Which board members interfered in Reading schools?

The Reading School Board’s dysfunction is the biggest news in Berks County, and I’m glad to see that local leaders are finally giving it public attention.

On Sunday, Berks County business overlords took out a full page ad in the Reading Eagle, encouraging the Reading School Board to hire the BCIU to help manage the district.

"Past failures of governance and leadership in the district have imperiled the future of nearly 25 percent of Berks County's children and threaten to undermine our regional economy."

The same day, the Eagle’s Sunday editorial also urged the school board to use the BCIU.

And in a letter to the editor just under that, the leaders of the five colleges in Berks made the same plea.

It’s great to hear such powerful voices from all over Berks County publicly pull together for improvement in the biggest and neediest district, whose students have faced not only the burdens of poverty but also years of incompetent leadership.

Let’s hope the BCIU can help.

Remember that the last white-knight administrators were quickly run out. The state brought former Superintendent Drue Miles and his team to Reading under a state program to match experienced administrators with troubled districts. The school board abruptly fired eight of them.

It’s a new board now. The Reading Eagle should help make sure toxic board members don’t ever again ruin things for the district’s 18,000 students.

After he was fired, Miles told the Eagle that some board members didn't like that he questioned how the district has been operating.

"We questioned things that they don't want questioned," he said.

But no one has ever identified which board members interfere in schools and resent questions about their behavior.

Who are “some board members”? Who violates the clear rules of conduct?

The local newspaper should chase the story and identify the elected officials for their misdeeds and hold them accountable.

The public needs to know so they never get elected again.