Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Jay Jackson: Giving Attorneys a Bad Name Since (at least) 2007

I'd like to take a second and look at a recent statement made in the pages of one of our local newspapers.

My new favorite, Jay Jackson:

Questioned about the validity of Robinson's accusations, Jackson said he was only informed of the issues at the Nov. 30 meeting and was not given a chance to respond to the charges at the Lebanon board meeting.


I think the date in this sentence is an error, but I'm more interested in the claim that Jackson was "not given a chance to respond to the charges."

1. He had a chance to talk - in a breach of Robert's Rules of Order, Sprenger let him have the mic for a few minutes while there was a motion on the floor (the motion to renew the charter, in fact). Jackson could have talked about the charges then if he liked. She only did this after pestering from both Alexander and Wineteer; the former about the two-step process and the need to vote right away (though his urgency was never explained and I suspect never will be, since it was mythical in the first place) and the latter about how unfair it would be to not let Jackson speak; never mind that doing both and following established board procedures would have been impossible. It was a very well orchestrated multi-prong attack (heck, the two even sit on opposite sides of her). It's almost like Josh and Rick and Jay planned it. Hm. Imagine that.

2. The board meeting where the results of the finished report are presented is not the time or place to "respond to the charges." It's not a court, and no one was on trial (sorry - that nagging guilty feeling in the pit of your stomachs is probably because you are afraid of getting caught colluding). The time would have been when the report was being constructed and Donna Chastain and Jan Zarate were digging around in the files of PIE and Sand Ridge. Perhaps if Jackson had asked what violations they were finding and then helpfully corrected them as to how he had fixed the violations the mere listing of them would not have taken an hour...

But no - this way he gets to complain about how unfair Big Bad Robinson is to his supporters at Sand Ridge.

Please. More and more, it looks like he is playing the parents of the students under his care like a fiddle.

I have a T-shirt that has three pictures on it. Under each picture is a word. It goes like this:

Indoctrinate.

Alienate.

Destroy.

Sounds like Alexander and Jackson's M.O. regarding the Lebanon Community School District: First they indoctrinate a bunch of folks as to the superior moral character and trustworthiness of Alexander and Jackson, then they alienate them against Robinson and the District by making false and misleading claims, then they go on a quest to eliminate Robinson as an obstacle to power using the dislike and distrust they created as a substitute for evidence for his wrongdoing.

I suppose it's possible that Jackson and Alexander got their start by cashing in on the bad blood created by Robinson's dictator-esque leadership style, though that would make them opportunistic shysters. But hey - I'm just speculating out loud. What do I know?

I know that Jackson is misrepresenting the truth - again - on this issue, and doing so in such a way as to give the illusion that the problem lies somewhere else.

I thought America was the land of individual responsibility. When is Jay Jackson going to take some responsibility for the failures of PIE to abide by their legal obligations? After all, as PIE Board Chair, the buck has to stop somewhere. How come it never, ever manages to stop anywhere near Jay Jackson (or Rick Alexander)?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And how come the Albany School District wanted nothing to do with PIE?

Anonymous said...

PIE (People Involved in Education, Inc.), currently operates a successful charter school, Sand Ridge Charter School, located in Sodaville, in the Lebanon School District. PIE has been in continuing successful operation for more than 13 years; operating in Brownsville in Central Linn School District (as Brownsville Academy), then in Lebanon School District (as Sand Ridge Academy), and then as Sand Ridge Charter School since June, 2002.

Why aren't they in the Central Linn School District anymore?

 
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