I would like to hear from others on CTC and TAC as we know Ms. Friedman's opinion is skewed as she WORKS FOR THE ADMINISTRATION. Information flowed quite freely from the CTC as they held TWO PUBLIC forums to give updates and take questions from the community. These bashers are making me sick. I guess Ms. Bergen is the target because she actaully has experience to run on with the issues that are affecting our town (not experience in the Army or as PTG president). When people cannot run on the issues, they turn the spotlight away from themselves onto the candiate they are most scared will win.Ms. Friedman should be embarrassed. One more person who has been used by the Administration. It is indeed time for a change on the SC.

John, I challenge you to provide evidence, any evidence that Janet works for the administration. Janet Friedman's credibility and integrity are unquestionable. While you're at it, please edify the electorate on just what experience propels Bergen to the front of the pack. You glossed over the fact that Snook and Boynton are trained educators and Snook led an an engineering corp. Here we have someone who can not only speak with authority on education but also the construction project. Boynton has credibility that I dare say Bergen will never enjoy. Talk about training the spotlight elsewhere. Honestly, your statements are borderline comical.

Ms Friedman has, remarkably, managed to include only one verifiable fact in her letter--CTC and TAC did indeed have different charges. The remainder is an amalgam of mud-slinging and outright falsehoods, and she should be embarrassed to have distributed them.

I served on CTC last year. At virtually every meeting, we discussed whether there was any information from TAC and whether there was any information they were requesting from us. The committees worked independently in some areas and cooperatively in others. Thus, CTC did a great deal of research on safety that was shared with TAC; TAC did a great deal of work on potential sites that was then shared with CTC. Ms Friedman’s suggestion that CTC in any way inhibited the free flow of information is fundamentally false.

Equally false is the suggestion by innuendo that CTC did not conduct its business through civil discourse. How Ms. Friedman can have formed this opinion is a mystery to me, since to my knowledge she attended none of our meetings. In fact, CTC was made up of as lively, friendly, and civil a group of people as it has ever been my pleasure to work with.

As has been suggested elsewhere, much of the remainder of Ms. Friedman’s letter is nothing more than mud-slinging, information taken out of context, and innuendo. Although recent events make clear that some individuals in Concord are not above that kind of thing, I am confident that the voters of town are wise enough to discount such nonsense.

Mr. Smith-Please check out Janet Friendman's Linkedin page which states the following:
Freelance Writer
Concord Public Schools & Concord Carlisle Regional School District
Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Primary/Secondary Education industry
2006 – Present (7 years)
Write the annual performance report distributed to Concord and Carlisle residents.

Is that enough proof for you?

While Ms. Bergen may not have attended West Point or Harvard. She has been both a teacher and an Administrator for many years (what you call trained educator!) We in Concord never used to be snobs-looks like that is changing too. And since you mention Johanna Boynton's construction experience, maybe instead of SC she should be on the BC. You my friend are the comical one. Luckily we can all see through you.

I refuse to endorse any candidate. All four are talented people. That said, I served on the same committee as Ms. Friedman, at least I think I was at the same table, the same room. Her accusations are absurd. They reflect more on the author than the candidate. Phil Benincasa

If you re-read my letter, you will see I only mentioned the CTC Chair, NOT the entire CTC. TAC tried in vain to get the CTC’s recommendations and the CTC cost analysis information in September and October. With respect to the unfortunate comments made by Mr. Benincasa (TAC) and Mr. Fisher (CTC), neither individual was directly involved in the efforts to obtain this information last fall.

Furthermore, the TAC work was publicly discredited online after the 10/23/12 meeting. I met with two other CTC members on 11/05/12 to discuss why this had been posted. The posting was removed by the time we met, and the two CTC members agreed they were wrong to post inflammatory statements. The two committees simply used different assumptions – and we did not agree on the sets of assumptions. I asked for a public online apology and was told that would happen. Six months later, it has not been forthcoming.

I have a copy of the public records of correspondence from Ms. Bergen to MSBA director McCarthy and others. I am happy to share the emails and letters. This correspondence is factual, NOT innuendo, false or misleading.

It is no secret I do some freelance writing for CPS and CCRSD. I was hired by former Supt. Brenda Finn when a 2006 Town Meeting vote requested an annual school performance report. I was hired based on pro bono writing I had been doing for the schools for several years. Now some in town apparently believe this somehow disqualifies my viewpoint...

And like many in town, I have also done significant volunteer work for the schools: Willard PTG Board; CCHS PA Board; School Advisory Council; Assistant Superintendent Search Committee; room parent; library volunteer; and founder of the Willard math enrichment program in 2002. I have also been Education Advisor to LWV; member of Concord Finance Committee; CC Community Chest Board and currently serve on the Concord Education Fund. For 14 years I have devoted thousands of hours on behalf of the Schools and the Town, more than 95% as a volunteer.

So yes, I work for our schools - and know firsthand how much School Committee needs effective positive collaborative leaders going forward.

Ms Friedman: In your original post you wrote, in part, "I observed firsthand how CTC and TAC approached tasks at hand. TAC conducted its work with civil discourse, transparency and free flow of information -- among its members and with CTC. "

Yes, your next sentence condemns Lisa Bergen, but the fact of the matter is that I see this sentence as a direct accusation of CTC as a whole.

As far as working for the schools, I can't speak for anybody else, but when somebody posts their opinion, especially on issues of significant controversy, I think it only right that they state up front their biases and potential conflicts. Or were you keeping it a secret?

I have also read the correspondence between Lisa Bergen and the MSBA. I cannot understand how any person can read the ENTIRETY of her letters and not recognize that she was suggesting taking advantage of the MSBA suspension to improve the final product--to get the best possible building for the least expenditure. If that is somehow a negative attitude, well, that's an impasse. You can argue that perhaps she was wrong in believing that it was possible to use the opportunity, but I do not see how you can argue that she somehow "opposed the school."

As for the issue of the information you feel was inappropriately withheld, I will have to let somebody else answer. It remains the case that your original letter tarred with an extremely broad brush in a grossly inappropriate way.

Mr. Smith--If you read Phil Benincasa's comment, you might recognize that there is a certain amount of sarcasm in it. I have to wonder whether your inability to recognize his dry wit might relate to your inability to read Lisa Bergen's correspondence correctly. As I said above, I see no way that somebody reading the correspondence can arrive at the conclusion that she "opposed" the building project.

Well, at least you know who I am. Would you be willing to identify yourself?

As a member of the CTC, I too take exception with Ms Friedman's comments about CTC and TAC. As Mr Fisher said earlier, there was significant information sharing on Sites and Safety. In fact, all CTC results were reported as they occured, in open meetings and in posted minutes.

The CTC did not see any cost information from TAC until the last weekend as our report was being printed, when we saw a draft of their report. There was no sharing of cost information before this, only a "framework" without any data.

At the CTC Public Forum on Sept 19 I first met Ms Friedman and we discussed meeting to exchange information. I tried to arrange this with a CTC member who supported our cost analysis. We contacted Ms Friedman to set up a meeting without success due to conflicting schedules.

On November 5, following delivery of the CTC and TAC reports, Ms Friedman and Maureen Spada (TAC chair), met with me and another ex-CTC member. This was at our suggestion, to address how to resolve the differences between the reports. Ms Friedman declined to participate after this introductory meeting, but we continued to work with Ms Spada, and more recently the School Administration. We ended up with a solid understanding of the actual and potential costs of busing, both in-house and outsourced. We also estimated transition costs due to temporary relocation to Acton and Billerica. After the elections we plan to publish the results, in preparation for Town Meeting discussions.

Please, please, please... can you stop this negative back and forth, here and on the Yahoo group? It's painful to read and I don't believe it is helping *any* of the candidates (my own included!).

While it is nice that Mr. Boynton has come out *publically* to ask for a stop to this discourse, maybe he ought to be asking for the emails that are being sent *privately* from "street captains" on behalf of his campaign to stop. These emails are launching personal attacks on candidates by name and are absolutely disgusting to read. I'm sure he has seen them. Has he contacted those people to ask them to stop? or is the above public comment just good PR while the bashing is allowed to continue behind the scenes where they can pretend they don't see it...

Janet, thank you for sharing your perspective. John, I agree that the bitter, angry commentary has to end. It all makes me wonder why we would elect people who are connected to such divisiveness in our town. I think Bergen and Rainey will impede the ability of the committees to get the real work done because of all of these past issues. It is time to move on and look to the future with candidates who are able to truly bring people together and end the discord. Clearly Snook and Boynton can do that.