MILFORD – Following months of back-and-forth discourse, misinformation, and an effort towards transparency, Milford school superintendent Dr. Jessica Huizenga and board chair Ron Carvell recently shared their thoughts on “Milford Citizen,” accountability and the Milford district’s effort to maintain a quality education for all students.

Carvell forwarded the Cabinet several documents that either he or the superintendent’s office received, including one that shows that Huizenga and Carvell were personal targets of hate agitprop and as well as several emails that show that the events regarding the evaluation of Dr. Huizenga didn’t start in Jan. 2020, but actually date back to Oct. 2019. That is when Carvell showed that he began the conversation via email with the board regarding the superintendent’s evaluation.

“We really want to put a lot of facts in perspective” said Carvell. “We’re not trying to scorch the earth with the reality of what’s going on. But enough is enough.”

For anyone who has attended a Milford school board meeting, evenings range from point-on agenda items to longer commentary from residents on various topics. Often, Carvell has to draw a line as to what issues may be discussed, based on policies that are specifically on that evening’s agenda items.

Many parents, who have had an issue with their child, have stated to the board during public comments, that they have followed protocol — starting with the teacher, department or administration head, principal and then the superintendent’s office — without resolution.

“I think that three different things happen,” said Huizenga. People use the proper protocol, and they go through the channels, it gets to me and we resolve it. The second thing that happens is that they will contact the superintendent’s office and I will say, ‘I need to look into that.’ And I contact the principal and have the principal go back and look at it — that’s their role. I can’t go down and do it for them. That’s their job. And in between that time, they show up at the board meetings. So, we’re in the process of addressing their concerns, but at the board meetings, they’ll say their situation wasn’t addressed. I literally just talked to that person that day, or the day before. And then the third is they simply show up at the board meeting.”

Huizenga added that she’s invited a community member to come in and meet with her regarding the STEM quality issues. The woman declined, explaining it was due to “the tense nature of the board meetings.”

“She’s never come in to talk to me,” said Huizenga. “She’s never contacted me. Those sorts of things are very frustrating, because the majority of the challenges that come about and come into my office are resolved rather quickly. And sometimes, honestly, there might be something that a parent wants but they just can’t have. And then their next step is to go to the board. People need to be more patient. If it’s not fixed immediately, or working immediately perfectly, it’s like — bam — it escalates at a thousand miles an hour.”

It’s fair to say, that the number of Milford residents coming to the meetings with complaints at the podium has decreased immensely since the fall.

One of the hot-topic issues the board of education, as well as candidates seeking a board seat in the Mar. 10 election is that of part-time staffers and sick days. Carvell said that was brought up at the Feb. 17 meeting and the information was incorrect.

“It was said that it’s been in the contract since 1995,” said Carvell. “We know that’s not true. The union leaders of the MTA decided to post (it) on Facebook. In section four of its own detail, it said ‘each full-time teacher shall be entitled.’ Nowhere does it say part-time. In item number three of that complaint, it states that the union withdrew that part-time teacher proposal since 2008. They’ve tried to negotiate it. I’ve watched Facebook go in 17,000 directions of peoples’ comments. Quite frankly, it’s disturbing when even employees are up there not telling the truth.”

Carvell and Huizenga noted that many practices, including not keeping minutes, were going on with previous boards before either was in the picture.

“This is what we have been spending the last fifteen to eighteen months cleaning up,” she said. “It’s very costly to the taxpayer, hundreds of thousands of dollars of benefits and money, that are going to non-contractual benefits.”

Carvell also talked about annuities, that nine years ago, when he was not on the board.

“We knew that in the budget, the way we did the budget before, you couldn’t find anything,” he said. “You couldn’t see if you tucked money away.”

He said it involved object codes and dotted lines that didn’t connect anything to anything.

“Even in an audit you wouldn’t catch it,” Carvell said of previous board maneuvers. “You had people coming. You had people leaving. And people want transparency. They don’t want transparency. Now all that stuff is out there, and that’s what they’re complaining about.”

Carvell said he’s big on transparency and having a budget that makes sense. He was a member of the budget committee for ten years.

“I argued that all the time,” he said.

“And we were so inappropriately staffed,” said Huizenga. “The resources were directed in places where it wasn’t the greatest need. No one could see that. Now we have budget that is 280 pages. It shows exactly what is being spent where. That wasn’t done before. Ever.”

Huizenga said there was a yellow book, and a green book, and each year administrators would put forth an item or two, that was part of no strategy or plan.

“For over a decade,” she said. “They would cut based on enrollment numbers. It was arbitrarily done without any clear direction. Go back and look.”

So, is there a finish line? As Huizenga, Carvell and many others, strive for transparency in the information that they provide and in finding the problems that existed and permeated from the previous school boards, Carvell said he has an end game.

“My end game is to raise student success,” he said. “However, we get there, as long as we get there. That is the main goal. Put plans, and strategic plans, and processes in place, this is about our students’ success. Will it be bumpy sometimes? Absolutely. If you look at the deliberative session, the only one talking about education was the PTO. The rest of the union leaders who got up was about me, me, me.”

The plan is to put resources into the programs that are vital to success because with the past practices, “We couldn’t even identify the resources that we needed. Nobody looked at achievement goals,” Carvell said. “When the superintendent (Huizenga) did a 100-day entry plan, and really dug into the district, and put everybody up on the board — put data up so we could see how to get better — and bring the team together, Jessica wasn’t just sitting there running this. Entire teams came together and they were all in.”

Carvell said that now that they can see the data, the district can identify what to do to fix issues and raise the bar for student achievement.

“That was the goal all along,” he said. “All this other stuff that’s going on — the anger that’s out there. It’s puts the sunshine on the ground. I think people took that as a personal attack — it wasn’t an attack on their past practices or past performance. Take the ego away and worry about the kid in the classroom.”

The board chair maintains that the current administration is in sync with what the superintendent has put together. Many want to move forward, cast aside aspersions and work tougher as a unified district.

As for the anger Carvell mentions, just look at their email inboxes or even their street mail boxes (where mail was hate mail was delivered late at night.) In some cases, look just outside their homes at telephone poles or street signs and you’ll see hate — images of Huizenga with a red “X” across her face, posted to next to a “Milford Strong” sign (before any other “Milford Strong” signs had been widely distributed, erected on lawns or displayed on t-shirts). Could be a coincidence; could be intentional. Either way, both public figures have faced some forms of abhorrence and intolerance in the private lives.

The Cabinet received copies other “hate mail,” directed at both Huizenga and Carvell.

“Those are personal attacks,” said Carvell. “And why do I still sit here? Because I have so many people who come up to me in grocery stores and tell me I’m doing a good job. I’ve lived here for 28 years. I’m part of the Lions. I donate my time. I am involved in this community.”

Some — many — attacks are on Facebook, which has become the cheapest, easiest way to take a swipe at someone without looking them in the eye.

Some hate mail has been posted on telephone poles around the high school. And reasonable person would hope this represents a few bad apples and not the majority.

“It’s appalling, it’s painful,” said Huizenga. “I was hired here to do a job and that was to better the educational system for children and families in Milford. I’ve done what the board has asked me to do. I’ve been to the board many times — ‘if you want to go in a different direction, just tell me what to do.’ They continue to say, ‘keep moving forward. Keep moving us toward the goals of the strategic plan.'”

The strategic plan wasn’t developed by Huizenga, but rather 80 community members.

“The team that is in place now is moving the district forward and we’re addressing serious issues that had long been swept under the rug in this district for years,” said Huizenga. “This cover-up culture, where ‘we’re just going to turn the other way.’ How is that I’m treated, for coming here every day, doing my job, to be personally harassed and bullied. And there’s the evidence right there. And that was publicly put up all over the community. And that’s not to mention what’s been said, and posted on Facebook, which are lies.”

Huizenga continued by saying, “We talk about bullying in our schools. And I really believe that if we want to address bullying with children and change the culture of bullying, we also have to start with adults.”

Carvell said he takes the bad behavior on the chin because the success of the students far outweighs anything else.

“This is way more important than my ego,” he said. “Way more important than getting frustrated and saying, ‘they’re all mad at me.’ People say I should walk away because I don’t have any kids in there. Well, that doesn’t matter. I actually do– have 2312 students that I’m responsible for. Four-hundred and twenty-three employees. And 17,000 taxpayers.”