Former West Geauga School Board President Attempts to Bully New Member

In the leadup to our March 19^th Primary election, many Geauga County residents submitted letters of endorsement to our local papers.  One letter, seemingly not election-related, was tucked in among the endorsements: former West Geauga School Board President Chet Ramey submitted a letter critical of new board member, Pam Claypool. Mr. Ramey, who lost his bid for reelection in 2022, believes it’s inappropriate for Mrs. Claypool to suggest the school board should review the district’s curriculum.

Mr. Ramey’s letter instructs Mrs. Claypool to do three things before she should be allowed to suggest a curriculum review. It seems Mr. Ramey suffers from a wildly inflated view of his own relevance if he thinks it’s his place to place conditions on what a current board member may seek to discuss. First, Mr. Ramey claims Mrs. Claypool needs to prove what her motives are or are not in asking for a curriculum review. In his words, she should, “…show that it’s not an ideological fishing expedition aimed at certain areas of the curriculum.” That’s odd – because the term “curriculum review” seems to be self-explanatory, and the school board’s role in reviewing it seems self-evident. Personally, I find his wording highly suspicious, as it begs the question of what it is he thinks she might find. Is there a problematic portion of the curriculum Mr. Ramey is seeking to hide?

Second, Mr. Ramey implies it would be a waste of time for the board to review curriculum, because the board already hires “professionals” to do this. What part of OVERSIGHT does Mr. Ramey not understand? The Board is there, among other reasons, to be the bottom line on everything that happens in the school, including the conduct and professionalism of all administration, faculty, and staff. Parents do not hire and evaluate district employees. They rely on the school board they elect to do so on their behalf. The only way parents have a say in what is delivered to their children is through the board members. What would motivate Mr. Ramey to try to weaken the power of parents in our district?

Lastly, Mr. Ramey claims Mrs. Claypool must have “k-12 curriculum development” experience in order to review the curriculum. Now, what does that say about how Mr. Ramey views parents in the district? Do they need to have that “professional experience” in order to have an opinion on the curriculum? Hogwash. Mrs. Claypool was elected for a reason. Ramey should let her do her job and stop trying to bully her into being the same kind of board member he was. Obviously, voters in our district did not trust him to continue doing that job.

Shame on Mr. Ramey for criticizing someone who actually wants to bring relevant information to the parents of our district. Voters chose Mrs. Claypool because they trust her to look into things like curriculum. If the community still wanted his do-nothing attitude toward curriculum and parental rights, we would have re-elected him in 2022. We did not. So what’s more concerning here? The exact format and timing of Pam Claypool’s request, or Ramey’s bizarre umbrage at a board member doing her job, encouraging transparency, and boldly going where he and his board were unwilling to go?

By the way, thousands of parents in the West Geauga school district are still waiting on the public apology Mr. Ramey and other board members owe us all for forcing useless and harmful medical interventions on our children. If Ramey hopes to enjoy any credibility in this district, he might want to focus on that instead of attacking current school board members for doing what he wouldn’t.