Irreconcilable differences doomed TPS relations

4/2/2006

Eight bite-size Lemmon Drops to nibble on while waiting for Opening Day 5 at Fifth Third Field:

  • The Toledo Board of Education is moving forward with its search for a new superintendent of Toledo Public Schools. That's probably a good thing, considering the contentious relationship between Eugene Sanders, the current superintendent, and Darlene Fisher, president of the school board.

    In divorce court, it's called "irreconcilable differences."

    Yes, Mr. Sanders had a wandering eye for other jobs. Yes, Ms. Fisher was overly critical of Mr. Sanders before she was elected to the board in November. Neither one could get past these supposed past sins of the other.

    They couldn't put their differences aside and develop a working relationship you know, for the good of a 30,000-student school district. Instead, they chose to go the avoidance route Mr. Sanders has been offered the superintendent's job of Cleveland's 60,000-student school district; Ms. Fisher says all but good riddance.

    This could be a case study in personality conflicts. These two make Jerry and Newman on TV's Seinfeld seem like best buddies.

  • The Toledo school board might be able to shake the perception that it's a dysfunctional unit if the new TPS superintendent is on the job Sept. 1.

  • The University of Toledo's board of trustees has to decide whether to spend $19.1 million or $32 million to renovate Savage Hall. Board Chairman Dan Brennan says if a new arena is going to be built in downtown Toledo, then the school would go with the lower figure.

    Tell me again why a city with a 58-year-old arena and a university with a 30-year-old arena haven't formed a partnership to build a world-class facility in the heart of downtown.

  • If the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma is given the OK to build a $300 million retail and entertainment complex with a casino being the centerpiece in Lima, watch how quickly support for casino gambling spreads throughout Ohio.

  • Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" (1977) is one of my all-time favorite songs. With lyrics so powerful that I still get chills when I listen to it, the song tells the story of the judicial railroad job done on Rubin "Hurricane" Carter.

    Mr. Dylan, have you heard the story of Danny Brown?

  • From what I can tell, the only negative of the merger between UT and the Medical University of Ohio is that UT President Dan Johnson will step aside July 1.

  • While eating breakfast at our favorite restaurant Thursday, I read with interest a letter in the Readers' Forum. Dick Laumann expressed his disgust over the amount of trash along I-475.

    "It's the first and last thing any visitor to Toledo sees, yet no one does anything about it," he wrote.

    With Mr. Laumann's letter fresh in my mind, I boarded a TARTA bus and headed to work. The problem is not limited to I-475, that's for sure. I was amazed at the amount of trash along the Anthony Wayne Trail.

    His letter was still in my mind as I got off the bus across from One Government Center. In a one-block stroll on Jackson Boulevard, I counted 118 cigarette butts on the sidewalk.

    Thanks for opening my eyes, Mr. Laumann.

  • I sometimes wonder if fast-food restaurants aren't more wasteful than the government. My wife ordered two large coffees at a drive-thru the other day and received 12 packets of sugar.