This is personal

The posts below were taken verbatim from Morganton.com, The News Herald,  the newspaper covering Schwartz and Shaw’s defense of the Burke County Board of Education  (Schwartz and Shaw currently represent the Orange County Schools Board of Education and the superintendent Patrick Rhodes in SEVERAL different legal proceedings against OCS).  After losing the case filed by ex- Superintendent Burleson against the Burke BOE , Schwartz then negotiated a settlement with Burleson and promptly sued the Burke County Commissioners on behalf of the Burke BOE, in part to pay his own legal fees.  By all accounts,  that venture cost the taxpayers far more in legal expenses than the children of Burke County Schools will ever see.   He then helped the Board release one of his famous “statements” attempting to smear the opposing side — sound familiar?

At times, it will be hard to tell whether they are talking about Burke County or Orange County.

Sadly, this is about the fracas in Burke County where a respected and loved Superintendent was fired by the BOE. They may lose their SACS accreditation because of this and other negligence and incompetence, including financial mismanagement. Think of the impact that could have on the future of their children (try applying to colleges let alone getting accepted if from a school without accreditation).

Posted by ( dudelebowski ) on 09/09/2009 at 02:55 pm.

To the Board majority in reference to the released statement: You may be stupid, but the schools in this county are good. People are educated. We know the meanings of words like rhetoric, semantics, propaganda, and persuasive technique. Therefore, please consider this direct statement in reply: Take your Schwartz-crafted feeble attempt at accountability and stick it…(this comment removed by site staff)

Posted by ( soubo ) on 09/09/2009 at 03:38 pm.

THE ONLY HIGH ROAD THEY ARE TAKING IS THE ONE IN THEIR HEAD! THIS IS ACTUALLY HUMOROUS! ANYONE WHO KNOWS HOW THE BOARD MAJORITY HAS BEHAVED AND WHAT POLICIES THEY HAVE BROKEN, KNOWS THIS IS JUST A VERY POOR ATTEMPT TO MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK GOOD. BAD, BAD ATTEMPT!!! AND AS FOR MR.SWARTZ: I ACTUALLY THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST DOING YOUR JOB AS A GOOD LAWYER UNTIL THIS SH*%! NOW, I KNOW YOU ARE JUST LIKE YOUR CLIENTS…NASTY, POOR EXCUSES FOR HUMANKIND!

Posted by ( JV777 ) on 09/09/2009 at 03:57 pm.

$ And $ do you really think the people of Burke County are that ignorant and gullible. Most of us had twenty plus years of Mr. Burleson’s leadership of our schools. We know as fact what kind of man he has been. He is the man who has personally touched the lives of so many children. He is the man who was at the schools, in the classrooms, at our children’s graduations, and at some of their funerals. He is the kind of man that the whole town will stand out in the pouring rain on the court house square to show our respect. Any attempts to smear him are as feeble as the minds of the current board majority. We noticed you were not at last nights meeting and now we know why. Maybe the silver lining is that all of this press will serve warning to other communities of the havoc you can create, or maybe this is the last shot at this community since you so catastrophically lost in our local courtroom.

The $ and $ refer to Schwartz and Shaw!!!! Again, the same lawyers we just paid $250,000 to last fiscal year (Jun08-Jul09).

We currently have a BOE composed of members behaving just as badly, with one major issue on its plate right now. However, two more will be coming soon and they’ve opened themselves to other litigation as well.  Just how much can Orange County citizens afford to spend on lawyers? According to census results of 2008, we have approximately 130,000 residents in Orange County not all of which are adults paying taxes. Do the basic math. Any families out there have a spare $5K in their pocket right now?

People of Orange County, you need to understand that our current BOE has paid over $250,000 to Schwartz and Shaw just fighting existing cases (and providing other professional services that could be handled internally) . Just how much would the county have spent sending a child to the proper school and providing him with FAPE instead of hiring a lawyer? How many more kids could we have educated properly? How many more teachers could we have kept on the payroll? How many more books and supplies could we have purchased? Are you also aware that the BOE reduced the amount of money spent per child in OCS in order to save money? Did they do that so they can “afford” more legal fees for “Professional Services” from $ ands $?  We all need to stand up and refuse to pay for their idiocy and foolishness. This is NOT why they were elected and we can thank Bill Faison for NOT introducing and passing “Recall Legislation” in Orange County. It can’t be introduced again until Spring of 2010.

Some people have pointed a finger in my direction accusing me of having a personal agenda. Guess what? I do!! I personally cannot afford for my taxes to go up AGAIN. How do you think this law firm is going to get their money? Last time I looked around, I still couldn’t find a money tree growing anywhere. Our BOE will do the same thing Burke County’s BOE did (on advice from Schwartz), sue our County Commissioners. Where do you think they will get the money? FROM RAISING OUR TAXES!!!!  or KEEP STEALING FROM OUR CHILDREN!!!!  I have a personal agenda when my daughter’s Federal Rights are denied. What would you do if a group of elected officials suddenly decided to deny your right to vote or speak? Wouldn’t you file a complaint against them?

Most schools across this great country of ours are striving to improve, even on a system that works. In 1972, Richard Nixon signed Title IX. Since then, when it is brought to the attention of most schools that they are violating that Federal LAW, most welcome the Office of Civil Rights to make recommendations for compliance. Our BOE decided to spend over $39K trying to impede the investigation conducted by OCR. They  even denied the young men in our county athletic conditioning to assure themselves that they need not provide it to our young women. My guess is they will then blame me for the loss the boys suffer (or in this case the training coach will blame me  since he won’t get paid).

But my favorite post is the next one by MRDucks (as in: if it looks like, sounds like, quacks like, must be…) This is exactly what our Superintendent and BOE did to our respected and loved Coach Calder-Green. They manufactured reasons and kept secret files – sounds like the KGB to me. All of you better pay attention soon, if you don’t, you’ll be paying big bucks!!

Posted by ( MRDucks ) on 09/09/2009 at 04:21 pm.

Let’s say for a minute that Mr Burleson is guilty on every count that Schwartz has put into this document. Why was Schwartz so worried about a law suit in which he would have to actually show proof of all these allegations? How much easier is it to throw out charges now when there can be no questions asked or Mr Burleson’s lawyer has no chance to challange these statements? And, most importantly, when was the board aware of all these crimes committed by Mr. Burleson? If they knew, why did the board not get rid of him a year ago? Two years ago? If they waited this long, which one of the allegations was so bad that they could not wait until April of ’10? Why the rush to buy out his contract? No, this is a case of manufacturing reasons AFTER you have screwed up. Wonder how much it cost us to have Schwartz compose this load of crap?

Citizens of Orange County, Beware. Prepare for more “loads of crap” coming from our ‘esteemed’ Board of Education: Halkiotis, McKnight, Triebel, Piscitelli, Hallman, Eubanks and Medenblik. Of course, the loads will be delivered compliments of $chwartz and $haw! Again, do I have a personal agenda? You betcha I do!!!!