Northwest Indiana Discussion

Highlights:

The 3 finalists are:

1. Chrystal(sp) Moore An African American lady, formerly employed by Calumet College in human resources.

2. Marilyn Jones, a Caucasian lady, retired employee of the School City of Hammond.

3. Eva Gomez, a bilingual Latina. Co-host of a spanish radio show in Gary, and on several boards of Latino organizations.


The interview process was a series of 12 questions, with each sitting board member asking 3 questions each. Each candidate, who were all interviewed individually, were given 2 minutes to respond to each question. With the exception of myself, there were no members of the public at tonights meeting. The few people in attendance, were all SCH employees, or people affiliated with the SCH.

IMO, the candidate who seemed to be the most favored, was Eva Gomez. The demeanor of the board was most favorable to her, IMO. After the previous regular School Board meeting on May 14th, Ms. Murphy openly said that she was voting for Ms. Gomez. I find this rather unprofessional, as no applications were even available at this point in the process, and the announcement that applications were available, was just announced a few minutes before at the meeting that had just ended. No applications were available until the next business day.

My take:

I got to tell this like I see this. If I offend someone with my honesty, I am not sorry. The cat was let out of the bag after the previous meeting, when Ms. Murphy publicly said she was voting for Ms. Gomez. If Ms. Gomez does not get the appointment, I will be surprised. If she does get the appointment, this is my opinion why she does, and it has nothing to do with her qualifications. There is a real problem in the SCH with Hispanics allegedly being mistreated, discriminated against, harassed, etc. the Latino coalition has made their presence known at most of the board meetings for the past couple of years or so. They are very unhappy with the lack of communication and the resolution of problems within the SCH. What better way to quiet or appear to appease the Latino's, than by appointing a Latina to the board? This is a bandaid on a gash. It might help a little, but the real problem is not going away. The problems are still gushing all over the place.