The Observation Deck

Funny how things happen, and history repeats and awakens one to new understanding.

Yesterday I got a message from a friend who sent me a quote from a person that has
always stood for honesty, truth and sunshine, ex-School Board President Matthew Markling.

"We are awake through transparent and accountable leadership that continues to develop the skills of our faculty, staff, administrators, and board members which are necessary to improve student instruction.

Most importantly, we are awake through transparent and accountable leadership that continues to build upon the trust and support of the Community, including our parents and students."

The article is: Awake Through Transparent And Accountable Leadership
by Matthew John Markling, Lakewood School Board President
http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/2011/01/26/awake-through-transparent-and-accountable-leadership

I called Matthew Markling and asked what had spurred the writing of the article, and he
mentioned a School Board meeting way back where he was ridiculed for his views on
sunshine laws, and the illegal use of Executive Sessions. At one meeting on 02.16.2010
it erupted at a very contentious BOE meeting over closing Grant School.

One School Board member, Linda Beebe, was making a case for closing Grant and allowing
a group to come in and put up a rec center, something she felt the city desperately needed.
Another School Board member Betsy Shaugnessy seconded the idea.

It was at that point, School Board President Matthew Markling said the following, and was
extremely serious about the comments, as captured by Betsy Voinovich's report...

...President Shaughnessy moves to adopt the Resolution, and asks for comments from the Board. Mr. Markling speaks up again, saying he realizes the Board does not, by law, have to provide any justification for their actions, but thinks they owe the community an explanation. He also points out there has been NO discussion about this decision among Board members "as a Board." If asked why the Lakewood School Board voted as it did, he feels he will not be able to explain this decision, because he truly doesn’t know the reasons behind it.


President Shaughnessy points out that she and Board Member Linda Beebe talk about this decision almost every Monday morning. Mr. Markling explains that though he is not going into details of “sunshine laws," he must make it clear that he has no way of knowing about communications taking place between separate  board members, on their own. Understanding these communications are necessary for him to be able to explain to parents why his fellow board members come to the decisions they do, he says.

The "Sunshine laws,"created in the mid 1970's, require that meetings, decisions and records are made available to the public.

At the mention of "sunshine laws," President Shaughnessy exclaims, “Oh my God!” now annoyed beyond belief.

In the audience a chuckle is heard. Mr. Markling pauses, looks up and says, “I know, Jay, it's funny, ‘sunshine law’.” (He is addressing Jay Foran, one of the leaders of the Fifty Year Committee, who is in the audience with his wife and Board President Betsy Shaughnessy’s husband.)...

So this is why history matters.

Five years later we have Jay Foran heading up the Mayor's Acyive Living Task Force that
told everyone at the first meeting, "Do not think of a Rec Center..." Odd for a person that
has been pushing a Rec Center for at least 10 years, and has been all over the community
promising money for "active living" if they go along.
Full story here:
http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/read/2010/02/24/school-closing-fiasco-take-two

LAKEWOOD, you are getting played, they have tried time and again to take public assets
and turn them into a Rec Center, the wet dream of one small minded individual that has
always thought of public assets as his own.

It is getting old. The residents of Lakewood deserve better and we deserve the truth.

Sunshine is the great disinfectant, it is a way of life all public officials should embrace, but
here in Lakewood, The Mayor, the Law Director and his minions scoff at sunshine laws,
transparency, honesty and treating the other residents as equals.

Video being edited down, and will be available later, with unedited version.

WTF?!

.

So in 2010:

1. Jay Foran, Linda Beebe and Betsy Shaughnessy were promoting a rec center?
2. CCF and LHA were trying to get City Council to approve the removal of Trauma and Inpatient Pediatrics from Lakewood Hospital to change the Lease and weaken the hospital.
3. Lakewood Alive was being partially funded by CCF?

So in 2011, CCF commissions the "Decanting Plan"--that includes "Economic Development" and a rec center with, among other things, a rock climbing wall.

Economic Development + Rec Center + Hospital Closing = 2015 $$$ Trifecta $$$$

Sounds like we might need Markling, O'Bryan and Call to put this "conspiracy" together for us---again.

In regards to point #3:

I was told by a member of LakewoodAlive several months ago LakewoodAlive's Executive Director, Ian Andrews salary is paid in full by the Cleveland Clinic.

The Cleveland Clinic and LHA and LHF have their hands in almost everything in Lakewood.

I am not trying to talk negatively about LakewoodAlive, but I feel that this information needs to be known.

As a point of clarification, it may appear from Jim's post that he was quoting me. Jim was not quoting me. Jim's post appears to be drawn from other posts, by other people, dating back from 2010 and 2011.

My comments, in my January 2011 article, were related to my personal experience of having folks from outside the Lakewood City Schools constantly demanding that I focus my attention on their own self-interests instead of the real educational and financial challenges facing our children.

The entire article speaks for itself:

Awake Through Transparent And Accountable Leadership

by Matthew John Markling, Lakewood School Board President

Are we awake?

In his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture entitled, “The Quest for Peace and Justice”, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned that:

"One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change."

Are we awake to the educational and financial changes facing our children in 2011 in spite of overwhelming community support for our most recent operating levy?

Are we awake to the status quo and its fraternities who are constantly focusing us on their own self-interests and relentlessly lulling us into indifference with respect to the real educational and financial challenges facing our children in 2011?

Are we awake and prepared to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant, and to face the challenges of educational and financial changes head-on in 2011 rather than daydreaming of a twentieth-century image of Lakewood?

Yes, we are awake. And we will remain wakeful only through transparent and accountable leadership.

We are awake through transparent and accountable leadership that improves upon the academic integrity of the Lakewood City Schools.

We are awake through transparent and accountable leadership that continues to improve upon the benchmarks of student achievement mandated by state and federal laws.

We are awake through transparent and accountable leadership that continues to develop the skills of our faculty, staff, administrators, and board members which are necessary to improve student instruction.

Most importantly, we are awake through transparent and accountable leadership that continues to build upon the trust and support of the Community, including our parents and students.

While the temptation to slumber is always present, we are indeed awake. And I look forward to remaining awake through what will be a great period of change for the Lakewood City Schools in 2011.

It is customary for the President of Lakewood City School District Board of Education to provide incoming comments after being elected to the position by members of the school board. The above comments were delivered by School Board President Matthew John Markling during the January 18, 2011 regular school board meeting of the Lakewood City School District Board of Education.

http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/2011/01/26/awake-through-transparent-and-accountable-leadership