Saturday, January 29, 2011

Announcement

All,

After much consideration, I have chosen not to run for re-election to the Neshaminy School Board.

I truly appreciate the support and encouragement you have given me throughout the past three years. I will continue to work diligently over the remaining ten months of my term to serve the students, parents and tax payers of the Neshaminy community.

Sincerely,

William O'Connor
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13 comments:

Unknown said...

A truly sad day for parents in Neshaminy. There will always be board members who can say no to budgets but there are so few who really care about the children's education. You have been a tremendous advocate for our students.

Unknown said...

I got very very sad when I read this William. I never realized what was happening in our district before you came along. You kept us informed on your blog, you came to our PTO meetings. You explained things in a fair and clear way. Will you keep on blogging?

William O'Connor said...

Sorry SK, when my term ends, so does the blogging, facebooking, etc. But that's not until November so let's keep focused on making things better in our district.

Unknown said...

My prediction: We will never have another school board member like you. You and Richie Webb worked well together. Thank you for protecting our children and our wallets.
Before your term is up, I promise to give you one last prediction.

Unknown said...

If there is some way we can talk you out of your decision please say the word. We are going to miss you Mr. O.

srodos said...

Thank you for your devoted effort on behalf of the students of the NSD. Your dedication to improving education was unwavering. You will be missed by everyone.

acs said...

Ditto to all above.

Unknown said...

Your announcement even made the courier times today. That's mighty impressive for a school board politician.

I gave you grief in the past for being too nice and now I'm choking on my own words. You are a great board member who is a wise, skillful gentleman. You will be missed by a grateful community.

Unknown said...

Say it ain't so Mr. O!

God bless you, and best of luck to you in the future.

finance-101 said...

Sorry to see that you are not running. I always thought that you and Spitz were in a class way above the rest. You also worked well with the opposition.

My observations of the school board the last 5 years has shown that there are 2 factions: The Taxpayer and Education. You never voted one way 100% of the time. That shows that you analyzed each matter carefully and did what was best for both the taxpayer and the student. You were also the only one that saw that postive educational decisions bring more money into our pockets in the long run, even if the taxes went up. You were one of the few that understood that real estate prices are closely tied into the school district. Has anyone tried to sell a home in Neshaminy lately ? Don't try.

A final thought: If you took the
10 worst school board decisions that were made during the time you served on the board, you were on the other side on most of them.

thanks.

William O'Connor said...

Gee Finance, I would like to think I was on the other side of ALL the bad board decisions :-)

Just curious, what's the list?

KelliGirl said...

Mr. O'Connor,
I am truly saddened to read your announcement. I have followed this blog since the beginning and have a tremendous amount of respect for your intelligence, level-head, professionalism and ability to communicate. Your absence as a communicator and school board member will leave a noticeable void.

finance-101 said...

Mr. O.

I have the list but I will wait until you retire.

The last time I posted a Top 10 List (in this case a Bottom 10 List), it stimulated discussion but it created too many negative posts. Which is my point in my prior post.

Right now, there is too much negative Neshaminy press. In fact, if you step aside from the contract dispute, you never see anything positive about Neshaminy in the paper, except for varsity basketball.

It would be well worth our taxpayer dollar for the district to hire someone part time, to reveal to the outside world all the positive things happening in our district. There are many things going on now that are not being reported.