(Continued from earlier post...)

What do Alexandria Township (Hunterdon, Population 4,934, 97% white), Stanhope (Sussex, Population 3,510, 91.4% white) and Stone Harbor (Cape May, Population 866, 98.7% white) and West Orange (Essex, Population 46,207, 57.1% white) have in common?

Not a damned thing, other than having comparable median household income and, thusly, being assigned to the same District Factor Group (GH) and having our schools and test scoes compared with theirs!

Purely and simply this is a fool's errand and the metric created (that you think is fair?) provides nothing more than bragging rights for whoever tops the chart.

We as human beings are an evolving species and the mix of individual intellectual and physical aptitudes are as widespread and varied as there are people on the planet. As similar as any two might be, they ARE different. Unlike Mr. Spock, we have yet to morph into Vulcans imbued with pure logic and intellect and sans emotion.

Our goal should be to provide the best education that a particular child is capable, willing and able to absorb and help them flourish to the best of their abilities, knowing full well that not every one of them will become an Enrico Fermi or Albert Einstein.

As the father of triplets, you're in a unique position to answer questions about comparisons concerning children (micro) that might then be applied to schools and school systems (macro) and, more specifically, the ultimate nonsense that District Factor Group (DFG) pairings are.

As similar as your children may be, are they indeed different?

Can you tell one from the other?

Do they have different likes, dislikes, aptitudes and inabilities or is one indistinguishable from another?

While a rhetorical questions (though I'd certainly be curious to hear your answers) the same types of questions need to be asked about any school in a particular DFG.

Whatever similarities there might be, there are significant differences that aren't factor into labels such as "identical triplets" or "District Factor Group GH."

DFGs are (allegedly) an indicator of scio-economic status (SES) were assigned to each community using the following criteria:

1) Percent of adults with no high school diploma
2) Percent of adults with some college education
3) Occupational status
4) Unemployment rate
5) Percent of individuals in poverty
6) Median family income.

West Orange (and all other schools) were assigned their DFG classification in 1990 and it has remained unchanged since. While you haven't been around that long, I can assure you that the demographic in West Orange has changed dramatically since, if not our relative median income.

One must first understand that a PTA is an ever evolving entity with anyone's membership or involvement in one limited to the years their children attend a particular school. In my day, the by-laws set prerequisites for serving as president (previous board service) and specific term limits on officers and, as previously stated, an annual, indepedent financial audit was mandatory.

Without getting into the specifics of the matter, let alone anyone's guilt or innocence, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out at least part of what happened here: a new board took office and found financial questions/discrepancies its predecessors could not/would not resolve. They then fulfilled their fiduciary responsibility and brought the matter to the attention of the authorities who found reason to file criminal charges and seek an indictment.

Clearly, this is an uncomfortable thing for the new board to have to have done as it has pitted neighbor against neighbor but, it was right thing to do and all kudos to them for taking this responsible yet difficult path.

This action also re-established the organization's financial integrity and attests to the professionalism, ethics and courage of the PTA's current officers.

Adam, One reaps what they sow in this life and civility need not be afforded a moron hiding behind a screen name while maligning real human beings. That you can't see and appreciate that single salient fact (and the difference between us) is evidence of your myopic view of most everthing.

Finally, I don't know what medications you might be taking or resultant hallucinations you may be suffering that leads you to believe you occupy some moral high-ground and are in a position to lecture me about anything but, I see it as a fantasy you need to disabuse yourself of.

Try answering the questions posed to you with something more substantial that the nonsensical sound bites you offer.

Gary Englert

Adam: Would you care to share your credentials and expertise as a manger in general and in a militatry/para-military/emergency services environment in particular? How many people do you now, or have you ever, been responsible for directly supervising and scheduling?