The Schilling Show: Nan Su, Melanie Kurdys, Linday Ellis, Amir Bazmjou

Open phones commence shortly, so you can get in line right now, but I do have some breaking news in my hand.

A statement of Jim Dillenbeck, the Ryle District School Board member who resigned recently.

And I think took some time to get everything together to make the statement that he wanted to make, not just an immediate response to the nasty letter that the board wrote him.

So here we go.

Statement of Jim Dillenbeck.

First, my deepest sympathy goes to the family, friends, colleagues, and students of Paul Regan.

On October 6th, I submitted my resignation to the Albemarle County School Board at the request of my fellow board members.

I acknowledge that some of my words at the September 30th town hall caused concern, but my purpose was and remains the same, to listen to families and staff, protect student and staff safety, and help rebuild trust in the board and the school division.

That's a tall order.

The last one especially.

I hope he does so legally.

I say parenthetically.

Continuing that public debate would require discussing personnel matters that should remain private, and it would not serve the students, families, or staff of ACPS.

You see what he always puts forward as opposed to the establishment and the rest of the school board putting forward the administration, as we talked about yesterday, or themselves as most important.

Jim Dillenbeck's statement continues.

ACPS faces a staffing challenge that is affecting instruction and school operations.

Hmm.

Why is he the only guy doing this? He just got on the board not so long ago.

How come the rest of them, the ones that have been sitting there for years, didn't come up with this idea? And I'll bet you they throw it in the can, in the circular file, now that he's out the door.

We'll see.

The letter concludes, the board's role is governance and oversight.

Day-to-day operations belong to the superintendent.

Well, yeah, and central office, okay.

But when persistent operational problems affect students, families, and staff, board members have a responsibility to ask hard questions, seek accountability, and make sure concerns are not dismissed.

And that's exactly what Jim Dillenbeck was doing.

Open phones commence shortly, so you can get in line right now, but I do have some breaking news in my hand.

A statement of Jim Dillenbeck, the Ryle District School Board member who resigned recently.

And I think took some time to get everything together to make the statement that he wanted to make, not just an immediate response to the nasty letter that the board wrote him.

So here we go.

Statement of Jim Dillenbeck.

First, my deepest sympathy goes to the family, friends, colleagues, and students of Paul Regan.

On October 6th, I submitted my resignation to the Albemarle County School Board at the request of my fellow board members.

I acknowledge that some of my words at the September 30th town hall caused concern, but my purpose was and remains the same, to listen to families and staff, protect student and staff safety, and help rebuild trust in the board and the school division.

That's a tall order.

The last one especially.

I hope he does so legally.

I say parenthetically.

Continuing that public debate would require discussing personnel matters that should remain private, and it would not serve the students, families, or staff of ACPS.

You see what he always puts forward as opposed to the establishment and the rest of the school board putting forward the administration, as we talked about yesterday, or themselves as most important.

Jim Dillenbeck's statement continues.

ACPS faces a staffing challenge that is affecting instruction and school operations.

Hmm.

Why is he the only guy doing this? He just got on the board not so long ago.

How come the rest of them, the ones that have been sitting there for years, didn't come up with this idea? And I'll bet you they throw it in the can, in the circular file, now that he's out the door.

We'll see.

The letter concludes, the board's role is governance and oversight.

Day-to-day operations belong to the superintendent.

Well, yeah, and central office, okay.

But when persistent operational problems affect students, families, and staff, board members have a responsibility to ask hard questions, seek accountability, and make sure concerns are not dismissed.

And that's exactly what Jim Dillenbeck was doing.