Question???
Does The US Department of Justice want Stu Gibson blabbing about a pending court case?
Just wondering?????
From: Gibson, Stuart (School Board Member)
To:
sblesi@aol.com
Cc: Shimer, Andrea
Sent: Thu, Jun 24, 2010 6:27 am
Subject: RE: Fairfax County Schools
Mr. Blesi,
I write to respond to your phone call of a few weeks ago and your e-mail of last
night.
On June 2, 2010, I appeared at a status conference out of town, during which the
judge in a major tax shelter case set a series of threshold factual issues for
trial on two-weeks’ notice. I have spent most of the past three weeks preparing
for and conducting that trial. I left town the morning of Sunday, June 13, and
returned late last Saturday night. I have spent most of this week preparing
for the next phase of that case, in which the parties must file proposed
findings and conclusions by July 30, and preparing for a round of expert witness
depositions scheduled in three weeks in a major tax shelter case of first
impression.
As a result, I have not been able to devote any significant time this month to
addressing the issues surrounding Clifton Elementary School, on which we will
vote July 8.
I appreciate your offer and request to meet with me about the issues surrounding
the Superintendent’s recommendation – made following a lengthy and intensive
community engagement and study process – to close Clifton Elementary School, and
use the funds that otherwise would be spent on renovating Clifton to address
significant capacity needs at other schools in the southwestern part of Fairfax
County. I am not certain whether I will have an opportunity to meet with you,
your group, the Mayor of Clifton, and others who seek to engage me on this
issue. I do, however, want to respond to something in your e-mail of yesterday
in which you suggest how I approach this decision.
I have served on the Fairfax County School Board for nearly 15 years. I have
worked in the Tax Division of the Department of Justice for 26 years. I take my
responsibilities in both jobs very seriously. I do not make decisions on the
basis of emotion, but on the basis of principle. I do not count my e-mails, and
then vote with whomever sends the most. I have made many decisions over the
years, and I have a pretty well-developed idea about how to make decisions that
take into account the interests of all the people who may be affected by my
decision, including the people who have not formed or joined organized advocacy
groups. In short, I know my responsibilities, and attend to them diligently.
My constituents in Hunter Mill District, whether or not they agree with any
particular decision I have made over the years, understand and appreciate the
thoughtful approach I bring to my School Board service.
In this case, I do know a few things:
1. Only 22 children from the Town of Clifton now attend Clifton Elementary
School.
2. Other children in the Town of Clifton attend the Advanced Academic
Studies (GT) Center at Willow Springs Elementary School. Still other children
in the Town of Clifton and the surrounding area are pupil placed into nearby
elementary schools for child care, because Clifton does not have a SACC center.
3. Every child who attends a school in Fairfax County is entitled to learn
in a building that supports the current program of studies, and provides
students and teachers with access to up-to-date facilities and technology. I
cannot vote to spend money to renovate any school, where the renovation simply
preserves an existing, inadequate facility, one that was not built to meet the
needs of children in the 21st Century. Such a decision wastes scarce tax
dollars, and shortchanges the children in that building.
4. We need to provide classroom space to children who live in other
communities in southwestern Fairfax County, many of whose schools are grossly
overcrowded.
5. We have unmet facilities needs throughout Fairfax County. And every
dollar we spend on one school is a dollar we cannot spend to meet the facilities
needs of another school.
Having said those things, I will continue to study and review the available
information. I will listen to the public testimony, and consider all the
arguments. At the end of the day, I will make my decision on this matter as I
have on every other facilities issue I have voted on during my tenure on the
Board: considering what is in the best interests of all the children whom we
serve, whether they live in Clifton or elsewhere.
Thank you,
Stu Gibson
School Board Member
Hunter Mill District