More P.T. Barnum than Pat Paulson, Dr. Mike is back!
Michele "Mike" Merolla has once again pulled papers for School Committee. So much for calming the waters and bringing Peace and Harmony to the World.
Merolla, who served a 3 year term on the Fairhaven School Committee member, seems to pride himself on being a "Lightning Rod of Controversy". He has been more recently known as an unsuccessful candidate for the offices of State Rep, Selectmen, and School Committee (twice) in the Town of Fairhaven before dropping in to Sandwich Town Hall to register to vote and take out papers for School Committee in 2007. Since that time, he's gone on to lose elections for School Committee, Selectmen (twice), and Historical Commission.
A quick trip to the online archives at SouthCoastToday.com contains a wealth of Merolla memorabilia.
Two excerpts from this 2001 letter to the Editor about the Fairhaven School Committee, which appeared in the New Bedford Standard Times, sound eerily familiar.
Town needs to be rid of dysfunctional committee
"The School Committee has become a joke, and watching the meetings on our local cable access channel only shows how childish and ineffective our elected officials have become.Oh, how wonderful it is to be a Fairhaven resident. Once again, we aren't acknowledging the marvelous academic and athletic successes of our students. Instead, we are hearing and reading about the utterly ridiculous exploits of our elected School Committee members. How pathetic.
How can they do what's best for the children if each meeting is filled with so much venom, hatred, and contempt for other members? Paula Gardner won't agree with anything Michele Merolla, Tom Perry, and Mike Gagne suggest, and they won't agree with her, leaving Chairman Mark Sylvia and Mike Souza to cast the only reliable votes..."
"...How can the School Committee do what is best for the children if the meetings are filled with venom, hatred, and contempt that now will be worse than ever? The answer It can't. The solution? It's time to relieve Dr. Merolla, Mrs. Gardner, Mr. Perry, and Mr. Gagne of their duties. Their continued lack of professionalism and lack of compromise makes a mockery of their posts, the town, the school system, and the children they are elected to serve.
It seems they have forgotten, or really never cared, that their responsibility is to the students, not to the promotion of their own agendas."
Back to the Future?
At the current time, only Sherry Marshall and Michele Merolla have taken out papers for the two School Committee seats.
15 comments:
You didn't mention the State investigation when he admitted living in Fairhaven while voting in New Bedford.
Or -- when the DA investigated him for offering free back exams to people who voted in a Fairhaven recall election.
Thanks for posting this. I wish Dr. Mike would just run his several businesses and quit running for office. His past record speaks for itself.
OMG Mike Merolla is the exact opposite of what we need added to our school board!
We need very calm thoughtful and open minded canidates who can collect all the facts and variables(not whispers or baseless rumors) willing to do a 360 turn in their thinking if they find that is the best decision FOR OUR CHILDRENS SAKE! NOT MORE SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS SLICING NOTCHES INTO THEIR EGO BELTS!
According to the CCT, he also did not resign from the fairhaven zoning board until several weeks AFTER he registered to vote in Sandwich. he told Fairhaven he couln't make meeting because he was in Florida too much. he told Sandwich his attendence wouldn't be a problem because he owned his own plane and would "fly-in" for meetings!
This guy is like a cartoon character!
The idiocy and incompetence of the current school committee could not be surpassed!!! Whats that? Mike Merolla is running again???!!!! Forget what I said. GOD HELP US ALL!!!!
Mike's a good businessman and he has done very well by continually promoting himself. But, the Committee needs somebody willing to be part of a team and promote the good of the District -- I like him -- but that's not his strong suit. I fear he would just further divide the committee.
If you saw the BOS meeting last night, there was discussion of spending $15 million to repair the Wing School. That sounds like 15 million reasons to run for school committee.
Would the $15 million repair job include anyplace to park a few fire engines or police cars?
I'm not sure how we can talk about a $14 million library, and a $15 million school repair, without recognizing that the current Police/Fire HQ may wash out to sea during the Next Big Storm !
Repairs to the Wing School would not be financed through the School Committee. That’s not a conversation for that Board. A better question for the School Committee to ask might be: could we fit all Wing students in Oak Ridge and Forestdale? What would that do to class size? What would that do to transportation costs? What would closing Wing save the Town/Schools? If we abandon the Wing building what would that do to the neighborhood and downtown? Is this a prudent strategy to manage limited school resources in an era of declining enrollments?
Specific to capital and budget management – this Town needs a real plan and real leaders to prioritize. We have a list of $25 million in pending unfunded existing building repairs; yet, somebody thinks we can build a $14 million dollar library and somebody else just proposed a $5 to $9 million dollar board walk to the sea! Add on a new police and fire building ($15 million) and there are at least $60 million in building repair and construction projects proposed! Who the heck really thinks that’s a number we can afford? So, why are leaders chasing pie-in-the-sky plans that will never happen?
Serious times call for serious leaders. Sandwich has none.
Mr guerin, please pull papers for school committee!!!
PLZ PlZ PlZ Mr. Guerin and Mr. Simmons, both of you need to run for either BOS or school Committee!
The Truth Maker would start off by supporting Mike for School committee, given what we have in place at the moment. Given Mrs Marshall is hell bent in completing the job she has started in destroying the present school district, with her actions .
At least Mike, would give you a more concise reason to escape the present course this group of union led committee members have brought to our fine town.
The main problem we now face as a town is deciding where to spend our money.
Instead of working on one project and getting that acomplished we get a multitude of studies , that have cost the town thousands of dollars.
This money we are wasting, because every one involved has a little stake in the projects. Projects that have no legs to stand on and were dead before the study even began.
The only folks that are laughing all the way to the bank are those, the town have commisioned to preform these studies.
They continue to be paid for information we allready have on hand, but may need a little tickle charge to be up to date. We on the other hand continue to find some way to start another complete process. What the heck it is only money.
Now if you watched last nights meeting, you can see that some of the selectman feel that we are on the way towards recovery and we should grow our budget by having an overide. Good idea , but the wrong time to even be thinking about getting more blood from the stone. Or water from the dry well.
Keep in mind we have over 9 percent unemployment rate, No economic business recovery,Those that are forced to sell their homes find that ,they, in many cases sit on the market for over a year before being sold.
Inflation continues to grow, food and gas cost continue to increase and how does that equate into how Sandwich may increase the budget, A bunch of words that also have no leggs to stand on.
Focas on one project and do every thing to promote it and show the need and just maybe a capitol overide may pass, but if the same approach that was used at the last town meeting is used, It will dead from the get go.
Dear Mr. Simmons,
Don't even think about pulling papers for school committee unless one of your "fans" is willing to make up the couch for you!
Warmest personal regards,
Mrs. Simmons
The Truth Maker would encourage MR. Simmons to take out papers as well. Since you are such a great cook It would be an honor for me to take a space on your couch. Just for a shorT term.
I have had a few inquire in regards to the same above, but I was told I would not have a cook at all. Since I was never more then a toast cook I had to reconsider. Now smile
Wendy can he pull papers for selectman seat instead? Better yet you pull papers for School Committee and Bob pulls papers for BOS. That combo should create plenty of couch time! You can take turns on who gets the big bed.
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