a groan fill the room, especially when she started going on about some program she read about in a school district in East Nowhere, Canada. And while I'm sure no one will admit it, Ms. Pasternak turned off every member of the Board. Would it surprise anyone to find out that she was the leak on the Board? But for all you Jean fans, don't worry she'll be back soon arguing with the Board, just from the other side of the table. I just hope that Mr. Waters has the gonads to shut her up when her five minutes at the podium ends.

Not a Fan ought to consider his short-sighted thinking....
We all get complacent sometimes. We have comfort zones. We do the things we enjoy, that feel good, that come easily. That's why many people surround themselves with people who agree with them, think like them, and support them.
A chief must immerse himself or herself in the uncomfortable, the unfamiliar, the different opinion. Only in that way can they keep the organization (school district) strong and growing. Only then can they earn what they are being paid. Only then can they, and their stakeholders, avoid a debacle. A time-honored key management failure - curbing dissent.

It starts at the top It is the leader's job to provide the vision for the group. A good executive must have a dream and the ability to get the constituencies to support that dream. But it is not enough to merely have the dream. The leader must also provide the framework by which the people in the organization can help achieve the dream. This is called climate and culture.

When your school body's culture allows people to challenge ideas, suggestions, and plans, you create an organization of thinking, committed people capable of producing the kind of innovation and productivity required to succeed today. However, if your culture does not allow dissent, if people who suggest alternatives are castigated for not being "team players", you produce an environment of fear, stagnation, and antipathy. Not allowing appropriate dissent will kill your entity.

A culture where differing opinions are encouraged leads to success. Be wary of leaders who surround themselves with individuals who are so similar to themselves that they can't offer a different perspective; with people who are so afraid that they won't dissent. Reward creativity and original thought.

Believe what you want, but there are a number of reasons and examples why we need more Jean Pasternacks on the BOE. And to suggest that Jean was to blame for making BOE meetings painful to attend, it's absurd. Those meetings have been painful to attend for tens of years (because that's how long I've lived in the area and on occasion attended them). What I've found painful...no extremely frustrating is watching BOE members with a 'higher than mighty' attitude who refuse to operate in a transparent way, and dig into and report on some of the alarming practices that are taking place right under their noses. Example: The prevalence of (potential) legal action taking place against the high school because of case miss-handling and (alleged) cover-ups by the Guidance Depart; occurrences of bullying that are covered-up by pressuring students into believing that they somehow brought on their being mistreated by another student; and the number of students who are simply passed along through the system with the belief that the parents should simply go get their child a tutor (and that they can even afford one). And that's just the tip of the iceberg, and Dr. Crisfield is well aware of it.

She did not go along with the majority because she represented the interests of the community and students; she understood who put her in office. The rest of them show time and time again they represent the interests of the employees over community and students (e.g.they took away your century-old right to vote on the school budget, remember "Not a Fan" or did that conveniently slip your mind?).