PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — Political protesters this week swarmed the workplaces of Prince William County School Board members.
That, says the county’s top schools official, is uncalled for.
“You should picket at a school board meeting. This – at someone’s place of work- could be seen as an intimidation tactic,” said interim Prince William County School Board Chairman Dr. Babur Lateef.
At least two school board members were targeted by protesters outside their workplaces these last few days. William J. Deutsch, (Coles District), and Justin David Wilk (Potomac District) were both picketed at work.
“They were there yesterday and then came again today,” Deutsch said on Thursday. “Same signs, different people.”
The protestors came to Deutsch’s office in Alexandria, where he works in public relations.
The picketers appeared just before the school board discussed conflict of interest policy at last Wednesday night’s school board meeting. The discussion comes after Prince William County Public Schools told Colgan Senior High School Head Baseball Coach Mike Colangelo he could no longer be a coach and rent a baseball field for use in his private business, giving private baseball coaching lessons, Insidenova.com reports.
Colangelo resigned but then rescinded his resignation on Tuesday, September 11.
The school board’s conflict of interest policy seeks to address situations like this one where a school division employee who also has non-school related activities or businesses which need to use public school facilities.
Questions have arisen asking if everyone from coaches to after-school tutors should be allowed, or forced to pay a fee to do business inside the public schools. Lateef said many coaches might quit if they have to pay because this is how many make additional income.
On Wednesday, the school board responded unanimously to the situation.
“We decided we needed to put together a committee of stakeholders to study this and come up with regulations and policies that don’t negatively affect [the] community,” said Lateef.
Some fear unintended consequences of such a policy.
“There have to be policies in place to make sure that people aren’t directly profiting off of their position, but we also have to make sure they’re not so tight that we can’t find any coaches. It’s not like there’s an abundance of them.” Deutsch said.
It’s clear this is a problem facing the entire school division.
“There are conflicts of interest all over the place,” said Lateef.
