By Jonathan Lathrop and Jenny Diesburg-LathropLos Alamos
We were disappointed with the tone of the story “Is Los Alamos School Board Imploding?” regarding the school board, and in particular its mockery of Mr. Williams. While scores of teachers welcomed the announcement of Dr. Schmidt’s choice to resign we also chose to stay out of the public spat that ensued.
We assumed the public and trained journalists would recognize that the relative silence of teachers and those who actually work under Dr. Schmidt would speak for itself. We were wrong. If there is one thing all parties agree on it is that Gene Schmidt works hard and will be dedicated to any district, however under his administration we have seen morale in our schools reach an all-time low, a situation then-President Jim Hall called “a crisis.”
Simply stated, Dr. Schmidt does not enjoy the confidence of many of his employees. While we cannot quantify this statement, it is a statement that can be quantified. Good reporting, and a thorough survey would shed a light on this situation that has been absent from your site thus far.
We are grateful that we have a school board that has listened to its teachers and those who work daily with this community’s students. We ask that the public understand that there is more to this story than what has been in the media.
